Prizes, predators, penalties aplenty
Fifa.com’s latest stats review, domestic triumphs for Juventus, Porto and Zenit St Petersburg feature alongside goalscoring landmarks from Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Antonio Di Natale, and an epic penalty shoot-out in Argentina.
One hundred Santos goals was the landmark reached, and then passed, by Neymar on Sunday as the youngster grabbed a hat-trick in his team’s 3-1 win at Sao Paulo in the Campeonato Paulista.
The in-form forward, who has scored ten times in his last eight Peixe appearances, moved on to 102 goals for the club and beyond the tally of Juary, a star in the 1970s whose trademark celebration Neymar mimicked after joining him on the 101- mark.
The Brazil international now needs just three more goals to become Santos’s most prolific goalscorer of the post-Pele era, an honour currently shared by Joao Paulo and Serginho Chulapa, both of whom scored 104 for the club.
Thirty-nine matches unbeaten in all competitions have enabled Juventus to set a new Italian record, surpassing Inter Milan’s tally of 38 from 2004/05. The Turin giants also became the first team in Serie A history to remain undefeated in the first 35 games of a 20-team campaign, and their 4-0 win at Novara gave them a fifth successive away clean sheet for the first time since 1979.
Elsewhere in Italy, there were landmarks for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who eclipsed his best-ever Serie A campaign with goal number 26 of the season, and for Antonio Di Natale, who scored the 200th league goal of his career.
Twenty-six penalty kicks were needed to settle an amazing shoot-out between Boca Juniors and Olimpo in the Copa Argentina last Wednesday.
The teams were locked at 1-1 after two hours of football, but it then took a further 20 minutes-plus for the outcome to be settled from the spot. Boca eventually won 11-10, although only after two players—Los Xeneizes’ Cristian Chavez and Olimpo’s Martin Rolle—each missed two penalties apiece during the most dramatic of climaxes.
Eight Portuguese titles in the space of 10 seasons have now been won by Porto after they clinched their latest crown on Sunday.
Os Dragoes secured the championship without playing thanks to Benfica’s 2-2 draw at Rio Ave, extending the Lisbon outfit’s winless away streak to six games—their worst run since October 2008.
The day before, Porto had won their fourth Liga match on the bounce, and notched up a fourth successive clean sheet, with a 2-0 win at Maritimo. Benfica will now be looking over their shoulders ever more anxiously too, as their Oporto rivals – with 26 Portuguese titles overall – edge ever closer to their record haul of 32.
Five successive seasons have now passed since the Russian Premier League trophy last went to Moscow, a run prolonged by Zenit St Petersburg retaining the championship on Saturday. It was Zenit’s third Russian title, all of which have been won over the past five years, and fourth overall, with the club having also become USSR’s champions as Zenit Leningrad in 1984.
Rubin Kazan’s back-to-back titles in 2008 and 2009 have assisted in keeping the trophy away from the capital, a remarkable change in the balance of power given that each of the previous 11 seasons had ended with a Muscovite club on top.
Zero fforts on target were mustered by Manchester United in Monday’s 1-0 defeat at Manchester City—the first time in almost three years that they haven’t troubled a Premier League goalkeeper.
Not since a goalless draw at home to Arsenal on 16 May 2009 have Sir Alex Ferguson’s side failed to register a single shot on target in the top flight and, ironically, that point gleaned from that particular stalemate was sufficient to secure the championship.
On Monday, by contrast, it was City who moved into pole position in the title race, albeit only just, with goal difference set to decide the destination of the English crown for the first time since Arsenal pipped Liverpool in 1988/89.
Vincent Kompany’s match-winning goal ended a run of over six hours without scoring at home to United in the Premier League, and was City’s 14th of the season from corners—the highest in the division.
The Belgian’s header also ensured that Roberto Mancini’s side, with 17 wins and one draw, will finish the season with the league’s best home record, and in each of the last nine seasons the side with that distinction has ended the season on top.—Fifa.com
