4 takeaways from Europe: Bellingham goal controversy, Barcelona's injury bug & more
- Real Madrid and Barcelona both dropped points in Spain
- Bayern Munich's poor form continued with a 2-2 draw with Freiburg
- Juventus and Napoli contested an entertaining game
Another week of European football action is in the books.
Over in Italy, we bore witness to some sublime strikes (most notably Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's against Juventus), in Spain we saw terrible refereeing decisions (most notably at the Mestalla) and over in Germany, we saw everything in-between (all bad, all involving Bayern Munich).
Here's the biggest takeaways from this past weekend's continental action.
Jude Bellingham's disallowed goal
Way back in 1978, Clive Thomas infamously blew the full-time whistle of a World Cup game when a Brazil corner kick was mid-flight into the penalty area and destined to be headed into the back of the net by Zico.
The goal didn't stand, and Brazil crashed out of the World Cup.
Fast forward 46 years, and referees are still making the same error.
Although not as pronounced as Thomas' mistake, Spanish official Jesus Gil Manzano hit the headlines for blowing up for full-time a literal nano-second before Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham headed home what he perceived to be a winning goal at the Mestalla on Saturday.
The goal didn't stand and Los Blancos lumbered back to Madrid with just one point and Bellingham suspended for the next game after being shown a red card for his protestations.
Pedri and Frenkie de Jong suffer injuries
As well as boring their fans to literal (probably) tears on Sunday evening with their 0-0 draw against Athletic Club, Barcelona also ended the game with their two star midfielders on the sidelines nursing injuries.
Frenkie de Jong was the first to come off in the 25th minute, being carted off by an emergency vehicle after landing awkwardly on his ankle.
Things then went from bad to worse as Pedri came off just before half-time with a muscle injury. The 21-year-old has endured a torrid time with muscle ailments in the last few seasons, missing 69 games for both club and country since 2021.
Napoli and Juventus play out Serie A classic
While Barca were putting people to sleep in Spain, Napoli and Juventus were playing out an all-time great game at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Italy.
Despite both sides struggling for form of late (most of the season in Napoli's case), the two Italian giants brought the best from one another on Sunday evening.
With 32 shots on goal between the pair, a missed penalty, three goals (including two stunners from Kvaratskhelia and Federico Chiesa) and a dramatic 88th-minute winner, it's fair to say that Napoli's eventual 2-1 win over Juve had it all.
Check out the highlights if you missed it.
Bayern Munich are just plain bad
Ten points adrift of Bayer Leverkusen, on the brink of Champions League elimination and with just one win in their last five games, it's time to call a spade a spade:
Bayern Munich are a bad football team right now.
They proved that once again with their tepid outing against Freiburg on Friday evening, conceding a late equaliser against a team they'd only dropped points to on one prior occasion since 2021.
Big changes are needed in Bavaria this summer.
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