Strengthening Liverpool from Portugal
In the 7th round of the Premier League, Liverpool beat West Ham at home and climbed to the intermediate first place in the standings.
After the matches with “Aston Villa” and “Everton”, in which the reigning champion scored only one point, the Lersisides won two victories in a row.
And the newcomer Diogo Jota, acquired from Wolverhampton in September, helped them to score three points.
The Portuguese has previously scored the winning goals against Sheffield United (2-1) and Midtjylland in the Champions League (2-0).
In a week he distinguished himself three times.
Moreover, in the match with West Ham, the 23-year-old football player unexpectedly remained in reserve, but came on as a substitute in the 70th minute with the score 1: 1.
Soon the Portuguese scored, but after watching the replay the referee canceled the goal due to offside position.
A few minutes later, Zhota scored by all the rules.
Sherdan Shaqiri, who came out at the same time as his replacement, made a perfect cutting pass into the penalty area, and Diogo threw the goalkeeper.
The Portuguese now has four goals in nine appearances for Liverpool in all competitions.
With this indicator, he shares the second place in the team scorers race with Sadio Mane, behind only Mohamed Salah (8).
Trusted goalkeeper for Chelsea from Senegal
Another newcomer to the English top club, Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, is also comfortable in the Premier League.
After leaving for Real, Thibaut Courtois, Londoners experienced serious problems at the last frontier, and the transfer of the 28-year-old Senegalese from the French Rennes, it seemed, could not solve them.
The bouncy goalkeeper looked great last season and helped his team break into the Champions League.
However, even in Ligue 1, Mendy started playing only a couple of years ago, and before that he played in the lower divisions.
But, having got a chance at Chelsea, Edouard is using it 100% so far.
In six appearances for the Blues in all competitions, he conceded only one goal - from Tottenham in the League Cup.
In the Premier League and the Champions League, his goal remains intact.
The Senegalese added yet another "cracker" to his asset on Saturday.
Chelsea defeated the underdog Burnley on the road - 3: 0, and Mendy himself did not have to make a single save.
This only helped him repeat the achievement of ex-blue goalkeeper Petr Cech, who also did not concede in his first three games in the Premier League in 2004.
Ramos' 500th match in Example
Real Madrid this week not only made another misfire in the Champions League, drawing with Borussia Monchengladbach, but also got into a scandal involving Karim Benzema and Vinicius.
During the break of the match with the German team, the camera caught the Frenchman's conversation with his compatriot Ferlan Mendy, during which he advised not to play against the Brazilian.
Of course, many fans perceived this behavior of the striker negatively.
However, in the meeting of the 8th round of Examples against Huesca, Benzema entered the field from the first minutes, scored a double, gave an assist and helped Madrid defeat the opponent - 4: 1.
Vinicius, on the other hand, remained in reserve and entered the game only in the 60th minute, when Real Madrid had already scored three unanswered goals.
By the way, in the remaining half hour, he exchanged eight programs with Karim.
The Brazilian entered the field instead of Eden Azar, who opened the scoring at the end of the first half with a beautiful long-range shot.
This goal was the first for the Belgian in 392 days.
The last time he scored for FC Granada was October 5, 2019.
It is worth noting the landmark achievement of Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos, who played the jubilee, 500th match in Example.
The 34-year-old Spaniard is the tenth footballer in history to reach this milestone.
The leader in the number of matches played is Andoni Zubizarreta (622).
A curious mistake by the Barcelona goalkeeper
If "Real" won the second consecutive victory in the example and rose to first place in the standings, then things "Barcelona" in the fall are getting worse.
After the defeat in el-clasico, Ronald Koeman's charges failed to beat the modest Alaves (1: 1) on the road and extended the losing streak in the championship to four matches.
The first half of the meeting was one of the worst for Barcelona this season.
The team made a huge number of mistakes and barely passed the dense defense of the opponent.
If the Catalans created dangerous moments, then they were not lucky.
And on the 31st minute, the blue garnet conceded after a gross blot by Neto.
Having received a pass from Gerard Piqué, the goalkeeper tried to handle the ball, but in fact presented it to Luis Rioja, who hit the goal.
During the break, Koeman made a triple substitution, releasing Miralem Pjanic, Pedri and Francisco Trinkan on the field.
The castles helped Barcelona seize the initiative, while Alaves stopped even occasional counterattacks.
Moreover, in the 62nd minute, the team remained in the minority.
Immediately the Catalans managed to level the score thanks to the accurate blow of Antoine Griezmann.
The Frenchman scored his first performance point under Koeman.
Soon, the striker scored the second goal, but the referee canceled it due to an offside position, as did Lionel Messi's goal a little later.
And after hitting Piquet, shortly before the final whistle, the defender carried the shell from the line.
Change of leader in Germany
In the German championship on Saturday there was a change of leader.
Mönchengladbach Borussia after a draw with Real Madrid managed to beat Leipzig, which took the first place, which a few days ago conceded five unanswered goals from Manchester United.
Julian Nagelsmann's charges suffered their first defeat in the current Bundesliga season.
Only Bayer and Wolfsburg now keep zero in this column.
Bavaria and Borussia Dortmund took advantage of Leipzig's misfire.
After a difficult meeting with Lokomotiv, the Munich team won a 2: 1 victory over Cologne.
At the same time, the team's top scorer Robert Lewandowski missed the meeting due to minor damage.
In his absence, Serge Gnabry and Thomas Müller scored goals.
The experienced German at the same time repeated Oliver Kahn's record for the number of victories with Bayern in the national championship - 260.
In turn, Dortmund defeated Arminia, which returned to the Bundesliga, 2: 0.
Both goals in their line-up were scored by Mats Hummels, not distinguished by high performance.
The center-back has only scored his second double of his career at the club level and the first in ten years.
Thus, Borussia and Bayern are leading with 15 points, while Leipzig is in third place with 13 points.
Miranchuk's third match in a row in reserve
Alexey Miranchuk's affairs at Atalanta are not going well so far.
The Russian footballer came to Bergamo with an injury, and at first it took him to recover.
In mid-October, he first got into the application for a match of the new team, and a few days later he scored a beautiful goal against Midtjylland in the Champions League.
It seemed that after such a successful start, the midfielder would regularly receive playing time, but in the next three matches he did not enter the field.
So Miranchuk spent the whole game with Crotone on the bench.
In his absence, the Bergamaski broke a streak of two defeats in a row in the national championship and won (2: 1) thanks to a double by Luis Muriel.
One of the assists was given to him by Ukrainian Ruslan Malinovsky.
At the post-match press conference, Atalanta head coach Gian Piero Gasperini was asked a question about Miranchuk, and the specialist directly replied that the Russian needs time to adapt.
“Alexey Miranchuk is one of those players who just came from a completely different league.
He needs time to adapt, so at the moment it is more of an option for playing from the bench, ”- quotes Gasperini Football Italia.
Among other events of the Serie A playing day, it is necessary to note the effective draw in the match between Inter and Parma.
The Milanese were nearly defeated in the absence of Romelu Lukaku.
By the 63rd minute, they were behind with a score of 0: 2 after Zhervinho's double.
However, the "Nerazzurri" were rescued by the Croats Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Perisic.
The first struck the other's goal just five minutes after coming on as a substitute, and the second scored in the referee's added time.