We have historic events in this week’s edition of Euro Football Rundown. Bayern Munich continues to extend lead; while Falcao does not stop scoring goals; Conte emerges from the darkness; Inter is the acclaimed ‘anti-Juve’ but so is the rest of the Serie A; Man U defeats Man City; and El Pibe breaks the calendar goal scoring record.
6) Bayern Munich running away with Bundesliga
It’s almost pointless to watch the Bundesliga these days and is becoming pretty predictable at the top. Jupp Heynckes’ Bayern Munich continue to dominate the German League with a 2-0 result at the weekend over FC Augsburg. Thomas Muller opened the scoring at the 39th minute with a penalty. Thirty minutes later, it was lights out for the home side when Mario Gomez added another to league leaders’ tally. Bayern continue to lead the league with 41 points. Following ‘closely’ behind the German giants (sarcastically speaking) are now Bayer Leverkusen with 30 points who were defeated 3-2 by Hannover 96 while Borussia Dortmund fell to third with a loss as well against VL Wolfsburg also 3-2. Not a very good day for those teams trying to catch up. This is unbelievable. Can you believe this because I certainly cannot. There is already an 11-point gap opened at the top of the table. At this rate, Schweiny and friends will claim the title in March. Simply unreal!
Why is this happening? Simple! The other teams in the Bundesliga are overpowered by Bayern Munich in terms of quantity and quality. Their involvement in the Champions League will not hinder their path to the title either this season. Bayern is simply too strong and boast a well-balanced side.
5) Impressive ‘El Tigre’ smashes five past Deportivo
Where would Atletico Madrid be without this goal scoring machine! Nowhere near the top of La Liga is the correct answer. Sunday, the Colombian did what he does best and that is score goals. El Tigre went on a rampage in this fixture and scored five goals against Deportivo La Coruna! He is now in second place in the goalscorers’ standings with 16 goals to his name, seven shy to none other than Lionel Messi. But when you think about it, Messi has many players who help him such as Iniesta, Xavi and Cesc just to name a few. These high calibre players are certainly missing from Atletico Madrid’s roster, but of course they must have high enough quality players to be able to fight week in and week out to stay near Barcelona. Falcao and teammates are currently in second place with 37 points.
4) Innocent Conte returns to the sidelines
The leader, the coach, the man is back on the sidelines, screaming at his men to give it their all and it would be wise to listen otherwise … you’re toast. Antonio Conte is back at the helm on match day for Juventus after a four-month ban for not reporting a match-fix for which the Bari-native always consistently claimed his innocence.
His first match took place against Palermo on Sunday with a 1-0 victory for the Old Lady over the Rosanero. The goal came in the second half when Stephan Lichsteiner placed a low right-footed effort to the bottom left-corner after a wonderful back-heal flick from Mirko Vucinic. It was spectacular to see, but when is the Montenegrin going to score his next goal? He’s been goalless for 10 match days! It’s time to score again Mirko.
On another front, it was a beautiful, yet hard fought, performance from the Bianconeri in an ocean of water as the rain poured. The side looked solid, attacking and defending in numbers and creating numerous chances that were not taken. Palermo were able to muster up an opportunity or two but nothing that Buffon and his defensive comrades couldn’t handle. For Juventus to be successful this season, general director Giuseppe Marotta will need bring in a top notch striker in January. Rumour has it that the transfer chief is lining up a bid for Fernando Llorente or possibly low-cost swoop for Didier Drogba as the Ivorian would like to continue his training to stay in shape for the Africa Cup.
Juve continue to lead the Serie A with 38 points.
3) Inter, the anti-Juve, takes down a fighting Napoli
The Nerazzurri battled hard against the Napoli on Sunday to earn a 2-1 victory and the anti-Juve title for now with goals from Fredy Guarin and Diego Milito. Edinson Cavani brought the Azzurri within one.
It has been an inconsistent season for Inter thus far as this side at times fails to show up for duty against the smaller clubs. On the bright side, Andrea Stramaccioni and his men were able to notch up wins against the top seven sides of the Serie A namely Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and now Napoli, but were defeated against AS Roma and will take on Lazio next weekend. This is a pretty outstanding record considering the season this club had just last year.
Napoli played a great game as well and actually took control after Inter opened the scored in the 8th minute. Looking at the stats, Inter only shot twice on net to Napoli’s six, while the Azzurri had 63% possession compared to the Nerazzurri’s 37%.
Both sides are still in the running for top spot and will surely provide stiff competition for Juventus for the 2013 Serie A title.
Inter is currently in second with 34 points while Napoli lags behind by one. It is reported that Walter Mazzarri and Co. will also be deducted one point due to their involvement in the betting scandal that has recently rocked the world of Italian football.
2) RvP free-kick hands Red Devils victory in derby
It was a tipsy-topsy derby in Manchester on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City. The Citizens fell to a 3-2 defeat to the Red Devils. This just goes to show that sides that overspend do not necessarily win all the time. Actually, according to club expectations and to those of the faithful, Roberto Mancini and his men are having a terrible season especially after being eliminated from the Champions League finishing in dead last and not even qualifying for the Europa League, meaning the Citizens are out of Europe altogether! It’s quite funny how Roberto Di Matteo wins the Champions League last season for Chelsea and almost delivered second round CL qualification this season and was sacked, but Mancini whose side is out of Europe completely and is currently placed second sitting six points behind the league leaders with the plethora of money and talent at his disposal is still managing to maintain his position as head coach for this club.
Anyway back to the game. It was a fantastic performance by Sir Alex Ferguson’s men who got off to a great start with two goals by Wayne Rooney, the second being his 150th goal in the EPL. Man U should have been up by three as Ashley Young tucked an RvP rebound into the back of the net but it was incorrectly ruled offside.
This inevitably fired up the home side as the Citizens’ frontline marched down the other end. Manchester United goalkeeper produced brilliant saves to deny Tevez and David Silva before Yaya Toure stepped up and calmly slotted the ball home into the bottom corner. Man city back within one – 2-1.
The Red Devil’s defensive frailties reared its ugly head again when Zabaleta, who was left unmarked from a Tevez corner, smashed home the equalizer.
But Man U would have the last laugh on this night in injury time when Van Persie shot a spectacular curling free-kick into the net to end City’s 37-match unbeaten run at home.
This match was marred by ugliness as well when Rio Ferdinand received a coin to the eye that left him a bloody mess. A supporter then ran onto to the pitch and had to be restrained by Joe Hart before being carted away by stewards. Finally, Sir Alex Ferguson exchanged some words with former United player Carlos Tevez before the ref Martin Atkinson brought an end to this mayhem.
Manchester United lead the league with 39 points, followed by Manchester City with 33.
1) Lionel Messi officially snaps record with a double
Currently dubbed as the world’s best player, Lionel Messi is certainly living up to expectations. Sunday against Real Betis, he scored his 85th and 86th goal of the season in the opening 25 minutes to guide the Blaugrana to another victory which distances the Catalan side by six points from second place.
More importantly, the focus is on Lionel Messi here as he is man of the year 2012. The Argentine international snapped Gerd Muller’s 85 goal record in 1972, and the thing is…this calendar year is not over yet! The Blaugrana faithful were a little worried last week in CL action when El Pibe went down with injury to his knee and was stretchered off the pitch, but he was able to make his return to the lineup at the weekend.
During an interview, head coach Tito Vilanova claimed Messi is more than just scoring goals and for his ability to see a pass, but for the way he interprets the game in attack and defence is second best to none. He is a complete all-round player. This is very true as we have not seen a player of this calibre since Diego Maradona. In addition to this record and with the help of this accomplishment, he will most likely claim another deserved Ballon d’Or this year.
On behalf of myself and everyone at LastWordOnSports.com, we would like to congratulate Lionel for this stupendous feat! It will probably be another 40 years until comes close to beating Messi’s record, unless the phenom does it again himself next season. We’ll have to wait and see but until then, congrats Messi!
Top Photo credit: prettyfriendship via photopin cc
