Sasha Goryunov

Champions League after week six.

Liverpool don't have the hardest remaining games based on league position but most teams above them have easier.

Get to keep the place now.

Looks pretty bad right now but could prove to be a good move… for all
- Salah gets his exit
- Hierarchy has to double down on Slot
- Slot gets accelerated transition w/o trying to sit on two chairs
- Less time in limbo for fans
Essentially, shock therapy.

In the end Brentford should’ve scored off a throw in the 90th minute - why did Van Den Berg drift in towards the flick? - but got hit after an error on midfield.
A fairly uneventful evening but Brentford stayed in the game. #ARSBRE

Half-time cakeS. Mmm. #ARSBRE

Rico Henry. Listen, fair play. Came under so much pressure in the first half.
#ARSBRE
PS Nice to be in the press box & not getting rained on. 🙏

Just gonna tuck into another pie while I wait this out. Listen, fair play to @fulhamfc.com for putting these on in the media centre after the game. Don’t think you can do any better rolling in after getting drenched most of the evening. (bows) #FULMCI

Oh, come on! No emoji for the levels of precipitation this evening. Forgot my umbrella obvs. #FULMCI

“The team who wins the Premier League is the team who grows.” Guardiola on GREAT form after the game, you know. In full flow. Relief? Perhaps. But also… City were very exciting & they’re deffo in the title race. #FULMCI

Well, that was football. & Foden, lots of Foden. #FULMCI

So much to process
- Hajduk Split - the team of the partisan army and the revolution
- Vujadin Boškov beating the USSR in Tampere in 1952
- Franjo Tudjman running Partizan Belgrade in the 1950s
- the focus on sport to raise international profile -> very modern-day Croatia, innit?

Btw if your Serbo-Croat ain’t all that, there are subtitled versions of The Last Yugoslavian Team.
English
youtu.be/DNmVbYy8TeY?...
French
youtu.be/bhzZ8lcaXag?...
but, weirdly, they’re missing 25-30 minutes, incl. all of Prosinečki.

Best to put the original through a translator.

Props to @jonawils.bsky.social for a lovely tribute to Nikita Simonyan in the intro.

Very enjoyable - and sensible - Premier League analysis with your standard references to Bela Guttman thrown in.

Footy, innit. 🧤

YouTube video by sajkovac Последњи југословенски фудбалски тим (2000) - цео филм

Watched The Last Yugoslavian Football Team (filmed around the Yugoslavia-Croatia Euro 2000 qualifiers) on the way to & from the Emirates on Sunday. Like stepping into a Kapadia film.

Great cast: Mihajlović, Boban, Savičević, Osim, Prosinečki, Mijatović

youtu.be/8CwDQ_crgkQ?...

A genuinely astonishing stat

When Arsenal signed Eze, my gut feeling was “ooooh… he could be THE one, you know.”

Thought Arsenal were impossible to play against today & then there was Eze when they had the ball. Such brilliant feet for all three goals. Chapeau! #ARSTOT

YouTube video by Non Blogue // Maria MacArrow // Мария Макарова Шотландия едет на Чемпионат Мира! Впервые с 1998!

My chum Maria went to Glasgow on Tuesday. She saw things, spoke to randoms & filmed a lot of people crying and falling over. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇩🇰
(some absolutely lovely scenes from about 7:30 onwards) youtube.com/watch?v=p3O2...

Brutal. Genuinely brutal.

Klap voor Curaçao: Dick Advocaat moet allesbeslissende WK-kraker met Jamaica om privéredenen missen

Dick Advocaat zal dinsdagavond in Jamaica ontbreken als coach van het nationale elftal van Curaçao. Advocaat heeft het trainingskamp in Kingston vanwege persoonlijke omstandigheden halsoverkop moeten verlaten. Dat heeft de Curaçaose voetbalbond FFK zaterdagavond laat bekend gemaakt.

OMG

Listen, fair play.

Tell you what, Yugoslavia between the wars was a funny old place but the football governance was truly something else. It’s exhausting just reading about how mad it all was… not sure how anyone had any energy left for the actual football.

The Politics of Football in Yugoslavia. Mmm… yes, please! #InternationalBreak

Too many hard-luck stories in so many of their games this season (Galatasaray pen, United head injury etc). Ultimately the not-great teams leave themselves open to those margins and that's where Liverpool are.

Games against City really do show where Liverpool are in a given season. If they are off it, they take a hammering. City do not let them off. #MCILIV

Pep Guardiola believes Liverpool are his greatest rivals and the perfect team for Manchester City to be playing in what will be his 1,000th game as a manager.

🔗 www.nytimes.com/athletic/678...

Above Napoli. Above Juventus.

✌️

Finally found an antidote to Courtois.