The Weekly Take, Issue 390: Two Words: "Epic Fail"

One of the highlights of the fifth matchday of this season's league phase of the Champions League was the match between Chelsea and Barcelona. Whichever team would emerge victorious would claim a major advantage in the race for a top-eight finish and thus direct qualification for the round of 16.

Although this match was expected to have been a closely-fought clash, it ended up being anything but. Chelsea had absolutely no difficulty in beating Barça 3-0 and not only that; the margin of victory didn't even reflect how dominant Chelsea truly were.

Within the first 21 minutes of the match, Chelsea had two goals disallowed; both would have been scored by Enzo Fernández. The first of these was denied by referee Slavko Vinčić following a handball by Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana in the build-up while the second had Trevor Chalobah in an offside position. Nevertheless, by this point it seemed inevitable that the London club would soon score the opening goal - and this happened just six minutes after the second disallowed goal; it was actually an own goal scored by Barça full-back Jules Koundé. Right before half-time, Barça were reduced to 10 men after Ronald Araújo's second yellow card.

Shortly after the interval, Chelsea had a goal chalked off for the third time after an offside in the build-up to what would've been a goal scored by Andrey Santos. Four minutes later, though, Chelsea did indeed score their second after Reece James set up Estêvão who forced his way through the Blaugrana defense into the penalty area before firing into the roof of the net.

Liam Delap scored Chelsea's third in the 79th minute, ensuring that the Blues would have the inside track for a spot in the top eight with just three league phase matchdays yet to be played. Although no one is really considering Chelsea as one of the favorites to win the Champions League, a performance like this proves that when everything is clicking, they can give anyone a tough time.

Barça, on the other hand, had absolutely no answer whatsoever for Chelsea. Tactically speaking, Barça manager Hansi Flick was completely outmaneuvered by his Chelsea counterpart Enzo Maresca. Barça's high line was easily kept in check by Chelsea's constant pressing which led to many opportunities for important passes to be played behind that high line; this was the direct cause of Chelsea's second and third goals.

While it may be a cliché to say that a certain team "just wanted it more", it's definitely reasonable to say this about Chelsea. Throughout the match, most of Barça's players weren't bringing the intensity and effort that Chelsea's were. It's no surprise that Chelsea players won most of their one-on-one duels and recovered far more loose balls; additionally, Barça's midfield trio struggled to keep up with their opposite numbers' tempo, causing many of their runs to be prematurely cut off and thus preventing the creation of goalscoring chances.

This was by far Barça's worst performance of the season to date with the Catalan club committing error upon error. The Blaugrana played several tiers below their usual level - like a team that clearly didn't seem to belong in the Champions League. In particular, Fermín López, Alejandro Balder, and Araújo deserve the most criticism for Barça's crushing defeat.

This result doesn't just put Barça in a much more difficult spot with regard to round of 16 qualification; it also gives a glimmer of hope to other teams which will notice that when they're not firing on all cylinders, Barça's low points are much lower than many, if not all, of the other teams seen as leading Champions League title contenders. Part of what it takes to be a bona fide title contender is having the ability and grit to gut out results even when things aren't really clicking. A capitulation like what Barça had against Chelsea is the exact opposite of that.

Of course, a team of Barcelona's level are unlikely to have many more, if any at all, performances over the rest of this season that are quite this bad. However, a loss like that reveals a level of vulnerability that calls into question whether they really do have what it takes to bring the Champions League trophy back to Catalonia for the first time since the 2014-15 season.

The Weekly Take, Issue 389: An Opportunity Claimed - But Also One Lost

The biggest story regarding VfB Stuttgart this past off-season wasn't a player acquisition, but a player departure. Following the departure of Alexander Isak from Newcastle United to Liverpool, Newcastle proceeded to replace the Swedish striker by signing Nick Woltemade from Stuttgart. The exact transfer fee wasn't disclosed; that said, it was estimated to clock in at around €75 million.

Woltemade's departure, however, doesn't seem to have impacted Stuttgart all that heavily. Approximately a third of the way into the Bundesliga season, Stuttgart are firmly in contention for a top-four spot and a place in next season's Champions League. Despite not managing to leave their away match against Borussia Dortmund with a win, their 3-3 draw nevertheless made a dent in their opponent's own push for a Champions League spot.

At half-time, though, it seemed unlikely that Stuttgart would avoid defeat given that Dortmund brought a 2-0 lead into the break. Emre Can converted a penalty before Maximilian Beier added Dortmund's second just seven minutes later to put the Schwarzgelbe in a commanding position going into the interval. The scoreline was generally reflective of Dortmund's level of control over the match throughout the first half.

None of this would last as the second half would turn out to be completely different. Denis Undav, who surrendered the penalty which led to Dortmund's opening goal, would go on to atone for it and then some. To start things off, less than two minutes after the break, Undav scored with a spectacular finish with the back of his foot and facing away from goal. Undav would then score his and his team's second in the 71st minute after Maximilian Mittelstädt's header landed in just the right spot for Undav to volley it in.

On multiple occasions this season, Dortmund have surrendered cheap points from an advantageous position. It seemed as though this would once again be the case - at least until substitute Karim Adeyemi put Dortmund 3-2 up in the 89th minute. Once again, though, this didn't last as Undav had the final say with a stoppage-time equalizer after having been assisted by Chris Führich.

Having lost to RB Leipzig three weeks ago, it was important for Stuttgart to once again avoid defeat against another direct rival for Champions League qualification - especially as this match comes in a particularly brutal portion of their schedule. In an ongoing eight-match span, Stuttgart had or have fixtures against Leipzig, Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, and Eintracht Frankfurt.

All three of Stuttgart's goals to some extent involved a build-up coming from out wide. This has been one of their main strengths throughout this season, and they once again leveraged it to claw their way back from two goals behind. It's something which Stuttgart are likely to have to depend upon often if they are to make a serious push for a return to the Champions League after finishing ninth in the league last season and missing out on this season's edition.

Also, with this result, Dortmund have now been unable to beat Stuttgart even once in their last six matches in all competitions. This is also a major point in Stuttgart's favour; the fact that they've clearly gotten into one of their direct rival's heads is a major deal. For that reason, they can feasibly be expected to finish the return fixture in April with all three points in hand - especially crucial given how late in the season it would be.

That being said, it must also be noted that Stuttgart's draw against Dortmund could easily have been a win. Both of the two first-half goals which Stuttgart conceded were avoidable. Undav's foul on Nico Schlotterbeck in the penalty area was an obvious unforced error while Beier's goal wouldn't have been made possible without some very questionable defense on Stuttgart's part. As much as Stuttgart can say that they earned a point against Dortmund, they equally lost two due to errors like those - and such errors, if committed too frequently, would ruin any chance they have of making it to next season's Champions League.

It's still far too early to say if VfB Stuttgart will finish the season in the top four, but based on what was shown in this most recent match as well as throughout the season, they'll almost certainly at least be in contention down the final stretch.

The Weekly Take, Issue 388: Three in a Row?

Ever since winning the World Cup for the fourth time in 2006, Italy's tournament record has been utterly disastrous. In the four tournaments since then, the Azzurri were knocked out in the group stage in 2010 and 2014 before failing to qualify for the tournament in 2018 and 2022 - missing back-to-back tournaments for the first time ever.

With the 2026 World Cup approaching and the group stage of the European World Cup qualifiers drawing to a close, there's a very real chance that Italy might fail to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup after missing out on first place in Group I and thus direct qualification for next year's showpiece in North America after a one-sided 4-1 loss against Norway.

Italy actually opened the scoring in the 11th minute after an error from Norwegian full-back Julian Ryerson put Federico Dimarco in position to set up his Inter Milan teammate Francesco Pio Esposito. Esposito duly finished off the chance to put Italy a goal ahead; however, that would be as far as the home side would get.

In the second half, Norway put the match to rest with an avalanche of goals. It started with winger Antonio Nusa's equalizer in the 63rd minute before - just as everyone expected - Erling Haaland took over. The Manchester City superstar proceeded to leave absolutely no doubt about the result with two goals in a one-minute span to clinch Norway's World Cup qualification. A stoppage-time goal scored by substitute Jørgen Strand Larsen added the exclamation point to the victory.

For Norway, the victory meant that they would advance to the World Cup for the first time since 1998 and only the fourth time in the country's history. As for Italy, they will now have to wait to find out who their opponents will be in the upcoming playoff rounds which will decide the last teams to secure World Cup qualification - and the way things are going, it wouldn't even be surprising to see them once again miss out.

As of right now, most of the teams who would find themselves in the playoffs would fancy their chances against an Italy team who made heavy weather of what should've been a relatively easy set of opponents in the group stage. It also needs to be kept in mind that Italy are likely to have something of a mental block by this point as it was in the playoffs where Italy were eliminated in both of the last two World Cup qualification campaigns - by Sweden for the 2018 World Cup and by North Macedonia for 2022.

The mid-campaign decision to fire previous head coach Luciano Spalletti and replace him with Gennaro Gattuso has now gone exactly how the naysayers expected it to. Despite winning all his prior matches at the helm, Gattuso had barely faced any true competition as all of those were against vastly inferior sides. Against Norway, however, Gattuso's Italy team were completely outclassed in every way. As he has been multiple times over the course of his coaching career, Gattuso looked completely out of his depth. It's certainly possible that if he isn't replaced before the playoffs in March, Italy won't make it to the World Cup once again.

The entire team looked disjointed and out of sync. Many of Norway's main goalscoring opportunities, including one of their goals, came as the result of a misplay on the part of the Italian defense. Up front, Italy had multiple significant chances to extend the lead in the first half following Esposito's opening goal with wingers Dimarco and Matteo Politano being the main culprits.

With the exception of Euro 2012 and 2020, Italy have seen almost no success since winning the World Cup almost two decades ago. Even if they somehow make it through the upcoming playoff round, it's a near-certainty that they will be knocked out of the World Cup in the opening round - an outcome which would extend their streak of failing to advance from the opening round to at least 24 years. That's a figure which would've seemed unthinkable when Fabio Cannavaro hoisted the trophy at the Olympiastadion back in 2006.

The Italian national team today is a mere shadow of their glory days - and this latest result further drives this point across. The road ahead doesn't look the least bit promising.

The Weekly Take, Issue 387: The Slump Ends Here

Much has been made about Liverpool's recent slump, especially in light of the fact that the Merseyside club spent an enormous amount of money on multiple splashy new signings in the off-season transfer window - so much so that some even began hailing the Reds' off-season as "the greatest transfer window of all time". However, the exact opposite has proven to be the case so far with high-profile acquisitions such as Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak performing nowhere near the level at which they were expected to.

Given their recent lack of form, most people were expecting Liverpool to be soundly beaten in their Champions League match against Real Madrid. However, to the surprise of almost everyone, Liverpool emerged with the win to keep them firmly in contention to finish in the top eight of the league phase and thus earn direct qualification to the last 16.

Although the match finished 1-0 via a goal scored by Alexis Mac Allister, the match itself was more one-sided than the scoreline might indicate. For the first time in quite a while, Liverpool looked like the team which dominated last season's Premier League and clinched the domestic title by 10 points. Such was the multitude of viable goalscoring chances that Liverpool created that Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was selected as man of the match for keeping the final margin of victory to one goal.

From a tactical perspective, Liverpool manager Arne Slot absolutely nailed it. His strategy of prioritizing the denial of Real's players the opportunity to take advantage of open space in the final third. In particular, the Liverpool de fense's focus on Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé did much to neutralize the threat that both players posed via their impressive speed.

In addition, Liverpool's 4-3-3 formation in which Wirtz started on the left wing but frequently rotated towards the centre, allowing Liverpool to have more options down the left. This also enabled Liverpool to stretch Real's defense across the field, allowing for more goalscoring chances to be set up. If not for Courtois' excellence between the goalposts, this match wouldn't even have been remotely close. Liverpool might very well be back.

It might also be worth asking at this point: are Liverpool actually better without Alexander Isak than with him? Liverpool's signing of the Swedish centre-forward was without any question the highlight of the off-season transfer window; it was a story that dominated the headlines for months before right at the end of the window, Liverpool finally landed Isak from Newcastle United for £125 million, making Isak the most expensive signing in Premier League history.

However, since then Isak has gone on to do basically nothing as a Liverpool player. He has been absolutely nowhere near the player who dominated the Premier League over the last two seasons and has often been a liability to Liverpool. Isak's struggles have extended to the international scene as well; his dismal level of play is one of the chief reasons why Sweden have stunningly failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. In fact, it might not even be a coincidence that Liverpool's recent uptick in form has come while Isak has been sidelined with a groin injury. It's much too early to come to a snap judgment, but there's a possibility that Isak could end up being an expensive mistake on Liverpool's part.

Despite their recent losing streak, Liverpool are still firmly in title contention both domestically and in the Champions League. There's still more than enough time for Liverpool to overhaul their seven-point deficit by which they trail league leaders Arsenal - and considering Arsenal's recent history of consistently failing to deliver down the stretch, Liverpool certainly can't be counted out yet. Similarly, in the Champions League they're still in the top eight and are thus likely to be paired against a comparatively easier opponent in the round of 16.

While it isn't quite yet safe to say that Liverpool have fixed all or even most of the issues leading to their recent slump, the fact that they just scored a major win against a leading Champions League contender says a lot. If Liverpool do go on to win at least one title this season, this match could very well be looked back on as the turning point of their 2025-26 campaign.

The Weekly Take, Issue 386: 15 in a Row With No End in Sight

Even after just nine of the Bundesliga season's 34 matchdays, it's all but certain that Bayern Munich will - as they almost always do - win the league by a huge margin; their only true competition will come in the Champions League. The Bavarian club's superiority over all other teams in Germany was made obvious once again during the most recent Bundesliga matchday which saw Bayern claim their 15th straight win across all competitions by beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-0.

Although Bayern were facing off against a team which in theory would have been one of their closest competitors for the league title, the word "closest" is relative in this case because, as many might have expected, Leverkusen weren't even close. Bayern dominated this match right from the jump with all three goals coming in the first half; the first two were scored by Serge Gnabry and Nicolas Jackson respectively. Just to rub it in even more for Leverkusen, Bayern's third goal was an own goal by way of French centre-back Loïc Badé.

Although Leverkusen entered this match in the midst of a relative hot streak, this match served as evidence of the chasm between Bayern and the rest of the league. As mentioned earlier, this was Bayern's 15th win in a row; they haven't even drawn, let alone lost, even one match so far this season.

One aspect of Bayern's victory over Leverkusen which undoubtedly raised much attention was the fact that they did it without many of their most important players. Not selected as part of the starting 11 at the Allianz Arena were players such as Dayot Upamecano, Luis Díaz, Michael Olise, and most notably of all: Harry Kane - the Bundesliga's leading goalscorer and arguably the best player in the world right now. Vincent Kompany went with a slightly understrength line-up to face a team which will be in contention for Champions League qualification - and that team absolutely took Leverkusen to the woodshed.

Of course, Bayern's next match will be a significantly more difficult one - they'll be on the road at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. While it's certainly possible that Bayern's win streak ends at the hands of the Champions League's reigning champions, even that isn't all that likely given the molten-hot form that Bayern are in. There's no question that Bayern are the best team in the world at the moment.

The club record for consecutive wins is 23; this was achieved back in the 2019-20 season. Remarkably, it isn't even out of the question that this current Bayern squad could match or even surpass that number. If Bayern pick up wins in their next two Champions League matches against PSG and Arsenal, there's every chance that they could get to 24 as no other team up until that point seems to pose a serious threat to the streak except maybe VfB Stuttgart in the league - and even that's highly questionable due to not only Bayern's superiority over the rest of the Bundesliga, but also the fact that Bayern have such a psychological hold over those teams that even at their absolute best, the teams closest to Bayern often don't actually believe that they can beat Bayern.

Apart from Díaz, Bayern didn't really make any major acquisitions in the off-season - but as it's turned out, they didn't need to. Many of the players from the 2024-25 squad have improved significantly - and this from a team that won the league by 13 points. The tactical tweaks which Kompany has implemented, most notably a shift to a pseudo 3-2-5 or 2-2-6 formation when attacking, have further elevated the level of this Bayern team.

While it's of course possible that at some point down the line the wheels might start to come off, that doesn't look like it'll happen any time soon given the way Bayern are playing. There's every chance that Bayern will finish the season with a Treble and thus their seventh Champions League title in club history which would tie them with AC Milan for second all-time.

Stopping Bayern Munich will be a tall order indeed - they are absolutely locked in right now to the point that their current win streak feels more like a waypoint than it does to being anywhere near what it'll end up as.