Liverpool finally returned to winning ways in Europe. The club defeated Blackburn, managed by Sam Allardyce, 2-1 at Anfield although in some eyes, especially those who consider themselves the Anfield faithful, the performance was still far from convincing and not yet quite at the standards expected of Liverpool. Liverpool players, in fact, scored all three of the goals in the match. Sotiris Kyrgiakos and Fernando Torres scored the two goals that counted in Liverpool’s favour however Jamie Carragher also found himself on the score-sheet, only he did so at the wrong end, putting the ball into his own net to gift Blackburn a goal. In the English Premier League Manchester United also won by a 2-1 scoreline. The red club from Manchester won thanks to two goals from Mexican Javier Hernandez, commonly known as Chicharito. The first goal he scored put Manchester United ahead before Stoke equalised, thanks to Tuncay, in the 81st minute. Just when Manchester United thought another late equaliser away from home was going to cost them some more points they found a winner. Javier Hernandez scored right at the end of the game to put the team ahead for the second time in the match and, ultimately, gift them the 3 points. It was a fine way for the Manchester club to end the week after a disappointing beginning to the week when it appeared that Wayne Rooney wanted to leave. The player had in fact confirmed his intention to leave. By Sunday evening, however, the club had recorded an important victory away from home at the Britannia stadium, Stoke’s home ground, and Wayne Rooney had signed a new 5 year contract, suggesting he will be at Manchester United for quite a while yet.
In the Eredevisie in Holland there was a shocking result. PSV, from Eindhoven, defeated Feyenoord, from Rotterdam, 10-0. The two clubs form part of the great trio in Holland. Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord collectively form the great trio of clubs in Holland, renowned for their style of play and history. For one great club defeat another 10-0 is almost unheard of, equivalent to Chelsea defeating Arsenal 10-0 in the English Premiership or Real Madrid defeating Valencia 10-0 in Spain in La Liga. A truly shocking result.
In Spain Real Madrid won 6-1 against Racing Santander thanks to a goal from Mesut Ozil and another from Gonzalo Higuain. Where did the other four come from? All from Cristiano Ronaldo. The result was very much impressive and the performance certainly delighted the Santiago Bernabeu crowd who are slowly beginning to take to the coach Jose Mourinho. Jose Mourinho, the internationally renowned Portuguese tactician, arrived at Real Madrid with a reputation of employing pragmatic and often defensive football. Results and performances like this, where the team attack with genuine intent and manage to score 6 goals, will only serve to remedy his negative reputation and even endear him to the Real Madrid fans. Barcelona also managed to win. They could only win by 2 goals, both of which were scored by Lionel Messi. Valencia, who have had an impressive start to the season, have now lost two matches in La Liga. Recently they lost to Barcelona, despite taking the lead in the match, and this weekend they lost again, at home against Mallorca.
