England
The 22nd round of the championship of England began with a sensation. London Arsenal lost to West Ham in his field, despite the gradually emptying infirmary. Laurent Koselni and Hector Bellerin returned to the ranks, but their efforts were not enough to successfully resist the middle peasants of the standings.
The first half of the contender for the victory did not determine - both teams acted quite actively, but did not score enough on the goal. But right after the break, Arsenal players missed the blow of Declan Rice, who was assisted by Samir Nasri. Scandalous Frenchman spent the first match in the Premier League for two and a half years and immediately became the author of the program, which brought his team victory. Arsenal did not find the means to break into another’s defense just as easily, and was defeated, which would further alienate Londoners from the Champions League zone.
The backlog of Unai Emery wards from Chelsea is already six points. The Maurizio Surry team earned such a gap after the victory over Newcastle. The first 40 minutes of Londoners allowed the guests to intercept the initiative and play their own football, for which they paid with a response goal from Kieran Clark in response to Pedro Rodriguez's exact blow. But after the break, Chelsea did not give doubt to its strength. In the 57th minute, Eden Azar gathered on himself the whole defense of Newcastle and gave a pass to Willian, who was not difficult to bring his team forward.
In the first place of the tournament table continues to be mastered "Liverpool". The defeat from Manchester City did not shake the position of the mersisaydtsev, but they could not afford to commit such a misfire again. In the match against Brighton and Howe Albion, there was nearly another unplanned loss of points. The team showed a supreme mood in a meeting with wards Jürgen Klopp and all the forces tried to achieve a goalless draw. But one mistake of Pascal Gross brought all the efforts of partners to nothing. Midfielder shot down in his own penalty Mohammed Salah, who immediately realized a penalty. “Liverpool” won with a minimum score and now will not allow “Manchester City” to come closer to less than four points.
Perhaps the most funny game of the 22nd round can already recognize the meeting of “Burnley” and “Fulham”. Guests led early thanks to world champ Andre Shurrle, but they themselves gave the victory. Joe Bryan and Denis Odoi still by the middle of the first half distinguished own goals. Without any effort, the Burnley players scored three points and moved away to a safe distance from the relegation zone.
Spain
In Spain, the first round of the national championship ends. The 19th round started with the match “Rayo Vallecano” and “Celtic”, in which fans saw a whole scattering of scored goals. Half of them recorded by Raoul De Thomas. Forward “Rayo”, the rights to which belong to the “Real”, issued a hat-trick. After his goal in the fourth minute, Celtic led through an accurate strike by Nestor Araujo and an own goal, but De Thomas led the team forward. In compensated time, Bebe set the final score - 4: 2 in favor of Real Madrid, who began to get out of the basement of the tournament table and scored more victories in the last three rounds than in all the previous time.
Saturday's matches are not pleased with this performance. "Valencia" took in its field "Valladolid", and Denis Cheryshev was in the starting lineup of the hosts. His team could come forward at the beginning of the second half, but Pedro Rodrigo did not realize a penalty. A few minutes later, Daniel Parehot opened the scoring after a lumbago shot by Carlos Soler. True, to keep the victory of “Valencia” failed - Ruben Alcaraz struck the gates of rivals with a wonderful free-kick. The club Cherysheva in the 11th time in a season played a draw, which is a kind of record of the first round of examples.
"Alaves" also played in a draw, losing the chance to briefly be in the top three teams in Spain. The team from Vitoria lost points in the match against Girona, which included Christian Stuani in the 12th minute. The 32-year-old Uruguayan scored the 12th goal for the season and caught up on this indicator with his famous compatriot Luis Suarez. “Alaves” had a lot of time to win, but managed to answer with just one goal.
The match day in Example ended with a dramatic match between Villarreal and Getafe. Thanks to the opponent's own goal, the home team could count on the fourth consecutive draw, which for the team that occupies the penultimate line of the championship standings could be considered a successful result. But the “Getafe” through the efforts of Rodriguez Angel managed to come forward on the penultimate minute. Villarreal had a chance to achieve equality in the score again - in compensated time, the judge appointed a penalty kick at the gates of the guests. However, Karl Toko Ekambi failed to realize a free-kick. Getafe previously climbed to sixth place in the standings, and Villarreal continues to be a clear contender for a drop in class.
Italy
In Italy, this weekend is set aside for the matches of the 1/8 finals of the country Cup. The first stage was Lazio, which had no problems with the Novara club from Serie C. As for the Romans, Ciro Immobile showed his best side - he gave a pass to Luis Alberto and issued a double, having managed to do everything during the first halftime Shortly before the break, Sergey Milinkovich-Savici scored, scoring the ball into the goal of the main goalkeeper of the San Marino national team Elia Benedettini. "Novara" responded with a prestige goal from the penalty spot, but did not escape the defeat and departure from the Italian Cup.
“Milan” with difficulty got a ticket to the quarterfinals. Wards Gennaro Gattuso on the road met with "Sampdoria". The main time of the match ended in a goalless draw. Shortly before the end of the second half, the 21-year-old Patrick Kutrone entered the field with the Milanese team, and this change predetermined the outcome of the match. The young striker scored a double in overtime and brought the team a strained victory over the Genoese.
With the same score (2: 0), Juventus also won, having kept within 90 minutes of playing time. Turintsy won on foreign field "Bologna". Both goals were scored before Cristiano Ronaldo came on as a substitute. Federico Bernardeschi and Moise Keene did all the work for him. On January 13 and 14, Juventus, Milan and Lazio will recognize their opponents in the quarterfinal of the Italian Cup.
France
“Lille” began the second round of the championship of France with the fact that even more firmly entrenched in second place in the standings. Wards of Christoph Galtier beat “Kan” with a score of 3: 1, ending the meeting in the minority - in the end of the match, defender Zeki елиelik received a direct red card. Also claiming a runner-up Lyon responded with a draw with Reims. In the course of the match, Bruno Zhenesio's wards had to recoup, and Bertrand Traore's goal saved them from defeat.
PSG watches all these clashes from the height of its first place. Parisians did not grieve for long over the departure from the French Cup and for the second time in a season they defeated Amiens. First, Edinson Cavani scored a penalty, and after the home team were outnumbered, Kilian Mbappa and Marquinhos scored one goal at a time. Due to injuries, Neymar and Gianluigi Buffon missed the meeting.
Saturday's program should have completed three matches, but only two took place. “Saint-Etienne” caught up with “Lion” in the standings after the victory over “Gengam”, and “Nice” climbed to the sixth line, gaining three points in the game with Bordeaux. The meeting between Nîmes and Angers did not take place due to protests in France.
Portugal
The first round of the championship of Portugal was closed by one of the main oppositions of the country. The leader of the tournament, “Porto”, took on his field in Lisbon “Sporting”, which struggles with “Benfica” and “Braga” for the second ticket to the Champions League. Despite the principled nature of the match, it was not spectacular. For two teams struck five shots on target, and they were all reflected. Players often folili and received yellow cards for this than pleased the fans with quality attacks. Zero draw was the logical outcome of the match.
Netherlands
In the championship of the Netherlands ends the winter break. Leonid Slutsky Club "Vitesse" completes the training camp in Portugal, where his former wards Alexey and Vasily Berezutsky joined the distinguished specialist. They told the team’s press service how their work with Slutsky is structured and how the fans can distinguish them.
“When we drove here, we knew that all the players were well-equipped and physically well prepared. We have long known Slutsky, he is an excellent coach. When he offered to join him, we took it with excitement. This is a good chance to learn something. This period is very important for us. It doesn’t matter whether we ourselves can bring something in terms of tactics, we have a head coach. We can only advise him something, and he himself will decide, ”said Alexei Berezutsky.
“We know the tactics and principles that the coach applies. It's easy for us to explain this to the players. We understand what mistakes were made by being footballers when Slutsky was our coach, and now we can easily convey to the players what is required of them on the field. How to distinguish us? And it is very easy! I broke a nose five times, it now not absolutely normal. I am also prettier, smarter and more modest than my brother, ”said Vasily.