Real Madrid finishes the season with only one big trophy – the Spanish Cup. It was not possible to defend the Champions League and La Liga, but Diario AS assures that Madrid still have the motivation to spoil the season for Barcelona. Rather, only Robert Lewandowski.

It is reported that Real Madrid will do everything to help Karim Benzema take the Golden Boot of La Liga. 4 matches before the end of the championship, Benzema has 17 goals, Lewandowski has 21.

If we discard Real Sociedad, then Barcelona will not have serious rivals in the last four matches. Benzema has a more complicated calendar: Sevilla and Atlético will have to score.

The task of overtaking Lewandowski looks really difficult, especially considering that Robert is not in the infirmary. However, it will be interesting to watch the scorer race.

After winning Game 1 of the series against Memphis, the Lakers predictably took a day off in Game 2. By the beginning of the third quarter, Anthony Davis’ team was 20 points behind and failed to organize even a semblance of an intriguing ending – 93:103.

The only one who sweated (well, or scored statistics in a lost match) is LeBron James, who could not help but give his best (he has 28 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 12 of 23 in 39 minutes), as he was provoked by the entire match local troll Dillon Brooks.

Both dispersed, satisfied with themselves.

James scoffed at his opponent the whole game – he put his only three-pointer through him, beat him with his back several times, easily attacked from the dribble. Brooks sat on fouls the whole game and spent only 22 minutes, and against the slow David Roddy, LeBron was easier.

Brooks, on the other hand, was habitually disgusting ( not only with his outfits ), but also with a ratio of greyness to utility – 5 out of 14 from the game. However, he converted two three-pointers that closed the questions about the winner, after which he pranced in front of the “old man” like a regimental horse that had drunk a bucket of vodka.

The most interesting part of this tiresome duel happened towards the end. James pulled the Lakers with all his might and in a timeout 4 minutes before the siren completely took the initiative from head coach Darwin Ham. Commentators immediately said that they were told by a specialist before the match: “If LeBron has a good idea, then we will use it, of course.”

What was the idea?

James once again outwitted an overconfident Brooks. He showed that he was not going to attack himself, but only offered a screen on the penalty line for D’Angelo Russell.

While Brooks snapped his beak and controlled the pass to the point guard, James caught his opponent on his back and found himself face to face with the ring.

Then it was a matter of technique: a successful throw from Rui Hachimura – and easy two points.

“They look like two grandmasters, a clash of minds between Fischer and Spassky.”

Editor’s note: This text was first published ahead of the 2020/21 Champions League final. We publish its updated version before a new round of confrontation between Tuchel and Guardiola.

In 2021, Thomas Tuchel became the first coach to reach the Champions League final two years in a row with different teams. At first, his PSG failed to cope with Bayern, but a year later, with Chelsea, they beat Pep Guardiola’s Man City (1: 0) for the third time in a row.

The previous two victories happened in England. In the first 4 months in London, Tuchel dealt with a bunch of top coaches , including Guardiola twice. Chelsea won 1-0 at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-finals and 2-1 at the Etihad in the Premier League.

Pep promised that he would use these defeats as a lesson before the Champions League final. It did not help him then, but in the next season of the Premier League, the Catalan already got used to Tuchel and beat him twice with a minimum score of 1:0. Thomas spoke of his opponent with traditional admiration: 

“When you play with the Guardiola team, you understand that the most difficult match has come. Now he is the coach of the best team in Europe, they are the standard in the league. Playing against Pep is a high level, and it is important to be at a high level of coaching yourself in order to instill confidence in your team and show the best football.”

Tuchel managed to beat Pep only on the sixth attempt. When they worked in Germany, the forces were too unequal: Tuchel’s Mainz lost twice to Guardiola’s Bayern, and the German’s Borussia lost twice and drew once with Munich.

The first ending in their confrontation happened there. In the decisive match for the German Cup, everything was decided only in the penalty shootout.

At the same time, mutual respect and sympathy were always felt. Tuchel, while still at Mainz, flew several times to Barcelona to study Guardiola’s team live. He read all the biographies of Pep and admitted that that Barca was for him the standard of team play.

Once the Mainz coach was watching a documentary about Guardiola on the bus. When a graph appeared on the screen showing Barça’s defensive schemes, he suddenly paused and stuck.

“For some, this picture meant nothing,” says former Mainz sporting director Christian Heidel in an interview with The Independent. “But for Tuchel, it’s a treasure trove of information. The screen remained on pause for two hours. That’s how much Tuchel spent studying the charts.”

Tuchel himself, in an interview with FourFourTwo, explained his attitude to the methods of the Catalan as follows: “Guardiola is the best coach in the world, even if he does not like to admit it. His work at Barcelona made a strong impression on me. But this does not mean that I will copy his style. This is impossible”.  

Their first meeting outside the football field took place in 2014 – in the Munich bar Schumann’s. The participants of that meeting are still talking about this many hours of conversation. 

Smorodskaya could hardly have imagined such a thing.

The former president of Lokomotiv, Olga Smorodskaya, came to the Commentary Show and, in her usual style, told how successfully she managed the club. For example,  she recalled the trial with Lass Diarra: “I won the most important CAS in my life and created a precedent. Diarra won 10 million!”

True, Smorodskaya does not know if this money reached Loko: “They should have received [Ilya] Gerkus, who replaced Smorodskaya as president of the club. And then a dark story.

Sports.ru found out how the story with Diarra’s payments ended, and also found out why Lass is still suing because of the scandalous break with Loko.

Loko terminated the contract with Diarra due to missed training camps. The club talked about the conflict between Lass and Kuchuk, but it was about Smorodskaya

Lokomotiv snatched Diarra at the Anji sale in the summer of 2013. 12 million euros for the Frenchman is still in the top 3 purchases in club history (15 million were given for Mubarak Boussouf at the same time), and in the first six months Diarra fully justified the cost and led Loko to a real fight for the championship. 

In the spring of 2014, Diarra complained about his health – as a result, he scraped together only 17 matches in the championship. Lassa’s toxicity manifested itself both on the field (three removals) and beyond: several times he returned from France later than he should have. 

After the 2013/14 season, Diarra and Boussufa disappeared, missing the summer training camp. “No one from the club can contact. Neither the coaching staff nor the guys succeed. They do not respond to text messages or e-mails, ”said Dmitry Tarasov.

Legionnaires returned only after the start of the new championship, explaining their absence by illness. Boussufa provided the documents – he was forgiven. Diarra had no proof.

“I got the impression that Diarra thought that everything would be as always, he would come, and there would be nothing for him for absenteeism. And he was asked to provide a written explanation and evidence of the disease. It seems that he did not expect such a turn of events, believing that in the worst case, everything would end in a fine, ”said Evgeny Krechetov, the club’s then director of legal affairs.

A new transfer episode in the series about Arsen Zakharyan is a variant with the Turkish Galatasaray. There was no big story.

Zakharyan really could go to Galatasaray?

The plot developed rapidly.

On February 14, the Turkish edition of Fotomac reported on the interest of the Turkish club in Zakharyan. “Championship” added: “Galatasaray” and “Dynamo” contacted about the transition, but the player refused to negotiate.

A week later, insider Nicolo Schira published an insider that Galatasaray was close to signing Zakharyan for 13 million euros for a contract until 2027 with a salary of 1.9 million.

Here Arsen himself conveyed through the “Championship”:“I don’t consider the option of continuing my career at Galatasaray for personal reasons”.

Galatasaray is now leading the Turkish league – nine points ahead of Fenerbahce with an extra match. The team has a powerful streak of 15 wins in a row in all competitions – a club record. There are enough bright names in the team: Fernando Muslera, Juan Mata, Lucas Torreira, Dries Mertens, Mauro Icardi.

In Turkey, the transfer window is open until March 5 – it is logical that rumors still arise. True, the championship there is on pause because of the devastating earthquake. The tournament will resume no earlier than February 25.

What does Zakharyan have with the contract? And with the desire to leave at all?

You definitely remember the saga in August-September: Arsene was very close to Chelsea, the contract was agreed, the terms of the transfer suited everyone – but the English club simply could not pay the Russian one.

According to SE, at least four clubs from Europe wanted to buy Zakharyan in the winter – Mallorca, Celta, Porto and Ferencvaros. Everyone was ready to pay the necessary 15 million euros, but offered different payment schemes. An important detail: this amount of release is valid for Spain and Portugal (and, obviously, other top leagues). In the summer of 2023, the option will be more expensive – 25 million for the strongest leagues in Europe.

Zakharyan has a contract with Dynamo until the summer of 2024.

Arsene wants to go to Europe, he has repeatedly confirmed both this and his interest in himself.

• In September 2021, Zakharyan said that he did not go to Brugge: “I wanted to stay at Dynamo, and it’s good that it happened.”

• Three months later, he told Sport24 that he would like to try himself in La Liga.

• In May 2022, for RB Sport, he developed the idea of ​​wanting to play in Europe: “Yes, I want to. Morally, I’m ready for this, but physically I’m still trying to catch up, I’m trying to gain muscle mass in order to be ready for this. ”

• He spoke about Chelsea in the Commentary Show: “I immediately said that I wanted to and I would go. And there already how it will be. Did not rule out the option that there will be a lease. But at least I’ll try myself. Maybe you can play right away. I was happy, I was very worried whether it would work or not. I scrolled in my head how everything would be there if I went.

So far, Zakharyan has the second part of the season at Dynamo ahead of him, starting with three games in a row against Krylia (two cup games, one more in the RPL). His team is six points away from the top three, in fourth place.

Zakharyan is hardly satisfied with only two goals in the summer-autumn in the RPL, five assists look better – but also not ideal. We will see Arsene on the field in the official match on Thursday in Samara.