After 11 straight wins in all competitions Barcelona finally came unstuck, but surprisingly at home at the Camp Nou and by Malaga. This shock result
ADVERTISEMENTAfter 11 straight wins in all competitions Barcelona finally came unstuck, but surprisingly at home at the Camp Nou and by Malaga.
This shock result came at the worst moment – three days before facing Manchester City in the Champions League.
Contrasting fortunes for the Catalans’ european last 16 rivals, City who hit five past Newcastle.
The most infamous teeth in football were grinding in frustration on Sunday when Luis Suarez turned in another disappointing performance in Barcelona’s 1-0 home defeat against Malaga.
Suarez, who has scored just seven goals for Barca in 22 appearances, and his teammates looked flat, lacked creativity and as a result slipped four points behind leaders Real Madrid.
Suarez will have another chance to justify his massive price tag on Tuesday when he returns to England with Barca to take on Man City in the Champions League.
But the English Premier League title holders will be full of confidence after hammering Newcastle 5-0 at the weekend.
David Silva scored twice to help the club to their biggest win this season and close the gap to five points on leaders Chelsea who were held to a surprising draw by Burnley.
On this Day
For our ‘On this day’ segment we travel back 114 years to the 23rd February 1901 and to the British Home Championship, the first international football tournament that started in 1883.
This particular day Scotland – a force to be reckoned with at the time – enjoyed a record victory against Ireland.
In what remains their highest ever scoreline defending champions Scotland swept aside Ireland 11–0 at Celtic Park in Glasgow.
The game saw hat-tricks by Sandy “Duke” McMahon and Bob Hamilton.
Scotland’s record win was the first match of that year’s competition.
Despite their opening day goal-extravaganza Scotland could only muster a draw against Wales and then again against England who went on to win the title that year.
We might be wrong
On Tuesday and Wednesday this week the Champions League last 16 phase continues.
At this stage of the competition predicting results becomes increasingly difficult, but we’ll try anyway – like every week.
ADVERTISEMENTWhy not send us your predictions on the social networks using #TheCornerScores.
Juventus 1-1 Borussia Dortmund
Manchester City 1-2 Barcelona
Arsenal 3-0 Monaco
Bayer Leverkusen 0-2 Atlético de Madrid
Up and Down
It’s now over to our top of the pops and flops in this week’s ‘up and down’.
This edition we look at Galatasaray’s coach Hamza Hamzaoglu, Serie A side Parma and Dynamo Kyiv from Ukraine.
ADVERTISEMENTLet’s see why!
Hamzaoglu has made our up list week as he maintains his dazzling start to as Galatasaray coach.
Since taking over from underachieving Italian Cezare Prandelli in November he is undefeated in 10 matches, with eight wins and two draws – The club’s latest victims were Sivasspor, who Galatasaray beat 3-2.
Parma’s financial struggles are enough to put them on the down list.
The Italian club have reportedly not paid wages to players or staff since the summer and were unable to fund matchday stewards for Sunday’s game against Udinese, which was eventually postponed by the Italian FA.
ADVERTISEMENTDynamo Kyiv are down but not out.
The Ukrainians were punished for sloppy tackles last week.
Leading 1-0 against Guingamp in the Europa League, Dynamo suffered two red cards in the space of four minutes just before the break.
The French side took full numerical advantage to escape 2-1 winners.
Bloopers
ADVERTISEMENTThat’s all for this week. The Corner will be back next Monday.
We wrap up this edition with a few funnies from the penalty spot.
Dont forget that you can send us some funny links on social media using #TheCornerBloopers.