Welcome back for another Euro Football roundup. This week features Bayern Munich who took on Borussia Dortmund in a battle between first and third in the Bundesliga. PSG continues to lose pace in Ligue 1 while Lyon are back on top. Manchester United take top spot in the Premiership and Chelsea continues to plummet. Here are the stories in more detail…
4) German Derby ends in a draw
This is the fourth time in this calendar year that these sides have met. It is a battle of first and third in the Bundesliga, but it isn’t really a top of the table clash seeing that Bayern Munich is currently eight points ahead of second place Bayer Leverkusen and 11 in front of Dortmund.
With this result, Bayern extended their winless streak to five matches with a 1-1 draw at the Allianz against Lewandowski and Co. Jupp Heyneckes’ men took the lead halfway through the second half after Toni Kroos, who received a pass from Thomas Muller, dribbled past Neven Subotic and Mats Hummels and unleashed a low left-foot hammer into the bottom corner.
Shortly after, the men in black and yellow equalised. Reus’ corner from the right was headed away by Mario Mandzukic but only to Goetze, who had space and time to chest the ball down and strike into the bottom-right corner.
Both sides are doing very well in domestic league as well as the Champions League where Dortmund are leading group D (the group of ‘death’ with Real Madrid, Manchester City and Ajax) by three points and will most likely remain first whereas Munich are currently level on points with Valencia with 10 points.
The Germans continue to perform well in Europe where it counts. As a result, this will continue to improve their UEFA clubs rankings.
3) PSG drops to fourth while Lyon extends lead at the top
Lyon have made an incredible climb to the top of Ligue 1 with a 1-0 win against Montpellier. Club leading goalscorer and runner-up so far Bafetimbi Gomis bagged the only goal in this fixture. Gomis collected his 10th of the season and is now three shy of league leader Zlatan Ibrahimovic. With this victory, Lyon were able to jump ahead of second place Marseille by three points. Les Gones are playing very well and are aiming to remain first to claim another French league title.
Paris Saint-Germain, on the other hand, are slowly descending the standings as they now find themselves in fourth place. Carlo Ancelotti’s men are not clicking at the moment. At the weekend, Nice became the latest side to upset the capital club after completing a 2-1 victory. Ibrahimovic had equalized for the Parisians six minutes after Eric Bautheac gave Nice the lead. But then Valentin Eysseric’s impressive right-footed volley won it for Nice, handing PSG their first away defeat of the season.
Monday, Ancelotti questioned his players’ attitude stated “my players don’t make a team. They’re still a group of individuals. We still don’t have any consistency in our game. It’s neither solid nor unified. The work of a coach is to find a solution very quickly”. He goes on to say that he feels that the club’s project and problems in the team’s play does not concern the players. The Italian tactician is also fearing the axe seeing that his men has only picked up four points from their last five Ligue 1 matches while they were also knocked out of the Coupe de la Ligue by Saint-Etienne last week. Daily newspaper Le Parisien reports that Jose Mourinho remains the club’s target while L’Equipe claims sources close to PSG have confirmed that there are talks with former Barcelona chief Pep Guardiola.
If PSG’s owners are anything like Roman Abramovich, then Carlo Ancelotti has something to worry about. Good thing they are already qualified for the second round of the CL.
2) Man United extend with Man City blip
The Red Devils extend their lead at the top of the EPL to three points with an emphatic 4-3 victory against Reading on Saturday in which all seven goals occurred in the first half. You wouldn’t think so much that Sir Alex Ferguson’s men would have such trouble to put a team to bed that is currently placed in second last, but it was certainly a battle for Man United with Reading putting in a great performance.
A few weeks back, the observation that the Old Trafford boys were quickly becoming ‘comeback kings’ was made and this fixture confirms their title as Man United twice came-from-behind to secure victory albeit including another penalty.
Reading took the lead on eight minutes when Jonny Evans headed a precise Jobi McAnuff cross into the path of Robson-Kanu who volleyed past Anders Lindegaard.
At the 13th minute, Anderson levelled for the visitors after a one-two with Ashley Young. Three minutes later, Man United took the lead through a Wayne Rooney penalty – yet another penalty for the Red Devils – 2-1 Man U.
On 19 minutes, Reading equalised with United fan Adam Le Fondre wriggled free of Evans in the area to head home a Nicky Shorey corner. Moments later, Sean Morrison beat Evans to a corner and powered a close-range header past Man U ‘keeper Lindegaard – 3-2 Reading.
At the half hour mark, Young freed Patrice Evra down the left and his low cross was tucked away by Rooney to make it 3-3. Four minutes later, Michael Carrick’s through-ball was deflected into the path of Robin Van Persie by a cheeky Rooney touch and the Dutchman slotted home past Federici with his weaker right foot – 4-3 Red Devils.
It was a very exciting half hour indeed. The rest of the match was played in high tempo as well with both sides wasting several chances.
Man United continue to lead with 36 points. Reading is in last place with only nine points.
1) Rafa’s Chelsea start is an abysmal reality
Chelsea, a team that fellow Premiership clubs feared would win the title this year, is now
winless in the last seven rounds in league play and is quickly falling off pace. With the Champions League around the corner and qualification still up for grabs, Rafael Benitez has no choice but to smarten up his game plan and direct his men back to victory which, one would think, should not be too difficult a task seeing that Nordsjaelland is coming to town on Wednesday. In order to qualify, the Blues desperately need a victory and also require Juventus to lose their crucial match with Shaktar Donetsk in the Ukraine.
Returing back to the EPL, Benitez has led the Stamford Bridge side for three games now from which the Blues have only collected a total of two points – 0-0 draws against Manchester City and Fulham, followed by a 3-1 thump by West Ham United this past weekend. This string of results is certainly burning the stomach of the impatient Russian owner, Roman Abramovich who demands consistent excellence in all competitions from his players and coaches. Therefore, falling off the pace in the EPL by ten points + an almost impossible CL second round qualification = Rafa Benitez will soon be axed. You can bet your entire life savings that if Chelsea loses to Nordsjaelland, Abramovich will most likely sack the Spaniard. This has led Benitez himself to expect a sacking after he was asked if he feared for his job, he was quoted saying, “No, I am not 100 per cent. We didn’t win today – that is the main thing.”
During the West Ham – Chelsea match, the fans made their feelings known, chanting, “You’re not welcome here” followed by “You’re getting sacked in the morning”, in addition to the continuous chants requesting Roberto Di Matteo to be reinstated.
Chelsea is now involved in a three-way tie for third place with Tottenham and West Brom all on 26 points.
