The window during which the national teams play their matches has ended. Now the national championships are back. This weekend several important matches are being played in club football.
This match between Bayern and Bayer stands out from their previous meetings. In the Bundesliga only two clubs have achieved nine points in three rounds and now they face each other. And if with Bayern everything is clear, more or less (a stable favorite heading for the next title), then Bayer’s status is changing.
Under the guidance of Xabi Alonso, the team has become one of the main discoveries in the League. The Spanish coach has never coached adult players, he only had 14-year-olds at Real Madrid and in the Real Sociedad youth team. And yet, 11 months ago, Alonso was entrusted with the main team of Bayer, which came in penultimate place. As a result, they finished the season in sixth place and lasted even longer than any German club in the European Cup (just shy of reaching the Europa League final). There is a possibility that Bayern will not have it so easy in the match rescheduled for Friday.
Bayern will not have an easy time in the match scheduled for Friday
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Juventus will host Lazio, Italy’s second team, according to last season’s table. Gone are the times when the Turin team unconditionally dominated its league, like Bayern or PSG. However, Juventus remains the most talked about team in Italy. The number of scandals is off the charts. In the summer, Juventus was suspended from European competitions. Now there is a story about Pogba’s doping and Bonucci’s scandalous exit.
In this context, Lazio seems like a club where everything is calm. Although this is not entirely true. Sarri’s team began the season in a paradoxical way: they lost to Lecce and Genoa, but on their field they defeated the current champion Napoli. It is not clear what to expect now from the match against Juventus.
Juventus will host Lazio, the second Italian team
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England has the most top clubs, but in this particular round they don’t play each other. And yet, there is a sign that draws attention. We are talking about the match between Manchester United and Brighton. Manchester has a surprising situation with its squad. In the last round, the team had to finish the game with two defenders, who are the fifth and sixth options for the position: Maguire and Evans. All due to the injuries of Varane, Martínez, Lindelof and Shaw (yes, he was also placed in the center of defense). Something terrible is also happening to the players who can play on the right flank of the attack. Greenwood decided not to return to the team due to the incident with his girlfriend, a similar situation with the suspended Anthony, and Sancho publicly argues with the head coach. He was suspended from training with the first team.
And then Brighton arrives at Old Trafford. If Bayer is the main discovery in Germany, the English club is the main discovery in all of European football. Not only does he earn a lot of money on transfers, but he also plays great attacking football. In terms of ball possession, they are the third team in the league (after Chelsea and City), in terms of passing accuracy they are second (after City) and in terms of number of shots, they are overall first (20, 8 on average per game). match). And the fact that Brighton are now above Manchester United does not seem like a coincidence.
This is the Brighton phenomenon:
An incredibly profitable club in the Premier League. How a modest team pushed aside the giants
The Milan derby is one of the most important matches in football. There have been statistics on matches between Inter and Milan for more than 100 years. They played for the first time in 1909. Since then, the teams have faced each other 237 times in all official tournaments: Inter won 89 times, Milan won 79 times and another 69 matches ended in a draw. The goal difference in the entire period is 329:310 in favor of Inter. And in terms of personal performances, Milan’s players are ahead: Andrei Shevchenko is the top scorer of the derby (14 goals) and Paolo Maldini leads in number of matches (56 matches).
Of particular interest is the current derby, also because of the classification. Only Inter and Milan won all three games at the start of the season. Someone will have to break the winning streak. Maybe even both teams, which strengthened well in the summer and now perhaps compete more than others for the championship. Well, there is no doubt that the Milan fans will boo profusely Darmian, Calhanoglu and Acerbi, who played for both clubs.
The Milan derby is one of the most important matches in football.
Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
An important match will happen in La Liga. On Sunday night, Real Madrid and Real Sociedad will meet, two teams that qualified for the Champions League (which, by the way, starts immediately after this round). The Madrid club fell far behind Barça last season and missed out on the championship. Now the capital club is two points ahead of its main competitor, but in one round everything can change.
Arsen Zakharyan
Photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images
For us this match is also important from Zajaryan’s point of view. For the first time, the Russian will face the team with the most titles in Europe. In previous matches, the midfielder appeared only in the last 10-15 minutes. The head coach of the Russian national team, Valery Karpin, noted that he did not call Zakharyan to the national team so that he could get used to the new club. It is true that the footballer was not feeling well and only in the last few days did he train in the general group. Maybe we will have to wait a little longer for his debut in the main team.
