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A PROPER SHIRT SHOW
If you’re going to plagiarise you might as well copy from the best, but when Hugo Ekitiké decided to pay homage to Lionel Messi by replicating one of the Argentinian’s more iconic celebrations, his tribute came at a cost to Liverpool. While Messi famously wheeled away in celebration, removed his shirt and pointedly held it up in front of the Bernabéu crowd after scoring a late, late winner for Barcelona in a five-goal thriller at Real Madrid in 2017, Ekitiké has now rather more infamously done the same thing after scoring a tap-in from an excellent Federico Chiesa assist against Championship opposition in the third round of Fizzy Cup. And while both players were routinely shown yellow cards for what has now been a bookable offence for more than 20 years, at least the one brandished in the direction of Messi was only his first of the match, so he wasn’t sent off.
“The first one was already needless and, to a certain extent, stupid, as you have got to control your emotions,” seethed Arne Slot of the first yellow his striker was shown for an act of dissent. “With the second one I told him that if you score in the [Bigger Cup] final in the 87th minute after outplaying three players and hitting it in the top corner … I can maybe understand he is like: ‘This is all about me.’ But I’m old-fashioned. If I scored a goal like this I’d have walked up to Federico Chiesa and said: ‘This goal is all about you, this is not about me.’ Needless, not smart … I called it stupid right away.” While the price of Ekitiké’s act of over-exuberance is a one-match ban that rules him out of Liverpool’s trip to Crystal Palace this weekend, he may find himself on the periphery for longer now that Alexander Isak has opened his account for the Reds and is fast approaching full fitness.
Issuing an apology on Social Media Disgrace Instachat that could scarcely have been more sheepish if had been covered in wool while being herded into a pen by a border collie, Ekitiké explained that “the emotion got the better of me tonight” and issued multiple “apologies to all the Red family”. In the fullness of time, when it’s OK for him to look back and laugh at his own tomfoolery, he may even take perverse pleasure in discovering he has become a member of a different kind of “red family” – specifically one whose members also forgot they had already been booked before deciding to disrobe as part of late goal celebrations.
Last year, Amad Diallo was dismissed in similar circumstances after scoring Manchester United’s winner in an FA Cup quarter-final against Liverpool, while Cameroon’s Vincent Aboubakar also received his marching orders for taking off his shirt in celebration after scoring what would prove to be the only goal of the game for Cameroon against Brazil at the last World Cup. Despite seeing his Southampton side lose 2-1 at Anfield, Will Still was certainly able to see the funny side of the early departure of a young player he knows from his days at Reims. “Hugo cracks me up,” he honked. “He’s a funny lad. We caught up before the game, and he said he’d come on and score and then give me a shirt and bugger off, which is exactly what he’s done.”
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QUOTE OF THE DAY I
“When we defend deeper it is because the other [team] are better or we are sh!t. I prefer us to regain the ball high up the pitch, [have] a lot of possession to disturb the structure of the opponents and try to punish them. It’s always been like that and always will be like that. If it doesn’t happen it is because we were bad, not because we want to [be defensive]” – Pep Guardiola defends his, at times, José Mourinho-style tactics that earned the team a draw at Arsenal.
QUOTE OF THE DAY II
“How can you be dominant against such a team if you have … what was the word that was used? Handbrake. Dominance and handbrake, they are two different words. But I accept everything. I will learn more to have a different vision” – Mikel Arteta defends his, at times, José Mourinho-style tactics that earned the team a draw against Manchester City.
I am already bored with the current trend of Liverpool grabbing a winner by way of a late goal in so many games. The ‘will they/won’t they’ has all but disappeared and jeopardy is obviously important as a neutral. The predictability is on a par with an episode of Columbo. As the viewer, already party to the guest star character’s guilt, you know that Columbo is absolutely going to nail the killer with a novel demonstration of how they committed their supposed ‘perfect murder’. Liverpool now allow teams to believe they have snatched a very hard and well-earned point before turning to them in the dying seconds and saying: ‘Oh, just one more thing …’ Perhaps the opposition managers should be replaced by stars such as William Shatner or Faye Dunaway (not many other former Columbo guest stars survive) – Tony Forrest.
Martin O’Neill hits the nail squarely on the head (yesterday’s Quote of the Day). The nonsense of expected goals and the rest of the infinite analysis of seemingly every second of every game and the ever increasing level of statistics is drowning what is basically a simple game. Bill Nicholson summed it up many years ago: ‘Just score one more goal than the other side.’ Another of his tenets was: ‘Keep it simple but keep it quick.’ I, for one, would be happy if journalists would apply the latter. More in hope than anticipation” – Stewart McGuinness.
Re: players booked for taking a free-kick too quickly (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). I was at Loftus Road in October 2009 watching Reading away at QPR. In the first half Ben Watson picked up his second yellow card for taking a free-kick too soon, prompting celebrations among Reading fans. It all went a bit wrong a few seconds later when the replacement taker, Akos Buzsaky, happily curled it past Adam Federici in goal, the first of four for QPR in their victory that night” – Richard Moseley.
If you have any, please send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Tony Forrest, who wins some Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here.
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