The Fußball Chatter

To say that Liverpool's title defence this season has not gone to plan would be an understatement, they have already conceded in the title race very early in February, have now has four home games in a row for the first time since the 1920s and a strong possibility of missing out on Champions League football next season as the Reds sit sixth in the Premier League table with 40 points, five points behind fourth-place West Ham United, nine points behind Leicester City and Manchester United, and a staggering nineteen points behind league leaders Manchester City. Even if they win their remaining thirteen league games, they will finish with 79 points. Twenty points off their points tally last season when they stormed to the Premier League title. So what has gone so wrong for Jurgen Klopp's side? Bad Injury Luck Now, this season was going to a weird one. With no sort of pre-season to prepare for the season plus the congested fixture list this season. Especially, for a club like Liver...

  Premier League Six teams kept clean sheets in the Premier League this weekend with just 18 goals scored from the nine games played. It was a momentous weekend for Everton Football Club as they made history, finally beating their city rivals Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield on Saturday. That was Everton's first win against Liverpool in ten years and also their first win at Anfield since 1999. It took them level on points with the defending champions with a game in hand while Liverpool has now lost four home games in a row, with a strong possibility of missing out on Champions League football next season. It was not a good weekend for Mourinho's Tottenham as they lost 2-1 on Sunday to West Ham United. Goals from Michail Antonio and Jesse Lingard gave the Hammers the win, taking them to the top four while Spurs' form has taken a big hit, with only one win in their last five. A penalty from Mason Mount gave Chelsea a point against Southampton on Saturday with Thomas Tuchel being very...

The draw for the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League took place on Monday with the Round of 16 games taking place in February 2021. Here's a reaction from the draw plus who's likely to go through from these match-ups. Borussia Mönchengladbach v Manchester City  Borussia Mönchengladbach shocked many in qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League, getting points off Real Madrid and Inter Milan. However, their reward will be facing Manchester City in the Round of 16. The Germans will have it difficult to do against Pep Guardiola's team despite going to the Etihad in the second leg. As for Manchester City, this is a favourable draw but will be cautious of Gladbach's aggressive pressing play, which was brought in by their manager Marco Rose. Despite their struggles in the Premier League this season, they walked through their Champions League groups, conceding just one goal. Manchester City should have enough to go through and advance into the quarterf...

The group stages of the UEFA Champions League are finally completed this week. Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Manchester City, FC Porto, Liverpool, Atalanta, Chelsea, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, Lazio, Juventus, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig have gone through to the knockout stages while RB Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympiacos, Ajax, Krasnodar, Club Brugge, Dynamo Kyiv and Manchester United will play in the knockout stages of the Europa League with the draw taking place on Monday.  Winners: Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea have all advanced to the knockout stages top of their groups, with only one defeat between the three of them. All three teams managed to seal qualification with games to spare which gave them the ability to rotate their teams in their final Champions League games, which was helpful in giving some key players a rest ahead of a very demanding fixture period in the...

  EURO 2020 PLAYOFFS/UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE The final international break of the year saw the final playoffs games for Euro 2020 (2021), as well as the final fixtures for the UEFA Nations League on who gets promoted and who will play in the finals next year. Scotland qualified for an international tournament for the first time since 1998, beating Serbia on penalties, with David Marshall saving Aleksander Mitrovic's spot-kick. North Macedonia has qualified for the first time as an independent nation beating Georgia 1-0 thanks to club captain Goran Pandev. Dominik Szoboszlai scored a late winner to send Hungary to Euro 2020, beating Iceland 2-1 after conceding very early in the match. Slovakia also qualified for Euro 2020 beating Northern Ireland 2-1 after extra time. In the UEFA Nations League, Spain topped their group in Pool A, meaning they will play in the Finals after a convincing 6-0 victory over Germany with Manchester City winger Ferran Torres scoring a hat-trick while Germany i...

  Der Klassiker in the Bundesliga  36 goals were scored in the Bundesliga this past weekend with only two teams winning their games away from home in matchday 7 of the Bundesliga. One of those teams was defending champions Bayern Munich. They faced Borussia Dortmund in what is known as ' Der Klassiker' , the game between the biggest teams in Germany on Saturday at the Westfalenstadion. Bayern Munich came out on top, beating Dortmund 3-2 with goals coming from David Alaba, Robert Lewandowski, and Leroy Sané, who scored his first goal in this fixture. This means that Bayern has won their last three meetings against the Black and Yellow, putting Die Bayern  three points ahead of Dortmund. RB Leipzig moved to second in the Bundesliga table after beating Freiburg 3-0 while Bayer Leverkusen moved to fourth after beating Borussia Monchengladbach 4-3 with Lucas Alario scoring a brace. However, the pick of the goals from that game was Valentino Lazaro for Gladbach, scoring a ridic...

  Liverpool run riot at Bergamo Liverpool, after winning their first two games in the Champions League, travelled to Bergamo to face Serie A side Atalanta in a clash that would be decisive for both teams and their clashes to go through. With players unavailable for both sides due to injury, the game looked pretty with some fancying Gasperini's side to take the win over Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool eventually won the game, and it was not even close. The Reds spanked Atalanta 5-0 with goals from Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and a hat-trick from Diogo Jota, who came in for Roberto Firmino. Jurgen Klopp's side exploited so much space that came from Atalanta, taking 15 shots with 12 on target. Despite that, Atalanta still managed to find some chances with Duvan Zapata having the best chance for the Bergamo side whose shot hit the post. However, Liverpool took much control of the game and left Italy with their best performance of the season so far. This puts them top of Group D with nine po...