The
major matches of the week:
With only
16 teams in the center, there are fewer chances to catch big matches. However, it
doesn’t mean that we are going to face boring weekends when following the
remaining Champions League participants. A fantastic occasion to enjoy a
Champions League team was the Manchester derby last Sunday.
Antonio Valencia, who was not supposed to play due to an injury. The match started with attacks of the defending champions. The home side missed a couple of chances, before suddenly conceding from Rooney in a quick Manchester United counterattack. 1 was meant to become 2 very soon, as Wayne Rooney scored his 150th goal in the Premier League. It is important to mention the great assistance from Young’s flank in the first and Valencia’s in the second goal. Especially the Ecuadorian was too busy receiving the ball from the center almost every time the ball appeared there. The second goal was scored after Kolo Toure’s poor marking: the Ivorian had just appeared on the pitch to substitute captain Vincent Company. The reserve captain Pablo Zabaleta had his role to play as he equalized on the 86th minute. City had scored the first goal earlier in the second half, where Mancini’s team had increased the speed of their attacks, introducing Carlos Tevez. Unfortunately for Manchester City, two of their former Arsenal players made strange mistakes deep inside the injury time. First it was Clichy, who got lost in his intentions and lost the ball in his position of a left defender, and then Nasri showed to the world how not to defend when standing in the wall during the free-kick following this episode. Robin van Persie became a happy author of another winner for Manchester United, as Fergusson’s team brought Manchester City’s first defeat of the 2012-13 Premier League in a match, the scenario of which reminded the one against Chelsea several weeks ago.
Highlights
of the week:
-
The
biggest news of the week was Leo Messi’s new record. He has now scored more
goals in a calendar year than anyone else in the history. First he beat Gerd
Mueller’s record of 85 in a match against Betis, then improved the result by
two more goals in the Cup match,
-
Jose
Mourinho’s Real spent one of the toughest weeks of the season, as the team was
met by some enormous opposition in Valladolid, and an even more aggressive one
in Vigo. Especially the first match was one of the most beautiful ones of the
week, where Oezil scored an amazing winner from a direct free-kick,
-
PSG’s
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has now scored 17 goals in the season, scoring a hat-trick
in the midweek match,
-
A
very important win for Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, as the team scored two in the
match against West Bromwich Albion. The latter is not on the fourth position
any more, while Arsenal is only in a distance of two points from there. Things
didn’t continue to go well though, as the team lost its Capital One Cup
quarterfinal match to a League Two team Bradford City,
-
Another
team to leave the domestic cup this week was Galatasaray,
-
Juventus’s
Antonio Conte saw his team win over Palermo being in the technical zone for the
first time this season,
-
A
non-Champions League topic of the week is the incredible Colombian from Atletico.
Falcao scored 5 goals in the match, where the Madrid side devastated Deportivo
La Coruna. The team is in the second place, 6 points behind Barcelona, while
Falcao loses 7 goals to Barecolan’s Messi to become La Liga’s topscorer.
The
upcoming weekend:
Spain,
France and Turkey will catch their breaths in expectation of matches between season’s
best teams. Barcelona will try to beat Atletico Madrid at home, to increase the
difference between the two. The same situation is going to happen in Turkey,
where it is not only a match between the first two teams, but also teams called
Galatasaray and Fenerbahce: two teams composing the biggest derby in Turkey. PSG,
on the other hand, will try to catch leaders Lyon in Paris. A big December
weekend for sure!
| Club | Last Matches | Next match | Position in the domestic league |
| Arsenal (England) | 08.12 West Brom. (H) 2-0 11.12 Bradford (Cup) 1-1, 2-3 on penalties | 17.12 Reading (A) | 7 |
| Man. Utd. (England) | 09.12 Manch. City (A) 3-2 | 15.12 Sunderland (H) | 1 |
| FC Barcelona (Spain) | 09.12 Betis (A) 2-1 12.12 Cordoba (Cup) 2-0 | 16.12 Atletico (H) | 1 |
| Real Madrid (Spain) | 08.12 Valladolid (A) 3-2 12.12 Celta (Cup) 1-2 | 16.12 Espanyol (H) | 3 |
| Valencia (Spain) | 08.12 Osasuna (A) 0-1 12.12 Osasuna (Cup) 0-2 | 16.12 Rayo Vallec. (H) | 10 |
| Malaga (Spain) | 08.12 Granada (H) 4-0 | 15.12 Sevilla (A) | 4 |
| Bayern (Germany) | 08.12 Augsburg (A) 2-0 | 14.12 Borussia M. (H) | 1 |
| Borussia D. (Germany) | 08.12 Wolfsburg (H) 2-3 | 16.12 Hoffenheim (A) | 3 |
| Schalke 04 (Germany) | 08.12 Stuttgart (A) 1-3 | 15.12 Freiburg (H) | 5 |
| Porto (Portugal) | 08.12 Moreirense (H) 1-0 | 14.12 Vit. Setubal (A) | 2 |
| Galatasaray (Turkey) | 08.12 Sivasspor (A) 3-1 11.12 Trabzon (Cup) 1-2 | 16.12 Fenerbahce (H) | 1 |
| Juventus (Italy) | 09.12 Palermo (A) 1-0 12.12 Cagliari (Cup) 1-0 | 16.12 Atalanta (H) | 1 |
| Milan (Italy) | 09.12 Torino (A) 4-2 13.12 Reggina (Cup) 3-0 | 16.12 Pescara (H) | 7 |
| PSG (France) | 08.12 Evian (H) 4-0 11.12 Valenciennes (A) 4-0 | 16.12 Lyon (H) | 2 |
| Shakhtar D. (Ukraine) | 01.12 Kryvbas (A) 2-0 05.12 Juventus (H) 0-1 | 02.03 Volyn (H) | 1 |
| Celtic (Scotland) | 08.12 Kilmarnock (A) 3-1 12.12 Arbroath (Cup) 1-0 | 15.12 St. Mirren (H) | 1 |
No comments:
Post a Comment