Our 2019 football recap is nearing an end as we reach the final months of the month. This time we’re going back to October. If you’ve missed any of our previous recaps, you can find them by clicking on the relevant title below.
2019 Football Recap - February
Liverpool had an almost perfect October in the Premier League as they won 2 out of their 3 Premier League games, with those victories coming against Leicester and Tottenham at Anfield. Their other game saw them head to Manchester to face rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford, with many people predicting a relatively easy win for Liverpool. That didn’t turn out to be the case as Manchester United took the lead through Marcus Rashford in the first half. Liverpool thought they had equalised when Sadio Mane put the ball in United’s net, but VAR disallowed the goal for handball. With Manchester United looking set for victory, Adama Lallana brought Liverpool level in the 85th minute to rescue a point for Liverpool and maintain their unbeaten start to the season.
Manchester City needed to have a perfect October if they wanted to keep up the pace with Liverpool. That didn’t turn out to be the case as they were stunned by Wolves as Nuno Santo’s men beat the reigning Champions 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium in their first Premier League game in October. Despite winning their remaining 2 Premier League games in October against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, their defeat against Wolves meant that they fell an additional point behind Liverpool in the title race.
October was a poor month for Manchester United, as despite a decent 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Old Trafford, they were only able to win 1 of their remaining 2 games, as they lost their first game away to Newcastle thanks to a goal from Matty Longstaff, with their win coming away to Norwich, which was their first Premier League away victory since February.
After their mixed start to the season, Chelsea maintained their recent good form and had a fantastic October in the Premier League by winning all 3 of their Premier League games against: Southampton, Newcastle and Burnley.
London rivals Tottenham, on the other hand, experienced a miserable October as they were unable to pick up a single Premier League victory in October as they recorded defeats against Brighton and Liverpool, with a draw against Watford being the only point they picked up.
Tottenham’s North London rivals Arsenal also had a poor October in the Premier League as their only victory was a 1-0 win over Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium, with their remaining results being a 1-0 defeat away at Sheffield United and a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace at the Emirates.
Find below some of the key Premier League results to take place during October:
We were treated to 2 rounds of Champions League group games during October as gameweek 2 & 3 took place.
Gameweek 2
Of all the English Champions League participants, it was Tottenham who faced the toughest test during gameweek 2 as they hosted Bayern Munich at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It was Tottenham who opened the scoring through Heung-min Son after 12 minutes, that lead was short-lived however as Joshua Kimmich scored an equaliser for Bayern 3 minutes later, with Robert Lewandowski scoring just before half-time to give Bayern the lead going into the second half. What followed was a Serge Gnabry masterclass as the former Arsenal man scored 4 second half goals to help Bayern to 7-2 victory, with Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane scoring the other 2 goals of the game.
The remaining English sides all enjoyed victory during gameweek 2, as Manchester City beat Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium, Liverpool were victorious in a 7 goal thriller against RB Salzburg, and Chelsea beat Lille 2-1 in France. If you’d like a more in depth look at gameweek 2 of Champions League group stage, the link below will take you to our round-up.
Champions League week 2 round-up
Gameweek 3
Gameweek 3 was fantastic for the English clubs in the Champions League as all 4 clubs were victorious. After their embarrassing 7-2 defeat against Bayern Munich in their previous game, Tottenham needed a response, and they got just as they beat Crvena Zvezda 5-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Harry Kane, Heung-min Son and Erik Lamela getting on the scoresheet for Tottenham.
Another team who scored 5 goals during gameweek 3 was Manchester City as they beat Atalanta 5-1 at the Etihad Stadium. A hat-trick from Raheem Sterling and a brace from Sergio Aguero helped Manchester City to their third consecutive Champions League group stage win and put them well on their way to qualification for the round of 16.
Liverpool were also involved in a high scoring game they travelled to Belgium to face Genk. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave Liverpool the perfect start thanks to his opener after 2 minutes, with him grabbing his second 2 minutes into the second half. Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah also joined the scoresheet and gave Liverpool a 4-0 lead with 3 minutes to go, with Genk scoring a consolation goal a minute later.
Chelsea faced a tough test for their third group stage game as they travelled to Amsterdam to face 18/19 Champions League semi-finalists Ajax in the Johan Cruyff Arena. With the game looking set to be a 0-0 draw, Michy Batshuayi stepped up for Chelsea and gave them the lead in the 86th minute to give them a vital win. If you’d like a more in depth look at gameweek 3 of Champions League group stage, the link below will take you to our round-up.
Just like the Champions League, we were also treated to 2 rounds of games in the Europa League group stage as all 5 British teams continued their journey to qualification to the round of 32.
Gameweek 2
Only 3 of the British teams were able to pick up 3 points during gameweek 2 as Arsenal beat Standard Liege 4-0 at the Emirates, Celtic beat Cluj 2-0 at Celtic Park and Wolves recorded a vital win away at Besiktas thanks to an injury-time winner from Willy Boly. Manchester United, on the other hand, were only able to pick up 1 point from their trip to the Netherlands to face AZ Alkmaar. Rangers were the only British club to face defeat during gameweek 2 as they were beaten 2-1 by Swiss team Young Boys.
Gameweek 3
All 3 English sides were victorious during gameweek 3, with Manchester United beating Partizan Belgrade 1-0 in Serbia, Wolves beating Slovan Bratislava 2-1 in Slovakia, and Arsenal beating Vitoria 3-2 at the Emirates thanks to an injury-time from Nicolas Pepe. Celtic also picked up a victory in their third group stage game as an they beat Lazio 2-1 at Celtic Park. Despite being the only British team not to pick up 3 points during gameweek 3, Rangers’ point away to Porto was huge in their push for qualification for the round of 32, with Alfredo Morelos’ equaliser giving Rangers a vital point in Portugal.
Towards the end of October the Carabao Cup round of 16 took place, and with it came some big clashes.
Southampton went into their tie against Manchester City with abysmal confidence as they found themselves on the wrong end of history in a 9-0 defeat to Leicester at St Mary’s. Goals from Nicolas Otamendi and Sergio Aguero in the first half put the game out of Southampton’s reach, with Aguero scoring his second of the game 11 minutes into the second half. Jack Stephens scored a consolation goal for Southampton with 15 minutes to go and City progressed to the quarter-finals.
The following day saw three big clashes as: Aston Villa hosted Wolves at Villa Park, Arsenal travelled to Anfield to face Liverpool and Manchester United headed down to the capital to face Chelsea.
By far the game of the round was Arsenal’s trip to Anfield as both sides competed in a 1- goal thriller as the game finished 5-5 after 90 minutes, with a Divock Origi equaliser in the 94th minute taking the game to penalties. Both sides had perfect starts to the shoot-out as they each scored their opening 3 penalties, with the turning point being Caoimhin Kelleher saving Dani Ceballos’ penalty. Divock Origi scored the following penalty to give Liverpool the advantage with Curtis Jones scoring the final penalty to give Liverpool the victory.
Despite United’s 4-0 victory over Chelsea at Old Trafford in the first game of the season, Chelsea went into the tie as favourites as they had won their last 7 games, including a 1-0 victory over Ajax in Amsterdam, United, on the other hand, had only won 2 of their last 7 away games. Marcus Rashford put United ahead thanks to a 25th-minute penalty before Michy Batshuayi levelled the score just after the hour mark. Marcus Rashford scored his second of the game thanks to an incredible long-range free-kick to put United ahead once again. Chelsea were unable to find an equaliser and United advanced to the quarter-finals.
The midlands derby between Aston Villa and Wolves saw a Villa win as goals from Anwar El Ghazi and Ahmed Elmohamady cancelled out Patrick Cutrone’s goal to give Villa a 2-1 victory and take them to the quarter-finals. Find all of the Carabao Cup round of 16 results below:
England continued their road to Euro 2020 with 2 more qualifiers during October, with their opponents being the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. A victory in their visit to the Czech Republic would have guaranteed England a place in the Euro 2020 finals the following summer, and a Harry Kane converted penalty after 5 minutes looked like they would be sealing qualification. The Czech Republic had no intentions of allowing that to happen however as Jakub Brabec levelled the score 4 minutes later. 5 minutes before full-time, the Czech Republic took the lead through Zdenek Ondrasek, which proved to be the final goal of the game, meaning England would have to wait a little bit longer before they could guarantee qualification.
3 days later, England travelled to Bulgaria for their 6th Euro 2020 qualifier needing a win after their defeat against the Czech Republic and got off to a fantastic start as goals from: Marcus Rashford, Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling gave England a 4-0 lead going into half-time. Sterling grabbed his second of the game before Harry Kane continued his run of scoring in every Euro 2020 qualifier after his goal 5 minutes before half-time.
Expect Manchester United to be the favourites for this one despite their mixed form under Ruben Amorim. United are unbeaten in the Europa League this season, with three draws and t...
