The major
matches of the week:
This was
one of the biggest week-ends of the season, where fans have difficulties in
choosing the right match to watch.
Let’s start
with El Classico. There was a 7 point difference between the teams, while
Barcelona had all its matches won so far. The starting line-ups didn't include
any surprise decisions. Barca had Mascherano and Adriano in the central
defense, due to Puyol's injury and Pique's disqualification. Despite the
rumors, Oezil was on in Real’s starting eleven.
The most academical of the recent meetings, this encounter would rather be called a chess match. The first 20 minutes saw not much but a nervous espionage. Barcelona tried to touch different angles of Real's defense and figured out that the left side was a bit softer. Real was trying its own experiments, where they realized that Jordi Alba, who, by the way, had a great match, wasn’t eager to leave his position much that day. It were the visitors who decided to implement their report in practice, as Benzema, misleading Barcelona defenders with his witty pass, gave Cristiano a chance to bombard the close angle of Valdez. The score was open. There is always a hidden counter step, when grandmasters play chess. Real’s softer left wing was cut and Messi managed to score his responsive goal. Then the teams went back to tactical chess again, as if nothing had happened, unitl Messi scored an amazing goal from a free kick on the 66th minute. And again, a well-prepared response from the other team: Messi-Ronaldo 2-2; important to mention Oezil’s assist and Barcelona defenders’ poor positioning. It was right the time when Pedro suddenly got tired and Marcelo decided not to join the attackers any more. Barcelona’s coach didn’t respond to this and introduced Alexis Sanchez in the right wing instead. This lad has been exceptional in Udinese and Bielsa’s Chile. But neither his style nor quality match the Catalan team. Anyway, we didn't see David Villa that evening. It would be wrong to claim that the home side was closer to the victory, but they attacked more. Real had to keep its face in a match at Nou Camp, and a draw was absolutely enough for that. The 7 point difference remained unchanged. Messi and Ronaldo scored their 7th and 8th goals while Falcao was scoring his 8th in the parallel match. It is going to be interesting!
The most academical of the recent meetings, this encounter would rather be called a chess match. The first 20 minutes saw not much but a nervous espionage. Barcelona tried to touch different angles of Real's defense and figured out that the left side was a bit softer. Real was trying its own experiments, where they realized that Jordi Alba, who, by the way, had a great match, wasn’t eager to leave his position much that day. It were the visitors who decided to implement their report in practice, as Benzema, misleading Barcelona defenders with his witty pass, gave Cristiano a chance to bombard the close angle of Valdez. The score was open. There is always a hidden counter step, when grandmasters play chess. Real’s softer left wing was cut and Messi managed to score his responsive goal. Then the teams went back to tactical chess again, as if nothing had happened, unitl Messi scored an amazing goal from a free kick on the 66th minute. And again, a well-prepared response from the other team: Messi-Ronaldo 2-2; important to mention Oezil’s assist and Barcelona defenders’ poor positioning. It was right the time when Pedro suddenly got tired and Marcelo decided not to join the attackers any more. Barcelona’s coach didn’t respond to this and introduced Alexis Sanchez in the right wing instead. This lad has been exceptional in Udinese and Bielsa’s Chile. But neither his style nor quality match the Catalan team. Anyway, we didn't see David Villa that evening. It would be wrong to claim that the home side was closer to the victory, but they attacked more. Real had to keep its face in a match at Nou Camp, and a draw was absolutely enough for that. The 7 point difference remained unchanged. Messi and Ronaldo scored their 7th and 8th goals while Falcao was scoring his 8th in the parallel match. It is going to be interesting!
The other
big match was the Derby della Madonnina. And Milan is on the focus again. They
lost the derby. Not the match, but the attitude of the teams was what mattered.
Inter is not stronger than Milan. At all. They just take the things as they
come. But Milan doesn't want to accept that it is not a giant any more. Inter doesn't
introduce a big coach, doesn't make loud statements. They play. If win - great,
not – next time. They understand, they are not Inter any more, but something of
Lazio or Udinese scale. As soon as Milan gets there, they will recover.
Otherwise they have to continue worshipping people like Mexes and Boateng, who,
to me, are born to be leaders, but in a provincial team. And not more. In that
particular derby Milan had a one man advantage for the whole second half. The
difference - Inter stopped to attack. If this was the home side’s aim for that
evening - then congratulations, Milan, you won!
The biggest
match of the French League so far was scheduled for the same evening. After a
fantastic first half, where Gignac and Ibrahimovic scored two goals each in a
spell of 15 minutes, the coaches closed down the game. Conceding the next one
would mean a defeat, which didn’t happen for none of the teams. Zlatan’s two
amazing goals strengthened his position as a topscorer. He has now scored 9
goals in the league.
One of the
most prominent Russian rivalries is the one between two Moscow clubs of Spartak
and CSKA. Both of the teams are far from the glorious times they had. Spartak
management assures that the team is in a transition period, where the new coach
builds an elite team. Fans and pundits do not see any qualitative progress
brought by Unai Emery’s arrival, though. There are problems related to the
defense and midfield. Wingers like McGeady surprisingly appear in the center to
form a five-man midfield, all grouped very close to each other. Romulo, Jurado
and Kallstrom look lost in this cluster. In the match against CSKA defenders
Kirill Kombarov, Insaurralde and Pareja were often losing their positions during
the opposing team attacks. Dmitri Kombarov is still not comfortable with
Emery’s new solutions on his position. Only after the score became 0-2 Spartak
started to create some danger in front. They managed to score one on the 70th
minute, but the goal was disallowed for some strange reason. Spartak lost and
appeared on the 7th position. The biggest problem of the Russian silver
medalists is their dependence on the mood. They might be sloppy and concede
three to Celtic, or be focused and score two to Barcelona. This is exactly where
Emery needs to focus his efforts.
A match
between Porto and Sporting, was the last one in the day’s program. The rivals
approached the match in different forms. After being totally dominated for 30
minutes the Sporting players started to demonstrate some reckless football,
getting 11 yellow cards in the remaining period as a consequence. Porto was
meanwhile playing its own football. Jackson Martinez scored a classy back-heel goal
on the 10th minute, Lucho missed a penalty on the 56th
and James Rodriguez confirmed the victory with successfully converted penalty
on the 84th. 2-0 and Porto is on top again.
Highlights
of the week:
- Champions League heroes BATE were beaten and
will not fight for the Belarusian Cup this season
- Anderlecht
lost its first match of the season. They had all the chances to save the match,
but Mbokani missed the penalty and the Belgian champions couldn’t take an extra
player’s advantage.
- Valencia
lost again. This time it was the Valencia derby, which saw only one goal scored
in the first half.
- Malaga
lost its first match in the league. The team was defeated by Atletico Madrid,
conceding an own goal on the last minute of the match.
- Bayern
won its 7th and Shakhtar its 11th consecutive matches.
These two only win in their leagues this year.
- CFR Cluj
lost to Steaua in a very important Romanian league match. The champions are 12
points behind their recent offenders.
- While
Dynamo’s new coach Oleh Blokhin was in hospital, his team lost to challengers
Dnepr. Now the Kyiv side is 9 points behind their rivals Shakhtar.
- The most fruitful
match took place in Portugal, where Braga hosted Olhanense, positioned as 14th
in the league. The visitors were unexpectedly in front by 3 goals to 1 after
the first half, which made the extra-motivated Braga step out and crash
everything around. They scored 5 goals in the second half. Unfortunately for
them, one of them went to the wrong goal. The last goal came from Braga’s
Douglao on the 94th minute. 4-4!
- Now when
the leagues have at least 7-8 matches played, it is already reasonable to make
the first conclusions. Our 32 teams haven’t been perfect so far. Only in 11 out
of 17 represented leagues Champions League teams occupy the leading position.
The average position for all the teams is only 4, which would not give access
to Champions League in most of the leagues. Especially the French teams are
lacking quality, having Lille on the 10th and champions Montpellier
on the 16th position. AC Milan is 11th and Valencia is on
the 14th position in Italian and Spanish leagues respectively.
The
upcoming week:
There are
not as many derbies this weekend as there were last time, but don’t worry,
there is still a lot to watch. The Russian runners-up will visit the new
leaders Anzhi, lead by Guus Hiddink. Lille will try to take all three points
from the unbeatable Bordeaux. Tottenham’s Andre Villas-Boas will challenge his
former club Chelsea in one of the main London derbies of the season. Two
Champions League sides will meet in Germany, where Borussia will host its
biggest rivals Schalke 04 in the match called Revierderby. But the most
important is going to happen in the Apennines. Before the Lazio-Milan classical
the two unbeaten leaders and main favorites of Serie A will meet to decide who
is stronger. Don’t miss Juventus-Napoli at 18:00 CET on Saturday.
The Portuguese
league is having the second match-free weekend of the season. A reminder: they
will play 8 matches less than in 20-team leagues. There are Portuguese Cup
matches scheduled for the weekend, instead.
Club
|
Last
Matches
|
Next
match
|
Position in the
domestic league
|
Ajax
(Netherlands)
|
07.10 Utrecht
(H) 1-1
|
20.10 Heracles (A)
|
4
|
07.10 Belshina
(A) 1-0
13.10 Torpedo
Z.(Cup) 0-1
|
18.10 Slavia (A)
|
1
|
|
Anderlecht
(Belgium)
|
07.10 St. Liege
(A) 1-2
|
19.10 Waasland- B. (H)
|
3
|
Dinamo Z.
(Croatia)
|
06.10 Slaven
(A) 4-1
|
20.10 Inter Z. (A)
|
1
|
Arsenal
(England)
|
06.10 West Ham
(A) 3-1
|
20.10 Norwich (A)
|
7
|
Man. City
(England)
|
06.10
Sunderland (H) 3-0
|
20.10 West Brom. (A)
|
3
|
Man. Utd.
(England)
|
07.10 Newcastle
(A) 3-0
|
20.10 Stoke (H)
|
2
|
Chelsea
(England)
|
06.10 Norwich
(H) 4-1
|
20.10 Totenham (A)
|
1
|
FC Barcelona
(Spain)
|
07.10 Real Madrid(H) 2-2
|
20.10 Deportivo (A)
|
1
|
Real
Madrid (Spain)
|
07.10 Barcelona (A) 2-2
|
20.10 Celta (H)
|
5
|
Valencia
(Spain)
|
07.10 Levante
(A) 0-1
|
20.10 Athletic (H)
|
14
|
07.10 Atletico
M. (A) 1-2
|
20.10 Real Vall. (H)
|
3
|
|
Bayern
(Germany)
|
06.10
Hoffenheim (H) 2-0
|
20.10 Fortuna (A)
|
1
|
Borussia D.
(Germany)
|
06.10 Hannover
(A) 1-1
|
20.10 Schalke (H)
|
4
|
Schalke
04 (Germany)
|
06.10
Wolfsburg (H) 3-0
|
20.10 Borussia D. (A)
|
3
|
Benfica
(Portugal)
|
06.10 Beira-Mar
(H) 2-1
|
18.10 Freamunde (Cup)
|
2
|
07.10 Sporting L. (H) 2-0
|
24.10 Dynamo K. (H)
|
1
|
|
Sp. Braga
(Portugal)
|
07.10 Olhanense
(H) 4-4
|
19.10 Leixoes (Cup)
|
3
|
07.10 Steaua
(A) 0-1
|
18.10 Viitorul (H)
|
7
|
|
Galatasaray
(Turkey)
|
07.10
Eskisehirspor (H)1-1
|
19.10 Genclerbirligi (A)
|
1
|
Juventus
(Italy)
|
07.10 Siena (A)
2-1
|
20.10 Napoli (H)
|
1
|
Milan (Italy)
|
07.10 Inter Milano(H) 0-1
|
20.10 Lazio (A)
|
11
|
Montpellier
(France)
|
06.10
Evian (H) 2-3
|
20.10 St. Rennais (A)
|
16
|
PSG (France)
|
07.10 OlympiqueM(A)2-2
|
20.10 St. Reims (H)
|
2
|
Lille (France)
|
06.10 Ajaccio
(H) 2-0
|
19.10 Bordeaux (A)
|
10
|
Nordsjæland
(Denmark)
|
05.10
OB (A) 0-3
|
19.10 Silkeborg (H)
|
4
|
Olympiacos
(Greece)
|
07.10
Asteras (H) 1-0
|
20.10 Xanthi (H)
|
1
|
06.10 Metalist
Kh. (A) 2-0
|
19.10 Illichivets (H)
|
1
|
|
Dynamo K.
(Ukraine)
|
06.10 Dnipro
(A) 1-2
|
20.10 Metalist Kh. (H)
|
3
|
07.10
Krasnodar (A) 2-0
|
20.10 Kuban (H)
|
4
|
|
Spartak M.
(Russia)
|
07.10 CSKA (H) 0-2
|
20.10 Anzhi (A)
|
7
|
Celtic
(Scotland)
|
07.10 Hearts (H) 1-0
|
20.10 St. Mirren (A)
|
1
|
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