13/18 last week, an improvement from the first week which I'm obviously happy about! Let's see if we can keep these decent scores up with this week's prediction...
The best individual performance ever?
Either Dieter Hecking's half-time team talk was disastrous, of Guardiola's "pep" talk to Robert Lewandowski was nothing short of astonishing. Because astonishing perfectly summarises the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half of Wolfsburg versus Bayern Munich, which was played last Tuesday. Wolfsburg were leading 1-0 at half-time and Bayern weren't really at the races; Juan Bernat especially was having a dire game at left back. So, Javi Martinez and the aforementioned Lewandowski were introduced at half-time. It took Lewandowski just six minutes to find the score-sheet. Then a mere 60 seconds to find it again. Then three minutes after that he had his third, the fourth arrived two minutes later and the fifth, another three minutes. You following that? Five goals in nine minutes. I feel for the poor souls that felt the need to change the channel at half-time because what they missed was extraordinary. And to top it all off? Lewandowski scored twice against Mainz at the weekend as well!
League leaders defeated in style
What were the odds on Manchester City, Barcelona and Juventus all to lose 4-1 over the past week? The first upset came in what was a barmy mid-week of football, as Celta Vigo embarrassed Barcelona 4-1 in La Liga; former Liverpool striker and corner specialist Iago Aspas scoring twice and being named as the MOTM. On Saturday it was Manchester City's turn, who, after going ahead, imploded and lost the lunchtime kick-off against Tottenham Hotspur. Any of about four Tottenham players could make this TOTW, but I've opted for Hugo Lloris for balancing reasons; the Frenchman made seven saves in total including an outstanding stop from Raheem Sterling. Finally, we come to Inter Milan, who on Sunday perhaps endured the most embarrassing defeat of all, losing 4-1 at home to Fiorentina. Samir Handanovic had a nightmare game for Inter and Miranda saw red, but the headlines will go to Nikola Kalinic, who scored his first Serie A treble since moving from Dnipro in Ukraine.
Enjoy Folks! #PACKPARTY
First XI
GK: Hugo Lloris (Tottenham Hotspur) - 7 saves, 4-1 vs Manchester City
CB: Sebastien Squillaci (Bastia) - 2 goals, 3-0 vs Toulouse
CB: Shkodran Mustafi (Valencia) - 1 goal, 1-0 vs Granada
LB: Lucas Digne (Roma) - 1 goal & 1 assist, 5-1 vs Carpi
CAM/ST: Hatem Ben Arfa (OGC Nice) - 2 goals, 6-1 vs Bordeaux & 2 goals, 4-1 vs Saint Etienne
CAM: Wahbi Khazri (Bordeaux) - 1 goal & 2 assists, 3-1 vs Lyon
CM: Miralem Pjanic (Roma) - 1 goal, 5-1 vs Carpi
LW: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) - 3 goals, 5-2 vs Leicester City
ST: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) - 5 goals, 5-1 vs Wolfsburg
ST: Agirretxe (Real Sociedad) - 3 goals, 3-0 vs Granada
ST: Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo) - 2 goals, 4-1 vs Barcelona
Substitutes Bench
GK: Carlos Kameni (Malaga) - 8 saves, 0-0 vs Real Madrid
LB: Ben Coker (Southend United) - 1 goal & 1 assist, 2-1 vs Scunthorpe
CB: Carlos Henao (Patriotas) - 2 goals, 3-1 vs Independiente Medellin
LM: Alvaro (Espanyol) - 2 goals, 3-0 vs Levante
ST: Nikola Kalinic (Fiorentina) - 3 goals, 4-1 vs Inter Milan
ST: Jonathan Soriano (RB Salzburg) - 4 goals, 4-2 vs SV Mattersburg
ST: Cyle Larin (Orlando City) - 3 goals, 5-2 vs New York Red Bulls
Squad Link: http://www.futwiz.com/en/custom-squad/5768