Cristiano Ronaldo carries the Red Devils, third setback for the Gunners
While we feared that the Red Devils would end the season in freewheeling after three disastrous performances in a row, Cristiano Ronaldo, with his 50th club hat-trick of his career, put them back in the running for the C1.
From the 7th minute of play, he only had to push the ball offered by Anthony Elanga who had recovered it from the opposing feet in the area (1-0).
Shortly after half an hour, from a corner and a header, Ronaldo doubled the lead, seeming to place his people on the royal road.
But the Red Devils completely got out of their match and the Canaries came back to score through Kieran Dowell (2-1, 45 + 1) and Teemu Pukki (2-2, 52nd).
A tactical change with the exit of Paul Pogba, aligned as a guard, to bring in Nemanja Matic allowed Manchester to regain control of the match and Ronaldo, with a master free kick, gave hope to Old Trafford (3 -2, 76th), even if the next trip will take them to Anfield Road on Tuesday to challenge Liverpool.
The Gunners had the opportunity to return to level on points with Tottenham in the event of victory at Southampton, atomized (6-0) last week by Chelsea, but they missed this chance.
However, they largely dominated the match, with 75% possession, 23 shots and big chances like that of Bukayo Saka against Fraser Foster (18th).
But the offensive impotence, which had already slowed down the team at the start of 2022, seems to have made a comeback with this second setback in a row after the one at home against Brighton (1-2), decidedly in verve in the English capital.
All it took was a moment of deconcentration and an overly lax defense on a corner just before the break for Jan Bednarek (1-0, 44th) and the Saints (11th, 39 points) to offer themselves a prestigious success.
His late match being against Chelsea, we can consider that Arsenal has just grilled a good joker in the race for the C1 and he could think back with bitterness to this meeting at the end of the season.
Finally, after 4 wins in a row, Tottenham surprised Brighton (0-1) who have nothing more to hope for or fear from the season.
With this defeat, Tottenham still retains 4th place with 57 points, but it is only 3 points ahead of the Gunners, who have one game less, and Manchester United.
Harry Kane was completely transparent in this match and Son Heung-min, apart from two strikes in the box, blocked by opponents, never weighed much either.
They were finally trapped on an inspiration from the Belgian Leandro Trossard who recovered a dragging ball in the area.
He chained a feint of strike which turned into an inside hook and an outside of the foot at the corner of six meters which left no chance for Hugo Lloris (0-1, 89th) to revive the suspense at the top of the classification .
A revamped but unleashed Dortmund
Despite a decimated workforce, Dortmund put Wolfsburg Wolves (13th) through an ordeal by scoring five goals in a quarter of an hour during the first period.
Marco Rose’s team opened the scoring through Tom Rothe, 17, tenured for the first time in the Bundesliga (1-0, 24th). Axel Witsel doubled the bet in stride (2-0, 26th), then Manuel Akanji came to increase the score (3-0, 29th), imitated by Emre Can (4-0, 34th).
Just before the break, Erling Haaland, who hadn’t scored since the end of January, found his way back to the nets (5-0, 38th) before doing it again in the second period (6-0, 54th). Despite an injury-hit season, the Norwegian has 18 league goals.
Ridle Baku reduced the score late in the game for Wolfsburg (6-1, 81st).
With this broad success, Dortmund prepared the “Klassiker” perfectly against Bayern Munich in a week. Borussia, 2nd with 63 points, is temporarily approaching six points from the Bavarian leader, traveling to Bielefeld on Sunday, even if a tenth consecutive title seems promised to the “Rekordmeister”.
Ousted in the Champions League on Tuesday by Villarreal, Bayern will try to make people forget their surprising European disappointment during their trip to the poorly ranked Arminia Bielefeld on Sunday (3:30 p.m.).
Juventus avoid the worst against Bologna
Failing to win, Juventus Turin has at least not lost… At home, Massimiliano Allegri’s men were jostled but finally snatched an (almost) miraculous draw against Bologna (1-1) during the 33rd day of Serie A. Arnautovic (52nd) opened the scoring for Bologna, but well saved by the exclusions of Soumaoro and Medel at the end of the game, the Bianconeri finally equalized in additional time through Dusan Vlahovic (90th + 5) .
Juventus (4th) is still ahead of Roma by six points but Roma will play against Napoli and could come back three lengths in the event of a victory. Watch out for the potentially nightmarish end of the season…