We had a properly packed weekend of football, featuring matches of all sorts from all over the world. We will go over the pick of the bunch in this week’s edition of Last Weekend, including a cup final, a big city derby and a reminder of football’s place in wider society.
By Neel Shelat
🏴 England: Manchester United 2-0 Newcastle United
The Carabao Cup is very much the secondary cup competition in England, and therefore not always regarded in high value. This year, though, the final was set to be a huge match, mainly due to what winning a trophy would mean for either side.
In fact, just being there was a pretty big deal in itself for Newcastle United, who were participating in their first cup final since the turn of the century. Winning would have been even bigger, as it would have yielded their first major trophy since 1969. Of course, the chief catalyst behind their turnaround has to be the Saudi Arabia-led takeover.
Their opponents Manchester United have also enjoyed a positive upturn in fortunes this season, but they have not had a change of owners (not yet anyway). For them, the arrival of Erik ten Hag seems to have had as good an impact as anyone might have imagined, leading them to the brink of a title race in the league along with this League Cup final.
The Dutch manager has also revitalised the performances of a number of players in the United squad, which has obviously, in turn, helped the team get better as a whole. And a couple of them played a decisive role in this match.
Luke Shaw assisted the opener with a set-piece delivery for summer signing Casemiro, after which Marcus Rashford got his 25th goal of the season for Manchester United to put them 2-0 up going into half-time. That allowed them to ease off a little in the second half, where Newcastle’s failure to score meant that they could coast home to the victory.
So, Manchester United lifted their first trophy since the 2016/17 UEFA Europa League. Of course, their ambitions will be much loftier than a Carabao Cup title, but this is a concrete indicator of the progress they have made this season.
🏆 AFC Champions League: Al Duhail 0-7 Al Hilal
This one is going to take a bit of explaining, but the West Zone semi-final for the 2022 AFC Champions League was finally played this weekend.
The reason we are still playing last year’s edition of the tournament is that its schedule will change from a year-round (spring to autumn in the Northern hemisphere) format to an inter-year format (autumn to spring in the Northern hemisphere) from the subsequent season, which will be 2023/24. Mind you, this is only the latest schedule change – not to be confused with the format change that takes effect in 2024, which is a story for another day. Under the current format, the participating teams are split into the East and West Zones, with the only overlap coming in the final which features one team from each zone.
The long and the short of it is that while the East Zone knockouts were held quite a while back, the West Zone knockouts only started about a week ago. They were all one-legged ties played in Qatar, which boiled down to the semi-final between local outfit Al-Duhail and Saudi Arabian giants Al Hilal, who are one of a select few multiple-time winners of the competition and have featured in two of the last three finals.
Prior to these knockouts, Al Hilal were in Morocco as they participated in the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup earlier this year (time is a social construct after all!). They made a historic run to the final where they went down fighting against Real Madrid, but that might have caused some to wonder if they would be a little vulnerable in the Champions League due to tiredness.
Their wins against Shabab Al-Ahli of the UAE and Foolad Khuzestan of Iran were pretty comfortable but not exactly convincing by their standards, so Qatar Stars League leaders Al-Duhail would have been expected to put up a properly tough fight at the very least.
They got absolutely blitzed, though, finding themselves five down before half-time due to goals from ex-Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo, ex-Porto forward Moussa Marega and Saudi Arabia’s World Cup hero Salem Al-Dawsari. Ighalo went on to complete his hat-trick and score one more in the second half, capping off an absolute trouncing to continue Al Hilal’s title defence.
For now, Al Hilal must turn their focus back to domestic proceedings because the final is still a couple of months away. That will be a two-legged tie against Urawa Red Diamonds, whom they have faced in this exact position twice before.
🇪🇸 Spain: Real Madrid 1-1 Atlético Madrid
Real Madrid find themselves right in the thick of a very hectic fixture schedule packed with big games. They visited Anfield in midweek and came away with a resounding 5-2 win, before returning to Madrid for two back-to-back matches against domestic rivals.
The defending LaLiga leaders were eight points behind Barcelona, who they would be hosting on Thursday night. First up, though, they had to face near-neighbours Atlético on Saturday.
As these matches often tend to do, the game got off to a very cagey start. Neither side seemed willing to commit too many bodies forward, leading to a goalless half-time highlight reel, which had very few chances of note anyway. The game only really sprung to life in the 64th minute, when Ángel Correa was sent off for a supposed elbow to the chest of Antonio Rüdiger, who definitely made the most of the contact.
In spite of their numerical disadvantage, the visitors scored first with just over 10 minutes of normal time left, as José María Giménez headed in Antoine Griezmann’s set-piece delivery. Real Madrid subsequently fought back to come away with a point after young forward Álvaro Rodriguez scored his first goal for the club from a corner.
Ultimately, the draw didn’t do too much good for either side. Real Madrid missed the chance to close the gap to Barcelona in the title race, while Atlético missed the chance to leapfrog Real Sociedad and move up to third.
🇩🇪 Germany: Hoffenheim 0-1 Borussia Dortmund
This was a massive weekend in the Bundesliga’s title race due to the showdown between Bayern Munich and Union Berlin, which was rather disappointing for the neutrals. We have given a fair bit of coverage to both of those teams in the past, though, so let us cast a glance at the third side in the mix.
Borussia Dortmund had the chance to spend a night at the top of the table when they played on Saturday – a day prior to their title rivals’ clash. They were visiting Hoffenheim, who surprisingly found themselves in the midst of a relegation battle and had recently changed head coaches to bring in Pellegrino Matarazzo. The hosts went into this match on the back of a five-match losing streak, so a response was necessary.
They put up a fairly strong defensive performance, preventing Edin Terzić’s side from creating clear-cut chances from open play. From set-pieces, though, they looked far from secure and gave away a number of golden opportunities, which Dortmund frustratingly squandered. On the stroke of half-time, though, Marco Reus’ free-kick delivery bounced off the back of a ducking Julian Brandt but remained on course for the net, giving the visitors the lead.
As Bayern have dominated the Bundesliga in recent years, Dortmund have frustrated their own fans and neutrals alike with their tendency to crumble under pressure or give away cheap goals to throw away straightforward wins. This year, though, something seems to have changed. This was BVB’s ninth win in as many matches since returning to action after the winter break, which obviously is the best run of form in the country.
Tougher tests await the Schwarzgelbe as they will face Leipzig and Bayern in their next five fixtures, which also includes the second leg of their Champions League tie against Chelsea. However, they definitely seem to be serious contenders in this season’s title race, both on the basis of their points tally and their performances.
🇺🇸 MLS: Austin 2-3 St. Louis City
A new season began in MLS this weekend with a round of just 13 fixtures. The headline match, El Tráfico, was postponed due to unfavourable weather, but that allowed some of the other fixtures to steal the spotlight. Among those was the debut of expansion side St. Louis City.
Their life in MLS started on the road in Texas, where they faced Austin FC, who had made the playoffs last year before losing to eventual champions LAFC. They were certainly going to provide a tough test to the newcomers, so this was poised to be an intriguing match.
Indeed, things got off to a very interesting start as the visitors drew first blood 24 minutes in through Tim Parker, who headed Eduard Löwen’s ball into the back of the net. Bradley Carnell would have been preparing for a positive half-time team talk, but a stoppage-time equaliser from Sebastián Driussi might have changed it a bit.
The score stayed level 25 minutes into the second half, so we were in for an exciting finish. The hosts seemed on course for all three points when they took the lead in the 72nd minute, but there would be a late twist in the tale. Jared Stroud equalised in the 78th minute after a terrible defensive giveaway, before an 86th-minute winner from João Klauss ensured that St. Louis City got off to a winning start.
🇹🇷 Türkiye: Fenerbahçe 4-0 Konyaspor
About two and a half weeks after two devastating earthquakes hit the southern region of the country, domestic football returned to Türkiye.
Naturally at such a time of widespread destruction and grief, the sport had very much taken a backseat in the country as there were many more serious matters to be concerned with. At the same time, though, we could see the power of football to have an impact on wider society when various clubs and fan groups aided the rescue efforts by doing things like setting up fundraisers.
Of course, football and those connected to it were among the things affected by the earthquakes. Süper Lig sides Gaziantep and Hatayspor have withdrawn from the season due to the damage caused by the disaster, which tragically include lost lives.
As with all things in life, though, the show must go on, so top-flight football was back in the country this weekend. There were poignant pre-match scenes in all the matches, including the first one between Fenerbahçe and Konyaspor, where the home team brought out a banner that read “We will heal the wounds together”.
The fans also had some messages, including a pre-match banner that read, “Teary eyes will be filled with hope”. After staying silent for the first 4 minutes and 17 seconds after kick-off to mark the time the first earthquake hit (4:17 PM), the supporters in the stadium chanted in unison against the government, who have been accused of being negligent in both their preparations and response to this disaster.
Cover Image from IMAGO