European football returns after the international break. A third of the season has already passed in the top 5 leagues. And in each championship there is a team that really surprises with its results and performance. Who is ahead of Barça and Real Madrid, and who is fighting for the Champions League in the Premier League?
Aston Villa
Last season, Birmingham started poorly in the Premier League. But after the arrival of Unai Emery as coach, the club transformed and finished seventh. Before the start of the 2023/2024 championship, Villa carried out a strong transfer campaign. Moussa Diaby (Leverkusen), Pau Torres (Villarreal), Nicolo Zaniolo (Galatasaray), Youri Tielemans (Leicester) and Clement Lenglet (Barcelona) arrived at the Club. Emery has a great team at his disposal. The Spanish coach is in his best moment in a situation in which his club is a top-level team with a high-quality squad. This happened with Valencia, Seville and Villarreal. Now this is happening in the Premier League.
Douglas Louis and Ollie Watkins
Photo: avfc.co.uk
The newcomers and proven fighters (Ollie Watkins, John McGinn, Douglas Louis, Matty Cash, Boubacar Camara, Emiliano Martínez) are having a great season. Yes, we started with crushing defeats to Newcastle (1-5) and Liverpool (0-3) in the first four rounds, but now Villa are in fifth place. The team is only three points away from first place. There is a good chance of competing for the Champions League zone if the Birmingham team does not fall into a crisis.
One of Villa’s leaders got into a betting scandal:
A question for Italian bettors. What were you thinking?!
“Girona”
The main sensation of the 5 best championships at the beginning. The modest Catalan club put together a good squad and jumped to First Division. Under the leadership of Angel Michel, in 13 rounds, Girona won 11 victories, drew once and lost only one game (against Real Madrid, 0-3). The main stars: goalkeeper Paulo Gassaniga, defender Daley Blind, midfielders Yangel Herrera, Ales García, as well as forwards Savio, Viktor Tsygankov and Artem Dovbik.
Yangel Herrera
Photo: gironafc.cat
Girona’s attack draws attention. This is the most successful club in the First League, scoring 31 goals in 13 rounds. It is difficult to imagine Girona actually competing for gold, but entering the European competition is quite possible. Furthermore, last year the Club was on the verge of reaching the Conference League. Girona, by the way, is part of the City Football Group sports holding company, headed by Manchester City. Therefore, there is no doubt about the ambition of the project. The main task is to remain in high positions.
Read more about the main sensation of the Spanish Championship:
The phenomenal team beat Real Madrid and Barça in La Liga! Girona is the main sensation in Europe
Fiorentina
“Violets” have not pleased fans with titles for a long time. Last season the Club had the opportunity to win two trophies at the same time. But Fiorentina lost the Coppa Italia final to Inter and were then beaten by West Ham in the decisive Conference League match. A disappointing result, considering the good team that Vincenzo Italiano assembled in Florence. The coach has been working at Fiorentina since 2021, under his leadership the club finished seventh and eighth in the previous seasons of Serie A. But now the violets are counting on entering the Champions League zone. Fiorentina is fifth in the standings, just one point behind fourth place. And if at the end of October-beginning of November I had not suffered three defeats in a row, I would be next to Inter and Juventus.
Giacomo Buenaventura
Photo: acffiorentina.com
Fiorentina is great because it suits them to play both positional and counterattacking football. Italiano deftly switches modes, although the team maintains a basic 4-2-3-1 formation. The main characters of the squad: defenders Lucas Cuatra, Nikola Milenkovic, midfielders Arthur, Giacomo Bonaventura and Joseph Alfred Duncan, as well as forwards Nicholas González and Mbala N’Zola. It’s a shame Fiorentina didn’t retain Alexander Kokorin. I could fight with Napoli, Milan and Atalanta for the Champions League!
“Stuttgart”
Yes, Bayer surprises in Germany, fighting for gold with Bayern. But Leverkusen is used to fighting for the top positions in the Bundesliga. But Stuttgart, despite being German champion in 2007, has not appeared at the top for a long time. In 2016 and 2019, the team finished in the Second Bundesliga and, after gold, only once entered the Champions League zone (third place in the 2008/2009 season). But now the Swabians are pleasantly surprising. Under the guidance of coach Sebastian Hoenes, the team has become a united and flexible body. Stuttgart threatens both quick and positional attacks. The team formation is easily transformed thanks to the hybrid positions of the defenders, who can provide width or go to the center of the field.
Seru Guirassi
Photo: vfb.de
And the main star is forward Serou Guirassi. He has already scored 15 (!) Goals in nine games (44.4 minutes per goal). In terms of rate of fire, he is even ahead of the career scoring leader, Harry Kane (17 goals, one in 56.53 minutes). At the same time, Guirassi helps Stuttgart remain flexible. The striker is excellent at creating space, he is excellent at finding space and is useful on long diagonals (he fights well for crosses and can find space behind defenders). Guirassi’s dizzying scoring pace will be difficult to maintain. But even without this, Stuttgart has a good chance of finishing high.
Guirassi scored more than Haaland and Mbappé in their leagues:
Holland? Mbappe? Kane? Suddenly, the top scorer in the major leagues ended up in Stuttgart
“Nice”
Before the start of the 2023/2024 season, changes occurred at Nice. Instead of the experienced Lucien Favre, the promising Francesco Farioli was appointed coach. The Italian previously worked in the Turkish Super League with Alanyaspor. The club’s results can hardly be called phenomenal (15th place in the 2022/2023 season), but Nice was attracted by the flexibility of Farioli’s coach. Francesco is a student of Roberto de Zerbi, together with him they worked in Benevento (Farioli as goalkeeper coach, De Zerbi as main), as well as in Sassuolo. Under Farioli’s leadership, Nice is second in the Ligue 1 standings, just one point behind PSG.
Evan Guessan and Jeremy Boga
Photo: ogcnice.com
The most surprising thing is that, looking at the “Aguiluchos”, you will never say that their coach is a student of De Zerbi. “Nice” relies on high-quality defense in two modes: on the “bus” or in high pressure. In attack, the team relies more on the individual skills of the players than on a clear strategy. Possession is used more as a tool to contain the opponent and an opportunity to take a breather. All this is reflected in the figures of goals scored and conceded. Nice lost four times in 12 rounds (the best result), but scored only 13 goals. For comparison, nearby PSG and Monaco have 29 and 25 goals, respectively. And Nice is the only Ligue 1 club that has not yet lost a single game. It is difficult to say whether the team will be able to achieve success at the end of the season with such a game. But at least it intrigues with its unusual approach.
Who, besides Nice, hasn’t lost yet this season?
Stories
5 invincible teams in Europe. Who has not lost a single game in the top 10 leagues?
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