Manchester United misfire and help from Liverpool
In the Premier League, the struggle for tickets to the Champions League continues. The former have long been reserved by Liverpool and Manchester City, and four teams are competing for the remaining two. Until recently, Leicester was considered the leader in this race, but the defeat at Tottenham changed everything. Thanks to him, Wolverhampton kept the chances for fourth place, and Manchester United and Chelsea were able to take the lead in the dispute for third place.
True, none of the teams was able to take full advantage of them. Manchester United lost points at home in a confrontation with one of the outsiders in the person of West Ham. As part of the guests, Michael Antonio again tried on the role of leader, successfully conducting the final segment of the championship. Before the pause caused by the coronavirus, he had only two accurate hits, but after that he scored eight more times. In the Premier League, only City winger Raheem Sterling can boast of this.
This time Antonio scored from a penalty kick awarded for the handball by Paul Pogba. The goal was scored in the second stoppage minute of the first half. And six minutes after the start of the second, the score became equal. The young Mason Greenwood was the author of the return goal, interrupting a dry streak of two matches. He became only the third player in the history of the Premier League, who managed to issue 10 goals in the Premier League before his 19th birthday. In the 1993/94 season, Robbie Fowler scored the same number of times, and four years later - Michael Owen.
Greenwood also became only the fourth representative of the "Red Devils" under 20 years old, who managed to score 17 goals in all tournaments during the season. 54 years ago, George Best hit the bar, and later his achievement was repeated by Brian Kidd and Wayne Rooney.
In the remaining time, the Mancunians were unable to snatch victory and missed the chance to break away from Leicester by three points. Thus, Chelsea got a chance to guarantee themselves a ticket to the Champions League, which had to beat the lack of motivation Liverpool. In the last five games, Jurgen Klopp's wards have lost more points than in the previous 40, which definitely set the “aristocrats” in a major mood.
However, in reality everything turned out differently. In the period from 23rd to 43rd minute, the hosts distinguished themselves three times, but an accurate hit by Olivier Giroud in stoppage time returned hope to the guests. In the second half, the Blues conceded again, but did not despair and even reduced the gap to the minimum, but six minutes before the end of regular time, the Reds put a spectacular point. Thus, Frank Lampard's wards were unable to break away from Leicester and kept the intrigue in the fight for the Champions League, and Liverpool received the trophy for winning the English Championship.
Liverpool's roster includes Naby Keita, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jorginho Wijnaldum, Roberto Firmino and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. At the same time, for Keita and Firmino, the balls became special, since both had not scored for more than 400 days at Anfield in the Premier League. As for Alexander-Arnold, he has updated his own record for the most assists per season among defenders (13). He also ranked second in league history in free-kick goals for footballers under 21. He has three of them, which is one less than Jamie Redknapp.
Olivier Giraud, Tammy Abraham scored against Chelsea, and Christian Pulisic not only beat Alison himself, but also acted as an assistant.
Six goals by Roma and Inter's misfire
In Italy, Inter extended the losing streak to two matches and fell back to third place in the standings. In a round earlier, Antonio Conte's wards were unable to cope with Roma, but this time they drew with Fiorentina. The hosts surpassed their counterparts in all key components, but could never hit the gate of Pietro Terracciano. Earlier in the season, the Nerazzurri failed to upset the opponent only twice.
"Napoli" lost to "Parma" for the second time, and the meeting again ended with a score of 1: 2. And this time all the balls were scored from the 11-meter. Lorenzo Insigne struck for the guests, and for the hosts Gianluca Caprari and Dejan Kulusevski. It is noteworthy that both play for the "crusaders" on loan, and belong to "Sampdoria" and "Juventus", respectively.
If Napoli's unbeaten run was interrupted, Roma, on the contrary, won four wins in the last five matches and once drew. This time, the team of Paulo Fonseca defeated the main outsider of the SPAL championship with a score of 6: 1. The last time the "wolves" were so productive on a visit was in 1935. This allowed the Romans to overtake their rivals from Milan and come out on to fifth place.
Exactly half of the goals came from two players named Perez. But if 30-year-old Bruno scored a double for the first time in his career, then 22-year-old Carles scored his debut goal in a shirt of the Roman club. In the previous 12 meetings in the framework of Serie A, he only twice assisted partners.
As for the outsiders, Torino lost points at home in the match with Verona, while Genoa took over Sampdoria 2-1 away. The author of the first goal of the Genoese was the ex-Zenit footballer Domenico Criscito. The squad's regular penalty taker for the eighth time in the championship has confidently shot from a point - more than anyone in Serie A over the past 13 years. Until now, Diego Milito had the best result.
Three rounds before the end, “Genoa” is located on the saving 17th line, but can hardly feel safe. Only four points are behind Lecce, who interrupted the unsuccessful streak and beat Brescia, thereby depriving her of her chances of retaining her registration in Serie A. The meeting ended with a score of 3: 1, and Gianluca Lapadula became the main character. It took the Italian only ten minutes to complete not only a double, but also a personal performance record. He has never scored nine times in a season before.