Matchday Review November 19th, 2016
Today saw some massive fixtures in leagues all over Europe. Spain, Germany, and England all saw some of their biggest and storied clubs clash, and some beautiful football was the result. I will only be reviewing 3 of the matches from today, as they are the ones I watched in full.
Manchester United vs Arsenal — 1–1
Another incredibly frustrating result for Manchester United as this week they hosted Arsenal at Old Trafford, and once again, failed to take full points at home. A 1–1 tie after thoroughly dominating proceedings and out shooting Arsenal 12(5)-5(1). Arsenals 1 shot on goal being the tying goal in the 89th minute from Giroud.
Manchester United showed a characteristic that we continue to hope Mourinho would solve, complete lack of an attacking cutting edge. Other than Mata’s goal in the 68th mnute, which was a fantastic strike, United had plenty of quality of chances, and should’ve won this match handily. With 2 or 3 other chances falling to United that they simply failed to capitalize on.
On the bright side, United’s midfield and defense were great today. With Bellerin out, United were able to congest the midfield with Pogba, Herrera and Mata, while Carrick sat back in front of an improvised center-back pairing of Rojo and Jones, flanked by Darmian on the left and Valencia on the right. And this defensive lineup did the job, almost. They completely neutralized Ozil, Walcott and Sanchez, who were barely mentioned by commentators. But, the introduction of Oxlaide Chamberlain at right-back added the overlapping speed Arsenal had been missing, and minutes after he and Giroud came on, they connected after Oxlaide smoked Rashford to get down the line and curl a perfect cross to the back post where Giroud found a large pocket of space to head home unopposed. Having watched how well United played generally, to have performed that way at home and not get all 3 points is incredibly disappointing.
Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich — 1–0
While looking at the basic stats for this game you would be forgiven for thinking it was a stagnant game. With Dortmund coming out in full fury, Aubameyang took full advantage of the first real chance of the game 10 minutes in with a stretching, deft tap-in from a Götze cross.
The rest of the game was a 80 minute onslaught. Dortmund had the opportunities to go up 2 early on, but in the second half the game was all Bayern, with Dortmund going to every length to resist the attacking power of Bayern, and handled it miraculously with Burki only needing to make 3 saves, and Alonso rattling the crossbar from range.
One thing to add on to this, that is pretty common knowledge, but I have to remark on it every time I watch Dortmund. HOW FAST IS PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG??? Everytime I see him run he never looks like he’s running at 100% and he still absolutely smokes anyone. Maybe he’ll get even faster with the addition of Usain Bolt into their training squad.
Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid — 3–0
The Madrid derby has become a must-watch game of the year ever since Diego Simeone took over at Atletico. Tonight saw the end of an era as this was the last Madrid derby that will ever take place inside of the Vicente Calderón Stadium, as Atletico will be moving to a new stadium next year.
Going into this game, I was thinking that Atletico, at home, might dominate Real due to Real’s extensive injury list, especially in the defense with Pepe, Ramos, Kroos, Casemiro and Benzema leading the list of Madrid’s injuries.
But, Nacho and Varane were impenetrable together, flanked by Marcelo and Carvajal, they repelled and supressed everything Atletico threw at them. Which is an impressive feet considering the list of attacking players Atletico started with: Torres, Griezmann, Koke, Saúl, and Carrasco. Carrasco was by far the hardest working attacker in the Atletico side, providing crosses to absent strikers, or just taking on the Madrid defense alone and testing Navas. Varane deserves a special callout for a great display. He really seems to be coming into form as a dominant, physical defender, capable of running down most attacks, and certainly capable of outmuscling/jumping them.
And on the other end, Ronaldo showed that he has certainly returned to game-winning form, with a vintage Ronaldo display. Putting up a phenomenal hat-trick, scoring from a free kick, a penalty which he drew himself, and finished off a blistering counter-attack fed by Isco and Bale. While Ronaldo will surely take Man of the Match for an excellent, game-winning performance, there were other outstanding player for Real. Isco and Modric were at their best controlling the midfield and with pin-point distribution.
