Into the channels: 27/11/2014

NorthEast United 3-0 Chennaiyin

Regular readers of this blog (i.e. me) will remember that NorthEast United played on Monday, losing a bottom-of-the-table clash at home to Delhi Dynamos. So it's fair to say that I wasn't expecting them to beat Marco Materazzi's table-topping Chennaiyin on Thursday lunchtime.

NorthEast hadn't scored in the first half hour of any ISL match so far.

So, of course, they scored in the 10th minute of this match, Durga getting their 8th in 11 games. The goal was very fortunate, coming as a headed clearance from a Chennai centre-back ricocheted off a NorthEast player, and bounced right in front of Durga.

NorthEast didn't care about the resolution of the screenshot, they were just happy with the goal

How would Eric Djemba-Djemba and co respond?

Um, they conceded two more goals in quick succession, both from set pieces.

Ricki Lambert can phone home with good news

Bruno Massamba: on a hat-trick from the centre of defence

The intensity of the team from Guwahati led to their impressive support demanding a fourth goal. Two balls over the top dropped nicely for Len: one was struck straight at Chennai's keeper; the other was brilliantly intercepted by Bernard Mendy.

The impressive NorthEast keeper TP Rehenesh deals with a cross, and gets clattered

Lots of Chennai play was aimed at releasing India forward Jeje, who has 8 goals in 22 internationals. Compatriot TP Rehenesh, infringing on the 'sweeper keeper' role trademarked by Manuel Neuer, dealt with him impressively. The 21 year-old Kerala-born player was far more composed at the back than 2010 World Cup winner Joan Capdevila was playing in front of him, the latter wasting a good chance as he had done against Delhi, and giving away a cheap free-kick with a handball as the first half came to a close.

For the second half, Materazzi sent on Jayesh Rane and Cristian Hidalgo. Would former Barcelona youth team player Hidalgo bring some La Masia class to Chennaiyin in the second half?

Joan Capdevila got himself sent off for a second bookable offence with 20 minutes still to play. Perhaps with an Elano-type player on the pitch, Chennai could have used their advantage to get themselves back in the game. As it happened, although the final quarter was definitely more one-sided, the attacking play was disjointed, uninspired, error-prone, and dealt with by what was left of Rehenesh's defence. Former PSG and current Haiti striker Jean-Eudes Maurice was pretty much their only bright spark.

NorthEast United move up into fifth place. Chennaiyin, meanwhile, will be looking over their shoulders, as Luis Garcia and Atletico de Kolkata seek to make up ground at the top of the table.


En Avant Guingamp 1 - 2 Fiorentina

EAG hold a special place in my heart, being the weird Breton football team followed by my childhood French penpal, who once sent me these cards:

Not pictured: Premier League legends Didier Drogba and Stephane Guivarc'h

More European football tat

En Avant Guingamp are in the Europa League despite being a small club struggling in Ligue 1 this season. Their ground holds just over 18,000 people - meaning the entire town of Guingamp could fit in there, twice, and there'd still be space. They are in Europe because they won the French Cup last season, a feat they also managed in the 2008-09 season, which (trusting my memory here) was also the season when they briefly topped the French league, becoming the smallest town in history ever to do so. In recent years, as well as winning two French cups, their squad has boasted France strikers Fabrice Fiorese and Stephane Guivarc'h (famous for not really hitting it off at Newcastle), and Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Florence Malouda. They've also managed to spend time in the second and third tiers of French football, falling into the latter in 2010 after the Coupe de France win a season earlier.

Their current crop includes a loanee from the Premier League - Newcastle's Sylvain Marveaux. Fiorentina, meanwhile, have borrowed Micah Richards from Manchester City. Both were starting tonight. Fiorentina's side also included the very briefly England-based Marko Marin and Alberto Aquilani. EAG's most prominent charges, meanwhile, were Lionel Mathis, who would attempt to exert an influence in the middle of the park, and Sambou Yatabare, a lively Mali winger who joined on loan from Olympiakos at about the same time as his brother, Mustapha, left Cotes d'Armor for Trabzonspor.

One intriguing (in a nice way) thing about Italian club football this season is the relative dearth of shirt sponsors

Despite Fiorentina sitting 10th of 20 in Serie A and Guingamp lying 19th of 20 in the weaker Ligue 1, both teams have 4 league victories to their names in their domestic divisions this season. In a Europa League group completed by PAOK and Dinamo Minsk, one win separated the teams from Florence (10 points) and France (7 points), with PAOK another win further back, and Minsk winless.

The slight gaps between the two sides were stretched from the kick off. Marin and Senegal youth international Khouma Babacar (pictured above, blurrily) threatened to turn it into a gaping chasm, with two goals in 12 minutes.

Guingamp's fans encouraged their team to get back into the game

The game turned just before half-time, with Basanta sent off and conceding a penalty, which Beauvue converted

Beauvue was the most dangerous - and the most wasteful - man on the pitch

This man turned up at half-time for some reason

Born 28 years later, Michel Platini Mesquita must be ruing his namesake's transition into a bloated bureaucrat

Cuadrado and Savic (another former Manchester City defender) came on for Fiorentina in the second half, to help them re-establish their early dominance. Instead, it was Guingamp who were on the front foot.

The classic combination of a Yatabare cross and a header against the woodwork

Defender Christophe Kerbrat headed onto a Fiorentina arm from a corner, then struck his second chance just past the post; his appeals went unheeded by the referee.

Lionel Mathis works to increase his side's chances of being awarded a second penalty

Guingamp pushed hard for an equaliser, and they were unlucky not to get one. First, Yatabare headed against the bar from about two feet out; then, substitute Ronnie Schwartz was barged over from behind whilst steadying himself up to volley inside the area.

Can you see the hands on Ronnie Schwartz's back there?

Mathis was also still trying to rile the referee, throwing himself to the ground clutching his face after being on the receiving end of a shoulder charge. It was cheeky.

Guingamp looked quite likely to score throughout the second half, especially through inswinging crosses from the flanks. Twice-capped Guadelope striker Beauvue really should have scored; he didn't, though. Diallo did - but he was offside when when receiving Yatabare's cross. Shortly afterwards, Sylvain Marveaux limped off, with what looked like a thigh injury. Guingamp finished the evening still very much in the competition, and have every right to feel a bit hard done by. Had Beauvue and Yatabare been slightly more accurate, and had they had two penalties (and they could have had four), the outcome would have been very different.

Diallo (bottom left) is offside in the 90th minute

River Plate 1 - 0 Boca Juniors

A few days ago, I covered River Plate's rather tame capitulation at the hands of title rivals Racing Club in Avellaneda. That game saw Teo Gutierrez rested, as well as Leonardo Ponzio, Leonel Vangioni, and Gabriel Mercado. Oh, and Leonardo Pisculichi.

I thought that was a bit of a weird decision, given how tight it was at the top, with both sides having two more games to play this year. Marcelo Gallardo seemed pretty much to hand the title over, in a white package with a red ribbon on top.

It was obvious that this was done with an eye on this game, the second leg of a Copa Sudamericana semi-final, and a Superclasico to boot. Played at home, with River having the advantage thanks to holding Boca to a 0-0 draw at the Bombonera, this was clearly the priority, albeit the fecklessness of the team at Racing was still a bit odd, given that Los Millionarios had been on a best-ever run of 31 games unbeaten up until fairly recently.

That limp display would be forgiven if River could beat their biggest rivals at home tonight, and secure a spot in the two-legged final against Colombia's Atletico Nacional (who had beaten Sao Paulo on penalties the night before).

They got off to an awful start, conceding a penalty in the very first minute.

Luckily for the home side, Marcelo Barovero was on hand (literally), using his left to deny Emmanuel Gigliotti.

There were a lot of strong tackles

Barovero spilled this ball at the feet of Gigliotti, but smothered the second shot

El Monumental went crazy shortly afterwards

Pisculichi, left out at the weekend, gave the hosts a deserved early lead

Teo Gutierrez was doing his bit to calm things down, the avowed River fan seen here pushing his marker away

Boca captain, and former Real Madrid player, Fernando Gago was substituted before half-time

Gigliotti headed wide, under little pressure, and this pose and expression of disbelief sums up his first half

By the break, Gigliotti had managed to miss a penalty and have a goal chalked off for being offside. And River were leading.

However Rodolfo Arruabarena and Marcelo Gallardo had tried to convey the importance of a strong second half showing to their players in their changing rooms, both sides began it in an aggressive mood. There was extensive squabbling over where the ball should be before a free-kick, as well as a couple of minutes devoted to the treatment of Barovero after Gigliotti elbowed him in the ribs contesting a high ball, and a lot of other scrappy play. By and large, that play was confined to the Boca half, with Sanchez on the right almost finding Gutierrez in the middle on one occasion, and Daniel Diaz of Boca managing to find him and go through the backs of his legs on another a couple of minutes later. River legs were being hacked constantly, Boca frustrated by the home side's effective interceptions of hopeful and hopeless punts forward from defence. Pisculichi, Ponzio, Rojas and Sanchez were in control.

A common sight in the second half

Both Gigliotti and Gutierrez were snatching at half-chances - but Gutierrez was proving more effective, simply because his runs were stretching the defence, and providing River's midfielders with a constant outlet, whereas Gigliotti was playing with his back to goal, whilst standing, usually, a long way from it.

The running of Andres Chavez, introduced with a quarter of the game to go, lifted Boca a little. But each time a Boca runner broke past one River player, he was subsequently crowded out. The pressure was immense, and the blue shirts rarely threatened the 18 yard box. When River could, they attacked with pace; Sanchez had two excellent chances to seal the win, but blazed wide, and over.

I talked yesterday about Narayan Das, the left-back for FC Goa, and how he was the furthest man forward in the 94th minute, charging the goalkeeper down despite his team's 3-0 lead. In this game, Leonel Vangioni was generally quieter than Das, but in the 80th minute, he raised the temperature a bit by running almost the length of the pitch to try and create a second for River. A confident left-back is one who is still attacking at the end of the game, despite his team being in front.

Gallardo points to another legend of the diagonal stripe, Fernando Cavenaghi, who made a late cameo

Daniel Diaz sees red in the 95th minute for lashing out at Teo Gutierrez

River players celebrate a Monumental victory (whilst Boca players deal with a pitch invasion and riot police)