Upsets

When Bolton Wanderers and Salford City faced off in a League Two tussle on the outskirts of Manchester on Friday, the match featured two sides that had converged on the lowest level of the English Football League. It was a match over a decade in the making as the sides were once eight divisions apart in English football. 

During the 2007-08 season, Bolton was a Premier League club and featured in the Europa League, while Salford played in the North West Counties League Division One, the country's ninth tier.

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said his side could not hide behind the referee's decisions or their injury and illness woes after they stumbled to a 4-1 defeat at Valencia on Sunday.

Real conceded three penalties for the first time in their history, all of which were scored by Valencia's Carlos Soler, while Raphael Varane also scored an own goal, after Karim Benzema had given the champions the lead.

Lazio substitute Felipe Caicedo scored in stoppage-time for the second week running to earn his side a 1-1 draw at home to Juventus in Serie A on Sunday after Cristiano Ronaldo had given the champions a first-half lead.

The Ecuadorean, who grabbed a 98th-minute winner at Torino last weekend and notched a late equalizer in Wednesday's 1-1 draw at Zenit, leveled in the 94th minute to end Juve's resistance after Lazio had dominated the second half.

With Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw playing the roles of marauding fullbacks, Axel Tuanzebe the false center back, Bruno Fernandes the floating No. 10, Donny van de Beek the floating No. 8 and Juan Mata and Nemanja Matić the taxidermied zebras, Manchester United produced the sort of display that makes you wonder why Mauricio Pochettino is still out of a job on Wednesday.

We’ve got a new leader in rowdy UEFA Champions League Group B, and Real Madrid and Inter Milan should really just be thankful that Borussia Mönchengladbach isn’t dashing off into the sunset at this point.

After drawing 2-2 with both Real and Inter by way of conceding 90th-minute equalizers, Gladbach travelled to Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday in a violent mood inspired by French forward Alassane Pléa.

Champions League Group B was an easy one to predict with LaLiga champion Real Madrid and Serie A runner-up Inter Milan joined by the difficult-to-spell sides of Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Mönchengladbach, but we’re two match days in and both Real and Inter have yet to win.

It’s not getting any better than this for 19-year-old goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin and Shakhtar Donetsk — or is it?

Last Wednesday, Shakhtar travelled to the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano and pulled off an incredible 3-2 upset of 13-time European champion Real Madrid despite missing 10 players through a combination of injury and pandemic. That match marked a Champions League debut for Trubin, who recorded three saves.  

It’s not the Santiago Bernabéu, but nobody goes to the home of Real Madrid (temporarily Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano) and puts three past the 13-time European champions INSIDE 42 MINUTES!

After losing 1-0 to Cádiz last Saturday, many predicted a performance of pure vengeance from Los Blancos in the Champions League — a feeling that was amplified by the fact that Shakhtar’s starting lineup was rocked by a combination of injury and illness, including a positive coronavirus test for star forward Júnior Moraes.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on both of us. Questions are being asked of defenses around the Premier League right now, but Tottenham is firmly at the root of the inquisition.