Most major football leagues around the world have paused as the FIFA Men’s World Cup kicked off this Sunday evening, but you would be mistaken to think that there is not enough action to keep our weekly column running. As you will find, there was lots of noteworthy games in Europe this weekend, including some big results at the top of the Women’s Super League table in England and in the ever-resilient Ukrainian Premier League.
By Neel Shelat
🏆 World Cup: Qatar 0-2 Ecuador
As ever, the World Cup kicked off with a match involving the hosts, as Qatar made their competition debut against Ecuador.
They were in for a tough ride right from kick-off, as Ecuador put the ball in the back of the net after less than 200 seconds through Enner Valencia. VAR ruled the goal out for offside, but Valencia was not going to be kept down, as he won and converted a penalty in the 16th minute, before scoring a second with a powerful and well-placed header in the 31st.
Taking a two-goal lead into the half-time break, Ecuador really eased off the gas in the second half and focused on controlling the game, which became quite a drab affair. In fact, there have not been fewer shots at any World Cup match since this data collection began in 1966.
Ecuador will not mind that stat, though, because this victory sets them on the right path in their bid to reach the knockouts. They will face much tougher tests against Senegal and the Netherlands, but if they manage to pick something up from either of those games, they will have a decent shot at making the Round of 16.
🏴 England: Arsenal 2-3 Manchester United
Women’s football will, of course, not be stopping for the FIFA Men’s World Cup, so there will be top-flight action across the major European leagues every weekend alongside Champions League action in midweek. The headline act this weekend was in England, where the buoyant Manchester United paid a visit to league-leaders Arsenal.
Stretching back to last season, Arsenal were on a WSL record 14-match winning streak, which they intended to extend at the Emirates Stadium. Their first half showing was not great, though, and Manchester United took what they would have felt was a deserved lead into the break after Ella Toone’s strike in the 39th minute.
The scores were level in no time in the second period after Frida Maanum’s deflected effort beat Mary Earps, and Arsenal looked much more dangerous thereafter. And they looked on course to continue their run of victories when Laura Wienrother applied a very controlled finish to Katie McCabe’s pinpoint cross, but they were in for a big surprise.
With five minutes left to play, Millie Turner headed in a set-piece delivery from Katie Zelem to equalise for Manchester United and endanger Arsenal’s record once again. In stoppage time, another ball in from Zelem found its way into the back of the net via Alessia Russo, giving Manchester United their first-ever away win at one of the WSL big three.
This late goal also ensured that the WSL remained draw-less after 39 games this season, which is quite a crazy statistic. For context, if we assume that the probability of a draw in an average football game is 25.21% (based on FiveThirtyEight’s research), the odds of this happening are 0.001201981%. In case it isn’t obvious, that is very very unlikely.
Unsurprisingly, that record ended later in the weekend with the dramatic match between Brighton and Liverpool. Elsewhere, Chelsea’s commanding win over Tottenham Hotspur took them three points clear at the top of the table, although they have played one more than Arsenal and Manchester United.
🇺🇦 Ukraine: Dnipro-1 2-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
The Ukrainian Premier League is one of the few European top-flight leagues that is not pausing for the FIFA World Cup. On Saturday, we were treated to arguably the biggest game of the season so far, at least in the context of the title race.
The top two, who were the only two teams in the league who were yet to taste defeat this season, squared off in Rivne. Going into the game, Dnipro-1 had a five-point lead over Shakhtar, who finished the 2021/22 season on the top of the table but were not awarded the title since the campaign was suspended after the Russian invasion.
Dnipro-1 had a very good first half of the season then which meant they ended up third behind Shakhtar and Dynamo Kyiv, qualifying for European football in the process. This was the first time in their short five-year history, as the club was effectively formed as a successor to FC Dnipro, although that is not the case officially.
Between the seasons, Dnipro-1’s head coach Igor Jovićević then departed for Shakhtar, so he was facing his former club this weekend. His side got off to the better start and opened the scoring in the 17th minute through young sensation Mykhaylo Mudryk. Dnipro-1 equalised soon thereafter, though, and went on to win the game thanks to a second half strike from Artem Dovbyk, who was the top scorer in the Ukrainian Premier League last season and is leading the way once again.
That means Dnipro-1 now have an eight-point lead at the top of the table as their title challenge has certainly been legitimised now, and they will be leading the way into the new year no matter what happens between now and the winter break.
🇪🇸 Spain: Athletic Club 1-3 Real Sociedad
Over in Spain, there was a Basque derby in Liga F at San Mamés, where Athletic Club hosted Real Sociedad.
Both sides were in the mid-table positions going into the match, ninth and seventh respectively with three points between them. That gap could have swung either way but within the first few minutes, the visitors looked much likelier to come away with all three points.
Amaiur Serriegi opened the scoring in the sixth minute, but Jone Amezaga equalised for the home side within the next 10 minutes. So, Gabriela García proved to be the match-winner for Real Sociedad with her fourth and fifth league goals of the season that helped her side coast to a deserved victory in the second half.
In a broader context, this result arguably cements the powershift in Basque women’s football. Athletic Club were among the Spanish giants in the 00s and were winning top-flight league titles before Real Sociedad Femenino were even formed, but they have failed to finish in the top five and ended up below Real Sociedad in the table in each of the last two seasons. And on this evidence, that looks set to continue in 2022/23.
🇳🇴 Norway: Kongsvinger 2-1 Sandefjord (2-5 Agg.)
The promotion-relegation play-off for Eliteserien was held this week in Norway, as Sandefjord were tasked with defending their top-flight status against Kongsvinger.
The two sides’ histories are quite contrasting. Sandefjord were only formed 24 years ago after a merger between two clubs, so with that in mind, they have to be considered a fairly successful club for completing 10 seasons in the highest division of Norwegian football.
Kongsvinger are over a century older than Sandefjord but have not been enjoying the best of times of late. They were top-flight regulars towards the end of the 20th century and even played European football on a couple of occasions, but since the turn of the millennium, they have only spent one season in the highest division.
Since then, they have even dropped down to the third tier fairly often, which is where they were last season. Having finished first and won promotion, their initial target would have been to stay up. The first half of 2022 suggested that they would have to fight to ensure that, but they brought up nine of their 13 league wins of the season from the 31st of July onwards to sneak into the last promotion play-off spot in sixth.
Sandefjord’s route to the play-offs was also quite dramatic, but in the opposite manner to Kongsvinger. After a good opening to the season, they failed to win any of their last 15 league games and only picked up three points through draws. They were in serious danger of falling to direct relegation on the final matchday when they were losing to Haugesund by a two-goal margin, but two goals in the last two minutes gave them another shot at safety.
They certainly made the most of that chance with a 4-0 home win in the first leg, which effectively did the job. Kongsvinger did complete a comeback to win the second leg, but that result counts for little more than consolation for them.
🇵🇱 Poland: Lechia Gdańsk 2-1 Górnik Zabrze
The Polish Ekstraklasa is not among the leagues that will be continuing through the World Cup, but they did play one final match before the winter break on Friday.
That game was a rescheduled fixture from the second round between Lechia Gdańsk and Górnik Zabrze, who were in 12th place and six points above their hosts. Lechia started the match in the relegation zone, which was a very disappointing position for a side that was playing Europa Conference League qualifiers just a few months ago.
A goal conceded in first half stoppage time meant that they were on course to stay there heading into the new year, but a late comeback on a snow-covered pitch changed that. Mario Maloca equalised in the 84th minute after a corner, and deep into stoppage time, a similar situation resulted in Łukasz Zwoliński grabbing the winning goal.
That takes Lechia up to 14th and out of the drop zone as the Ekstraklasa breaks for the winter, but they still have work to do in the battle against relegation in 2023.
Cover Image from IMAGO