We had another weekend packed with football all over the world, so now it is time to wrap up all that action. As ever, we will do that by picking out six of the weekend’s biggest matches and results from six different competitions for our weekly column.
By Neel Shelat
🇮🇹 Italy: Inter 1-0 Milan
The two big Milan clubs were on opposing trajectories when they faced off in the Derby della Madonnina on Sunday night. Inter have been revitalised since the World Cup break as they became the only side to beat runaway leaders Napoli in the league this season and went on to win all but two of their subsequent matches, including the Supercoppa.
Milan were the side who lost that match, as well as their two league games after it. In fact, they were on a six-match winless run heading into this fixture, prior to which they had dropped points to Lecce and Roma in the league and been knocked out of the cup by Torino.
Stefano Pioli decided to match the opponents by switching to a 3-5-2 formation in a bid to help his defence keep their first clean sheet since the restart. They did look a little more assured defensively (certainly better than last week when they shipped five against Sassuolo), but the lack of Rafael Leão meant that their attack was very blunt.
While they did not concede from open play, Milan did not manage to keep that clean sheet as Lautaro Martínez headed home from a corner just after the half-hour mark. That is all Inter needed to complete a pretty comfortable victory.
With that result, Milan have slumped to sixth place in the Serie A standings but will likely not drop any deeper as Torino are eight points behind. Inter, meanwhile, stay second but remain 13 points behind champions-elect Napoli.
🏴 England: Everton 1-0 Arsenal
Everton fans are probably enduring the worst season of their life supporting the club. There are major boardroom-level problems at the club which have been built upon years of mismanagement, and they are finally having an impact on the on-pitch performances too. Going into this weekend, the Toffees found themselves second from bottom and therefore in real danger of suffering their first relegation since 1951.
Their last few performances made it quite clear that a change of manager was needed, and that finally came after the loss to West Ham. Frank Lampard was made to pack his bags, while Sean Dyche was hired to take his place and steady the ship. His first task in charge came against league leaders Arsenal, who had only dropped points three times in the league.
The Gunners were coming into this game on the back of a loss to Manchester City in the FA Cup last weekend, but they were in fine form in the league having won four of their five games since the World Cup. Their attack seemed capable of blowing any side away on their day, and it would have certainly struck fear into a relegation-threatened defence.
However, Dyche had a plan to contain them. Everton defended very well starting with a 4-4-2 high block which collapsed into a 4-5-1 deeper, and there were clear imprints of Sean Dyche’s work as every player gave their all. Crucially, though, they also posed a significant threat on the counter and looked good from set-pieces, scoring the only goal of the game from a corner at the hour mark.
Even though they kept well under a third of possession, this was an entirely deserved win for Everton as they created by far the better chances and defended their box like their lives depended on it. With just their fourth win of the league season, they have moved up to 18th place and now are just a point from safety.
🇪🇸 Spain: Elche 3-1 Villarreal
Before this weekend, there were just two clubs in the big five European leagues that had failed to register a league win this season. One of them were Coppa Italia semi-finalists Cremonese, and the other were Elche.
The Italian side have extended their unwanted record, but the Spaniards have finally broken their duck. They have not taken a scalp of weak opposition either, as they beat top-four contenders Villarreal on Saturday. Pere Milla was the star of the show, as he doubled his league goals tally for the season with a hat-trick.
His early opener at the end of a cutback was cancelled out by Gerard Moreno, but the 30-year-old Spaniard put his side in a commanding position with two strikes from the penalty spot on either side of half-time. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury soon thereafter and had to come off on a stretcher, but his teammates saw out the win.
In spite of this victory, Elche’s situation in the relegation picture remains dire. Even if you doubled their current points tally, they would remain last in the table. It will take a real miracle if they are to stay up from this point.
🇩🇪 Germany: Bochum 5-2 Hoffenheim
The Bundesliga title race is seemingly heating up, but we will not be getting our hopes up too much for fear of having them dashed by Bayern putting a 10-match winning run together. So, for this week, let us turn our attention to the bottom of the table.
Hoffenheim’s visit to Bochum might be described as a bit of a relegation six-pointer, which is quite surprising given how well their season started. After winning four of their first six league matches, André Breitenreiter’s side have gone on to come away with all three points on just one subsequent occasion.
That has seen them slip from the top four to the fringes of the drop zone. Their opponents this weekend were relegation-battlers Bochum, who started the match in the relegation play-off spot. The hosts raced to a three-goal lead by half-time and both sides only exchanged a couple of goals in the second period, so Bochum kept all the points.
Thanks to that, they have climbed out of the relegation zone and are only behind Hoffenheim on goal difference now.
Having lost four of their five matches after the restart, Hoffenheim have decided to act to change their terrible form. As of Monday morning, Breitenreiter has officially been relieved of his duties as head coach and rumours of who his successor might be are already doing the rounds.
🏆 CAF African Nations Championship: Algeria 0-0 Senegal (4-5 pens)
The African Nations Championship – loosely defined as a tournament for international teams composed of domestic based talent, has been the continent’s biggest ongoing sporting event since mid-January, and it finally drew to a close this week. After Madagascar got the better of Niger in the third-place play-off on Friday, all eyes turned to the big one on Saturday.
Hosts Algeria made it to the final after a spotless campaign that saw them top their group with three 1-0 wins before putting five past Niger in the semi-final. Senegal made things a little harder for themselves by losing the opener, but got through as group winners in the end and edged Madagascar out in their semi-final.
Based on that as well as the fact that the vast majority of the fans at the 40,000-seater Stade Nelson Mandela were supporting Algeria, it was clear who the favourites for this game were. However, Senegal did very well to impose their game plan so both sides were restricted to very few presentable chances.
After a goalless 90 minutes, Algeria seemed to get slightly more threatening in extra time but failed to show that on the scoresheet, so the match went to penalties. Senegal were first to falter with their third attempted, but Algeria missed their last two (including a disastrous hop technique attempt that rolled to the keeper’s arms) to throw away the title.
So, it was Senegal who celebrated their first-ever CHAN victory, while Algeria have fallen short on penalties in the knockouts again in their second attempt.
🇦🇹 Austria: Salzburg 1-1 Sturm Graz (4-5 pens)
After a fairly long winter break, Austrian football was back with the quarter-finals of the cup. There were a couple of matches on Friday night, including a visit to league-leaders RB Salzburg for second-placed Sturm Graz.
The gap between them in the league table is six points, so Sturm will need to do something quite special to end Salzburg’s nine-season stronghold on the league title. In the cup, though, all it takes is one night to end a campaign, and that is what the visitors set out to do.
Their plan got off to a good start as Jusuf Gazibegović gave them a first-half lead on the back of an impressive performance. Salzburg grew more threatening in the second period, and after having an equaliser ruled out by VAR, they got one that stuck in the 77th minute. There were no more goals in normal time or extra time, so we went to penalties.
Manprit Sarkaria had the very first attempt of the shoot-out saved, but his teammates remained faultless thereafter. Maurits Kjærgaard failed to convert Salzburg’s fourth effort, so it was do or die thereafter. Nicolas Capaldo was the first to falter after Sturm Graz scored twice, so the defending champions went out of the cup.
For just the second time in the last decade, a side other than Salzburg will lift the Austrian cup. Sturm Graz were the ones who broke their streak in 2018, but Rapid Wien, Ried and LASK will be looking to prevent them from repeating the trick.
Cover Image from IMAGO