7M Weekly - Manchester Big Two completed major signings and Messi backed to national team
Posted Sunday, August 14, 2016 by 7M Sport
Welcome to 7M Weekly!
Pogba was officially backed to Manchester United, while Manchester City signed John Stones eventually. Arsenal's transfer move is still scarce with defenders' injuries dampening their strength, now a Mustafi deal is pivotal.
Premier League is back! But let's see what happened during last week first.
* Pogba back to United
On 9th, August, Manchester United finally announced that they completed the signing of midfielder Paul Pogba from Serie A champions Juventus, with a world-record fee of ï¿¡89m. Pogba will return to Old Trafford, but he can not play for the Red Devils in the opening game of the new EPL season because of his suspension during Juventus' spell. After losing Paul Pogba, Juventus have resorted to Zenit star Axel Witsel as a replacement, but the Belgium international insists he will not leave the Russian champions this summer. He told R-Sport that he would stay at Zenit for another year and he was now focused exclusively on the season that had just started. So at least the Old Lady are unlikely to include Witsel in their squad this summer.
* Man City sign Stones
Manchester City, the Red Devils' city rival, also have an important move this week. Pep Guardiola's side has confirmed the signing of defender John Stones from Everton on a six-year deal. The England international is regarded as a key part in City's squad of the new season. Guadiola also speaks highly of Stones as he expresses his love to the way Stones plays the game. After the departure of their regular center back, Everton reacted quickly to look for an eligible replacement. In the end, Wales center back Ashley Williams joined Everton from Swansea City with an undisclosed fee. With much experience in EPL, Ashley Williams can fill the void in Toffees' center back position.
* Jese joins Paris
On 8th, August, Ligue 1 superpower Paris Saint-Germain came to an agreement with Real Madrid over Jese's deal. This former Madrid's forward signed a five-year contract with the French champions, with a transfer fee reportedly being €25m. Jese has earned 94 appearances for Los Blancos and scored 18 goals. He lifted 6 trophies with Madrid, including 2 triumphs in UEFA Champions League.
* Mustafi close to Arsenal move
Arsenal's injury crisis at their back worsens this week as Gabriel Paulista got injured in his ankle during a friendly match. Previously Per Mertesacker has already been sidelined due to a knee injury. The Gunners are in urgent need of a center back to fill this vacancy. Valencia defender Shkodran Mustafi has been linked with Arsenal this week. In a most recent interview, Mustafi's agent has confirmed that his client and Arsenal have reached an agreement and the Germany center back is close to a switch to the Emirates Stadium. Mustafi is likely to become the Gunners' fourth summer signing, following the earlier arrivals of Granit Xhaka, Takuma Asano and Rob Holding.
Manchester United 2-1 Leicester City: A victory against last season's Premier League champion saw Manchester United pick up their 21th Community Shield trophy. Facing Leicester City at Wembley Stadium, Red Devil made their voice first in the 32th minute. Jesse Lingard pulsed on from midfield and passed through 4 players to make a 15-yard strike, 1-0. In the 52th minute, Ahmed Musa's cross found Leicester's goalscorer Jamie Vardy. This England player passed Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea to shot with a narrow angle, 1-1. It seems the match would go on for another 60 minutes, but United's summer signning Zlatan Ibrahimovic played down the possible extra-time by jumping high in the air to head in a late winner in the 82th minute. This 2-1 victory grants Jose Mourinho first trophy at his Old Trafford career.
Real Madrid 3-2 Sevilla (AET): The final of European Super Cup has kicked off at Rosenborg's Lerkendal Stadium on Tuesday night. Last season's Champion League winner Real Madrid saw another winner in Europa League version, Sevilla, staying between them and the trophy. It was Los Blancos who broke the deadlock with Marco Asensio's spelendid strike. In the 20th minute this 20-year-old attacking midfielder fired a 25-yard furious shot to go through the top corner of the goal. But Sevilla found their equalizer when Franco Vazquez's left-foot strike steered by Kiko Casilla to send the ball into the net 4 minutes from half time.
In the 71th minute, Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos made a clumsy challenge against Luciano Vietto inside the box. And the referee pointed his finger to the penalty spot where substitute Yevhen Konoplyanka misjudged Casilla and took the lead for Sevilla. It seems Real Madrid would lose this game, but Ramos finally make amends for his fault in the 93rd minute when his header flew into Sevilla's goal. And in the 119th minute, Dani Carvajal broke through Sevilla's defence, and scored the winner to secure the champion for Real.
Barcelona 3-2 Sampdoria: Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez once again showed their mesmerizing ability when Barcelona entertained Sampdoria at the Nou Camp in the Gamper Trophy. Barca took the opener when Lionel Messi's bicycle kick assist saw unmarked Luis Suarez nod in for 1-0 lead in the 16th minute. Then in the 21th minute, it was Messi's turn to find the net. He picked up Ivan Rakitic's pass in the box and deceived Sampdoria's goalkeeper to roll the ball into the empty goal.
Just 2 minutes later, Sampdoria launched a counter attack and ended with Luis Muriel's close range shot, narrowing their gap to 2-1. However, Luis Suarez earned a freekick for Barca after being brought down. Messi made the freekick curl away from the defensive wall to drill into the left corner of the goal, 3-1!
Although Ante Budimir pulled one more back for Sampdoria in the 78th minute, the Catalan side held on to secure this 3-2 victory.
* CR7Selfie
Cristiano Ronaldo posted a video sharing information about a new charity app he lauched to help fans take selfie with him from as many as 68 different poses on twitter. What's worth mentioning is that the money you pay for this app will go to charity. What a treat!
* Messi Runner
Here is another app about another soccer star, Lionel Messi. It's a game like "Temple Run", but the runner is the Barcelona star. And this mobile game is called "Messi Runner".
* For Messi blond hair remove......free pastry!
Do you remember 2 weeks ago, here in Off the Pitch, we shared a news that Messi dyed his hair blond? We never thought it could develop into a hairstyle saga. A brand Catalan cafe and pastry shop has launched a campaign for the Argentina back to the natural hair color. If the Barcenola star does remove the current hair color and return to its natural one, the fans can be treated with free pastry!
* John Terry named new dog "Blue"
He is a strong and physical defender on the pitch, but actually he has a gentle side of his character. The Chelsea captain welcomed his new pet dog——a French bull dog on Instagram and named it "Blue".
* BVB ball on Playboy cover
On the Thai edition of Playboy, the cover girl held a ball of BVB under her arm. Coincidence or advertising campaign? Hmmm, we don't know either.
* Lionel Messi back to Argentina national team
Lionel Messi has announced his return to Argentina's national team for their World Cup qualifiers in September, ending his short-lived retirement from international football.
The 29-year-old left the team after missing a penalty in the shoot-out defeat to Chile in this summer's Copa America final, which is the third consecutive loss for Argentina in a major final.
Messi said in a statement on Friday: "I see that there are a lot of problems in Argentina football and I don't want to create more," "I don't want to cause harm, on the contrary, my goal was to help in any way I could."
As Argentina's all-time leading scorer with 55 goals in 113 appearances, Messi made reference to federation problems a few days before the Copa final, saying the AFA was "a disaster".
But now Messi has decided to lead his national team forward no matter how difficult it is, inside or outside.
* Mourinho says Mkhitaryan was unhappy, not Mata
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has revealed Henrikh Mkhitaryan is unhappy after he didn't start in the Community Shield win over Premier League champions Leicester City.
Mkhitaryan came on for the final minute for Juan Mata. Many attributed the Spaniard being isolated but Mourinho countered that point saying Mkhitaryan was the one that annoyed with the situation.
"He was very happy that he was my first choice to come on to the pitch in a difficult moment of the game for us after we conceded a goal," Mourinho said (via BT Sports).
"The one that was not happy was Mkhitaryan because he came on for one minute and didn't touch the ball.
"So in your analysis you went the wrong way because the one who was upset was Mkhitaryan. Mata was very happy."
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