European Football: Check out Results of Saturday’s Matches + Talking Points from the weekends action – Man U’s Loss, Barcelona`s Falter

European Football Talking Points From all The Action this Weekend

Written by Funsho Ogunbeku (@Footycabal)

Saturday was a day of captivating footballing actions across Europe with so Many matches played yesterday, a few actually caught the eye as a giant was fallen, a record was broken and the unimaginable happened. Some Major talking points here;

Manchester City`s Win

Manchester city gave the sort of response of champions as they could have been held to a draw after Swansea’s Bafetimbi Gomis in the 90th minute cancelled out Wilfried Bony’s early opener against his former club, his 7th goal of the season. Am sure most rival fans were already happy that City was about to drop points but it wasn’t to be as Kelechi Iheanacho again! Came to city’s rescue with a 92nd minute lucky goal after deflecting in Yaya Toure’s shot with his back, Kelechi the young Nigerian just over 2 years ago was playing for Taye academy in Warri, Nigeria. He is turning out to be a real star, the sensational 19-year-old has now won 6 points for the Citizens off the Bench not forgetting his winner against Crystal palace in September also in stoppage time to give them a 1-0 win. Pellegrini’s boys are now top of the league on goal difference after their 14th win in 16 home league games while Swansea’s 1 win in 9 games is the reason why Gary Monk was sacked even though I feel he should have been given more time.

Manchester United`s Loss

Manchester United lost to Bournemouth at the vitality stadium, it’s a tale of David downs Goliath but am not really surprised as this was the same side that beat Chelsea a week ago at the Bridge. Stanislas scored directly from a corner, how about that for a goal. Van Gaal has been labeled boring lately and wanted to entertain United fans by bringing in Phil Jones for Paddy Macnair when they were 2-1 down,lol, laughable isn’t it? Though rocked by injury to the back line but United is still clearly boring for a team that spent £250M last summer and to add salt to injury Josh king who scored the winner for Bournemouth was a former United youngster. Eliminated from the champions league in the group stage on Tuesday and lost to Bournemouth in the league on Saturday, things aren’t looking good for Louis van Gaal and his side.

Romelu Lukaku`s Record

Romelu Lukaku scored in his 7th successive game in all competitions against Norwich in a 1-1 draw, the first Everton player to do so in 40 yrs! Na wa for this club ooo. His 6th in a row in the league means he is now looking to break Jamie Vardy’s record of 11 in a row, that’s a tall one but who knows? Mourinho must be regretting he sold this guy considering Chelsea’s league position and Diego Costa’s form.

Barcelona`s Falter

In Spain Barcelona played their 3rd consecutive draws in all competitions, they must be missing the Laliga top scorer Neymar, though it didn’t look like they will be missing him when Barca led the match 2-0 Messing curling in a free kick first, then Rakitic getting the second but they allowed Deportivo secure a draw with 2 goals in the last 14 minutes. With Messi who just got back from injury chipping in here and there and Neymar missing, the defense should be doing a lot better. Atletico Madrid will go joint top with a win tomorrow, Barca should be wary of that atletico team as they pose more threat than Real Madrid my reason? They are showing more solidity than 2 seasons ago when they won the league having conceded only 6 goals in 14 games, the best defense in Europe and x-factor Griezmann is another reason this guy can’t stop scoring. MSN (Messi Suarez Neymar) need to come back together as soon as possible.

The German Surprise

And Finally in Germany forget Bayern Munich who are in a league of their own, that league is still always competitive and full of surprises. Am still shocked at this result because I didn’t expect a Borussia Mochengladbach side who only lost to a very good City side in midweek through late goals, had not lost in the league Since september and only last weekend handed Bayern their first defeat of the season to lose by a whooping 5-0 to a Bayer Leverkusen team that had only won 2 of their last 9. Stefan Kiessling soared twice while Chicharito scored a hat trick to make it 10 goals in the league and 17 in all competition wow! What a Poacher that guy is and tell me again why Van Gaal sold him considering his experience and exploits on loan with Real Madrid last season, only the Old Trafford boss can answer that though.

Here are the results of Saturday’s matches:

England

Norwich City 1-1 Everton

Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton

Manchester City 2-1 Swansea City

Sunderland 0-1 Watford

West Ham United 0-0 Stoke City

AFC Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester United

Spain

Barcelona 2-2 Deportivo La Coruna

Celta Vigo 1-0 Espanyol

Levanta 1-2 Granada