(Reuters) – Talking points from the weekend in European soccer leagues:
IT’S GETTING TO THE END OF THE SEASON, AND INTER ARE OUT OF SHAPE
There was a visible sense of frustration on the face of Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi as he watched his team’s win slip away during the final moments of Friday’s 1-1 draw at Salernitana, maintaining the trend of negative performance at a critical point in the season.
Fans are starting to get nervous as Inter have gone six games without a win and have only scored three goals during this period, raising concern that it might be too late to turn around the form.
Having slipped to fifth place in Serie A, the team are now in real danger of missing the Champions League next season.
With the success of the season depending on this month’s games, Inzaghi admits there’s no easy way to break out of this dry spell.
“We’re going through a complicated spell in the league and know how football works. We’re not being rewarded in terms of results, but what we can do is work even harder.”
Inter next play away at Benfica in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday.
EINTRACHT IMPLOSION
Less than a year ago Eintracht Frankfurt were crowned Europa League champions and qualified for this season’s Champions League competition.
But their 3-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday confirmed their sharp downward trend in 2023, having won just three of their 12 league games this year.
They have dropped to seventh place and are two points behind Leverkusen, who occupy the last Europa Conference League spot. But for coach Oliver Glasner, there is no reason for any crisis talk.
“I will not be provoked today,” he said at the start of his news conference when asked about his team’s performance in recent weeks.
Eintracht have not won any of their last six league games.
“Easter is a celebration of peace. We will give the players two days off. They deserved it even though they lost. I wish you and your families the very best,” he said before getting up and cutting the news conference short.
ANOTHER WARNING FOR ERRANT DUTCH SUPPORTERS
Feyenoord supporters were handed another stark message about their behaviour on Sunday – this time by their own players -ahead of the league win over RKC Waalwijk in their Rotterdam stadium.
There has been much criticism over the violence in the stands at Dutch matches after Ajax Amsterdam’s Davy Klaassen was struck on the head by an object thrown from the stands in Rotterdam in the midweek Dutch Cup semi-final.
The incident caused a lengthy delay to the match, during which time Feyenoord’s assistant coach and club icon, John de Wolf, took to the public address to admonish his side’s fans and tell them to “use their common sense”.
The same slogan was on the shirts of Feyenoord players as they came out for Sunday’s league game, a 5-1 win that kept them eight points clear at the top and inched them closer to the title.
The Dutch football association (KNVB) have since obliged referees to stop matches if there are disturbances in the crowd, and Feyenoord were taking no risks over objects being thrown into the field again, as they played with netting around the entire field on Sunday.
They are next up against Roma in the Europa League on Thursday.
REAL AND ATLETICO AT OPPOSITES IN LALIGA
Atletico Madrid started 2023 clinging on to fifth place and looking ahead to the fight for Champions League places while losing at home to LaLiga leaders Barcelona.
Since then, Jan. 8, Atletico have not lost again, extending their unbeaten league run to 12 games and claiming a fifth consecutive win by beating Rayo Vallecano 2-1 on Sunday to move within two points of bitter rivals Real Madrid.
Real, still second with 59 points, suffered a hangover from their big midweek Copa del Rey semi-final win over Barcelona, losing 3-2 at home to Villarreal on Saturday.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side opened the door for Barcelona to go 15 points clear at the summit with a win over Girona on Monday and will now aim to claim the domestic cup for the first time in nine years while defending their crown in the Champions League, where they host Chelsea in the first leg of their quarter-final tie on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Tommy Lund, Janina Nuno Rios and Mark Gleeson; Editing by Jamie Freed)
