We are well and truly in the business end of the 2022 FIFA World Cup as the quarter-finals were played this weekend, but elsewhere, there was lots of interesting club football action too. There were some major top-of-the-table clashes in some of the biggest leagues in Women’s football, as well as a couple of interesting matches in men’s leagues that we will cover in this edition of Last Weekend.
By Neel Shelat
🏆 World Cup: Morocco 1-0 Portugal
Saturday night saw a historic World Cup match played, as Morocco became the first African and first Arab nation to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament. They did so with a win over Portugal after a tense game.
Walid Regragui’s side have impressed many throughout the tournament thanks to their disciplined defending in a 4-1-4-1 block, which is how they were able to restrict Portugal’s attacking threat, despite ceding almost three-quarters of possession. Crucially, they took the lead just before half-time through Youssef En-Nesyri, who leapt high to meet Yahia Attiyat Allah’s cross ahead of Diogo Costa and sent it into an empty net.
The second half saw Portugal pile on the pressure, as they sent on a number of additional attackers including Cristiano Ronaldo and Rafael Leão. Morocco switched to a 5-4-1 formation after the hour-mark as they dug deep to defend. Things were getting tenser and tenser by the minute, especially in stoppage-time after Walid Cheddira got sent off for the Atlas Lions, but they held firm, did not concede too many clear-cut chances, and came away with a clean sheet.
That meant Morocco won their first World Cup quarter-final, and Regragui, who had already entered uncharted territory for an African manager, is going even further. They will face Croatia on Wednesday for a spot in the final. Meanwhile, Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo head home, the latter likely ending his World Cup career without a trophy or even a knockout goal.
🏴 England: Manchester City 1-1 Manchester United
After England’s elimination from the World Cup at the hands of France on Saturday night, the country’s attention turned to Manchester on Sunday afternoon, where City and United were playing the first derby of the Women’s Super League season.
There was more than just bragging rights on the line in this game. Since their promotion to the WSL, Manchester United have finished fourth and behind their local rivals in each of their three top-flight seasons, but they went into this game sat third with a three-point lead over City. Their aim was to open up the gap even further with a first-ever league victory in this fixture.
A crowd of over 44,000 – a record for the home side and the second-biggest number in WSL history – came to the Etihad Stadium to watch this game, and they were not left disappointed. Both sides looked threatening early on, but United seemed to have an edge. They were rewarded for their efforts in the 27th minute when Leah Galton played a one-two with Ella Toone and sent her shot through the legs of a defender en route to the back of the net.
City seemed to tail off thereafter and did not look much better after the half-time break either, but they managed to equalise just before the hour-mark as Chloe Kelly’s cross beat the first defender and bounced back up for Laura Coombs, who headed it in from close range. That was the spark they needed to get right back to life, so we were treated to a thrilling thirty minutes at the end of the match with frantic action on both sides of the pitch. Neither team could grab a winner, though, and ultimately it must be said that a draw was a fair result.
🇮🇹 Italy: Roma 2-4 Juventus
We told you about the big Serie A Femminile match between the top two this weekend in the previous edition of the column, and we were not left disappointed.
Roma, who had a six-point lead at the top of the table before this game, are seeking to win their first-ever league title this season and end Juventus’ streak of five consecutive championships. They were carrying an eight-match winning run in the league into this game, having dropped points on just one occasion all season – to you’ve guessed it – Juventus.
They raced to an early lead thanks to Annamaria Serturini’s goal less than two minutes after kick-off but were quickly pegged back by Lineth Beerensteyn. Juventus went on to take the lead in the 38th minute through Cristiana Girelli, preserving it until half-time.
The game was back level early on in the second half as Andressa Alves turned in the rebound after Valentina Giacinti struck the post. Beerensteyn proved to be the difference-maker for the Bianconere yet again as she dazzled a defender with her footwork before sending her finish into the bottom corner in the 67th minute. A set-piece goal from Julia Grossa sealed the result later on, as Juventus cut their deficit to the league leaders down to three points.
🇫🇷 France: Lyon 0-1 PSG
Much like Italy, France watched the two Division 1 Féminine title contenders square off on Sunday. Before kick-off, defending champions Lyon had two more points than Paris Saint-Germain, who were the team that ended their 14-season domination of the French top-flight back in 2020/21.
PSG are now looking for their second league title this season and were doing well to keep step with Lyon by being the only unbeaten side in the division apart from the title holders. Both of those records were under real threat in this game, which got tenser with every passing minute.
Lyon and PSG were both able to get into promising positions throughout the match, but creating clear-cut chances was a different matter where neither could succeed. So, there were no goals in the first half and none in the first 40 minutes of the second period too. The decisive moment came 87 minutes in, as the first contact from a PSG corner delivered to the near post looped up to the far post, where Kadidiatou Diani was waiting to turn it in.
Of course, that was enough for the Parisians to come away with all three points, which enabled them to leapfrog Lyon and jump up to the summit of the table, where they will remain at the turn of the year.
Lyon, on the other hand, have tasted defeat at home for the first time in 95 matches, a streak that extended all the way back to January 2014.
🇦🇺 Australia: Central Coast Mariners 1-2 Newcastle Jets
In Australia, the Men’s A-League returned to action after the World Cup break. The headlines from the action included Melbourne City’s first competitive match after the departure of Patrick Kisnorbo, as well as a new chapter in the league’s oldest derby.
The Central Coast Mariners and Newcastle Jets were among the founding members of the A-League, being the only two non-capital clubs initially. Based just over 80 kilometres apart in the state of New South Wales, their proximity and similarities led to the rise of a rivalry known as the F3 derby, named after the motorway that connects the two cities.
The F3 freeway is now known as the M1 motorway, but the name of the derby has not changed. There is a new introduction to this rivalry this season, though, as the overall winner at the end of each campaign will be receiving the F3 Derby Trophy, a lump of concrete from the motorway itself:
And it is the Newcastle Jets who have the advantage after the first game in 2022/23, as they came away with a narrow away win. Trent Buhagiar opened the scoring for the visitors 12 minutes in, Australian international Jason Cummings equalised early on in the second half, but just over 10 minutes later, the decisive goal was scored by Beka Mikeltadze following a corner.
Both teams have endured disappointing starts to the season and still have single-digit points tallies after six matches, so they will be hoping to turn things around this summer.
🇨🇴 Colombia: Deportivo Pereira 0-0 Independiente Medellín (1-1 agg, 4-3 pens)
For the first time ever, we have been forced to bend the rules of the column a little bit, because there was an unmissable result in Colombia in midweek.
The 2022 Clausura final of the top-flight league pitted six-time winners Independiente Medellín against Deportivo Pereira. The first leg was held last Sunday and ended 1-1, so it was all to play for on Wednesday night at the Estadio Hernán Ramírez Villegas, the home of Deportivo Pereira.
Deportivo Pereira fans were out in full voice, and unsurprisingly so too since this was the closest they had ever come to a top-flight league title in their 78-year history. In fact, they did not even have a major trophy to speak of, having lost their first-ever final of the Copa Colombia in 2021.
That might make you think that Deportivo Pereira have been building towards glory for a while now, but their recent history has been full of setbacks. They were playing in the second division a decade ago at this time, but in late 2013, the department of sports of the government of Colombia withdrew their sporting license amid financial and administrative issues among other things. The club was declared bankrupt, but efforts to revive it initially did not succeed and there even were talks of a potential dissolution.
Eventually, their issues were resolved and they were back in professional action for the 2014 season, but achieving promotion remained a tough task. After a number of narrow misses, they finally succeeded in 2019. Winning the top-flight title still was their fans would not have even dreamed of, but an impressive league campaign in 2022 saw them qualify for their first-ever championship finals.
They made it to the final ahead of the likes of Millionarios, Atlético Junior and Independiente Santa Fe, and the rest, as they say, is history. There was nothing to separate the two sides after 180 minutes across two legs, so the title went down to penalties. Independiente Medellín went first and failed to score their first two attempts while Deportivo Pereira missed their first, but remained faultless thereafter to win the league.
It was a historic night for Deportivo Pereira which will live long in the memory of their fans and, indeed, those who follow Colombian football.
Cover Image from IMAGO
