May 14th Daily Update

-
Despite the majority of football leagues being at a standstill, everyday I will bring updates of what is going on in football leagues around the world. The biggest leagues that have ended their season early is Ligue 1 in France and the Eredivisie.

  • England:  Players in the Premier League who's contracts expire on June 30th are now allowed to extend their contract until the end of the season.  All 20 Premier League teams have voted to complete the 2019-2020 season, however not every team is on the same page on where the games should take place. League Managers Association chief executive Richard Bevan states that the Premier League will be cancelled if a minimum of seven clubs don't agree to playing at neutral grounds. The neutral grounds will be in stadiums where the local population is less dense to avoid crowds outside the stadiums. However the good news for England is that the government gave the go ahead for matches to start from June 1st.
Leicester City beat Aston Villa 4-0 which was the last game before the Premier League was suspended.
Image Source: Laminute.info

  • Italy:  The Serie A clubs agreed in a video meeting yesterday to resume the season on June 13 and will now wait on the government to make a final decision. 16 clubs voted in favour while four unnamed clubs voted to resume matches the following weekend on June 20. Clubs will start team training next Monday on May 18 as individual training began on May 4. So far one Torino FC player, three players and three staff members from ACF Fiorentina were tested positive for COVID-19.
Juventus beat Inter Milan 2-0 on March 8 and was one of the last games before the Serie A was suspended.
Image Source: Bleacher Report

  • Spain: Spanish football clubs have returned to training on May 4th and started with individual practice. La Liga president Javier Tebas stated that he would like to resume the 2019-2020 season on June 12. Despite five La Liga players being tested positive for COVID-19, Tebas says that the risk during matches is “virtually non-existent” and hopes for the league to be completed by the end of July. During this time matches are expected to be played everyday for six weeks behind closed doors. The government has yet to make a decision on if the league are allowed to resume matches.
Granada CF players training incase the La Liga season does resume.
Image Source: Granada CF.es Facebook Page

  • Germany: It was announced on May 7 by the federation that the Bundesliga & Bundesliga 2 will resume matches on May 16th. The leagues will be finished by June 27th. There are already some big games to look forward to as on May 16th the Revierderby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke will be watched around the world. On the same day RB Leipzig host Freiburg and on May 17, Bayern Munich travel to the capital to face Union Berlin.
Bayern Munich players training for their next match against Union Berlin.
Image Source: FC Bayern EN Facebook Page


  • Portugal: 
    • Primeira Liga (1st tier): 
      • As of May 12th the Primeira Liga will officially resume the 2019-2020 season on June 4th
      • The remaining 10 rounds of fixtures will be behind closed doors 
      • Porto and Benfica are currently fighting for the top spot.
    • Taça de Portugal Final
      • Porto vs Benfica
      • Exact date and time unknown however the final will happen
    • LigaPro (2nd tier):
      • Top two teams CD Nacional and Farense get promoted to the Primeira Liga since the 2019-2020 season for the LigaPro is declared finished.
      • However it is unsure that the leagues below will resume matches.

Porto captain Danilo Pereira training for his team's next match against Famalicao. 
Image Source: FC Porto Facebook Page

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2024 Virsliga Preview

-
Image
The Virsliga last season was very entertaining with a very dramatic finish to the season as Riga FC were in 1st place for most of the season only to bottle it in their last match in a 1-1 draw to Valmiera. There was also drama at the other end of the table as BFC Daugavpils avoided relegation by beating FK Liepāja 3-1 in the second to last game of the season. Liepāja missed out on a spot in the Conference League Qualifiers because of that. The 2024 Virsliga will be a fascinating season from top to bottom so you won't want to miss it.  All stats next to the players names are from last season's Virsliga. Pāvels Šteinbors lifts the Virsliga trophy for RFS Image Source: RFS Insta Page RFS Last year RFS won their second ever Virsliga title in history after a dramatic 1-0 win against Metta in the final match of the season. Despite an underwhelming performance in Europe being knocked out by Azeri side Sabah FK (4-1 aggregate), they were able to concentrate on the league and snatch the
Read more

RFS vs Valmiera Match Preview

-
Image
The last Virsliga season champions RFS host the 2022 Virsliga champions Valmiera at the LNK Sporta Parks on Friday. Both teams started the season off on a high note as Valmiera beat Metta 2-0 while the Rīdzenieki scraped past Auda 2-1. As both clubs are aiming to win the league again this season, a loss could be costly in the title race. Both teams fighting for the ball in last season's encounter Image Source: Valmiera FC Facebook Page As mentioned in the Virsliga preview that I wrote last week, RFS are very solid at the back with some of the best defenders in the league. As well as being solid at the back, Slovenian defender Žiga Lipušček has been a scoring machine too. He scored in the last two matches, one being a late winner against Auda last weekend and against Riga FC in the Latvijas Superkauss (Latvian Super Cup). In the middle, look out for  Finnish U21 international Adam Markhiyev who is a composed player who makes the players around him better. Last season the 21-year old
Read more

Riga Derby Match Report

-
Image
There was a lot of hype for the Rīgas Derbijs (Riga Derby) between RFS and Riga FC and it did not disappoint as Riga FC came from 2-0 down to  2-2 in a sold out match. The new stand for the RFS stadium the LNK Sporta Parks was built just before this match and it made the atmosphere electric.  The RFS fans cheering on their club Image Source: LNK Sporta Parks Facebook Page The hosts got off to the perfect start as they took the lead ten minutes in the game. Slovenian defender Žiga Lipušček scored a brilliant header from Roberts Savaļnieks corner kick and scored his forth goal of the season. 13 minutes later RFS had a huge chance to double the lead as Emerson was pulled down in the box by Gonzalo Muscia. Lipušček's penalty shot however went straight at Rihards Matrevics which was a huge sigh of relief for the Riga FC fans. Riga FC had a chance of their own as in the 33rd minute as Gauthier Mankenda dribbled past two defenders. Mankenda then passed it to Kemelho Nguena who's shot
Read more