We’re back at 100% capacity in the footballing world as almost all the competitions have now kicked off for the 2022/23 season – including each of Europe’s top-five leagues. We’ll be checking in on the proceedings in all five of them in this edition of Last Weekend, with the headlines coming from Brentford in England and Almería in Spain.
By Neel Shelat.
🏴 England: Brentford 4-0 Manchester United
A loss against Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford was a bad enough start to Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United tenure, but things got significantly worse this Saturday as they were thrashed by Brentford, who beat the Red Devils for the first time since 1938.
The defeat to Brighton was a close and competitive match that ended 1-2, but against Brentford, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It all started with a goalkeeping howler from David de Gea, who fumbled a relatively simple shot to gift Brentford the lead. He was also at fault for the second goal as he put Christian Eriksen in all sorts of trouble with a risky short pass that led to a high turnover.
By the half-hour mark, Brentford had a three-goal lead, which they extended five minutes later after a swift counterattack. Ten Hag should not be above criticism, as he made some questionable decisions such as playing Eriksen in a deep-lying midfield role and persisting with short goal-kicks with a keeper who is uncomfortable with the ball at his feet.
We said it multiple times last season but Manchester United really are hitting new lows. With no points from their first two games and a goal difference of -5, they are at the foot of the table for the first time in three decades.
And with Liverpool visiting Old Trafford next, they could well stay there for a while longer.
🇪🇸 Spain: Almería 1-2 Real Madrid
Fresh from their UEFA Super Cup win in Helsinki in midweek, Real Madrid kicked off their title defence in LaLiga with a visit to Segunda División champions Almería.
The hosts were playing their first top-flight match in seven years, but you would not have guessed that based on their performance alone. Just six minutes in, a swift move saw Large Ramazani go through on goal, and the young Belgian applied a smart finish to give his side a shock lead.
Carlo Ancelotti had made a fair few changes to the side that beat Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday as the likes of Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga and Nacho Fernandez were handed their first starts of the campaign, but some of them left a bit to be desired in their performances. Both of the aforementioned midfielders were brought off before the hour-mark, after which Lucas Vázquez scored the equaliser. Nacho came off with about 15 minutes left to play, and his replacement, David Alaba, put the visitors in front from a direct free-kick with his very first touch.
Real Madrid certainly deserved this win, as they were probing and testing the Almería defence all game.
The hosts can take a lot of positives from this game, though, as they put up a tough fight against the champions of Europe. Elche and Real Valladolid are two of their next three opponents, so they will surely be aiming to get some points on the board against them.
🇩🇪 Germany: Freiburg 1-3 Borussia Dortmund
We were far from upbeat when discussing the Bundesliga opener in the previous edition of the column, so let’s change that a little here.
Dortmund got the better of Freiburg on Friday night, but the match was nothing like what the scoreline might suggest. The away side saw more of the ball throughout the match, but they looked very uninspired going forward in the first half. At the other end, Freiburg’s long balls caused a fair few problems, which manifested in the opening goal scored by Michael Gregoritsch ten minutes before half-time.
The second period started in a similar pattern, although Freiburg slowly began to sink deeper as the final whistle got closer. With the scoreboard still reading 1-0 in the 75th minute, most regular Dortmund watchers knew what was coming – a dispirited final 15 minutes, quite possibly complete with a second goal for the side with the lead.
Substitute Jamie Bynoe-Gittens had other ideas, though, as he drove Dortmund forward and scored an equaliser in the 77th minute, aided by some very charitable goalkeeping from Mark Flekken. After that, Dortmund showed some determination that has been hard to come by over the last few years, and they were rewarded for their endeavours in the 84th minute when 18-year-old striker Youssoufa Moukoko gave them the lead. Marius Wolf added some insurance a few minutes later, and that sealed the three points for the visitors.
Make no mistake, Dortmund’s overall performance was not exactly encouraging (as the xG shows), but it was their resilience and character that struck fans and experts alike after this game.
That poses the inevitable question that was on everyone’s minds: Could we have something of a title race in Germany this season? The answer was swiftly provided by Bayern Munich in their 2-0 win over Wolfsburg.
🇮🇹 Italy: Fiorentina 3-2 Cremonese
Between De Gea’s disastrous performance in the Premier League and Flekken and Marvin Schwäbe’s sloppiness in Germany, the Goalkeepers’ Union had quite a few causes for concern from across the continent on Saturday. Not to be outdone, members from Italy decided to make even bigger headlines on Sunday.
First up, Luís Maximiano took just six minutes to get sent off on his first-ever appearance in a Lazio shirt for handling the ball outside the penalty area, taking the earliest shower of any debutante in Serie A in almost 30 years. The worst was saved for last, though, as Ionut Radu made the most comical goalkeeping howler in the fifth minute of stoppage time to lose the match on his Cremonese debut.
Playing their first top-flight game since 1996, La Cremo delivered a very impressive performance against a Fiorentina side that secured European qualification through the league last season. After going behind following the quarter-hour mark, they found an equaliser within three minutes. Things looked bad at half-time when they were trailing again and had a centre-back sent off, but they levelled the scores again from a set-piece in the 68th minute.
Just when it looked like they would come away with a point for their hard work, Radu very much threw it away. He jumped to claim a seemingly harmless cross-shot but ended up landing in his own net, carrying the ball over the line with him.
🇫🇷 France: Troyes 0-3 Toulouse
Sticking to the theme of newly-promoted sides doing well, let us move over to France, where Toulouse find themselves up to fourth after two matchdays.
They kicked off proceedings last Sunday with an encouraging draw against Nice, before going one better this weekend. It might be a bit too early to speak of such things, but their visit to Troyes could be described as a relegation six-pointer because four teams are set to drop out of the league at the end of the season with the French top-flight being trimmed from twenty to eighteen clubs next year.
Even in such difficult circumstances, Toulouse might have a decent chance of survival based on their early performances. Philippe Montainer’s men have only lost a couple of regular starters in the transfer window as the core of their squad has been maintained, and they have continued to play a possession-heavy style of football that tore through Ligue 2 defences last season.
It is safe to say that it had a similar effect on Troyes, who were comfortably beaten in the end.
Les Violets will be facing the likes of Lorient, Clermont Foot and Reims in the next few weeks, and if they can continue to deliver such performances, they may well have a noteworthy buffer to the relegation zone very quickly.
🇧🇷 Brazil: Corinthians 0-1 Palmeiras
The Paulista Derby – arguably the biggest rivalry in Brazil and one that can be traced back to the 1910s – was held on Saturday night, and it was set to have major implications on the title race as Palmeiras and Corinthians were first and second in the league going into the match.
The two sides’ Copa Libertadores campaigns had also taken different turns in midweek, with Palmeiras prevailing on penalties against Atlético Mineiro, while Corinthians were eliminated against Flamengo. That meant that the league was their only shot at a major trophy this season apart from the cup, and with a six-point deficit to their rivals, they desperately needed a win to realistically keep the title race close, but it was not to be.
Palmeiras are gunning for their first league title since 2018 alongside a third-consecutive Libertadores success, and things are going smoothly on both fronts. They have avoided Flamengo in the Libertadores semi-finals, and after beating Corinthians thanks to Roni’s own goal in the 72nd minute, have forged a nine-point lead at the top of the league.
The next month is going to be pivotal for Abel Ferreira’s side in the context of their season. They will face tough tests in the league against fourth-placed Fluminense, a rejuvenated Flamengo who have climbed up to second, and Red Bull Bragantino. In the midst of all this, they will also have the two legs of the Copa Libertadores semi-final.
The most dominant side in South American football’s recent history will really be tested to their limit in the coming weeks.
Cover Image from IMAGO
