Another slip in the Serie A title race, another game in which the adventure of Inter’s opposition caused real problemsAmbition. The word ran through the pre-game press conferences of Paulo Fonseca and Antonio Conte like mozzarella in Roman supplì: the mouth-watering core ingredient that elevates all the rest. Both managers wanted their audiences to know that this was a weekend that mattered, an occasion for which the recipe had to be just right.Fonseca’s Roma were seeking validation for their rise to third in the table. They won only a single game against Serie A’s top four last season, his first at the club, and that against a Juventus side who had already sewn up the title. The Giallorossi were yet...
Gaizka Garitano was dismissed despite victory over Elche, but if the timing was a surprise the board’s decision was notPretty much the last thing Gaizka Garitano did as coach of Athletic Club Bilbao was say how happy he was. When the final, final whistle went he embraced assistant Paxti Ferreira, put his arm around Yuri Berchiche and ducked out of the cold and pouring rain and into the tunnel at San Mamés beneath the bust of Pichichi. Iker Muniain’s 25th-minute strike and Óscar de Marcos’s last-minute goal-line clearance had been enough to equal their best winning run – one – defeat Elche, and overcome another ultimatum. Or so they thought. Inside in the dry, the manager was asked how big...
The final round of 2020 had a 1-0 win for the leaders, Iago Aspas tearing opponents apart and Barça underwhelming“We’ve had spectacular 2020,” said Koke Resurrección, which might not have fit the public mood exactly but maybe that was because there was still no public at all. There hadn’t been since the time they went to Liverpool nine months earlier, a night so good that Marcos Llorente got a puppy and called it Anfield. Since then, there had been silence. The very next afternoon, the doors closed, staying that way for 93 days. And although they reopened for the players, sent into a strange, sterile new world, they didn’t for the people, some of whom would never come back. Some...
Coaches whose ideas were considered almost extinct have re-emerged as teams battle fatigue and a lack of training timeFor football, this was the year evolution went backwards. It began with further victories for the high press, with Hansi Flick’s Bayern Munich surging to the Champions League and the Bundesliga, and Jürgen Klopp’s side giving Liverpool their first league title in 30 years, but it ended with a widespread reversion to a more cautious style.A dozen years ago, Pep Guardiola led the rise of press-and-possess football; recently, the pressing element has come to be prioritised – and then Covid-19 arrived. There are those who will dismissively point out we had pressing in the 80s. And we did – we’ve had it...
A blossoming relationship with the skilful young Pedri seems to have renewed the Barcelona forward’s thirst for the gameThe first goal Lionel Messi ever scored for Barcelona was taken off him, so he did it again two minutes later, and kept on doing it for over a decade. It was May 2005 and the 89th minute of the 34th week when Ronaldinho scooped a lovely pass and the 17-year-old wearing No 30 lifted it softly into the net. Related: Lionel Messi says ill feeling from failed Barcelona exit carried into this season Lionel Messi makes HISTORY! Goal No. 644 sees him overtake Pele "Nobody in the history of this wonderful game has ever scored as many goals for the same...