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European Football Weekend Round-Up By Zach Lowy

Each Monday, I’ll be writing a weekly round-up on this season’s action at BET Central, including the managers on the hot seat and the coaches who are delivering the goods for their clubs, the young prospects who are putting themselves in the spotlight, and the players and teams who are making the headlines or flying under the radar in the 2021/22 season.
Zach Lowy Weekly Football ROundup

This week marks a brief transitional period for football as club football is put on hold for the first of four international breaks this season, whilst the summer transfer window slams shut on Tuesday at 10:59 pm GMT after a gruelling two months. Next Monday, I’ll discuss the biggest deals of the transfer window’s final weeks including Cristiano Ronaldo’s sensational return to Manchester United, and potentially other wantaway players who could secure a move away such as Ilaix Moriba and . Today, however, we’ll be discussing the action from Europe’s top six leagues.

The Lab – Stats Centre

Famalicão Shock Sporting

Since taking charge of Sporting on March 4, 2020, Rúben Amorim has amassed a laundry list of accomplishments at the Estádio José Alvalade. He has ended a 19-year-old title drought, ushered in various young prospects such as Nuno Mendes, Gonçalo Inácio and Matheus Nunes, and put a stop to Porto and Benfica’s duopoly. He has not, however, managed to defeat Famalicão.

After returning to the Primeira in 2019 following a quarter of a century in Portugal’s lower tiers, Famalicão have maintained an impressive record of two wins and three draws against the L​​eões, and they continued their excellent form with a 1-1 draw on Saturday. Pedro Gonçalves, who spent the 2019/20 season with the Famalicenses before joining Sporting and finishing as the league’s top scorer with 23 goals, lasted the full 90 minutes but was unable to find the back of the net.

Manuel Ugarte, who arrived from Uruguayan club Fénix in January before making the move from Famalicão to Sporting, was an unused substitute, whilst Rúben Vinagre, who joined Sporting after a productive loan spell at Fama, also did not leave the bench. And yet, the hosts shocked the defending champions in front of a roaring crowd at the 5,307-seat capacity Estádio Municipal 22 de Junho.

Famalicão Earned Their Success

Famalicão found themselves on the edge of glory in the 2019/20 campaign, turning around a two-goal deficit on the final matchday against Marítimo, only for substitute Erivaldo to score a 96th-minute equalizer to deprive Fama of Europa League football and allow Rio Ave to seal the coveted fifth place. Whilst Rio Ave were relegated the following year after struggling to cope with major departures including Mehdi Taremi, Nuno Santos, and manager Carlos Carvalhal, Fama’s squad was picked apart by bigger clubs as well. Toni Martínez and Pedro ‘Pote’ Gonçalves, the joint top scorers in Liga Portugal Bwin with three goals, headed to Porto and Sporting, respectively, whilst other key performers such as Fábio Martins, Álex Centelles and Nehuén Pérez returned to their parent clubs.

Famalicão found themselves rock bottom of the league when Ivo Vieira took over on March 8 on the back of a 0-3 loss to relegation rivals Boavista, but they managed to bounce back in form and finished only six points off of European football. They began their 2021/22 campaign with back-to-back 1-2 defeats to Porto and Arouca, both of which saw Fama’s would-be late equalizers cruelly ruled out due to VAR, and while they are currently level on points with last-placed Belenenses-SAD, they showcased their dark horse credentials against Sporting. 

Iván Jaime Is One To Watch

The star of the show was Iván Jaime, who was constantly at the heart of Fama’s attacking play and set up the opening goal with a laser-guided through ball to Ivo Rodrigues, and could have set up a second goal but was constantly thwarted by heroic goalkeeping from his compatriot Antonio Adán. The young Spaniard went through Sporting’s defence like a knife through butter with inch-perfect through balls and proved to be a constant threat on the counter; no sooner than three minutes after Jaime exited for André Ricardo that Sporting equalized via João Palhinha.

Born in Málaga, the 20-year-old Jaime ended a decade-long spell at Los Boquerones last year and has quickly emerged as the team’s creative fulcrum, thriving in the diamond of Vieira’s 4-2-3-1 formation and registering four goals and three assists in 22 league appearances last season. His talismanic performance means that Sporting enter the international break in third place, level with Porto and newly promoted Estoril Praia, whilst Benfica move two points clear at the top of the league.

Primera Liga’s Big Boys Update

After advancing past PSV Eindhoven and booking their ticket to the UEFA Champions League group stage — despite playing with ten men for an hour — Benfica turned around an early deficit against Tondela and squeaked out a victory via two late goals from substitutes Rafa Silva and Gilberto, maintaining a perfect window ahead of a month that will see them play against Santa Clara, Dynamo Kyiv, Boavista, Vitória de Guimarães and Barcelona. Sporting, meanwhile, will be looking to get back to winning ways as they prepare to host Porto on September 12.

The latest ‘giostra’ in Serie A has come at the other end of the pitch. After leading Inter Milan to their first Scudetto in 11 years, Romelu Lukaku joined Chelsea for a club record fee of £97.5 million, leaving a gaping void in the Nerazzurri’s attack. It seemed that Atalanta would become the third party in this domino effect, with Duván Zapata being linked to a move to Inter and Tammy Abraham tipped as his replacement. Instead, Roma have effectively taken La Dea’s place in the equation; Edin Džeko has joined Inter on a two-year contract, whilst Abraham has become the latest English player to test his luck abroad, joining Roma for a reported fee of £34 million.

Clermont Foot At Home In Ligue 1

Clermont Foot became the 74th club to play in Ligue 1 when they kicked off their 2021/22 campaign on August 8 in Bordeaux, coming out victorious against Les Girondins via two late goals from Mohamed Bayo and Jodel Dossou, before following it up with another 2-0 win against fellow promoted side Troyes. Les Lanciers found themselves in dire straits against Lyon, entering halftime with a 3-1 deficit, but they managed to rescue a point via a late brace from substitute Elbasan Rashani. And whilst they conceded two early goals from visitors Metz on Sunday, they clawed their way back to a draw thanks to an own goal by Sikou Niakate as well as a goal from Rashani. They are the first newcomer to take eight points from their first four Ligue 1 matches since Guingamp in 1995, and currently sit third in the league behind Angers and Paris Saint-Germain.

Mohamed Bayo Is One To Watch

Crucial to their form has been the emergence of , who sits level with Kylian Mbappé in the Ligue 1 top scorers chart with 3 goals and 2 assists. Born in Clermont-Ferrand, Bayo and his brother were raised by a single mother and grew up in a housing estate in La Gauthière. “ made sacrifices for us. She worked twice as hard to be able to pay for our licences and kit. All this is thanks to her. I owe her everything,” said Bayo in a recent interview.

He joined Clermont Foot’s academy as a six-year-old and made his way through the youth ranks before making his professional debut on November 11, 2017 in a Coupe de France match against AS Yzeure. Bayo was loaned out to USL Dunkerque in January 2019 and quickly made a splash with 14 goals and 5 assists in 2019/20 to lead them to promotion to Ligue 2. This convinced manager Pascal Gastien to give Bayo a chance in the first team following attacking talisman Adrian Grbić’s departure to Lorient for a club-record haul of €9 million. 

Bayo did not disappoint, finishing as the top scorer in Ligue 2 with 22 goals and seven assists and leading Clermont Foot to France’s top division for the first time in the club’s 110-year history. Whilst he has spent his entire life in France, Bayo made his debut for the Guinea national team on March 24, and he could be the Syli Nationale’s secret weapon in attack in January’s Africa Cup of Nations as they attempt to escape from a group of Senegal, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Perfect Starts

Excluding Serie A sides, who have played just two matches so far, only four teams in Europe’s top six championships have maintained perfect league records thus far: Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain, Wolfsburg, and Tottenham Hotspur. After finishing fourth and sealing a return to the Champions League group stage, Wolfsburg have kept hold of several key assets such as Wout Weghorst and Maxence Lacroix whilst splurging a total of €49 million on new signings Lukas Nmecha, Luca Waldschmidt, Sebastiaan Bornauw, Maximilian Philipp and Aster Vrancx, but they were unable to keep hold of Oliver Glasner, who replaced Adi Hütter as Eintracht Frankfurt manager after two years at the club. In his place, Mark van Bommel was appointed on a two-year contract on June 22.

Van Bommel The Manager

Wolfsburg kicked off Van Bommel’s time in charge with a 3-1 win over fourth-tier side SC Preußen Münster in the DFB Pokal, with goals from Josip Brekalo, Wout Weghorst and Ridle Baku cancelling out Marcel Hoffemeir’s opener in a tense extra time battle. There was only one problem: Van Bommel made six substitutions, one more than the maximum of five. Preußen Münster were awarded a 2-0 victory and progressed to the second round of the competition.

Die Wölfe bounced back from their mortifying elimination with a 1-0 victory over newly promoted VfL Bochum, who went down to 10 men after Robert Tesche was sent off in the fourth minute for a professional handball. The following match saw Wolfsburg fall behind to Hertha Berlin after Dodi Lukebakio converted from the spot, but they managed to eke out a victory via late goals from Ridle Baku and Lukas Nmecha, both of whom played a leading role for Germany during their triumph in the U-21 Euros this year. And on Sunday, they ground out a 1-0 win against Jesse Marsch’s RB Leipzig at the Volkswagen Arena, with Jérôme Roussillon capitalizing on a botched clearance from Péter Gulácsi and scoring the lone goal of the match.

Van Bommel’s lone head coaching job came at PSV Eindhoven, where he lasted just one season and a half before being given the boot in December 2019, and while he has also spent time as an assistant coach for the Australia and United Arab Emirates national teams, his relative naivety is cause for concern for a club that will be looking to finish in the top four once again and navigate their way out of a Champions League group of Lille, Sevilla and RB Salzburg. And yet, his Wolfsburg side have collected nine points from their first three matches for the first time in club history, ending the week atop the table for the first time since their title-winning 2008/09 campaign (minimum of three games played). With young stars like Ridle Baku, Xaver Schlager and Maxence Lacroix already making their mark at the club, Wolfsburg once again promises to be one of the most exciting teams to watch in the 2021/22 campaign.

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