The triumph of Manchester United

The central event of the 16th round of the English Premier League was the 179th in the history of the Mancunian derby. Two Manchester players approached the match at Etihad with a different mood. City is increasingly hopelessly lagging behind the leading Liverpool. Recently, Josep Guardiola's wards made an optional loss of points in the confrontation with Newcastle and released the leader by 11 points. United, by contrast, won an important victory over London's Tottenham in the middle of the week, setting up a warm welcome to their former mentor, Jose Mourinho.

At the same time, the current head coach of the “Red Devils” Ole Gunnar Solskher unexpectedly received strong support from his players. Due to unsatisfactory results in England, they have long been talking about the possible resignation of the Norwegian. But according to British media, a group of club leaders asked Vice President Ed Woodward not to fire the specialist and give him one last chance.

In his “suitability test,” Solskjer could rely primarily on Marcus Rushford. In the fall, the striker scored excellent form and so far does not reduce the condition. In a meeting with the “spurs” Rushford scored a double, and with the “City” clearly executed a penalty in the 23rd minute, thereby preparing a reserve for the final success.

Just six minutes later, the guests shocked the fans of the “townspeople”, increasing the gap to two goals. Anthony Martial burst into the penalty area and irresistibly shot into the near corner. The guests had only a prestige goal performed by Nicholas Otamendi. The Argentinian scored five minutes before the end of regular time.

Commenting on the outcome of the fight, an upset Guardiola called Rushford and Martial "fast lucky guys." In the opinion of the Spaniard, if the opponents did not qualify for something more than five counterattacks, then his team "played football." In turn, Solskher expressed the opinion that United should have won with a difference of three or four goals.

However, the match was marred by scandal. In one of the episodes, the fans of the hosts launched a foreign object in the midfielder of Manchester United Fred. The Brazilian also heard racist cries. Now the hooligans are looking for the security service of the arena and the police.

Successful Liverpool Series

Only one team so far does not know defeats during the 2019/20 season in the Premier League. Liverpool did not experience a problem in an away match with Bournemouth, extending the unbeaten run. The balance of forces in this match is eloquently testified by statistics: the guests delivered 21 shots on goal of the opponent and hit the target nine times, while all three attempts by the hosts were put into the milk.

Before the break, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Nabi Keita scored, and Mohammed Salah lit his name on the scoreboard shortly after the resumption of the game. Thus, Liverpool won 15 victories in 16 meetings and broke away from Leicester, which has yet to play with Aston Villa, by 11 points.

Chelsea wedged between the two Manchesters in the table. Londoners unsuccessfully traveled to Liverpool, where they lost to Everton, which had not known for success. After three consecutive defeats and a resounding slap in the Merseyside derby (2: 5), the “butterscotch” finally got together and delighted the fans with three magnificent goals.

How important the earned points are for the team under construction, showed the acting as its mentor Duncan Ferguson, who emotionally celebrated the goals scored with ball fights.

In their match of the 16th round of the Tottenham nuclear submarine, they scoffed at Burnley (5: 0) at home, but in the standings the Spurs are only closing the first six, losing one point to Manchester United.

Messi Record

In Spain, Valencia without the help of the injured Denis Cheryshev dealt with Levante, and Real Madrid beat Espanyol at home. “Creamy” sent two unanswered goals to the opponent’s goal, and even the removal of Ferlan Mendy did not stop them from winning. Toward the end of the first half, Rafael Varan scored a goal, while experienced Karim Benzema scored the final score in the 79th minute.

The next calendar game of the Catalans was marked by a hat-trick of Lionel Messi, who became the second for him this season. Explicitly inspired by the sixth Golden Ball career, the Argentine scored in the 17th, 41st and 83rd minutes of the match with Mallorca. Antoine Griezmann and Luis Suarez also took the exact shot, and Ante Budimir scored a double against the opponent.

It is worth noting that Messi for the 35th time in his career scored three goals in one match Examples, which is a record. According to this indicator, he beat his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who in the foreseeable future is unlikely to be able to improve his performance due to his departure to Italy.

After 16 rounds, “Barcelona” and “Real” lead the league table of the championship of Spain, with 34 points each, and you should not forget about the upcoming el classic, which will be held on December 18 as part of the postponed match of the 10th round Examples.

The first misfire of Juventus

In the championship of Italy wards Maurizio Sarri for the first time this season left the green lawn "on the shield." In the 15th round of Serie A, Juventus lost to Lazio away. The guests weren’t helped even by another well-aimed shot by Ronaldo, who put the Bianconeri ahead in the 25th minute. When the main time of the first half had already expired, Luis Ramos scored a goal “in the locker room” and regained parity.

Juventus failed the removal of Juan Cuadrado in the middle of the second half of the game. Soon after, Sergey Milinkovich-Savich scored the winning goal, and in the fifth compensated minute, Felipe Kaisedo also hit the goal of Wojciech Szczensny. The success could be even greater, but the hosts did not realize a penalty - the student of “Old Signora” Ciro Immobile seemed to regret his native club and missed the sure chance to excel.

And without that, the nervous atmosphere in Turin was fueled by an ambiguous statement by Ronaldo, made even before the match. According to Abc.es, the Portuguese hinted that he was very sorry about leaving Real Madrid, which turned out to be more status than Juventus. According to the footballer, in Madrid he would have managed to win two more Golden Goals. And while he vegetates in Italy, Messi collects trophies.

Losing series “Bavaria”

In Germany, Bayern surrendered in the second consecutive match. After a home embarrassment in a duel with Leverkusen Bayer, the Munich team lost to Borussia from Monchengladbach. The Munich team went ahead through the efforts of Ivan Perisic, however, Rami Bensebaini played out with the hosts. After an hour of the game, the Algerian regained his balance, and in the second added minute of the match he realized an 11-meter one and brought victory to his club. The referee pointed to the point for a foul by Javi Martinez, who simultaneously received the second “mustard plaster”.

After 14 rounds, FC Hollywood has just 24 points and only seventh place in the Bundesliga standings. It is worth noting that similar results already cost the club the resignation of head coach Niko Kovacs. “Borussia” retained the first line and broke away from the current champions by seven points.

Despite the poor results, recently lost the prefix and. about. Bayern coach Hans-Dieter Flick will remain in office at least until the end of the season. And then, he can be replaced by the head coach of the Ajax Amsterdam Eric ten Hag. The German press writes about the upcoming arrival of the Dutchman in the Munich superclub almost as a fait accompli.

Golovin Transfer

Russian Alexander Golovin was noted for an assist in his 50th match for Monaco and helped the team win a major victory over Amiens. Wissam Ben-Yedder, Guillermo Maripan and Balde Keita scored a goal on their own score. Due to this success, Leonard Jardim wards scored 24 points and moved up to ninth place in the League 1 standings.

Another victory was won by “Paris Saint-Germain”, retaining a comfortable leadership in the championship of France. In the 17th round, the Parisians in a foreign field did not leave the chance of Montpellier. The hosts opened the account thanks to the own goal of the former player of the St. Petersburg “Zenith” Leandro Paredes, but in the final four of the match Neymar, Kilian Mbappe and Mauro Icardi organized a comeback. This was preceded by the removal of the protector of the "paladins" Pedro Mendes.