From a Vinicius red card to a Madrid comeback, to Barcelona drama about registration and Manchester united staging a strong display at Anfield and a father beating his son (Figuratively), buckle your seats and grab your popcorn because it’s about to be an intriguing show.
THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND
1. REAL MADRID DRAMA AT MESTELLA
Jude Bellingham was the name on every Madridsta’s lips on Friday after he scored one and assisted another against Valencia despite missing a penalty himself. The game started a bit rocky, with Valencia taking the lead 27 minutes into the first half of the game.
Madrid had the opportunity to equalize early in the second half, but Jude would throw away a spot kick, Vinicius was also shown a straight red card 11 minutes from time for slapping Valencia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.
When it looked like all hope would be lost, Modric was brought on and with a good combination with Jude Bellingham, he was able to score the equalizer before Jude himself would score the winning goal in the 95th minute.
2. BARCELONA DRAMA AT ITS PEAK
Ever gotten rejected by a girl so many times and you just feel stupid about it all, well that might be the case for FC Barcelona and their fans as they have now been rejected by the commercial court, court of first instance, La Liga and the RFEF all in their attempts to register Dani Olmo and Pau Victor. They now have only two options left and that is the Supreme council for sports and “The Court”.
Well at least they can take solace in the fact that they won their first game of the year despite Yamal not being present.
3. MOHAMED SALAH INEVITABLE
When Thanos said, “I am inevitable”, that was actually Salah to Manchester United as he now has 19 G/A against the red devils his most goal involvement against any club in the premier league.
He is now tied with Thierry Henry for most Premier league goals at 175. He is now the only player with the most goal involvements against Manchester United.
4. LISANDRO BREAKS GENERATIONAL CURSE
Anfield has a habit of shutting out Manchester United goals as the last goal scored for Manchester United against Liverpool at Anfield was from Jesse Lingard (yup that guy you see making Korean ads and playing in K-League).
Lingard’s goal came back in 2018 where Manchester suffered a 3-1 defeat away from home.But never fear Lisandro is here, the CB drove is way forward before leaving it to Bruno who played a beautiful inside pass back to the defender before he blasted it past Becker.
5. IS MANCHESTER CITY BACK?
They say lightning doesn’t strike twice, but after a draw to Everton, Manchester City have won their last two games, first against Leicester and also against West Ham.
Erling Haaland and Savinho have both turned up in back to back games with Savinho having one goal and three assist, while Haaland has three goals all in the past two games.
And with the winter transfer window opening we might see some new addition to the squad that will hopefully relieve Pep of his worries.
6. YOU WILL NEVER BEAT ME, I’M YOUR FATHER
Juventus and AC Milan clashed on Friday in hopes of getting a slot to the finals of the Italian super cup, even though it was a clash between two Italian heavy weights, the atmosphere was eve more tense as father and son would face each other in the tournament.
AC Milan haven just fired their head coach Foncesca decided to hire Sergio Conceicao as their new head coach, coincidentally his son Chico Conceicao plays for Juventus and so to some it was a battle between father and son, in the end the father would prevail even though Chico his son didn’t get any minutes against him (maybe things would have been different).
7. MANCHESTER UNITED BRILLIANT FOOTBALL
“There is always light at the end of the tunnel”, for United it came in form of Lisandro and Amad while it came for Liverpool in form of De Ligt (I need to stop these dry jokes), after an uninteresting first half, both teams would come back to the pitch and deliver a blockbuster.
Lisandro Martinez would draw first blood after receiving a lovely inside pass from Bruno before blasting it past Alisson, barely eight minutes later and Mac Allister would play Gakpo in before he CTRL D (De Ligt) and paste it past Onana.
About eleven minutes later Liverpool would get a penalty after a De Ligt handball in the box, Onana guessed right but Salah was not going to lose a goal against his favourite opponent, and he slotted that one in.
Garnacho would be brought on two minutes later to replace Mainoo and eight minutes later he would play in a low cross that would find its way to Amad who buried the equalizer.
Although Harry Maguire would miss a sitter at the dying minutes of the game, United were able to hold their own against the dominant force that is Liverpool.
Oyekangun Segun Emmanuel
