An unpleasant opponent for Bayern
In the Bundesliga, Munich have not lost as often as Borussia Mönchengladbach: 21 times with a total of 13 wins.
On Friday, the trend developed: in the first round of the championship, the strongest club in Germany lost to Borussia (this is the fourth year in a row).
Moreover, the failure turned out to be weak-willed: by the 26th minute, the guests were leading with an advantage of two goals thanks to the accurate shots of Robert Lewandowski and Leon Goretski.
But then the best team in Europe missed three times and interrupted a 20-game streak unbeaten in the Bundesliga.
Achieve success a day later, Julian Nagelsmann's Leipzig - and Bayern would have parted ways with the leadership in the national championship.
But the bronze medalist of the national championship lost to the silver one - Borussia Dortmund, unable to stop Erling Holland.
The Norwegian scored a double and scored 24th and 25th goals in the German championship.
It took the Norwegian only 25 games to do this, which was the record for the Bundesliga's rate of fire.
GOOOAAL HAALAND POUR LE DOUBLÉ ⚽⚽
INARRÊTABLE !!
😤😤 pic.twitter.com/W9szOX4oOo
- Erling Haaland 🇫🇷 (@HaalandFrance) January 9, 2021
But "Schalke" avoided getting into history, which the fans of the team were sincerely delighted with.
Before the home meeting with Hoffenheim, the Cobalt's unbeaten streak in the national championship totaled 30 matches.
Before repeating the anti-record of Berlin Tasmania of the 1965/66 season, there was only one step left.
Matthew Hopp helped Gelsenkirchen not make it: the 19-year-old became the first American to score a hat-trick in the Bundesliga, and allowed Schalke to win their first championship victory since 17 January 2020.
Non-football weather in Spain
Due to the storm of “Philomena” that hit the Pyrenees, matches in La Liga proved to be difficult.
Temperature anti-record, beaten in Spain at around -35.6 ° C, and heavy snowfalls made many stadiums unusable.
In addition, not everyone succeeded in getting to the venue.
So, the plane "Athletics" could not land at the capital's airport "Barajas" due to severe weather conditions and had to return to Bilbao.
The Spanish Football Federation had no choice but to postpone the match indefinitely.
Real Madrid also risked not getting to their destination: before the club board received permission to fly to Pamplona, the players spent more than four hours in the cabin.
Nevertheless, Zinedine Zidane's team nevertheless arrived at the Osasuna stadium and even took to the field.
🤍 Entrenando de forma inusual ...
❄ ¡CON NIEVE!
#HalaMadrid |
# RMCitypic.twitter.com / li23JnxA9e
- Real Madrid CF (@realmadrid) January 8, 2021
However, Real were unhappy with both its result and the stress surrounding the trip: according to the Madrid representatives, the emergency had a negative impact on the players' actions.
The footballers really didn't look like themselves.
In 90 minutes, Real Madrid struck just one shot on target, and on the xG metric (expected goals) showed an indicator of 0.36 - the worst figure for the team since February 2015.
Unlike their principal rival, Barcelona took the victory away from Andalusia without any problems.
The guests scored four unanswered goals against Granada - a double by Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi.
The Argentine scored one of the goals from a free kick and beat Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of the number of goals scored at the club level from such standards.
The tenth issue now has 48 of them.
Three minutes of Miranchuk
In Serie A, the tour kicked off with a landmark comeback.
Five minutes before the end of the match with Torino, Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic entered the field of the San Siro stadium.
The Swede had been recovering from an injury for a month and a half and had not yet fully gained playing condition.
However, as the warm-up showed, the attacker was in good order both in terms of physical readiness and in terms of mood.
Interesting warm-up routine, Zlatan 🦁 pic.twitter.com/XprNJk0lxS
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 10, 2021
Russian Alexei Miranchuk spent even less time on the field than Ibrahimovic: in a victorious meeting with Benevento, the leader of the Russian national team, Gian-Piero Gasperini, was released on the field three minutes before the end of regulation time.
At this point, Atalanta confidently beat the Campanians with a score of 4: 1.
From the moment the midfielder came out until the final whistle, nothing has changed either on the pitch or on the scoreboard.
In contrast, for example, from the confrontation in Udine, where the hosts conceded a decisive goal from Napoli (1: 2) in the 90th minute.
In the main match of the tour, Roma in the capital hosted Inter.
The effective draw (2: 2) was remembered for the fact that the authors of three of the four goals were defenders: Gianluca Mancini, Milan Shkriniar and Ashraf Hakimi.
The Moroccan's ball turned out to be especially beautiful - the guest's legionnaire hit the rivals' goal for the sixth time this season and by the 17th round of Serie A became the Milanese most productive defender over the past 11 years.
The incredible story of Marina
For three days in the country stretched out the 1/64 finals of the FA Cup and presented at least one high-profile result.
Division 4 Crowley Town knocked out a Premier League representative in a way that hasn't happened to teams of such low rank in 34 years.
Three unanswered goals were conceded by Leeds Marcelo Bielsa.
For the “peacocks” the failure became even more offensive when it turned out that as part of the hosts on the field came ... a participant in a reality show.
Mark Wright, who once tried to break into football through the youth teams of Arsenal and Tottenham, ended his career at 24 due to discipline problems.
Then he changed his occupation, gradually became a popular character on British TV and at the age of 33 he decided to once again perform in a professional club.
After settling with Crowley, where he played in the middle of the last decade, Wright trained for several months, signed a contract and appeared on the field in a historic match.
Even if only for a few minutes, they certainly became no less discussed in the world press than the outcome of the confrontation itself.
Absolute scenes @MarkWright_ 🙌🙌
Everyone at #SoccerAid for @unicef_uk is bursting with pride 💙 pic.twitter.com/k0oP6jTQbJ
- Soccer Aid (@socceraid) January 10, 2021
Another meeting, which generated increased interest, took place in Crosby, a suburb of Liverpool.
There, Marin from the eighth league hosted Tottenham.
Initially, the match was supposed to be sold out, but due to the coronavirus, the local team was forced to accept the top rival with empty stands.
Plus, the home team, consisting of amateurs, really had nowhere to train in order to somehow prepare for the meeting.
As a result, "Marina" was helped by fellow countrymen.
Everton allowed neighbors to practice at their own base.
Liverpool shared footage of their tactical analysts, and the Reds legend Jamie Carragher sponsored the club at his own expense: he installed a bench at the stadium and provided the players from Crosby with training uniforms.
Love it @ MarineAFC @ ArlaCravendale!
One day only 😅.
Best of luck today, bring home the win for the city 🔴🟡⚫🔵 # ad # milkingithttps: //t.co/DPGiJINoQWpic.twitter.com/hIFePiHRBp
- Jamie Carragher (@ Carra23) January 10, 2021
On the eve of the match, "Marine" was supported by ordinary fans.
As entry to the meeting was banned, football fans from all over England bought virtual tickets for the stands.
As a result, instead of proceeds from the supposed sold-out 389 seats, the club earned £ 10 from each of 30,697 tickets sold online.
However, this did not affect the result: Tottenham hit the opponent's goal five times, which included a scavenger and a teacher, and made it to the 1/32 finals of the tournament.
Stepped into the next round and Sheffield - the only team from the top five European leagues, which still has not won the championship during the season.
Nevertheless, in the Cup, United beat Bristol 3: 2 and slightly cheered the fans.
And along with Chris Wilder, who secured the hundredth victory as the head coach of the Blades.