Defeat at Selhurst Park

On the eve of the 14th round of the Premier League, few people expected that Liverpool would meet serious resistance in the confrontation with Crystal Palace.

Yes, two rounds ago Roy Hodgson's wards managed to take points away from the second team of the league - Tottenham, but then they drew with West Ham.

As a result, Jurgen Klopp's wards turned out to be ruthless towards the middle peasant and for the first time in history they scored seven unanswered goals in an away Premier League match, winning their biggest victory since December 2017.

Then, with a similar score in the Champions League, Spartak Moscow was defeated.

In the reporting meeting, 25-year-old striker Takumi Minamino scored his first goal in the Premier League, becoming the seventh Japanese player to excel in the Premier League, while Trent Alexander-Arnold played his 150th game for the club and marked this with an assist to Jordan Henderson.

The main characters of the fight were Mohammed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

Both chalked up a double and an effective pass, and this allowed the Egyptian with 13 goals to become the sole leaders of the scorer race.

For the head coach of the team, Jurgen Klopp, this victory was 127th as the mentor of the Lersisides, which allowed him to come out on top in terms of this indicator in the history of the club.

He bypassed Rafael Benitez (126).

Next came Gerard Houllier (112), Roy Evans (87) and Brendan Rogers (63).

Arsenal's unsuccessful streak

The other day in the Premier League took place the first of the season, the resignation of the head coach - "West Bromwich" left the former coach of the national team of Croatia and Lokomotiv Slaven Bilic.

At the same time, many believed that Mikel Arteta might be the first to leave his post, because, despite a successful performance in the Europa League, Arsenal looks depressing in the Premier League and occupies an unusual place in the basement of the standings.

The 13-time England champion approached the game against Everton with a six-game losing streak and five points from the relegation zone.

The Gunners were not lucky this time either.

The meeting at Goodison Park ended with a score of 2: 1 in favor of the hosts.

First, Arsenal defender Rob Holding cut the ball into his own goal, in the 35th minute midfielder Nicolas Pepe converted a penalty, and the winning goal was scored by Erri Mina, who distinguished himself at the end of the first half after a corner kick.

Everton climbed to an intermediate second place in the Premier League standings and for the first time in 16 years have guaranteed themselves a top 4 spot at this stage of the tournament.

Arsenal continues to set anti-records.

In 14 rounds, the London club scored just 14 points - the team's worst result in 46 years.

Reaching Messi

In Spain, the central match of the tour was held at the Camp Nou.

Ronald Koeman's wards missed the victory over Valencia - 2: 2, which allowed the guests to strengthen their status as the most inconvenient team for the giants of Spanish football.

Over the past ten years, the bats have taken 49 points from Barça and Real Madrid.

Next in this ranking are Atletico Madrid (41), Real Sociedad and Sevilla (31 each).

The score was opened by the team of Xavi Gracia.

In the 29th minute, Muktar Diacabi took advantage of the opponent's problems when playing on set pieces and irresistibly hit his head.

However, in compensated time for the first half, the hosts restored parity.

Lionel Messi was unable to convert the penalty, but did not leave the episode and finished off the ball into the net.

This allowed the Argentine to score the 643rd goal for Barcelona and repeat Pele's record for the number of accurate shots per club.

Moreover, initially, in the episode with the appointment of the 11-meter, the chief referee of the meeting not only pointed out the point after the fall of Antoine Griezmann, but also showed a direct red card to Jose Luis Gaia.

But after watching the video replay, the judge changed his mind and presented the Spaniard with only a yellow card.

In the second half, Ronald Araujo and Maxi Gomez exchanged precise shots, and the Catalan defender scored especially effectively.

The Uruguayan turned out to be the most agile in the penalty area and drove the ball into the net with side scissors.

As for Denis Cheryshev, the Valencia Russian legionnaire spent 90 minutes on the field and had a good chance to score, but did not convert it.

Ronaldo's performance

A couple of hours after the end of the meeting with the participation of Messi, his eternal competitor entered the field.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a double in the 13th round away match against Parma, which allowed the Juventus forward to become the leader of this season's scorers' race (12) and write his name in the history of Serie A.

The Portuguese has already scored 33 goals in a calendar year in the Italian championship and is on par with Omar Sivori, who set a similar achievement in 1961.

Only Gunnar Nordahl (36 goals in 1950) and Felice Borel (41 in 1933) have more.

The match at the stadium "Ennio Tardini" ended with a score of 0: 4, and one of its main characters was Alvaro Morata.

He not only assisted Ronaldo and Dejan Kulusevski, but also distinguished himself, scoring three points for the first time in a single meeting in Serie A.

The current season can be one of the most successful for the Spaniard in his career.

He already has 10 (4 + 6) points on the "goal + pass" system in the national championship - and this is after 13 rounds.

At the moment, his best result is 20 (15 + 5) points in the 2016/17 season.

Then he, together with Cristiano, defended the colors of Real Madrid.

Battle of the Bundesliga leaders

In Germany, the main event of the 13th round promised to be a meeting of the leaders of the Bundesliga.

On the eve of the face-to-face confrontation, Bayer was first and one point ahead of Bayern.

Thus, in order to celebrate the New Year at the top of the standings, Peter Bose's wards had to not yield to the Munich team.

At first, the hosts were doing well.

Already in the 14th minute they took the lead - Patrick Schick was marked by a real masterpiece.

The Czech striker was left without guardianship during the corner and with a fantastic blow from the air, he pierced the net of the gate of Manuel Neuer.

For Bayern, the game was not going well for a long time, and the picture was overshadowed by injuries.

In the 32nd minute, Leroy Sane entered the field instead of the injured Kingsley Coman, but already in the middle of the second half of the match, the German himself left the field.

The good news for the fans of the guests was perhaps the return to the composition of Yosua Kimmich, who missed more than a month due to problems with the meniscus.

As a result, Bayer's fate was predetermined by an unsuccessful game in the endings of the halves.

Robert Lewandowski made a double, in which he was helped by the gross mistakes of Lukasz Hradecki and Jonathan Ta.

The goalkeeper played unsuccessfully at the exit and allowed the Pole to freely send the ball into the empty net after a throw from the flank, and the defender made a mistake under the pressure of counterpressing and allowed the guests to carry out an effective attack in the 93rd minute.

The FIFA Football Player of the Year did not miss and helped Hans-Dieter Flick win his 50th game at the helm of Bayern Munich.