Sep 302015
 

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has earned the title “the ultimate goal scoring machine” after he scored his 500 career goal in their match against Malmo on Wednesday night. The former Manchester United man also went on level terms with Madrid legend and all time highest goal scorer Raul. He was the only goal scorer for Madrid on their Champions League night out in Sweden and his two goals meant Madrid retained their spot at the top of the table ahead of Paris Saint Germans (PSG) who also won their match. Now Ronaldo would have the chance to surpass Raul if he is able to score against city rivals Atletico when both teams meet this weekend.

Real Madrid were without key players such Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos, James Rodriguez and defender Danilo while the coach also dropped some players from his first eleven in preparation for the vital league match at weekend.  Cristiano Ronaldo’s first goal came through a counter attack by the team in the 29th minute of the game and the Portuguese attacker made sure to poke this one home. Malmo had their chance in the game but it couldn’t amount to much. Though Ronaldo was made to wait till the final minutes of the game for his second as Malmo’s goal keeper Johan Wiland pulled off some wonderful saves to deny the attacker another goal in the first half. He finally had his time in the 90 minute as he converted a square cross from team mate Vazquez to score his 323 goal for Madrid.

Sep 292015
 

FC Barcelona lost their star player Lionel Messi to a knee ligament in their weekend match against Las Palmas. It was supposed to be a knock he could shake off after minor treatment on the sidelines but it proved to be stronger than that and he was substituted few minutes later. It was later confirmed after the match that he had torn his knee ligament and would be on the sidelines for two months to recover. Barcelona fans immediately tipped Brazilian star Neymar Jr. to lead the team in Messi’s absence but it seems like that task is too heavy for the Brazilian forward as was seen by his poor performance tonight. Bayern Leverkusen took the lead in the 22nd minute when Kryiakos Papadopoulos jumped between Mathieu and Ter Stegen to head home a cross. After then, Barcelona needed a goal to go level and the best Neymar could come up with was a dive in the opposition’s eighteen yard box for which he was booked before his other attempt came off the post.

The first half ended with Barcelona trailing behind, they couldn’t afford to lose this one after drawing their first against AS Roma. The second half continued and the chances kept on coming but they couldn’t convert. Neymar was far from his best all night and it took the introduction of Sergi Roberto for Barcelona to level scores with just 10 minutes to go. Luis Suarez was again the hero as he got the winner for the home team just like he did during the weekend. With Messi out for other six or seven games, it is good to know that there is someone besides Neymar who can step up to the plate when the team needs him.

Sep 292015
 

Bayern Munich striker, Roberto Lewandowski cannot just stop banging in the goals. The polish international went scored a hat-trick at the Allianz arena during their champions league match to take his tally to 10 goals in 3 games. Lewandowski who moved from Borrusia Dortmund to Bayern in the summer of 2013 started his recent scoring rage last week, when he came off the bench in the second half to score five goals in their match against Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg had earlier taken the lead in the first half of the match after a combination of passes game them access to Bayern 18 yard box. The home team could not respond in that half, but Lewandowski came on in the second half to score five goals in 9 minutes. He became the first ever Bundesliga player to score that amount of goal in such a short period of time. Even his coach Pep Guardiola was left in awe as camera caught him with hands on his head and mouth wide open after Lewandowski scored his fifth goal of the match.

He continued his scoring in the weekend as his brace and a goal from Mario Gotze was all Bayern need to put aside Mainz in front of the home fans. And during their Champions League match on tonight, he scored a hat trick as Bayern Munich cruised to a 5-0 victory over Dynamo Zagreb to go top of their group in the Champions League. Brazilian attacker, Costa opened the scoring for the host before Lewandowski capitalized on a defensive error to open his account for the night. Mario Gotze scored the next, and then Lewandowski added another to make it 4-0 just after 29 minutes. But he was made to wait until the second half to complete his hat-trick as Zagreb’s defense was destroyed and he had no issues chipping an easy one over Eduardo.

Sep 282015
 

Barcelona star Lionel Messi is set to be on the sidelines for at least 8 weeks after tearing his knee ligament in their 2-1 win over Las Palmas on Saturday. The treble winners still managed to win the game despite losing their star man just minutes into the first half. Lionel Messi tore his ligament after colliding in an awkward way with an opponent as he tried to shot from the edge of the area. The four time ballon d’or winner was left on the ground wriggling in pain after the tackle as the team medics came to his rescue. He received treatments on the sidelines and returned to action but he couldn’t deal with the pain and was substituted shortly.

At the end of the match, the team confirmed the news of Messi’s injury which would require about two months off the pitch to heal. Barcelona would now have to rely on the likes of Neymar and Luis Suarez to keep the team on top until Messi’s return. Situations like this was one the reasons why Barcelona bought Brazilian striker Neymar and he would have to step forward and fill in the void left by Messi. Eight weeks out means Messi would miss Barcelona’s league games against Sevilla, Rayo Vallecano, Eibar, Getafe and Villareal. After these matches comes the international break which would give the player more time to relax. But just after the international break is their league match against Real Madrid. If there are no complications with his recovery, the Argentine player would be back in time to face their rivals but Barcelona would prefer to have him play at least one match before that game or he could just sit that one out as well.

Sep 272015
 

With five games into the Premier League, Manchester City were the only team in the English top flight to have secured a perfect start to the season given that they had won all their matches and they did so without conceding a single goal. But all that gloss was dimmed after their 2-1 defeat against West Ham last weekend. The loss was followed by a 4-1 thrashing of Sunderland in the league cup which suggested that they were back to winning ways only to be pegged down in London by the same score line against Tottenham. City’s early season form has dropped and has seen them lose three matches in their last four games allowing their city rivals Manchester United to claim top spot in the Table.

Manchester City drew first blood after Kevin De Bruyne who appeared to be in an offside position gave the visitors the lead midway through the first half with beautiful strike. But that offside call was just the first of many to come as three of Totteham’s goals were also scored from an offside position. Manuel Pellegrini gave a good press conference after his team’s loss, he praised his opponents for a wonderful display and didn’t seem to care about the poor officiating that saw his side concede three goals from offside positions. Manchester city must shake off the effects of this loss and get back to winning ways as they travel to Germany to face Borrusia Monchengladbach on Wednesday in the Champions League.

Sep 272015
 

Jose mourinho’s Chelsea continued their run of poor performance as they drew 2-2 with Newcastle yesterday. The blues were two goals down by the hour mark at St James Park were they had to scramble two late goals to secure one point from the game. Ayoze perez opening the scoring for the magpies just before the half time whistle and then Georginio Wijnaldum doubled their lead, heading home the ball following a corner kick. But with twelve minutes remaining on the clock, Mourinho had to introduce substitutes Ramires and Willian who came on to change the game. Ramires started the comeback scoring a shot from 20 yards in the 79th minute before Willian drew level for the team from a dead ball.

Newcastle might be disappointed with the result given that they just needed to hold on for twelve more minutes to secure all three points. Mourinho has gone on to criticize the mentality of his opponents stating that this maybe the reason why the team never wins anything. According to him the Newcastle team brings out their all whenever they are playing against Chelsea and just play normally in other matches. It is worthy to note that Jose Mourinho has never won a league match at St James Park. Mourinho has blamed his team loss on bad individual performances stating that if he had his way, he would have changed at least six players after the first half. This result leaves Chelsea seven points behind new premier league leaders Manchester United but the league is still very much open considering that only seven games have been played so far.

Sep 262015
 

Manchester City has a total of seven players sidelined through injury as they travel to London to face Tottenham Hotspur later today. The long queue of injured players for the club includes play maker David Silva, Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfried Bony who are expected to return in the first week of October. While Gael Clichy and Mangala, would be returning later that month. Summer signing Fabian Delph is yet to make an appearance for the team this season due to a hamstring injury. Manchester City appears to be the only Premier League club that can have this much star players on the sidelines and still have so much to offer and that is because of the depth of their squad. Manchester City has a lot of options in different roles but their match against Sunderland in the Capital One Cup required that the club need do with the available squad. City went on to win the match 4-1 with Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling all on the score sheet.

City’s manager, Manuel Pellegrini is hopeful that Samir Nasir, Pablo Zabeleta and his team captain Vincent Kompany would be available for selection today against Sunderland. With Aguero who missed most of the match against Juventus due to injury back to fitness, the manager is hoping the team could move on from their last week’s defeat to West Ham and win in London. Summer signings Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne are also available, with the later impressing against West Ham. Though they lost that match, his performance shows that he doesn’t need a whole season to adapt to the Premier League he left a season ago and that’s one reason why City spent so much on him.

Sep 262015
 

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has not scored in any Premier League match so far this season. He last got a Premier League goal back in April against Aston Villa but since then has gone on a goal drought which is now the longest ever in the England player’s career. Scoring is not his problem, because he opened the scoring for Manchester United in their midweek match against Ipswich which the team later on to win 4-0. He also netted a hat-trick in United’s qualifying match against Club Brugge. Rooney also got on the score sheet twice on international duty with England in September scoring two successful penalties against San Marino and Switzerland to become England’s all time leading goal scorer. If Rooney fails to get a goal against Sunderland at Old Trafford today his goal drought would stretch beyond 1,000 minutes.

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal defended his player stating that he thinks his captain has just been a bit unlucky in the league. He also went on to say that the fact that Rooney hasn’t scored in the Premier League is not a problem to him or the club. The Dutch manager is confident his player would break the deadlock soon. In the meantime, United has found another goal scorer in summer signing Anthony Martial, the young French international has scored four times in four games since his arrival this season. If he scores against Sunderland today, he would go on to become the first Premier League player to score in his first three matches for a club. Louis van Gaal is hoping that Wayne Rooney could strike a good partnership in the United attack line.

Sep 252015
 

On the last day of the transfer market, we saw Manchester United roll out a massive 36 million pounds to sign a certain young Monaco striker who has been dubbed to be the next Thierry Henry. A lot was said about why United was willing to shell out such an amount for potential and not experience but I guess we have all seen why on the pitch. Anthony Martial just arrived United and already has four goals to his name. His composure in front of goal just shows how good a marksman he is.

Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger has now claimed that he has known and followed Martial since he was a child but decided not to sign him because he thought he was a winger. Questions about his preferred role are behind everyone as Old Trafford has already recognized him as one of their goal heroes. The 19 years old agent, Philippe Lamboley has said that he doesn’t think Wenger comments is justifiable for a coach who has watched the player closely, adding that in football, there are people who just follow players and people who sign them.

This is not the first time Wenger is missing out on a Manchester United player, he also missed out on the opportunity to sign Angel Di Maria for free when the Argentine was just 17 years old. He also missed on great players such as Xabi Alonso, Zlatan Ibrahimovich, Lionel Messi and even former United player, Cristiano Ronaldo. Whether Anthony Martial would become one of the great players Wenger nearly signed is still unknown but I guess we would have an answer to that statement at the end of the season.

Sep 252015
 

Brazilian striker, Alexandre Pato has claimed that Manchester United tried to sign him on the deadline of the transfer market. According to the striker who is currently playing for Brazilian club Sao Paulo, Manchester United made attempts to sign him to bring him over to Old Trafford but he wasn’t aware of the deal as at the time. Tottenham was the only premier league club that was linked with the player all through the transfer market but this revelation also means united were weighing their chances of landing the former AC Milan star. Alexandre Pato has not ruled out the possibility of a move away from the Brazilian club but says he is focused on the game for now while also thinking about his future and talking about it with his family and friends.

It would be recalled that during the transfer window, United sold about three of their strikers and were on the search for a desperate replacement before they landed young Anthony Martial from Monaco. Although critics say he was overpriced but the youngster is beginning to prove them wrong with four goals in four games for united already. United also tried to sign out of favor Barcelona winger Pedro but the Spaniard later ended up penning a deal with Chelsea. He claimed that his switched from United to Chelsea was due to the fact that Manchester United was acting sluggish with the deal and he wanted to start the new season with a new club.

Alexandre Pato currently has a deal with Brazilian side Sao Paulo till December 2016, so any club willing to sign him the nearest future would have to pay off his current deal.