Men’s club football returned in some style after a two-week international break, as we had some huge fixtures and results across the continents. As ever, we have picked out the best of the bunch in our weekly column, which features our newly-added match momentum graphs for the first time!
By Neel Shelat
🇩🇪 Germany: Bayern München 4-2 Borussia Dortmund
Bayern Munich beat the league leaders to take top spot in the Frauen-Bundesliga last week, and their men’s team have repeated the trick this time around.
Their match against Borussia Dortmund was being billed as the biggest Klassiker in about a decade, so the importance of the occasion only heightened when Bayern parted ways with Julian Nagelsmann and hired ex-Dortmund head coach Thomas Tuchel in his place during the international break.
The hosts did not get off to the most dominant of starts, but they did not need to. As Dortmund have done all too often in such big matches throughout the last ten years, they were the masters of their own downfall.
An absolute howler from the otherwise-solid Kobel gave Bayern the lead 13 minutes in, in a manner no one could have envisioned. Within the next 10 minutes, the hosts found themselves three goals to the good thanks to two Thomas Müller goals from close proximity to the net. Kingsley Coman added a fourth early in the second half to kill Dortmund’s hopes for good, so Emre Can’s penalty and Donyell Malen’s late effort counted for mere consolation.
As the match momentum graph shows, this was far from a totally dominant display from Bayern. However, they were gifted the three points by some terrible mistakes, which they gladly accepted.
🏴 England: Manchester City 4-1 Liverpool
A pivotal fixture in the title race marked the return of the Premier League on the other side of the men’s international break. Second-placed Manchester City took on Liverpool, who were fighting to pop up in the top-four race.
The home side were without star striker Erling Haaland for this fixture as he continued to recover from an injury that kept him away from the international action as well. They made no changes to their overall system, though, continuing to operate in a 3-2-2-3 shape in possession with Julián Álvarez selected as the central attacker.
Pep Guardiola’s side dictated proceedings throughout the match, but were the ones who conceded first to Mohamed Salah. Their World Cup-winning striker equalised within 10 minutes, and the scores remained level at half-time.
City made their dominance count in the second half, though, taking the lead through Kevin De Bruyne in a matter of seconds. İlkay Gündoğan soon gave them a buffer, and Jack Grealish put the result beyond doubt with about 15 minutes of regulation time left.
After the match, Guardiola called his side’s display one of the best performances in his seven years at the club. Given how they bossed proceedings against such high-quality opposition, it is easy to see why.
Arsenal’s comfortable win over Leeds United means the gap at the top of the table remains five points, but City’s performances seem to suggest that they will take the title race right down to the wire.
🇮🇹 Italy: Napoli 0-4 Milan
The Serie A title race is certainly not going to go down to the wire given the vast lead Napoli have, but their match against defending champions Milan was quite an important one. Beyond the symbolic significance of the champions-elect playing the current holders, this was a dress rehearsal of an upcoming Champions League quarter-final tie.
There was a fair bit of intrigue when the two line-ups were announced. Napoli were without star striker Victor Osimhen, while Milan seemed to be returning to a 4-2-3-1 formation. They had used such a system en route to the title last season but had diverted to a back-three for the last couple of months in the midst of a very poor run of results.
And suddenly, Milan started to look like their former selves again. Although they kept under 40% of possession, the Rossoneri looked solid defensively and packed a real punch when attacking. Their main danger man was Rafael Leão, who ended an 11-match goal drought in some style.
The Portuguese international seemed to struggle a bit as he was forced to play in a more central role when Milan switched to their back-three system, but he was unleashed again out on the left wing in this match. He bagged a brilliant brace with a goal in either half, with the other two strikes coming from Brahim Díaz and Alexis Saelemaekers.
This result does little to dent Napoli’s title chances, but it could prove to be a decisive win for Milan’s quest to finish in the top four. Of course, it also gives them a huge confidence boost ahead of the aforementioned Champions League quarter-final.
🇪🇸 Spain: Cádiz 0-2 Sevilla
Much like in Serie A, the title race in La Liga seems to be done and dusted as well, but we could be in for an all-timer of a relegation battle. Going into this weekend, a mere three points separated 13th-placed Getafe from 19th-placed Almería.
In the middle of all that, Europa League quarter-finalists Sevilla and their local rivals Cádiz were level on points with the Andalusian derby scheduled for Saturday evening. To add to the drama, Sevilla changed managers during the international break. Jorge Sampaoli – who was only hired in October – was replaced by José Luis Mendilibar, a veteran of many La Liga relegation battles.
Mendilibar is not known for having his teams play the most attractive brand of football, but he does have a record of getting results when they are needed. That is presumably the quality that caused Sevilla to go in for him, and he has delivered the goods in his first assignment.
By all measures, there was very little to separate the two sides in this rather dull clash, but the visitors scored two crucial goals in the second half. Lucas Ocampos drew first blood in the 51st minute, and Youssef En-Nesyri put the result beyond doubt in the 74th.
With this result, Sevilla have opened up a four-point gap to the relegation zone, but they are far from safe yet. They have a tough run of fixtures coming up in the league against sides challenging for Europe with their Europa League tie against Manchester United in the middle of all that.
🏆 CAF Champions League: Al Ahly 3-0 Al Hilal Omdurman
The final round of the 2022/23 CAF Champions League’s group stage was held over the course of the weekend, but there was not a lot to play for. Seven of the eight quarter-final spots had already been decided, but there was one big showdown left.
In Group B, South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns had secured their spot in the last eight. Behind them were Sudanese side Al Hilal, who held a three-point lead over Al Ahly. The two were set to face off on Saturday night in what was a must-win match for the Egyptian giants.
To put things into perspective, Al Ahly have won four CAF Champions League titles and made seven finals in their last eleven campaigns. Al Hilal have not reached any continental final since the turn of the century, with their last CAF Champions League knockouts appearance coming in 2015.
Being eliminated in the group stage was something that the Egyptian league leaders and their fans could not bear to see, so they were determined to avoid such a fate. The club appealed to the authorities to allow 50,000 fans into the Cairo International Stadium for this crucial fixture, and tickets were sold out within two days after the approval was granted.
It was up to the players to deliver under some serious pressure, and they did not disappoint. Mahmoud Kahraba’s exquisite control and finish sent the fans into raptures after a dominant first 25 minutes. In the second half, substitute Hussein El Shahat scored a brace to ease any nerves, securing Al Ahly’s spot in the quarter-finals.
The Red Devils were the defeated finalists last season, so they will hope to go one better this time around.
🇩🇰 Denmark: FC København 2-1 Nordsjælland
In Denmark, the regular group stage of Superligaen drew to a dramatic close last week. After that, the table was split in half, and the two play-off rounds commenced this weekend.
In the Championship play-off, league leaders FC Nordsjælland faced a tough trip to the capital to face defending champions FC København, who were hot on their heels with just a one-point deficit.
FCK’s season got off to a terrible start as they found themselves down in 9th place with six losses from their first 10 games. At that point, the board decided to act and did so by firing Jess Thorup and promoting assistant manager Jacob Neestrup to the hot seat.
Under the 35-year-old Dane, København slowly climbed up the table and entered the top half in time for the long winter break. On the other side of it, they have seemingly returned to their dominant best, while Nordsjælland have been slipping up a fair bit.
Therefore, this match was billed as a potential title-decider already for København, who were surely not going to get caught if they took the top spot in the table.
Nordsjælland put up a fight and took the lead in the 35th minute through Mohamed Diomande, but were ultimately defeated. Just after the hour-mark, Mohamed Daramy equalised with a superb finish. Late on, substitute Diogo Gonçalves netted a deserved win for the side that looked more threatening over the course of the match.
Cover Image from IMAGO