Real Madrid notches VAR-scarred comeback win as Ancelotti takes responsibilityAt half-time on Sunday, Real Madrid were down 2-0 at home to Almeria, a team that hasn’t won a game in any competition in the past eight months. Real Madrid looked disjointed and absent-minded and had managed just five shots, none of them on target. Coming off the back of the derby defeat to Atletico in the Copa del Rey on Thursday night, it was the last thing Carlo Ancelotti needed.
In the end, Real Madrid turned it around to win 3-2 with a whole boatload of controversy. We’ll get to that in a minute, but there are two big takeaways that matter regardless of the VAR shenanigans.
The first is that they won, keeping them a point within Girona at the top of LaLiga and with a game in hand. Given Real Madrid’s history of comebacks, mental strength, manifest destiny etc., that matters, especially against a young side coming out of nowhere.
The other is that they looked really, really poor, especially in the first half. Ancelotti said it was on him, that he got his lineup wrong, that his starting XI showed signs of fatigue after the extra-time defeat on Thursday night. And, indeed, he made only two changes — one of them was Eduardo Camavinga, whom you would have thought might be able to handle two games back-to-back. More than that, the vibe was that they viewed Almeria as some sort of “gimme” game, which would be very worrying given what they’d done against Girona the week before.
As for the decisions, your view might vary. (Or VAR-y: see what I did there?) But it’s worth remembering you had an inexperienced referee (Francisco Jose Hernandez Maeso) on the pitch and a VAR (Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez) who had been harshly criticised by Real Madrid TV in the past.
After VAR ordered an on-field review, Madrid were awarded a penalty when Kaiky battled for a header with Joselu and the ball struck his arm. While there’s no question Kaiky handled the ball, it’s fair to wonder whether he wasn’t fouled by Joselu prior to that — or, for that matter, whether Antonio Rüdiger wasn’t fouling Chumi on the same play. The fact that there’s no mention of the potential fouls in the audio of the conversation released by LaLiga is not a good look, and it gives the impression that the referee didn’t even look at them.
VAR intervened again four minutes later, calling Hernandez Maeso to the monitor to disallow a goal from Sergio Arribas that would have put Almeria up 3-1. VAR had spotted a foul by Dion Lopy on Jude Bellingham, but the odd thing here is that when Hernandez Maeso looked at the monitor, he saw himself standing no more than few feet away from the incident and doing nothing.
Sure, VAR exists to correct craven errors. Was that a major mistake? Was Lopy’s hand to Bellingham’s face a foul, or just incidental contact? And if it was a foul, how could Hernandez Maeso not have seen it in real time given how close he was?
Then came what would turn out to be Madrid’s equaliser. The ball struck Vinícius somewhere on the upper arm and caromed into the net. Hernandez Maeso disallowed it at first, believing it hit below the shoulder, VAR called for another on-field review, and the referee changed his mind.
After that the tide changed, Almeria lost their discipline, their coach, Gaizka Garitano, was sent off — midfielder Gonzalo Melero would later say “the game was stolen” — and Dani Carvajal scored a dramatic winner in the ninth minute of extra time.
For my money, I thought the Kaiky handball should not have been given, while the other two could have gone either way. But you wish the referee showed a bit more personality in his decision-making. He saw the Lopy-Bellingham incident, what changed on the review? And given there were conflicting images on the Vinicius goal, why not let the ruling on the field stand?
Mistakes will happen and VAR won’t turn everything into black and white decisions, I get that. But the last thing LaLiga needs is more pressure piled on match officials and, in this regard, clubs need to also look at themselves and consider how they talk about match officials as people, rather than simply the decisions they take.
Darwin and Jota score in big win at Bournemouth, but it’s Mac Allister who shines
Goal scorers get the headlines and sure, Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota, with their two goals apiece, can enjoy their moment in the sun after Sunday’s 4-0 away win against Bournemouth. But my difference-maker of the day is Alexis Mac Allister.
With Dominik Szoboszlai and Trent Alexander-Arnold injured, Liverpool are missing a big chunk of quality in their passing game. It was left to Mac Allister to run the midfield and he didn’t miss a beat. I’ve argued before that he’s not a great fit for the defensive midfield role and I stand by that: he has had to adapt to a very different position than he played with Brighton (or Argentina). But performances like this one, coming not long after his return from injury, show that he can carry a midfield from deep.
As for Liverpool as a whole, this still wasn’t a complete 90-minute performance. The absences of Szoboszlai, Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and (of course) Mo Salah weigh heavily, but that first half was poor, even though events after the break more than made up for it.
Barcelona show grit, quality with big win at Real BetisOh, how Xavi needed this. The Barcelona boss has been under huge pressure of late and while this weekend’s 4-2 win won’t silence all the critics, it’s a just reward for some of the bold steps he has taken.
Xavi put his faith in Ferran Torres, who scored twice to give Barca a 2-0 lead (he’d add another in garbage time). He trusted a pair of 16-year-olds, Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí, in what could have been a watershed game: Yamal was excellent and Cubarsi more than solid in his first ever LaLiga start. Most of all, at 2-2, after Isco‘s brilliance had reopened the match, he wasn’t shy about yanking Robert Lewandowski for the teenage newcomer Vitor Roque.
The winning goal was an absolute outside-of-the-boot gem from substitute João Félix, who served up a reminder that when he’s good, he’s really, really good (though a lot of the time, of late, he has been indifferent, which is probably why Xavi benched him).
Xavi called it one of Barcelona’s best performances this season, and it’s hard to disagree. Whatever happens, nobody can say he’s shy about stamping his authority in this team. If they fail, they’ll fail his way.
Another buzzer-beater for Bayer Leverkusen against RB Leipzig, and now they’re seven points clear
Regular readers will know I’m not generally impressed when teams notch late winners. Belief, toughness, whatever: it’s all words, I kinda take trying hard until the end as a given, and if it takes you that long to score, it can often mean you’re not doing that great.
For the second straight week, Bayer Leverkusen got all three points thanks to a late, late goal: this time, it was Piero Hincapié. The difference this time was that they were facing a much better opponent in Leipzig, and they had Florian Wirtz back in the lineup. (It’s not all good news: Victor Boniface is still injured, while Edmond Tapsoba and Odilon Kossounou are still on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.)
Leverkusen were under pressure for much of a first half marked by Xavi Simons highlight reel goal. After clawing back the equaliser, they again went behind, this time on the counter, before a Jonathan Tah header made it 2-2. It was a goal that also shifted momentum, and there was almost a sense of inevitability to the winner.
You can expect their manager, Xabi Alonso, to channel this. Yes, he can focus on how they could’ve been better, but victories like these lend a sense of inevitability and destiny to a campaign, and that can be crucial for his young team who, for those keeping score at home, are undefeated this season in all competitions and have drawn just three matches.
Arsenal beat up Crystal Palace 5-1 to draw level with Man City in league table
Facing Crystal Palace is a tonic for anyone right now given that they’ve won one game since early November and the fans are far from happy (something their postmatch banners showed). And yes, it’s true that two of Arsenal’s goals came on set pieces, two came in garbage time (Gabriel Martinelli bagging both) and the other came off a counter from a Palace corner, the sort of thing that should never happen at any level.
But none of the above that shouldn’t take away from Arsenal’s performance, who were always in control, even when struggling to break through Palace’s massed defensive ranks. There was no panic, they picked their spots and they showed the sort of maturity you don’t always get from young sides.
This wasn’t the sort of game that would tell you if Arsenal are potential title-winners, but it’s enough to tell you that if the others falter, they’ll be ready to step in.
Juventus go top of Serie A (for now) for the first time since August 2020Juventus made it seven wins in a row in all competitions with a 3-0 road victory away to Lecce, which saw them pass Inter at the top of the table (though the Nerazzurri have a game in hand).
It wasn’t quite as comprehensive as the scoreline suggests, and Lecce might have had a penalty when Pontus Almqvist was brought down. But then Dusan Vlahovic‘s scuffed shot made its way into the back of the net and the big man struck again — technically, he took a goal away from Weston McKennie — to make it 2-0.
That’s now five goals in three games for Vlahovic and while critics might call him selfish and lucky for the two he scored against Lecce, the truth is having a centre-forward who is selfish and lucky is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s not just Vlahovic’s resurgence that is notable, of course: it’s also the contribution of teenage sensation Kenan Yildiz, filling in for the injured Federico Chiesa.
Manager Max Allegri is playing it down, but with no European football to contend with, Juve have to believe they have a decent shot at taking Inter to the wire and even beating them for the title.
Girona bandwagon shows no sign of slowing down with demolition of Sevilla
A week ago, Girona turned in their worst performance of the season in a 0-0 draw with bottom club Almeria that they deserved to lose. Since then, they beat up Rayo in the Copa del Rey in midweek and followed up with a 5-1 drubbing of Sevilla that was even more one-sided than the score suggests.
Sevilla played a big part in their own downfall — they were awful and Sergio Ramos showed that, as Rocky Balboa says, Father Time is undefeated — but take nothing away from Artem Dovbyk, who scored a hat trick inside the opening 20 minutes. The big Ukrainian is up to 14 league goals on the season, making him LaLiga’s top goal scorer, alongside Jude Bellingham.
Right now, it feels as if one of those two is LaLiga’s newcomer of the year … with the difference being that Bellingham’s transfer fee was 14 times higher.
Borussia Dortmund squarely in Champions League conversation now
OK, so two gaudy wins against the bottom two teams in the table need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but after beating Koln away 4-0, Borussia Dortmund are now fourth in the Bundesliga, level on points with RB Leipzig and just one out of third place. What’s more, the January signings — Ian Maatsen and Jadon Sancho, the latter making his first start — seem to have sparked this side into life.
Maatsen is showing he can be a devastating two-way player at left-back in a four-man defensive set … which is precisely why he didn’t get space at Chelsea. Meanwhile, Sancho turned in a very solid 65 minutes and won a penalty: he’s not what he was when he was a Dortmund player four years ago, but the rust is coming off very quickly. Donyell Malen looked sharp, and Youssoufa Moukoko came off the bench to score (again).
On the one hand, the real test will come against tougher opposition. On the other, with so many injuries in midfield and at the back — 19-year-old Hendry Blank made his debut and had to play the entire second half at the back after Niklas Süle came off — this will be a different side defensively when everyone is fit.
Roma’s De Rossi tries to make clean break from Mourinho era on the pitch
Most match-going Roma fans were entirely unhappy with the sacking of Jose Mourinho, and they weren’t shy about letting folks know when their side took the pitch on Saturday against Verona. There were pro-Mourinho chants, and there were boos for most of the players. (Daniele De Rossi himself received an ovation, as you’d expect for a hometown hero.)
The man once upon a time known as “Captain Future” has an interim contact to manage this team until the end of the season, and he’s determined to make it count. Most evident of his desire to turn the page is how he tried to set Roma up in the 2-1 win. No more back three (except for late in the game), two men (Stephan El Shaarawy and Paulo Dybala) in the space behind Romelu Lukaku, with Lorenzo Pellegrini playmaking in midfield and attacking full-backs on the flanks.
It all led to plenty of possession (62%), plenty of movement (not always coordinated, but then he’s had only three training sessions in charge) and less of a Dybala-dependency.
Did it work? Well, they raced out to a 2-0 lead, were fortunate that Verona had a goal disallowed and missed a penalty, and then suffered late after Rui Patrício‘s blunder on Michael Folorunsho‘s long-range effort. They deserved their 2-1 win, but then again Verona aren’t very good and just sold two of their better players.
The jury is definitely out, but the impression is that De Rossi wants his vision of football to be nothing like Mourinho’s.
