Dhe former national soccer player Mesut Özil has to cope with the first setback at his new club Fenerbahce Istanbul. The Rio world champion, who was still waiting in vain for his starting eleven debut, lost the Süper Lig summit with Fener against record champion Galatasaray Istanbul 0: 1 (0: 0) and thus also the championship lead to the local rivals. Özil came on the pitch nine minutes after the tour by Mostafa Abdallah (54th), but was unable to turn the game around in favor of the home side in his second appearance since moving from Arsenal to the Bosporus.
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In the table, Özil’s team fell behind their arch rivals due to the worse goal difference. On Sunday, Fenerbahce could even slip to third place with their fifth defeat of the season if Besiktas Istanbul wins at Konyaspor. Özil made his debut for Fenerbahce last Wednesday. The Gelsenkirchen native was substituted on 13 minutes before the final whistle when his team won 2-1 at newly promoted Hatayaspor.
The French world champion Raphaël Varane saved Real Madrid from an embarrassing setback in the battle for the Spanish championship. The 27-year-old scored both goals on Saturday for the disappointing record champions to make it 2-1 (0-0) at bottom of the table SD Huesca. Varane scored in the 55th and 84th minutes and turned the game around after the hosts took the lead through Javi Galan (48th).
Thanks to their success in the Primera División, Real shortened their gap to leaders and city rivals Atlético to seven points and improved to second. Atlético have played two games less than Real Madrid (21 games). Atlético will face Celta Vigo on Monday, while FC Barcelona can push Real from second position on Sunday with a win at Betis Sevilla.
Before the game it became known that captain and defense chief Sergio Ramos had had an operation on the medial meniscus of the left knee on Saturday and was out for weeks. The association announced that the intervention was successful. The 34-year-old Ramos, whose contract expires after June 30, sustained the injury on January 14 in a 2-1 defeat by Athletic Bilbao in the semi-finals of the Spanish Supercup and has already missed three games.
Arsenal FC continued to lose ground in the battle for the European Cup places. Without their red-banned German goalkeeper Bernd Leno, the Gunners conceded their tenth defeat of the season in the English football championship on Saturday at Aston Villa with 0-1 (0-1). Ollie Watkins scored the winning goal for the hosts at Villa Park after just 75 seconds.
Arsenal were in the Premier League at the start of the 23rd matchday with 31 points initially in tenth place. The former Leno from Leverkusen was absent because he saw the red card in the 2-1 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers last Tuesday. Before that, the Brazilian central defender David Luiz had to leave the field for a foul with red.
With his 16th goal of the season in Serie A, five-time world footballer Cristiano Ronaldo paved the way for three more points for Italy’s record champions Juventus Turin in the duel against AS Roma. In the 2-0 (1-0) against the capital city club, the 33-year-old was successful in the 13th minute to the opening goal for the old lady. The Roman Ibanez (70th) also made an own goal. With 40 points, Juve ranks third behind leaders Inter Milan (47) and pursuers AC Milan (46).
Inter had already won 2-0 (1-0) at Fiorentina on Friday, Milan have home right against FC Crotone on Sunday (3 p.m.). Ronaldo and Co. were able to outstrip the Roma (39 points). National player Robin Gosens had previously contributed a goal for Atalanta Bergamo, who lost a 3-0 lead against FC Turin and had to be satisfied with a 3: 3 (3: 2) in the end.
Gosens was successful in the 19th minute to make it 2-0. It was the fifth Serie A goal of the season for the 26-year-old from Emmerich. Josip Ilicic (14th) and Luis Muriel (21st) also met for Atalanta. Before half-time, Torino was able to shorten it to 2: 3 with two goals, the goal for the final score fell in the 84th minute.
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