Hat-trick Coutinho, scandal in the match of “Barcelona” and the first victory of Carrera in Greece: Saturday events in European football

The gap between Liverpool and the incredible goal against Chelsea

In the struggle for the championship in the Premier League, there is less and less intrigue. In the 17th round, the leader of the Liverpool standings increased his advantage over the closest pursuer of Leicester City to ten points. Jurgen Klopp's wards easily defeated the Anfield Road, which weaves in last place Watford. Victory became the eighth in a row for the Merseysiders.

Along the way, the Reds updated the club record for the number of matches in the championship without defeats. At the moment, the achievement is 34 meetings, of which 29 wins and five draws. The previous series was interrupted in March 1988 at the 31st game.

The main character was Mohammed Salah, who chalked up a double. Moreover, both goals stood out for a sight for sore eyes. In the first case, the Egyptian scorer beat the defender with an elegant feint and hit the far corner with a sweeping strike. And in the 90th minute, Salah scored with his heel, standing with his back to the goal. Nevertheless, in the race of the best submarine snipers, he, with his nine goals scored, is still very far from the top positions.

But in terms of the total number of goals for the Merseysiders in all tournaments Salah beat Luis Suarez. From now on, the Egyptian is the 18th Reds scorer in history. However, getting to the list leader Ian Rush will be problematic. The Welsh legend has 346 exact hits.

“Leicester” took in his field “Norwich”. At this point, he had won eight meetings in a row, but could not figure out the penultimate team of the Premier League. Once again, the ward of Brendan Rogers prevented Teem Pukki. Finn pushed the “canaries” forward, but the goal goalkeeper Tim Krul spoiled the cards. As a result, the duel ended in a military draw, and the “foxes” will have to restart the pursuit of the leader. This was announced after the final whistle by their mentor, who had previously led the Reds.

A misfire of a direct competitor could not take advantage of Chelsea. On his way stood the missing stars from the sky, Bournemouth. The only goal in London was the result of a rare beauty hit. Midfielder Dan Gosling was with his back to the goal, but managed to break through in the fall. The ball flew in a high arc over Kepa Arrisabalaga and ended up in the net.

At the same time, Judge Graham Scott did not want to point to the center for a long time, but did so only after lengthy consultations with video assistants. The referee received confirmation that at the time of the strike Gosling was not in an offside position and noted the legitimacy of the goal. Bournemouth interrupted a series of five defeats, the gap between Chelsea and Leicester remained the same - ten points.

Passion in San Sebastian

The scandal marked the offensive confrontation between Barcelona and Real Sociedad in the 17th round of the Spanish Examples. In the end, the chief referee Javier Alberola Rojas refused to resort to VAR after he grabbed Diego Llorente by the shirt in someone else's penalty area, preventing him from closing the pitch. According to the president of the Catalans, Joseph Bartomeu, an official complaint will be sent to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on the work of the judge.

Rojas aroused the anger of the guests already in the 12th minute, appointing a penalty kick at the gate of Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Through the efforts of Antoine Griezmann and Suarez, the guests went ahead at the beginning of the second half, but Real Sociedad striker Alexander Isak soon made the score equal again.

Despite the unsuccessful result, Barcelona remained in first place in the table with 35 points. But already on Sunday it can be replaced by Real Madrid in case of success in the match with Valencia. Thus, it will become clear which team will approach El Clasico in the status of leader Examples. Next Wednesday, the grandees will meet at Camp Nou in the 243rd full-time confrontation in history.

The crushing victory of Bayern

After two consecutive defeats from direct competitors, Munich Bayern won an impressive victory. In the match of the 15th round of the German Bundesliga, the Hans-Dieter Flick team defeated the Bremen Werder Bremen at the Alliance Arena. A hat-trick designed Coutinho, whose future in the club on the eve of the game was considered uncertain. At the same time, two of the three goal scores can be safely called masterpieces. In the case of the second goal, he mockingly threw Jiri Pavlenka, and then struck in the corporate style from outside the penalty area.

And thanks to the doublet, Robert Lewandowski broke into third place in the list of top scorers in the history of the German championship. In terms of the number of goals scored, the Pole caught up with Jupp Heinckes (220) and is second only to Klaus Fischer (268) and Gerd Mueller (365).

So far, Bayern are fourth in the table with 27 points. Meanwhile, the recent offender of the St. Petersburg Zenit in the Leipzig Champions League climbed to the first line. Wards Julian Nagelsmann scored three unanswered goals against the “Fortune” in Dusseldorf. The Mönchengladbach Borussia is two points behind Leipzig (31 versus 33), but has a match in reserve. Occupying third place, “Borussia” from Dortmund did not leave a chance for “Mainz” at his stadium, sending four unanswered goals into the net. The assets of "bumblebees" 29 points.

Carrera's first victory in Greece and Golovin's draw

An important event for Russian football fans happened in Greece. Athens AEK on the road to Xanthi won the first victory over the team of the same name under the leadership of Massimo Carrera (1: 0). From the 77th minute, the hosts acted in a numerical minority after the removal of Vasilis Fasidis. And five minutes before the end of regular time, midfielder Konstantinos Galanopoulos scored the only goal.

After the match, Carrera shared the joy of the first victory at the head of AEK with the players. At the same time, it will not be easy for him to repeat his success from the time of leadership in red and white and immediately win gold. After 14 games, the Athenian team is in third place, but behind Olympiacos and PAOK by seven points. Both leaders have not yet met.

At the same time, Alexander Golovin could not please his personal fans. The Russian midfielder could not score effective actions, while Monaco away parted ways with Angers. The teams did not score goals, but acted quite aggressively. Confirmation of this were seven yellow cards.