Before we head into a two-week international break filled with impactful games — FIFA World Cup qualifying, Concacaf Nations League finals and much more — let’s recap another tremendous weekend in Europe’s top soccer leagues, shall we? How about Newcastle United, whose 57-year wait for a trophy ended on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final? Or Barcelona, who shrugged off what should have been a lethal 2-0 deficit at Atletico Madrid to score four times in the final 15 minutes, winning comfortably and taking charge of LaLiga’s title race?
Arsenal and Chelsea usually brings fire and brimstone-level drama, but instead we got a curiously dull 1-0 Gunners victory that really failed to meet the moment. Elsewhere, Inter Milan took a huge step forward in the Serie A title race with an impressive win over Atalanta that was compounded by Napoli‘s failure to beat Venezia, and we have plenty to talk about when it comes to Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and much more. Here are some musings and reactions to the most memorable moments of the weekend.
Newcastle’s cup win for the ages
Even if you follow the Premier League, it’s hard to overstate the outsized significance of this Newcastle club. It’s not just the romantic notion of the giant stadium dominating the city, or the passionate, long-suffering base, or the fact that it’s a part of the country that feels peripheral to the seats of power. The Toon Army narrative may have become trite over the years — it may have also lost some sparkle after the Saudi takeover — but it’s no less real. Just as the nine Wembley defeats and 57-year wait for a major trophy (the last one was the Inter-City Fairs Cup, the precursor to the Europa League) is the sort of psychological baggage that infected not just the fan base, but the players too.
Many of us harbour doubts about this Barcelona side, both in terms of solidity and in terms of mentality. After tonight, many of us may need to have a rethink, because to come back from 2-0 down away from home against Atletico Madrid with 20 minutes to go on a night when you had cobbled together just one shot on target to that point — well … that takes not just talent, but toughness upstairs.
Yet that’s exactly what they did, turning the table on an Atleti side that appeared to have their number, both in denying chances and in exploiting the counterattack. The old warrior — 36 years young, in this case — Robert Lewandowski halved the deficit with the sort of exquisite control and lightning quick finish that can’t be taught, only bestowed by a higher power. Then super-sub Ferran Torres got his timing right to redirect Raphinha‘s ball past Jan Oblak and it was 2-2.
This should be a classic London rivalry; instead it looked like going through the motions. Not necessarily through lack of will, either — more like a lack of quality.
As you may have heard by now, Arsenal are missing Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, their biggest attacking threats, as well as Gabriel Jesus, who in theory is Havertz’ only back-up. Chelsea were without Nico Jackson, Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer, who happen to be their three leading scorers, as well as Marc Guiu, Jackson’s reserve at centerforward.
I’ve hammered both clubs enough for not building a squad with a real alternative to their first-choice No. 9. On Sunday, we saw again what can happen in those conditions. Arsenal lined up with Mikel Merino, a midfielder whose movement (or lack thereof) is nothing like that of a centerforward. Chelsea had Pedro Neto, a winger whose natural tendency to find space at all costs — coupled with a near total absence of physicality, which made him easy prey for the Arsenal central defenders — often left a big hole in the Chelsea frontline.
Napoli’s 0-0 draw with Venezia (they’ve only won one of their last seven) coupled with Inter’s 2-0 win turned it into a perfect weekend for Simone Inzaghi’s side. The victory gives the Nerazzurri a six-point lead at the top of the table over Atalanta and a three-point margin over Napoli, while also holding the tiebreakers over both. It’s far from done and dusted, of course, but it showed again how Inter are a notch above the opposition in terms of maximising their chances in each and every game.
Oh, and this wasn’t one of those games were Atalanta dominate play, but wily, old Inter find a way to win. Inzaghi’s side hit the woodwork early and created the better chances throughout, as evidenced by the expected goals count of 2.45 to 0.64.
The fact that two of the guys at the heart of Atalanta’s success this year — midfielder Éderson and manager Gian Piero Gasperini — were needlessly sent off underscores how, deep down, they probably knew things were slipping away. Ederson got a yellow card for dissent and reacted by sarcastically applauding the referee, which is an automatic caution and therefore amounted to a red card. You expect more from (arguably) your best player and the fact that he was probably justified in his original complaint — being fouled by Marcus Thuram — doesn’t mean you can risk a sending off when you’re just a goal down with nine minutes to go.
As for Gasperini’s red card, we’ve seen this so many times before: it’s pathological with that guy. He’s a genius coach, albeit one with serious anger management issues.
Right now, Inter ooze confidence from every pore. Inzaghi joked about winning the Quadruple last week; after this match Lautaro Martínez spoke openly about trying for the Treble. Arrogance? I don’t think so. They know they’re not the best team in Europe, but they know they’re really good. And, more importantly, they know that to win a Treble you don’t necessarily need to be the best, you just need to be very good, make the best decisions on the day and hope things break your way. They certainly know how to do that.
Quick hits
10. After sending Marseille packing, can we just crown Paris Saint-Germain now? I actually thought that this would be a normal game in which to drop points following the huge exertion against Liverpool in the Champions League. Marseille are in town for Le Classique, the pressure is off heading into an international break, the opposition has been preparing all week for this … nope. PSG are relentless right now, racing to a 2-0 half-time lead and then, after Nuno Mendes‘ blunder, shutting the door en route to a 3-1 win. They haven’t lost domestically all seasons, they’re 19 points clear at the top of Ligue 1 and can wrap this up by the end of the month. From there, they can focus entirely on the Champions League, which, as ever, is the real prize.
Dan Thomas is joined by Craig Burley, Shaka Hislop and others to bring you the latest highlights and debate the biggest storylines. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only).
4. Bayern Munich drop more points: Their remarkable (and not in a good way) campaign continues. I wrote last week how, weirdly, Bayern might yet win the Bundesliga-Champions League Double in what is supposed to be a transition season (and not a very impressive one at that). You can blame stand-in keeper Jonas Urbig (who had done well deputising for Manuel Neuer) for Union Berlin’s equalizer in the 1-1 draw Saturday, but the reality is that Vincent Kompany’s crew looked flat throughout, managing just three shots on target despite bossing the possession. Maybe the Bayer Leverkusen games in Europe took a lot out of them, or maybe they’re just not that good right now: they have just two more points than last season, when they finished third.
3. Pep Guardiola still in experimental mode, looking for answers: Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Brighton was an entertaining game that could have gone either way: Brighton can grumble about Kaoru Mitoma‘s disallowed goal and Carlos Baleba missing a sitter, while Man City can wonder about Nico Gonzalez‘s header hitting the post. However, it was notable that Guardiola lined up, at home, with a distinctly direct formation — Jérémy Doku and Savinho wide, Omar Marmoush behind Erling Haaland — and opted to leave his more technically gifted players (Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne) on the bench. It amounted to a City team that was reactive more than proactive — not something we’re used to from Guardiola, especially not at home. It worked to a point (though it’s worth noting they couldn’t manage a single shot on target in the second half), yet you wonder if this experimentation is a sign that many of these guys are auditioning for jobs next season. And if they stay this inconsistent, they may not be Champions League jobs either.
1:55
Nicol: Foden is a ‘symptom’ of what’s going on at Manchester City
Stevie Nicol and Craig Burley analyze what’s to blame for Phil Foden’s down season for Manchester City.
2. Too little, too late for Borussia Dortmund in underachiever derby: It was certainly primed for Borussia Dortmund to finally get their act together and climb back out of the bottom half of the table and, ideally, on their way to a Champions League spot. RB Leipzig had won just one over their previous ten games and Niko Kovac’s crew were on a high from the midweek result in Lille. Instead, for the first 50 minutes or so, they looked atrocious as David Raum dominated the flank, Leipzig hit the woodwork twice and they found themselves two goals down (thanks to the usual defensive shenanigans). Dortmund did rally, putting together a monster 20 shots for an xG of 2.84 in the second half, but they failed to score and fell to their 11th defeat in 26 Bundesliga games. That’s just not good enough and it means they likely won’t be playing Champions League football next season (unless they win it, of course…)
1. Juventus slip out of Champions League places in Serie A and manager Thiago Motta says all the wrong things (again): Maybe the Juve boss will turn out to be a great manager one day and we’ll all be proven wrong. For now though, he’s not just dropping points (the 0-4 debacle at home to Atalanta was followed by a 3-0 thumping away to Fiorentina), but he’s also not reading the room at all. His reaction to the defeat was to talk about how “strong” he felt and how “he enjoyed new challenges” and other such nonsense — that’s not the right thing to say when you lose 3-0 to an age-old rival whose two best players on the day, Nicolo’ Fagioli and Moise Kean, were two guys you didn’t even want in your team. Nor is it the right thing to say when your first shot on target only comes in the second half, when you persist with personnel choices nobody understands (Lloyd Kelly at leftback? Weston McKennie on the right wing? Andrea Cambiaso and Federico Gatti as substitutes? Dusan Vlahovic and Kenan Yildiz unused on the bench?). Motta can’t be the only fall guy here, by the way. It’s one thing to back your manager; it’s quite another to follow him lemming-like off the cliff. Juve sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli has a ton to answer for as well.
