While Wayne
Rooney is still missing due to his injury, Alex Ferguson’s team has shown yet another
pale performance, though took three points from Merseyside. Liverpool,
struggling to get their first win in the season, controlled the game during all
90 minutes, even after being reduced to 10 men in the first half. Manchester
United had to recover after an early goal in the second half. The ball appeared
in Liverpool’s net twice - after a beautiful shot by Rafael and a controversial penalty
converted by Robin van Persie – the Premier League topscorer with now 5 goals.
In the other top match of Premier League Arsenal was hosted by Manchester City. It is either the problem of Mancini’s team or their tactics, but the champions acted exactly like in the Champions League match at Santiago Bernabeu, where they gave the initiative to the strong opponent. However, Arsenal didn’t create any serious threats in front of Joe Hart’s goals. Quick attacks wouldn’t get converted into a final shot. And it was the home side that scored first. Lescott won a battle against Koscielny and scored the opener in the final part of the first half. But conceding a goal has become a part of Manchester City’s play this season. 9 minutes before the final whistle now Koscielny won a battle against Lescott after a corner and sent the ball into the back of the net. 1-1 and it couldn’t be fairer. Manchester City lost its chance to fight for the League Cup later in the week, when they lost to Aston Villa after conceding two in the extra time. This is not necessarily bad news for a team with an overloaded calendar.
Germany had
its own important battles. Two Champions League participants met at Veltins
Arena in Gelsenkirchen. Unfortunately for the home fans, Bayern appeared too
strong to be beaten. If you don’t score against Bayern, Toni Kroos and Thomas
Mueller are always there to punish you, who score more occasionally this season
to cover Mario Gomez’s absence.
More
entertaining was the northern derby between Borussia and Hamburg. Despite the
awful form, Hamburg was able to stop the Champions, who were unbeaten in 31
Bundesliga matches. Dortmund met Eintracht in Franfurt three days later and
these two matches can’t be separated from each other when analyzing Dortmund’s
performance. 5 out of 6 goals conceded in these matches came in the beginning
of first or second halves. The matches ended 2-3 and 3-3. It is too early to make
any conclusions, but judging by the form German champions are in currently,
there are some concentration problems in the team. Anyway, they need to calm
the things down to make their fans proud after the Champions League group stage
this autumn and particularly after the match in Manchester next week.
In the
Romanian League leaders Pandurii hosted champions Cluj. It was a good match
with fight all over the pitch. The electric atmosphere exploded in the second
half after the home side got a penalty and scored. Bastos was there to beat his
opponent and equalize thanks to his technical abilities. But this was not enough
to take a point. Later in the game Pandurii players scored their second goal
from a penalty and earned all three points. But champions left the match with
negative emotions after a hard defeat and expulsions of their manager Andone
and captain Cadu. Cluj is currently on the 8th place in the Liga I.
Allegri’s Milan got two expulsions, too. They lost another match where Zapata and Boateng were shown red cards. Milan managed to score a goal, though. It was El-Shaarawy, who took a long range shot and became an author of a fascinating goal. Massimiliano Allegri promised to recover and he did so. Three days later the same El-Shaarawy’s brace gave Milan a comfortable win over Cagliari. However, there is no evidence that Milan’s troubles are far behind. It’s time now or never for Milan to reestablish itself as a heavyweight in Italian and European football, as they have 5 consecutive supermatches against strong opponents to come – Parma, Zenit, Inter, Lazio and Malaga. 4 of those matches are to be played away from home. Allegri’s destiny as a Milan coach is under a big risk.
But there is another coach whose destiny is no more under any risk. It is Dynamo Kyiv's Yuri Semin, who is already fired after a humiliating defeat by rivals Shakhtar in the domestic cup. Oleh Blokhin overtook the position and will try to fix the things up in the Ukrainian League and Champions League.
The hero of
the week is definitely Celtic’s 24 year old striker Gary Hooper, who scored 5
goals in the last 2 matches of Celtic this week. It was particularly impressive
to watch Hooper score all 4 goals of his team in the League Cup match
against Raith Rovers. He has now scored 58 goals in his 97 appearances for
Celtic.
We will be
looking forward to 5 great matches this week-end. Ajax will finally get the
chance to overthrow Twente from the top of Eredivisie, Arsenal and Chelsea will
meet in the big London derby, Sevilla will now try to defeat Barcelona, Roma’s
Juve-hating coach will get his first chance to harm the Italian champions, and
finally Dinamo Zagreb will meet rivals Hajduk Split.
We will
analyze the Champions League first matchday in the next post, which will come
right before the Tuesday matches. Don’t miss!
| Club | Last Matches | Next match | Position in the domestic league |
| Ajax (Netherlands) | 23.09 ADO (A) 1-1 26.09 Utrecht (Cup) 3-0 | 29.09 Twente (H) | 3 |
| BATE (Belarus) | 22.09 Dinamo M. (A) 0-0 | 28.09 Neman (H) | 1 |
| Anderlecht (Belgium) | 22.09 Zulte War. (A) 3-2 26.09 Boussu DB(Cup) 2-0 | 29.09 Lokeren (H) | 2 |
| Dinamo Z. (Croatia) | 22.09 Rijeka (A) 0-3 25.09 Vrsar (Cup) 3-0 | 29.09 Hajduk (H) | 1 |
| Arsenal (England) | 23.09 Man. City (A) 1-1 26.09 Coventry (Cup) 6-1 | 29.09 Chelsea (H) | 5 |
| Man. City (England) | 23.09 Arsenal (H) 1-1 26.09 Aston Villa(Cup) 2-4 | 29.09 Fulham (A) | 7 |
| Man. Utd. (England) | 23.09 Liverpool (A) 2-1 26.09 Newcastle (Cup) 2-1 | 29.09 Tottenham (H) | 2 |
| Chelsea (England) | 22.09 Stoke City (H) 1-0 25.09 Wolves (Cup) 6-0 | 29.09 Arsenal (A) | 1 |
| FC Barcelona (Spain) | 22.09 Granada (H) 2-0 | 29.09 Sevilla (A) | 1 |
| Real Madrid (Spain) | 24.09 Rayo Valec. (A) 2-0 | 30.09 Deportivo (H) | 7 |
| Valencia (Spain) | 23.09 Real Mallorca(A)0-2 | 29.09 Zaragoza (H) | 15 |
| Malaga (Spain) | 23.09 Athl. Bilbao (A) 0-0 | 29.09 Betis (H) | 4 |
| Bayern (Germany) | 22.09 Schalke 04 (A) 2-0 25.09 Wolfsburg (H) 3-0 | 29.09 Werder Br. (A) | 1 |
| Borussia D. (Germany) | 22.09 Hamburger (A) 2-3 25.09 Eintracht Fr. (A) 3-3 | 29.09 Borussia M. (H) | 6 |
| Schalke 04 (Germany) | 22.09 Bayern (H) 0-2 25.09 Mainz (H) 3-0 | 28.09 Fortuna D. (A) | 4 |
| Benfica (Portugal) | 23.09 Academica C.(A)2-2 | 28.09 Pacos de Fer. (A) | 2 |
| Porto (Portugal) | 23.09 Beira-Mar (H) 4-0 | 29.09 Rio Ave (A) | 1 |
| Sp. Braga (Portugal) | 23.09 Rio Ave (H) 4-1 | 28.09 Vitoria Guim. (A) | 3 |
| CFR Cluj (Romania) | 23.09 Pandurii T. J. (A) 1-2 26.09 Berceni (Cup) 2-0 | 29.09 Gloria (H) | 8 |
| Galatasaray (Turkey) | 23.09 Akhisar Bld. (H) 3-0 | 28.09 Orduspor (A) | 1 |
| Juventus (Italy) | 22.09 Chievo (H) 2-0 25.09 Fiorentina (A) 0-0 | 29.09 Roma (H) | 1 |
| Milan (Italy) | 23.09 Udinese (A) 1-2 26.09 Cagliari (H) 2-0 | 29.09 Parma (A) | 10 |
| Montpellier (France) | 21.09 St.-Etienne (H) 1-1 | 29.09 Nancy (A) | 16 |
| PSG (France) | 22.09 Bastia (A) 4-0 | 29.09 Sochaux (H) | 3 |
| Lille (France) | 23.09 Lyon (H) 1-1 | 28.09 St. Rennes (A) | 12 |
| Nordsjæland (Denmark) | 22.09 Randers (H) 1-1 25.09 Svebølle (Cup) 1-3 | 28.09 Esbjerg (H) | 3 |
| Olympiacos (Greece) | 23.09 Panthrakikos (H) 4-1 | 29.09 Atromitos (A) | 1 |
| Shakhtar D. (Ukraine) | 23.09 Dynamo (Cup) 4-1 | 28.09 Dnipro (H) | 1 |
| Dynamo K. (Ukraine) | 23.09 Shakhtar (Cup) 1-4 | 28.09 Zorya (H) | 3 |
| Zenit (Russia) | 22.09 Kr Sovetov (H) 2-2 25.09 Baltika (Cup) 2-1 | 29.09 Lokomotiv (H) | 5 |
| Spartak M. (Russia) | 23.09 Rostov (H) 3-1 26.09 Salyut (Cup) 2-1 | 29.09 Amkar (A) | 6 |
| Celtic (Scotland) | 22.09 Dundee FC (H) 2-0 25.09 Raith Rov. (Cup) 4-1 | 29.09 Motherwell (A) | 3 |
No comments:
Post a Comment