Decisive matches in the Champions League, Gold Cup, UEFA Euro Under-21s, and a surprise runaway leader in Brazil!
Just over a fortnight later and we are already back with UEFA Champions League action! Whilst we are at the earliest stage possible, the height of drama will be the same, just as it will as we go deeper into the group stage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, with some surprise results allowing some tiny nations the opportunity to reach the knockout stages! That has already been the case in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, some of the biggest underdogs in the tournament have reached the knockout rounds and are only one game from a history-making Semi-Final appearance. As for league action, we have a team racing ahead in 1st in the Brasileiro Série A who are desperate to get their hands on the trophy for the first time in 28 years. There’s a long way to go, however, with plenty of drama along the way!
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Contents:
- UEFA Champions League – Preliminary Round Final – Budućnost Podgorica vs Breiðablik
- 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup – Martinique vs Panama
- 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship – Quarterfinal – Georgia U21 vs Israel U21
- 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship – Quarterfinal – France U21 vs Ukraine U21
- Brasileiro Série A – Botafogo vs Vasco da Gama
UEFA Champions League – Preliminary Round Final – Budućnost Podgorica vs Breiðablik
It was only 17 days after the Final of the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League before we were met with the new season of Europe’s greatest competition! Starting at the very beginning here, the Preliminary Round sees a mini-tournament of 4 teams from nations of the 4 lowest UCL coefficients face off to see which club can make it through to the official Qualifying rounds. We are far from heights of silverware, but making it through this round will mean so much to one team, and we are guaranteed drama!
San Marino are last in the Champions League coefficients, followed by Andorra, Montenegro and then Iceland. Because Iceland are the highest ranked out of these 4, it has come as a great advantage to Breiðablik, as this whole mini-tournament takes place in their home stadium of Kópavogsvöllur, in Kópavogur. Such an advantage has, unsurprisingly, benefited the Icelandic club greatly with a thumping 7-1 victory on their own turf against Tre Penne, booking them a place in the Final here. They saw fellow compatriots Víkingur Reykjavík succeed in the Preliminary Round last year, and now it’s up to Blikar to follow in their footsteps.
Budućnost Podgorica won’t be used to featuring in such an early round of the Champions League, performances from Montenegrin clubs have been lacking in recent years which has resulted in the nation dropping into the bottom 4 of the UCL coefficient ranking, thus seeing them perform here in the Preliminary Round. Budućnost, just like Breiðablik, failed to qualify last year having finished runners-up in their respective domestic leagues, but arriving here now as reigning champions in their country one year later brings with it the reward of UCL football. The Plavo-bijeli themselves had a convincing Semi-Final victory, a 3-0 triumph against Andorra’s Atlètic d’Escaldes, but will it be they or Breiðablik to win this Final and reach the Qualifying rounds?
2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup – Martinique vs Panama
A team not even recognised by FIFA has been given their time to shine by CONCACAF in the Gold Cup. Martinique know that victory here against Panama would guarantee them qualification to the knockout rounds with one group game to spare. It’s a fantastic position for the French overseas island to be in, so often they suffer dismal results in the Gold Cup with 5-straight group stage exits, mixed in with some failures to qualify altogether. Martinique’s best ever finish in this tournament came 21 years ago in the 2002 edition where they reached the Quarterfinals and, if they are to progress through the groups this time, they will instantly match their best ever finish. A 2-1 victory in their first game against El Salvador was mightily impressive, the only downside being that key defender Jonathan Rivierez (one of many Martinique players to play in France at club level) received a red card and will thus be absent from this match. How will they fare without him?
It was a 2-1 scoreline that Panama celebrated in their opening game as well, and what a vital win it was. It came against Costa Rica, the other big team in Group C, and victory for Panama sees them top of the group with the theoretically ‘weaker’ teams in Martinique and El Salvador to come. The statistics prove why Panama should be confident ahead of this match against Martinique, not only have los Canaleros been unbeaten in the only 4 previous meetings against this opponent (won 3, drawn 1), they’ve also NEVER conceded a goal, scoring 9 themselves in the process. This is a nation that qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and so nearly qualified again in 2022, they’re ranked as the 5th-best nation in CONCACAF and have reached the knockout stages of the Gold Cup in 8 of their last 9 appearances in this tournament. They may have some unconvincing form going into this (won 3, drawn 4, lost 4 of their last 11 games in all competitions), but this is a match that they’ll expect to win. There’s always the chance of a shock, however!
2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship – Quarterfinal – Georgia U21 vs Israel U21
Arguably the two biggest underdogs prior to the beginning of the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Georgia and Israel, have both made it out of their groups! Facing off together here in the Quarterfinal guarantees that one of these fairy tale runs will continue into the Semi-Final and then, who knows, could one of them really go all the way? Based on their group performances, it’s certainly possible!
Georgia defied every prediction ahead of this tournament. In a group of death of Portugal, Netherlands AND Belgium, the Jvarosnebi finished in 1st position! Even more impressive is that they remained unbeaten throughout, undeterred by the strong arsenal of the European powerhouses in their group by winning against Portugal, and drawing against Belgium and Netherlands, the latter of which came in their last group game to secure their progression. This is Georgia’s first ever appearance at the European Under-21 Championship, only by virtue of co-hosting the competition (alongside Romania), and having home advantage in all of their games so far has been a major component in their success. They broke the record once again for the highest attendance in a European Under-21 game, 43,004 spectators present in their draw against the Netherlands, but you can only imagine the record will once again be broken when they face up to Israel in the Quarterfinal.
Although this isn’t Israel’s first appearance in this competition, they have NEVER previously reached the Quarterfinal stage, so this is also a momentous achievement for Guy Luzon’s men. Their group was far from easy, either, playing against England, Czech Republic and Germany and yet the Young Chosen Team managed to creep into the Top 2 thanks to a late winner in a 1-0 victory against the Czech Republic. The win came at the perfect time not only to get them into the knockout stages, but also to end a rather unwanted run of 6 winless matches. Now with a slightly better record of 1 win in 7 (drawn 3, lost 3), Israel go in search of trying to win back-to-back games when it matters most, and aim to reach the Semis. Coincidentally, the last time that Israel won 2 games in a row, 1 of them came against… Georgia!
Neither of these teams have previously reached the Semi-Finals of the European Under-21 Championship, but one will make history here. Who will it be?
2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship – Quarterfinal – France U21 vs Ukraine U21
These two nations are certainly no strangers to facing each other. In the qualification phase for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, both France and Ukraine were in the same group and both, by finishing 1st and 2nd respectively, succeeded in reaching the tournament this summer. As for the group stage of the finals, both nations performed brilliantly and can each boast an ongoing unbeaten run. One will have to end here!
France were only one of two teams (also England) to finish the group stage with 3 wins out of 3, blitzing through an opposition of Italy, Norway and Switzerland and ending as the nation to score the most goals out of any other team in the group stage (7 goals). The goals have been spread out too, 6 different goalscorers is the highest amount from any competing nation here. Such domination is not unheard of for les Bleuets, Sylvain Ripoll’s men also finished unbeaten in the qualification for this tournament (won 8, drawn 2), in a group that included Ukraine with one of those victories coming in a resounding 5-0 triumph against this opponent. They go in search of their first European Under-21 Championship since 1988, a surprising drought which included never qualifying for the tournament between 2007 and 2017. With Semi-Final and Quarterfinal appearances since then, the French will want to go all the way this time.
Ukraine also ended their group unbeaten (Spain, Croatia, Romania) and were mightily unfortunate not to end their group with 3 wins from 3 to match France. The Ukrainians were beating Spain but ultimately drew 2-2 thanks to a 90th minute Spanish equaliser. Nevertheless, it was a great performance to complement what was an impressive qualification phase (won 7, drawn 2, lost 1), that only defeat coming against France. In the return fixture, Ukraine drew 3-3 against the French in a six-goal thriller so, whilst Ruslan Rotan’s men didn’t manage to win against France, 11 goals from the two games combined should mean this is an exciting goalfest for the neutral! Prior to the 2023 edition, Ukraine had only qualified for two prior European Under-21 Championships (2006, 2011), runners-up in 2006 and a group stage elimination in 2011, but the squad selected by Rotan suggests that he wants to go all the way for the trophy here and go one step further than their achievement 17 years ago. After all, they’ve included the €100 Million man in their team, Chelsea’s winger Mykhailo Mudryk! Can he inspire a victory against the French?
Brasileiro Série A – Botafogo vs Vasco da Gama
The Brasileirão has always been praised for its unpredictability, we’ve seen 4 different champions in the last 6 years and, every now and then, we see some titans suffer a shock relegation. There are never any guarantees in Brazil’s top-flight, and we may have another surprise here with Botafogo flying away in 1st position!
Botafogo have only been crowned Brasileirão champions twice in their 118-year history (1968, 1995), and this is arguably their best ever chance to make it three times. Whilst we still have a long way to go (only 12 games have been played), Botafogo are already on 30 points and, even more incredibly, are 7 POINTS clear of 2nd place (recently promoted Grêmio) at this very early stage! Botafogo have won 10 of their 12 games, 3 more than any other team in the division, and their success has been largely thanks to a near watertight defence: the Fogo have only conceded 7 goals, the lowest amount from any team! The most sensational aspect of this is that they’ve won 7 of their last 9 games (lost the other 2) and, in ALL of those 7 victories, they have ALWAYS kept a clean sheet! The highlight of this came in their most recent game, beating the reigning champions Palmeiras away from home, meaning that they have already won against all of the last 8 Brazilian champions within this season. That’s a hallmark for a champion!
Vasco da Gama have won twice as many Brasileirão titles as Botafogo (4 to their name), 2 of them coming more recently than Botafogo’s last one (1997, 2000), but the Cruzmaltino are a long way from making this season their 5th Brazilian league title. In fact, their priorities will be on the direct opposite, avoiding relegation: Vasco da Gama currently sit inside the drop zone (18th, 9 points) in their first season back in the top-flight following promotion from the Série B last year. This season got off to the perfect start with a 2-1 victory against 2021 champions Atlético Mineiro, but they likely could never have predicted what would follow: 10 games without a win with the 6 most recent of those all ending in defeat. Thankfully for the Vascaínos, this dreadful spell came to an end in the last match thanks to a 1-0 victory against Cuiabá, meaning their only victories this season have come on the first matchday, and the most recent. Will this victory be the turning point in the season and help them get up the table?