In the buffer weekend between Champions League matchdays, some of the top teams across Europe returned to a sobering reality in their domestic completions, while other gear up for their big showdowns.
Tottenham did not quite follow up with their highly-praised Juventus visit, while Chelsea and Barcelona enjoyed victorious sparring sessions ahead of their clash.
Recap the weekend across Europe’s elite in the latest edition of 90 Minutes’ Top Five.
1. Gaining momentum
After all the doom and gloom stemming from their recent run of form, Chelsea seem to be turning their fortune around, and doing so at a key point of their season.
On Friday, the Blues, featuring mostly bench players, put forth quite the impressive performance in a 4-0 thrashing of Hull City in FA Cup action. This victory follows Monday’s much-needed win over West Brom at Stanford Bridge after bad losses to Watford and Bournemouth.
Chelsea revival comes at the most crucial of their lackluster season, with a murderer’s row of matches coming up within the next two weeks. It starts this Tuesday, when they host Barcelona in Champions League action, followed by a visit to Old Trafford to face Manchester United, and ending at Etihad Stadium against Manchester City.
Beyond the actual results, it was important for Antonio Conte and his men simply to win again and relieve some the mounting pressure. To say their upcoming schedule it grueling is an understatement, especially because…
2. Onto the next
…Barcelona is entering their Champions League week fresh off a bounce-back victory of their own, and carrying momentum basically since the start of the season.
The La Liga leaders earned a tough 2-0 away win against Eibar, putting forth a less-than-impressive performance, but making club history in the process.
With the win, this Barcelona side has equaled the record for most consecutive La Liga matches without a loss -31- set by Pep Guardiola’s team in the 2010-2011 season.
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What the Eibar matchup allowed Barcelona is a tough challenge ahead of the visit to Stamford Bridge, where Ernesto Valverde and his team can expect a similar defensive stronghold, but obviously at a higher level.
Valvered did not reserve anything. He played Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta, and all important pieces to his puzzle despite the short turnaround.
Question about fatigue arose after the two consecutive league draws with Espanyol and Getafe. Tuesday will tell the real tale of how Valverde and Barcelona are handling their success across all competitions.
3. The reality of home
The world sang Tottenham’s praises after a 2-2 draw at Juventus in Champions League.
Five days later, Spurs got another 2-2 draw on the road, but no one is singing any praises this time around.
Tottenham followed the impressive visit to Italy with another blunder on English soil, as third-tier side Rochdale spoiled what seemed like a tight victory in Sunday’s FA Cup clash, forcing Spurs into another cup replay.
Granted, Mauricio Pochettino sent out a lineup up that featured none of the 11 players from the Juventus match, but it does not spare them the criticism of failing to put away a much weaker opponent in a single-elimination scenario with the second-line players.
Pochettino found himself trailing for most of the match, forcing him to send out Harry Kane and Dele Alli to save the day -and they almost did-, until Steven Davies’ heroic equalizer that sent the home crowd at Spotland Stadium into a frenzy.
Tottenham is playing with fire by failing to win these cup matches, which are creating even more fixtures to be added to an already stacked schedule. The question of quality depth is, again, creeping its ugly head, since it is the depth players who have struggled with teams like Newport, Rochdale, Barnsely and West Ham (the latter two in the Carabao Cup).
4. Wonder Under
Roma are in the midst of one their customary roller coaster seasons, in the dawn of their latest new era under renowned sporting director Monchi and upstart manager Eusebio Di Francesco.
During this latest positive results streak, one unknown name has emerged as an unlikely catalyst: Cengiz Ünder.
Ünder is a 20-year-old left-footed right winger from Turkey. He developed professionally at Bucaspor and Altinordu in his native country before joining İstanbul Başakşehir in 2016. Last season, he broke out as one of the best players of the Turkish Super Lig, scoring seven goals in 32 appearances. It was enough to get the attention of the Turkish national team manager Fatih Terim, who gave him his first international caps in 2017, and later of Roma, who paid 13.4 million euros for him last summer.
Up until late January, Ünder had only started five matches between league and cup play, making minimal impact for the Giallorossi.
Since the February 4 win against Verona, Ünder has led Roma to three straight wins, scoring four goals and one assist, at a time when his side is battling to stay in Champions League spots.
In this rebuild of sorts going on, Roma may have found one of their building blocks.
5. Flyin’ Giaccherini
Emanuele Giaccheirni’s career has been on a tailspin since being one of Italy’s young prospects at the turn of the decade, resulting in extremely low minute counts the last couple of seasons at Napoli.
But the 32-year-old did make his presence felt this weekend, scoring the goal of the weekend, a masterpiece curler of a free kick in Chievo’s 2-1 win against Cagliari.