Recent Fixtures Review #1

Manchester United VS Arsenal FC: Going into this crucial fixture, the smaller side of Manchester was predicted to fall to the prodigious skill and talent contained in the gunners. After a hard fought and physical game, (including a Diogo Dalot red card) the score remained 1-1 after goals from Gabriel Magahales and Portuguese maestro Bruno Fernandes. Arsenal remained on top and played better football overall, keeping Man U to a measly 29% possession. After a tight and stuffy extra time the teams went to penalties. After a disappointing performance against Tottenham Hotspur, including conceding an olimpico goal against Son, he saved a pen against Kai Havertz to win the game. 3-5 on pens to Manchester United, with them converting all their pens. Honestly, after watching the game I feel like Arsenal deserved it much more in my opinion. They played some beautiful football, reminiscent of the total football enforced by Rinus Michels. However, that’s life, you win some you lose some and in this particular scenario Manchester United came out on top. Overall, okay game, but the team that should have won did not. Inter Milan VS AC Milan: In the annual Italian league cup, AC Milan came out on top 3-2 in one of the best games we have seen all year, AC came back from a 2-0 deficit to win the game 3-2. Lautaro Marteinez scored right before the halftime break to put Inter up 1-0. Inter then struck again with a delicious finish from Taremi following an amazing pass by Denzel Dumfries. AC got one back in the form of an incredible free kick by Theo Hernandez to reduce the deficit to 2-1. Captain America, AKA Christian Pulisic then finished off an amazing play by Milan to tie the score at 2-2. In the dying embers, Captain America once again stepped up and played a scrumptious ball to Rafa Leao who laid it on a silver platter for Tammy Aberham to complete the amazing comeback and change the score from 2-0 all the way to 3-2. Overall, an amazing game. Pulisic carried AC to another trophy and the second win this swanson in the derby for Milan. We are looking forward to more AC Milan as they are looking more and more like a contender for the elusive Serie A! Barcelona VS Real Madrid: In the second El Clasico of the year, Barcelona yet again showed Madrid how to play football by thrashing them 2-5. Real got off to a great start, scoring off a brilliant Kyllian Mbappe run to make the score 1-0 Real Madrid. After this little hiccup, Barcelona got on the score sheet after a delicious run from the winger Lamine Yamal who finished off the run with a finish into the bottom right corner. After this, Barca capitalized on a foul on Gavi to earn a penalty. Lewandowski then converted easily to put Barca up 2-1. After a brilliant cross by Jules Kounde, Raphina finished a beautiful header and put Barca up 3-1. At the stroke of halftime, Alejandro Balde put Barca on top of the game to make it 4-1, and Raphina earned his brace right after the halftime break to seal the victory. Real got a little bit of compensation from a late tackle on Kylian Mbappe by Wojciech Szczesny which got the keeper sent off, and Rodrygo curled a beautiful finish from a free kick to cap the score at 2-5. Overall, a great game for the fans, (this being Barca’s first trophy in 3 years) and Hansi Flick lifting his first trophy as manager of the club. We look forward to seeing Barca lift more trophies with flick at the helm of this mainstream attacking squad.