For a few people I know it was a boring weekend football wise. The international football break took center stage which meant some major league matches were put on hold for Euro Qualifiers, African Cup of Nation Qualifiers and Friendly Matches. There’s this saying that goes thus ‘seven days without football makes one WEAK’ and I wouldn’t agree less. I mean the title chase in England and Germany alone not to forget the battle for top 4 in England is enough entertainment . Liverpool and Manchester City are separated by just two points with both teams amassing 76 and 74 points respectively.
In Germany the race is even tighter, Bayern Munich and Dortmund are both level on points with 60 points each and it is looking like the game between both of them come April 6th, 2019 could be the decider. Let me assure you that if that game ends in a draw and come end of season both teams are still level on points, trust me no matter the amount of goals Bayern scores Dortmund would be crowned champions simply because the head to head rule comes into play first before goals difference would be considered. Dortmund won the reverse fixture 3:2.
A few games caught my fancy during the International break and they were Nigeria’s African Nations Cup qualifying match against Seychelles which the Super Eagles won 3:1 to seal top spot in Group E. Odion Ighalo (penalty), Henry Onyekuru and Moses Simon got the goals for Nigeria while Melanie Roddy scored for Seychelles. The Super Eagles had qualified for the tournament before Friday’s game. South Africa pipped Libya to the second ticket of the group.
England mauled Czech Republic 5:0 and I must say Raheem Sterling was more than amazing in this one scoring a hattrick, Harry Kane weighed in with a penalty and Tomas Kalas own goal rounded up the scoring for the Three Lions of England.
The France versus Moldova game was not one I saw but it was definitely going to go one way and it sure was Frances’ route. 4:1 the game ended in favour of Les Bleus with Antoine Griezmann, Raphael Varane, Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappe amongst the goals for France and Ambros Vladimir getting the consolatory goal for Moldova.
The final game that got my attention was the Brazil versus Panama game. I thought the annihilation Panama would get from the Selecao would have been morbid. I thought wrong as Panama held the Brazilians to a 1 all draw. A.C Milan’s Lucas Pacqueta scored for Brazil with Adolfo Machado getting the equalizer for Panama.
Other results saw Belgium beat Russia (Thursday night) and Cyprus (Sunday night) 3:1 and 2:0 respectively, the Netherlands lost 3:2 at home to Germany, Wales grabbed 3 points in their first qualifying game beating Slovakia 1 nil , Spain narrowly edged out Norway 2:1 and Italy were 2:0 victors over Finland to mention a few.
Nigeria’s Emmanuel Amuneke qualified Tanzania for its first Nations Cup tournament since 1980, the same year Nigeria hosted and won its first African Cup of Nations.
Thanks for your time guys. Enjoy the rest of your week.
Retelling sports with a goal in mind !!!
