Misfire Manchester City and the tears of the 33-year-old goalkeeper
In the English Premier League, Liverpool took another step towards winning the championship. On Saturday, Jurgen Klopp's wards beat Brighton, while Manchester City and Chelsea together lost points. Josep Guardiola's team unexpectedly failed to cope with the modest Newcastle.
“Citizens” stepped forward twice, but the unyielding owners both times recouped. The second time this happened at the end of the meeting. Kevin De Bruyne did not have time to score such an important goal as the experienced Johnjo Shelvey, after drawing a standard position, just shot from the penalty. The reigning champion could not win in the fifth match of the Premier League, which does not at all fit with the team’s schedule last season. The gap from Liverpool is already 11 points.
“Chelsea” in the London derby with a minimum score lost to “West Ham”. The main character of the match was goalkeeper David Martin. At 33, he made his debut as part of his native team, played for zero, made some beautiful saves, and after the final whistle he burst into tears right on the field.
As for Liverpool, the Premier League leader beat Brighton thanks to Virgil van Dyck's double. The defender twice successfully connected to the drawing of standard positions. True, the ending of the meeting turned out to be nervous for the hosts. First, Alison Becker received the first red card in his career for playing with his hands outside the box, and then the opponent scored a curious ball from the box. But the Reds still brought the matter to victory.
Mourinho's third victory and ball fight at the Tottenham team dinner
In the 14th round, Tottenham won. Londoners won the third match of the three under the leadership of Jose Mourinho. This time, the “spurs” were stronger than the “Bournemouth”. The hosts opened an account in the middle of the first half, and after the break they scored twice more, with a double issued by Dele Alli.
Spoiled the joy of winning the team only Harry Wilson. The young striker of the opponent came in for a substitution in the 63rd minute and managed to make a double. But there was no more time for Bournemouth to try to reduce the match in a draw.
It is interesting that after the game no less than the match itself discussed the history of the 15-year-old ball fight, which helped Tottenham get the ball into the goal of Olympiacos during the week. Mourinho invited him to a pre-match dinner, where the boy talked with the stars of the team, and on Saturday, the coach celebrated one of the goals with him.
"It was so surreal to be with all my idols, my heroes!"
An unforgettable day for our ball boy Callum Hynes! #THFC ⚪️ # COYSpic.twitter.com / cm9tMLbZdR
A hard victory for Real Madrid and a meeting with Atletico for Griezmann
In the championship of Spain, the leadership is still shared by Barcelona and Real. In the 15th round of the Examples, both teams won difficult away victories. However, if the “Royal Club” suffered a little with the modest “Alaves”, then the Catalans had to confront the very “Atletico”. Accordingly, Antoine Griezmann first entered the field against the former team, in which he played the previous five years.
The match for blue garnet turned out to be expectedly difficult. The first half remained with Madrid, who boldly attacked and did not try to sit out on the defensive. Already in the seventh minute, Hector Firpo almost sent the ball into his own goal, but the guests saved the bar. And soon Mario Hermoso from a few meters managed to break into Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
After the break, Barcelona was more active. However, the team did not have a truly dangerous moment. And when it seemed that the meeting would end in a draw, Lionel Messi said his weighty word. Near an alien free kick, the Argentine played a wall with Luis Suarez and shot right into the corner. So the Catalans pulled out a victory in the 86th minute, and Lionel chalked up the ninth goal in nine meetings of the current season Examples.
The terrible bad luck of Bavaria and the lost lenses of Hradeck
In Germany, Bayern suffered its first defeat under the leadership of Hans-Dieter Flick. In the 13th round of the Bundesliga, the Munich team unexpectedly lost at home to the Lokomotiv rival in the group stage of the Champions League - Bayer, who recently did not shine in the national championship.
Moreover, the defeat turned out to be absolutely undeserved. The hosts of the whole match possessed an undeniable advantage, created a huge number of points, but scored only once. The guests also responded with two exemplary counterattacks with accurate strikes by Leon Bailey - all three goals were in the first half.
After the break, Bayern pressed the opponent to the goal, but by some miracle the ball did not go on target. Sometimes goalkeeper Lukasz Hradecki made amazing saves, and sometimes the ball hit the racks or flew past the alignment. This evening, Robert Lewandowski failed to distinguish himself again. For him, this is the second consecutive dry match in the Bundesliga. As a result, the Munich team did not save either the removal of the defender of the guests Jonathan Ta in the end, nor 24 shots on goal, nor 75% of possession of the ball.
As for Hradecki, who became one of the main characters of the match, he admitted that the first half was forced to end almost blindly, because he lost contact lenses.
“I lost contact lenses in the first half and saw almost nothing during the remaining 20 minutes before the break. Try to play with Bayern, seeing with only one eye, ”Hodecki quotes Goal.com.
The victorious tread of Leipzig and the heavy ending for Schalke
The misfire of the Munich team was unanimously used by all the main rivals, who drove Bayern to fourth place in the Bundesliga standings. The leading Mönchengladbach Borussia at home won a difficult victory over Freiburg thanks to the double of Bril Embolo. Also, the forward gave an assist to Patrick Herrmann.
In turn, the rival of the “Zenith” in the Champions League “Leipzig” on the road coped with the modest “Paderborn”. In the course of the meeting, the team of Julian Nagelsman led 3-0, and the guests managed to score twice already in the fourth minute. But in the second half, the hosts reduced the gap to a minimum.
The most difficult was going to the third place Schalke. The Gelsenkirchenites only in the 86th minute pulled out a home victory over the Bundesliga rookie “Union”. With a similar score, Hertha was beaten by the Dortmund Borussia, located right behind Bavaria.
The first goal of Ronaldo in a month and the double of Argentine striker Inter
In Italy, a leader change took place unexpectedly. Juvenuts was unable to beat Sassuolo at home, which Inter took advantage of instantly. Turintsy opened the score already in the 20th minute after an unexpected long-range strike by Leonardo Bonucci, but immediately missed the return ball.
And at the beginning of the second half, Gianluigi Buffon made a gross mistake. However, at first Mateis de Ligth delivered the shell right on Francesco Capuato’s leg, and only then the most experienced goalkeeper was unable to repel the ball flying directly into it.
Cristiano Ronaldo was able to restore the status quo from the penalty spot. The Portuguese scored for the first time since October 30. But for more “Juventus” was not enough, although in the end the team had many points.
The leader’s misfire gladly took advantage of Inter, who received the Serie A outsider - SPAL from Ferrara. The favorite managed to score three points thanks to the double of the Argentine striker Lautaro Martinez. The attacker has already eight goals in the current season of the Italian championship. Neradzurri managed to lead the standings for the first time since September.
Canceled match Golovin with PSG and the tenth goal of Komlichenko
The main event of the European football weekend for Russian fans was to be the confrontation between Monaco Alexander Golovin and PSG in League 1, but the match was postponed to another day due to the threat of flooding.
But in the Czech Republic Nikolay Komlichenko recalled himself. The forward of the Russian national team did not score four matches in a row in the national championship, but in the home game against Teplice interrupted an unpleasant series.
The events in this match developed according to an extremely unusual scenario. The guests went on a break with a minimal advantage in the long run, but in the middle of the second half they conceded three goals in three minutes. One of them just chalked up Komlichenko. Now Nikolay has exactly ten goals in the Czech championship, he leads the tournament in the scorers of the tournament.