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- 🍕 Italian Renaissance & Man City Look Guilty 👀
🍕 Italian Renaissance & Man City Look Guilty 👀
After a disappointing Euros, Italy are the European team to watch these days but can they keep their renaissance going against the Belgium? Plus, with all of their attempts to spin the media narrative Man City are certainly looking guilty...
George Hudson
October 09, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
Italian Renaissance & Man City Look Guilty
Most of the big results over the last week were in the Champions League. There were more than a few surprises as Aston Villa beat the mighty Bayern Munich 1-nil thanks to super sub Jhon Durán, Juventus did a job on RB Leipzig despite going down to 10 men, Benfica smashed Atletico Madrid 4-nil, and Real Madrid were beat by little Lille!
The other big football news is that we’re starting to get some rulings from the tribunal involving Man City and the Premier League. We’re still weeks away from final verdicts on the major charges, but City are trying to spin the media narrative already. We take a look at the recent news on City’s appeal against their alleged breaching of Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules.
This week we’ve got another international break to get through…*yawn*…We’re going into Matchday 3 & 4 of the Nations League and today we preview a game from the most interesting group in this years competition. We’ve also got some sad news from a Barcelona legend and the latest on drug cheat Paul Pogba’s career. Also, see if you can get your head around the absolute howler that is our shocker of the week.
Today's game plan:
Italy vs Belgium | Thursday | 19:45 BST
Nations League Group A2, has Italy, France, and Belgium battling each other for top spot whilst Israel are playing for a historic result. Italy are top of the group having taken 6 points from their first two games whilst Belgium are in 3rd place with 3 points. Italy are on the verge of qualifying for the quarter-finals and Spalletti will be going for the win whilst his squad is fully fit. Belgium also need a win to take the pressure off, especially as their next game is against France. But, looking at current form and the head-to-head record of which Italy have won 3 of the last 4 meetings, it’s hard to see anything other than an Italy victory in this one.
Form & Team News
Since their disappointing Euro 2024 when they were knocked out at the last 16 stage, Italy have been impressive. Spalletti has revamped the squad for the Nations League bringing in a host of young players and taking the shackles off to give more freedom for quick attacking play. This shift in mindset has payed dividends. Italy got their Nations League campaign off to a great start with a big 3-1 win over France 3-1 in Paris —the first time Italy have beat the French away from home in 70 years! They followed up that win with a solid 2-1 win over Israel.
The stand out players for Italy in these games have been Federico Dimarco who is dangerous on the counter-attack and Davide Frattesi who is a tireless in his box-to-box midfield role. Also keep en eye out for Mateo Retegui who has been in excellent for for Atalanta this season and scored hat-trick in Atalanta’s 5-1 win over Genoa over the weekend.
Italy will be without striker Moise Kean who has been important in the Nations League campaign, offering pace and physicality. Kean, who played a part in Fiorentina’s recent win over AC Milan left the Italy training camp on Monday after a back injury flared up. Luciano Spalletti has called up Udinese striker Lorenzo Lucca to replace him and the 24-year old will be keen to impress from the bench. other than missing Kean, Italy have a full squad to choose from including Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal and Sandro Tonali pulling the strings in midfield.
GR Italy predicted lineup | Donnarumma, Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori, Dimarco, Ricci, Tonali, Frattesi, Bellanova, Pellegrini, Retegui.
Where Italy have been convincing in their first two matches, Belgium have been inconsistent. After a solid 3-1 win over Israel to open their Nations League campaign, they stumbled with a 2-0 loss to France. Having taken over from Roberto Martinez in 2022, Domenico Tedesco has struggled to get performances out of his players. Over the past 6 matches, Belgium have only picked up 2 wins.
Despite their recent poor form, Belgium are currently ranked 6th in the FIFA world ranking whilst Italy are ranked 10th. But, looking at Belgium’s record against other top-10 opposition doesn’t make for good reading. Belgium haven’t beat a top-ten-ranked nation since June 2021. Their only win against a top-10-ranked-team in the Nations League was a 2-nil win over England back in 2020.
Belgium will be without talisman Kevin De Bruyne in midfield and Romelu Lukaku up front. The recent injury news is that defensive midfielder Amadou Onana will also miss this round of games due to a hamstring injury. To cover the loss of key midfielders, Domenico Tedesco will be hoping Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard and Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans take responsibility. Even with big players missing, Belgium still have excellent attacking players like RB Leipzig’s Lois Openda and Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku to choose from.
GR Belgium predicted lineup | Sels, Castagne, Faes, Theate, Debast, Tielemans, Vranckx, Trossard, Doku, Lukebakio, Openda.
This Week’s Shocker…
Your team is minutes away from a big victory away at the team who are top of the league. But then your keeper fails to catch the ball.
This week’s shocker has to be this absolute howler from Leeds United’s Illan Meslier.
Meslier mad a big deal about something on the pitch, but what do you think —does the ball hit something that affects the bounce?
Around the world…
The game bid farewell to an absolute legend on Monday as Andres Iniesta announced his retirement. over the course of his incredible 20-year career with Barcelona, Iniesta won 9 La Liga titles, 4 Champions Leagues, and 6 Copa del Reys. He also played an important role in helping Spain win the 2008 and 2012 European Championships and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where he famously scored the winning goal in the final. Check out the emotional tribute video Iniesta shared on his social media.
The Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules are designed to stop Premier League clubs from making inflated or above market value deals with related companies. For example, the owner of one company agreeing to sponsor his friend’s football club (see Etihad’s sponsorship of Man City as an example).
After City’s lawyers launched a legal action against the APT rules on the grounds they were anti-competitive, the Premier League has said that City were “unsuccessful in the majority of their challenge”. Contrary to City’s claims of a successful challenge, the Premier League have said the panel found in favour of City in “two respects only”:
1. that shareholder loans should not be excluded from APT rules;
2. that a “limited number of amendments” to the APT rules made earlier in this year would be necessary.
After his doping ban was reduced from 4 years to 18 months, meaning he can get back to playing football March 2025, Paul Pogba is said to be keen on a move to the MLS. Although there will likely be interest from Saudi Pro League clubs, Pogna has a house in Miami and is reported to like the idea of playing at David Beckham’s Inter Miami.
Bayer Leverkusen’s German centre-back Jonathan Tah is being chased by Bayern Munich and Spain’s top clubs. Tah looked likely to move to Bayern in the summer transfer window but the deal collapsed and it now looks likely that he will let his Leverkusen contract expire at the end of the season. The question is; will Leverkusen be able to earn some money through a sale in the winter transfer window or will Tah leave on a free next summer/
Games to keep an eye on…
England vs Greece | Thursday | 19:45 BST
This isn’t a particularly interesting game, but it does give us a chance to rewatch that David Beckham free kick at Old Trafford. That was a terrible game too, but it was one of the highlights of Sven’s time in charge of England. Back to the current era, this is another chance for interim manager Lee Carsley to stake his claim to be the official England manager.
Turkiye vs Montenegro | Friday | 19:45 BST
Turkiye were good to watch at Euro 2024 and with talents like Juventus’s Kenan Yıldız and Real Madrid’s Arda Güler, this game could serve up an wonder goal. Montenegro are looking for their first ever win against Turkiye, but are currently on a 4-game losing streak.
Belgium vs France | Monday | 19:45 BST
Games between Belgium and France are usually worth a watch. Plus, now that France have been knocked down a few pegs and Belgium aren’t expected to do much, the pressure is off these teams and we should see players expressing themselves. We’ll see how France cope without Antoine Griezmann who has contributed so much over the past decade.
Germany vs Netherlands | Monday | 19:45 BST
In modern football, it seems that most players are friendly with each other these days, but fans of Germany and the Netherlands definitely don’t like each other. Forget the national rivalry, this footballing rivalry goes back to the 1970s and this fixture has served up some top-notch games over the last 50 years. The last time these two met back in September the game ended 2-2 and we’re expecting plenty of goals in this one.
GOAT Trivia…
Say congrats to…
Mark Viduca [@markviduca9] —the Aussie who played for Leeds, Newcastle, Middlesborough, and Celtic turns 49 today!
We remember that Leeds team from 2002 that had players like Harry Kewell, Robbie Keane and Alan Smith in it.
On this day in football…
These days we don’t hear too much about hooliganism in football, but back in the 70s and 80s there was plenty of it. One famous instance was on Saturday the 9th of October in 1976 when Aston Villa arranged a friendly match against Scottish champions Rangers.
To keep fans entertained during a boring international break, Villa organised the ‘friendly‘ match at Villa Park. Thousands of Rangers fans made their way down to Birmingham and got absolutely hammered. Once in the the ground, the Rangers fans began causing it, throwing all kinds of missiles onto the pitch, invading the pitch and fighting with Villa fans and the police. There were stabbings and plenty of arrests and the match was called off in the 53rd minute, with Villa leading 2-nil.
This old footage is a portal to another time.
Goal of the week…
Fan Highlights: Your MVP Reviews!
