Weekend Highlights: Messi vs Hong Kong government and Muller's remarkable career
Goal of the weekend
For the first goal of the new year, we go to Romania. Juan Bauza, an Argentine playing for Craiova, waltzed through the defence of Dinamo Bucharest and tucked the ball away with a delightful backheel. What's more, his goal also probed to be the winner.
The shock of the weekend
It's not often that we find the biggest shock in a showdown between two of the favourites for the Premier League title. This weekend, however, produced two in one game. Initially, Arsenal defender Gabriel claimed the first "honour" by scoring an own goal after a bizarre mix-up.
But the defending for Arsenal's second goal was perhaps even worse, with Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk taking centre stage. He then found himself on the receiving end of a third goal for the Gunners, who dominated a tense match.
From social media
Chelsea fans would surely like the current season to come to a premature end, if not delete it altogether. The 4-2 loss to Wolves further underlined the misery of a team that is supposed to be doing a lot more after a massive summer of strengthening. Instead, they sit in 11th in the Premier League. Some fans are trying to make light of the situation though. When Wolves supporters started chanting the insulting chant "You're f**king s**t," Blues fans just agreed.
The stats of the weekend
Thomas Muller and Bayern Munich are one and the same. The 34-year-old German reaffirmed his status as a serious club legend at the weekend. Saturday's triumph over Monchengladbach, to which he contributed to the first goal, was Muller's 500th win in the Bavarian club's jersey. He reached this impressive milestone in his 690th match. Since 1965, when they were promoted to the Bundesliga, no Bayern player has reached such a milestone.
The story of the weekend
Has an injury to a player on your team ever been dealt with by the government of a foreign country? Inter Miami fans can now say "yes." The MLS team played a friendly in Hong Kong, and the fans there bought not-so-cheap tickets for the match, but the star name didn't show up.
Lionel Messi missed the match due to a muscle injury, and fans who were looking forward to the occasion now want a refund. Hong Kong's cabinet has also stepped in.
"The government and all football fans are very disappointed with the behaviour of the organisers because Lionel Messi did not play. The organisers owe all fans an explanation," the government said in a statement.
The organisers of the event also contributed HK $15 million. Miami coach Tata Martino defended their decision though, saying that sending Messi (and also the injured Suarez) onto the pitch would be too risky. But it's hard to know if he'll find sympathy with the ruling establishment...
Photo of the weekend
Fans of Portuguese team Famalicao waited in vain for their league showdown with Sporting. Although some of them were already outside the stadium, the match was postponed due to safety concerns caused by a strike - an 'unusually large number of police officers' reported sick on the day of the match. Of course, everyone at the club was frustrated with this, and prepared an eloquent message for the fans. "Thank you! When this show is over, we'll be counting on you at the next game."
