Atletico beat Liverpool 1-0 in the round of 16 1st leg and Liverpool’s winning streak (17 in the premier League) comes to an end.
Borussia Dortmund beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 and Erling Haaland continues his amazing form with two more goals. He has now scored 10 Champions League goals and 11 goals in seven match since joining Borussia.
Manchester City banned from the Champions League for two years and fined 30 million, the team will appeal.
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 – 0 Leicester City – Hamza Choudhury red card.
Valencia 2 – 2 Atletico Madrid – Fight for top four places ends in draw.
Borussia Dortmund 4 – 0 Eintracht Frankfurt – Erling Haaland keeps scoring.
Another busy transfer window is coming to an end, it has already ended in England. Here are five of the best and top under 21 years old transfers for the summer of 2019.
Joao Felix is probably a very obvious name for such a list. His €120 million transfer from Benfica to Atletico Madrid comes with huge expectations. The 19 year old Portuguese second striker is more or less the replacement for Antoine Griezmann who left for Barcelona. Atletico have made a lot of change this summer and Felix is obviously the most important of the long list of changes.
Moise Kean left Juventus for Tottenham, a somewhat surprising move. Marco Silva, Everton’s Portuguese coach, has stated that the 19 year old was bought to play the center forward position and provide the goals that Everton were sometimes lacking in previous season. His relative cheap transfer of under €30 million may allow him to fulfill his ‘next Italian star’ potential with a bit less of pressure.
Tammy Abraham is technically not a transfer as he was on loan at Aston Villa, from Chelsea. With a transfer ban on their heads Frank Lampard, the new Chelsea coach, has had to rely on some of the many players that Chelsea would keep loaning to build his 2019-2020 team. The 21 year old forward scored 26 goals in 40 games for Aston Villa and now will often lead the line in the premier league.
Ryan Sessegnon was able to escape the clutches of Fulham after the heavy spending team flopped last season and go relegated back to the English Championship. The highly rated left sided player is a rising star in English football and will play for a coach that is not averse to use young players often. He cost Tottenham around €27 million and Poch and Spurs have strengthened well this summer.
Merih Demiral is a young Turkish defender that was transferred twice this sumer. The first transfer was made when his loan to Sassuolo from Alanyaspor was made permanent only for Juventus to buy him from Sassuolo for €18 million only days later. The 21 year old will have veteran presence to teach him the art of defending and will grow and learn fast defending in the Serie A.
The summer 2019 transfer window is now closed in England. Though in many other European countries the older timeline of letting it run until the end of August or beginning of September is still on. The decision to close the window before week 1 matches is a very sensible idea. The coaches and mangers know what they have on hand before the season is on and any disruptions, even if only for the first two or three match days, is gone.
The multi-billion dollar television deals that have enriched English team to the point of bizarre and expensive transfers and wages continues unabated. So called smaller teams like Watford and Leicester outspend most European teams and attract players easily. Manchester United have of course always been one of the biggest teams and under the ownership of the Glazers have never stopped spending. Notwithstanding the lack of recent – post Alex Ferguson era – success the team keeps drawing from the debts, financing and riches of the American ownership and TV deals to add and spend.
Hiring Jose Mourinho was a mistake and titles have eluded the team, the Portuguese’s firing and eventual replacement with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a success at first but United faded and finished 2018-2019 in sixth place. The new coach was given a permanent job during his early and brief success and was set to embark on a rebuild. Now that summer 2019 window is nearing an end it is arguable that the first phase of (any) rebuild has been mishandled or at best wasted. Fans rightly criticize the Americans and vice chairman Ed Woodward and the player movement this summer shows why. The team does not have a director of football but that in itself is not very unusual but this summer’s transfer have left the team bare up front.
The team did sign young winger Daniel James, the very good Aaron Wan-Bissaka (right back from Crystal Palace) and of course the expensive and excellent defender in Harry Maguire – for €87 million. However, after a protracted saga Romelu Lukaku was sold to Inter on deadline day for an initial €65. A look at the screenshot above (thanks transfermarkt.com) shows that virtually all of the team’s choices up front are either aging, ineffective or have long been off form. United do have the means and needed to replace Lukaku, the team was long aware he wanted to leave. He was even reportedly training separately in the past few days.
Time will tell if United have done enough to leap above Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea. At least two of the teams immediately above them last season have strengthened more significantly.
The summer transfer windows keeps rolling with surprises, big money and bitter departures too.
First up is Harry Maguire becoming the most expensive defender in world football. The 26 year old English player has signed for Manchester United from Leicester City for over €87 million. United have been in the midst of a slow rebuild with Solskjaer starting his first full season as permanent coach. The defender had been rumoured for weeks and even months and has now made the big move. His leadership and reputation has increased over the past two or three years and he now gets the big task of being the player that cost more than the previous most expensive defender, Liverpool’s Champions League winning defender Virgil van Dijk.
Malcom has left Barcelona after only one season. Last summer the Brazilian winger was steps away from Roma but opted to join Barcelona instead. He was so close to the Italian capital that Roma even threatened to take the Spanish team to court. His expensive move didn’t lead to much playing time and he was often behind Ousmane Dembele and Coutinho in the pecking order. He played in only 15 league games and the 22 year old is now off to Zenit and Russia for a fee similar to what Barcelona paid to Bordeaux last summer. The reported fee was and is €40 million.
Moise Kean is a somewhat surprising departure from Juventus. The 19 year old forward has the talent to be a very good goalscorer and some of the attitude to go with it too. That attitude may not sit well at Juventus but letting him go for less than €30 million was not expected. Everton can benefit from such a forward as they need goal scorers desperately. Juventus on the other hand are left with Higuain, Mandzukic and Ronaldo up front and with rumours of Dybala’s departure the old lady is old! However the transfer window is still open.
Laurent Koscielny was Arsenal’s captain and spent nine seasons in North London. For some reason this season he refused to train and demanded an exit. The 33 year old defender had one season left on his contract and was not going to command a big transfer fee. Bordeaux did step in and offer €5 million for him and that made the decision relatively easy for Arsenal. In somewhat of a bizarre move he was shown on Bordeaux social media removing Arsenal’s jersey to reveal the French team’s one under it. Disrespectful or just fun it is not exactly the best of partings between the Frenchman and the Gunners.
With August approaching the long European seasons that start in August are about to begin. The 2019-2020 season will end with the scattered and complex Euro 2020 in June of next year. For now however the major European leagues and their immense wealth will start the season, some teams with many changes and more to come by the time the transfer window closes.
The 2019-2020 English Premier League will kick off on August 9th with the three promoted teams, Norwich City, Sheffield United and Aston Villa, seemingly taking different approaches to life back in the top league. Aston Villa, notably, are on a spending spree and unlike the other two teams are very busy in the transfer window. Reigning champions and runners up, Manchester City and Liverpool are likely to challenge for the title again. Arsenal and Manchester United may not be challengers, they are both still a step or two behind. Chelsea with new coach in former player Frank Lampard look to be starting a new cycle. However, Tottenham, with the arrival of highly rated midfielder Tanguy Ndombele ,will push the top two once again.
The Spanish La Liga will start on August 17th with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid providing the inevitable rivalry. Both Madrid teams have been busy spenders and Griezmann’s move from Atletico to Barcelona will mean all three teams have made big splashes. Osasuna, Granada and Mallorca are the promoted teams.
Serie A’s three promoted teams are Lecce, Brescia and Verona. The top teams’ headlines have been of the coaching variety with Max Allegri leaving Juventus and Luciano Spalletti leaving Inter. They were replaced with Maurizio Sarri and Antonio Conte respectively. The new season starts on August 24th and will likely be dominated by Juventus once again. Napoli and Inter can be considered close rivals but will they last the season or collapse sometime in the middle again?
Bundesliga starts on August 16th with a busy Borussia Dortmund making another attempt at dethroning Bayern. The reigning champions are a younger team with Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben gone. FC Koln, Paderborn and for the first time in their history Union Berlin are in the Bundesliga.
Holland’s Eredivisie will feature a weakened Ajax. The champions sold two of their Champions League semi final team stars. With Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong leaving for big money the team will have new restart to tackle. PSV are likely the only challengers but Ajax will not have fallen much behind their 2018-2019 form. Twente, RKC Waalwijk and Sparta Rotterdam rejoin the top league which starts early on August second.
The 2019-2020 Primeira Liga features a team promoted via a court decision. Gil Vicente won the right to return to top league and are joined by Famalicao and Pacos de Ferreira. Benfica stormed to the top after January and have sold Joao Felix, their super star to be teenager, for over €120 million to Atletico Madrid. The Porto challenge will be as fierce as ever and Sporting will be in the mix but likely to be weakened because of the departure of the soon to be sold Bruno Fernandes. The new season will start on August 9th.
With the transfer window in full swing some surprising low cost and some not so low cost moves provide for interesting talk.
First up is Nabil Fekir’s move from Lyon to Real Betis. A fee of around €25 million is low for the attacking 26 years old. There had been talk of a move to Liverpool last year – and this year – that would have cost the Reds more. The Frenchman’s production had dipped this past season but Betis do have a relative bargain.
Matthijs de Ligt career has risen considerably, while talented his debut for the Dutch national team, at 17, was seen as a failure. Still only 19 he has improved immensely and is seen as of one of the best defenders in the world, at any age. Part of the Ajax team that reached the 2018-2019 Champions League semis he is a big star and having chosen to sign in Italy is a good statement for Serie A. Juventus have paid a very big prize for him, €75 million plus bonuses, but he will give them many years of top quality service.
Kieran Trippier is a surprise move from Tottenham to Atletico Madrid. A 28 year old English player moving to Spain is not a common occurence. The € 22 million paid for him is not the most surprising but it is nevertheless unexpected. The right back is probably most famous for his free kicks, most notably for the semi final game that was played against Croatia at World Cup 2018.
Fabian Delph is not the first central midfielder to move to Everton as a veteran, he is not even the first one to make the move from Manchester City to Everton. Much like Gareth Barry and Morgan Schneiderlin’s moves the Toffees grab a solid player at a relative bargain price. This move falls under €10 million. Very good value for the 29 year old.
In Canadian Premier League action York9 FC beat FC Edmonton 2-1 on July 14, 2019. The first half was mostly played in York9’s half as both teams struggled to muster anything meaningful.
A counter in the 13th minute gave York9 FC the lead. A rare foray into Edmonton’s half was finished by Kyle Porter. The score remained the same when in the 67th minute Ramon Soria’s equalized with a freekick. The ball made its way in just at the far side. Most players seemingly misjudged the ball and let it drift in. In the 80th minute Ryan Telfer converted another counter. Connor James in Edmonton’s goal could probably have done a better job of closing the angle.
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations has reached the semi final stage.
The hosts exited at the round of 16 stage of the 24 team tournament. Mohamed Salah led Egypt could therefore be seen as the disappointment of the tournament, losing 1-0 to South Africa.
Madagascar were the surprising team of the group stage topping Group B with seven points, one more than Nigeria. The Barea islanders were led by Carolus Andriamatsinoro and their form extended into the knockout stage where they beat DR Congo on penalties before losing 3-0 to Tunisia in the quarter finals.
Benin were also surprising. The did finish only third in Group F behind Cameroon and Ghana but in the first knockout round beat Morocco on penalties, before losing 1-0 to Senegal. Mickael Pote scored Benin’s only two group stage goals as they tied all three games.
Despite the surprises the final four is made up of traditional African powers. It is Senegal vs Tunisia and Algeria vs Nigeria.
Algeria are the in form team having scored six but not conceded in the group stage. The North Africans then beat Guinea 3-0 in the round of 16 and won on penalties vs Ivory Coast (coached by Clarence Seedorf)
Algeria’s Adam Ounas shares the lead of the goal scoring chart and has scored three times so far. Riyad Mahrez and Youcef Belaili have scored two each. Senegal’s Sadio Mane has scored three and so has Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo.
July 7, 2019 featured three finals. The 2019 Women’s World Cup, Gold Cup and Copa America played their finals on this Sunday.
In the day’s first final the 2019 Women’s World Cup was decided between the USA and Holland. The latter had reached their first final on the back of solid if unspectacular play and needed a massive game to dethrone the defending champions. The US had won the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada and was big favorites to repeat. A scoreless first half had given the Dutch some hope but US took control and scored twice to win for the fourth time since 1991. Megan Rapinoe from the penalty spot and Rose Lavelle sealed the win.
The day’s second final featured favorites and hosts face the surprising Peru in the Copa America final. Peru had surprised a disappointing and aggressive Chile in the semi final and reached the final. Peru was one of the third placed team to qualify fro the knockouts. The VAR (Video Assisted Referee) dominated Copa had reached farcical levels at times with multiple stoppages to check a play on video. The once again struggling Argentina had been beaten in the semis and Brazil overcame Peru with relative 3-1 ease. Everton had opened the scoring but Peru had leveled late in the half through a Paolo Guerrero penalty. The Peruvians couldn’t hang on to the tie with a minute left in the half as Gabriel Jesus found an opening in the middle and beat Pedro Gallese. Late in the second half the win was confirmed with a Richarlison penalty.
Unsurprisingly the Gold Cup final was contested between the US and Mexico. Although the match was taking place in Chicago the crowd consisted, as usual, mostly of Mexican fans. The first half featured the US missing several half chances and a good one early when Jozy Altidore missed the net by inches. The second half was a mirror of the first with Mexico repeatedly winning the ball back and not being able to finish. Andres Guardado shot high several times as Mexico threatened often. In the 73rd minute a simple and short Raul Jimenez layoff was shot in by Jonathan dos Santos. The 1-0 score stood in a sometimes scrappy game. Mexico raised the trophy for the eighth time.