Bundesliga News

Germans abroad: Mid-week round-up

By Rafael Garrido Reinoso   @RGarrido2210

Interesting performances in the mid-week fixtures, with some teams managing their players' minutes.
Marc-André ter Stegen.
Marc-André ter Stegen.Photo: Real Valladolid, CC BY-SA 4.0
Premier League

Timo Werner
Chelsea 2-4 Arsenal
•Full Game
•Scored
•Good performance


The highly criticized forward continues to prove his haters wrong with his performances, completing a very good match against Arsenal despite his team's loss.

Werner returned to a second striker/winger role as Lukaku entered the starting XI, moving throughout the whole attacking area and making good movements, attacking the spaces. Werner also was very good at dribbling the ball to eliminate defensive lines and cutting in. Through this came his goal after a deflection of Xhaka from an outside-the-box shot.

The German forward also displayed a generous defensive effort once again, his quick defensive activation/response provoked Chelsea's second goal, as Werner pressed fast after a loss and the ball rebounded to Mount who assisted Azpilicueta.

Kai Havertz
Chelsea 2-4 Arsenal
•30 minutes
•Tried but couldn't do much
•Continues to be highly active when he's on the pitch


The attacking midfielder entered the match at the 60th-minute mark when it was 2-2.
Havertz complemented well with Werner, proving they are Chelsea's best attacking pair.

Tried to be creative and generate opportunities for his squad but the defensive scheme displayed by Mikel Arteta's men was too much for Chelsea.

Pascal Groß
Manchester City 3-0 Brighton
•90 minutes.
•Exchanged positions with Mac Allister and played almost as a forward.
•Tried to cover Rodri and press the first pass.

Groß pushed deep whenever Brighton had the ball, running forward to stretch City's defensive lines and relieve the pressure, although he could not do much offensively.

Defensively, the German stayed with Rodri or the midfielder that went down to the base to build up the play until Welbeck pressed Stones and the ball reached Laporte, at which point he would jump to press the Spanish centre-back.

In the second half, Groß swapped places with Mwepu and stuck closely to Gündogan most of the time until City's midfielder moved out of the defensive zone.

Ilkay Gündogan
Manchester City 3-0 Brighton
90 Minutes
Very good game
Great interpretation of the spaces

Good movements, Gündogan recognized he was being marked personally and moved sometimes from the left side of the midfield into the center or even the right to carry his man with him and allowed his team to hit the right back 1v1.

The midfielder displayed great passing to give fluidity to the game, linking very well and quickly in the offensive transitions.

Good defensive efforts too, reading the plays to press quickly and anticipate high.

La Liga

Toni Kroos
•20 minutes
•Again as a holding midfielder

Kroos entered the match when it was 1-2 in Madrid's favor. He repeated his position as a holding midfielder and started controlling the pace of the game to slow down Osasuna's intent of coming back.

Marc-André Ter Stegen
Real Sociedad 0-1 Barcelona
•90 minutes
•Great saves

Ter Stegen played an important role in Barcelona's victory against Sociedad, completing five saves including a very close shot that the keeper barely saved with his heel and a treacherous cross that no one touched in the area and would've gotten in if not for the German's quick reactions.

Ligue 1

Kevin Volland
•Monaco 1-0 Nice
•Good performance
•90 minutes
•2 shots

The centre-forward keeps on with his good form and good synergy with Wissam Ben-Yedder.

Combining good runs behind the defense with moving down to the midfield to help with the build-up.

Took a great shot from outside the box that was repelled by Benitez and almost assisted Ben-Yedder with a long through ball, but the shot hit the post.

Alexander Nübel
•90 minutes
•2 not very challenging saves

Serie A

Koray Günter
•Booked early
•30 minutes

The central defender started the game solidly, but was booked early in the 9th minute of the game for holding up Duvan Zapata when he was getting away pursuing a long pass.

After several clashes, Günter had to hold off Zapata once again, committing a foul where Zapata and other Atalanta players demanded a second yellow card. He was substituted when the play stopped.

Robin Gosens
•10 minutes
•Sealed the win with the 3-0 goal

The left-back entered the pitch in the Coppa Italia semifinal for Ivan Perisic and just two minutes later scored the 3-0 goal with his traditional mark of closing in from the left and finishing a cross from the opposite side. A good morale boost for the great left-back.


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