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Last Weekend: Haaland delivers a Hammerblow, Bayern start with six while PSG fire five

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It’s safe to say that football is back in full swing now, with three of Europe’s top-five leagues starting their 2022/23 season along with a raft of other competitions. We will be going over some of the meaningful matches in this edition of Last Weekend.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England: West Ham United 0-2 Manchester City

The Premier League threw up a number of surprising results this weekend, most notably Fulham’s draw with Liverpool and Brighton’s first-ever win at Old Trafford. Our focus, however, will be on the defending champions Manchester City, who came away with a relatively comfortable win at West Ham.

The star of the show was their new striker Erling Haaland, who won and converted a penalty in the first half before going on to add a second after the hour mark. In doing so, he highlighted how he solves two of Manchester City’s ‘problems’ from last season.

The first is the issue of spot-kicks. Last season, they had four different takers in normal time, across all competitions, and it is safe to say that none really established themselves.. Haaland, on the other hand, netted every penalty he took in 2021/22 and that streak continued on Sunday with a pinpoint finish to the bottom corner.

More pertinently, the Norwegian international changes the dynamic of how Manchester City approach open games. Last season, they generally looked to control and slow down games where they had the lead and the opposition were pushing for an equaliser because if the match became an end-to-end affair, they had no one to make runs in behind and get on the end of counterattacking moves. With Haaland, though, they grabbed a second just minutes after West Ham started to come out of their shell, with the ex-Dortmund striker fed by an inch-perfect through ball from Kevin De Bruyne.

Another intriguing aspect of Manchester City’s performance was their tactical tweaks, in possession, to accommodate Haaland. Pep Guardiola is no stranger to inverted full-backs, and he took this concept to extreme lengths by asking Kyle Walker and João Cancelo to tuck in close to the centre circle, often leaving Rodri to drop in between the centre-backs to create a 3-2-5 shape, with the two other midfielders pushing forward and the wingers hugging the touchline.

This was the big question – how long it would take Manchester City to accommodate Haaland – and it appears that the answer is no time at all.

🇩🇪 Germany: Eintracht Frankfurt 1-6 Bayern München

Pessimism was at an all-time low in Germany following the Bundesliga opener on Friday, which saw record champions Bayern Munich utterly thrash Europa League holders Eintracht Frankfurt.

Leading up to the match, there was some excitement and anticipation for the season as Borussia Dortmund seemed to have strengthened in the transfer window, while Bayern had changed a bit following the departure of star striker Robert Lewandowski, so there was some uncertainty around their attack.

Julian Nagelsmann’s side put all doubts to bed in emphatic fashion with a five-star first half showing centred around fluidity up front – which was something that they did not have with Lewandowski in the mix. On this occasion, new signing Sadio Mané partnered Serge Gnabry up top with Jamal Musiala and Thomas Müller operating just behind them.

The movements and positional rotations of this quartet really dizzied the Eintracht Frankfurt defence. Each member of the quartet registered two goal involvements, while the debutant Mané got a goal for himself.

After a terrific first half where the away side mounted a five-goal lead, they could afford to take their foot off the gas for the second period and cruise to victory. While it is far too early to reach any conclusions about the season, this has to be considered a statement victory from Bayern Munich.

🇫🇷 France: Clermont Foot 0-5 PSG

Things are not looking much better in France, where defending champions Paris Saint-Germain put five past Clermont Foot in their first match of the league season, just a week after beating Nantes 4-0 in the Trophée des Champions.

Christophe Galtier named an unchanged starting line-up, so we were treated to the fluidity of the front three of Pablo Sarabia, Lionel Messi and Neymar once again. The Brazilian international was the standout performer of the match as he thrived in a narrower role in the left half-space, for which PSG’s new manager deserves credit. By using a back-three system which relies on the wing-backs to provide attacking width, Galtier enabled Neymar to have a greater involvement in the match in a more central position, as is evidenced by the fact that he managed 67 touches on the night.

Neymar played a part in four of his side’s goals, scoring the first, and setting up the subsequent three. Indeed, it was his creativity that particularly shone, as his statistics from the match show.

His old friend Messi did not want to miss out on the fun, so he bagged a late brace that included an overhead kick, to cap things off rather nicely.

Not only are PSG playing some superb football on the pitch, but their transfer business led by new sporting director Luis Campos also seems to be very clever. They recently signed Renato Sanches from Lille, and are being strongly linked with a move for Fabián Ruiz from Napoli. With that level of talent in their squad with a manager who knows how to use it, the league will surely be theirs again come the end of the season.

🇵🇹 Portugal: Santa Clara 0-0 Casa Pia

The Liga Portugal got back underway this weekend, and there were lots of interesting results to talk about. Last season’s top two, Porto and Benfica, won their respective matches by a four-goal margin, while Sporting and Braga took part in a thrilling 3-3 draw.

So, we have obviously picked out a goalless match, which saw Casa Pia make the long journey to the Azores to face Santa Clara. While most sides do not look forward to this journey, Casa Pia and their fans had been looking forward to this fixture for a long time because this was their first top-flight league match in 83 years.

The last time Casa Pia were in the topmost division of Portuguese football was the 1938/39 season when the league was called the Primeira Divisão and there were just eight teams competing in it. A certain FC Porto won their second league title that season, while Casa Pia themselves finished rock bottom, avoiding defeat in just one of their 14 matches.

They have already matched that record this time around and probably should have had more than a point from this long trip out to the mid-Atlantic. They missed a penalty in the 10th minute of the match, and even thereafter, continued to look threatening as they outshot their opponents.

Nonetheless, this was a very promising performance and result for Casa Pia. Next up for them: A visit from giants Benfica in an all-Lisbon clash. Unfortunately, though, it will not be played in their home stadium, the Estádio Pina Manique, as it does not meet the capacity requirements. Their first true home match, therefore, will be in two weeks’ time against Boavista.

🇮🇹 Italy: Hellas Verona 1-4 Bari

Over in Italy, the Serie A season does not start until next weekend, but the initial rounds of the Coppa Italia have been taking place over the past couple of weeks. Some top-flight clubs were involved in the Round of 64 including Hellas Verona, who hosted Serie B newcomers Bari.

This was the first competitive match for the hosts’ new head coach Gabriele Cioffi, who succeeded Igor Tudor following the Croatian tactician’s move to Marseille. Things started off pretty well for him as Kevin Lasagna drew first blood in the 16th minute, but Michael Folorunsho equalised for the away side at the half-hour mark.

After that, it was the Walid Cheddira show. The 24-year-old striker, who bagged a brace against Padova in the previous round, put Bari in front just before half-time. He would go on to net two more goals in the second half to complete a memorable hat-trick, with Davide Farioni’s sending-off sealing Hellas’ fate.

The Coppa Italia format is often criticised for being tougher for lower-league sides, but Bari will hope to be outliers to that fact when they face Parma in October with a spot in the Round of 16 on the line.

🇨🇭 Switzerland: FC Zürich 0-3 Sion

On the opening weekend of the Swiss Super League season, we highlighted FC Zürich’s hefty defeat against Young Boys. Well, things have gone from bad to significantly worse for the defending Swiss champions – they are currently the only side in Europe to sit bottom of their league after lifting the title in the previous edition.

More worryingly, they are the only team in the history of the Swiss Super League to have failed to score in each of the first four rounds of fixtures. In fact, this holds true even as you look back to the Swiss top-flight all the way to the 1940s, after which data availability becomes limited. The point is: FC Zürich have had a monumentally poor start to the league campaign.

Their loss to Sion highlighted this, as they looked flat for large periods of the match against a side that had the second-worst defence in the league last season, based on goals conceded. At the other end, they shipped three goals to the side that had the second-worst attack in the league, based on goals scored.

It is very early in the season, but FC Zürich will already be contemplating parting ways with new manager Franco Foda, who is largely responsible for this, as he has been tinkering with formations and tactics from match to match and failing to give his team any real identity. Following his disappointing campaign with Austria in Euro 2020, this is not a good look for the 56-year-old German.

Written by Neel Shelat.

Cover Image from IMAGO

Last Weekend: Haaland delivers a Hammerblow, Bayern start with six while PSG fire five

It’s safe to say that football is back in full swing now, with three of Europe’s top-five leagues starting their 2022/23 season along with a raft of other competitions. We will be going over some of the meaningful matches in this edition of Last Weekend.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England: West Ham United 0-2 Manchester City

The Premier League threw up a number of surprising results this weekend, most notably Fulham’s draw with Liverpool and Brighton’s first-ever win at Old Trafford. Our focus, however, will be on the defending champions Manchester City, who came away with a relatively comfortable win at West Ham.

The star of the show was their new striker Erling Haaland, who won and converted a penalty in the first half before going on to add a second after the hour mark. In doing so, he highlighted how he solves two of Manchester City’s ‘problems’ from last season.

The first is the issue of spot-kicks. Last season, they had four different takers in normal time, across all competitions, and it is safe to say that none really established themselves.. Haaland, on the other hand, netted every penalty he took in 2021/22 and that streak continued on Sunday with a pinpoint finish to the bottom corner.

More pertinently, the Norwegian international changes the dynamic of how Manchester City approach open games. Last season, they generally looked to control and slow down games where they had the lead and the opposition were pushing for an equaliser because if the match became an end-to-end affair, they had no one to make runs in behind and get on the end of counterattacking moves. With Haaland, though, they grabbed a second just minutes after West Ham started to come out of their shell, with the ex-Dortmund striker fed by an inch-perfect through ball from Kevin De Bruyne.

Another intriguing aspect of Manchester City’s performance was their tactical tweaks, in possession, to accommodate Haaland. Pep Guardiola is no stranger to inverted full-backs, and he took this concept to extreme lengths by asking Kyle Walker and João Cancelo to tuck in close to the centre circle, often leaving Rodri to drop in between the centre-backs to create a 3-2-5 shape, with the two other midfielders pushing forward and the wingers hugging the touchline.

This was the big question – how long it would take Manchester City to accommodate Haaland – and it appears that the answer is no time at all.

🇩🇪 Germany: Eintracht Frankfurt 1-6 Bayern München

Pessimism was at an all-time low in Germany following the Bundesliga opener on Friday, which saw record champions Bayern Munich utterly thrash Europa League holders Eintracht Frankfurt.

Leading up to the match, there was some excitement and anticipation for the season as Borussia Dortmund seemed to have strengthened in the transfer window, while Bayern had changed a bit following the departure of star striker Robert Lewandowski, so there was some uncertainty around their attack.

Julian Nagelsmann’s side put all doubts to bed in emphatic fashion with a five-star first half showing centred around fluidity up front – which was something that they did not have with Lewandowski in the mix. On this occasion, new signing Sadio Mané partnered Serge Gnabry up top with Jamal Musiala and Thomas Müller operating just behind them.

The movements and positional rotations of this quartet really dizzied the Eintracht Frankfurt defence. Each member of the quartet registered two goal involvements, while the debutant Mané got a goal for himself.

After a terrific first half where the away side mounted a five-goal lead, they could afford to take their foot off the gas for the second period and cruise to victory. While it is far too early to reach any conclusions about the season, this has to be considered a statement victory from Bayern Munich.

🇫🇷 France: Clermont Foot 0-5 PSG

Things are not looking much better in France, where defending champions Paris Saint-Germain put five past Clermont Foot in their first match of the league season, just a week after beating Nantes 4-0 in the Trophée des Champions.

Christophe Galtier named an unchanged starting line-up, so we were treated to the fluidity of the front three of Pablo Sarabia, Lionel Messi and Neymar once again. The Brazilian international was the standout performer of the match as he thrived in a narrower role in the left half-space, for which PSG’s new manager deserves credit. By using a back-three system which relies on the wing-backs to provide attacking width, Galtier enabled Neymar to have a greater involvement in the match in a more central position, as is evidenced by the fact that he managed 67 touches on the night.

Neymar played a part in four of his side’s goals, scoring the first, and setting up the subsequent three. Indeed, it was his creativity that particularly shone, as his statistics from the match show.

His old friend Messi did not want to miss out on the fun, so he bagged a late brace that included an overhead kick, to cap things off rather nicely.

Not only are PSG playing some superb football on the pitch, but their transfer business led by new sporting director Luis Campos also seems to be very clever. They recently signed Renato Sanches from Lille, and are being strongly linked with a move for Fabián Ruiz from Napoli. With that level of talent in their squad with a manager who knows how to use it, the league will surely be theirs again come the end of the season.

🇵🇹 Portugal: Santa Clara 0-0 Casa Pia

The Liga Portugal got back underway this weekend, and there were lots of interesting results to talk about. Last season’s top two, Porto and Benfica, won their respective matches by a four-goal margin, while Sporting and Braga took part in a thrilling 3-3 draw.

So, we have obviously picked out a goalless match, which saw Casa Pia make the long journey to the Azores to face Santa Clara. While most sides do not look forward to this journey, Casa Pia and their fans had been looking forward to this fixture for a long time because this was their first top-flight league match in 83 years.

The last time Casa Pia were in the topmost division of Portuguese football was the 1938/39 season when the league was called the Primeira Divisão and there were just eight teams competing in it. A certain FC Porto won their second league title that season, while Casa Pia themselves finished rock bottom, avoiding defeat in just one of their 14 matches.

They have already matched that record this time around and probably should have had more than a point from this long trip out to the mid-Atlantic. They missed a penalty in the 10th minute of the match, and even thereafter, continued to look threatening as they outshot their opponents.

Nonetheless, this was a very promising performance and result for Casa Pia. Next up for them: A visit from giants Benfica in an all-Lisbon clash. Unfortunately, though, it will not be played in their home stadium, the Estádio Pina Manique, as it does not meet the capacity requirements. Their first true home match, therefore, will be in two weeks’ time against Boavista.

🇮🇹 Italy: Hellas Verona 1-4 Bari

Over in Italy, the Serie A season does not start until next weekend, but the initial rounds of the Coppa Italia have been taking place over the past couple of weeks. Some top-flight clubs were involved in the Round of 64 including Hellas Verona, who hosted Serie B newcomers Bari.

This was the first competitive match for the hosts’ new head coach Gabriele Cioffi, who succeeded Igor Tudor following the Croatian tactician’s move to Marseille. Things started off pretty well for him as Kevin Lasagna drew first blood in the 16th minute, but Michael Folorunsho equalised for the away side at the half-hour mark.

After that, it was the Walid Cheddira show. The 24-year-old striker, who bagged a brace against Padova in the previous round, put Bari in front just before half-time. He would go on to net two more goals in the second half to complete a memorable hat-trick, with Davide Farioni’s sending-off sealing Hellas’ fate.

The Coppa Italia format is often criticised for being tougher for lower-league sides, but Bari will hope to be outliers to that fact when they face Parma in October with a spot in the Round of 16 on the line.

🇨🇭 Switzerland: FC Zürich 0-3 Sion

On the opening weekend of the Swiss Super League season, we highlighted FC Zürich’s hefty defeat against Young Boys. Well, things have gone from bad to significantly worse for the defending Swiss champions – they are currently the only side in Europe to sit bottom of their league after lifting the title in the previous edition.

More worryingly, they are the only team in the history of the Swiss Super League to have failed to score in each of the first four rounds of fixtures. In fact, this holds true even as you look back to the Swiss top-flight all the way to the 1940s, after which data availability becomes limited. The point is: FC Zürich have had a monumentally poor start to the league campaign.

Their loss to Sion highlighted this, as they looked flat for large periods of the match against a side that had the second-worst defence in the league last season, based on goals conceded. At the other end, they shipped three goals to the side that had the second-worst attack in the league, based on goals scored.

It is very early in the season, but FC Zürich will already be contemplating parting ways with new manager Franco Foda, who is largely responsible for this, as he has been tinkering with formations and tactics from match to match and failing to give his team any real identity. Following his disappointing campaign with Austria in Euro 2020, this is not a good look for the 56-year-old German.

Written by Neel Shelat.

Cover Image from IMAGO