Striker stuns San Mamés with remarkable penalty but a late collapse means the unthinkable looms for La Liga stalwartsIt was just a penalty, some might say, but it wasn’t. It was two, for a start. And two like that in a moment like this.Your club – and it is your club – is in the bottom three, the abyss opening: a first ever relegation, an end that feels like it really could be The End, changing everything for everyone. A club unlike any other, they’ve sacked their manager mid-season for the first time in over a decade, an interim board applying the clause that allows them to act only when “indispensable”, so bad have things become. The new man, Gaizka...
Inter have made a statement with suspending the Belgian but they should have been more diligent before paying €24m plus two quality players for his servicesRadja Nainggolan crashed his car on the day he came to Inter. A tyre burst on his Ferrari Lusso as he was making the drive north from Rome to Milan for pre-season training, causing him to veer into a motorway guardrail. The accident was not his fault and yet, looking back now, it does feel like an omen for everything that was to come. Related: Magical Marco Reus sends Dortmund racing clear to crown his golden 2018 Related: Andros Townsend, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and a one-step penalty – Football Weekly Chievo 1 Internazionale 1; Empoli...
Captain has come of age since returning from knee injury and proved his worth again with a vital winner against GladbachThe final goal scored in front of Borussia Dortmund’s “yellow wall” in 2018 was a vital and a fitting one. When Marco Reus slid in at the back post to knock in the winner against Borussia Mönchengladbach, it gave his team some valuable peace of mind at the end of a year that has finally given some to him.It all came together quite beautifully on Friday night. With the visitors occupying second place and having closed the gap at the top to six points with their midweek victory over Nürnberg and BVB’s loss at lowly Fortuna Düsseldorf, the pressure was...
Manchester United’s new caretaker manager transformed the style of play at Molde, one of his former players revealsI still remember the day Ole Gunnar Solskjær was presented as our manager for the first time in 2011. To be honest, you felt a bit shocked and it was a bit of a “wow moment”. Obviously, we knew him very well from his playing career and knew what he had done with Manchester United’s reserves.The way he worked on the training pitch was a bit of a shock, too. In most parts of Norway, they have sworn by the so-called “Drillo football”, stemming from the 1990s and the success Egil “Drillo” Olsen had with the Norwegian national team. That style of football...
The main issues arising after Bayern’s win over Leipzig were about possible incomings and outgoings, rather than the matchThe fare at the Allianz Arena was befitting the time of year, with the excitement around the occasion perhaps more gratifying than the content itself. “We’ve played much better this season and not won,” said Joshua Kimmich, “but in our situation, I would much rather take this.”A Bayern Munich midweek meeting with RB Leipzig almost has the feeling of a typical seasonal treat, with the lords of the manor and the upstarts meeting in this slot for the second time in three years – and as with that 3-0 win for the champions two years ago, this had its moments of raw...