The Premier League is not the last of Europe's biggest leagues to return, but they are coming back after the Bundesliga and La Liga. Both of those leagues picked up where they left off three months ago from the start.
Leicester City beat Aston Villa 4-0 on March 9th. That was the last Premier League game before Covid-19 stopped the season. Aston Villa will feature in the first game since that day too when they face Sheffield United tomorrow evening. There are exactly 100 days between those two games. It makes this Premier League season unique.
How teams will handle the break is obviously pivotal. There is no title race to return to. It would take a sporting catastrophe to go with the actual catastrophe engulfing the world for Liverpool to lose the title. While Liverpool have the title wrapped up, we still don't know who will play in Europe next season and who will play in the Championship.
Theoretically, match sharpness shouldn't be where it was previously with a truncated preseason.
But that hasn't really been the case across Europe.
The Bundesliga has been back for a while and the quality of play has been fine. La Liga returned this past weekend and some of the football played was outstanding. Assuming that Premier League teams have successfully maintained or rebuilt the fitness of their squads, there's no reason to think they can't follow suit. The better weather at this time of the year serves itself to a more exciting brand of football.
Iker Muniain v Atletico Madrid
Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid played out a 1-1 draw on Sunday. It was an outstanding game. Bilbao took the lead through Muniain but were quickly pegged back by Diego Costa. Costa's goal was somewhat fortunate. He pounced when a Bilbao defender cleared the ball poorly before failing to step up with his defensive line in the offside trap.
Costa knocked the ball past the advancing keeper before sharing a tribute to Virginia Torrecilla, an Atletico women's player who recently underwent brain surgery.
Prior to Muniain's opener, Bilbao had been dictating the play. They were camped in Madrid's half for a few minutes, with Jan Oblak pulling off a world-class safe, sprawling to his left to prevent a header destined for the bottom corner. Muniain provided the cross for that header and he instigated his own goal too.
Center back Inigo Martinez searches for Raul Garcia with his coss-field ball. It's a bit of an aimless pass, putting Muniain in a difficult spot.
The Spanish attacking midfielder shows off outstanding technique to kill the ball with his chest before resetting his equilibrium. The left-midfielder comes up to pressure the ball, leaving Garcia alone on the wing. Muniain doesn't panic, fending off the defender before turning inside to create space back outside. He eventually calmly rolls the ball to Garcia after getting turned.
This sets the sequence in motion.
When the left-midfielder, Yannick Carrasco, pressured Muniain he broke the shape of the defence. The midfielder inside of him had to sprint across to cover for him. The left-back, Renan Lodi, was initially very tight to his centre backs. Madrid were playing an extremely tight back four. Both of their centre backs were close to each other in the middle of the field, not marking anyone.
Both of Bilbao's attackers were in wide positions, the closest to the ball in position to run in behind Lodi.
Garcia's ball inside isn't good. It ricochets off right-back Ander Capa, but fortunately falls to Inaki Williams who had worked his way across the field. Williams lays the ball back for Muniain, who returns a first-touch pass that's placed and weighted perfectly to lead Williams to space. Williams turns on the ball. Lodi has to stop his path.
Lodi leaves Capa alone inside. The centre back is too far away to pick him up so central-midfielder Thomas has to sprint back into the box.
Thomas chases Capa back while his teammates outside stand and watch. Capa is open in the box and Garcia is open outside for Williams. He ultimately doesn't choose either pass, but the impact on the shape of the defence is critical. Both Madrid players behind the ball are standing and watching, while Munian is moving forward into the space vacated by Thomas.
Williams chooses a cross-field ball instead of the simpler, shorter passes. As the ball is in the air, Inigo Cordoba abandons his back-post run and turns to run back outside of the box. He draws the attention of Saul Niguez. With both central midfielders pulled out of position and the defensive line so deep, nobody is in position to pick up Munian on the edge of the box.
Bilbao left-back Yuri Berchiche controls the ball and shows off outstanding awareness to locate Munian, pulling the ball back instead of forcing it into the middle. Muniain beats the closest defender to the ball and hits it with the outside of his right foot to cut across Oblak into the far corner. He did benefit from a heavy deflection, but the quality in creating the opening deserved the good fortune.
The Madrid defence was in position to defend a target man, a striker leading the line in the box. They sat too deep to match the movement of the Bilbao attack.
At the time of Berchiche's cross, Madrid had five defenders between Muniain and Oblak. None of them were marking Muniain. None of them even knew he was there. The two Madrid players on the edge of the box were already a step behind him at this point of the play.
Berchiche's willingness to look up and locate his teammate allowed Muniain to capitalize.
Iker Muniain's goal this weekend was spectacular from start to finish. pic.twitter.com/M57Ax9HeCO
— Cian (@Cianaf) June 16, 2020
Jordi Alba v Mallorca
While Bilbao scored in a fashion typical of Barcelona at the weekend, Barcelona built a 2-0 lead in a way that would make Tony Pullis proud. Arturo Vidal scored an outstanding header within the first minute of the game when Barcelone relied on route-one football. A second goal followed when Martin Braithwaite smashed a bouncing ball home from inside the box.
It wasn't until their third and fourth goals when they turned on the style.
After receiving a switch of play, Barcelona left-back Jordi Alba advanced into the space in front of him. He drew the right-side attacker with him before playing the ball inside to Braithwaite. The attacker played the ball back before it was moved inside to Lionel Messi.
Messi weights a perfect pass over the top to Alba, who finishes like a seasoned striker. Alba intelligently bent his run before the ball was kicked to stay onside.
Sergio Ramos v Eibar
Like Barcelona, Real Madrid got an instantaneous lead in their game last weekend. Toni Kroos opened the scoring against Eibar with a strike you expect to only see on a training pitch. Maybe that's why Real are playing their home games at their training complex.
Kroos' connection with the ball is as pure as you're likely to see. He resets his feet to cut across the ball with his right foot, balancing his weight through the motion of striking the ball. Kroos got his measurements perfect, guiding the ball into the far corner. The keeper had no shot.
Not many individual shots on goal will be as impressive as that. But Madrid's second goal was as impressive as their first.
Sergio Ramos has scored 65 goals in 445 appearances for Real Madrid. That's one every seven games. Comparatively, Gerard Pique has scored one every 12 games. Virgil Van Dijk has scored one every 10 for Liverpool. Giorgio Chiellini has scored one every 14 games for Juventus. Ramos has been one of the best defenders in the world for a decade now. His goal-scoring record isn't why, but it doesn't hurt.
At 34 years of age, Ramos is still excelling in defence. He begins this break by winning the ball when Eibar attempt to set up in the Madrid half. It's a wayward pass from the Eibar central defender. His mistake is pushing too far forward with the ball, making it easier for the Madrid players to cut off his passing angles to his teammates who are in the same area of the field as him. This is why he forces the more elaborate cross-field pass.
Even though it's a poor pass, Ramos still must be commended for anticipating the play. He broke forward from his defensive line before the defender had struck the ball. Ramos also attacks the ball at the earliest possible point, the same can't be said for the pass' intended receiver.
Once he has the ball, Ramos takes one good touch to initiate the break. He pushes forward into space, giving Karim Benzema a moment to pull into a wider position. Ramos' pass to him is perfect.
Winning the ball and offering a quality outlet pass is a win for any centre back. Ramos' role as a defender is over. He flips the switch to become an attacker instantly. His acceleration and want to beat the midfielder to the Eibar box forces the centre back who initially gave the ball away to come across and pick him up. Ramos filled the lane naturally, fitting into the attack to uncover Eden Hazard at the back post.
Benzema saw Ramos and Hazard streaming forward. He was fortunate to beat the first defender, but once inside he made a good pass and a good decision to get the ball to Hazard.
Ramos pulled the defender in by naturally running the right line in attack. He's a defender, but he understands spacing and where to put himself to leverage the defence. His run allows Benzema to find Hazard. His run also puts him ahead of Hazard. This is where Ramos shows off his instincts in attack again.
The best strikers in the world have the composure to finish and the composure to stay onside. It sounds simple. It's often not though. Ramos holds his run so that he's behind Hazard when the ball is played to him. He caps off the play with an easy finish.
Staying onside after hitting top speed and running from one end of the field to the other required a calm that you don't expect of your typical centre back.
Not much about Ramos has ever been typical. It's what makes him great.
Erling Haaland v Dusseldorf
The best of the Bundesliga came from Erling Haaland. The superstar striker clinched a victory in injury time against Dusseldorf. Dusseldorf actually had an excellent chance to win the game themselves not long before this when Steven Skyrzybski hit the frame of the goal with a volley after finding himself in the clear behind Matts Hummels.
Dusseldorf had three clear-cut chances in the second half. They hit the post, the frame of the goal and saw a volley go straight to the keeper with the goal gaping.
Haaland didn't start this game. He replaced Axel Witsel after an hour. That's something we're all going to have to get used to. Managers will rotate players they don't typically want to rotate because of the number of these unusual circumstances. As has been the case with him for his short career so far, Haaland doesn't need much time to make a big impact.
In the dying moments of the game, Dortmund had moved Hummels into an attacking position and were playing route-one football. The cross into the box is a good one because it finds Haaland in a pocket of space for an uncontested header.
An uncontested header isn't necessarily an easy header. Haaland's strength is on show as he effortlessly redirects the ball so that it slips past the keeper, into the side netting. It's a spectacular header from a spectacular player.
The Premier League is the most popular league in the world because of the quality of players it can boast. If La Liga and the Bundesliga are anything to go by, we shouldn't have to wait for the league's stars to dazzle us once again.
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