Years may change but some things remain the same, such as copious amounts of football to watch, every weekend. We had some big matches and results through new year weekend in Europe and beyond, so let us go through some of those in the first 2023 edition of Last Weekend.

By Neel Shelat

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland: Rangers 2-2 Celtic

The first match of the Scottish Premiership in 2023 was the big one — the Old Firm derby.

Celtic made the short trip to Ibrox with a nine-point lead at the top of the table, so Rangers knew that this was already a must-win if they were to realistically keep their title hopes alive. However, they got off to the worst possible start as a dangerous turnover allowed Daezen Maeda to go through on goal in the fifth minute, and the Japanese international took his chance very well.

Out of possession, Rangers sought to impose themselves on their opponents by adopting a 4-3-1-2 high press against Celtic’s 4-3-3 formation. This didn’t quite go to plan either, as the visitors were able to play around this narrow structure by using their full-backs and central midfielders.

Nonetheless, Rangers did create some good chances of their own. Ryan Kent had a shot tipped onto the post and Alfredo Morelos missed a couple of free headers from corners towards the end of the first half.

The Gers then came flying out of the traps in the second period, equalising within a few minutes as Kent found the top corner with a curling finish. A couple of minutes later, they won a penalty as Fashion Sakala had his foot clipped in the box. James Tavernier stepped up and converted it emphatically to score the 100th goal of his senior career.

It was Celtic’s turn to push for a goal thereafter, but they couldn’t create too many big chances. That was until the 88th minute, when a decisive opportunity fell to the feet of Kyogo Furuhashi just in front of goal, and he found the back of the net with a controlled finish.

So, the spoils were shared at the end of the match. Rangers would have been left feeling they should have come away with more, not just because their deficit to the league leaders has remained unchanged, but also because they created more and better chances than their opponents.

This result also saw Rangers drop points for the first time in Michael Beale’s tenure after four wins in his first four matches.

🇫🇷 France: Lens 3-1 PSG

The big Ligue 1 match of the weekend pitted the top two against each other. Lens managed a goalless draw against Nice when they returned to competitive action in midweek but PSG came away with a dramatic 2-1 win over Strasbourg thanks to Kylian Mbappé’s stoppage-time penalty, so the gap between the teams was seven points heading into this fixture.

The visitors were not only without Lionel Messi for this game, but they were also missing Neymar as he was shown a red card against Strasbourg and was consequently suspended for the following match. Still, Christophe Galtier stuck to the 4-3-1-2 system he has been using of late, bringing in Hugo Ekitiké and Carles Soler in the places of the two major absentees.

Lens looked to use their wing-backs to overload the opposition back-four, and that trick worked just five minutes in. Massadio Haïdara was found free on the left, and his cross was palmed away in the path of Przemysław Frankowski, who turned in calmly. PSG responded very quickly, though, as Ekitiké equalised in controversial fashion after seemingly kicking the ball out of the keeper’s gloves, but VAR saw nothing amiss.

Nonetheless, the home side must have been quite pleased with their start as they very much took the game to the defending champions and pushed them all the way with their clever pressing and slick possession-play. They went on to retake the lead in the 28th minute after a lovely counterattack that saw Seko Fofana skip past a couple of challenges in his own half before feeding Loïs Openda, who separately sent both of the PSG centre-backs to the shadow realm before beating the keeper with his finish.

Just seconds into the second period, Lens were able to generate a dangerous high turnover thanks to their pressing. Openda stole the spotlight again with a delightful backheel assist in the box for Alexis Claude-Maurice, who doubled his side’s lead with a cool finish. The hosts were comfortably able to hold on to it even as they started to defend deeper in a 5-4-1 block, as PSG really missed their two chief creators.

With that, Paris Saint-Germain suffered their first competitive defeat of the season, meaning there is just one European top-flight club with an unbeaten record in 2022/23 left – Swift Hesperange of Luxembourg.

🇵🇹 Portugal: Braga 3-0 Benfica

There were three such unbeaten sides before this weekend with Benfica being the other. However, they too suffered a major league defeat this weekend.

The final Portuguese league fixture of 2022 saw the league leaders visit third-placed Braga. Things did not get off to a great start for the away side at the Estádio Municipal de Braga, as Abel Ruiz put the hosts in front within two minutes.

Benfica have overturned early deficits on a number of occasions this season, so they might not have been too worried after conceding the opener. However, when they found themselves two goals down just after the half-hour mark when Ruiz set up Ricardo Horta, they must have felt they were staring down the barrel of their first loss of the season.

That looked likelier and likelier as the second half progressed. Braga’s compact 4-4-2 defensive block minimised the space available to their opponents between the lines and managed to contain them out wide as well thanks to the wide midfielders tracking back. So, even though Benfica had more possession, they couldn’t make much of it, and the result was all but sealed when Ricardo Horta got his second in the 70th minute.

This was the perfect way for Braga to bounce back after their 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Sporting in the League Cup quarter-final. They have closed the gap to the leaders to six points, but remain a point behind defending champions Porto, who sit second.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England: Brentford 3-1 Liverpool

The Premier League was not resting for the new year as there was a full round of fixtures between the 30th of December and 1st of January. The following round commenced immediately thereafter with a match on Monday night that saw Liverpool visit Brentford.

Relative to expectations, the two sides were having very contrasting campaigns. Brentford were all the way up in the top half of the table and looking well on course for staying up again, so the mood around the Gtech Stadium was very positive. Liverpool, meanwhile, were well away from the title race and a few points off the top four after a terrible start to the season, so it hasn’t been smooth sailing for them.

Their troubles would only be compounded in London, as the home side got off to a good start and took the lead 19 minutes in after a corner hit the back of the net via Ibrahima Konaté’s leg. Even after going ahead, Brentford looked likelier to score the next goal and celebrated twice after two other corners, but both goals were ruled out by VAR. They did eventually score again before half-time, as Yoane Wissa got third time lucky when his header just crossed the goal line before being clawed out by the keeper.

Jürgen Klopp made three half-time changes as Liverpool turned up the pressure in search of goals, and they yielded near-instant rewards. Darwin Núñez had a goal ruled out for offside just a couple of minutes after the break, but Liverpool halved the deficit soon thereafter through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s header. The Reds kept streaming forward for the rest of the match, but Brentford’s low block held firm, and the Bees delivered a knockout blow through Bryan Mbeumo in the 84th minute.

As the stats show, the match was very one-sided in terms of possession but not so as far as chances or their conversion is concerned, so Brentford will feel that this result was deserved. They are now up to the dizzying heights of seventh spot, just two points and a place behind their opponents.

🇪🇸 Spain: Barcelona 1-1 Espanyol

La Liga leaders Barcelona returned to action after the World Cup break by hosting city rivals Espanyol in a Catalan Derby.

Things got off to the perfect start for them as Marcos Alonso, operating as a makeshift centre-back, opened the scoring from a corner after seven minutes. That empowered Barcelona to adopt a more conservative approach in possession to protect their makeshift defence while still controlling the match.

It was all going smoothly for the home side until the 71st minute, when Alonso stepped on Joselu’s foot in the penalty area and Espanyol were awarded a penalty. The Spanish striker converted it, scoring with his side’s only shot on target in the match.

After that, it was the Antonio Mateu Lahoz show. The Spanish referee gave Jordi Alba a second yellow card for dissent in the 78th minute, but just moments later, he brandished two red cards to Espanyol players! Vinícius Souza picked up a second booking for a foul so he had to go, but Leandro Cabrera’s direct red card was overturned by VAR.

Even though they had over 10 minutes of stoppage time at the end of the match, Barcelona could not find a winning goal in the 10v10 situation. Xavi unsurprisingly expressed his displeasure at the refereeing performance after the match, but also admitted that his team should have scored a second and put the game to bed when they had the chances.

In spite of dropping points, Barcelona remain at the top of the table in the new year, but only thanks to a better goal difference than Real Madrid.

🇨🇳 China: Wuhan Three Towns 3-0 Tianjin Jinmen Tiger

Our last match in this column is one that did not take place – an awarded win for Wuhan Three Towns on the final matchday of the 2022 Chinese Super League season.

The title race had gone right down to the wire, as Wuhan Three Towers and Shandong Taishan were only separated by goal difference for their last four fixtures. They were due to kick off simultaneously on Saturday night, but COVID-19 outbreaks in both of their opponents’ squads meant both forfeited and the games had to be called off.

With that, Wuhan Three Towns lifted their first-ever CSL title. That marks the culmination of their dramatic rise which saw them win back-to-back promotions in the last two seasons, having only rebranded to their current guise in 2019.

While they have certainly done well to achieve glory so quickly, this achievement has only been realistic by the state of crisis that most of Chinese football is in. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial issues coupled with some CFA decisions have left many Chinese clubs in turmoil. This season’s table is a reflection of that, as record champions Guangzhou FC have been relegated after losing all of their foreign players last winter and fielding an all-domestic squad largely comprised of academy graduates. Joining them in the lower divisions will be Hebei FC, who ended the season with a negative points tally having been docked nine points due to unpaid salaries.

Cover Image from IMAGO