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Jonathan Cook’s World Game Wrap-Up

Posted on | Posted by Jonathan Cook

Gallagher takes the glory in Palace win

Conor Gallagher was a man on a mission with two goals in Crystal Palace’s 3-1 win over Everton.

The Chelsea loanee, who has never played for his parent club, continues to impress for Patrick Vieira’s men, scoring six goals and providing three assists in Palace’s climb to 12th place.

His second goal against Everton, which he fired home in stoppage time, was a thing of beauty.

Gallagher, who is 21 years old, had loan spells Charlton, Swansea and West Bromwich Albion before joining Palace this season. His form this season has also earned him a call-up to the England squad.

Fragile Chelsea leave it late to sink Leeds

Chelsea’s defensive frailties were exposed again in a match of three converted penalties and five goals against Leeds United at Stamford Bridge.

But the Blues managed to stay two points behind leaders Manchester City (38 points) and a point adrift of second-placed Liverpool (37 points) thanks to Jorginho’s stoppage-time penalty in a 3-2 win.

Leeds had taken the lead thanks to Raphinha’s penalty before Mason Mount and Jorginho, with the first of his two penalties, grabbed the advantage.

Teenager Joe Gelhardt scored his first Leeds goal to put the visitors on track for a hard-earned point. But joy turned to despair when Mateusz Klich was adjudged to have fouled Antonio Rudiger and Jorginho scored from the spot in the 94th minute.

Sterling joins 100 club as Jimenez blows up

Raheem Sterling scored his 100th Premier League goal as Manchester City were given a helping hand in their 1-0 win over Wolves at the Etihad Stadium.

Life was made easy for City after Raul Jimenez picked up two yellow cards in a bizarre 31-second spell on the stroke of half-time.

After receiving the first card for a foul on Rodri, Jimenez appeared to have lost his mind in trying to stop City from restarting play. When he intercepted the freekick without first retreating the required distance, he was booked for a second time and sent off.

City took advantage in the second half, although it took Sterling’s 66th-minute penalty to seal a victory that kept City top of the table.

Salah shoots down sentiment on Gerrard’s return

Steven Gerrard’s warm reception on his return to Anfield lasted for 67 minutes before Mohamed Salah’s penalty ended the party.

Gerrard, who made 710 Liverpool appearances and scored 186 goals, had made clear before the match that there was no room for sentiment in his new role as Aston Villa manager.

Villa showed plenty of resilience but failed to have a single shot on target as Salah struck the decisive blow from the spot after he was brought down by Tyrone Mings.

Barcelona sink to 21-year low

A 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich prevented Barcelona from qualifying for the UEFA Champions League knockout stages for the first time in 21 years.

Needing a win in Germany, Barcelona were second best throughout and have now conceded 14 goals in their past three games against Bayern. The German side completed the group stage with a 100 percent record.

Thomas Muller opened the scoring for Bayern with his 50th Champions League goal, making him the first German player to reach the half-century milestone.

Haller transformed by Ajax switch

What a transformation Sebastian Haller has made since joining Ajax this year.

The former West Ham United striker scored his 10th goal in just six Champions League appearances with a penalty in a 4-2 win over Sporting Lisbon last week.

By way of comparison, the Ivory Coast international scored just 10 goals in 48 English Premier League appearances for West Ham.

Haller’s contribution helped Ajax finish top of Champions League Group C, which also included Borussia Dortmund and Besiktas.

All eyes on Champions League draw

Ajax are among the eight seeded teams in the draw for the last 16 draw of the UEFA Champions League, which will be conducted at 7pm tonight (December 13).

Many of the usual suspects are in the draw, including four English teams (Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea) and three from Spain (Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal).

Salzburg made history as the first Austrian side to make it into the last 16 when they beat Sevilla 1-0 last week.

Qualified – group winners (seeded): Ajax (NED); Bayern Munich (GER); Juventus (ITA); Liverpool (ENG); Lille (FRA); Manchester City (ENG); Manchester United (ENG); Real Madrid (ESP).

Runners up (unseeded): Atletico Madrid (ESP); Benfica (POR); Chelsea (ENG); Inter Milan (ITA); Paris Saint-Germain (FRA); Salzburg (AUT); Sporting Lisbon (POR); Villarreal (ESP).

Savage emotions as son makes debut

Former Leicester City, Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City midfielder Robbie Savage found himself in an unusual position last week as a co-commentator at Old Trafford.

Savage, who was a trainee at Manchester United but never played for the first team, was at the microphone for Manchester United’s Champions League match against Swiss club Young Boys.

The game ended 1-1 but it was quite an occasion for the Savage family with Robbie’s 18-year-old son Charlie making his Manchester United debut.

Recognising the importance of the occasion, commentator Darren Fletcher left Robbie to make the on-air announcement as Charlie Savage replaced Juan Mata in the United team.

Spurs’ European progress halted by COVID

Tottenham Hotspur are sweating on UEFA’s decision to see if they will progress to the knockout phase of the Europa Conference League following the postponement of their match against Rennes last week.

Spurs called off the game, due to be played at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, because of 13 COVID cases at the club.

The result of the game, which will influence final group positions, will be decided by governing body UEFA’s control, ethics and disciplinary body next week.

Newcomer looks right at home in Glory goal

Perth Glory’s Cameron Cook has had big gloves to fill as a replacement for injured former Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones.

But the youngster has done brilliantly in two games between the posts. After a clean sheet in a win over Melbourne Victory, he was back in the spotlight again against Melbourne City last week.

Cook, 20, made some solid saves and was heading for a second successive clean sheet before Nathaniel Atkinson scored an 88th minute winner.

Jones could be sidelined until late January because of a calf problem, while Glory’s other goalkeeper, Liam Reddy, has a shoulder injury and may not be back until the end of the month.

Yengi flops into referee’s notebook

Adelaide United striker Kusini Yengi earned the wrath of plenty when his flop to the floor earned him a yellow card in an A-League loss to Melbourne Victory on Friday night.

Referee Adam Kersey was having none of it and instead of pointing to the penalty spot he brandished a yellow card.

Adelaide coach Carl Veart had another view, pointing out that it’s hard for a fast-running, 100kg-person to stay on their feet when they receive a nudge. The slow-motion replays weren’t helpful in painting a case in favour of Yengi.

Inter take top spot with Cagliari thrashing

AC Milan and Napoli left open the door by dropping points on the weekend and Inter Milan accepted the invitation by thrashing Cagliari 4-0.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a late equaliser as Milan could only draw away to Udinese on Saturday, and Napoli lost at home to Empoli as the top of the Serie A standings were shaken up.

Atalanta’s 2-1 win at Hellas Verona took them into third place, one point above Napoli, and two behind second-placed Milan.

But Inter are a point clear at the top after a double from Lautaro Martinez and goals from Alexis Sanchez and Hakan Calhanoglu.

Bayern bounce back after Mainz shock

Bayern Munich winning again is not much of a story. But on this rare occasion they were forced to do so by coming from behind against mid-table Mainz.

Karim Onisiwo had given Mainz a shock lead 22 minutes into the game and Bayern were made to work hard to find a way back.

They equalised eight minutes into the second half through Kingsley Coman and Jamal Musiala scored the winner with 16 minutes to play.

Second-placed Borussia Dortmund were held to a 1-1 draw away to Bochum, which allowed Bayern to stretch their lead at the top to six points.

Benzema blast keeps Madrid on a roll

A superb volley from Karim Benzema and goalkeeping heroics from Thibaut Courtois helped Real Madrid extend their winning sequence to 10 matches in all competitions.

Courtois, who made several outstanding saves, was left bloodied after blocking a shot with his face in the 2-0 win over city rivals Atletico Madrid.

Benzema had opened the scoring with a stunning first-half strike and Marco Asensio doubled the advantage after the break.

Real Madrid are eight points clear at the top of Sevilla, who have a game in hand.

Barcelona remain eighth after a 2-2 draw with Osasuna.




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