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Samuel - December 15, 2024
The 2024/25 season has produced several exciting moments as we approach the halfway point of the season in major European Leagues and competitions.
The current season promised to be competitive from the onset, with teams across leagues investing heavily in summer signings, and so far, we are enjoying a fantastic season.
Football lovers have witnessed some amazing battles between teams this season, which have resulted in memorable events and will be remembered throughout history.
The new football calendar also played an essential impact, notably in European competitions, where we saw more heated contest between big teams than before.
As a result, Football lovers have highlighted some intriguing encounters from major leagues and European competitions that we will be analyzing.
This was by far the most anticipated El Clasico clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona since the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo showdown, and it did not disappoint.
Football fans were excited to see Kylian Mbappe feature in his first El Clasico matchup since joining Real Madrid in the summer, as well as the red-hot Lamine Yamal and the in-form Raphinha.
The contest pitted the superb attack of Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe against the young La Masia talents under new coach Hansi Flick.
The matchup had an entertaining first half with end-to-end attack between the two teams, with Real Madrid struggling to break Barca’s high line after Kylian Mbappe strike was disallowed for offside in the 30th minute.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men began the second half with their heads up, battling to find the perfect moment before Marc Casado made a spectacular line-breaking pass to set up Robert Lewandowski, who slotted it pass Andriy Lunin to give the visitors the lead in the 54th minute.
Going forward, Real Madrid lost possession again as Barcelona broke in the final third, with Alejandro Balde finding Robert Lewandowski with a brilliant cross and the Polish striker buried the chance with a free header, making it two goals in two minutes.
Following two goals down and the Los Blancos struggling to break the Blaugrana high press, Barca dominated and made it easy to create more chances in the opponent’s area, resulting in goals from Lamine Yamal with a beautiful finish and Raphinha to seal the 4-0 victory at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
It was the Champions League match-day three, with all eyes on Dortmund as they seek retribution for losing the Champions League final to Real Madrid in June.
On the flip side, Real Madrid was striving to revive momentum in the competition after an awful performance in a one-nil defeat to Lille on match-day two.
The stage was set in Estadio Santiago Bernabeu for the highly anticipated showdown between the two 2023/24 season UCL Finalists.
Dortmund dominated the first twenty minutes, with Los Blancos finding it hard to string successful passes together and it was no surprise that the visitors seized the lead in the 30th minute thanks to Donyell Malen strike.
After the opening goal, Nuri Sahin’s men were brimming with confidence as they continued to mount pressure on the host’s defense, which resulted in a superb strike from Jamie Gittens, as Madrid’s defense was caught sleeping.
Following an embarrassing performance from Carlo Ancelotti men in a 2-0 setback, there were aspirations for a second-half comeback from Madrid, as the “Kings of UCL” are expected to rebound.
The second half started with Los Blancos continuing to quest for an early goal which came in the form of a superb header from Antonio Rudiger, with Vinicius Junior tying the score at 2-2 in two minutes.
Real Madrid gained complete control following their second goal as they continue to push for the winner. Lucas Vasquez with his powerful pace pounced on a loose ball and slotted it into the top corner to make it 3-2.
Furthermore, Vinicius Junior clinched the win with two goals in 86th and 93rd minutes, completing his hat-trick in a 5-2 triumph over the Bundesliga side.
There have been several speculations about Chelsea’s performance against top teams in the league this season, as they have failed to win against any big team prior to this clash, which makes this matchup a chance to prove the doubters wrong.
Chelsea had a four-game winning streak coming into this encounter while Tottenham had gone winless in their previous three.
The first half began with the Blues struggling to play out from the back, leading to two slips from Marc Cucurella as Spurs went two goals up inside eleven minutes through Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski.
Chelsea responded in the next six minutes with a brilliant shot from Jadon Sancho, making the score 2-1 as the first half ended.
Moving on, Chelsea continues to apply pressure as they look for an equalizer, causing Yves Bissouma to make a terrible challenge on Moises Caicedo inside the penalty box, resulting in a penalty that Cole Palmer converted to make it 2-2.
As the second half progressed, the Blues continued to demonstrate their attacking prowess, culminating in a perfect strike from Enzo Fernandez to make it 3-2 following Cole Palmer’s magic inside the box, securing a deserving lead.
Furthermore, Spurs made costly mistakes at the defense, resulting in another penalty which Cole Palmer scored to make it 4-2 before Heung-Min Son made it 4-3 in the 94 minutes for the hosts.
This game was a highly anticipated matchup between the top two clubs that had a great Premier League title chase in the previous season.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring in the ninth minute after a sensational break in play from Manchester City, which was canceled out in the twenty-second minute by Riccardo Calafiori stunning outside-the-box goal.
Moving on, Arsenal took the lead in the 45th minute as Bukayo Saka’s well-timed corner kick was executed with a beautiful header from Gabriel Magalhães.
The game turned dramatically at the end of the first half when Leandro Trossard was sent off through a second yellow card for a delayed restart.
The Gunners entered the second half with 10-man and began defending with a low-block tactic from the first minute. However, their efforts were foiled in the 98th minute by John Stones strike, securing a 2-2 draw for the Cityzens.
This encounter was rated by football fans as the one of the most exciting Serie A matchups in history, as well as a contender for the best Serie A game this season.
Reigning champions Inter Milan were faced with a tough battle by Juventus in a dramatic 4-4 stalemate at Stadio Guiseppe Meazza.
Poitr Zielinski opened the scoring for the hosts in the fifteenth minute with a spectacular penalty kick, however Dusan Vlahovic equalized for the Old Lady five minutes later.
With momentum on their side after the equalizer, Timothy Weah scored the visitors’ second goal in the twenty-six minutes.
Furthermore, Henrikh Mkhitaryan leveled for the hosts before Poitr Zielinski scored his second goal of the game from the spot kick, making it 3-2.
Denzel Dumfries gave the hosts a comfortable 4-2 lead in the early minutes of the second half with a beautiful finish.
With the game seemed lost for the Old Lady, head coach Thiago Motta made a tactical change by replacing Timothy Weah with Kenan Yildiz, which actually changed the match as the Turkish forward scored a brace from 4-2 to 4-4, earning a hard-fought point for his team.
The 2024/25 season is just taking shape across major leagues, and we have already witnessed some fascinating games. However, as the season unfolds, we may expect more intriguing encounters, but the aforementioned games will be remembered throughout history.
