Month: February 2017

Bundesliga round-up

Bundesliga round-up

Bayern boss Hamburg

Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich crushed Hamburg 8-0 on Saturday afternoon to celebrate Carlo Ancelotti’s 1,000th competitive outing as a head coach.

The current German Champions put in a domineering performance at the Allianz to ruthlessly dispatch relegation-threatened Hamburg, a week after their off-colour performance against Hertha Berlin in a 1-1 draw.

Robert Lewandowski was Bayern’s saviour in that fixture and he was in an imperious mood on Saturday, notching his hat-trick by the 54th-minute to increase his goal tally for the season to 19, joint-top scorer in the Bundesliga along with Pierre Aubameyang.

Other goal-scorers in Munich’s dismantling of Hamburg were Arturo Vidal who opened the scoring with a powerful drive on 17 minutes, David Alaba, Arjen Robben and a brace from young Kingsley Coman.

Sitting five points clear of 2nd placed RB Leipzig with one hand firmly in the Champions League Quarter-Final (following the thrashing of Arsenal in Munich); Ancelotti’s doubters from pre-Christmas are diminishing by the week.

Leipzig continue remarkable season

RB Leipzig produced a dominant performance to see off Cologne 3-1 at the Red Bull Arena to maintain pressure on leaders Bayern, in a season where they are continuously defying expectations in their first-ever Bundesliga campaign.

Leipzig overpowered and outplayed Cologne from the kick-off and within 5 minutes Emil Forsberg notched his seventh of the season after he was played in from Timo Werner following a weak clearance from Cologne goalkeeper Thomas Kessler.

The trio of Forsberg, Werner and midfielder Naby Keita was proving too hot to handle for Cologne and on 34 minutes Keita’s cross was inadvertently turned into the net by Cologne defender Dominic Maroh to put Leipzig in control of the encounter.

Cologne briefly retained a hope of taking something from the game after Yuya Osako scored a close-range finish in the 53rd minute but shortly after Timo Werner grabbed his 13th of the season to clinch the points for Leipzig who are unbeaten in every game they have scored in the Bundesliga this season.

Dortmund strengthen grip on third

Borussia Dortmund won away from the Westfalenstadion for only the second time since November after beating Freiburg 3-0 at the Schwarzald-Stadion thanks to goals from Papastathopoulos Sokratis and a brace from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

In his 150th Bundesliga appearance, Sokratis opened the scoring for the visitors on 13 minutes when the Greek defender headed into the net from Marco Reus’ whipped free-kick into the penalty area.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang stole the show in the second-half, notching his 18th of the season on 55 minutes after tapping home following some bamboozling midfield trickery from Marco Reus to play the Gabonese forward through.

Aubameyang was again on the scoresheet shortly after, 20 minutes from time to seal the points for Thomas Tuchel’s men, converting a tap-in from Erik Durm’s cross.

After a shaky first-half of the season, Dortmund appear to be finally getting into full stride and are on course for an automatic Champions League spot following this commanding performance in Tuchel’s 100th Bundesliga victory.

Elsewhere in Germany

-Mainz moved up to 10th in the table after an impressive 2-0 away win at Bayer Leverkusen to increase the growing pressure on Roger Schmidt. Defender Stefan Bell opened the scoring with a bullet header in the third minute from Levin Oztunali’s corner before the provider turned scorer with a free-kick that deceived the Leverkusen back-line and found the far corner on 11 minutes. After being torn apart on their home patch by Atletico Madrid in the Champions League midweek game (a tie that is virtually over with the Spanish side boasting 4 away goals), Schmidt’s position is being questioned by many quarters of the German media with his tactics and relationship with his players in doubt.

-Werder Bremen’s 2-1 victory over Wolfsburg on Friday night courtesy of a Serge Gnabry double in the first-half has spelt the end to Valerien Ismael’s short spell in charge of Wolfsburg who sit just two points above the relegation zone. Ismael lasted 15 Bundesliga games in the job having initially only been appointed on an interim basis on the 17th October following Dieter Hecking’s (the now Monchengladbach coach) sacking.

Hammers exit the latest unhappy saga in a turbulent career for the talented Payet

Hammers exit the latest unhappy saga in a turbulent career for the talented Payet

West Ham’s sale of Dimitri Payet to Marseille for the figure of £25m was confirmed by the East London club on January the 29th. The 29-year-old’s legacy status with the West Ham United fans has transformed from messiah to pariah in the past two months at the club in a period where they needed him most. Payet has delivered a series of poor performances and his body language has shown nothing short of complete disinterest. However, this is not the first time in Dimitri Payet’s career that he has displayed an unprofessional attitude to force a move away from a club at the time.

After a remarkable first season in the Premier League where he was named the Premier League’s Player of the Year at the London Football Awards as well as claiming West Ham’s annual Hammer of the Year trophy, Payet signed a 5-year contract extension in February 2016 that increased his wages to £125,000 a week. Not only did West Ham heavily reward the player for his outstanding first season impact in the Premier League, they put him onto a global stage in one of the world’s top league’s and in doing so earned him a national team recall from France manager Didier Deschamps.

West Ham fans revered him. How sour it turned this campaign.

This season has seen Payet show glimpses of his clear world-class talent with exceptional goals against Middlesbrough and Liverpool but for the most part fail to match the playing standards of his first season at the club. When Slaven Bilic confirmed to the press on January the 12th that the player did not want to play for the club any longer and had gone on strike, all knew there would be no going back.

At the tender age of 16-years-old, Dimitri Payet from the small French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, had his first major opportunity in mainland France to break into professional football at Le Havre spurned after four tumultuous years where his difficult character was criticised by senior coaching figures at the club as well being accused of a lack of motivation. Payet was thereafter forced to return to the island of Reunion in 2003 and subsequently joined AS Excelsior.

On 18 May 2010, Payet who was then playing for Saint-Etienne, was involved in a notable physical altercation with teammate and captain Blaise Matuidi during the team’s 1–0 defeat to Toulouse. Payet was on the receiving end of scathing criticism from teammate Yohan Benalouane for displaying a lack of aggression at the time and was then confronted by Matuidi. Both quickly went face-to-face with the Payet delivering a blow to Matuidi’s head before the two were separated by referee and teammates. Payet was subsequently substituted and fined by the club’s president.

The following year, after impressive form for Saint Etienne and English interest from Chelsea and Liverpool, Payet sought for a move to Paris Saint-Germain in the wake of a reported bid from the Parisian club in January 2011 (pre-PSG’s Qatari ownership). Saint-Etienne rejected all interest only for Payet to consequently refuse to turn up for training and was demoted to the reserves.

Turning 30 years of age in March, Dimitri Payet is in danger of seeing a career so full of unquestionable world-class flair fail to reach the heights (domestically) that his talent warrants. He has left the Premier League; one of the world’s finest leagues to return to Ligue 1; a division where he has grafted and plied his trade in for the majority of his career, largely out of the limelight. Links with leading global clubs such as the likes of Real Madrid and Chelsea will die down; his chances of maintaining a first x11 spot with the French national team could also arguably be affected in the long-term, with younger pacier options coming through the French ranks playing at bigger European clubs. This is not an individual who has been dealt a hard hand by the footballing world; his career path has been predominantly determined by his mental attitude throughout; a symptomatic issue surrounding the modern-day footballer in recent years.