Achieving Smolov and Atletico’s fourth victory in a row
The main event of the day in European football for Russian fans was the goal of Celta striker Fyodor Smolov against Barcelona. Before the reporting match, the striker had only one goal in ten games. Examples. In February, he upset Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, when Celta managed to draw with a formidable opponent - 2: 2.
A few months later, the situation repeated itself. Smolov again scored to the top club, and the team from Vigo achieved a productive draw - 2: 2. Fedor scored at the beginning of the second half. After the opponent’s mistake in the center of the field, Iago Aspas gave the cutting pass to Okay Yokushlu, and he brought the Russian out to the empty net.
So “Celta” answered the goal of Luis Suarez in the 20th minute, which he scored after a free-kick by Lionel Messi. True, shortly after a missed ball, this bunch again showed itself. Suarez scored twice and brought the number of goals in the current season Examples to 13. This allowed him to reach third place in the tournament scorers of the tournament. In it, the Uruguayan is second only to Messi (21 goals) and Karim Benzema (17). In turn, Lionel continues to confidently lead the national championship rating in the “goal + pass” system, having already 21 goals and 17 assists in 27 games.
However, it was not possible to take away three points from Vigo fighting for the championship of Barcelona. Two minutes before the end of regular time, Aspas delivered a magnificent blow from the free kick into the wall bypass and equalized.
Moreover, in the time added by the referee, “Celta” could snatch victory, but Nolito miraculously struck Mark-Andre ter Stegen.
One way or another, the Catalans lost important points and gave Real Madrid an opportunity to reach a clean first place. In case of victory on Sunday over the outsider of the Espanyol tournament, Zinedine Zidane’s wards will break away from the principal opponent by two points.
As for Smolov, he became the 21st footballer from the USSR and Russia, who managed to score Barcelona, and only the eighth who managed to upset both the Catalans and Real Madrid.
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Publication by Fedor Smolov (@ smolovfedor_10) Jun 27, 2020 at 10:57 PDT
Atletico occupying the third line confidently scored three points, beating the Alaves home and scoring a fourth consecutive victory in the Example.
The hosts did not manage to open an account for a long time, but in the 59th minute Saul Nyges, after giving Kiran Trippier from the standard, just struck his head. And soon replaced Marcos Llorente earned a penalty, which was surely sold by Diego Costa.
True, in the time added by the referee, “Alaves” also received the right to execute a penalty kick, but a missed ball did not prevent Atlético from achieving success.
In turn, Celta rivals in the struggle for survival, Mallorca and Leganes, lost points. The team from Palma de Mallorca on the road lost to Athletics - 1: 3, which has not yet lost the chance of getting into European competitions. And “Leganes” suffered an insulting defeat from the “Osasuna” - 1: 2. The outsider missed the decisive ball in the 96th minute after a corner. The double was marked by Enric Gallego, for whom these goals were the first of the season.
One hundred Bayern goals and 34 Lewandowski goals
On Saturday, the matches of the final, 34th round of the Bundesliga took place. The main intrigue unfolded around the fight for the last two tickets to the Champions League (third and fourth places) and the last ticket to the Europa League (sixth line). It also remained unclear exactly who, “Werder Bremen” or “Fortuna”, would take 16th place and get the opportunity to keep a residence permit in the Bundesliga.
Early won the title of Bayern Munich retained its motivation and defeated the Wolfsburg 4-0 away. This helped the Munich team finish the season with 100 goals. Especially beautiful ball scored 20-year-old Frenchman Michael Quizans. The young midfielder at the end of the first half from outside the penalty area struck in the far nine.
Robert Lewandowski didn’t leave the field without a goal. The Pole scored a penalty in the second half and finished the season in the Bundesliga with 34 goals. In the history of the tournament, only Dieter Müller scored the same amount, and only Gerd Müller (40, 38 and 36 goals) showed the best performance.
But Lewandowski was the first football player in the history of the German championship, who won the title of top scorer in three consecutive seasons. And the best assistant of the season with 21 assists was Thomas Muller. This is the new Bundesliga record.
Also, prematurely booked the second place for themselves, the Dortmund Borussia in the last round, on the contrary, conceded four unanswered goals. Black-and-yellow houses could not oppose Hoffenheim. The main character of the meeting was guest forward Andrei Kramarich, who registered poker in 43 minutes.
The Croatian striker opened the scoring at the very beginning of the match, and after half an hour the game scored again, competently opening on the offside line. After the break, Andrey had only three minutes to score twice more.
Hoffenheim, this success allowed to take sixth place and break into the Europa League. Otherwise, the position of the teams at the top of the standings has not changed. All clubs claiming permits in European competitions won.
Third place went to Leipzig. Wards Julian Nagelsman on the road beat Augsburg (2: 1) thanks to a double by Timo Werner. Two accurate hits not only allowed the striker to end the Bundesliga season with 28 goals, but also helped him become the top scorer in club history. For four years, the striker was enough to distinguish himself 94 times and beat Daniela Fran. Thus, Werner, who will start the next season with Chelsea, said goodbye to the German fans.
The fourth place and the last trip to the Champions League was won by the Mönchengladbach Borussia, who beat Hertha at home - 2: 1. And Bayer, after defeating Mainz with a minimum score, remained fifth and will play only in the Europa League next season.
Unpredictable was the fight for 16th place. “Fortune”, which had an advantage over the “Werder Bremen” by two points, was largely inferior to the unmotivated “Union” - 0: 3. In a parallel match Bremen defeated Cologne - 6: 1, and as a result they took advantage of a competitor's misfire.
Now the Werder Bremen are waiting for transitional matches with the third team of the second Bundesliga for the right to remain in the elite division. “Fortune”, along with “Paderborn” leave the strongest German league.
Lazio strong-willed victory and the productive series of Simeone’s son
“Lazio” after losing in the previous round of Serie A from “Atalanta” did not have the right to lose points in the home match with “Fiorentina”, because the backlog of the Romans from the leading “Juventus” grew to four points.
However, the meeting began for the hosts extremely unsuccessfully. In the middle of the first half, a beautiful ball was scored by veteran Frank Ribery. The 37-year-old midfielder burst into the penalty area from the left flank, simultaneously defeating three opponents, and just shot into the near corner.
Lazio managed to recoup only after the break. Former Lokomotiv striker Felipe Caichedo earned a penalty, while Ciro Immobile won it, scoring the 28th goal in the current season of Serie A.
The victory of the Romans ten minutes before the end brought Luis Alberto. The best assistant to the championship decided to hit from the penalty and hit just in the near corner.
In another match of the game day, Cagliari, who had not previously won 12 matches in Serie A, won a second victory in a row. In the last round, Walter Dzeng’s wards defeated SPAL, and in this house they beat “Torino” - 4: 2.
By the 17th minute, the hosts scored two unanswered goals, and immediately after the break, Raja Naynggolan brought the score to a major. After that, Cagliari relaxed and allowed the opponent to score two goals in six minutes. However, the hosts soon earned a penalty, which was realized by Joao Pedro. In the Serie A scorers race, the Brazilian is in fourth place and second only to Immobile (28), Cristiano Ronaldo (23) and Romel Lukaku (19).
Actively began its Saturday match and closing the standings of "Brescia". In the tenth minute of the match with Genoa, the hosts opened an account, and in the 13th they doubled it. It seemed that the outsider has every chance, finally, to win the first victory of the year. However, at the end of the first half, the guests played one goal from the penalty spot, and after the break they earned another one-goal, which was realized by Andrea Pinamonti - 2: 2.
Maguire's victory ball in the 118th minute and six substitutions from Solcher
In England, the first quarterfinal match of the FA Cup took place on Saturday, in which the Norwich and Manchester United closed the standings. Despite the fact that the chances of an outsider to win were regarded as extremely low, the team of Daniel Farke managed to impose a favorite on the fight.
The first half ended without goals scored, and at the very beginning of the second playing segment Odion Igalo pushed forward from close range. “Norwich” managed to recoup 15 minutes before the end of regular time. Midfielder Todd Cantwell hit hard from outside the box, and the ball flew into the near corner. Opponent goalkeeper Sergio Romero was clearly late with the jump and could not save the team.
At the 89th minute, the outsider remained in the minority. Timm Klose on the penalty line broke the rules on Igalo and received a direct red card. As a result, the Mankunians still squeezed a modest opponent. At the very end of the extra time, Harry Maguire, who joined the attack, pushed the ball into the net from a couple of meters.
Thus, Manchester United entered the semifinals of the FA Cup for the 30th time and set a new tournament record. And the team's mentor, Ole Gunnar Solskher, became the first coach in England to make six substitutions.
Also on Saturday, there was one Premier League match in which Wolverhampton, which was fighting for tickets to European competitions, turned out to be stronger than Aston Villa - 1-0. The third consecutive victory in the national championship allowed wards Nun Eshpirit Sant to rise to an intermediate fifth place in the standings.