The questioning of Lucien Favre is only intensifying after a 0-0 draw for BVB against their local rivalsThe cliche about draws between rivals keeping the peace may be habitually overcooked – the mere sight of a blue Schalke jersey at Dortmund Hauptbahnhof after Saturday’s game caused some consternation, according to local media – but a similar view over the context of the stalemate might occasionally be reached, as was the case here. “After the turf derby between FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund,” wrote Der Westen’s Daniel Sobolewski, “fans from both camps were in agreement. The 0-0 was a lucky one for BVB, and was not enough for S04.”Both sets of supporters, then, ended the afternoon with empty stomachs, but...
This wasn’t supposed to happen. But Granada are only the third promoted team to ever be top of La Liga as late as thisThe first clásico weekend has a habit of shaping the season, a glimpse of the way things are and the way they’re going to be, pieces starting to fall into place. Take last year, when Barcelona beat Madrid 5-1 at the Camp Nou in Week 10, got Julen Lopetegui the sack and won the league. Or the year before when they got a 3-0 victory at the Bernabéu in Week 17 and won the league; the year before that when Madrid got an 90th-minute Sergio Ramos equaliser that felt like a winner in Week 14, held on...
Inspired substitutions gave Thiago Motta a dream start in the dugout while Atalanta enjoyed a 10-goal swing from midweekStudies tell us school bullies have often been victims of bullying themselves. Watching Atalanta humiliate Udinese on Sunday afternoon, it was tempting to wonder whether something similar might apply to football teams.Beaten 5-1 by Manchester City in midweek, the Bergamo club returned home to thrash their next opponent 7-1. They even allowed Udinese the illusory joy of scoring the first goal, just as they had experienced at the Etihad.⚽ It's a second for Luis Muriel, and Atalanta are running riot against Udinese!4⃣-1⃣ to Gasperini's men pic.twitter.com/mnEE9k1VYV Related: Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 top scorers 2019-20 Atalanta 7-1...
The most promising of England’s teenage footballers is Dortmund’s next dividend but the money game needs to be played right and there have been some problems“Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising.” Good news, then, for Jadon Sancho, who seems at every step of his footballing life to have skipped the age of promise and gone straight on to the role of luminous, fully realised talent.The kind of promise Cyril Connolly’s famous dictum had in mind was fragile literary talent, specifically his own crushing failure, despite having, like, done really well at Eton, to write a literary classic … a failure Connolly later turned to success, with a very English sense of charm-laden irony, by writing about...
Imanol Alguacil’s team are rocketing this season with a style of football that is delighting their fans and playersThere was one loud explosion and then six more followed. Across the city they knew that could mean only one thing: Real Sociedad had won again. A tradition from la Real’s old Atoxa ground, momentarily lost after they left in 1993 but recovered at Anoeta in 2009, a single firework is set off every time the visitors score and two are lit when la Real do. That way, the theory goes, in the boats on the Bay of Biscay they always knew how their team were getting on. And although moving to a ground on the other end of town means news...