Honestly, if you weren't glued to the screen yesterday, you missed some of the weirdest, most intense mid-week football we've seen in a long time. It wasn't just about the giants winning; it was about how close they came to falling flat on their faces. From a freezing St. James' Park to a chaotic night in Rome, the scores of football games yesterday tell a story of big-money signings finally paying off and teenagers making history in the most heartbreaking way possible.
Let's talk about Manchester City. They went into Newcastle for the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-final and, for about 45 minutes, it looked like they’d forgotten how to play football. It was flat. It was sluggish. Then, Antoine Semenyo happened. The guy just joined from Bournemouth for $87 million last week, and he’s already looking like the steal of the century. He poked one in at the 53rd minute, and despite a VAR check that felt like it took three years to finish, City eventually walked away with a 2-0 win thanks to a late Rayan Cherki strike.
But Newcastle fans have every right to be fuming. They hit the woodwork twice. If Sandro Tonali’s shot had been two inches to the left, we’d be talking about a completely different second leg.
The Chaos in Italy: Roma vs. Torino
If you want to see a manager's blood pressure spike, just watch the highlights of Roma’s 3-2 loss to Torino in the Coppa Italia. This game was basically a fever dream.
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Roma looked dead and buried until Gian Piero Gasperini—who’s always been a bit of a gambler—threw on a 16-year-old kid named Antonio Arena. Get this: the kid scores with his first ever touch in professional football. A header. At the Olimpico. You could hear the stadium erupt from miles away.
But in typical Roma fashion, they blew it. A 90th-minute corner, a fumbled ball by Mile Svilar, and Emirhan Ilkhan pokes it in to send Torino through. Just like that, the fairy tale ended.
Spanish Giants and German Grinds
In Spain, the Copa del Rey provided the usual "big team survives a scare" narrative. Atletico Madrid barely scraped past Deportivo La Coruna with a 1-0 win. It took a vintage Antoine Griezmann free kick in the 61st minute to break the deadlock. If you haven't seen the replay, find it. The ball curled in a way that shouldn't be physically possible.
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Meanwhile, over in Germany, the Bundesliga didn't disappoint:
- VfB Stuttgart 3-2 Eintracht Frankfurt: Deniz Undav is basically a cheat code right now. He led the comeback after Frankfurt took an early lead through Rasmus Kristensen.
- Borussia Dortmund 3-0 Werder Bremen: A professional, clinical demolition. Nothing flashy, just Dortmund doing Dortmund things to stay in the title hunt.
- Mainz 2-1 Heidenheim: A gritty, ugly win that Mainz desperately needed.
Lower League Magic and Postponements
It wasn't all glitz and glamour. The EFL Trophy saw some absolute goal-fests. Bristol Rovers and Plymouth Argyle put on a seven-goal thriller, with Plymouth edging it 4-3.
Weather played its part too. If you were looking for the Hamburg vs. Bayer Leverkusen score, forget it. The German winter claimed that one, and the match was postponed. Same goes for several National League fixtures in the UK.
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What Really Matters from Yesterday's Scores
The takeaway from the scores of football games yesterday isn't just the numbers on the board. It's the shifting momentum. Manchester City is integrating new talent faster than anyone expected. Roma is in a full-blown identity crisis. And the Spanish giants are looking vulnerable against second-tier opposition.
If you’re betting or just following the season, keep an eye on these three things:
- Semenyo’s Form: If he keeps scoring at this rate, City might actually run away with all four trophies this year.
- Newcastle's Luck: They are playing well, but they can't buy a goal. That second leg at the Etihad is going to be desperate.
- Torino’s Quarter-Final: They face Inter next. Given how they handled Roma, don't count them out as a dark horse for the trophy.
If you’re looking to catch up on the action, the best move is to watch the condensed highlights of the Roma/Torino match first—it’s the best pure entertainment of the bunch. After that, keep an eye on the injury reports coming out of Newcastle; they looked battered by the end of that City game.