Skip to main content

SADIO MANNE DELIVER FOR SENEGAL

Weekend FOOTBALL Preview.




Did you missed the weekend mouthwatering matches across Europe best leagues or Sadio Mané's led Senegal claiming AFCON glory to match their continental status? 

Do not be despaired, Patrick Ekong will tell you about Senegal's first ever AFCON title to their name, PSG - Paris Saint-Germain scoring for fun, and Xavi Hannadez delivering his best FC Barcelona  win against the reigning champions. 

Oh! Least I forget, Cristiano Ronaldo has surpassed 4 million followers on Instagram.


SADIO MANNE STRUCK TO CLAIM SENEGAL FIRST AFCON GLORY.


Like a lightening, Sadio Manne rose to the occasion to struck a decisive penalty to hand Senegal their first ever continental silverware and condemned Mo Salah's led Egypt to their third defeat in the continental showpiece finals.

Mane, the player of the tournament who had his a fourth-minute penalty saved by Egypt's goalkeeper, Gabaski, netted Senegal's final penalty of the shootout after Edouard Mendy had saved Mohanad Lasheen's effort, with Bouna Sarr and Mohamed Abdelmonem also failing to convert for each side.

Senegal head into the match as the only African country among the top twenty Men's team on FIFA WORLD RANKING who has not lifted the Africa Nations Cup before after recently failing in the  tournament, 1-0 to Algeria in the 2019 showpiece. 

While Senegal was the standout team during the knockout stages following a turgid group-stage performance, it was Man of the Match, Gabaski whose series of fine stops kept The Pharaohs of Egypt in the game to allow for extra time.

The Egyptians endured a turbulent outing in 2021 AFCON, having only win all of their four knockout game through penalty shootout. 

The result means Sadio Manne stand a better chance of winning the continent player of the year for the second time when the event will be held later this year.


XAVI DELIVER AS ATLECTICO MADRID CONCEDED FOUR. 

Elsewhere in the Spanish major city of Barcelona, Xavi delivered a master class performance in his first big win in the Barcelona dockout, thanks to a thrilling 4-2 win over the reigning champions, Atlectico Madrid at the Camp Nou. 

Yannick Carasco eight minutes low strike into bottom right corner of  Marc Andre Ter Stegen post, finishing off Luis Suarez pass, gave the Atlectico Madrid the lead. 

Barcelona responded almost immediately with a fine cross by their new recruit, Dani Alves, which met Jordi Alba at the far post allowing the left-back to volley home a goal certain to be a contender for goal of the season. 

21 minutes later, Gavi turned a beneficiary as Adama Taore fine foot work set up the youngster, following Atlectico Madrid failure to deal with Toare's dangerous cross, allowing the youngster to head home past goalkeeper, Jan Oblak. 

The visiting team hope of coming back into the game was dealt a hard blow as Barcelona raced into a 3-1 lead at half time thanks to Ronald Araujo who reacted quickest to tap in from close range after Ferran Torres had headed against the bar from Alves' free-kick. 

The win ended Barcelona in the Champions League spot since November last year when the club legend, Xavi return as a coach.

For Atletico,this was a sixth defeat in the league this season and another uncharacteristic defensive display, with Diego Simeone admitting after the game: "We've been defending extraordinarily well for 10 years and this year we aren't doing what we usually do."


MESSI DAZZLES, MBAPA THRILLS AS PSG ROUT LILLE. 

With much talks of incompetency surrounding Mauricio Pochittino's  career at Paris, it all looks good as Paris Saint-Germain shakes off an humiliating defeat to Nice in the Coupe de France last Monday to demolished Lille, the reigning Ligue 1 champion - 5-1 away in the north of France on Sunday night. 

Few days before their trip to Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16, Lille posted a tough test for the Parisiens club as they needed to go into the Madrid game on a positive note. 

Lionel Messi was spectacular, scoring one and setting up another, so was the electrifying Kylian Mbapa who caused the Lille defence all sort of problems, getting on the scoresheet himself. 


What Pochittino will be most pleased about the sunday game is his team pressing, controlling the game right from the blow of the whistle till the end. 

Real Madrid represents another tough opponent in the Champions League and if Pochittino's men are to come out on top, sustaining the tempo of the Lille's clash will give them a better chance of progression.

  

FA CUP FOR THE GOOD.

Manchester United may have crashed out of the FA Cup in the hands of Middlesbrough, thanks to the magic of the game, English Football Cup competition offered so much to digest over the weekend. 


Let's flip through! 

Two close game saw two Premier league teams won in the extra-time (Chelsea v Plymouth Argyle and West Ham) and elsewhere, Manchester City in their Typical City, trounced Fulham 4-1, Everton and Tottenham all joining the Citizens to advance into the next round of the tie. 

While Thomas Tuchel will be happy his team grinded a win out of the stubborn fourth division Plymouth, his team's lack of niche to kill games present Tuchel tough work to do if they are to maintain the Champions League spot where the sit comfortably on third place in the Premier League table. 

The weekend presented a lot to talk about but this are my weekend picks. I hope you enjoy reading this. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FG, STATEs, LGs share 695.03 billion

Federal government of Nigeria, thirty-six state governments and seven hundred and seventy-four local government area have shared the sum of  N695.03 billion as revenue for the month of February as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) plan to deduce N242.53 billion for subsidy. Mr. Olajide Oshundun, The Federation Account Allocation Committee Director of Information disclosed this in a communique in a virtual conference on Tuesday.  Inclusive of Gross Statutory Revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), Non-Mineral Revenues and Excess Bank charges, the Federal Government received N236.177 billion, states government received N190.007 billion, and the Local Government Councils got N140.612 billion. Oil-producing states received N23.750 billion as derivation (13% of Mineral Revenue) and Cost of Collection received N23.989 billion and Transfer/ Refunds got N80.498 billion. From the Value Added Tax (VAT) Oshundun noted that 177.873 billion Gross Domestic Revenue was generated in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Akwa Ibom State Government is Recruiting Secretly ~Job Seekers Decried

A pplicants in Akwa Ibom State have decried the alleged secret employment going on in the state’s public service.  One of the applicants, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Punch Newspapers, disclosed that she paid N250,000 to a top government official to secure a job but had not gotten the job. “We are many who have paid money to get the civil service job. I paid since April last year. Others who paid have resumed work. I am yet to get my employment letter,” she said. According to some of the applicants, they have parted with huge amounts ranging from  N200,000 to N300,000 as bribe  to gain employment. Findings further gathered that some top government officials and politicians use their connection to secure employment for their cronies while some applicants pay huge amounts of money as bribes to some government officials to secure employment. A   source close to the Head of Civil Service told Punch Newspapers reporter that new employees visited their offic...
Post a Comment
Read more

Seven crew members missing in train attack as NRC losses hit N80m

Nigerian Railway Corporation has said it had still not been able to establish contact with 163 passengers and seven crew members who boarded the AK9 Abuja-Kaduna train that was attacked by terrorists on March 28, 2022. NRC’s Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, made this known in the sixth update from the corporation with respect to the train attack. He, however, stated that 191 passengers had been confirmed safe and were in their various homes with their families, adding that work was ongoing to get the rail line back to operations. Asked on the status of the 362 validated passengers who boarded the train, Okhiria said, “191 persons on the manifest are now confirmed safe and at their various homes. Additional five persons confirmed safe today. “46 phone numbers on the manifest are still either switched off or not reachable since Tuesday morning 33 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing but still no response from the other end. “62 phone numbers on the manifest when called response non...
Post a Comment
Read more