The salvation of “Real” in Valencia

The match between Real Madrid and Valencia, which took place at Mestalla as part of the 17th round of the Spanish Examples, ended rather unexpectedly. Many expected from Madrid a confident victory and first place in the standings after Barcelona failed to replay Real Sociedad.

However, wards of Zinedine Zidane throughout the game experienced problems with implementation. “Bats”, in the application of which Denis Cheryshev, who had not had time to recover from the injury, was absent, opened the scoring in the 78th minute with the efforts of Carlos Soler. Only in the fifth minute added Madrid were able to escape from defeat - after filing from the corner of the field, Karim Benzema in a hustle at the gate sent the ball into the net.

A few seconds were not enough for the hosts to arrange a victory. Therefore, after the goal of Benzema, a certain confusion reigned in the stadium. If before the match the owners of Mestallia would have willingly agreed to a draw, then after the final whistle the players reproached themselves for not seeing the French striker.

“Barcelona” and “Real” continue to lead the standings Examples, having an asset of 35 points. The Catalans are ahead of the capital club in additional indicators. Already on Wednesday, December 18, the grandees will converge at the Camp Nou in El Clasico.

Fans brought Zozul

It was especially hot last weekend at the matches of the Spanish Segunda. So, before the game of the 20th round between “Zaragoza” and “Racing” there was a massive fight of fans of teams outside the stadium of “La Romareda”. The result of the battle were injuries in several people. The police tried not to let the troublemakers go to the stands, sending the visiting hooligans back to Santander.

And in Madrid, the meeting between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete was interrupted. The reason was the insult of the Ukrainian legionnaire of the guests of Roman Zozuli by the fans of the hosts. Some consider this football player a supporter of National Socialism, while many Rayo fans preach leftist views.

“Zozulya, you are a Nazi,” the fans chanted as the game progressed, bringing Zozulya to tears. The referee even stopped the match for several minutes, but the crowd in the arena did not calm down. As a result, the Albacete players, in solidarity with the Ukrainian, decided not to go into the second half. Later it turned out that even before the match, Zozulya was afraid for his safety. In February 2017, he transferred to Rayo on a rental basis, but due to harassment from fans, he did not play a single game for the club and was forced to change his team.

Ozil Conflicts

The current champion of England “Manchester City” in the 17th round of the Premier League went ice rink at the “Arsenal” in London. The “Gunners” has not yet affected the change of head coach. The confusion that reigned under Unai Emery continues under Frederick Jungberg. Arsenal’s affairs are so bad now that even former players publicly criticize the team.

In the club itself, a scandal erupts over the statement of Mesut Ozil on the situation with the Uyghurs in China. Arsenal promptly issued an official statement in which he called the position of the German legionnaire his purely personal opinion. However, the Chinese broadcaster canceled the match with City. How to get out of this situation, the leadership of Londoners, it seems, so far is not very clear. The loss of the Chinese market promises Arsenal serious financial and image damage.

Ozil, obviously in a state of nervous tension, painfully took his replacement in the 59th minute of the match with the “townspeople”. Leaving the field, he threw up his gloves and kicked them. After the match, Jungberg promised to deal with the behavior of the football player. In turn, Arsenal fans criticized the Swedish specialist for smiling during a conversation with Josep Guardiola. According to them, the team mentor in a difficult period should not be up to the fun.

As a result, the “gunners” in the reporting match did not find any arguments against Kevin de Bruyne, who scored two goals and assisted Rahima Sterling. “City” has fixed itself on the third line of the standings. The backlog of Liverpool is 14 points. Arsenal is in ninth place in the table, behind Merseysiders 27 points.

According to the British media, Jungberg will not stay at his post for a long time. The Portuguese, Nuna from Wolverhampton, are expected to succeed him. In Russia, he is known for playing as a goalkeeper for the Dynamo Moscow.

The Wolves themselves in the 17th round interrupted the unbeaten run, losing at home to Tottenham with a score of 1: 2. Three points in the first added minute of the match were brought to Londoners by defender Jan Vertonghen. Jose Mourinho, the Spurs mentor, was so pleased with the actions of his players that he called the denouement “incredible”.

In another match of the day's play, Manchester United broke the world with Everton to Old Trafford. At the 36th minute of the meeting, the Mankunians missed an absurd goal - after a corner kick, the ball hit the defender Viktor Lindelöf and flew into the goal. Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea posted a photo of this episode on his Twitter, hinting that the guests had violated the rules.

👀 pic.twitter.com/zM82knaiPe

- David de Gea (@D_DeGea) December 15, 2019

Ronaldo scoring record

In Italy, Juventus took revenge for the first defeat of the season. In the 16th round of Series A, the wards of Maurizio Sarri dealt with Udinese in Turin. Before the game, the mentor admired the level of physical readiness of Cristiano Ronaldo. According to Sarri, in his 34 years, the striker is recovering after matches faster than ever in his career.

In the clash of two black and white teams by the end of the first half, Ronaldo scored twice, and Leonardo Bonucci brought the score to a major. “Udinese” was only enough for a goal of prestige in the compensated time.

Ronaldo now has nine goals scored in the Italian Championship and 11 goals in 19 matches in all tournaments of the season. Thus, the Portuguese became the first player in history to score at least ten goals in 15 consecutive seasons. Lionel Messi from Barcelona has 14 such seasons so far.

It is also worth noting that due to shoulder pains the game with Udinese missed the main goalkeeper of Juve Wojciech Szczesny. This allowed Turin veteran Gianluigi Buffon to repeat the record of Alessandro Del Piero in the number of matches for the club in Serie A. A meeting with Udinese became for the 418-year-old goalkeeper 478 in his career. More matches in the championship of Italy than Gianluigi (646), had only the ex-captain of the “Milan” Paolo Maldini (647). Most likely, the “eternal” record of the defender still will not stand.

In their match of the 16th round, Juve’s main rival this season - Milan Inter, missed a victory over Fiorentina in the second added minute. Dushan Vlahovich answered the early goal of Borja Valero. “Inter” and “Juventus” brought the number of points scored in the championship to 39. “Roma”, for which Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored in the victory game with SPAL (3: 1), is seven points behind the leaders and is in fourth position.

In France, the former Zenit midfielder Leandro Paredes scored for the first time for Paris Saint-Germain. The Argentinean opened an account in the debut of an away match with Saint-Etienne, which ended in a major victory for the guests (4: 0). In many ways, they were defeated by the removal of the hosts in the middle of the first half. PSG are leaders in the championship, ahead of Marseille in second place by seven points and having a match in reserve.