Kepa Note Of This
Kepa Note Of This
As everyone has been saying at the top of their newsletters/podcasts etc. last week wasn't a nice time at all, however as I've also seen people say, it's never a nice time if you pay attention to everything happening in the world, the Ukraine situation is just uncomfortably close. So for now we continue, send our thoughts to those in adverse situations and hope you're all doing OK.
The Week In Ball
There are three main spheres of games to cover this week. Europe, League, Carabao.
I'm starting, of course, with Europe as that happened longest ago.
So, Champions League first. This week we finished off the first legs of the last 16. Chelsea beat Lyon 2-0 at Stamford Bridge. I don't really have much to say about this other than to mention Joe Cole's wild assertion that Ligue 1 was the second best league in Europe. Now as you know I watch a lot of European football and this is just plain wrong. Does he only watch Premier League and base this on the players at PSG? Is he mad? It's just simply not true.
I'm going to assume he thinks the Premier League is the best (and for all the jokes about 'best league in the world', right now I think it probably is) but to discount Serie A and La Liga? Or even the Bundesliga, which isn't having its best season but still routinely provides great players and good entertainment. Has he seen the FIFA rankings? (The Primera in Portugal recently overtook Ligue 1's spot in the Top 5 Leagues in Europe, with all the other aforementioned leagues). It's not a Farmer's League but PSG are likely to retain the title and they're not even that good, they're weird. They're certainly not playing to the standard of a team meant to be in the second best league in Europe. Crazy talk from Joe.
Elsewhere Ajax and Benfica drew. I didn't catch this game but I did see Tadic's goal which was beautiful (the angle of his body and the cleanness of his shot is gorgeous) and I did see the video Ajax put out before the match.
Villarreal looked like they were going to have one of those nights after Vlahovic scored for Juve after mere seconds but they were rescued by Dani Parejo midway through the second half and held on for the draw. With the next leg in Turin they're going to need some steel to make it through but stranger things have happened.
Finally Atletico Madrid came so close to securing the bag and taking a win with them to Old Trafford until wunderkind Anthony Elanga got subbed on and yet again scored an important goal. He's a good kid and looks to be a real prospect but I couldn't help but want the Atleti win, despite having no love lost for either of them.
So to the Europa League/Conference. Leicester eased through their two Conference playoffs even though Brendan claimed he didn't know what the competition even was (to be fair Brendan, does anyone?) while north of the border Celtic fell to Bodø/Glimt in quite spectacular fashion, losing 5-1 on aggregate.
Now, I'm going to say something controversial here, please don't cancel me... I actually really rate the Europa League and think it has much more interesting teams in it than what's left in the Champions League. I'm certainly not against the UCL or find it boring, I just think there's more to get your teeth into with the Europa League and there are some really great ties.
It helps of course that up until the playoffs I had two teams to root for (more on that momentarily) but even now there are still a lot of fascinating match ups to look forward to.
Firstly though let's take a little look at what happened in the playoffs. These were the matches between the eight runners-up from the UEFA Europa League group stage and the eight third-placed teams from the UEFA Champions League group stage.
The glamour tie of the round was of course Barcelona vs Napoli. Two exciting teams with some stellar players to watch. The first leg was... OK, it ended in a draw and that was probably fair. In the second leg however Barça ramped it up a notch and took Napoli to task on their own turf, winning 2-4, 3-5 on aggregate. Goals from Jordi Alba, Frenkie, Pique and Auba show, for me, just how much improved the team are both under Xavi and since their January signings came into the team. They have genuine threat now, with creative players, strong players, depth and width. Yes they're still a bit weak at the back, we could point fingers at certain players who need to tighten their game and gain sharpness but otherwise it feels positive and it feels good.
My other 'dog in the fight' ended up exiting with a sad howl rather than a combative roar. Yes, Rangers saw off Dortmund beating them 6-4 on aggregate. Poor leaky Dortmund couldn't quite hold off the force of Rangers enough for them to make up the deficit from the first leg. At one point, when they led 1-2, it did look like maybe they could do it but alas, Rangers got their second and then a disallowed third and from then you knew it was over. Although they're second in the Bundesliga the chances of them overturning Bayern's lead is slim to non-existent and they're also out of the DFB Pokal leaving them with essentially nothing to fight for this season but pride. .
Across the rest of the ties Atalanta, Porto, kings of the competition Sevilla, Leipzig, Braga and Betis won which leaves us with the following ties:
If you're not hugely familiar with club badges it's Rangers v. FK Crvena zvezda, Sevilla v. West Ham, Braga v. Monaco, Barcelona v. Galatasaray, Porto v. Lyon, Leipzig v. Spartak Moscow (???), Atalanta v. Leverkusen and Betis v. Eintracht. These are great ties! The Sevilla, West Ham, Porto, Atalanta and Betis games should all be fantastic and who knows what will happen in the others. A really fascinating bunch of match ups in my opinion.
OK, a quick whizz around the leagues.
I have to confess, having been back to the office for two days last week, I have been knackered. On Friday, I settled down with a cocktail and my hot blanket for the Southampton Norwich match and you may as well have given me an anaesthetic as I completely fell asleep within minutes of kick off. I did just about see the two goals through half open eyes but only woke up again, in a full daze, during the post match analysis.
Similar happened on Saturday where I was in and out of a doze for most of the games I watched, BT Sport Score and Match of the Day. So basically what I'm saying is that I don't have much to say about the goings on in the Premier League. On a personal level it was annoying that Spurs won and Wolves lost (I know they're a rival but I like Wolves and West Ham are more likely to be a close competitor) however, United drew against Watford and Arsenal have several games in hand so really it wasn't that bad.
In games that matter less to me personally, Newcastle are now on a sportswashed roll and beat Brentford 2-0, which was rude considering it was at this game that we saw the welcome return of Christian Eriksen to competitive football. A wonderful sight when so many things are so shit. Southampton, Villa and City won and Burnley and Palace were honours even.
In Serie A, Milan dropped points against Udinese but then so did Inter against Genoa. Inter do have a game in hand though. Napoli however beat Lazio which puts them at the top of the league on goal difference. Do not sleep on Serie A! It's been changing positions more than a beleaguered politician.
In Germany Bayern squeezed past Frankfurt 0-1 while Dortmund could only draw against Augsburg. This has lifted Augsburg out of the relegation zone however, which is good because I'm quite fond of them and their Twitter account.
Over the channel in France, PSG are still a silly amount in front and no, it is not the second best league in Europe.
Finally in La Liga, Barcelona made it look easy against Athletic Club with a confident 4-0 win, including the second scored by Dembele and assisted by Frenkie who had both been subbed on mere moments before. Pedri was also looking elegant and skillful while Gavi was busy battling his way through midfield looking like he's been in the gym with Adama. Also as an aside I'm amazed Barca often send out Pedri to do the post match interview. I mean he's great but he's 19, where's Busquets, Pique, Jordi Alba in these situations?!
Villarreal also kept up the momentum with a 5-1 spanking of Espanyol.
Last but certainly not least, the Carabao Cup Final.
We've seen Chelsea and Liverpool match up and provide fireworks before. Their game in November has been hailed a classic, although I spent the majority of it stuck in traffic on the M4... We know they're both squads with strength and depth with Liverpool having strengthened further with the addition of Luis Diaz, who both on and off the pitch looks like he's been with the team forever. Liverpool did lose Thiago in the warm up which gave us heartbreaking scenes of him crying, so Keita was brought on in his place and Harvey Elliott promoted to the bench.
So to the final itself. What a game. It was end to end stuff with chances ending up in the net for both sides, although technically it was only Liverpool who had a disallowed goal (the Chelsea ones were all flagged offside at the time).
Mendy was fantastic, Kelleher was fantastic, both making important saves. Virgil was Virgil, Rudiger was involved in everything, Havertz, someone I previously felt extremely sorry for, is now one of Chelsea's most important big game players, Diaz, as previously mentioned, has slotted in like he was made for Liverpool.
We even had a Moment when Havertz and Trent squared up and it looked like it might boil over.
However, the fun didn't really begin until Extra Time was over and it was time for PENALTIES. Penalties make me so stressed. I can barely think of a time, even a time where I've tuned in solely for them and kinda don't care, that they haven't made my heart pound and sitting by someone extremely invested in the result didn't help.
In a reversal of 2019, this year saw Kepa Arrizabalaga subbed on in order to take part in the penalty shoot out and you knew from that moment that some kind of #narrative was about to take place.
The penalties themselves were fantastic. Or were the keepers bad? Either way with each fresh scorer we came closer to the unbridled joy of Keeper Pens. Liverpool were shooting first and second choice goalie Kelleher stepped up. I already knew he was going to score because the stress was too much, so I was checking the Liverpool pens (the Sky stream had a massive lag) but allowing the Chelsea ones to be a surprise, but it was still a great penalty kick which meant it was down to Kepa. Was it time for redemption? Reader, it was not. Kepa skied the kick way into the Liverpool fans who were already celebrating by the time it dropped down among them.
There's really too much to talk about when it comes to the celebrations but I can highly recommend this Reel from Liverpool's official instagram. Highlights for me are Pep Lijnders and Kostas.
Kick Off
This weekend saw a lot of solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people following the invasion by Russia. There were also a number of weaker and dubious gestures, so I thought I'd round up some of them here.
Roman Abramovich gives Chelsea 'stewardship' to trustees of charitable arm
Poland to boycott World Cup play-off against Russia
Various shows of support at grounds around Europe
The {Offside} Thirst Trap
You may have seen me post this the other day. I nicked it off the official World Cup instagram and it's an adorable little video of Isco rescuing a tiny bird from the pitch. Look at how soft and tender he is, but also how skilled he is at grabbing it?! Anyway it got me thinking, Isco is really hot.
He's got everything I love; delicious brown eyes, thick dark hair, a beard, an incredibly cute smile, a nice butt, tattoos. Even in his Covid period where he looked like a basement stoner I still would have.
The other thing about Isco is that he looks like a short king. He isn't tall, he has a low centre of gravity (both actually and euphemistically, IYKYK) and in a pre-match line up he'll look wee as fuck. But he's 5'9". I asked on Twitter recently what the Short King Cut Off was and it was agreed that 5'8" is the top bar, anything over that is either Normal or Tall. So he's Normal, but he'll always be a short king in my eyes.
Merch Stand
Huh... (there are four pics so click through for more)
Extra Time
A few lighthearted things here for you:
Finally, Leeds departed company with Marcelo Bielsa at the weekend, after defeat to Spurs. Let's remember the good times.
Hope everyone has a decent week and remember to take care of yourselves!
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