Football: 3 Things From The Weekend

The stalemate between Manchester City and Liverpool

Manchester City hosted Liverpool on Sunday in what was the biggest game of the season so far with both teams suffering heavy defeats and injury woes with key players unavailable. The game started in quick fashion as Liverpool were awarded a penalty very early as Sadio Mane was brought down by Kyle Walker, and Mohamed Salah made no mistake from the spot giving Liverpool the lead. Manchester City responded but Liverpool also had some openings to score a second but failed to capitalize. City finally got their equalizer thanks to Gabriel Jesus when made a great deaf turn past Trent Alexander-Arnold to score. City was awarded a penalty of their own as Liverpool defender Joe Gomez handled the ball in the penalty area, which was reviewed by VAR. However, Kevin de Bruyne missed his spot-kick as the score was level at halftime. The second half brought little excitement than the first with Guardiola and Klopp becoming more cautious of what each other were going to do. The game ended 1-1 as Liverpool go to the international break second with 17 points but will be hoping that Trent Alexander-Arnold’s injury is not a serious one. As for Manchester City, they sit tenth but there is still more to come from Pep and his team.

Bayern beat Dortmund in Der Klassiker

In the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund hosted Bayern Munich in what is known as ‘Der Klassiker’, the match-up between the two best teams in the Bundesliga. Both teams went into the game with 15 points from their six league games played with Bayern ahead by only goal difference. For Dortmund, a win against the champions will put them ahead and a first since November 2018 while Bayern will make it three straight wins against the Black and Yellow. The game was tense from the start but it looked like Dortmund was going into halftime with the lead thanks to Marco Reus but Bayern was awarded a free-kick in added time with defender David Alaba scoring before the break. Bayern took the lead three minutes into the second half with Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski scoring his 11th Bundesliga goal this season. Dortmund had openings to equalize but failed to take and it came back to bite them as Leroy Sane scored Bayern’s third to get the champions an assured win before Erling Haaland scored the final goal of the game to finish the game 3-2 to Bayern. This means that Bayern is top of the Bundesliga with 18 points from seven games as they already look to be in gear while Dortmund suffered another defeat to Bayern once again and now have to be near perfect to challenge Bayern for the Bundesliga this season.

Valencia shock Madrid to a 4-1 defeat

Valencia has had an indifferent start to the season in La Liga. They have won only three games from the nine games played so far this season, with a lot of commotion behind the scenes between supporters and the Valencia board. They were in a five-game winless run and were facing champions Real Madrid at the Mestalla. Things looked like it was going to script when Karim Benzema opened the scoring but Valencia was awarded a penalty as Lucas Vazquez blocked a shot with his arm. The penalty had to be taken twice as Carlos Soler equalized for the hosts. Madrid went behind before the break as Raphael Varane scored an own goal but was relieved later on that it didn’t go 3-1 at halftime as the hosts had another chance but were cleared off the line. In the second half, Madrid conceded two penalties. One from a foul by Marcelo and another from Sergio Ramos. Carlos Soler scored the two spot-kicks as he walked away with the match ball for scoring a hat-trick and ending Valencia’s five-game winless run while Madrid has suffered their second defeat in eight games so far this season. They lost only three times last season to win La Liga.