More major men’s leagues returned this weekend to add to the already-abundant action and drama. We will be going over the best of that by highlighting six matches from six different leagues in this week’s edition of Last Weekend.
By Neel Shelat
🇮🇹 Italy: Juventus 3-3 Atalanta
The last 10 days have been really bad for Juventus. First, they got blown away by Napoli last Friday, and then this weekend, they were hit with a 15-point deduction for financial irregularities in their previous statements. That pulled them down from the Champions League spots to the brink of falling out of the top half..
They had a tough fixture this weekend too, as they came up against an Atalanta side that had scored 13 goals in their last two games. Their main man in form was Ademola Lookman, who needed just five minutes to open the scoring in this match and enter double digits in terms of Serie A goals.
Juventus fought back, though, as Ángel Di Maria pulled them level from the penalty spot, and then Arkadiusz Milik scored a wonderfully taken goal to give them a lead going into half-time. It was the visitors’ turn to counterpunch then, Joakim Mæhle equalised just seconds into the second period, and Lookman made it three braces in three matches for himself well before the hour-mark.
There would be no winner in this match after Juventus equalised again through Danilo with a nicely worked free-kick, so the spoils were shared in Turin. That leaves Atalanta within a couple of points of the Champions League places, while Juventus will now refocus to try and finish seventh, which will likely earn them a spot in the Conference League next season.
🇳🇱 Netherlands: Feyenoord 1-1 Ajax
De Klassieker is naturally always a big match in the Netherlands as it features two of the country’s oldest and most successful clubs in its biggest rivalry. This weekend, though, there was much more than bragging rights on the line.
Ajax have won the last three Eredivisie titles back-to-back, but that streak is under real threat as they found themselves five points behind league-leaders Feyenoord going into this fixture. There are other teams involved in the title race too, as AZ Alkmaar, PSV and FC Twente were all close to the defending champions in the table.
The match itself went as one would expect. The two teams were almost evenly matched as neither could impose themselves on the game, not that they took too many risks to try and do so either. The home team drew first blood in the 34th minute, as Igor Paixão scored just his second goal for the club from a fair way out.
Ajax seemed to have the upper hand thereafter as they pushed hard for an equaliser, but they could not create much from open play. They did eventually find the back of the net in the 71st minute when substitute Steven Bergwijn set Davy Klaassen up with a header into an open goal from very close proximity.
After that, both sides seemed content with a point, so the gap between them in the table has remained unchanged. However, Feyenoord’s lead has been cut down to two points after all the other title contenders won their respective matches – which also means Ajax have slipped down to fifth place.
🏴 England: Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea
We have mostly been covering proceedings at the top of the Premier League table since the World Cup break, so this week, let us look away from Arsenal’s dramatic 3-2 win over Manchester United and Erling Haaland’s hat-trick against Wolves, and focus instead on a mid-table clash.
Both Liverpool and Chelsea are sides that would usually be expected to be competing in the title race as well, but when they kicked off the day’s action on Saturday, they showed just why they are where they are. Neither team looked anywhere near their best as they played out a goalless draw at Anfield in what was the 50,000th men’s top-flight football match in England.
The closest we got to a goal came when Kai Havertz put the ball in the back of the net after a corner in the third minute, but VAR had a clear offside call to make. After that, while neither defence looked particularly secure, neither attack seemed on song either so there were a good few chances at both ends but no goals.
There were silver linings for both teams in the second half, mainly in the form of their substitutes. For Chelsea, big-money signing Mykhailo Mudryk looked absolutely electric on his Premier League debut and really livened the match up late on. For Jürgen Klopp’s side, Darwin Núñez was sharp on his return from injury, and will hopefully lead the line for them from the start going forward.
The table does not paint a pretty picture for either side, though, as they are both level on 29 points in 9th and 10th spot. They are 21 points behind Arsenal so the title race is completely out of question, but it will still take something special to make up the ten-point deficit to fourth-placed Newcastle United.
🇩🇪 Germany: Wolfsburg 6-0 Freiburg
The Bundesliga returned to action after its Winterpause this weekend. RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich kicked off the action with a 1-1 draw on Friday night, but there were some huge results and incredibly entertaining games in the next couple of days. Those include Köln’s 7-1 thrashing of Werder Bremen, Bochum’s 3-1 win over fellow relegation-battlers Hertha Berlin, Borussia Dortmund’s 4-3 win over Augsburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach’s 2-3 loss to Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg’s cricket score against Freiburg.
The visitors had actually enjoyed a great first half of the season which saw them end 2022 in second place, just four points behind Bayern. Wolfsburg, on the other hand, had a terrible start that left them winless in five, but they more than recovered by the end of the Hinründe as they went into this match with a nine-match unbeaten run and four straight wins in the league.
In this match, it was the hosts who got off to a flyer. Patrick Wimmer opened the scoring within 100 seconds, and he went on to set up Jonas Wind with a brilliant assist. Wind scored his second before half-time, and on the other side of the break, Yannick Gerhardt got in on the action. Late on, Ridle Baku and a stoppage-time penalty from Luca Waldschmidt made the scoreline a little ugly for Freiburg.
After the match, the Freiburg players and indeed head coach Christian Streich were at a loss for words when asked to describe what went wrong in this defeat, which has pulled them down to fourth place. They will be keen to forget this result quite quickly, but Wolfsburg will want to build on it and mount a charge for one of the Champions League spots, to which they currently have a four-point gap.
🇪🇸 Spain: Mallorca 1-0 Celta Vigo
While Chelsea are disappointed to be 10th in England, there is a club in Spain that is exceeding expectations by breaking into the top half almost half a season in.
That team is RCD Mallorca, whose latest promotion to La Liga was just two seasons ago, and they only stayed up by a point last time out. With that in mind, it is easy to understand why being closer in terms of points to the European spots than the bottom half is mightily impressive.
The mastermind behind their success is veteran Mexican head coach Javier Aguirre. He was brought in in March last year to rescue their season, which he successfully did, and is now taking things a step further.
The key turnaround he has made has been shoring up Mallorca’s defence. Last season, they let in 63 goals, the third-most in the division, but so far this term, they have let in less than a goal per game having conceded just 16 times. That is the joint fourth-best tally in La Liga, and it is backed up by equally impressive underlying numbers which are even better than the two capital clubs.
At the other end, Mallorca’s attack has not changed much as they have gone from scoring 0.9 to 0.8 goals per game, but they have been very efficient. On average, every goal they have scored has been worth about 1.66 points, which is the best conversion rate in the top five leagues this season.
Celta Vigo got a firsthand experience of this efficiency on Friday, as Dani Rodríguez scored the only goal of the game in the 59th minute to secure all three points for the home team. While they are enjoying a great start to the new year, Celta are in real trouble as they are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference having won just one of their last 11 league games.
🇪🇬 Egypt: Zamalek 0-3 Al Ahly
Our final match for this week takes us to Egypt, where two clubs that are not just the country’s, but all of Africa’s biggest and most successful, faced off in the Cairo derby for the 125th time in the league.
Zamalek have won the last two league titles but went into this match on the back foot as they were five points and two places away from their rivals. Their form wasn’t any good either, as they had failed to win their last four fixtures, a run which includes a semi-final elimination in the cup at the hands of Pyramids FC.
Their position has only worsened after this match, where they were beaten comprehensively. Zamalek did manage to keep the scores level till the hour-mark and equalled their opponents in terms of performance too, but after conceding first, they never looked like they would be able to come away with anything. Mahmoud Kahraba scored first for Al Ahly, and then a late brace from Mohamed Sherif sealed the result.
This win maintains Al Ahly’s four-point lead at the top of the table over top-flight newbies Future FC, while Zamalek drop down to fifth place.
Cover Image from IMAGO