Journalism of Courage
Barcelona keeps on winning — at least in the Spanish league. The Catalan club edged Celta Viga 1-0 on Sunday for its seventh straight victory in the competition, regaining first place and restoring some confidence going into a decisive Champions League game against Inter Milan.
Barcelona has not been able to repeat its league success in the group stage of the European competition, and anything but a home victory against Inter on Wednesday will leave the club on the brink of elimination for a second consecutive season after the departure of Lionel Messi.
Barcelona lost to Inter last week in Italy for its second consecutive Champions League defeat. In the Spanish league, though, Barcelona has been perfect since a scoreless opening draw against Rayo Vallecano at home.
In another game, Real Betis held on to a 0-0 draw at Valladolid despite playing more than an hour with a man down as defender Germán Pezzella was sent off in the 35th.
Union Berlin beat Stuttgart 1-0, stay top of Bundesliga
Union Berlin defender Paul Jaeckel’s late goal was enough for the capital club to lead the Bundesliga for the fourth consecutive weekend with a 1-0 “dirty win” at Stuttgart on Sunday.
Niko Gießelmann delivered a corner that Jaeckel headed in off the left post in the 77th to win a game of attrition with few highlights. It was just Union’s second shot on target.
“It feels fantastic,” Jackel said. “First Bundesliga goal, and such an important one makes it even better.”
Stuttgart defender Konstantinos Mavropanos struck the post in response, before the home team had forward Serhou Guirassy sent off with his second yellow card for a late challenge on Morten Thorsby’s foot. Guirassy apologized to the Norwegian midfielder.
Union moved two points above Freiburg after nine rounds, and four points clear of 10-time defending champion Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, which drew on Saturday 2-2.
Udinese recovers from 2 goals down to draw against Atalanta
Udinese never gives up. The latest example of the Italian team’s fighting spirit saw it recover from two goals down to draw 2-2 against high-flying Atalanta in Serie A on Sunday.
Nehuén Pérez and Gerard Deulofeu canceled out goals from Ademola Lookman and Luis Muriel to allow Udinese to rescue a point and move level with defending champion AC Milan in the table, a point behind second-place Atalanta, and three points behind Napoli after the southern side beat lowly Cremonese 4-1.
Udinese had won its past six matches and four of those wins had come after Andrea Sottil’s side had first fallen behind.
The match was played at a high intensity but there were few real goalscoring chances before Atalanta broke the deadlock nine minutes before the break. Muriel ran onto a very long ball over the top from Teun Koopmeiners, cut inside from the left and rolled it across for Lookman to tap in at the back post.
In another Serie A game, Napoli imposed another thrashing and moved solo atop the standings with its eighth straight victory in all competitions.
With AP inputs
