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This time last year, Bayer Leverkusen’s 39-match unbeaten streak across all competitions and almost supernatural propensity for pulling late, late equalising and winning goals out of das collective hinterteil was the talk of Europe. With the end of the season hoving into view, Football Daily certainly wasn’t alone in wondering if Xabi Alonso’s side could go an entire season without losing a single game, while the young Basque in charge of them was being linked with Real Madrid, Liverpool and perhaps even a late run at the White House despite being just two years into his senior managerial career. While Leverkusen went on to secure a domestic double without tasting defeat, they ultimately came up short by being soundly beaten in the final of Bigger Vase, where Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman took a sledgehammer to their long unbeaten run, which lasted 51 matches, in the Italian club’s 3-0 win. It was the penultimate game of the German side’s season, and the only one they failed to win or draw.
There was definitely a message to the players and it was as simple as it has always been: don’t accept being outworked by a team, which we were against Newcastle. If the stakes are so high, that is almost unacceptable” – Liverpool boss Arne Slot warns his team to get back on the gas in Wednesday night’s Merseyside derby.
Congratulations to Ryan Yates on providing (by his own admission) the most useless assist since Héctor Enrique set up Diego Maradona’s goal-of-the-century at the Azteca Stadium in 1986 with a hospital pass. The Forest man really must work on his soundbites though; his ‘I headed it in the six-yard box’ is humorous, but lacks the mischievous insouciance of the Argentinian’s great post-match comment that ‘with a pass like that he could hardly miss’” – Justin Kavanagh.
I am not someone who raises a great hue and cry over the language differences between American and British English. Our friends in the UK are more than welcome to take a lift from the ground floor rather than an elevator from the first. However, learning from yesterday’s Football Daily (News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) that the UK has taken the term for the sacred American tradition of consuming excessive amounts of meat and alcohol before a game and turned it into a ...
