⚽️BAYER NEVERLOSIN'
⚽️BAYER NEVERLOSIN'
Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen side is the only unbeaten team in Europe.
This is THE FOOTBALL WEEKEND, your Friday morning rundown of all the best matches across world football over the coming weekend in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and more. Join subscribers from 66 different countries:
This week’s lineup is a journey, with matches from the African Cup of Nations, Serie A, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, and La Liga. But first…..
THE HEADLINES
➡️ Roma manager José Mourinho was sacked on Tuesday following a poor run where the capital club sunk to ninth in Serie A. Not to toot the ol’ horn, but Manny and I kind of called this one on Monday’s episode of MATCH REPORT!
➡️ Everton and Nottingham Forest have been charged with breaching the Premier League’s “Profitability and Sustainability Rules” for some allegedly profligate spending over a five-year period ending in 2023. Both could face points deductions that would send them spinning into the relegation battle. For Everton, it would be their second of the season following a 10-point hit in November.
➡️ Manchester City now have their date in court for their own alleged transgressions against the Premier League’s financial rules. (PL chief Richard Masters said he couldn’t provide the date, however, leading some to joke it will happen on February 31.) The process of fully adjudicating the club’s 115 charges is likely to take years, which ought to be a lesson to the Evertons of the world: the biggest mistake you can make is going too small, and choosing to cooperate with investigators. Stonewall ‘em!
➡️ Jordan Henderson is the first major player to flee the Saudi Pro League, skipping out on Al-Ettifaq—and manager Steven Gerrard—after just six months. The former Liverpool midfielder failed to “settle” in Saudi, so he’s off to Ajax in Amsterdam, but not before he did his reputation some significant damage. And according to The Telegraph, he did it for free: he “has not received a penny” yet from Al-Ettifaq “after deferring [his] wages to avoid UK tax.” On paper, his salary was £350,000 per week.
➡️ Real Madrid legend Karim Benzema is also reportedly getting ants in his pants over in Saudi. The 2022 Ballon d’Or winner has been linked with a move to Arsenal and Chelsea, though his lawyer told a different story this week.
➡️ FIFA has approved a test proposal to play the audio of VAR communications with on-field referees over the stadium loudspeakers in Portugal. The VAR experience for fans in stadiums is currently shit—it takes way too long without any details about what’s happening—so any plan to change it is welcome.
➡️ Antoine Griezmann was honored on Thursday as Atlético Madrid’s all-time leading goalscorer. The Frenchman reached 174 buts for the club, passing Luis Aragonés, and proceeded to score the go-ahead goal in extra time as Los Colchoneros overcame bitter rivals Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey. 175!
FRIDAY
SENEGAL vs CAMEROON (12pm ET, 5pm GMT)
Two of Africa’s great powers face off in the African Cup of Nations, and star-studded Senegal look to defend their crown. Sadio Mané leads the big names, one of quite a few Senegalese plying their trade in the Saudi Pro League at the moment, but there are Premier League and Ligue 1 players all over the squad. Cameroon do not have the same strength they did in the days of Samuel Eto’o, but André Onana should be in goal—after controversially skipping the first match to play for his club, Manchester United—and Napoli’s Frank Anguissa provides the quality in midfield. Captain and #10 Vincent Aboubakar is injured for the Indomitable Lions but is hoping to return at some point during the tournament.
INTER MILAN vs LAZIO (2pm ET, 7pm GMT)
Internazionale is surely one of the top teams in Europe, with 49 goals scored and an astonishing 10 goals conceded in Serie A. Lautaro Martinez has 18 of those, while signing Marcus Thuram for free this summer is looking like some incredible business for Inter. He’s got eight goals and seven assists. They haven’t lost in the league since September 27, taking 2.6 points per game over their last 10. Lazio had an uneasy start to the season, but Maurizio Sarri has shaped things up and they’ve rattled off five straight wins—since losing to Inter last month. But Inter lost in the Coppa Italia right after, and this is also cup competition. It’s the semifinal of the Supercoppa Italiana, played, naturally, in Saudi Arabia.
SATURDAY
ARSENAL vs CRYSTAL PALACE (7:30am ET, 12:30pm GMT)
The Gunners come into this one hoping the squad is revitalized by a winter training camp in Dubai. They’re in desperate need of a reset following a dismal run of one win and four losses in seven matches, crashing out of the FA Cup along the way and endangering their bid to compete for the Premier League title. Goalscoring has been the well-publicized problem, as Arsenal forwards Gabriel Martinelli (2) and Gabriel Jesus (3) aren’t exactly bringing the noise. Crystal Palace are half-decent defensively, they just can’t score either. They’re third-bottom on that metric with 22 on the season, though I have the feeling the net will bulge in this one. Apart from Brighton last month, Arsenal haven’t kept a clean sheet since November 25.
ALGERIA vs BURKINA FASO (9:30am ET, 2:30pm GMT)
Burkina Faso are not among African football’s powerhouses, but they’ve got some talented defenders in Edmond Tapsoba (Bayer Leverkusen) and Issa Kaboré (Luton Town) and some quality forwards like Bertrand Traoré (Aston Villa) and Dango Ouattara (Bournemouth). Their opponents are on another level, however, led by Riyad Mahrez and Ismaël Bennacer and Houssem Aouar. You’d expect Les Fennecs (named for a small North African desert fox) to dominate possession here, but both teams are in the mix to top Group D.
RB LEIPZIG vs BAYER LEVERKUSEN (12:30pm ET, 5:30pm GMT)
This is first against fourth in the Bundesliga, although 12 points separate them. That’s because Bayer Leverkusen are flying with 45 points from 17 matches, the last unbeaten team in Europe’s top five leagues. (They won six out of six in their Europa League group, too, though it wasn’t a particularly strong one.) Xabi Alonso’s managerial career is off to a roaring start as Die Werkself sweep aside all comers this season. They’re not as free-scoring as their main rivals for the Bundesliga—a Bayern Munich side led by Harry Kane (who has 22 on his own) and Leroy Sané—but they’re airtight at the back with just 12 goals conceded.
Victor Boniface was the hot hand—foot?—to start the season, but he’s injured at the moment. (He would have been with Nigeria at AFCON otherwise.) The special sauce in this Leverkusen side is Florian Wirtz, the 20-year-old German attacking midfielder who has swiftly become one of the hottest prospects in Europe. The club have reportedly set his price tag at €130 million, looking to see off the summer suitors early, and it’s not hard to see why there’s interest.
Wirtz is a free dribbler who can pick a through ball, a flicks-and-trickster with 360-degree-vision. He is lightning quick on the turn, bedeviling defenders one-on-one, even when they think they have him turned away from danger. He has that unteachable talent to glide past people with a body feint and a well-timed touch, and the runs he makes put him in perfect position to score simple goals from a teammate’s cutback to go along with the more extraordinary ones.
Things are somewhat less rosy for Leipzig. They’re a dozen points back from Leverkusen, battling in a different bracket with Stuttgart, Dortmund, and Eintracht Frankfurt for a Top Four place. Loïs Openda is third-top scorer in the division, though, ahead of anybody from Leverkusen, and Xavi Simons is a real show-stopper, a left-wing conjurer who can send a ball through the lines to a streaking runner. The Bundesliga is a feast of young, up-and-coming talent right now, and this match could be a great advertisement.
SUNDAY
BOURNEMOUTH vs LIVERPOOL (11:30am ET, 4:30pm GMT)
The Cherries are top of the form table over the last 10 matches, taking 2.2 points per game even with the loss last time out against Tottenham. Much of that run was actually built on some stellar away form, however, and I just get the feeling that the music is about to stop. They’ve proven me wrong before, however—I had them going down at the start of the season—and Liverpool will arrive on the South Coast without talisman Mo Salah, who’s away at AFCON (and possibly injured). There are plenty of talented attackers in the squad, with Diogo Jota chief among them, but they may lack some potency, particulary with Trent Alexander-Arnold out injured. Still, Jürgen Klopp’s outfit are top of the league and looking to stay there.
GIRONA vs SEVILLA (3pm ET, 8pm GMT)
The fairytale La Liga leaders are less of a Cinderella when you take into account that they’re a regional affiliate of Man City, but they’re still operating on a tiny budget compared to Real Madrid or Barcelona while hitting some lofty heights. Girona will host an almost criminally poor team for a club of Sevilla’s stature, sitting one point above the drop zone in 17th. They’ve won one and lost six of their last eight, having already sacked a manager last month. Quique Sánchez Flores is the new man following the dismissal of Diego Alonso, and he needs to turn this ship around quickly. This is a club that’s won the Europa League (slash UEFA Cup) seven times this century, including two of the last four. They’ve got no business going down into the Spanish second division.
THE FPL STOCK MARKET
Gameweek 21 is spread across two weekends, so there isn’t much managing to do here. We’re all locked into our decisions from the end of last week, which in my case includes…
↘️Playing my free hit chip
I was hoping to use these couple of weeks to ride out some injuries and cut down on the number of negative-four-point transfers I’ll have to make with Mo Salah and Mohammed Kudus off at AFCON. But it doesn’t look like Michael Olisé will be fit for the next gameweek, Jarrod Bowen is very much in question, and I forgot I’d still only have one free transfer this week after using the chip. It’s always tough doing business in January!⚽︎