💥 Big Derby Wins and Nations League Games to Watch 👀

It’s like Klopp never left whilst Ten Hag continues to tell United fans that he’s sticking to the plan…

The Arne Slot era at Liverpool has got off to a great start. Nine points from three games, no goals conceded, and a big away win over the old rivals. It’s like Jurgen Klopp never left which is worrying for Liverpool’s rivals who might have thought Liverpool would drop off in the wake of Klopp moving on.

The weekend also saw a big win for Celtic in the Old Firm, another Premier league hat-trick for Erling Haaland, and Kypian Mbappe got his first goals in a Real Madrid shirt. We’re also keeping tabs on Mason Greenwood who continues to score for fun over in France.

For the next 10 days it’s internationals and we’ve picked out the best games in the opening round of the Nations League. We’ve also got the latest on the big spending from Saudi and an absolute shocker from the blue half of Liverpool.

Today's game plan:

• Don’t Miss This Game 🎯

• This Week’s Shocker 🤬

• Around The World 🌍

• Games to Keep an Eye On 👀

• Goat Trivia 🐐

France vs Italy | Friday | 19:45 BST

It’s hard to say how seriously national teams take the Nations League —at the end of the day this ‘competition‘ is just dressed-up international friendlies between the European teams. But, other than lower league football and South American football in the middle of the night, it’s all we’ve got for the next 10 days.

The stand out game this week is on Friday night in Group A2, as France and Italy meet up for a kickabout at the Parc des Princes. The last time these two met in a competitive game was back at Euro 2008 when World Champions Italy won 2-nil, but a lot has changed since then.

Both of these teams are coming off pretty disappointing showings at Euro 2024 where they struggled for goals. The most interesting piece of news going into this game is the return of Sandro Tonali after his 10-month ban from competitive football. Tonali has featured in cup and league games for his club Newcastle but this will be his first opportunity to play for his country in since September 2023.

Form & Team News

France’s last game was the 2-1 loss to Spain in the semi-finals of the Euros. Having gone into Euro 2024 as favourites, the French were largely underwhelming, and there was talk of it being time for Didier Deschamps to call it a day as manager of the national team. France struggled to score goals from open play at the Euros and they didn’t seem able to play the quick and powerful football that they’ve become known for under Deschamps.

After his incredible performances in the 2022 World Cup, Kylian Mbappe takes a lot of responsibility for France these days. All of the transfer talk over summer and then breaking his nose in France’s opening game of the Euros led to him having a pretty tame competition. But now he’s got his move to Madrid and scored his first goals at the Bernabeu he should be ready to go for his country. The other attacking player that fans will be looking to is Michael Olise who has made a good start to his Bayern Munich career and will be hoping for his first cap for the men’s team.

France have a few players missing for this round of Nations League fixtures, including defenders Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez; midfielder Adrien Rabiot and winger Kingsley Coman.

GR predicted lineup France | Maignan, Kounde, Upamecano, Saliba, Hernandez, Kante, Tchouameni, Griezmann, Dembele, Mbappe, Kolo Muani

For Italy, Euro 2024 was an opportunity for younger players to gain some experience. Their last game out saw Luciano Spalletti’s team limp to a 2-nil loss against Switzerland in the Round of 16. Although some pundits and fans had selected Italy as their dark horse for the tournament, the Italians turned out to be a pretty slow and boring horse.

Looking ahead to this fixture, Italy haven’t had the best record against France in recent years –they’ve lost the last three friendlies that they’ve played against France. But France’s confidence has been dented and the team won’t be feeling as confident as previous years. So, with that French arrogance dampened a little, now is a good opportunity for the Italians to get an away win over the French.

But Spalletti has stuck with largely the same squad selection that he took to the Euros. There is plenty of youth on show here but experience may be a problem for the Italians —there are 11 players who have won five caps or less.

As mentioned, the big team news for Italy is the return of Sandro Tonali to the national team setup after serving his 10-month ban. There’s also talk that Caleb Okoli might get his senior debut, giving us a chance to watch the next generation of Italian defender alongside Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori.

GR predicted lineup Italy | Donnarumma, Di Lorenzo, Calafiori, Bastoni, Udogie, Ricci, Fagioli, Pellegrini, Zaccagni, Kean, Scamacca

This Week’s Shocker…

Casemiro’s legs going against Liverpool was definitely a shocker because his bad decision-making and lack of awareness led to Luiz Diaz’s two goals. It’s interesting to see what fatigue can do to the body and the mind of a player who used to be elite.

But our shocker of the week has to be Everton falling apart in the last 10 mins. Leading 2-nil at home to Bournemouth, Sean Dyche’s side looked like they were well on their way to their first points of the 2024/25 season. With many Everton fans already angry at the players for their performances in the previous games, they are now fully raging. Ugly times in what will be Everton’s final season at Goodison Park.

Around the world…

🇹🇷 Galatasaray agree loan deal with Napoli for Osimhen 

After transfer talks with Chelsea and Al-Ahli fell through based on Napoli’s €130 million release clause, Victor Osimhen has got his move. It’s only a loan move but clubs will be keeping an eye on how Osimhen performs in the Turkish league.

🇪🇸 Kylian Mbappe scores first Madrid goals

Mbappe got off the mark for his new club in Madrid’s 2-nil win over Real Betis at the Santiago Bernabéu. The first was a quick reaction to a creative assist from Federico Valverde with the second coming from a penalty.

🇸🇦 Smalling, Toney, and Bergwijn sign with Saudi clubs 

Chris Smalling has left Roma and signed with Al-Fayha on a two-year deal for an undisclosed fee and Steven Bergwijn has left Ajax to join Al-Ittihad for a €21 million fee. Also, Ivan Toney finally got his big money move, with Al-Ahli paying Brentford a fee £40 million and Toney set to earn wages of around £300,000 per week!

🇫🇷 Mason Greenwood continues to dominate Ligue 1

Greenwood scored two goals in 90 seconds in Marseille’s win over Toulouse and takes his Ligue 1 goal tally to 5 goals in 3 games. Roberto de Zerbi’s Marseille are looking good in second place and if they can keep Greenwood fit and scoring, it looks like they’ll push PSG all the way this season.

Games to keep an eye on…

Portugal vs Croatia | Thursday | 19:45 BST

The top teams in Group A1 are the pick of the games on Thursday night. Unfortunately the squad lists aren’t updated until the day of the match so no telling if we’ll see Ronaldo and Modric face off.

Ireland vs England | Saturday | 17:00 BST

After missing out on the Euros, Ireland fans will be looking for a performance from their team, especially as its England who are in Dublin for this Group B2 match.

Switzerland vs Spain | Sunday | 19:45 BST

Freshly crowned champions of Europe head to the Swiss alps for the second round of matches in Group A4.

France vs Belgium | Monday | 19:45 BST

There are no easy games in Group A2 and after their opener against Italy, France take on their little brother Belgium. Surprisingly, looking at the head-to-head stats shows that Belgium have won more than France, with 30 wins for the Belgians compared to 27 for the French.

GOAT Trivia…

Say congrats to…

Happy birthday to Júlio César [@ojuliocesar_12], the Brazil and Inter legend turned 44 on the 3rd of September.

On this day in football…

Seeing as we’re in the middle of the September international break we’re looking back at some of the big international results.

There were a few games that were held on September 3rd but nothing special. So, with the recent passing of Sven-Goran Eriksson we thought we’d take you back to September 1st 2001, and one of his most memorable games in football management.

That night in Munich was peak Heskey and Owen and probably England’s best ever performance in a World Cup qualifier. The highlights feature classic Beckham crosses, Paul Scholes passes, and a long-range strike from Steven Gerrard.

Funnily enough, Germany reached the final of the 2002 World Cup whilst England were knocked out in the quarters after that Ronaldinho free-kick.

Goal of the week…

Luiz Diaz’s second goal against Man United was well-taken but our goal of the week is Haaland’s second against West Ham. The quick touch with the right foot and the lash into the roof of the net with the left foot was an emphatic end to some quick and accurate passing from Pep’s team.

Haaland’s minutes per goal is ridiculous.

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