Juventus slide continues as Vlahovic and Allegri let them down… badlyRemember how I’d said that Juve, despite dropping points, had played reasonably well of late? Well, the scoreless home draw against Genoa brought chickens home to roost.
Juventus have just seven points from eight games (a relegation-worthy pace) and have slipped into third place. And because coach Max Allegri lives by results (and results only), he suffers by them as well.
It’s unfair in some ways because although Juventus were horrendous in the first half (especially Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa ), they played reasonably well after the hour mark, when Adrien Rabiot and the youngsters Kenan Yildiz and Samuel Iling-Junior came on. But, of course, Allegri has defined himself only by results and the here and now, and that mindset denies him the alibi of growth and performance (even though that’s what Juve should be focusing on).
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Instead, we got the “bundle of nerves” routine. Vlahovic threw a hissy fit in injury time and got himself sent off, which means another suspension beckons. And Allegri got into a spat with a journalist who had the temerity of asking him why he doesn’t play a front three, with Iling-Junior or Yildiz joining Vlahovic and Chiesa in attack.
“You do your job and I’ll do mine,” Allegri said. “I don’t know how to be a journalist and you don’t know how to be a coach.”
The man is 56 years old. You expect a bit more maturity than that.
Schick takes his Europa League heroics into Bundesliga and Leverkusen win again I’m a Patrik Schick fan, especially after everything he’s been through, and after what he’s done in the past few weeks, I’m guessing his manager, Xabi Alonso, is too.
Against Qarabag, in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16, Schick scored the injury-time equalizer. In the return leg, he did even better: Leverkusen were down 2-1 and Schick scored the equaliser and the winner, both in injury time. On Sunday away to Freiburg, he scored the goal that put Leverkusen up 3-1 with a delightful touch.
Schick was injured at the start of the season and Victor Boniface ran rampant up front in his absence. Yet Boniface has been sidelined since December and without him, Schick has shared centre-forward duties with Borja Iglesias , who arrived in January. He has an unusual skill set for a central striker and that — plus his injuries and occasional inconsistency — is possibly why Leverkusen didn’t want to put all their eggs into his basket. But given his contributions of late, it’s safe to assume they’re glad he’s around.
Mbappe returns with armband and hat trick in 6-2 drubbing of Montpellier After his recent “time out” in Ligue 1 play, Kylian Mbappé returned with a bang, captaining the side in Marquinhos ‘ absence and bagging three goals in Paris Saint-Germain’s 6-2 victory over Montpellier on Sunday. (His long-range effort was particularly stunning and not a typical “Mbappe goal,” if there is such a thing.)
Let it be a reminder that PSG can turn it on when it matters and, if anything, they’re a better side in games like this where Mbappe is involved, but not central to proceedings.
Don’t let the sloppy first half (it was 2-2 at the break) fool you, either. The way they have played of late in Ligue 1, you could have seen them fizzle and play for a share of the spoils (heck, their lead at the top is enormous anyway). Instead, they came together and roared back, which can only be a good thing for Luis Enrique.
Pulisic fires Milan to 3-1 road win in what is probably his finest season yet Christian Pulisic is not — and may never be, not unless Mike Maignan , Rafael Leão and Theo Hernández leave and are replaced by three video game regens — Milan’s best player, but he might well be their most reliable player. He showed it again away to Verona this weekend, scoring a goal and hitting the woodwork, sure, but also busting his backside defensively and pressing with the sort of work rate and intelligence coaches crave.
Two factors help him here. One is that he’s injury-free; the other is that he’s not the main option. (Milan play with a genuine centre-forward — usually Olivier Giroud , though against Verona it was Noah Okafor — and most of their play develops on the opposite flank where Leao and Hernandez operate.)
This is probably his best season to date and regardless of whether Stefano Pioli sticks around as manager in the summer — he really should, especially with Milan second and in the Europa League quarterfinals, but this is a strange industry — you’d imagine he’ll play an even bigger part next year.
Dortmund gut out win over Eintracht and in their case, it’s better than winning pretty Given that right now, Borussia Dortmund are a bundle of nerves with a unique capacity for self-destruction — they showed it against PSV in the Champions League in that second half — how they beat Eintracht Frankfurt this weekend is as significant as the fact that they won 3-1 to stay fourth, one point ahead of Leipzig.
In this case, that meant getting back into the game after gifting (thank you, Nico Schlotterbeck ) an early goal to the opposition and then not panicking in what turned into a physical, edgy game of the sort that has seen Dortmund fall apart in the past. Instead, they kept their heads and let their superior quality show, which eventually it did, culminating in a Mats Hummels header that gave them the lead in the 81st minute, with Emre Can adding a penalty in injury time.
This sort of confidence and discipline is what Edin Terzic has been trying to build, with decidedly mixed success.
