New Liverpool Record
Almost every round of the championship of England “Liverpool” breaks a record. As a result of Saturday's matches of the 25th round, Juergen Klopp's wards distinguished themselves once again - their intermediate separation from the second place, where Manchester City is located, increased to 22 points. This has never happened before in the Premier League.
Southampton - 4: 0 became the next victim of “Liverpool”, which before the title remains to win only seven games out of 13. Moreover, the pre-match handoffs did not portend such an outcome - the Merseysides could fall due to the fourth game in ten days, and their rivals managed to beat Leicester and Tottenham in January. Guests really looked preferable in the first half, but Alison did not allow them to distinguish themselves.
And after the break, Liverpool began to play for fun. The second half began with the goal of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who struck the bottom from the perimeter of the penalty area. Soon, Roberto Firmino opened perfectly under the throw from someone else's penalty area and made a pass to Jordan Henderson. The final defeat of the guests was led by the double of Mohamed Salah, who was assisted by both heroes of the previous scoring episode. The winning streak of Liverpool in the Premier League has already 16 matches in a row.
The central match of the 25th round could be called the meeting of Leicester and Chelsea, according to which the foxes could return to the fight for second place with Manchester City. However, Londoners, who did not intensify during the winter, took two points from the home team.
By the 64th minute, “Leicester” led 2-1: both Willy Caballero lost both goals in Chelsea, who Frank Lampard fired for the first time in a season instead of Kepa Arrisabalaga. However, the guests managed to avoid defeat thanks to the second goal of Antonio Rudiger, who scored after a free-kick. Despite the salvation, Chelsea’s affairs are still going badly - of the last five matches in the Premier League, Londoners have won only one and are stuck in fourth place in the standings.
However, things are even worse with Manchester United. Wards of Ole Gunnar Solskher could not beat Wolverhampton on their field, with whom they shared fifth place in the standings before the round. In the starting lineup, for the first time, the newcomer to the Mankunians Bruno Fernandes, bought from Sporting for € 55 million, came out, but he could not help the team and ended the match with only a yellow card.
Sheffield United took advantage of Manchester's misfire, defeating Crystal Palace thanks to goalkeeper Vicente Guaita's own goal and rising to fifth place. Now the club is part of the European competition zone and may even think about catching up with Chelsea, to which there are five points left.
Smolov's debut after the Madrid derby
Called to decorate the 22nd round. The examples of the Real Madrid and Atlético derby have not been happy with their integrity for a long time. Wards Diego Simeone for the last time won the UEFA Super Cup in 2018, and in the championship of Spain, Real Madrid have not lost Atletico since February 2016. This season the “mattresses” are weaker than the previous ones, so it was not difficult for the team of Zinedine Zidane to improve the statistics of the confrontation.
However, according to the results of the first half, “Real” could not lead in the long run, and Zidane even had to carry out a double substitution during the break, at the same time changing the tactical scheme. After that, the "creamy" went on the offensive and got their way. Karim Benzema put his foot under the cross of Ferlan Mendy and distinguished himself in the second match in a row. Atletico tried unsuccessfully to recoup, but Sergio Ramos played especially reliably on the defense that day.
The score until the end of the meeting did not change, and “cracker” Thibaut Courtois helped “Real” to renew the club record - “galactos” for the first time did not concede more than 13 goals in 22 matches. Examples. At the same time, the Madrid team strengthened their leadership position, breaking away by six points from Barcelona, which is expected to meet with Levante on Sunday.
The Saturday part of the 22nd round of the Examples ended with the match, which was supposed to be especially interesting for Russian fans. “Valencia” Denis Cherysheva took on his field “Celta”, for which now plays Fedor Smolov. However, their full-time confrontation did not happen - Cheryshev missed the game because of an injury, and Smolov started the match on the bench.
Only after the “Celta” missed in the 78th minute, the Russian striker entered the field to save the situation. But neither he nor the partners succeeded. Smolov was marked only by a shot on target, which was easily blocked by defender Gabriel Paulista. Thanks to this victory, Valencia beat Atletico and rose to the Champions League zone, while Celta remained in the top three teams in the standings.
The disaster "Roma"
“Roma” further and further departs from the leading three in the championship of Italy. In Saturday's match against Sassuolo, the capital club suffered a very unpleasant defeat. Already by the 26th minute, the guests conceded with a score of 0: 3 after a double by Francesco Caputo and an accurate hit by Philipp Djuricic.
Roma players must be given their due - they did not lose hope of saving the match and even after removal they reduced the gap to the minimum. But immediately after that, the Jeremy of God scored the fourth goal against Pau Lopez. The Romans are already significantly behind the leading Serie A troika (Juventus, Inter and Lazio) and risk even falling out of the Champions League if Atalanta beat Genoa at home.
Two records of Dortmund phenomena
Forward Dortmund Borussia Erling Holland continues to rewrite the history of the German Bundesliga. The 19-year-old talent once again effectively played for his new team, now in a meeting with Union (5-0). First, the Norwegian in the 18th minute doubled the score after the goal of Jadon Sancho, and in the middle of the second half he scored the fifth goal of his team, taking advantage of a pass from the heel from Julian Brandt.
Holand scored seven goals in three debut matches, which no one had done before in the German Championship. Surprisingly, it took him only 136 minutes to do this - that is how much he spent on the field as part of the Dortmund team. Sancho also became a record holder - he has already scored 25 goals before his 20th anniversary, which will be held on March 25. Before him, the best scorers at that age were Kai Haverz and Horst Köppel, who scored 24 goals in the Bundesliga.
The effectiveness of the two geeks allowed Borussia to win a third victory in a row, and in all three games the team scored five goals. At the same time, the Dortmund team climbed to third place in the standings, using the draw of direct competitors - “Leipzig” and namesake from Mönchengladbach (2: 2).
The Gladbach team could well count on victory - by the 35th minute they were leading in two goals thanks to the goals of Alassan Plea and Jonas Hoffmann. But the removal of the author of the first goal did not allow guests to score three points. A minute before the final whistle, Christopher Nkunku saved Leipzig from defeat.
A draw in the central match of Saturday also took advantage of Bayern. For the first time in 14 rounds, the Munich team led the Bundesliga standings. Their winning streak has increased to six games thanks to a successful visit to Mainz. By the 26th minute, Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller and Thiago Alcantara created a gap in the long run, which the hosts who lost five of their last six matches could not be eliminated. They only had enough to score one goal for Manuel Neuer directly during the break. Now Bayern are one point ahead of Leipzig and three are both Borussia.
PSG success, failure of Monaco
“Paris Saint-Germain” for the first time in this draw of the championship of France won with a difference of five goals. This happened in a meeting with Montpellier, who, upon arrival in Paris, won three victories in a row and climbed to fourth place in the standings.
The guests could not offer decent resistance to the leader of League 1 because of the early removal of Dimitri Berto in the 17th minute - by this moment a goal scored by Pablo Sarabia had already visited their goal. Until the end of the first half, the Spaniard still managed to give an assist to Angel Di Maria, and Daniel Congre's own goal allowed PSG to lead to the break with a devastating difference.
In the second half, Kilian Mbappe distinguished himself once, who remained dissatisfied with his quick replacement after that, and Levin Kurzawa. Edinson Cavani, who failed to get to Atlético last transfer window, came on as a substitute and scored the sixth goal after another Montpellier removal, but the goal was canceled by VAR. PSG comfortably leads the championship with 55 points in 22 rounds.
At Monaco, it’s time to announce a new crisis. The team of Alexander Golovin lost the third consecutive match, this time losing to the penultimate club of League 1 to Nima. At first, the Monegasque striker Wissam Ben-Yedder returned to the first place in the list of the best scorers of the season, but then Floryan Miguel equalized, and in the 32nd minute two Monaco players got straight red cards - Tiemue Bakayoko for the rough play, and Zhelson Martins for the arbiter's push. Substitute Golovin could not save the team from the final defeat with a score of 1: 3.