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Hello! There’s no last hurrah for Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid, Barcelona are set to be La Liga champions. Could Xabi Alonso knock them off their perch?
On the way:
Real Trouble: Mbappe treble can’t save Madrid as Barca win and Alonso waits for job
Barcelona are resembling the reincarnation of Tommy Hearns’ career. Two seven-goal thrillers in the space of six days (not exactly out of the blue either) is, in boxing parlance, an addiction to hard fights. Hansi Flick can’t get enough.
The second of them – a 4-3 win at Real Madrid, following on from a 4-3 defeat to Inter in the Champions League – means the La Liga title will be theirs, along with vindication of Flick’s daredevil streak. The high defensive line paid off, as did the injection of fearless instructions into the veins of Raphinha and Lamine Yamal (yet another chef’s kiss from him, above). When it drops, championship number 28 will rank among Barca’s best.
They’re just about free to retire for the summer and move forward, but the losers of the season’s last Clasico, Real Madrid? They’re off to lick their wounds and prepare for a chain reaction. Four times they’ve played Barca and four times they’ve been beaten, sometimes savagely. Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick yesterday — meaningless in the grand scheme — was symptomatic of a year when the good things he has done have been lost in football’s peripheral vision.
More eyes are fixed on Barca’s imminent title and Madrid’s reaction to it. It’s the end of the road for Carlo Ancelotti at the Bernabeu, that much is certain. There’s nothing stopping Madrid saying so publicly now that a trophyless campaign is all but confirmed. And waiting to one side is Xabi Alonso, primed to take Ancelotti’s job. Not much has made sense in Madrid this season, but hiring Alonso definitely would.
Is Alonso a good fit?
A couple of hours after Friday’s TAFC landed, Alonso announced he would be leaving Bayer Leverkusen when the German Bundesliga wraps up next weekend. It’s no shock. Informed whispers have been signalling his exit for months.
The thing is, Alonso is cutting short a contract that runs to 2026, so he’s not stepping out of Leverkusen for a holiday. The timing of Ancelotti’s exit from Madrid — most likely to become Brazil’s national coach — is perfect and far from coincidental. It would be the surprise of the summer if Alonso doesn’t replace the Italian.
Alonso has earned his stripes. He is a former Madrid midfielder who has nailed it in his first main job at Leverkusen, claiming a Bundesliga crown that Bayern Munich seemed to have monopolised. It’s easy to forget how much of a mess Leverkusen were in when Alonso took over there in 2022 — second bottom, after their worst start in over 40 years.
Mark Carey and Thom Harris took a stab at establishing whether Alonso is a neat match for Madrid tactically, and their observations make me think he is. He drastically reduced the quality of chances Leverkusen conceded, something Madrid have to do. His team press more aggressively than Ancelotti’s and he is adaptable with his formations. Additionally, he is familiar with the heat of the kitchen he’s stepping into.
There’s no such thing as delusions of grandeur at Madrid because they’re the biggest club on the planet. They are grandeur itself. But their whipping at the hands of Barca yesterday exposed a harsh truth: that the combination of Ancelotti and galactico juice has gone sour, to the point of being flawed. Alonso, on paper, is the soundest solution out there.
News round-up
LA Galaxy’s black hole: Vanney calls display ‘s**t’ after 7-0 defeat extends winless streak to 12
On Friday, I gave LA Galaxy credit for standing by head coach Greg Vanney after 11 games without a win. Then, on Saturday, they took a 7-0 tonking from the New York Red Bulls (a bizarre rematch of the 2024 MLS Cup final) and I started to think they might be digging their own hole.
Twelve winless matches at the start of a season is an MLS record. I get that clubs go off the boil and Paul Tenorio can see what has been happening to the Galaxy, but they’ve dropped off a cliff and Vanney is making their form sound completely out of control. “Today we were s**t,” he said. “That’s the end of that.” Hmm. We’ll see.
The past week has also been an inglorious juncture for Inter Miami, who sometimes give the impression of expecting it all to come a bit too easily. Dismantled in the Concacaf Champions Cup by Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday, Minnesota United stuck four past them over the weekend, Miami’s heaviest defeat with Messi on the pitch. Minnesota’s celebratory jibe about the ‘Pink Phoney Club’ (fair play: that’s clever as these things go) had Inter owner David Beckham fizzing.
You’re tempted to think back to the discussion around Javier Mascherano when he was appointed as Miami head coach last year. He’s a pal of Messi’s, fine, and keeping the main man sweet is essential, but Mascherano’s track record in coaching was limited. The jury’s out.
Around the EPL: Marinakis confronts Nuno after Forest draw, Amorim’s future query
Given so much in the Premier League is done and dusted, the weekend was a dull one, right? Au contraire. Strap in tightly.
We’ll start with Nottingham Forest, who, having fantasised about Champions League qualification, would be reduced to the Conference League if the season ended today. Nuno Espirito Santo got an earful on the pitch from kind-of-still-owner Evangelos Marinakis after an unhelpful draw with Leicester City (above).
Nuno says Marinakis was frustrated by Forest’s late substitutions. Experience says a top dog getting shirty in public like that should sound the alarm for any head coach, even one as seemingly secure as Nuno.
Elsewhere, Ruben Amorim watched a 2-0 defeat against West Ham United and then basically said he might as well quit Manchester United if he can’t get them going next season. Between them, United (16th) and Tottenham Hotspur (17th) have lost 37 league matches — yet one of them will make the Champions League by winning the Europa League final. Perhaps UEFA ought to reassess that arrangement.
Southampton held Manchester City to a 0-0 draw to move beyond the Premier League’s lowest points tally. They crept beyond Derby County’s 11-point threshold by repelling City’s 26 shots on goal and locking down Erling Haaland. If only their spine had shown itself sooner.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, was booed by the Anfield crowd during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal yesterday. His decision to leave on a free transfer has ruffled feathers, unsurprisingly. Whatever your view on that, Nicolas Jackson deserved to be booed for the elbow (below) that incurred a red card in Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United.
Sven Botman, the victim of Jackson’s cheek-high smash, just about escaped in one piece, which is more than can be said for Bournemouth’s Alex Scott. He went off to hospital with a broken jaw on Saturday night after taking one in the face from Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings. Shall we all breathe deeply and count to 10?
Quiz answer
The answer to Friday’s quiz question — which of the four defenders with the most goals plus assists in Premier League history didn’t play for either Liverpool or Everton? — was ex-Leeds United full-back Ian Harte. His wicked left foot did some damage over the years.
Catch a match
(Selected games, kick-offs ET/UK)
Championship play-off semi-final second leg: Sheffield United (3) vs Bristol City (0), 3pm/8pm — CBS Sports, Paramount+, Fubo/Sky Sports
Serie A: Venezia vs Fiorentina, 12.30pm/5.30pm; Atalanta vs Roma, 2.45pm/7.45pm — both CBS Sports, Paramount+/OneFootball.
And finally…
I’m opposed to a world where machines run sport, but certain offside scenarios tempt me to think that the future of football can only be built on technology.
Mind you, ruling out the first goal in Saturday’s League One play-off semi-final between Leyton Orient and Stockport County (above) shouldn’t have required a fancy, semi-automated offside system, like the Premier League’s. A clean pair of eyes would have done.
Stockport manager Dave Challinor described the failure to disallow the goal during the 2-2 draw as “the worst decision I’ve seen in 15 years in management”, and while football revels in hyperbole, blunders are rarely so off the charts.
(Photo: Alex Caparros/Getty Images)