Your Weekly Football Round-Up
Carabao Cup Semi Finals
Last week saw the return of the Carabao Cup with the second semi-final legs of both matches still to be played. One of those was the iconic Manchester derby, with City going up against United at the Etihad for what is always viewed as a very highly anticipated rivalry.
City went into this match with a 3-1 lead after a victory at Old Trafford in the first leg; however it was the Red Devils who came away with a 1-0 win on the night. Nemanja Matic was the goal scorer for United in the first half, but his contribution was later cancelled out as he received a red card in the 76th minute leaving them to play with 10 men for the remainder of the match.
This allowed City to have several great opportunities in the second half and although they couldn’t find the net, it still ensured that they sealed the victory, winning the game overall 3-2 on aggregate.
Although United won on the night, it wasn’t enough to take them to the final of the Carabao Cup.
The other semi-final was based over at Villa Park with Aston Villa hosting Leicester for their final meeting together.
The first leg finished 1-1 at the King Power, but this time around was a very different story as it was the boys in claret and blue who hung on in there for the win. Matt Targett’s first half goal gave Villa the lead which was again later cancelled out by Kelechi Iheanacho’s equaliser for Leicester in the 72nd minute.
It’s fair to say that the Foxes were the dominant side throughout the game, but when needed, Villa defended superbly and always looked threatening going forward on the break.
This proved to be the case as the talented Egyptian midfielder Trezeguet scored the winner in stoppage time to book Aston Villa a place in the final.
The Carabao Cup final will take place on Sunday, March 1st 2020 at Wembley Stadium.
Trezeguet scored an injury-time winner for Villa, to book their place in the Carabao Cup Final.
Premier League
There was one game in particular that brought us all of the drama from the Premier League this weekend and that was Spurs vs Man City at the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
Although this was far from being a Mourinho masterclass, it was definitely an afternoon of missed chances for City, including a penalty miss which saw their day get worse when Oleksandr Zinchenko saw red in the 60th minute after collecting two needless yellows during the match.
This then gave Spurs the opportunity to go and capitalise on the 10 men blues, and they were able to do just that 3 minutes later as Steven Bergwijn scored a magnificent volley on his Tottenham debut to give them the lead.
Super Spurs forward Son then added a second as his powerful shot found the bottom left corner of the net, giving Tottenham a deserved 2-0 victory over the current Premier League champions.
This was the first time that Pep Guardiola’s men have gone back to back games without scoring and now that Liverpool seem unstoppable with a 22 point lead at the top, surely now it’s just a question of who will win in the race for the top four Champions League spots.
New signing (Steven Bergwijn) kickstarted his Tottenham career in the best possible way, with a well taken goal that featured in his magnificent performance.
Transfer Window
The transfer window deadline for the Premier League and all of the rest of the English Football League clubs finally closed after a month at 11pm on Friday, January 31st.
There was, as always, a couple of last minute signings that just about got processed in time, including that of former Watford striker; Odion Ighalo, who has joined Manchester United on a loan from Shanghai Shenhua until the end of the season.
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer described the centre forward as ‘’a great lad and very professional’’ and feels that he will add a different dimension to the team with his great ability and experience.
Another big deadline day move came out of the Championship, with Hull City forward Jarrod Bowen sealing a move to Premier League club West Ham United.
He has joined the Hammers on a new five and a half year contract in what is believed to be a £20m plus deal. The 23 year old arrives at the London Stadium having scored 16 goals for the Tigers already this season, with David Moyes saying that he thinks ‘’he could be a big success’’ at his new club.
In this deadline day move, Odion Ighalo became the first Nigerian player to join The Red Devils.