Sunday, 09.03.2025
One of the lesser-mentioned teams going into the 2018 World Cup is Age Hareide’s Denmark side. This may be because of their apparent lack of immediate superstar talent, but further investigation suggests that Hareide makes excellent use of the resources at his disposal. The Danes are far from remarkable but represent an efficient footballing machine that may yet cause a shock or two.
The German team travels to Russia as current holders of the World-Cup title. And despite the DFB selection once again being named among the inner circle of favourites, perfection is nowhere to be found.
As we enter a summer of international football, with the world’s best battling it out for the World Cup, at Spielverlagerung we will be covering all the action slightly differently from previous tournaments. Like we have done before with Champions League qualifiers, we will be posting a recap of each day’s action, featuring all of the games played. We will pick a feature match from each day’s action and complement it with concise reports of the other group games.
Argentina struggled to qualify for this summer’s World Cup in Russia. They have been drawn into what could be a very competitive and difficult group, but they have the potential to challenge for the trophy if everything comes together for them.
We preview France, a team hoping to avenge their Euro 2016 final defeat behind stable organization, threatening attacking transitions, and one of the most talented squads in the tournament.
Back to back holders, Real Madrid met Liverpool in the 2018 Champions league final in Kiev. Without a league title to fight for, or any other trophies this clash had dominated the thoughts and preparations of both sides since they progressed from their respective semi-finals.
Atletico Madrid triumphed in a European final for the first time since 2012 by beating Marseille 3-0 in Lyon. The match was characterised by Atleti excelling in all defensive phases and turning regains into swift counter attacks.
Bayern make it to the DFB-Cup final over Bayer. Even if the team from Munich don’t do anything special at the moment, they’re especially good at what they’re doing.
Dortmund’s tenure with Peter Stöger as manager has hit a low – to the tune of a massive six goal loss to Bayern in Der Klassiker.
For the second edition of the SV Observatory, we profile the two biggest matches in Turkey over the weekend. League leaders Galatasarary visited their eternal rivals Fenerbahce over on the Asian side of Istanbul, sitting in fourth pace prior to kickoff. Elsewhere in the city, newcomers to Turkish success Istanbul Basaksehir hosted Besiktas, where both sides hoped to close the gap to one point on Galatasaray.
