European Football Review Nov 28/29
- What a week for Barcelona who have put to rest any doubts over who is the best team in Europe.
For a team with the firepower of Real Madrid they have been pretty silence on the goal sheet the last couple of weeks. Despite having their chances against Barcelona especially in the first half Real Madrid couldn’t beat Victor Valdes.
The game turned on it’s head with Zlatan Ibrahimovic coming into the game in the second half. One mistake by the Real Madrid cost them the game and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has now officially endeared himself to the Barcelona faithful. Even when Serigo Busquets was foolishly got sent off earning his second yellow card on a hand ball Real Madrid weren’t able to make a breakthrough as Barcelona takes the win and the lead in La Liga with a 1-0 victory.
- Holland and West Ham have always been called everyone’s second favorite team but anyone who watches Serie A has to be impressed with the way Genoa play football. In their derby match against Sampdoria saw Genoa take an early 1-0 lead. Right before half time Giuseppe Biava picked up his second yellow card and an early trip to the showers. Instead of coming out for the second half trying to hold on to the lead Genoa still took the game to Sampdoria which saw them extend their lead to 2-0 before things got chippy with Sampdoria earning two red cards themselves in a 3-0 defeat.
- It’s not the Champions League so Inter Milan found a way to win with a last gasp penalty strike by Diego Milito against Fiorentina. With Juventus losing Inter now find themselves seven points up on A.C Milan.
- Nice to see Ricardo Quaresma actually get a game in for Inter Milan.
- Speaking of players who have had a tough go of it in Italy, Klaas Jan Huntelaar finally broke out of his slump in big way with two injury time goals to give A.C Milan a 2-0 victory over Catania.
- Fabio Cannavaro you’ve had better days and have had a great career but Alessandro Matri made you look sick on Cagliari second goal. Their first goal was quite a strike as well.
- So I won’t be telling my grand kids about the 0-0 draw between Sporting and Benfica. It wasn’t one of those days which was watered down in the midfield but despite being a free flowing game no one on the pitch could break the dead lock.
- Nice run by Auxerre which sadly came to an end. After seven straight games with a win, P.S.G finally handed Auxerre a 1-0 defeat.
- Naturally the week I don’t bet on them Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid win 3-0 and 4-0.
- While he doesn’t grab a lot of press on this side of the pond, FC Twente striker Bryan Ruiz is going to make himself and his club a lot of money. 11 goals in 15 games should get other teams to notice.