Max Rushden and co on the upsets at Palace and Watford, Ronald Koeman’s embarrassment of riches, Andy Carroll’s thinking and naked NorwegiansRate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.Max Rushden is joined by returning Irishman Barry Glendenning, fake Irishman Lars Sivertsen and the returning Englishman Dominic Fifield to review all of the weekend’s big action. Continue reading...
This was the match of the season so far in the Bundesliga, hands down, as RB Leipzig ended Dortmund’s incredible unbeaten run at Signal Iduna ParkIt was clear, from the way Ralph Hasenhüttl jumped on the pitch at full-time, bouncing with his fists pumping and the full complement of equally jubilant backroom staff in tow, that this meant something – that this meant everything. In winning at Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig had done more than beaten the leaders, and more than further opened up what threatens (at least for now) to be a title race.It meant more, even, than ending BVB’s incredible unbeaten Bundesliga run at Signal Iduna Park, incorporating 41 matches – under Jürgen Klopp, to Bayern Munich, in...
It’s hard to know where to start with Real Betis 3-6 Valencia, the game that was always likely to be fun but proved to be even more fantastic“I’m too old for this,” Marcelino said and he’s only 52. Three weeks ago the Valencia coach, who once got cramp in a press conference, pulled a muscle celebrating a dramatic late winner at Anoeta. That night it was his hamstring that hurt; on Sunday night it was his heart. His head too. His and everyone else’s. While he might be an excitable bundle of energy, dashing and leaping and pointing his way along the touchline, he wasn’t alone: it wasn’t just his brain spinning or his sternum about to burst. Down at...
It was ‘Everyone Against Everyone’, as Gazzetta had billed it, but after a Juve shock and Mauro Icardi’s decisive hat-trick, Napoli remained out in frontSooner or later, the wheels had to come off. Napoli set an impossible pace through the first seven games of this Serie A season: taking maximum points while scoring at least three against every opponent.That came to an end on Saturday, as they ran into a Roma side who had conceded only four in total: second-fewest in the division. A team who finished runners-up to Juventus last season, and whose manager, Eusebio Di Francesco, riffed during his pre-game press conference on the old American sporting maxim that defence wins championships. Related: Last-minute penalty by Internazionale’s Mauro...
Ravel Morrison’s fine strike for the Mexican side Atlas and the news that Mario Balotelli has rediscovered his goalscoring touch at Nice will have us wondering, yet again, if these great talents can come into sharp and sustained focusThirty yards from goal, the player controls the short square pass on the half-turn before moving smoothly forward. Two light touches, a stepover, two more touches to veer away from a second defender, then a left-footed shot from a yard outside the edge of the penalty area, carefully measured inside the left‑hand post.“MORRI-SON! MORRI-SON! MORRI‑SON! MORRI‑SON!” The Mexican TV commentator is going crazy. It is only a friendly during the international break but he thinks he has seen the future. Related: Juan...