10
Apr
2020
This Weekend: What to Watch, Read and Follow

This Weekend: What to Watch, Read and Follow

Another week has gone by and the future for a lot of our favourite football leagues remains fairly uncertain, but are there signs for optimism in the press this week? We round up a bit more on that plus provide you with some top football content to see you through another weekend without big game action.

? WHAT TO WATCH

A lot of people are doing it, but few are doing it as well as the Bundesliga YouTube channel – this afternoon, they’ve posted the full match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern München from the 2011/12 season. This game basically decided the title race and gave a Jürgen Klopp his last title in Germany. Well worth reliving, even with that spoiler!

?? BELARUS IN THE SPOTLIGHT AGAIN!

Europe’s last active league continues at pace over what for many, is the long Easter weekend with games from today through to Monday.

Week 3 produced more big shocks as last year’s champions, Dynamo Brest lost to Slavia Mozyr and Energetik came through their top of the table clash against FC Minsk. The student side are now the only team with a 100% record.

BATE Borisov (who won 13 consecutive titles until last year) did finally pick up their first win of the season and they’ll look to improve on that when they face FC Minsk in the capital on Sunday.

?️ CAST YOUR VOTE!

This week over on Twitter, we’ve been running the inaugural FotMob World Cup of Club Crests!

We took 64 teams, nominated by our followers and supplemented with a few of our own suggestions and threw them in to a hat. From there, we’ve been drawing sides together and asking you to vote for your favourite club badge to go through each day.

We’re now at the semi-final stage and we’re left with 4 North American sides from a couple of our favourite leagues to follow. Head over to our Twitter to join in later!

? SOMETHING TO READ

With the news that the Bundesliga is looking to restart, behind closed doors in early May and with all their teams back in training this week – you may be interested to read more on this from the New York times, as they talk to the league’s CEO Christian Seifert.

And if long reads, on mostly long forgotten football tournaments are your thing – we enjoyed digging into this, from Rupert Fryer on the Intercontinental Final between Boca Juniors and Real Madrid in the year 2000, available from the archives of The Blizzard. As an added bonus, someone has now put the full game on YouTube – enjoy watching the likes of Juan Román Riquelme and Martín Palermo go up against an early galáticos-era Madrid side.

?? NICARAGUA JOINS THE PARTY!

We’ve added another league to the app this week, and one that is also flying in the face of the global pandemic by carrying on as normal! The 16th round of the Clausura season takes place on Saturday night.

Sadly, both the Central American versions of these sides are struggling outside the top 8, so you may want to focus on Managua’s title charge as they travel to strugglers, Deportivo Las Sabanas.

? SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO

The presenters and pundits from the UK’s largest football show have pivoted to podcasts in recent times – meaning you can now listen to English legends, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright wax lyrical about their favourite moments, players and managers in Premier League history. The extra good news is that this is available around the world via the BBC Sounds app.

And as usual, the Golazzo Italian Football Show has served up another cracking history lesson from Serie A. This week, they focus on ‘Il Trio Magico’ – the 3 forwards who cemented Juventus’ worldwide reputation in the 1950s. Please listen here, it’s great.

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
08
Apr
2020
Stadio: Six Glorious Passes

Stadio: Six Glorious Passes

Alongside this week’s special episode on passing, Stadio hosts Musa Okwonga and Ryan Hunn each select three of their favourite passes.

Three of Musa’s Favourite Passes:

Xavi v Malaga – Here the most dangerous pass obviously available is the one into the feet of Lionel Messi, and that angle is too tight for Xavi to make it. But Xavi doesn’t care because he has seen a different one; one which is not just dangerous, but fatal.

Messi v Levante – Messi is the greatest player I have ever seen simply because, more often than anyone else, he does things that do not just seem impossible but previously unimaginable. Who volleys a throw-in perfectly across the field? Messi does.

Ronaldinho v Murcia – Just watch the way Ronaldinho meets the ball as it drops towards him; he watches it all the way, and in the final instant, he turns away, almost in disdain, and then lets it run off his back as if it were rain off a ledge. What you sadly can’t hear on this clip is the gasp from the Camp Nou crowd. They have seen absolutely everything there is to see in football: but they haven’t seen this. 

Three of Ryan’s Favourite Passes:

Pogba v Croatia – There’s something about the coolness of this pass. To execute this from that position, taking a slight step to make space – where most players would have taken a touch – whilst being flanked by two opposition players in a fairly dangerous position, in a World Cup Final is just so very Paul Pogba.

Özil v Hull City – The hardest thing about pieces such as this, is that you could pick fifty of your favourite passes and still a few would slip your mind. This one from Mesut Özil, however, never does. Everything about this is timing and feel, and few players could pull this off with such ease.

Guti v Sevilla – When you think about Guti, the ones that come to mind tend to be the back-heeled assists. However, despite having a resume that would take forever to sit through, I think this is my favourite Guti pass. At the time he strikes the ball, it needs to evade five players to get to Zidane, which is does, naturally. The fact Zidane then finishes makes this even more enjoyable.

Posted by Curt Baker
08
Apr
2020
? Inside The World’s Smallest Football League – The Isles of Scilly

? Inside The World’s Smallest Football League – The Isles of Scilly

A film by Jacob Dodd and Lewis Isbell as a part of COPA90 Creator Commissions.

The Isles of Scilly Football League is officially the smallest league in world football, with only TWO clubs.

The dedication of the island’s players to continue playing the beautiful game despite the lack of young players, and teams to compete against, is a testament to their passion for football.

Posted by Curt Baker
07
Apr
2020
? The FotMob World Cup of Club Crests

? The FotMob World Cup of Club Crests

This week over on Twitter, we are running a competition to find the world’s best football club badge design. And we need your help!

After taking nominations from our followers, and adding in some office favourites from us here – we narrowed it down to 64 teams, who all went into the hat for Monday’s all important 1st Round.

From the simple, the classic and the traditional right through to the brand new, weird and wonderful, we’ve tried to include something for everyone from clubs all around the world! After all, world football is what we do best – with coverage for the 200 plus leagues and competitions we have in the app returning just as soon as games get the go ahead to re-start.

The opening match-ups in our World Cup netted over 15,000 votes in total as followers far and wide joined us to choose their favourites. And we’re hoping you’ll help us smash that as we carry on with the Round of 32 this evening.

For each tie we tweet out the two teams, with pictures of the badges for you to ponder on. Next, we follow up with a poll under each match – all you have to do is vote for your favourite.

Before you head off to our twitter feed in order to add your votes, check out a few of the facts and figures from Round 1!

The closest contest came between EFL Championship side, Nottingham Forest and Thai club, Nakhonratchasima Mazda with the Tricky Trees just shading it by 50.6% to 49.4%!

The biggest margin of victory was earned by a new team – Oakland Roots who play in the NISA league at the third tier of football in the United States (and one we’re hoping to bring to the app soon!). They absolutely smashed the French minnows of SAS Epinal who were picked by one of the staff members here, so that just goes to show what we know!

And if you’re thinking this is just a popularity contest for the clubs with the biggest followings on twitter, you may be surprised to hear that there’s already been a couple of big upsets!

Gosport Borough, from the 7th tier of English football gave a bloody nose to Argentine cult favourites, Newell’s Old Boys – the team that gave the likes of Lionel Messi, Marcelo Bielsa and Mauricio Pochettino to the world!

So, fancy doing your bit to help us find our winner? Join us on twitter now for the Round of 32, and follow us as we continue the competition across the next week.

The Full Draw for the Round of 32:

?? Tacoma Defiance ? Real Sociedad ??

?? San Diego Loyal ? Boca Juniors ??

?? Cusco FC ? Hereford ???????

?? HFX Wanderers ? Coquimbo Unido ??

?? FC Juárez ? Inter ??

??????? Nottingham Forest ? AFC Bournemouth ???????

?? Vitoria de Guimaraes ? FC Den Bosch ??

?? Forward Madison ? AS Roma ??

?? Huracán ? Estoril Praia ??

?? Oakland Roots ? Vasco da Gama ??

?? FC Köln ? Tractor Club ??

?? Hertha Berlin ? Charleston Battery ??

?? FC Sheriff ? Ajax ??

??????? Gosport Borough ? Club Tijuana ??

?? Valencia ? Chonburi ??

?? Kaizer Chiefs ? Club América ??

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

Posted by Bill Biss
07
Apr
2020
? UCL Team of the Season, according to FotMob

? UCL Team of the Season, according to FotMob

Whilst we await a resolution for what remains of the 2019/20 Champions League, we thought we’d take a look through the FotMob stats to put together this – our team of the best rated players to appear in the competition this season.

GK – ?? Keylor Navas, PSG

Not everybody’s automatic thought maybe, but Navas has performed heroically in his first season with Paris Saint-German in the Champions League. He’s kept 5 clean sheets in 7 games and saved the only penalty he’s faced.

LB – ?? Alphonso Davies, Bayern München

Now a regular in every team of the season we seem to draw up, Canada’s breakthrough star of 2019/20 has appeared in 4 of Bayern’s UCL games, providing 3 assists to date.

CB – ?? Dayot Upamecano, RB Leipzig

Upamecano has been at the heart of RB Leipzig’s defence in the year they made their first ever appearance in to the knock-out stages of the tournament.

CB – ?? Kalidou Koulibaly, Napoli

The Senegalese international impressed in the Group Stages as his Italian side progressed after finishing second to reigning Champions, Liverpool in Group E. He did however miss the Round of 16, 1st leg against Barcelona.

RB – ?? Nélson Semedo, Barcelona

Our MOTM in that game against Napoli was Barça’s right-back on the night. It was Semedo’s pass that gave Antoine Griezmann the chance to level the tie going into the 2nd leg, yet to be rescheduled.

LM – ?? Serge Gnabry, Bayern München

We could have put Gnabry in any number of positions in this team, such has been his form and versatility this season. He’s scored 6 goals in the tournament, all of them against English sides – particularly sweet after his early career in the Premier League was seen as something of a failure.

CM – ?? Toni Kroos, Real Madrid

The player with our third best average rating in the Champions League during the campaign, Kroos has been central to Zidane’s plans for Real Madrid – and they’ll need him to fire again, if the club are to overturn their 1st leg defeat in the R16 to Manchester City, should that second game ever take place.

RM – ?? Achraf Hakimi, Borussia Dortmund

Dortmund’s only representative in the team after we failed to squeeze Erling Haaland in to a packed front line(!), Hakimi provided four goals on the club’s run to the R16, where they were defeated by PSG.

LW – ?? Neymar, PSG

The Parisians are into their first Quarter-Final for four seasons, thanks in part to the excellent form of their talisman, Neymar. Despite being restricted to just 4 appearances in the competition, he’s scored 3 and set up another 2 goals along the way.

CF – ?? Robert Lewandowski, Bayern München

Bayern’s third player to make our team of the season won’t need any introduction – after all, he’s had a freakishly good year in the competition, even by his standards! Lewandowski has scored 11 goals as Bayern destroyed their group and took a 3-0 lead back to Germany after the 1st leg of their R16 tie against Chelsea.

RW – ?? Lionel Messi, Barcelona

Enjoy him whilst you can! This might not be a vintage Barcelona side but the second top scorer in the competition’s history has still managed to work his magic – adding 2 goals and 3 assists in this year’s edition of the tournament.

If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to the stats tab.

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

Posted by Curt Baker in World News
06
Apr
2020
? At The Match: Hear the sounds from matchdays across Europe

? At The Match: Hear the sounds from matchdays across Europe

It’s safe to say we’re missing football right now. The rhythm of a matchday.

We’ve found some momentary escapism however, in Football Ramble Daily’s At The Match podcast. The pod brings you along on travels to some of Europe’s biggest matches, with the sounds from the matchday woven in throughout — the walk into the ground, the crowd chanting, lineups being read out.

Below is a taste from when they attended the Berlin Derby at Union Berlin earlier this season:

You can listen to the full episode below, as well as some of our other favourites from the series.

Even more episodes are available on the Football Ramble Daily and On The Continent podcast feeds.

Posted by Curt Baker
03
Apr
2020
This Weekend: What to Watch, Read and Follow

This Weekend: What to Watch, Read and Follow

It’s time for FotMob’s guide to another weekend without football, besides of course, that provided by our friends in Belarus. So, if you’re at a loss without your fix of the beautiful game, hopefully you’ll find something here that helps fill the void.

? What to watch

The good guys over at Football Critic have not only gone and catalogued Lionel Messi’s best 50 goals, but they’ve provided the videos too! Indulge yourself here.

One of our favourite football writers, James Montague produced a number of Football Adventures for Bleacher Report. Start with this one on Kosovo’s Euros Qualifier against Montenegro and then dive in.

This week on Twitter, we took a look at the Netflix series, The English Game. There might be a couple of spoilers in here, so maybe watch the series first – then come back to this.

✅ Test your knowledge

??????? England fan? Prove it by naming every opposition side the Three Lions have faced in a major tournament since 1990. Click here to give it a go!

?? The Show must go on in Belarus!

The determination of the last league standing in Europe to carry on in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic is now beginning to show cracks as fan groups look to boycott this weekend’s games, with the situation in the republic worsening in recent days.

Suspending the league would, of course be the sensible thing to do but whilst there are games still being played – let’s try and enjoy them. The stand out fixtures include today’s clash between unbeaten Torpedo and former-Soviet giants, Dinamo Minsk whilst Sunday sees the current top two – Energetik and FC Minsk go head-to-head.

If you still haven’t picked a team to support, you can find one by carrying out a quick survey – here!

? Something to read

We took another run through the FotMob stats to try and find the best tacklers in Europe’s top five leagues. If you admire the lost art of tackling, this might be for you – here.

We also thought this one was fun – 10 pairs of footballers you’d never remember were teammates!

And lastly, get ahead of the crowd by reading up on 7 hotly tipped coaches around Europe.

⚽️ Club Friendlies & FIFA Ultimate Team

Don’t forget to head to the club friendlies section in the Matches Tab to find a few other games going ahead this weekend – the last time we looked, there were games in Sweden, Belarus and Finland.

We’ve also added the FIFA Ultimate Quaran-Team tournament organised by English League 2 side, Leyton Orient. 128 teams officially entered, providing their best virtual player to compete in games on FIFA 20.

The semi-final stage takes place tonight and it’s all for a good cause.

? Something to listen to

This week, the two big podcasts that we sponsor have been particularly strong!

Golazzo – The Italian Football Show take a look at the career of recently retired, Roma captain Daniele de Rossi and find there’s a lot to like about the former World Cup winner. Click here to listen.

Two Girls Talk Balls once again tackle every hot topic in the women’s game, and do a pretty good job of it too, considering they’re working on these remotely whilst the UK is in lockdown! Click through the tweet below to listen.

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
02
Apr
2020
The Best Tacklers in Europe, according to FotMob

The Best Tacklers in Europe, according to FotMob

There seems to be an argument amongst football fans that tackling is the dying art of the modern game, that in this era of VAR and multi-angle, super slomo replays no one is allowed to go in for the old fashioned cruncher. Others may maintain that at the top level our favourite players are more skilled than ever and the cleaner the tackle, the better the standard of football.

Either way, we’ve done our own crunching by going through this season’s stats to find the best tacklers across Europe’s top five leagues.

?? Serie A

Either there’s a lot of fouling going on in Serie A, or tackling really is dying out! With the lowest average number of successful tackles across the leagues we’ll cover here, Italy’s top flight perhaps isn’t living up to its traditional defensive reputation.

Croatian international, Marko Rog currently leads our stats with an average of just 1.7 completed tackles per game, albeit at a high success rate of 68.1%. The midfielder is spending this season on loan at Cagliari, who were solidly mid-table at the time of the league’s suspension. You have to go down to the 5th best tackler in the league before you find a player from any of the clubs currently sitting in the top 4, and thats the veteran Lucas Leiva at Lazio (61.4%).

?? Bundesliga

FC Köln’s Dutch right back, Kingsley Ehizibue has enjoyed his debut season in the Bundesliga, racking up 23 appearances and a tackle success rate of 66.2%.

That’s worked out to be a league leading average of 2 per match as the club look to solidify their position back at the top table of German football. He’s not looked bad going forward either, as his first goal in Köln colours shows.

?? La Liga

Outside of Madrid, and perhaps his native Brazil, Casemiro is one of those under-appreciated players. With three Champions League medals to his name and nearly 50 caps for his country, that may be a little unfair.

Deployed in the middle of Zinedine Zidane’s midfield, he’s looked particularly strong this season – not least when the FotMob staff took a trip to the goalless El Clásico at Camp Nou back in December and witnessed him have a great game!

Over the campaign he’s averaged 2.2 successful tackles per match at a rate of 66.3%.

??????? Premier League

Famous for his tackling ability at previous club Crystal Palace where he was named player of the season last year, Aaron Wan-Bissaka hasn’t looked out of place at all following his big money move to Manchester United.

In fact, his form has been imperious and with an overall FotMob player rating of 7.2 he tops our tackle chart for the Premier League, averaging 2.5 successful challenges per match.

In terms of the straight number of challenges made this season, Wan-Bissaka is second only to Leicester’s Ricardo Pereira (99 to 119) but when you look at the percentage success of those tackles, Wan-Bissaka out strips his rival by nearly 10%.

?? Ligue 1

Going from our social media audience alone, Ligue 1 seems to be discounted by a lot of people, written off with that rather unfortunate moniker – ‘farmer’s league.’

Well it’s not just PSG and their array of riches that have been making headlines this season. The Breton side, Stade Rennais have a teen sensation on their hands – Eduardo Camavinga.

After making his debut as a 16-year-old last season, he’s become the lynchpin of the side’s midfield and since receiving his French citizenship (he was born in Angola), he’s already made his debut for France’s U21s. Now 17, he’s featured in 25 matches during the 2019/20 campaign, averaging 2.6 tackles per game – the most of anyone in the leagues we’re covering here.

We would say remember the name, but you won’t have a choice if you take note of any transfer speculation in the world’s press. We’ve seen him linked to the likes of Real Madrid, Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and of course, PSG in the last week alone!

If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to 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
01
Apr
2020
Quiz: EPL players with 25+ career Champions League appearances

Quiz: EPL players with 25+ career Champions League appearances

Fifty-nine current EPL players have made over 25 Champions League appearances during their career. Remember, that means many players on this list appeared in the Champions League for clubs outside of the EPL!

You have 12 minutes to name as many as you can. Tap Play below to get the clock ticking.

Posted by Curt Baker
01
Apr
2020
? The Passion Of These Spanish Ultras Will Blow Your Mind

? The Passion Of These Spanish Ultras Will Blow Your Mind

COPA90‘s Doc of the Day: Spanish Ultras are the heart of Spanish football. The Clasico is far from the most passionate fixture in the country. In reality Spanish supporter culture is known across the world for having some incredibly unique traditions, and passionate chants. This is our roundup of the best Ultras groups, and what makes fan culture in España absolutely magical.

Posted by Curt Baker