Marseille have finally put an end to their bad streak against Lyon by a 1-0 win. I was waiting for this even though Marseille didn't have a good form. Teams like this care about finishing their bad series with a big game when there is an opportunity. We have a fresh Liverpool example as they beat Tottenham and did the same.
Marseille are a little unlucky that they are going to have another tough game next time. It is an away game against Monaco. I doubt Marseille to do the same in this game as well but we will see. They beat Monaco here in the previous season actually. Maybe this psychological advantage also might be some help.
Whatever the result will be between Marseille and Monaco, I doubt they could return to the second place before many rounds. The sad part is that even bookies don't support them vs Monaco. Personally I am waiting to see a draw in that game but regarding the randomness of the performance of both teams, I think everything is possible there. Apart from that match, there is another interesting game between Lyon and Nice before the long pause.. |
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Someone has to look twice to be sure that Leverkusen destroyed Union with 5 goals. Poor Union wasn't able to score a single goal and by the end of the day, Bayern claimed back its first position, Freiburg passed second after their victory and Union is sitting in the third position for the moment. We always said for how long Union will resist in the first spot but I doubt anyone expected this to happen this humiliating way  Union might become second if they win next round vs Augsburg since Freiburg will face Leipzig and might drop points there. The round later, Union will have to face Freiburg, so best ending for this year for them! Otherwise, I doubt Bayern will drop points against Bremen and Schalke. So Bayern first seems to be confirmed before World Cup break. |
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It was just goals after goals for Newcastle and they've managed it to be third place on the league table although, there are doubts they could hold on to it for so long like Arsenal is doing. Arsenal is simply getting the job done and Arteta is at the top of it. It's surprising how they come put anytime that it matters to get the 3 points to help them stay at the top of the league a little longer. Am sure Manchester City might have thought that, this is it. This is the time they get to take over the league from Arsenal and Chelsea was the team to hand it over to them but, Arsenal wasn't tardy to give it up just yet and Chelsea did very little to offset that.
Arsenal is getting all the lights right now with its successful matches so far. At the opposite, Spurs and Chelsea are declining. Liverpool is recovering slowly and ManU is a weird team with weird results every round. You never know when they play good and when not. For the Newcastle case, they are getting popular in some areas especially in KSA since they own the club. Their good results made them third while moving silently and steady. |
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This win has made Juventus nearer the 4th team in the standings. Things are going well for Juventus in the league these days. But we will see how consistent they will be.
We are talking about 10 points difference between Juve and Napoli but the points difference regarding the others aren't that high. 1 round could make Juve in the third place or push it in the 8th position. Juve next game will be vs Verona which is supposed to be easy and the last match for this year will be vs Lazio which is challenging especially that Lazio beat Roma in today's game. |
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I'm starting to feel like Atletico Madrid are approaching to the end of their time with Simeone now.
Because this is even a more unsuccessful season for the team already now. They have been eliminated in the Champions League and dropped down to the Europa League. As for the La Liga, they are already far away from Barcelona and Real Madrid. They can't stay in the title competition like in the old times. It is unacceptable to see them this much weak despite having a really qualified squad to do much better than this. I just see this like it is because of the management. I strongly believe that they need substantial changes from now on.
Simeone made a lot for ATM and the club and the fans recognise that. It is true that his tactics aren't working as he wants and it would be better to find a way to make the team better again but I don't think that sacking him will make the team better. AFAIK there isn't much problems between him, players and the administration. 3rd position is a good spot regarding the performance of both Real Madrid and Barcelona this season. Nevertheless, ATM could do way better than that. Overall, ATM wasn't the only team suffering this round/season, Villarreal, Sociedad and Sevilla are doing worse.. |
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The victory over Lorient made PSG more comfortable at the top standings with 38 points from 14 matches, 5 points behind Lens who is currently in second place.
5 points difference are good but not enough to let PSG playing comfortably. Lens kept following them closely after Monaco early withdrawal followed by Marseille and the others. Winning by 1 goal difference isn't something to be proud for but at least they stopped Lorient advance which was already slowed lately.
4 games are running right now and only Montpellier scored a goal vs Clermont after 10 minutes of the game. |
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Test is complete and Arsenal prevailed. Chelsea had couple of chances but Arsenal's defence were ready for it and defended quite well. So happy to see them winning the Derby today and a crucial win for us to keep us on top of the table ahead of City. Wished City dropped points yesterday but the penalty in the injury time messed things for us and put a lot of pressure on Gunners.
Next we have EFL game and then Wolves in PL before WC starts.
Arsenal got three precious points and claimed back the first spot in the table making things harder for City. In fact City are required to not lose any point and to win vs Arsenal in order to get the title again.
Meanwhile, ManU is 2 goals behind Aston Villa in less than 15 minutes.. Nice start there  |
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Mainz 0 - 3 Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg's big win
Indeed, big score difference that wasn't expected for me. Wolfsburg wasn't doing good in the previous games overall but managed to surprise Mainz. Hertha Berlin 2 - 3 Bayern Munich
I confess that I didn't expect Bayern to concede 2 goals in this game
After the 3rd goal they let Hertha add 2 goals. Hertha isn't well at all this season mind you. The Bavarian machine wouldn't stop scoring but conceding goals is another thing.. That would be a problem at a later stage of Champions League mainly. Werder Bremen 2 - 1 Schalke 04
It's sad to see Schalke 04 unable to get out of the relegation zone
Schalke to the 2.Bundesliga on the go.. 1 victory after 13 games |
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So even if we have the World cup the winter transfer window will not change its date.
World Cup ends in December so I think there is no reason to change the period of the transfer window. I still think we are gonna have some good transfers but not much of notable players. There are lot of players whose contract expiry is getting near and possible that other clubs might contact them and hopefully we will be able to see some good transfers. World Cup is an opportunity to discover hidden talent in some countries and to recruit them in this winter transfer window since as you mentioned there isn't much known notable players to pick. There is Japan, Senegal, Cameroon and South America as usual that might have interesting players to follow and recruit in different positions imo. I don't think there will be much strikers but midfielders and defenders mainly. |
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Strasbourg will win that game and I think both teams will score
-snip- It was a totally deserved win for ajaccio frankly i did not expect them to win like this but it seems that strasburg team allowed them to do so they were ahead 2 0 early in the game and they weren't strong enough to hold the score but still giving the opposition two penalties on a single half, its a day to forget for the defense, the manager should've been very angry, losing to an imediate relegation competitor is something strasburg team should avoided and now they are on a tough spot on the 18th position. Strasbourg used to be better in the previous seasons and in the last one they ended 6th so it is normal to see some support for them. This season is a very bad one for Strasbourg and as said Ajaccio is a team that might be challenging, they won vs Marseille for example! I am not surprised to see them winning but 4 goals vs Strasbourg.. that's too much and Strasbourg should seriously find another way to win or else they will relegate. They choose the worst and hardest season to play bad. 4 teams gonna relegate this season. |
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-snip-
That's over and it's actually not very useful to continue discussing it because they have now been thrown into the Europa League and have to focus on this. As for the current match, their dominance still looks as usual but Fernando is still playing very well as Almeria's last bastion even though he has to be busy with Barcelona's many chances in this first half. Barcelona has to win Europa League since they are the favorite team there but they aren't the only dangerous one. Right now in La Liga, they are leading 2-0 vs Almeria thanks to Dembele and De Jong goals in the second half. Barcelona was able to add another goal in the first half but Lewandowski missed a penalty.. |
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Allegri has spoken earlier and he said:
Bremer and Di Maria are recovered for the game while Vlahovic is not sure yet.
So I think they will start with Bremer and Di Maria and the starting XI while Vlahovic and Chiesa will go on bench.
One by one the Juventus players are recovering now and of course this is a breath of fresh air for Allegri because there is really no reason for them now to keep losing because before they kept saying that the defeat was due to injury. At the moment Chiesa is ready and it is likely that we will also see Pogba in the near future because we can see now that he is able to train and Di Maria. I'm quite happy to see this condition even though the game is still not running because this could be a turning point. Injuries effect might last even if the players recovered and be able to resume playing matches. Juve was affected a lot whether in Serie A or Champions League. It is hard to see them struggling like that when they were the number one previously. For the moment, Napoli is continuing its domination over the league and winning with 2 goals to 1 vs Atalanta, let them get 6 points advantage over Milan considering that Milan is leading with 2 goals to 1 vs Spezia. |
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Man City was outstanding; even with 10 players, they managed to win. On the other hand, Fulham played a lackluster brand of football. I have heard many City supporters discuss the penalty, and here is my opinion: I don't believe that should have been a penalty. Furthermore, they do not need those types of decisions like that to define them or even to help them win.
It is annoying to see City winning most of the time with few goals difference. Today they played with 10 players for almost 70 minutes so I could understand that but getting the victory at the last minutes of the match is risky and City used to do so, that's why they missed points previously. At the end, it was a deserved 2 goal victory for Leicester city who built on the Tielesman long range strike at the stroke of half time and left the merseyside with valuable 3 points. It was a good performance from both teams who are struggling to stay clear of relegation battles
Great performances from both sides, but Leicester City defeated Everton today and deservedly so. They clearly came for a win rather than even settling for a draw based on their possessions and shots on goal. They might be out of the relegation zone by the middle of the season if they can continue performing as they did today. They played great ball and earned their victory. It is nice to see Leicester winning again and getting away from the relegation zone. 3 victories in the last 4 games is something interesting and the main point is to keep this positive trend. Their next match will be played away vs West Ham, it is not gonna be easy |
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Exactly this is not the same Leverkusen that we all now, the team is having troubles this year and they need to change many things in the club to recover from their current situation, problem is not just with the coach but the whole team is having troubles and doubt this year
Leverkusen situation is complicated and a lot of things have to be done in the next transfer window this winter or else the team will continue playing around the relegation zone! The rate of goals received are high and this alone requires a lot of efforts to fix the defence and the midfield lines. They have to spend a bit if they want to stay in 1.Bundesliga.. |
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Udinese are still in a really bad form. They couldn't beat Lecce home as well. Udinese's second half performance was much better and they found the equalizer not too late also. But the winning goal didn't came despite all the goal attempts. Now their series without a win has gone up to five games. It is quite disappointing to see them starting to drop down this much in the standings already now.
They need to work this out somehow. Their next opponent is Spezia and I hope Udinese will finally end this streak by a decent win.
Even Spezia match could be challenging if Udinese didn't get back its form. After a nice start, Udinese are becoming less successful and the last 5 games ended with 4 points only..
Atalanta - Napoli game is getting closer and all hopes (of all teams obviously) on Atalanta to reduce the gap between them and Napoli, or exactly to not let Napoli run away from them. |
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West Ham is the only team to finish their 6 games in the Conference League with a win. quite prolific with 13 goals and very few conceded. although there are Fiorentina and Istanbul who are also productive and strong in scoring goals.
Besides West Ham, I'm also Villarreal's favorite. now Villarreal top group C. and their form in the League is not bad either.
West Ham isn't well in EPL, yet they managed to get all points in its group. Well teams in that group aren't top either. Same situation for Villarreal but without full points. For the other groups, games were more challenging. Now those which ended second will have hard times facing those coming from Europa League like Lazio but also the other teams! |
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The fun of the day that cracked the hell outta me rib's was seeing Harry Maguire being used as a striker partner for Cristiano Ronaldo  I'd lie if that wasn't laughable, although I understand Manchester United needed a goal so they could go top of the group, using Harry Maguire as a means of his height failed still. He is no United type of player please, that Harry Maguire of a guy pretty sucks. Apparently I missed a funny part here. Maguire's place in ManU is the captain of the benches, otherwise, the match will not end good 
PSV, Rennes, Roma, Union, ManU, Midtjylland, Nantes and Monaco will know which teams they will face next Monday and the games will take place later in February. Those that will face Barcelona and Juve in particular at this stage, will regret finishing second in the group stage! |
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So Gerard Pique announced officially that he will retire this weekend after Barcelona - Almeria match at the age of 35. I might not understand it well what he meant by the last game in Camp Nou since Barcelona will have another game Tuesday tho away but whatever the exact date, he decided to take a break as a professional player. Source |
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I am now waiting for the Juventus game against Inter because indeed it is something worth watching.
Apart from this is the Big Match Chiesa's presence at Juventus is one of the factors that makes me look forward to this match.
Chiesa is back and has a match against PSG. I really hope to see him make his Serie A debut again after a long absence.
In this round, there is many interesting matches. Juve and Inter is challenging one especially that bookies are backing up Inter although Juve playing home. There is Roma and Lazio with Roma favourites in this game. Atalanta - Napoli is the hardest imo. Napoli is favourite and once they win, the gap between them and the other teams will increase considerably to 6-8 points! |
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Roma are really going to have it tough in tonight's game, they need to beat Ludogorets to earn a chance to qualify to the next round. I don't think Jose Mourinho would like to settle for a draw.
The big question is, can Mourinho do it again by qualifying his team to the round of 16? Being 4th in the league is like a morale booster to make them beat the away team at home, as it is they are coming out with everything they have got and I don't see them going for a draw... IMO is a must win for the Italian side.
Ludogorets won in the previous match 2-1 but Roma is better now comparing to the previous month. Another advantage is playing home. I don't expect a big goals difference margin but Roma should win this game imo. For the other games, Freiburg, ManU, Monaco, Midtjylland and interestingly Trabzonspor are leading with 1 goal (3 goals for Monaco). For Trabzon, I don't know if they can keep that result until the end, they should add another goal imo to secure it. |
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