Offensively, they are on pretty even footing I'd say but Delaney is much more defensively sound, a ball winner and not close to comparable to Castro.
Marco will have the next Euros and probably another WC. 2022 maybe not as a starter, though. In a strange way he will be remembered with this wc winner generation though, a bit like Netzer 1974, it's a but different I know but.. Netzer himself always denied others to call him a WorldCup winner due to his benching in favour of Overath
Arsenal vs City. Well it's interesting watching some former players. Gundogan was good without being excellent, but Mkhitaryan was terrible and disappeared. Should have sold him a lot earlier. Auba had a poor game as well, but Arsenal did not create much. He has gone for the money and that can console him.
Bayern are dominating Hoffenheim and 1-0 up from a Muller header. Bayern have had a lot of chances, but Hoffenheim missed a sitter to equalise. Koman is off injured though.
Infuriating. Ribery with a blatant and obvious dive. There is VAR, but the ref gives the penalty and does not even check it. Very poor decision. bvbSlash. You were wrong. VAR changes nothing and Bayern will still get favourable decisions.
Hm. That was a pretty clear foul to me. He laid out, he didn't come close to playing the ball, and in the end he did impede him while definitely outside of playing distance from the ball.
The defender slid down, but made no contact. Ribery then went and jumped on him. It was a shocking decision especially when it could have been checked with VAR. I am surprised you think it was a foul, because I doubt even many Bayern fans believe it should have been given.
If you impede a player, you had better be in a position to play the ball. Those are the rules. Ribery was clearly making his run, playing the ball, defender gambled, missed, impeded, fouled.
He didn't impede him. Ribery jumped into the player. There's no rule saying you have to move out of the way. Bayern fans aren't even defending the decision, just saying Hoffenheim were dirty and should have had more players sent off before hand.
I think this is our difference. I agree he doesn't have to move out of the way if he started out in the way. But he didn't start in the way. He was getting beaten (i.e. was not in the way) and slid into the way. You can only move into the way if you can play the ball. If he touched the ball on the way in, or the ball stayed close and was deemed the defender could still play it, then it is no foul. But the ball got cleanly through, he couldn't play it but Ribery could, there was contact. Yes Ribery exaggerated the contact, but that is normal. I am not arguing that Bayern don't get preference from the refs, they do, but I feel this case is one where I'd expect a foul to be called. I personally dislike Bayern and Ribery. But I saw it as a clear foul.
Yarmolenko having his first start for West Ham today. He has done well and has already scored two goals.
In the end Stuttgart drew 3-3 with Freiburg but LOL at Castro being replaced at half-time and Stuttgart improving because of it. Honestly I will never understand how such a useless footballer managed to convince three coaches in a row that he was an indispensable part of the team.
Hoffenheim got a good result and played well in the 2nd half. I missed the first half, but the second half was very entertaining and open. Both teams had several chances to score and Maicon's equaliser was a rocket. Hoffenheim should be aggrieved Shaktar didn't get a red card. We are lucky that Hoffenheim have had an exhausting game all the way in the Ukraine. We should take advantage of their fatigue.
I would agree with you but I am not sure that our manager will put together a lineup that could take advantage of their fatigue. I have no idea what lineup we shall see against them. Trying to predict a lineup has becom rather challenging. I had no idea he would start Wolf and Gotze the last match and that pretty much tells me that he is still trying to find the right 11, where as most of us arm chair coaches already have it figured out
Look what we found on the ground at the S-Bahn station! Three points! Some Bavarian tourist must have dropped them.
Bayern looked a bit toothless and were outplayed. Their failure to replace Robben and Ribery is haunting them. Boateng made a rash decision and Lewandowski/Muller are not the forces they once were. They are still the strongest team in the league, but it will be a nice confidence boost to go top of the league tomorrow.
Hoffenheim were very unlucky to lose to City. City looked good attacking, but Hoffenheim's quick counter attacking football ripped holes in the City defense. A bit more care or a bit more quality and they could have scored a lot more. At the same time they were lucky Sane didn't get a penalty. A real shame for them, because it would have greatly increased their chances of progress and been a good result for the entire Bundesliga.
Another poor result for Bayern. They looked terrible today and they were lucky to even get the draw. Neuer made some good saves and Ajax missed a lot of chances.
Why didn’t James start!? And why are we starting two geriatrics!? And screw you DFL for slicing up tv rights to the point that I had to watch Konferenz!
Lyon rescuing a draw with Donetsk has given Hoffenheim a lifeline. Obviously the Champions League is too much for them, but if Nagelsmann can fix those lapses in defence then they could secure a Europa League spot and make a decent run there, as I'm sure Nagelsmann would be open to making up for his dismal European debut last season. I would also like to add that while Nagelsmann has previously stated his admiration for Guardiola's Barcelona, today he proved it's not Tuchel levels of hero worship in which he rolls over at the sight of him like Tuchel used to do much to our embarassment.
I'm hoping that what we're seeing in Bayern is an out-of-form stretch for Muller and Robben that will last a long time.