“We have the games against them next month and inshallah we will take revenge on them”- Mohamed Salah’s fiery dressing room speech after losing AFCON Cup

Mohamed Salah failed to secure an AFCON Cup for Egypt after Sadio Mane’s Senegal defeated the former’s side on penalties, winning their first-ever AFCON trophy. However, despite losing the final, Salah emerged as a leader, who was seen motivating his team after their tough defeat on Monday.

In a recent video, the Liverpool forward and Egypt’s captain, Mohamed Salah can be witnessed boosting the morale of his side, which became quite emotional after the loss in the AFCON finals. Claiming that all his teammates gave their all in the past four matches, he highlighted that the defeat is a thing of the “past now.”

Focussing on the next tie against Senegal, a victory which could see the Egyptian side qualify to the FIFA World Cup 2022, Salah encouraged his team to seek “revenge” on Senegal. Egypt are scheduled to play against Senegal on March 23 and March 29, 2022, for the World Cup Qualifiers. 

“We played four matches all 120 minutes in about 12 days, but it’s in the past now. We have the games against them next month and inshallah we will take revenge on them,” said Salah. 

Talking about the match, despite missing the penalty during the match, Sadio mane proved to be the winner for Senegal as he scored the last ‘under pressure’ penalty for his side in the shootouts. After the match, many criticized Salah’s decision of waiting for the glory penalty, when his side lost 4-2 in the shootouts, not even giving him a chance to shoot in the penalties.

Mohamed Salah joins Liverpool again following his difficult AFCON defeat

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane have both joined Liverpool again after the AFCON break and will look forward to strengthening their club, which is currently placed second in the Premier League with 48 points and is set to face Leicester City next on Friday.

In the pre-match press conference, hailing Mo Salah as an “experienced player and a physical monster,” Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, highlighted that the Egyptian will undergo a training session before deciding whether he could feature against the Foxes or not. 

“Mo is now back, I spoke already to him. He is very disappointed of course, but looking forward to all the things coming up here now. He is an experienced player, he is a physical monster, to be honest, so we have to see. He will obviously have a little recovery session today and we will see how he feels tomorrow and from there we go,” said Klopp.

Mohamed Salah is currently the leading scorer of the Premier League, having already netted the ball on 16 occasions. 

With Sevilla losing to Atletic Bilbao, the La Liga race is once again brought down to Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and FC Barcelona

The 2020-21 football season is almost coming to an end with Inter-Milan winning the Serie-A after 11 years. In England and Germany too, the race is almost over with Manchester City and FC Bayern Munich just one win away from clinching the title.

However, Ligue 1 and La Liga are going close at the moment and fans might not know the winner till the very last match of the season. Currently, Atletico sits at the top with 76 points, Real and Barca are tied at 74 points and Sevilla is at the fourth spot with 70 points- all at the end of 34 matches each.

Inaki Williams’ late winner possibly ended Sevilla’s dreams of winning the La Liga 2020-21. Even though they are still in the race, it will be tough for them to beat the Big Three giants to win the title this time. This weekend is really important for all the top 4 teams as they will be up against each other.

FC Barcelona will face Atletico Madrid at home while their arch-rivals Real Madrid will go one on one against Sevilla this weekend. Let us look at some scenarios that will determine how the La Liga 2020-21 ends-

Situation-1: If Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid both win

In such a situation, Atletico will manage to build an 8-point gap over Sevilla, and Sevilla’s dream of winning the La Liga will be possibly over.

Simeone’s men will also establish a 5-point win over Barcelona and it will be tough for them to bounce back as well. However, their lead over Real Madrid will be just 2 points and it’ll be a cause of worry for them.

The ideal situation for Atletico will be to win and pray that Sevilla beats Real as well. Even if both Real and Atletico end up with equal points, Real will emerge as the winner because of their better head-to-head record against them in the two legs so far.

Situation-2: If FC Barcelona and Sevilla both win

Practically, it’ll be the best situation for Barcelona if they manage to win and Sevilla beats Real Madrid. Under such a system, Barcelona will go at the top of the table with 77 points- one point clear of Atletico and three points clear of Real Madrid.

Sevilla too will have a chance this way as they’ll be just four points behind the table-toppers under such a scenario. However, Real has just lost two matches in 2021- one against Levante and the other against Chelsea. Although they have managed quite a few draws, beating them would be challenging for Sevilla.

Situation-3: If Real Madrid and Barcelona both win

This will be good for Real as they’ll go top of the table. Barcelona will be tied with them at 77 points but will be behind them due to the poor show at the head-to-head battle. A loss for Sevilla will be very tough to take and they’ll continue to remain at the fourth spot with 70 points- & points behind both Barca and Real. 

It’ll be a big setback for Atletico as they’ll not be 1 point behind both Real and Barca and will go down to the third spot for the first time in the year. 

Situation-4: If Atletico Madrid and Sevilla both win

It’ll possibly be the best situation for Atletico Madrid as they’ll go 5 points clear of Real Madrid. They’ll also be 5 points clear of Barcelona and will be 6 points ahead of Sevilla.

In such a situation, even if Simeone’s men manage a few draws or even a defeat in their remaining three games, they’ll still be on the top of the table even if both Real and Barca manage to win their next fixtures.

Situation-5: If the match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid ends in a draw

If Atletico and Barcelona draw at Camp Nou, they’ll just get one point each. In such a situation, Barcelona will be at 75 points and Atletico at 77. 

If then, Real Madrid wins against Sevilla, they’ll go at the top of the table and this will prove to be the best situation for them. They’ll be tied with Atletico but will be above them, 2 points ahead of Barcelona, and 7 points clear of Sevilla.

However, if Sevilla wins, it’ll be the best possible scenario for them as they’ll now just be 4 points behind Atletico Madrid and just 1 point behind both Real and Barcelona.

Even though these situations are leading fans towards a winner, they can’t guarantee a possible winner. Apart from these, it’ll also depend on how these teams play in their remaining three matches. 

Next 3 fixtures of the 4 teams

Atletico Madrid: Real Sociedad (5th), Osasuna (11th), Valladolid (17th)

Read Madrid: Granada (8th), Athletic Club (9th), Villarreal (6th)

FC Barcelona: Levante (13th), Celta Vigo (10th), Eibar (20th)

Sevilla FC: Valencia (14th), Villarreal (6th), Alaves (16th)

                                                                                           ()-represents their position in La Liga table

It’ll be intriguing to see who succeeds and who bites the dust in La Liga 2020-21. Who will win Spain’s domestic League this season?

With Real Madrid aiming to enter its 17th Champions League final, Chelsea will have the upper edge playing at home after scoring an away goal

The UEFA Champions League will resume once again this Wednesday as the Spanish giants, Real Madrid will lock horns with the London club, Chelsea. After a phenomenal dribble from America’s captain Christian Pulisic, Chelsea has an away goal with them. However, the Los Blancos are not behind on the scoreline which stands at 1-1 at the moment because of the exceptional strike from their striker, Karim Benzema. Interestingly, both the teams haven’t lost in their last five matches.

Real Madrid will be facing the English club after their 2-0 win over Osasuna in La Liga. It was a convincing win for them, especially after two straight draws in the home season. Interestingly, Courtois also kept a clean sheet without the presence of their captain and legendary defender, Sergio Ramos, which will surely give Zidane’s men some amount of confidence.

Chelsea has been a resurgent force under German manager Thomas Tuchel and has shown tremendous improvement over the past few months. The Blues defeated Fulham by a 2-0 margin-thanks to the brace by Kai Havertz over the weekend and will be confident ahead of this game.

Real Madrid V Chelsea: Possible Line-Ups

There will be trouble for Zinedine Zidane as both his right-backs, Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vazquez are injured at the moment. What has also caused more trouble is that Rafael Nadal recently injured himself and will not be playing in the match against Chelsea. In addition, Marcelo Vierra has his polling station duties and will most likely miss the clash against the Blues.

As far as the formation is considered, Zidane is likely to go with his 4-3-3 flat formation with Modric, Kroos, and Casemiro once again taking the role of the anchors. There is some positive news too as Sergio Ramos will hopefully play the match and will be joined by the former Chelsea player Eden Hazard- who will be playing at the Stamford Bridge after two years.

Real Madrid Predicted XI (4-3-3): Thibaut Courtois; Nacho, Sergio Ramos, Eder Militao, Ferland Mendy; Casemiro, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos; Marco Asensio, Vinicius Junior/Eden Hazard, Karim Benzema

As far as Chelsea’s side is concerned, they will miss the services of Mateo Kovacic who is injured at the moment. Antonio Rudiger might join the team again as he is fit and can play against Real now.

Tuckel can go with his defensive 3-4-3 formation since his side already has an away goal and if Mendy manages to keep a clean sheet, they’ll advance to the finals whether they score or not. In the attack, one can expect Timo Warner as the main striker again. However, there are doubts whether Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz will be a part of the starting line-up or not.

Chelsea Predicted XI (3-4-3):Edouard Mendy; Antonio Rudiger, Thiago Silva, Andreas Christensen; Cesar Azpilicueta, Ben Chilwell, N’Golo Kante, Jorginho; Mason Mount/Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner

Real Madrid V Chelsea: Head-to-Head

Real Madrid has a good record against Chelsea and has won two out of three games played between the two teams. As a result, their head-to-head battle stands at 2-0 at the moment with the last game ending in a draw. Chelsea has never defeated Real Madrid in an official fixture and will look to make history on Wednesday.

Real Madrid V Chelsea: Prediction

Zidane’s side edges out the Blues when it comes to playing and performing under pressure. The Frenchman hasn’t lost a single UCL semi-final in his career as a manager and will look forward to taking his record ahead. Even though the Los Blancos don’t have Varane and Marcelo in their squads, the presence of Ramos and an in-form Benzema make them the favorites before the match.

Chelsea can too shock the men in white as they have been incredible when it comes to defending. Real Madrid needs a goal at any cost and if they fail to find it, they’ll lose the match anyhow.

Chelsea can too shock the men in white as they have been incredible when it comes to defending. Real Madrid needs a goal at any cost and if they fail to find it, they’ll lose the match anyhow.