May 6 Matchweek Thread

Zososoxfan

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I give up on the correct way to title these matchweek threads. But substantively, this is a BIG one across Europe.

In EPL, Spurs travel to Anfield to get put to the sword take on soaring Liverpool, as Spurs tries to keep pace with Arsenal, and Pool continues to put pressure on a heartbroken Citeh squad. Relegation fighters Leeds take on Arsenal (c'mon Jesse!), Everton play Leicester, and Burnley play Villa.

In Spain, 2nd place Barca take on 5th place Betis, 3rd place Sevilla take on 7th place Villarreal, and 4th place Atleti spit on, kick, and generally agitate league winners Real Madrid.

In Italy, Inter take on lowly Empoli this afternoon, while AC will tangle with midtable Verona on Sunday, as they battle it out for the scudetto.
 

67YAZ

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Don’t sleep on the Women’s Super League coming down to the last match day on Sunday. Chelsea lead Arsenal by a single point. The Blues host 3rd place ManU while the Gunners head to 6th place West Ham.
 

Zososoxfan

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Don’t sleep on the Women’s Super League coming down to the last match day on Sunday. Chelsea lead Arsenal by a single point. The Blues host 3rd place ManU while the Gunners head to 6th place West Ham.
Should probably post this to the womens football thread, but how do other domestic leagues and the WUCL compare? I was pretty psyched to see that Barca sold out (I think) Camp Nou for a recent Womens match, but IOW, what's the highest level of womens football at the moment? Is the International Game still strong, or have club competitions generally surpassed it?
 

67YAZ

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Should probably post this to the womens football thread, but how do other domestic leagues and the WUCL compare? I was pretty psyched to see that Barca sold out (I think) Camp Nou for a recent Womens match, but IOW, what's the highest level of womens football at the moment? Is the International Game still strong, or have club competitions generally surpassed it?
That Barca squad...my god. They should sell out Camp Nou. And it's widely mooted that Arsenal's best player (and best in the WSL, IMO), Vivianne Miedema, is heading there on a free this summer.

The UCL is the best competition now. There are more excellent clubs and more talented players than ever, but in Europe the talent is largely clustered in a handful of clubs: Chelsea, Arsenal, City, ManU, PSG, Lyon, Barca, Wolfsburg, Bayern, Madrid. The NWSL might be the deepest league with the best distribution of talent across clubs due to the salary and allocation rules (we'll have to see how those change under a new CBA), but I don't think the top NWSL teams could hang with the Barca/Chelsea/Arsenal/PSG crowd.

The international game is falling behind. There's still such a yawning gap in investment in women's sports across the globe. The top levels of the game are still strong (US, Canada, England, France, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands). For some reasons, the East Asian countries have been sliding, especially China. Maybe it's just a low cycle for the region or interest has shifted to other sports? In any case, the talent base continues to grow, but the top clubs are building innovative, dynamic squads that play like no national team could.
 

candylandriots

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Don’t sleep on the biggest game of the weekend (well to me anyway!) as Union Berlin travels to Freiburg. Freiburg is in 4th with 55 points, Union in 7th at 51.

Union plays Bochum in the final game, while Freiburg plays Leverkusen. This week’s game could conceivably be the difference between the Champions League and Conference League.

And as much as I love and respect Roy Hodgson, it’s going to be great watching Watford get relegated again. Fuck those guys.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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Inter with a big comeback win against Empoli, 4-2. Shots were 37-4!

That led me to do some googling about Serie A shot records and I discovered that a few years ago Atalanta outshot Empoli 47-3 yet the match finished 0-0.
 

coremiller

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candylandriots

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Union Berlin takes the early lead at Freiburg to keep their slim hopes of Champions League football alive. This a six-pointer in that race.

Disorienting to rooting agains the team in red and white though.
 

candylandriots

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Fucking hell. 1-1. It's always Jaeckel that is guilty of something it seems like -- this time poor defending.
 

candylandriots

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Thank VAR - goal was chalked off. I'd be really angry if I were supporting Freiburg today. The ball hit Jaeckel's head and then hit the goal scorer's upper arm and they reversed the call. It took so long before they even seemed to review it, I thought it was a done deal.
 

candylandriots

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Another goal for Union! They really haven't had much possession and Freiburg seems to be the more dominant side, but Union has been making their chances count. Nice header by Trimmel on a cross to double the lead.
 

candylandriots

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I'm going to now leave this thread, because I want to see the replay of the Watford-Palace match later and don't want any spoilers.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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Wow, soft soft call to take that Chelsea goal away. No complaints as a Spurs fan, but pretty lame.
 

candylandriots

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Not reading the thread, but reporting (if anyone's interested) that it's now 1-3 in the Freiburg/Union game.
 

Royal Reader

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In the League Two promotion/playoff race, all six teams chasing the last automatic promotion slot and the playoff places are winning, and the two already promoted teams chasing the title are both losing.
 

candylandriots

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This is slightly worrisome - Frederik Rønnow, who has been Union's first-choice GK was injured during warmups, so Andreas Luthe is playing. No big deal really. However, Luthe has already picked up a yellow for time-wasting, and did it with more than 20 minutes left in the match...and Union doesn't have a backup keeper.
 

candylandriots

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That should do it for this one. Union is up 4-1 with just a few minutes of stoppage time to go.

Union has guaranteed themselves at worst, a 7th place finish and a place in Europe. Just left to decide whether it's Champions, Europa or Conference League. They can finish anywhere from 4th to 7th now.
 

the1andonly3003

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Werner seems to refuse to pass the ball to Lukaku...every time I watch, he just keeps it while Lukaku is making a run or standing with no pressure around him
 

Jimy Hendrix

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Werner seems to refuse to pass the ball to Lukaku...every time I watch, he just keeps it while Lukaku is making a run or standing with no pressure around him
I think he’s just bad at the final ball, classic “don’t assume malice when incompetence is an option” stuff.
 

SocrManiac

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Fully agreed. Werner is not a complete player. His inability to be onside is a good indication that his football IQ isn’t where it needs to be.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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Fully agreed. Werner is not a complete player. His inability to be onside is a good indication that his football IQ isn’t where it needs to be.
His awesome Leipzig seasons he was generally out in transition against deeply disorganized defenses and had room to make simple passes that he simply does not have in the EPL and in Chelsea’s setups.

He also would cut in and rip great goals from distance in a way that vanished from his game when he left Germany, possibly for the same reason of no longer having that space from playing in transition.
 

OCST

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Burnley 1-3 Villa. Burnley score on a breakaway in stoppage time to nick a potentially precious goal for GD but still a beatdown

Mee is already out for the year, and Tarkowski hurt in this game.


Burnley 34 pts, 3 games left, -17 GD
Leeds 34 pts, 4 games left, -35 GD
Everton 32 pts, 5 games left, -20 GD

ARS-LEE and LEI-EVE tomorrow at 9:00.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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And before the match, Rangnick was complaining that the club wouldn’t move on his players he wanted during the January window:
"The answer at the time was there was no player on the market that could really help us -- there were a few," Rangnick told reporters ahead of Saturday's league trip to Brighton.

"Diaz, who is now at Liverpool, Alvarez who will be at Manchester City in the summer, Vlahovic who at the time still was with Fiorentina. Those are just three of them that come across my mind now.

"We had four days off at the time and on the Sunday I was informed about the issues with Mason Greenwood and obviously Anthony Martial had already left and then I was aware that within four days we had some strikers missing and it might make sense, we were still in three competitions -- Champions League, FA Cup and fourth in the league but that's the past and it doesn't help us anymore."
"I spoke to the board and said shouldn't we at least speak and try and analyse if we could get a player either on loan or as a permanent deal, but in the end the answer was no," Rangnick added.

"I still believe that we should have at least tried, if we would've found and been able in 48 hours, 48 hours is short notice but it's still 48 hours, it might have been worth to try and internally discuss but we didn't and it was not done."
https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-transfers/story/4659450/man-united-missed-out-on-luis-diaz-dusan-vlahovic-transfers-in-january-ralf-rangnick
 

dirtynine

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I know the tendency will be to put this on United falling apart, and god knows I have no idea what their back line is doing - but don’t forget to give Brighton some credit. Passing has been exquisite. They’ve capitalized on opportunities. Sanchez has made 2-3 world class saves. This is a club that keeps growing year by year. Ongoing residence in the top 10 is the next rung in the ladder. Very proud of this club.
 

the1andonly3003

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I know the tendency will be to put this on United falling apart, and god knows I have no idea what their back line is doing - but don’t forget to give Brighton some credit. Passing has been exquisite. They’ve capitalized on opportunities. Sanchez has made 2-3 world class saves. This is a club that keeps growing year by year. Ongoing residence in the top 10 is the next rung in the ladder. Very proud of this club.
I'm old enough to remember Brighton's dry spell in Feb-Mar and fans questioning whether Potter plateaued. This game is fickle.
 

coremiller

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Spurs have held up ok in the first 20 minutes, some bend but don’t break defense. Only half chances for Pool.
 

67YAZ

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How is that not a booking for Fabinho?
I feel like this season refs have been holding back on early cards, which I think leads to more shit later in the match. Show yellow there, let everyone know where the line is.
 

teddykgb

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I think you can argue that the first was only just late and a little leniency was ok but the second should be automatic at that point
 

SocrManiac

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I’m old enough to remember when it looked like Michael Oliver was going to be a world class referee.
 

coremiller

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Shots are 11-3, but most of Liverpool's shots have been from outside the box. Their two best chances were headers from corners.

Spurs have looked threatening on the counter but have failed to turn those good positions into real chances.
 

teddykgb

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Kulusevski has been wretched. Every time Spurs work an out the attack seems to fail at his feet. He’s been very good for Spurs but couldn’t do anything right that half