Football Matchday Preview and Review

 Italy boss Robert Mancini revealed the 37 man squad that would take part in the Nations League games against Bosnia and the Netherlands in September. A fairly average-aged squad with the potential to score a million goals. There's not a lot that I would like to analyse about the squad since it was somewhat expected that Mancini would call upon the same players.  Italy and Juventus captain is back into the squad after missing out on almost a year of international football. Brescia player Mario Balotelli failed to impress Mancini enough to call him up. Three uncapped players have been given their call-up to the big stage. This includes Inter's Alessandro Bastoni, and Sassuolo duo Manuel Locatelli and Francesco Caputo. Midfielders Jorginho and Sandro Tonalli were required to get their coronavirus tests before they would be allowed into the squad. Their test results have not been revealed yet, but both are expected to be part of the games in Florence, Italy and Amsterdam, Netherl...

 Germany manager, Joachim Lowe released his selections for the national team to compete in friendlies and competitions yesterday and a few eyebrows were raised on his decision to rest several key players that were part of the Champions League winning team in Portugal last week. Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry and Manual Neuer, who all featured in the final of the Champions League against PSG have been excluded from the squad for resting. Other players not picked are Barca goalie ter Stegen, BVB captain Marco Reus, who had returned for training, Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil, and the exiled duo of Thomas Muller and Jerome Boateng. Inclusion of players like Niko Shulz and Ilkay Gundogan have also lead to debate as both players have failed to show their worth in their respective leagues by the display of inconsistent performances. The trio of goalkeeper Oliver Bauman, Atalanta wing-back Robin Gosens and Monchengladbach midfielder, Florian Neuhaus are all being given their f...

England coach, Gareth Southgate revealed the England team to compete in friendlies and competitions today and it's safe to say that there are a few surprises. Upon looking first, one might feel happy looking at the squad. Youngsters such as Kalvin Philips, Mason Greenwood and Mason Mount have all been called up. But when you look at the list for a little longer, you'll see the many flaws there are that manager Gareth Southgate has in his squad. For instance, veterans Luke Shaw (LB), Jordan Henderson (CM) and Ross Barkley (CDM) have all been overlooked for first-timer Kalvin Philips, who has not ever played in the top-most tier of any country, and the inconsistent duo of James Ward-Prowse and Harry Winks. Not to forget, key attacking midfielders Jack Grealish and James Maddison, Aston Villa and Leicester City, respectively, were also snubbed despite their performances for their sides in the Premier League this season. They both were almost guaranteed a spot after their respectiv...

Yes, most of us were predicting a goal-fest. But when teams like Bayern play against teams like PSG, where both teams have won their respective leagues and both enjoy scoring goals, you cannot help but expect to see many goals. In a game that many were expecting to go to extra-time after enough goals by each team in normal time, the scoreline would seem like a bit of a disappointment. At a point in the second half, many were also expecting their prediction of an extra-time game come true, with the scoreline of 0-0. But Bayern did get a goal through a Kingsley Coman, an ex-PSG player, who converted from a chipped ball from Kimmich at the expense of all PSG supporters.  There was not too much to discuss regarding the starting 11 of either team and most people had predicted how both teams would play. There was one change for Bayern, though, who started with Kingsley Coman instead of Ivan Perisic. Bayern continued with their high line defence, and PSG continued with their wing dominati...

 There were no pre-match surprises for this game. Bayern was riding high on confidence and to a certain extent, Lyon, too, were the same. Unfortunately for Lyon, the odds were stacked against them. But it wasn't the first time in the competition that they were not favourites. In fact, all three Champions League games Lyon has played after the lockdown, they were expected to lose; they defied those odds every single time. Still, facing Bayern Munich and facing Manchester City - there's a big difference as to how both teams play and while Bayern has mostly been consistent, Manchester City hasn't. In the beginning, Lyon pressed. They pressed hard. And in the first 10 minutes, Lyon should have scored. It was only when Lyon hit the pole during an attack did Bayern realise that they will have to up their games. And they did. In the same move, Gnabry treated to all Bayern fans to a goal they had only seen legend Arjen Robben scored. In the 17th minute, Bayern was leading 1-0. Gnab...

A game that was hotly anticipated to be one of the games of the season regarding the kind of attacking threat both teams got. By the end of that game, people who had seen Leipzig play before knew that they were not even close to the kind of football they can produce. Based on the scoreline, 3-0 to PSG, you would expect that this match was one-sided, and for the majority of the game it was. With only Leipzig's defence performing well, their midfield and attack will be questioned regarding what went wrong throughout the 90. It all started in the 13th minute when PSG received a foul near Leipzig's box and Angel di Maria whipped the ball in. Marquinhos met the ball with his head to put it past the goalkeeper to make it 1-0. Di Maria's quality ball was replayed again and again.  Check out the goal here. Goalkeeper Gulasci will have to take the blame for PSG's second goal just before half-time, where his poor pass lead to the goal. An interception by PSG then played in the bo...

There was an awful lot of speculation pre-game about the kind of starting 11 Pep Guardiola had laid out. Many claimed that he was simply "experimenting". If that was the case, someone ought to tell Pep that the Semi-Final of the Champions League was no place to experiment.  A brilliant overhead ball from all the way from the Lyon defence to striker Toko-Ekambi, who was unable to control the ball resulting it to fall within Maxwell Cornet's reach. He struck the ball well as all City goalie, Ederson could do was watch the ball go into his goal. Kevin de Bruyne is the only consistent City player and he showed his worth by equalising the game in the 69th minute from a good goal Unfortunately for Manchester City, Lyon goalkeeper, Lopes was on his best-ever performance and he denied City several opportunities. Substitute Moussa Dembele silenced his criticism by scoring in the 79th minute and putting Lyon back in the lead. At this stage, it was clear City were ready to go throug...

 A pre-match with nothing out of the blue. A surprise inclusion of Ousmane Dembele in the Barca squad being the only exciting incident, maybe. But who needs an exciting pre-match when the match speaks for itself. Maybe a couple of years ago, the scoreline would have been closer, but the game that was witnessed was a shock for all three sets of fans - those supporting Barcelona, those supporting Bayern and those watching the match for the fun of it. I, for one, was watching it for the fun of it. Everyone watching knew that it was a Bayern game when they opened the scoring in the third minute with a Thomas Muller goal, who was assisted by Lewandowski. Barcelona replied quickly with a counter-attack in the 7th minute and was lucky to see David Alaba put the ball past his own goalkeeper,  Manual Neuer . Ivan Perisic scored through a strong shot from a very tight angle to hand the lead back to Bayern. Six minutes later, Serge Gnabry wrestled past the Barcelona defenders to score a ...

The only worthwhile pre-game news was the absence of ace striker Timo Werner for his departure from Leipzig to Chelsea. As the news of his absence spread, lesser people began to even look at Leipzig to win this game. Unfortunately for Athletico fans, players like Marcel Sabitzer, Youssef Poulsen and goalscorer Daniel Olmo. Not to mention, goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi also came in with vital saves during the game. After a pretty dull first half, where Leipzig did a bunch with continuous attacks on the Athletico defence, with plenty fouls being drawn in. The goalless first-half lead to an exciting second half, where Leipzig scored in under six minutes, with 51 minutes on the clock. With a great number of passes among the players before the goal, all Olmo had to do was head in a perfectly weighted ball from Sabitzer.  Cue to the moment wonderkid, Joao Felix was subbed in by the manager, Diego Simeone. Cue his link-up play with Olivier Giroud. And cue the penalty given the moment after. It...

Before the game, all anyone could talk about was how PSG's wonderkid, Kylian Mbappe had made a miraculous recovery from his injury. Atalanta laid out a formation that suited their attacking style. They played their 3-4-1-2 style, with the captain, Alejandro Gomez distributing balls to the two strikers ahead of him. It was certain that they weren't afraid of PSG's attack. PSG lined up with their usual 4-3-3, with Neymar and Icardi swapping their roles while going forward. PSG started the game on the front foot with Neymar dribbling past the Atalanta defenders like they didn't even exist. He played out two world-class balls that should have been converted by Pablo Sarabia and Mauro Icardi, but both lacked the bit of pace Mbappe got into the game. Neymar, too, missed two sitters that a player of his calibre should have scored. Eventually, PSG was made to rue their missed chances as Atalanta striker, Pasalic scored a brilliant first-touch goal into the corner of Keylor  Nav...

The much-awaited completion of the Round of 16 (RO16) of the UEFA Champions League post-coronavirus pandemic was completed this weekend. And the performances we saw of all the teams we are used to seeing all these years cannot even be compared to how our expectations thought they would go down. For example, Lyon, a French club, drawn to play against the mighty, Ronaldo-lead, Juventus, end up beating the mighty on the away goals rule. Juventus vs Olympique Lyonnais  The game started at a sour note from Juve's perspective when Lyon were gifted a penalty at the 12th minute. Memphis Depay made no mistake converting from the penalty spot and got Lyon leading 1-0 on the day and 2-0 on aggregate. The spectators, who were watching from home, were then shown a Cristiano Ronaldo show, where he first scored a penalty just before half-time, and got a brilliant goal from outside the box, to make it 2-1 on the day. Alas, Juventus needed another goal to qualify for the Quarter Finals, but failed ...

Football in most countries has come to the end of the season. Fans are left with two options - complain and wait till the next set of fixtures are announced, and to feel excited as all clubs start dropping their kit concepts and styles for the upcoming season. I choose to feel excited. Here, we will take an analytical view of major kit releases and leaks and rate them .  Today, we continue from where we left last time and start with the Italian clubs playing at the top-most tier. Serie A League-wide Common Font! Serie A is planning to implement a common league-wide font, which each team will have to follow and write player names from the same. Its really not that bad, except it takes away the uniqueness each kit brought with their own kits.   Fiorentina Kappa has replaced Le Coq Sportif as the official kit sponsors of Fiorentina. No jersey has been released; concepts of home and away jerseys are available. Home A regular, clean purple kit. Nothing new. Nothing ...