The Big Failure of P$G

The reaction after having lost against Real Madrid in Champions

Paris Saint Germain (PSG) was in the beginning of the season, one of the teams that created more expectation in Europe. After having signed international stars like Neymar, Mbappe and Dani Alves, the French team looked like it was going to have a promising season, with the Champions League title in mind.

As the local tournament began, they were meting with the expectations. In several matches, they were winning with hierarchy, high percentages of ball possession, many shots on target, winning many aerial duels, and overall scoring many goals. Their attacking trio, Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani, was working very well by giving overwhelming victories like 5-0 against Metz, 8-0 to Dijon and 6-2 to Toulouse.

In the most important tournament for clubs world widely, the Champions League, PSG was surprising everyone for their performance in the group stage by winning 5 of their 6 games. In these international matches, they had important victories like the 3-0 against the current champion of the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich, and the 7 goals they scored on Celtic.

Everything was perfect until the draw of the Champions League left them in a confrontation versus Real Madrid. At first sight, it seemed that PSG was going to win because of their brilliant performance and because of the bad moment that Real Madrid was facing. The game even became the most attractive confrontation of the round since it faced the history and experience of Real Madrid, against the amazing squad of PSG.

However, Real Madrid made respect its hierarchy, making look PSG as a mediocre team -lacking of ideas and football. The first match ended 3-1 in favor of Real Madrid with a brilliant Cristiano Ronaldo after scoring 2 goals. Likewise, in the second match, the Spanish team won with ease 2-1 in Paris, with a PSG that only had courage.

Even tough PSG won the Coupe de la Ligue and has the Ligue 1 almost won, loosing in such an early face of the Champions league, after having invested more than $270 USD millions, it is a total disaster. It proves, among many things, that money and brilliant players do not assure you to win trophies and tournaments.

James brilliant season with Bayern Munich

James after having scored against RB Leipzig

The Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez is having one of his most successful seasons in his life, after his tough time in Real Madrid- a team that did not give him minutes to play and demonstrate his talent.

With the World Cup coming around the corner, Colombian people are really excited that the star of Bayern Munich is recovering his best level, as he showed in the 2014 international football competition. In this season, James has appeared 15 times in the German League, scoring 5 goals and giving 9 assists as the official YouTube channel of the league shows it:

Likewise, in the National team of Colombia and in the Champions League, James is showing why Real Madrid bought him for almost $90 USD millions. In another official video, it is analyzed the incredible and quick rhythm that James has while playing: having an outstanding domain of the ball, helping the team in defensive labors when needed, and looking up - just after making few touches- to  feed his teammates with incredible passes, creating clear options of goal.

Hopefully for Colombians and all the people who love soccer, James maintains his good performance during the end of the season, to help Bayern Munich winning the German tournaments, and above all, the UEFA Champions league -which next match is against Sevilla.

Juventus recover the lead of the Calcio

Juventus squad celebrating their victory against Milan

For more than half of the season a huge surprise was happening in the Italian Legue as Napoli was leading the table and not Juventus.

La Vecchia Signora, as Juventus is called in Italy, is by far the most successful team of that country during the last few years. Proof of that, they have won in the past 6 years more than 10 local titles, including 6 consecutive championships of the 'Serie A', the professional league of Italy. In addition, they have first level team with recognized players like Gonzalo Higuaín and Paulo Dybala from Argentina, Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini from Italy and Juan Guillermo Cuadrado from Colombia. It was very shocking, therefore, to see that Juventus was not leading the table having such a good squad.

It must be said that Juventus was playing well and that they weren't far from the lead, they were just 1 point away from Napoli. However, it must also be said that The Light Blues were having incredible performances with high percentages of ball possession, many completed passes during the games, and amazing goals, scored by their brilliant forwards: Lorenzo Insigne, Jose Maria Callejón and Dries Mertens.

There were 2 consecutive turning points that gave Juventus the tip of the standings- a defeat and a draw from Napoli. After having lost at home 4-2 against Roma, and tying without goals with Inter at their stadium, Juventus took advantage of the situation by winning their corresponding matches taking a 4 points advantage over their rival.

Still missing 8 games in the tournament, including an epic clash between Juventus and Napoli, the faith of the Serie A is not sentenced yet. Thus, we can expect that the end of the season in Italy is going to be crazy.

Why is Real Madrid being so inconsistent this season?

Ronaldo and Benzema showing Real Madrid situation

Real Madrid aspirations of La Liga and Copa del Rey are gone by now. The only trophy they can still aspire to is the UEFA Champions League.

It has been very surprisingly how Real Madrid is doing during the current season. All the football lovers at the beginning of the year, were expecting that Los Blancos would rule the Spanish and international football as they did the last season, winning La Liga, La Supercopa de Espana, The UEFA Super cup and The Champions League. However, things did not happened as people was expecting.

In the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid faced an early elimination against Leganés, a team that has only been for 2 years in the highest league of Spanish Soccer. The first match was won by Los Blancos in home of the Leganés by a score of 1-0 in a very tough game. The local team did really well during the whole match, creating many options of goals and defending from the mighty attackers of Real. It was only until the 89 minute that Marco Asensio was able break the parity in favor of the white team. In the second match, Leganés gave a lesson on how to play soccer by being very organized in the tactical aspect, and creative when attacking. In addition to that, they had the courage to play in the impressive Santiago Bernabéu against the tide of millions of people who did not believe in them. The final result was 2-1 in favor of them, with goals of Eraso and Appelt that eliminated Real Madrid.

La Liga of Spain is also an title that is out of the possibilities for the team that directs Zinedine Zidane. Very bad results, including lost games at their stadium, have put Barcelona at the top of table with a difference of 13 points over Real Madrid. Among some of the causes that can explain the bad performance of the team, we could find: the lack of goal that Cristiano Ronaldo had at the beginning of the season; several defensive issues and mistakes by iconic players like Marcelo and Sergio Ramos; and some internal conflicts between players and with the coach, like the inconformity of Isco and Bale with Zidane of being substitutes. Some of the matches that depicted the deficient situation, were loosing against Real Betis, Barcelona and Villareal at home, and likewise with Girona and Espanyol as visitor. The following video, for instance, shows the game that Los Blancos lost against Real Betis.

However, not everything is lost for Real Madrid. They are still alive in Champions League after defeating PSG, after showing by far their best performance of the season. In the games they played against the team from capital of France, Real showed a completely different face with a brilliant performance of Cristiano Ronaldo who scored 2 goals, and a team that had clear ideas on how to play, with a good defense and attack. The match that is coming for them is a very tough. Juventus, leader of the Serie A and  the best team of Italy at the moment, is their rival. Seeking for revenge after having lost the final of the Champions League against Real Madrid, the match is predicted to be one of the most important and exciting games of the year as the 2 games want the victory at all costs.

Alexis Sanchez in Manchester United

Alexis wearing the Devils shirt during his presentation

Alexis has become one of the top 5 best payed players as he joined the squad that directs Jose Mourinho.

The Red Devils, as Manchester United is also known in England, signed the Chilean left winger last winter for about $66 USD millions and the rights of the Armenian player Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Among the many benefits that his contract will include, Alexis will earn $500,000 USD a week; becoming the best paid player in Premier League history. In comparison to international stars, Sánchez has the 3 best salary in the world, surpassing big names like Cristiano Ronaldo or Kylian Mbappe, but being behind of Neymar and Leonel Messi.

During his presentation, Alexis admitted that it was an honor for him to play in The Theatre of the Dreams as he expressed, "I always said as a kid that I’d like to play for United and I once spoke to Sir Alex Ferguson about it. We chatted for around 20 minutes. And I told him that my dream was to come here to Manchester United. It really is a massive club, very powerful, and so now, when I got the opportunity to come here, I looked at the badge and my hairs just stood up on end because it’s a powerful club and the biggest in England."

In his debut, Alexis played 72 minutes in game that Manchester won 4-0 over Yeovil Town -a team of the 4th division of England. Even tough he did not score, he created several options of goal including an assist to Ander Herrera for the 3 goal, which resulted in a 'close to perfection debut' as he received the man of the match award. In the following video, some of the individual highlights are shown.

In the following games Alexis didn't have the same luck. Many people started to criticize him because of the poor form he was showing in comparison to his brilliant performances with Arsenal. Lost games in the Premier League but specially against Sevilla in The Champions League at home, made many people think that it was a waste of money to sign Sánchez.

The last game against Swansea, however, Alexis recovered the trust of the fans and the trust in himself by giving an assist to Romelu Lukaku, and by scoring a goal in the 20th minute. He also helped a lot the team in tactical matters, as he defended when Manchester United needed. Some of the positive comments that the fans wrote on Twitter were: Pleased to see Alexis Sánchez on the scoresheet. Hopefully he can kick on and get back to his world class form." (Liam Canning- recognized football journalist), or "Sanchez has been brilliant today, defensively as well as his attacking play"(Ross Philips-famous fan and blogger).

Manchester United have to still play 6 games of the Premier League, practically won by Manchester City, and the semifinal of the Fa Cup against The Spurs on April 21. Hopefully Alexis Sanchez keeps the same level that he showed against Swansea, for the benefit of the team that manages Jose Mourinho.

Alexis celebrating his goal against Swansea with Lukaku