Bayern Munich keep stunning run going with European Super Cup win over Sevilla - The Warm-Up
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Updated 25/09/2020 at 08:13 GMT
Can anyone or anything stop Bayern Munich, who made it 24 wins in a row in the European Super Cup against Sevilla? Meanwhile, there's a big win for Liverpool, Manchester City unearth another gem and Jose Mourinho and Tottenham find an amazing talking point in a Europa League victory. It's Friday's Warm-Up, brought to you by Tom Adams.
Manuel Neuer of Bayern Munich lifts the UEFA Super Cup trophy as he and team mates celebrate victory over FC Sevilla
Image credit: Getty Images
FRIDAY’S BIG HEADLINES
Super Bayern win Super Cup
There are rumours doing the rounds that 2020 has been a bit of a nightmare. Not for Bayern Munich though, as last night they collected their fourth trophy of the most cursed year since the launch of the Gregorian Calendar.
It was one of their hardest matches of the year though, as the champions of Germany and Europe needed extra time, the assistance of a post and a vintage save from Manuel Neuer to help record a 2-1 win over Sevilla in the European Super Cup in Budapest.
Despite an eventful 120 minutes on the pitch, perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of this match was the tortuous sight of seeing 15,000 fans welcomed in to the 68,000-capacity Puskas Stadium, placed at socially distant intervals which made it look as though someone was halfway through a massive game of Guess Who?
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Fans at the European Super Cup in Budapest
Image credit: Getty Images
Which was great for the 15,000 supporters who were able to attend, and it was nice to hear some genuine crowd noise instead of piped-in, artificial cheers and gasps, but all of it simply served as a reminder that most likely for another six months, there won’t be any fans at any British football matches. Which is a very depressing thought.
Anyway, the Super Cup was won by a late header from substitute Javi Martinez, but only after Manuel Neuer made a tremendous save to stop Youssef En-Nesyri from scoring an unlikely winner with three minutes left of normal time. Neuer was at it again in extra-time when deflecting a shot from the same player against the post.
"We saw tonight how important Neuer is for them,” said Ivan Rakitic, making his Sevilla return. “We had two great chances to go ahead but he stopped them. Then we gave away a silly corner and they scored. Nevertheless, we can be proud of how we played against the best team in Europe and we feel well prepared for the league season."
Meanwhile, no team is better prepared for the new season than Bayern, who have developed a nice little habit of winning every match they play (that’s 24 in a row now) and on Wednesday they have the chance to win a fifth trophy of the year when they face Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup.
So 2020: not all bad! (If you are Bayern Munich)
Generation Game
Last night, Etihad Stadium played host to a brilliant piece of conceptual art as Manchester City exhibited a physical manifestation of the Feel Old Yet? Meme when actually playing Rory Delap’s 17-year-old son in a football match. And not only that, he only went and scored.
The Warm-Up honestly never imagined that Rory Delap would ever really be known for anything other than having two pots of TNT for biceps and hurling the longest throws known to mankind into penalty boxes during the late noughties.
Indeed, his lasting monument to football was destined to be this exceptional moment in 2008 when Hull purposefully gave away a corner as they were so terrified as to what the Stoke City trebuchet would do with the ball in his hands.
But no, as it turns out that Delap’s reproductive ability is potentially even more potent than his throw-in skills, with little Liam Delap opening the scoring for City in a 2-1 win over Bournemouth in the League Cup third round.
"Since I was a boy all I dreamed of was playing senior football," Delap said. "To make my debut tonight and get a goal, there is no better feeling to be honest."
Phil Foden scored the other to continue his impressive ascension to first-team regular and it seems City will have to rely on the kids a fair bit in upcoming matches. As Pep Guardiola said:
With the situation we have right now, we need players from the academy. We have just 13 players fit. With the problems we have up front, he will stay with us. We will use him. We cannot forget, like with Phil, he is only 17 years-old. He has a lot of things to improve. We cannot anticipate the progress of every young player.
Hang on a second, has this kid tried throw-ins yet?
Lincoln can't keep up with the Joneses
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Liverpool's Curtis Jones scores the fourth goal
Image credit: Getty Images
Well, we’ve somehow managed to get this far down the page without mentioning the fact that Liverpool won 7-2 last night, putting the hurt on little Lincoln City but being generous enough to allow them a six-minute window in the second half to get a couple of goals.
This was a night for Liverpool’s supporting cast to shine as Takumi Minamino, Xherdan Shaqiri, Mark Grujic and Divock Origi all scored, but the real star of the show was Curtis Jones, the 19-year-old Scouser, who scored twice and earned some gushing praise from Jurgen Klopp.
“There is still space for improvement but everyone knows my opinion of Curtis Jones, he is an exceptional talent and we will have some fun with him I am pretty sure in the future.
“Both goals were difficult, the second one the first touch was absolutely exceptional between two opponents and then he opens up and sees the opportunity and finishes it off.”
Next up for Liverpool in the fourth round is an enticing match against Arsenal. And for the fourth-round fixtures in full:
- Liverpool vs Arsenal
- Burnley vs Manchester City
- Brentford vs Fulham
- Everton vs West Ham
- Aston Villa vs Stoke
- Leyton Orient or Tottenham vs Chelsea (Spurs likely to get bye)
- Newport vs Newcastle
- Brighton vs Manchester United
IN OTHER NEWS
Tottenham set up a meeting with Maccabi Haifa in the Europa League play-offs courtesy of a 3-1 win over North Macedonian club Shkendija last night. But that wasn’t the real story. Not even close.
No, the real story was a huge, massive, gigantic controversy before kick-off as Spurs realised the goal at one of the ends of the stadium was too small. A situation helpfully illustrated by this very serious and not at all hilarious image from Jose Mourinho’s Instagram account.
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Jose Mourinho: 'The goals were too small'
"Before the game was a funny situation because my goalkeepers told me that the goal was small," Mourinho said. I went by myself and of course the goal was small.
The goalkeepers, they spend hours and hours and hours in the goal so they know when the goal is not the right dimension. I am not a goalkeeper but I know football since I was a kid and I know when I stand there and I spread my arms and I know the distance, so I felt immediately that something was going wrong.
"We got the UEFA delegate to confirm and yes it was 5cm smaller, which of course we demanded for the goals to be replaced for goals of the right dimension."
Somehow not expelled from the Europa League for this egregious oversight, Shkendija were nevertheless sent packing by goals from Erik Lamela, Son Heung-min and Harry Kane.
IN THE CHANNELS
Say what you want about Zlatan Ibrahimovic but he is probably the only person on the planet who would react to getting Covid-19 by tweeting something like this:
COMING UP
It's Huddersfield v Nottingham Forest in the Championship tonight but otherwise pretty quiet. Why don't we take this opportunity to remind you all that the French Open tennis starts on Sunday and you can watch uninterrupted coverage of every match live on eurosport.co.uk!
Andi Thomas can't throw a ball like Rory Delap but he can write a mean Warm-Up. He's back on Monday.
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