Part of the reason attendances at the Bernabéu are down this season is simple: Real Madrid are not very goodSanti Solari was right, but he got it so very wrong. First they attacked him for what he said, then they attacked him for what he did. Others, meanwhile, just gave up and walked away, leaving him standing where Real Madrid managers so often stand: alone. On Saturday, two days after his team had been held 2-2 at Villarreal on their return from the winter break and winning the Club World Cup, the hounds released, Solari insisted that draws shouldn’t be “underestimated”; as if to prove the point, a prisoner of his words, the next day they were beaten 2-0 by...
In the past 10 years, any Premier League attacker who can maintain an A-list run has become a target of La Liga super clubs – but it would be a terrible idea for the Liverpool strikerIs English football in danger of losing Mohamed Salah to Real Madrid or Barcelona because he is now simply too good to stay?Mido certainly thinks so. Yes: that Mido. The same Mido who once issued a formal apology to Middlesbrough fans for being too fat. The same Mido who is, it turns out, a very good pundit these days and who raised a doubly interesting point this week about Salah’s trajectory in this, his second season of outright Premier League supremacy. Related: 11.7mm from glory:...
Signing for Juventus was among the personal highlights but racism against Kalidou Koulibaly was a sad way to end the yearThe turn of the year left behind 12 months to remember personally on and off the field but also from a wider perspective in football.On the pitch if I could summarise 2018 in one word it would be progress. Progress for the England men’s team who, perhaps unexpectedly, reached the semi-finals of the World Cup. They continued that momentum by qualifying for the Nations League finals beating top nations such as Spain with the exciting, fearless brand of football we have all been craving to see from England. I was fortunate to be at many of England’s games in Russia...
There was support, if not united, for Kalidou Koulibaly in Naples, while VAR issues clouded the final games of the yearKalidou Koulibaly was suspended for Napoli’s final game of 2018. He will miss the first league fixture of next year, too. He had been one yellow card away from a ban before picking up two in the Boxing Day defeat to Inter. Serie A’s sporting judge was not minded to show leniency towards a player who lost his cool after being racially abused.Still, Koulibaly did not want to miss Saturday’s game at home to Bologna. He took up a seat in the stands at the Stadio San Paolo, and was greeted by the sight of his own face: over and...
A fan was killed before the Inter v Napoli match while Kalidou Koulibaly faced alleged racist abuse from the stands during itIt should have been an occasion to celebrate. For the first time since 1971, a round of Serie A fixtures was being played on 26 December – St Stephen’s Day, to most Italians, though the sporting press seemed eager to embrace the English lexicon of “Boxing Day football”. More than a quarter of a million fans attended games up and down the country, and many were treated to entertaining fare.In Bergamo, Atalanta became only the second team this season to take points off Juventus. Despite falling behind in the second minute, they roared back to lead 2-1 and appeared...