20
Mar
2020
This Weekend: What to Watch, Read and Follow.

This Weekend: What to Watch, Read and Follow.

With so much football around the world lost to the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we thought we’d provide a short guide not only to the games still going ahead, but also recommending a few things to watch, read and listen to over the weekend.

? What to watch

FIFA have uploaded full match footage of every World Cup dating back to 1982. It’s all in a playlist on YouTube for you to dive in.

COPA90’s Derby Days is exactly the escapism we need right now. If you haven’t seen it yet, their episode on Seville is must-watch stuff.

✅ Test your knowledge

We made a tough Premier League Grab Bag quiz for you to take on, as well as a medium-level quiz on the 2019-20 season.

?? Australia battles on.

To the best of our knowledge, there will still be football played in Australia over the coming days, albeit with all games behind closed doors.

In the W-League, we have the Grand Final as the season’s two best women’s teams go head-to-head for the title. Melbourne City will start as favourites having finished 12 points clear of their opponents, Sydney FC in the regular season.

The roles are completely reversed in the men’s game, where it’s Sydney FC with the double digit lead over their Big Blue rivals from Melbourne.

With some sides having as few as five regular season games left, the fight to finish in the top six and qualify for the A-League finals is heating up.

The most important fixture this week though is more a matter of local pride, as a resurgent Western Sydney Wanderers battle it out against the league leaders in the Sydney Derby.

Since sacking former Germany international, Markus Babbel in January, the Wanderers have only lost once and just last month, a late goal from their captain won the previous edition of the derby.

? Something to read

Our friends at MUNDIAL just released a new issue of their magazine featuring 186 things to look forward to in football. Previously, they visited Naples to explore the city’s ongoing love affair with Maradona. It’s one of our favourite pieces of football writing ever. Read it here.

STADIO wrote about what we’ll miss once Messi is gone from the game. Read it here.

These Football Times wrote about what Finland can learn from Iceland’s success at the Euros. Read it here.

?? The Belarusian Premier League, everyone’s new favourite.

The Republic of Belarus, the landlocked nation in Eastern Europe began its 2020 league season on Thursday and there will be games played across the weekend.

Last year, Dynamo Brest won their first ever title and in the process, ended 13 years of dominance by BATE Borisov. Any aspirations to re-capture their title were dealt an early blow when the Champions or Europa League regulars were beaten by the Belarusian State University side in the season opener.

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We’ll be looking forward to seeing how Dynamo Brest fare in their first game, when they host newly promoted Smolevichy on Saturday.

A couple of FotMob staffers will also have an eye on the other games after they picked out Isloch and Rukh Brest in the competition we are running to help celebrate the league over on Twitter.

? Something to listen to

The documentary podcast series GIANT, produced by MUNDIAL, has six episodes waiting for you on Spotify.

We suggest starting with the story behind the group of fans who founded AFC Wimbledon and brought them back up the football pyramid. Listen here.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss
19
Mar
2020
?? Serie A: Immobile vs. Ronaldo.

?? Serie A: Immobile vs. Ronaldo.

One of our favourite ways to kill time in the app is our Player vs. Player comparison tool.

Just head to a player profile, click on the avatar in the top right, select any other player in the world and build up a picture of their form.

Whenever we check in on Serie A this season, two names have dominated the leader boards run for our individual player stats, Lazio’s Ciro Immobile and the Juventus superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo.

For two forwards, who for all intents and purposes play differing roles for their sides – their stats, as both the main threat and the talisman of their respective teams are fairly consistent.

Immobile has played more games, and scored more goals but if we look at the average minutes played per goal – Ronaldo isn’t far behind that gold standard, goal-a-game ratio.

And if we break that down further – Ronaldo has actually taken more shots than Immobile, despite spending fewer minutes on the pitch.

The accuracy of those attempts is where we can start to foresee some differences, with Ronaldo playing a less central role in Juve’s typical formation so it’s perhaps surprising that he comes out so close to Immobile’s 60%.

When we break things down a little further we can see more similarities. Both players for instance, have scored the overwhelming majority of their goals inside the 18-yard box and with their favoured right foot.

Ronaldo’s complete lack of successful long-range efforts would reflect a season in which his usual magical touch at dead ball situations has seemed to leave him.

One thing that will probably never change though, however long Ronaldo remains at the very top of the game, is his willingness to shoot.

He leads the way in terms of shots directly on goal per match, but if you look at this stat slightly differently – Immobile actually scores his goals with a greater efficiency.

For his overall contribution to Juventus matches, we have awarded Ronaldo a higher average rating across the season. Meaning that the combination of all the live statistics we gather together shows him to have a greater impact on proceedings for his side.

So where does all that leave us, at this strange limbo stage in Italian football where the very region worst hit by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic is home to so many of the top teams?

Immobile and Ronaldo are clearly the best players of the 2019/20 Serie A season to date, and with their sides separated by just a point in the league table and under normal circumstances – we all would have wanted to see how that played out.

For you own deep dive in to our Serie A stats, or those for any league – just search for a league and from the profile, swipe right for the stats tab.

For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Posted by Bill Biss
18
Mar
2020
? Relive the 2018/19 Champions League.

? Relive the 2018/19 Champions League.

Let’s face it, we should have been enjoying the last second legs in this season’s Champions League Round of 16 around about now.

Instead, we’re heading in to very uncertain times so we thought why not forget about all that for a couple of minutes, and take a look back at the knock-out stages of last season’s tournament. When the Champions League meant dramatic comebacks and mental scenes.

The 2018/19 Champions League campaign was when the world fell back in love with Dutch club, Ajax of Amsterdam. Their style of play on a run that took them to the Semi-Finals was outstanding. And their 2nd leg victory AT the Bernabéu, after trailing 2-1 against Real Madrid in the Round of 16 was the perhaps their finest moment.

Elsewhere in the Round of 16, Manchester United surprised the doubters when they pulled off a comeback of their own. Having lost the first leg of their game versus PSG, Romelu Lukaku gave United an early lead in Paris only for them to go 3-1 down on aggregate shortly afterwards. Lukaku would score again but it was a penalty from Marcus Rashford, deep in to injury time and only awarded after consultation with VAR that took them through.

At the same stage, Cristiano Ronaldo was coming back to haunt his old rivals from his days at Real Madrid. This time, his hat-trick for Juventus saw the Italian side overturn Atlético’s two goal advantage.

After defeating Juventus in the Quarter-Finals and leading Spurs 3-0, at half-time in the 2nd leg of their Semi-Final, all was looking rosy for Ajax and a first final appearance since 1996 was all but sealed.

But no-one told Brazilian international, Lucas Moura and in a devestating second-half spell, he scored a stunning hat-trick to completely turn the game on it’s head.

Of all the comebacks in last year’s crazy Champions League – this one, after Liverpool were so comprehensively beaten in the first leg of their Semi-Final was perhaps the most impressive.

Lionel Messi had graced that 3-0 win for Barcelona with the inch-perfect free kick. ?

But Liverpool weren’t done. And in the second game, at Anfield they simply blew away their Spanish opponents. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s quick-thinking from a corner in the 79th minute wrote his name into Champions League history.

Maybe, after all that had gone on before it, you could argue that last year’s Champions League Final didn’t live up to the rest of the tournament but Liverpool fans weren’t complaining as their side picked up their sixth European title thanks to goals from Mo Salah and Divock Origi.

For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Posted by Bill Biss
18
Mar
2020
? Boca Juniors’ 69th Title

? Boca Juniors’ 69th Title

Whatever else happens this year, Saturday 7th March will go down in history as one of the greatest days that fans of Boca Juniors have had following their club.

As one of the two Argentine giants known all around the world there is a constant pressure for Boca to not only win titles, but also overcome their arch-rivals from across Buenos Aires, River Plate.

Boca haven’t had it their own way in recent years – without a league win against River since 2017 they were left humiliated after last year’s defeat when the sides met in the Semi-Final of the Copa Libertadores. That of course, came just a year after River had also beaten them in the final of South America’s biggest cup competition.

So when the 2019/20 Superliga restarted in January with the title looking like a straight race between River and Boca, no one was really expecting Boca to pull through and take it.

But amazingly, after matching each other win-for-win River stumbled in the penultimate round, drawing at home to Defensa.

That left a simple equation for the final Saturday – win and River take the title but drop points? That would allow Boca back into it, with a win of their own against Gimnasia La Plata.

On paper, River had by fair the tougher test – they had to go to Atlético Tucumán in the north of the country, a well supported club in their own right and traditionally no friend to the big boys from Buenos Aires.

Boca were at home and their opponents, although embroiled in a relegation battle were managed by Diego Maradona – one of Boca’s most loved sons and a regular in the hospitality boxes at the legendary Bombonera. To say he was still on friendly terms with Boca would be an understatement.

But surely River wouldn’t slip up again?

Tucumán came out racing and opened the scoring in the 19th minute, but River recovered and equalised just sixteen minutes later. Plenty of time to get the winning goal they needed.

Meanwhile, Gimnasia were holding their own at Boca and they went in goalless at half-time.

With the games going on concurrently, the tension built up even further – something that only added to River’s frustration as they were denied what looked like decent shouts for a penalty.

Then at La Bombonera, it happened. Carlos Tevez, so often Boca’s hero but a striker who had started the season looking like a shadow of his former self scored. All hell broke loose.

And there aren’t many stadiums in the world that celebrate a goal like La Bombonera.

That Tevez goal changed everything. Suddenly Boca were in the driving seat and at Tucumán, River were getting nothing – either from the home team’s defence, or the officials.

The score in both games remained the same. Boca had stolen the league title, their 69th title overall from right under the noses of their eternal enemies, in the final half of the last game of the season.

The celebrations were long and hard.

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Posted by Bill Biss
17
Mar
2020
? Lionel Messi: Still the King of La Liga.

? Lionel Messi: Still the King of La Liga.

When Barcelona’s superstar missed the start of the 2019/20 season due to injury, and then appeared to struggle for form as the team spluttered in to gear under the stewardship of Ernesto Valverde, some sections of the media had the audacity to claim this was the beginning of the end.

Roll on to March and even a cursory look at our La Liga stats in the app will show that to be wrong.

Messi may be missing more games than at any point of his career but his effectiveness on the pitch hasn’t diminished and he is still scoring, on average every 99 minutes – almost guaranteeing you that mythical goal-a-game ratio.

There may be signs that the Argentine is slowing down in terms of out-and-out speed, but one of the greatest minds in world football is clearly still firing. This season he’s created 11 more goalscoring opportunities, either for himself, or others than anyone else in the league.

As much as some things may feel different at Barcelona this season – the fans frustration with Valverde’s management and the change of style brought on by the appointment of his replacement, Quique Setién – some things remain the same. Messi is still running at defenders with the ball at his feet, and we can all be thankful for that.

Messi’s eye for the killer pass this season has been phenomenal. So even when he isn’t scoring goals himself, he’s been supplying them – take for example his three-game barren spell in La Liga at the start of February… Over the course of those games, he set up six goals, including two in as many minutes for Ansu Fati against Levante and a hat-trick of assists against Betis.

Having brought up that three-game run without a goal, it would be remiss not to mention that he ended that emphatically, with four goals (including a 1st half hat-trick) against Eiber in the very next game!

And that’s where we are this season – despite frustrating in some games (perhaps both editions of El Clásico), Messi has simply lit up others. Or, as he did against the in-form Real Sociedad, provide the vital difference required to win tight matches.

It should be obvious, having considered how many categories in which Messi is leading the way in the statistics for La Liga this season but lastly, just admire how highly he comes out in the overall average FotMob player ratings.

Is Lionel Messi still the King of La Liga?

We think so. ?

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Posted by Bill Biss