Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 31

Bayer Leverkusen clinch historic Bundesliga title with rout of Werder

The seats began to empty with around 10 minutes remaining. First a few, then in their dozens, and then in their hundreds and thousands: Bayer Leverkusen fans pouring down the steps, massing behind the advertising hoardings, separated from the pitch only by a thin yellow string of ­stewards. Waiting for their time. Waiting for the moment when they could no longer be held back.

“Ihr werdet nie deutscher Meister!” rival fans always used to sing as a taunt to their Leverkusen counterparts. You will never be German champions! Over the long years of no, the long years of nearly, the five runners-up finishes, the six third places, the splutters and the collapses, perhaps even Leverkusen fans began to believe it too. Now, as the minutes ticked away, and with a delicious irony, they sang those same words to themselves: a requiem to the old Bayer 04 being buried, a hymn to the new one being born.

Continue reading...

Giant-killers Saarbrücken ready for ‘game of the century’ in German cup

Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt and Gladbach have fallen in third-tier club’s fairytale run to DFB-Pokal semi-final

“We’re calling it the Jahrhundertspiel,” Kai Brünker says over the phone from Saarbrücken. “The game of the century. A big game, a derby, and it’s in a cup semi‑final. Everybody is speaking about it. You go to the bakery, people are speaking about it. You go into the city, you go for a walk, and people are saying: ‘You have to win against ’Slautern!’”
For the Saarbrücken coach, Rüdiger Ziehl, the reminder that this is no ordinary week comes with the constant pinging of his phone from friends and casual acquaintances pestering him for a ticket. On Tuesday night the third-division side from the very west of Germany, pinned right up against the French border, will write the next chapter in one of the most remarkable stories anywhere in European football this season.

The continent rejoiced in unison when Saarbrücken knocked out Bayern Munich in the second round of the DFB-Pokal in November. But pretty much nobody expected what happened next: a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the last 16, before Borussia Mönchengladbach were beaten by a 93rd-minute winner from Brünker this month.

Continue reading...

Ukraine prepare to make some noise at Euro 2024 in fight for freedom

The further the team go at the tournament, the louder they can shout about their country’s plight – a fact they are well aware of

After everything, after the celebrations on the pitch and the celebrations in the stands and the Icelandic-style hand claps, a curious blankness seemed to descend on the Ukrainians. One by one, player after player shuffled towards the team bus in a kind of crumpled stupor, not yet able to process what any of this meant.

“I’m very tired, there are no emotions,” Georgiy Sudakov said with a sigh. “I left everything in the locker room,” said Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Continue reading...

Mudryk strikes late as Ukraine defeat Iceland in playoff to reach Euro 2024

On Sunday, Russia escalated its aerial bombardment of Kyiv, launching a major wave of missile and drone attacks. On Monday, 10 people were injured when an art academy and exhibition hall were demolished in an airstrike. On Tuesday, Mykhailo Mudryk’s late winner secured for Ukraine a place at Euro 2024, ­sealing a 2-1 victory against Iceland in the Uefa Path B playoff.

One of these things, evidently, is not like the others. And yet nor does Ukraine’s qualification for their first major tournament since the ­beginning of their war with Russia feel like a mere triviality or footnote. On a night of high drama, high ­emotion and ultimately high celebration, these players – and the thousands of fans who had followed them here – recognised that something more was at stake.

Continue reading...

Heady days of Sven Göran-Eriksson’s England sit in contrast to flag furore | Jonathan Liew

Emotional scenes at Anfield remind us that the Three Lions’ first foreign manager grasped the role is meant to be fun

The cross stuff. Has it gone yet? Is it safe to open the curtains? Will the people of England once again be free to go about their business without being harassed by purple-faced flag-botherers waggling their purple-flag outrage? Purple – infamously – being the wokest of all the colours, never more so than when displayed on the woke crown jewels worn by the disdainfully woke Queen Elizabeth II.

The first thing to say about the England flag controversy – and don’t worry, we shan’t dwell long – is that it is so evidently and unapologetically a fuss about nothing, an object lesson in how right-leaning media can basically conjure a whirlpool of feverish anger out of thin air. Play a tune loudly enough and eventually all the usual suspects will get up and boogie: Crumpled of Ashfield, the guy who got out-jumped by Diego Maradona, some frowning factotum from the Daily Telegraph who suddenly seems to care an awful lot about preserving Plantagenet heritage and is definitely not being triggered by a piece of breathable fabric for money.

Continue reading...

Does Gareth Southgate have the instinct for making right England substitutions? | Jonathan Liew

The use of replacements is fundamental in tournaments and we still don’t know if he is capable of doing it proactively

Jack Grealish waits on the touchline, adjusting his socks, adjusting his shin pads, mentally girding himself for action. There’s a stoppage in play, an England injury, lots of hobbling and prevarication, and so Grealish waits. And waits a little more. By the time he finally enters the field of play, there are 97 minutes on the clock. Here we go! Your time to shine, Jack! Go and win us a World Cup quarter-final!

And in all fairness, Grealish tries his level best. He runs at Hugo Lloris in a forlorn attempt to disrupt his clearance. Runs back. Chases a long flick-on. Loses out in an aerial battle to Adrien Rabiot (a man five inches taller than him). And that’s it. All over. England are out, and Grealish’s quarter-final sums to three minutes, no touches and a kit that barely needs washing.

Continue reading...

Conor Gallagher scurries his way into England’s Euro 2024 midfield plans | Jonathan Liew

All elite international midfields need an engine though Kobbie Mainoo’s late debut did offer an alternative vision

And with a parp of the referee’s whistle, Conor Gallagher is away. England v Brazil is just seconds old, and already Gallagher is sprinting at full pelt, eating up the ground between him and João Gomes. Not in any real hope of winning the ball, which has gone long before he arrives. But just as a way of establishing his presence, showing intent. Planting the flag, as it were.

This, perhaps, is the defining motif of Gallagher in the mind’s eye: a midfielder whose dial is set permanently to hurricane, always busy, always keen to be seen as busy, whether ostentatiously playing a five-yard pass or tearing forward like a man chasing a runaway Mazda down a hill. He is one of English football’s great pointers: constantly barking orders, alerting teammates to open space and free runners. Coaches love Gallagher because he makes them feel a little less powerless.

Continue reading...

Vinícius Júnior remains one of the enduring puzzles of a mercurial Brazil | Jonathan Liew

Real Madrid winger is still searching for his club best on the international stage before Saturday’s friendly against England

The rainbow flick came about half an hour into the game, and in all fairness to Vinícius Júnior, it’s not like he had a plethora of superior options. Pinned to the left touchline, two Uruguay defenders in attendance, no Brazil teammates coming to help him out. And so, with a flash of improvisation, a little flick of the left heel and a burst of speed, he was away and clear: an outrageous piece of skill that would – nitpicking here – have been even better had he actually managed to take the ball with him.

In a way this little vignette, clipped from a bruising 2-0 World Cup qualifying defeat by Uruguay in October, sums up Vinícius’s international career to date: big plans and big ideas thwarted. It’s five years since he made his debut, and in that time a global star at under-15 and under-17 level has matured into one of the sport’s great forwards. But in Brazil yellow, at least, the great leap forward is yet to materialise.

Continue reading...

Could Kobbie Mainoo solve England’s midfield puzzle? – Football Weekly Extra

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Ben Fisher to discuss England’s upcoming friendlies and Wales’ playoff hopes

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: the international break begins and England have two intriguing friendlies against Brazil and Belgium. Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo has been called up; the panel ponder whether he might be the answer to give Gareth Southgate’s midfield balance.

Continue reading...

The cultural division of football fans only serves those who wish to exploit it | Jonathan Liew

The battle between ‘true fans’ and ‘plastics’ weakens the ties between supporters and their inclination to unite and organise

Leaving early is a bit of a red flag. Booing your own players, obviously. Wearing a half-and-half scarf, purchasing a half-and-half scarf, expressing any opinion of a half-and-half scarf short of pathological hatred: forget it. Fake merch. Supporting a club from a place where you do not live. Supporting more than one club. Getting fewer than 10 out of 15 on a multiple-choice clickbait quiz.

Yes, these days there are multiple ways of outing yourself as that most abhorred of footballing species: “not a true fan”. Who gets to call themselves a football fan? Ostensibly this is a church open to all who want to believe, and yet somehow the very idea of fandom is constantly being challenged and contested, revoked and downgraded. English football has more words to describe ersatz fans than real ones: “plastics” and “casuals”, “fakes” and “frauds”, “tourists” and “day-trippers”, “trolls” and “haters”, “fair-weather fans” and “glory-hunters”.

Continue reading...