City dominated possession but Napoli broke typically well to record a crucial victory. Read more »
Olympiakos 1-1 Panathinaikos: game based around pace in wide areas
A good Athens derby ended all square, with two very similar goals. Read more »
Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 Houston Dynamo: Donovan moves upfront to score the winner
LA Galaxy dominated for almost the entire game, but had to wait until the 71st minute to go ahead through Landon Donovan. Read more »
Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool: Johnson wins it late
An excellent tactical battle ended with Liverpool snatching the three points. Read more »
Valencia 2-3 Real Madrid: Real press well early on, Valencia better after substitutions
Real Madrid maintained their lead over Barcelona after an entertaining win over Valencia at the Mestalla. Read more »
Bayern Munich 0-1 Borussia Dortmund: slow-burning game decided by scrappy Götze goal
Mario Gotze struck midway through the second half as Dortmund move to within two points of Bayern at the top. Read more »
Germany use one friendly to thrash a rival, the other to experiment with a new formation
Germany played two games this week – 3-3 draw away in Ukraine, followed by a convincing 3-0 win over Holland. Read more »
Portugal 6-2 Bosnia: Portugal better all over the pitch (and Bosnia’s complete reshuffle at half-time doesn’t help)
Paulo Bento’s side wobbled midway through the match, but overall deserved to progress to Euro 2012. Read more »
Ireland: defensive, and no reason to change
Giovanni Trapattoni has guided Ireland to their first major tournament for a decade, yet there are still questions about his tactics. Read more »
Spain continue to dominate possession but need more penetration
A criticism of Spain days after an unfortunate 1-0 defeat to England is always likely to come across as a wild knee-jerk reaction, but Spain’s problems against decent sides have been evident for over a year now. Read more »
Turkey 0-3 Croatia: Bilic shows how to play a 4-4-2 against a 4-3-3
A superb display from Croatia put them in a commanding position going into Tuesday’s second leg. Read more »
Bosnia 0-0 Portugal: both sides play defensively on a very poor pitch
A largely uneventful game, and all square going into the second leg the Estadio da Luz on Tuesday. Read more »
Athletic 2-2 Barcelona: Bielsa stifles Barca by telling his players to stick tightly to opponents
Marcelo Bielsa’s tactics managed to hold Barcelona to a draw in an exciting match at the San Mamés. Read more »
Inter 2-1 Lille: both sides poor, and vulnerable in different ways
Inter overcame Lille in a match lacking in quality. Read more »
The APOEL miracle continues…
The clear outsider in a very strong group coming into the tournament, APOEL now find themselves top of Group G after a 2-1 win over Porto. Read more »
Eduardo fails to track Igor Denisov, and Zenit get the upper hand in important victory
After such an exciting first game between these two sides, the return match was something of a disappointment. Read more »
Three main problems for Inter in 2-1 home loss to Juventus
This was another amazingly open match – all the goals came in the first half. Juventus move top of the table. Read more »
Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal: Chelsea’s high line ripped to shreds in amazingly open game
Chelsea had a clear weakness coming into the game – their defence plays high up the pitch and are prone to pace in behind – and Arsenal exploited it to great effect. Read more »
Napoli 2-0 Udinese: 3-4-3 against 3-5-1-1, and Mazzarri beats Guidolin
An interesting first half, and ultimately a convincing win for Walter Mazzarri’s side. Read more »
The effects of Chelsea’s pressing game in 2011/12
Amongst all the nonsense about Andre Villas-Boas being the new Jose Mourinho, the irony is that he’s done more to move Chelsea away from Mourinho’s overall playing style than Avram Grant, Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink and Carlo Ancelotti. In particular, the way they play without the ball. Read more »
Man United 1-6 Man City: City turn a dominant performance into a historic thrashing
City crafted a clever first half advantage over United, then were rampant after half time. Read more »
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