A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

The other half of the matches have just ended.

Group G: Spartak Moscow and Villareal drew 3-3 (3-3). Santi Cazorla returned to an European comp after his famous injury and recovery to score the last minute penalty equalizer for the 'Yellow Submarine'. Rangers won 3-1 against Rapid Wien by 3-1 (goals here).

Group H: Eintracht Frankfurt won 4-1 against Lazio (notice the two Lazio players getting sent off and Durmisi from the same team getting a nasty arm injury), while Marseille were winning but let Apollon equalize 2-2. Three great goals, at least, in this one.

Group I: Malmö won 2-0 against Besiktas (goals here), while Norwegian side Sarpsborg 08 beat Genk by 3-1. Sarpsborg 08, who had lost their past 7 matches in all competitions, while Belgian side Genk were undefeated in all competitions since May 06 (20 matches). Goals by Mortensen (lovely back-heel), Trossard, Zachariassen and Mortensen again (lovely low shot).

Grouo J: Two 2-1 wins, by Standard Liège against Akhisar Belediyespor (goals by Emond, Ayik and Djenepo) and by Krasnodar against Sevilla (goals by Nolito, Mauricio Pereyra and Okriashvili). I think this is the first time ever 3 Russian teams win against 3 Spanish teams in a single matchweek in the European comps - World Cup effect, perhaps? If Spartak had won against Villareal, it would've been a perfect week for their coefficient.

Group K: Dynamo Kyiv was winning by 2 goals, but they let Jablonec equalize at the latter's home (goals by Tsygankov, Harmash, Havorka and Travnik).

Group L: Chelsea won 1-0 against Vidi (goal by Morata), while BATE lost at home by 1-4 against PAOK (goals by Prijovic, Léo Jaba, Skavish and Pelkas).

Dang. One-on-one situation:

Common sense: aim at the corners or try to round or lob the 'keeper.

Astana's Tomasov: blast the ball right at the goalie's head with all your might, hoping he'll dodge it.

P.S. Me happy.

Edited by Millership on Oct 5th 2018 at 4:25:12 PM

The four Copa Libertadores semifinalists are in: Boca - Palmeiras, and Cruzeiro - River.

Anybody else watching Manchester United curl up and die right now?

Quite the turn around, impressively enough (and Alexis Sanchez of all people scoring the winner). I don't know if Mourinho will stay for long, but this 3-2 win at least will postpone his exit.

Quite a peculiar day today. Bayern Munich losing at home by 3-0 against Glad'bach (first back-to-back losses in the league since 2015, iirc), Real Madrid losing against Alavés for the first time in 80-something years, and...

Marítimo 1-3 Vitória SC

Great win for us. We dominated throughout most of the match (and we were lucky with a Marítimo shot that hit the bar in the first half), though Marítimo still got their consolation goal near the end of the match. Keeping a clean sheet is hard this season.

Alexandre Guedes (a striker we signed this summer from Desportivo Aves - he gave them their first ever Portuguese Cup in the previous season) scored twice (first and second goals) and André André sealed the win with a penalty). A good day for us, and a good motivator for the upcoming regional derby against Braga (who are currently top of the league, so, it'll be insanely hard), which will happen 20 days from now (so, after the international break).

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 6th 2018 at 8:09:30 PM

Understandably, I'm speaking as a Chelsea fan so I view Mourinho like I would my evil ex-girlfriend who I'd still wish will burn in Hell (in spite of my best feelings), but FUCK THIS!

If a game like this was how MANCHESTER UNITED expects to get three points against a winless club like Newcastle, then let's just already call them a mid-table club.

The greatest irony of all about this 3-2 turnaround is that United were dragged to a comeback victory by the players that Mourinho has criticized most harshly and that they did it by playing in complete opposition to Mourinho’s professed philosophy. It was as anti-Mourinho of a comeback as a team managed by Mourinho could have possibly put together. It was more a validation of Mourinho’s critics than it was of him as manager:

• Paul Pogba was the best player of the second half. He started driving the team forward. He led all players in touches, completed passes, and shots, and he had an assist. Yet he had just days ago completely trashed Mourinho's defensive-minded tactics so badly that the club's now banned him from speaking with journalists (and this was just a few days after Pogba and Mou's little training ground spat... which, itself, came after Mourinho's vow to never give Pogba the captain's armband ever again)
• Juan Mata started the turnaround with United's first goal, yet it's hard to name another player (of his own, at least) who in the past Mourinho ever been meaner to. When Chelsea had poor results early in Mou's first season back at the Bridge in 2013, Mata was his scapegoat and went as far as to say Mata isn't a hard worker. It's a wonder how the two of them have managed to stay together for this long at United.
• Anthony Martial scored the second goal in combination with a free-roaming and creative Pogba. Martial has only made 18 starts and played around 1500 minutes in each of United’s last two seasons, even though he’s probably United's best attacker. Mourinho’s refusal to give Martial a big role is inexplicable. Every bit as inexplicably, he's also criticized Martial for taking two days off for the birth of his child.
• Alexis Sanchez bagged the match-winning goal, but was completely dropped from the 18-man matchday squad for the recent game against West Ham.

If the Manchester United board had decided they’d fire Mourinho in the event of a poor result against Newcastle, honestly, they should still go ahead and do it, anyway.

Edited by SeanMurrayI on Oct 6th 2018 at 9:57:12 AM

Mou will stay a little longer, but I don't see him on the Red Devil's bench next year. While the win gives them a breather, if they can't build up on it, it won't be worth anything.

I was unable to post due to connection issues. But here's a quick roundup:

• In Spain, there are six teams struggling for the top spot. You can thank the deplorable state of Barcelona (tied 1-1 against Valencia) and especially Real Marid (1-0 loss against Alavés; also accumulated almost seven hours without scoring a goal) for that. The other teams in the mix are Sevilla (currently the top team) Atlético, the aforementioned Alavés and Espanyol.
• Boca Juniors scratched a very unfair tie against Racing Club in the Argentine league, coupled with heated, raging complaints from both teams towards the referee. River, meanwhile, was unable to play their match due to their stadium being used for the Buenos Aires youth olympics, so they instead played their 1/4 Copa Argentina match against Sarmiento [R] ahead of time, winning 3-1, at Mendoza stadium. They're now at semifinals in that Cup, much like in Copa Libertadores.
• Bayern Munich continues struggling hard in the Bundesliga, suffering an embarrasing defeat (can't remember against which team), and are now 5th. Nico Kovac doesn't seem to be the manager who'll sit at that club's coaching chair until the end of the season.

On the subject of Real Madrid, there's now an official countdown for Lolpetegui's sacking: If he slumps in the Clásico against Barcelona at 28/10, that's it.

In the NFL there's already a pool going for who's going to be the first coach to be given his marching orders. I suppose Llourinho and Lolpetegui could be entered into a similar pool, along with Kovac given Bayern's downturn in form. None of their employers are known for patience with managers if their form dips for even a couple of months.

(Edited to reflect the sarcastic nickname conferred on ol' Jose which I couldn't remember when I originally wrote the above.)

Edited by mlsmithca on Oct 9th 2018 at 2:09:18 PM

Well, Leonardo Jardim beat all three (granted, he's not as big as those three, but anyone who beats PSG for the French title deserves recognition). he's just been sacked by Monaco. 1 ligue title, 1 CL semi-final appearance, in spite of a transfer policy that forced him to rebuild the team year after year. Good enough, all things considered.

Although not on the same level, something similar to this season's La Liga is happening with the Brasileirão (28 matches played so far, 10 more left to be played). There are 5 teams with only 5 points of distance between them - Palmeiras, Internacional, Flamengo, São Paulo and Grêmio. Palmeiras might just edge out, as they have won their last 3 matches and are on a roll, but crazy things may still happen.

Another Nations League match week will begin today, but some news first (besides the aforementioned Jardim sacking):

There's an ongoing massive investigation (and a few detentions) in Belgian football, as over 10 clubs have been perquisitioned by the police concercing files related to some transfer deals made by Bayat (the main football agent in Belgium - think a smaller scale Jorge Mendes), plus two referees and one agent - that is not Bayat - were detained for interrogation. Common speculations in the media are:

So, yeah, shit is going down. This is part of a wider European investigation in 7 countries, and I'm inclined to think money laundering might be one of the key reasons why it's being carried out.

For the record, there are other clubs outside Belgium that are also heavily connected to Bayat (such as Watford and Udinese).

Dean Smith is the new Aston Villa manager, and John Terry will be his assistant.

Arda Turan got involved in a fight.

Kokorin and Mamayev will go on trial today. Apparently, they beat up a government official. Russian press say Mamaev would have to pay his club Krasnodar €30m if his contract is annulled and the club intend to go all the way. Krasnodar never want to have anything in common with hoodlums in the squad nor in the stadium. There is a possibility that Zenit will protect Kokorin (in spite of condemning his actions), but it's safe to say he won't be making Russia NT appearances in the next few months, at least.

The transfer of Lucas Paquetá from Flamengo to Milan has been confirmed. €30M, he'll arrive next January. Milan just got themselves a real gem of a player.

EDIT: An update on the Belgian case(s): KV Mechelen have been accused by federal police of matchfixing in last year's relegation battle. 4 board members allegedly conspired with Veljkovic to bribe referee Bart Vertenten, as well as the board of Waasland-Beveren. The cosmic/karmic irony in this is that KV Mechelen had failed to survive that relegation battle, plus their board apparently had accused Eupen and Moeskroen of such practices with very little basis.

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 11th 2018 at 5:00:15 PM

Today's Nations League matches have just ended (with the exception of Russia x Sweden, which began later than usual). Let's take a look:

League D, group 3: Faroe Islands lost at home 0-3 against Azerbaijan (goals by Richard de Oliveira, Dimitrij Nazarov and Richard again (penalty this time), while Kosovo won at home by 3-1 against Malta (goals by Kololli, Agius, Muriqi and Kololli again).

League C, group 1: Israel won 2-1 against Scotland (goals by Charlie Mulgrew (penalty), Dor Peretz and own goal by Kieran Tierney).

League C, group 4: Both home teams lost at home: Montenegro by 0-2 against Serbia (a brace by Aleksandar Mitrovic) and Lithuania against Romania by 1-2 (goals by Chipciu, Zulpa and Alexandru Maxim giving the three points to Romania at the 90+4' minutes).

And finally:

League A, group 3: Poland 2-3 Portugal (goals here)

This was a great, very entertaining game. We have a future post-Ronaldo, I'm saying it now.

We started with a front three of the Silvas (Rafa, André and Bernardo), while Poland started with the lethal duo that is Lewandowski and Piatek (Lewandowski was a bit poor tonight, tho). Piatek continues to prove his solid form at Genoa, with him scoring the opening goal. However, we not only managed to recover, but score all our three goals in the first half. First it was André, then Rafa (technically, it counts as a Glik own goal, but fuck it, Rafa pulled it off nicely against GK Fabianski), and finally Bernardo Silva pulled a Messi/Robben-esque cut inside/sideways move.

In the second half, we did got a bit complacent and ended up suffering a goal by Blaszczykowski (which probably should not have been validated, as it seems to me the ball had crossed the sideline some seconds before the assist that led to his goal), and so we went on the run again to try to score a fourth, while playing with three defensive midfielders (William, Rúben Neves and Danilo - the latter one came on as a sub) in the final minutes of the match! Renato Sanches and Bruno Fernandes both came on, both could have scored from relatively open chances (Renato's shot was blocked by a last man standing, while Fernandes' shot skied over).

In spite of the goals and our poor defensive set pieces, I am very pleased by how he played. I think Fernando Santos wants to improve the team's attack in the absence of Ronaldo, and, well, as you can see, it paid off tonight. Great effort, caralho!

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 11th 2018 at 9:54:52 AM

Nice matches on UNL today, especially Poland-Portugal (the lusos won 3-2) and Spain-Wales (4-1 for Luis Enrique's team). At this rate, they'll be among the first teams to reach the decisive play-off round.

And France lost, surprisingly (0-2 to Iceland). O_o

EDIT: Ninja'd. XD

While I'm still here, Argentina defeated Irak 0-4. Obviously that's just a Breather Episode for Scaloni's team. Brazil is the real exam.

Edited by MyFinalEdits on Oct 11th 2018 at 4:48:52 AM

Keep in mind that Spain and France's matches were friendlies, not Nations League matches.

Still, the French are probably feeling a bit embarassed.

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 11th 2018 at 9:49:01 AM

Oops, my bad. T_T

No problem (tho you did jump the gun in regards to France x Iceland; France ended up equalizing, first due to an own goal and 5 minutes later through a penalty scored by Mbappé near stoppage time).

League B, group 2: Russia x Sweden ended in a goalless draw.

Another day of Nations League matches have just ended. Let's take a look. It was a poorer day, goal-wise, compared to yesterday, though there were a couple of interesting wins:

League D, group 2: Moldova won 2-0 against San Marino (a brace by Radu Ginsari), while Belarus won 1-0 against Luxembourg (goal by Saroka).

League C, group 2: Greece won 1-0 against Hungary (goal by Mitroglou, while Estonia lost at home by 0-1 against Finland (goal in stoppage time by Teemu Pukki - who else?◊)

League B, group 3: Austria won 1-0 against Northern Ireland (goal by Arnautovic).

League A, group 2: Belgium won 2-1 against Switzerland. Lukaku scored, then Gavranovic equalized, but Lukaku scored another one.

League A, group 4: Croatia drew 0-0 with England in an empty stadium (UEFA punished Croatia due to a swastika on the pitch in the past) in what was apparently a boring match. Spain only has to win at home against England 3 days from now to qualify to the Final Four.

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 12th 2018 at 9:59:19 AM

Today was a very interesting Nations League matchday (with the exception of a couple of matches):

League D, group 1: Latvia drew 1-1 with Kazakhstan (goals by Zainutdinov and Karasauskas), while Georgia comfortably beat Andorra by 3-0 (brace by Vako and a goal in stoppage time by Kankava). If Georgia win against Latvia 3 days from now, they'll get the promotion to League C.

League D, group 4: Ladies and gentlemen, Gibraltar won for the first time ever in a competitive match (granted, they're still a very young official national team, but still...), away(!) against Armenia (penalty scored by Joseph Chipolina. Here are the players' celebrations at the end of the match. Considering nearly all of them are amateur or semi-pro at best and Armenia had Mkhitaryan playing, this is certainly embarassing for the home side. Mkhi was visibly pissed off.

FYR Macedonia comfortably beat Liechtenstein by 4-1 (brace by Aleksandar Trajkovski, Goran Pandev (yes, that Goran Pandev), Seyhan Yildiz and Alioski).

League C, group 3: Norway won 1-0 against Slovenia (goal by Ole Selnaes in stoppage time of the first half), while Bulgaria beat Cyprus by 2-1 (Kastanos scored in the first half, but Despodov and Nedelev turned it around in the second half).

League B, group 1: Earlier today, Slovakia lost at home by 1-2 against the Czech Republic (goals by Krmencik, Hamsik and Schick).

League B, group 4: Republic of Ireland and Denmark. Like Croatia x England yesterday, it was a goalless draw that was pretty poor (there are exciting goalless draws, but this was definitely not one of them).

League A, group 1: A new chapter in the Netherlands x Germany historical rivalry, perhaps? The Dutch imposed an outstanding 3-0 win against Germany (goals by Van Dijk, Memphis Depay and Wijnaldum in stoppage time to seal the humiliation.

This is the Netherlands first win over Germany in 16 years and the first win ever with a 3+ goal margin.

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 13th 2018 at 10:36:41 AM

Before I recap today's Nations League matches...

Scotland 1-3 Portugal (Friendly)

We rotated a lot and played what was essentially a B team, while Scotland look like a team devoid of ideas (or simply stale). There were debuts for our side (both in terms of caps and goals), a lovely return, and a neat consolation goal for the Scotsmen (who are still nonetheless pissed off at McLeish and want him to be sacked, apparently).

Hélder Costa made his debut for the NT and scored in the first half. In the second half, the one and only Éder scored for the first time since that goal (you know the one) - and it was a lovely header after being assisted by Renato Sanches, who is getting back on track both at Bayern and here - and Bruma scored his first goal for us. Scotland's consolation goal was scored in the last seconds of the match by Naismith.

There were also debuts by susbstitutes Pedro Mendes (center-back, currently playing for Montpellier in Ligue 1) and Cláudio Ramos (GK for Tondela here in the Primeira Liga; he was the one who suffered Naismith's goal, so, not the best of debuts, even if it wasn't really his fault).

Overall, I'm satisfied with this result. Some rotation, some quality, and some defensive issues we will have to solve in the medium to long term.

League D, group 3: Two 1-1 draws, between Azerbaijan and Malta (goals by Rowen Muscat and Araz Abdullayev, and between Faroe Islands and Kosovo (goals by Rashica - this goal is very much worth a watch or two - and Joensen).

League C, group 4, Romania x Serbia ended in a goalless draw. Dusan Tadic missed a penalty after Tamas - the Romanian equivalent of Vinnie Jones - got a red card, so, Serbia will rue the wasted opportunity. Lithuania lost at home 1-4 against Montenegro (goals by Mugosa, Kopitovic, Mugosa again (penalty), Zoric and a lovely consolation goal by Baravykas).

League C, group 1: Israel won 2-0 against Albania (goals by Tomer Hemed - the GK in this first goal was very Ederson-esque - and Dia Saba).

League B, group 2: Russia won 2-0 against Turkey and might have secured their promotion to League A (unless Sweden wins the last 2 matches of the respective 3-team group). Goals by Neustädter and Cheryshev.

League A, group 3: Poland lost at home against Italy with a stoppage time goal by Biraghi, in a match that also saw Jorginho hitting the crossbar. With this result, we'll go through if we don't lose our last two matches (away against Italy at the San Siro, and at my city against Poland - who, due to this result, have gotten themselves relegated to League B. Losing at home and getting relegated within 3 days will certainly sting for the Polish.

Also noteworthy is the fact that, for some reason, Piatek did not play tonight. The Polish people will certainly demand an explanation from Brzęczek (their NT coach).

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 14th 2018 at 9:56:52 AM

Though Italy won, they're still visibly out of shape. At this rate, they won't qualify for the 2020 Euro Cup.

At least it seems like Mancini picked a decent starting XI yesterday. It will be a matter of time before they gel well, indeed.

Another day of Nations League has just ended. Let's take a look:

League D, group 2: Belarus x Moldova ended in a goalless draw, while Luxembourg comfortably beat San Marino (goals by Turpel, Sinani and Thill - can't find Lux's other goal; also, San Marino were down to 10 men due to a red card between the first and second goals).

League C, group 2: Pukki was injured 10 minutes in, but he passed his powers to Pyry Soiri, who scored the first goal in a 2-0 win against Greece (the other goal was scored by Kamara. Finland have 12 points and are rocking out (they'll only need a draw to get promoted to League B). Estonia drew 3-3(!) with Hungary (goals by Siim Luts, Dominik Nagy, Szalai, Pikk, Anier and Szalai again).

League B, group 3: Bosnia won 2-0 against Northern Ireland, with a brace by Dzeko. Bosnia only needs to draw against Austria away a month from now to secure promotion to League A.

League A, group 2: Iceland lost 1-2 against Switzerland and are now relegated to League B (goals by Seferovic, M. Lang and Finnbogason).

League A, group 4: The upset of the night. Spain lost 2-3 at home against England. This is the first time ever that Spain conceded 3 goals in a competitive home match. For the record, England were winning 3-0. Four of the goals are here, including a brace by Sterling, who finally scored for England after about 1100 days. Sergio Ramos scored at the 90+7'.

Spain has lost a competitive game at home for the first time in 15 years (since June 2003, when Greece beat them 1-0 in a Euro 2004 qualifier in Zaragoza).

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 15th 2018 at 10:19:06 AM

Last day of this Nations League matchweek:

League D, group 1: Kazakhstan comfortably beat Andorra by 4-0 (goals by Seidakhmet, Turysbek - can't find his goal - an own goal by Josep Gomes, and Murtazayev), but it didn't matter much, as Georgia secured their promotion to League C, after comfortably beating Latvia away by 3-0 (goals by Kankava, Gvilia and Chakvetadze).

League D, group 4: Armenia beat Macedonia by 4-0 (goals here). There are, however, suspicions of match fixing, due to the lack of response and questionable positioning by Macedonia's GK in at least 3 of the 4 goals. Macedonia will still very likely secure their promotion to League C, but there might have been an arrangement behind the scenes involving a few of their players and a high betting man or two.

Oh, and Gibraltar are now in their second win in a row, after beating Liechtenstein by 2-1. Salanovic scored first, but the Gibraltarians scored twice in 5 minutes within the second half (goals by Cabrera and J. Chipolina. Chipolina is now Gibraltar's joint top-scorer, with only... 2 goals.

League C, group 3: Slovenia drew 1-1 with Cyprus (goals by Papoulis and Skubic), while Norway won against Bulgaria with a goal by Elyonoussi. Norway has the same point as Bulgaria with this win (9), and will both essentially fight it out for the promotion spot against the other two teams.

League B, group 1: Ukraine won against Czech Republic with a goal by Malinovsky. As a result, Ukraine secured their promotion to League A.

League B, group 4: Republic of Ireland lost at home against Wales (free-kick goal by Harry Wilson), which means they are essentially relegated to League C (unless Denmark loses their last two matches, and Ireland win their against the Danes by 3 goals or more).

Leageue A, France won 2-1 against Germany (goals here, including a brace by Griezmann). The two penalties, one for each side, were a tiny bit controversial. If France don't lose against the Netherlands a month from now, they'll go to the final four. As for Germany, they'll have to hope for the Netherlands to lose and then to fight it out with the Dutch to avoid relegation to League B. Germany need a change of scenery, and fast.

Edited by Quag15 on Oct 16th 2018 at 11:34:51 AM

Meanwhile, these were the friendlies' results for the South American teams:

Brazil 1 - Argentina 0

The goal was by Joao Miranda on the Ramos minute 93th minute. It was a fairly tame match, considering the to contenders, but Tite was still satisfied with what his team showed. Argentine fans, however, are getting increasingly worried about a national team that still doesn't have a manager (and won't have one until next year) and whose biggest star remains silent for a dangerously rising period of time on whether he'll return or not (some days ago, Maradona and AFA president tapia had a bitter at-a-distance clash of statements on Messi having to return or retire).

United Arab Emirated 0 - 2 Venezuela

Due to an idiotic whim on the Emirati part, the match wasn't televised. There wasn't even a public on the stadium in Barcelona. Perhaps they wanted to back up their asses in case the historically-worst national football team in South America defeated them. How delusional. Mago and Ponce scored the goals.

México 0 - 1 Chile

Well, for the consolation of Mexicans, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the 7-0 defeat against the same rival from two years ago. However, there's still some suspicion that Tuca Ferreti is making a bed for himself so the FMF won't bother hiring him to manage international matches anymore, especially considering he does not want to be a full-time manager (there are strong rumors that they'll go for Martino anyway). Nicolás Castillo scored the goal at 90'.

Omán 0 - 0 Ecuador

After a heartbreaking elimination from entering the past World Cup, you'd think that the Tricolor wouldn't be able to go below the bottom of the barrel. Unfrortunately, someone grabbed a giant drill and started taking the team further down. With all due respect to Omán, Ecuador should have won this match, and the fact they didn't speaks ill of the bleak future that waits for them, especially since their newly-hired manager gives one the vibe that he just doesn't know where he's standing now.

Japan 4 - 3 Uruguay

Takumi Minamino scored the first goal for this match, then Pereiro equalized, then Osako and later Ritsu Doan put the Nippons ahead once agasin, then Cavani and Pereiro equalized yet again, and then Minamino put the fourth, winning goal for Nintendo's home country. Uruguay ended up losing both friedlies in this FIFA session, which does raise some eyebrows on whether Tabárez should have left the team (and, given his age, retired altogether from managing) after his team's disappointing elimination in the 1/4 round of the past World Cup.

EDIT: Oops, there were far more goals in the last match than I thought! XD

Edited by MyFinalEdits on Oct 17th 2018 at 10:46:21 AM

Yaay...

Colón 1 - 0 River Plate

The historical streak of unbeaten bonanza came to an end for Gallardo's men. And in the least desired moment as the match against Gremio in Libertadores looms in the horizon.

Real Madrid 1 - 2 Levante

Madrid's streak without scoring a goal clocked at 8 hours and 1 minute, very shortly before the worst streak in history. Now they have to get rid of the streak without victories.

Though for that we'll have to wait until Lolpetegui finally gets sacked.

So, given that the Spanish Derby is this weekend, and Messi is injured and Cristiano is in Italy, how do you think the match'll go?