Football Matchday Preview and Review

 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...

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 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 ...