Germans abroad: Final Weekend Round-up
Last fixtures performances and player ratings: Gündogan gives Man City the title, Rüdiger says goodbye while Havertz scores, Groß and Janelt perform great and Toni Kroos continues to prepare for the UCL final.
| Ilkay Gündogan. | Photo: Granada, CC-by-SA 4.0 |
Ilkay Gündogan
Manchester Citz 3-2 Aston Villa
•Player Rating: 8.0
•Entered in the 68th minute
•Completely changed the game
The midfielder was the star of the weekend; coming in with little more than 20 minutes to go and immediately after his entrance going 0-2 down, the midfielder gave Manchester City the ideas and movements needed to break the deadlock displayed by Aston Villa.
Gündogan started to move the chains of his team quickly, allowing the attack to flow a lot more; his nature of moving behind the defensive line and filling the spaces in the box as a striker proved to be sensational, as his first goal came after appearing in the second post to head in a cross from Sterling.
If the first goal was immense and gave Man City hopes, the third one made the stadium go completely berserk, with the German midfielder appearing once again at the back post after being one step ahead of everyone else in terms of reading the outcome of the play.
With rumors of his exit from the club, Gündogan proved how valuable he is, either for Manchester City or whatever club that signs him.
Antonio Rüdiger
Chelsea 2-1 Watford
•Player Rating: 7.3
•65 minutes
•Good performance
•Last game for Chelsea
Rüdiger said his goodbyes to Chelsea with a solid performance against Watford.
The German centre-back had a calm match as the level of intensity was significantly lower as neither team had anything at stake.
Subbed off at the 65th minute, saying goodbye and having his name sung by the fans.
Kai Havertz
Chelsea 2-1 Watford
•Player Rating: 7.8
•Scored
•90 Minutes
Havertz closed out his very good season with a great match at home.
The forward scored after 21 minutes with a tap-in after attacking the space behind the defense and connecting with a cross from Kenedy.
Havertz moved well throughout the match, trying to connect in the half-spaces or running behind the defense, dropping wide at times.
Pascal Groß
Brighton 3-1 West Ham
•Player rating: 8.0
•90 minute
•Scored and assisted
The versatile midfielder capped off his great season with a superb performance against West Ham.
Groß performed as a right attacking midfielder as he has been doing the last couple of fixtures, although changing his movements at times and positioning to fit Marsch’s game plan.
The German played well during the entirety of the match, capping it off with an amazing goal, where he received the ball inside the area with his back facing the goal and turned around, letting loose a cannon with his left foot that found the top corner.
His assist came through a corner kick.
Robin Koch
Brentford 1-2 Leeds
•Player Rating 6.4
•90 minutes
•Played as a right-back
Koch seems to have found his place for Leeds under Jesse March, he has made consecutive starts at the right back position, and Leeds will be in the Premier League next year.
However, the defender is still getting used to the position, giving a certain sense of fragility.
Despite the goal coming against his side, he had no guilt, as he was split between following the centre-forward’s run and covering his marker down the flank, receiving no help.
Vitaly Janelt
Brentford 1-2 Leeds
•Player Rating: 7.7
•Played as a holding midfielder
The 24-year-old performed solidly in a more comfortable position for him than last week’s.
Acting as the anchor of his team, Janelt played a great match, being accurate with the ball while acting with determination and strength defensively.
The former Bochum player had a 100% rate with his tackles, racking up 6 (most of any player in the game), intercepting 2, and winning all three aerial duels he participated in.
La Liga
Toni Kroos
Real Madrid 0-0 Real Betis
•Rating: 6.4
•45 minutes
•Just keeping the rhythm
Toni Kroos and Los Blancos have weeks aiming at the UEFA Champions League final in Paris, the last fixture of the league acted as a bit of training to keep the competitive rhythm and to thank the fans for the support during the season.
Kroos played 45 minutes in his usual position without pushing the things too hard and without much to tell, all were looking at Paris.
Ligue 1
Kevin Volland
Lens 2-2 AS Monaco
•Player Rating: 7.5
•Assisted
•90 Minutes
Volland and Monaco just missed the 2nd spot in the league with the tie, which means they’ll have to play through the qualifying rounds to get to the UCL.
However, the German forward played very well maintaining the level he has had during the course of the season.
He continued to be the link between the midfield and the offense, moving well in between the lines and pushing the play with through balls.
He assisted Ben Yedder after a great pass behind the defense at the second post.
Alexander Nübel
Lens 2-2 AS Monaco
•Player Rating 7.9
•90 minutes
•8 saves
The German keeper had a superb game, he was shot at a lot and replied very well to each encounter.
The ex-Schalke goalkeeper saved a couple of 1-vs-1 situations and blocked/caught a number of shots.
The one detail is that with Lens’ first goal, he was not able to catch or properly reject the ball after the low cross, leaving it alive in the heart of the box.
Ismail Jakobs
Lens 2-2 AS Monaco
•Player Rating: 7.0
•17 minutes
•Continues to change the pace of the game with his performance
Phillip Clement sticks to his script regarding Jakobs, subbing in the German for one of the wingers after the hour mark; Jakobs answered well by being very vertical and adding intensity in the duels.
His speed was a differential factor although he lacked the accuracy to be decisive.
Serie A
Nadiem Amiri
Genoa 0-1 Cagliari
•Player Rating: 6.2
•56 minutes
•Final game with Genoa.
Amiri and Genoa said goodbye to the Serie A with yet another loss at home, this time against Cagliari.
The on-loan Bayer Leverkusen player tried to make as much happen as possible, but his team’s style did not suit him the whole loan spell, he was active with the pressure and tried to be important with the ball.
He acted as a second forward, going up quite high to press, while trying to link up the attack in the offensive transitions.
Robin Gosens
Inter Milan 3-0 Sampodria
•Player Rating: 6.8
•30 minutes
Gosens entered for Perisic once more as Inter won but fall short of AC Milan for the Serie A title.
The left-back entered once the game had been settled and Inter were up 3-0, Gosens was very active during his time on the pitch, giving width and depth to the Nerazzurri.
