Indeed, that also came to my surprise because I thought that Roma finally managed to achieve this stability in their week to week business. I thought that Mourinho is the right guy for Roma who now understands how to establish them in the top 3 or top 4. Then they had their crash towards the end of the season. Frankly speaking, Roma isn't the only team that was crashing out of a sudden. The other teams are just lucky that Roma is crashing harder than all of them. Who would have expected that Lazio loses 3 out of 5 games after playing so well with the strongest defense of the Serie A until then? Milan started dropping points nonstop as well. It will be a photo finish for a coupe of teams.
I also had positive thoughts about Mourinho to make Roma much better. Last season things were still not that bad as they won the Europa Conference League title in its first year being organized. But people expected more after that because they couldn't qualify for the Champions League. Right now I think Mourinho would stay only if they qualify for the Champions League somehow. There are two options in hand which is good as well. They win the Europa League title or finish the season in top four. |
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Roma have captured an important advantage in the round by getting a 1-0 win over Leverkusen indeed. Bove is a 20-year-old midfielder who was the scorer of that goal in this game as well. This must have been a special moment for him and he scored his 2nd goal in the season by this one as well. This goal is going to be very valuable for Roma in the second leg.
Because it is already not easy to eliminate Leverkusen for them. They will need this score advantage in Germany but it feels like this matchup won't end in regular time anyway.
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We are likely to see a finale between Manchester City and Inter for now in my opinion. Manchester City are playing much better in home games and it should be the same against Real Madrid as well. But the rematch can still be very competitive depending on Real Madrid's being prepared for a bigger fight there. On the other hand Inter are already in a very advantageous situation and they can finish the incomplete job as long as they play decently.
When it comes to a finale between these teams it isn't hard to pick a side of course. Manchester City would be able to beat them nicely and reach the title finally.
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It looks like Emiliano Martinez is still a target for some big EPL teams right now. Manchester United and Chelsea are called with him these days and Tottenham are also likely to join a possible race to sign him. I think the Red Devils would think of him in only the case of De Gea's leaving this summer. Because he still hasn't extended his contract and it runs out by the end of June.
Tottenham might also lose Lloris so they would like to replace him with a decent goalkeeper. But I don't think Chelsea will make an official offer for him. Because they have Kepa and Mendy already.
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Roma did a good job against Leverkusen by that 1-0 win maybe. But they had better not lose their concentration in the Serie A games as well. Because they are currently out of top six now which means there is no spot in a tournament next season. They can still join the Champions League group stage by winning the Europa League title of course but there is no guarantee about that either.
Therefore they need to play decently against Bologna up next to get a win. But I still can't trust them fully because the second leg in the Europa League is going to be played only a couple of days later than this league game.
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That was some huge loss by Wolfsburg against Dortmund previously. I wonder if the players will be able to leave this behind quickly. But they had better do so because the time is running out for them when it comes to their goals for qualifying for a tournament. While there are three weeks left they are two points behind Leverkusen in the standings.
There is a really tight race for a spot in the Europa Conference League. But maybe Wolfsburg can have a good opportunity to take the position because of Leverkusen's fighting in the Europa League on one hand for a Champions League spot.
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Newcastle have done a great work so far and they are very close to guaranteeing their qualification for the Champions League group stage. They just need to continue getting good results again. The defeat against Arsenal was really sad for them because these points losses for Newcastle and Manchester United are helping Liverpool very much to catch up with them.
Leeds are one of the teams trying to get out of the relegation zone maybe but I still think Newcastle can win this game and take a deep breath again.
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There are only two days left for the Catalan derby between Espanyol and Barcelona. The game is in Espanyol's stadium you know so this can make things more difficult for Barcelona despite being the favourite by far according to bookmakers. Espanyol still try to stay in the La Liga so they would do their best in this game undoubtedly.
Barcelona are trying to declare their title by winning this game as well. However the derbies between them in Espanyol's home haven't been very well for Barcelona. Therefore I'm not thinking of placing a bet on them. Instead I can go for both teams to score.
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Manchester United are said to be worried about the possibility that they might not be able to sign Kane this summer. Because Tottenham still don't seem willing to let him go easily. It is up to Kane's statement from now on as well. Actually he said something on the current condition of the team. But he didn't put it in a way like he wanted to leave the team from now on or said that he was open to offers.
I think joining Manchester United would be a much better move for him. He won't be leaving England first of all and he can make Manchester United much stronger to be more competitive for titles.
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Juventus got a huge difficulty in even getting this draw in the first leg. Their goal came literally in the final moments of the game. Their first half performance was really bad but things started to get better in the other half. Sevilla's not playing attacking-oriented much in the second half was also effective about that of course. But Juventus' being like that even in this situation shows how much they are struggling.
I don't think Sevilla would stumble in this round. They should be able to finish them off in Spain. We might see a similar scenario to the second leg of their previous matchup against Manchester United.
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One of the first games of the new week is going to be Aston Villa - Tottenham. I would like to make a reminder first that Aston Villa beat them by 2-0 away before. This was a big Emery effect there. Here in this home game Aston Villa are favoured to win as well. But I'm not surprised with their being shown as the favourite now either. Because there isn't a big difference between right now.
Tottenham are ahead by only three points and their recent form is horrible now. Maybe their winning the last game would give them some morale but I still think they will have difficulties in defending their opponent. I don't expect Tottenham to win this.
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We are in the last three weeks of the season now. It is getting more excited about the current title competition day by day. Even though I know that Bayern Munich are still a huge favourite for the league title it is still lovely to follow the competition between them and Dortmund. What a pity that Dortmund couldn't take advantage of their chances!
They could have really been in the lead by even some good gap against them now. But instead they are following one point behind. They had better hope for a mistake from now on. That mistake could be against Leipzig maybe.
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There have been some rumours out like Messi is getting close to sign for Al-Ittihad for an insane amount of money per year. But Messi still hasn't confirmed any rumour related to him. Besides I still believe that his priority will be to join back Barcelona. Because it is his home before anything else and he should still be hoping to see Barcelona making an offer to him in the coming transfer window.
If Barcelona has problems with FFP then I really wonder if he changes his mind about not leaving Europe yet. Because that offer must be really hard to refuse.
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Lazio have started to get negative results recently and this is endangering their position in top four. Because Inter and Milan are very close to them in the standings right now. There are only four weeks left for the end of the season maybe but balances can change a lot in the time period. They lost to Inter and Milan both recently as well.
All of their remaining games are winnable ones actually. They only need to focus on their game to qualify for the Champions League this time. Otherwise this season won't end very different than the previous one.
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Such a poor night for Milan really. I didn't see as big effort as I expected from them. Because there were big problems with the shots. This 2-0 loss already in the first game can be a serious issue for Milan in the second leg. I was expecting Inter to play good but this was more than I expected. After capturing this psychological advantage Inter can most probably eliminate them.
I wonder why Inzaghi didn't prefer Lukaku in the starting lineup this time. He has been in a good shape recently actually.
I would say AC Milan was unlucky to lose so badly at home. Inter Milan is a very tactical team. They conceded the first goal in the 8th minute and quickly conceded another goal. Before AC Milan could organize their defense, Inter Milan went ahead with two consecutive goals. And later on, Inter Milan was more focused on keeping their defense tight than attacking. However, Inter Milan's players were able to mount several excellent counter-attacks. Overall the match was very enjoyable. AC Milan are unlikely to qualify for the final after losing 2-0 at home. There were unlucky moments for Milan as well actually yeah. They wasted a couple of big goal opportunities. One of them was Tonali's decent shot which hit the post. But in general Inter seemed much better. Besides the biggest help for Inter was their scoring two goals very early in the game. This was a really big shock for Milan players to get rid of. If Inter didn't start this much quick maybe the result would have been different. I was expecting both sides to score honestly despite Leao's absence. |
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Arsenal must win every single one of their remaining games in the league until it is the end for them. Manchester City are going to play first on next week and a possible point loss would motivate Arsenal players a lot. But no matter what Arsenal must continue to win. Their opponent is going to be Brighton in Emirates and this should end up with a nice win for Arsenal.
Brighton defense must have weakened a lot after losing to Everton home by an absurd score the last time. Arsenal attackers should just go for the vulnerabilities to get a comfortable win.
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Bellingham is about to be a part of Real Madrid now and this must be very exciting for both sides now. Because Real Madrid are continuing to strengthen the midfield a lot and to invest in their future at the same time. Because Kroos and Modric's contracts are running out by the end of the season and I assume there won't be any extension with any of them.
Young players are starting to take their places from now on and Bellingham is going to be one of them. Bellingham must also be very happy to play for one of the biggest teams in Europe.
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Such a poor night for Milan really. I didn't see as big effort as I expected from them. Because there were big problems with the shots. This 2-0 loss already in the first game can be a serious issue for Milan in the second leg. I was expecting Inter to play good but this was more than I expected. After capturing this psychological advantage Inter can most probably eliminate them.
I wonder why Inzaghi didn't prefer Lukaku in the starting lineup this time. He has been in a good shape recently actually.
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Inter and Milan are like they are competing against each other everywhere now. Because while they are fighting for top four in the Serie A they are going to be playing against each other in the Champions League two times as well. The first leg is even tonight and the result of that game could be really effective in their performance in their next Serie A games.
It feels like Inter will be winning the first leg and this will cause Milan players to have a reduced morale for their upcoming Serie A game. Because Inter's condition for a few weeks has been more impressive than their opponents'. Lukaku has been in a great shape for example.
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It was a pretty interesting game honestly. In the first half Manchester City were the much more effective side but Real Madrid scored a goal. In the second half Real Madrid started to make some improvement in their effort and this time Manchester City found the equalizer. De Bruyne's goal was as great as Vinicius Junior's honestly.
This game didn't go very well for Haaland. He didn't get so many opportunities first of all and he wasn't good at benefiting from the ones he got as well. But I think this scenario will be different in Etihad. I expect him to be better at scoring then and Manchester City can eliminate Real Madrid home.
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