Another Magical Night in Istanbul; a Liverpool Perspective.

History as they say do repeat itself. Last Night, Liverpool came out Victorious in the Fashion similar to what they did In that Same city In 2005. 14 years apart but the cascade of events seems very Similar. It was Like it was Happening all over again but this time around, History decided to alter the some details.

Throwback to the Champions League Final of 2005. A poor performance from Liverpool gave Milan a 3 goal Half time lead. One for Paolo Maldini and 2 for Hernan Crespo. Liverpool dressing room was said to be gloomy that even Rafa Benitez unknowingly wanted to field 12 players but thanks to Jaime Carragher for bringing him to reality, that didn't happen. We know how the second half went, Liverpool equalized 3-3 and went on to win The Game 4-3 on penalties.

The Man of the Hour was Jerzey Dudek, As he saved a Andriy Shevchenko's Paneka to win the game for the scousers.

Last night was no different. Adrian San Miguel stepped up to save Tammy Abraham's Penalty to win the game for Liverpool 5-4. But this time around, The Tournament was the UEFA Super Cup & not the Champions League.

A frustrating First half & then a comeback in the Second half. Followed by some extra time drama before Adrian Saved the day. We could say Istanbul is really a Magical place for Liverpool on European Nights.

From Barcelona to Stoke City; What went Wrong for Bojan Krkic?

From scoring 900+ goals for Barcelona's youth Set Up to getting Relegated with Stoke City to the Championships. We look at the highlight of once a promising talent of Bojan Krkic.


Born in August 1990 to Bojan Krkic & Maria Perez in Catalonia. Bojan Krkic Jnr was admitted into Barcelona's famed La Masia Academy in 1999. Quite impressive did he grow as a Player that he outclipped Messi to be the youngest player to play for Barcelona as at 2008 (Now the 3rd youngest ever) when he came on to play against Osasuna. The following game would see Bojan make his Champions League Debut while replacing Lionel Messi in a Game at Lyon. Bojan Would however make his first start against Villareal and marked it with a goal. He is the youngest player ever to Score for Barcelona.


Compared because of his style of play with Lionel Messi And also because of both of them Sporting the same haircut. Bojan was called up to link up with the Spanish Squad ahead of the 2008 Euros in which he declined stating he had mental unrest. Truth be told, Bojan was dealing anxiety. He just couldn't cope with how things were moving too fast for the 17 year old.

Spain won the Euro's in 2008.

Spain eventually w/o  the Euro's that year and Bojan was left rueing about a missed oppurtunity. But not someone to hold into the past, Bojan Continued to dominate with FC Barcelona as they conquered Spain and Europe winning Sextuple. However, Things took a turn for the youngster with the arrival of David villa.  Bojan was forced to look elsewhere for playing time. AS Roma came calling and which Bojan duely obliged. He was loaned to Roma from Barcelona.


Bojan racked up 7 goals in as many games for Roma but wasn't enough for the Giallarossi to trigger his release Clause for €24.5M. The next season, Krkic Bojan was Shipped off to A.C. Milan on Loan. He got the ground Running in Milan also but the Rosonneri didn't think he'll be Good enough. The following season, Bojan was loaned out to Ajax Amsterdam. Scoring only 5 goals. Bojan was not impressive to the Dutch side.

Purchased by Stoke City from Barcelona for £1.4M. Bojan had an interesting start to life in England. Scoring the winners against Arsenal, Everton and Tottenham in his first Season. But Bojan still wasn't able to make an impression enough in his 5 years stay with the potters. He was Shipped out to Slaves before his Contract ran out with the Midlands Club.

Now aged 29, Bojan has signed For MLS Canadian  side Montreal Impact. He hasn't really been that lucky in his Career but he'll be hoping to start a New Chapter of his Life far away in the New World.

Premeir League Gameweek 1 Review

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West Ham vs Manchester City: The game was as expected, Manchester City controlled the game from the starting whistle to the final whistle. Man City had the most possessions, shot on target, shots, touches, passes, tackles, clearance, man city attacked so well they had the most offside. Sterling and Mahrez were the star man. An absolute game of attacking Prowess.

Bournemouth vs Sheffield Utd: This is a shocking game as Bournemouth was expected to win the game. Bournemouth were a little disappointing, though they had the most possessions, most touches and most passes, they also had most shots with 13 but had only 3 of it on target the same with Sheffield. It was a good performance by Sheffield considering they just joined the Premier league since the 2006/7 season.

Burnley vs Southampton: this is one of those games where one team is the attacking force and the other team is the one that scored all the goals. Yeah, Southampton controlled the game for most of the game but their strikers weren’t clinical enough in the final third, while Burnley struggled but their strikers were on fire, they took almost every chance they got, not the performance Burnley wanted but this is a case of “THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS”.

WATFORD VS BRIGHTON
Vintage road was the venue as a decent & determined Brighton beat the hornets 3 goals to nil in the presence of the watching Watford Faithfuls. Abdoulaye Doucoure’s first half own goal gave Brighton the lead but Brighton had to wait for the second half for the moment of brilliance to happen. It took two super subs in Florian Andone and Neal Maupay to steal 3 points. A neat montoya's cross located Andone who tapped it in the bottom corner as Lewis dunk pass from his own half found Maupay who rounded up Forster before slotting it home. WATFORD threatened and Brighton responded with Lewis dunk block on Craig Dawson’s shot. Graham potter’s side was the better side of the encounter.

TOTTENHAM VS ASTON VILLA
Tottenham welcomed Aston Villa to the white heart Lane in a thrilling 4 goal encounter. Aston villa took the early lead in the 7th minute after a quick counter from a misplaced pass as John Mcginn slot it past Hugo Lloris. TOTTENHAM didn't find the break trough until late in the second half as New signing Tanguy Ndombele rocketed home from outside the box. Spurs scored minutes later as Harry Kane was found the net after a poor villa clearance. A 3rd was scored in Added time as Mauricio Pochettino’s side kicked of their campaign with a flying start.

CRYSTAL PALACE VS EVERTON
Jordan Pickford was the man of the hour as he made 2crucial saves to help Everton salvaged a point. The English goalie denied both Jordan Ayew and Max Meyer in the second half as Morgan Schnerderlin sees Red for Everton. Everton dictated Possesion and Gylfi Sigurdsson had an effort cleared of the line in the first half. Wilfred Zaha was introduced in the 65th minute to a warm applause from the palace fans for the Ivorian who handed a transfer request days ago. Marcos Silva and Roy Hodsgon both shared the pools as the game ended in a goal less draw.

Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal:

Gunners Edges the clarets thanks to Aubameyang decisive strike. The day started so bad with Mhkitaryan missing a big chance in the match's Early minutes, the goal finally came just before the hour mark thanks to maitland Niles pass to the Gabonese striker for a Sublime finish. Arsenal New signing Pepe also made his premeir league debut as he came on as a Substitute.

Leicester City 0-0 Wolves:

Wolves were left to Curse premeir league new Signee 'Var' for denying them an opening day victory. 

Dendocker noded in from close range a corner by moutinho but the goal was disallowed due to premier league new handball rule. The new rule states any goal scored or created with the use of the hand or arm will be disallowed this season in the Premier League, that was not all as they were lot of missed chances from both sides.

Manchester 4-0 Chelsea

Ruthless and Relentless!! That was the case at old trafford as the Reds thump chelsea to a 4 to Nil defeat. The day started bright for the visitors as chelsea looked so promising after hitting the woodwork twice, United got the first goal after a clumpsy attack from Zouma that gave away a penalty, Neatly Finished by Marcus rashford, at the 2nd period of the game united score 2 Goals in Quick succesion thanks to martial and rashford again. The devil's new man Daniel James came in as a substitute and scored from his first shot of the match to make it 4. The Blues were left to no avail as all effort proved abortive thanks to United Shot stopper, De Gea.

That Wraps up the first week of the new campaign and we go ahead next week dont forget to follow us on Twitter @3ifootball and Also like Our Facebook Page.

PREMIER LEAGUE STATS - GAME WEEK ONE

The Premier League has kicked of with some beautiful, Adrenaline filled, Shocking atmosphere. In just yesterday and Today, we've seen 22 goals scored in 7 games. That's a great stat to the campaign and we at 3i Football would like to bring to you 5

stats in this 7 games provided by Opta (the official stats partners of the Premier  League.

JACK GREALISH - UNLUCKY!

"Jack Grealish has now lost 19 Premier League games in a row - the longest run of any player in the competition's history. Suffering. "

Jack might have to wait a little bit more to grab a win or could he make 20 in the next game??

SCOTT MCGINN & TANGUY NDOMBELE - INSTANT!

Tottenham vs Aston Villa is the first match to see both sides have a player score a

Premier league debut goal since Burnley (Scott Arfield) vs Chelsea (Diego Costa) in August 2014.

Tanguy Ndombele

Scott Mcginn.

GRAHAM POTTER - STARTER!
Graham Potter has won as many premier league games as a manager as he did in eight appearances as a player in the competition; his only victory as a player was 6-3 against Man Utd with Southampton in 1996-97.

MANCHESTER CITY - CONQUERORS!
Today's victory against West Ham was Man City's biggest ever in an opening game of a top-flight campaign.

RAHEEM STERLING - HAT TRICK!!!!
Raheem Sterling is the eighth player to score a hat-trick on the opening weekend of a Premier League season, and the first since Didier Drogba in 2010-11.

TOP 10 WEIRD TRANSFERS OF THE 2019 SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOW

The English Transfer Window  closed officially today at 17:00 GMT bringing the Summer window over in England. It's been a really busy summer for clubs in England and also Europe. We've seen some Bargains and Transfer Records been smashed in the just ended window. But We at 3i Football would like to take a look at 10 weird transfers of  this Transfer window.


10. Andy Caroll

Steve Bruce & Andy Carrol.

The Reason why Andy is taking our No.10 spot is because many of us have forgotten Andy Carrol still plays Football. Initially from Newcastle, Andy Carrol returns home after spending 8 injury filled years at West Ham & Liverpool. The only weird thing we can see about this Transfer is why Newcastle picked him up after Signing Joelignton for £40M???.


9. Cancelo- Danilo Swap

Cancelo pictured left, Danilo pictured on the right.

Manchester City announced on wednesday to have parted way with Danilo in a deal which saw them secure the signature of Juventus fullback Cancelo; A young player at arguably the best moment of his best form ever .

It was indeed a shocking one as the Turin side let go of one of the Best Full back in the world,Juventus recieved  €28m and Danilo as part of the deal. Danilo had just 1 Premeir league start in the just concluded 18/19 premier league season .

The weird Part is what made Juventus sell Cancelo in the first place??. He only joined them last season from Valencia. Besides, Why would Manchester City buy Cancelo if they are still going to play Kyle Walker??, Could it be because of squad depth??.


8. Neto & Cillesen.

Neto was swapped with Cillessen indirectly. 

Look at it this way, Valencia bought Jasper Cillesen from Barcelona only for Barcelona to replace jasper Cillesen with Neto from Valencia. That's very weird right??.

Neto move to Barca is weird mainly because he swapped by from Valencia with Cillessen plus €35million. Now couldn’t Barca just swapped players and even if they’re going to add a price it shouldn’t be as high as 35 million. We can understand that Barca are trying to get rid of unused players, yes, Since singing Cillessen form Ajax in 2016 for €13million he’s only had 5 appearances for Barca, but will swapping Neto for Cillessen not end up in the same situation and Barca will be back to where it started. The question is do they plan on playing Neto more or is he going to rot on the bench like Cillessen did?

7. David Luiz.

David Luiz joined Arsenal from Chelsea for £8M

Dumping West London For North London is absurd but what's more weird is joining Arsenal from Chelsea. He’s definitely not the first to do so (3rd in recent times) but competition can not be the reason for David Luiz to Join Arsenal Because Chelsea are playing the Champions League and have limited options for players in their squad due to their transfer Ban.

The rivalry between Chelsea and Arsenal stretches back decades and a number of players have gone on to play for both clubs, now David Luiz is the newest player to make such a bold move.  David Luiz has moved to North London form West London. Yes, Luiz isn’t the first person to move from Chelsea to Arsenal and Vice versa but those players are considered a traitor by the fans of their previous team e.g Ashley Cole, we hope he can play we such a pressure breathing down his neck. 

It could be that David Luiz Preferred Unai Emery over Frank Lampard as his ideal coach. But what ever reason that made him leave, Only David Knows! 

6. Rodrygo Goes

Rodrygo joined Madrid fromSantos for €45M.

Imagine paying €50M for a relatively Unknown 18 year old from Brazil. Yup, Real Madrid paid €45M to Santos for his Services.

Rodrygo: Real Madrid paid a sum of €45 million for an 18 year old forward. This transfer is so weird because before the signing of Rodrygo, no one knew him and for Madrid to pay such a huge sum of money on an unknown player, you’d think maybe his stats are good and he’s a promising player but it’s not the case, Rodrygo has played 41 times for Santos scoring only 9 times, this is not a great stat or a sign of a promising young player. We did a little research to know more about him and his stats were nothing to talk about. Whoscored.com rated him as follows;

• Finishing                                WEAK

• Areal Duel                             WEAK

• Crossing                                 WEAK

• Defensive contributions     WEAK

To us at 3i he doesn’t worth such a huge amount, but who knows maybe this move might be what he needs to be the best amongst his peers. 

5. Lucas Hernandez

Lucas Hernandez in a Bayern Shirt.

Bayern Munich coughed up £67M for the Frenchman from Atletico this Season. Now that's a whole lot of money for someone who isn't  Andy Robertson.

The 23 year old World cup Winner joined The Bavarians this summer as a Replacement for Daniel Contento and hopes to boost their Defence line after Adding another Frenchman Benjamin Pavard to it's Ranks. But £67M seems a bit excess for Lucas Hernandez. We hope to see him perform this coming season.

4. The Hazard Situation.

Throgan Hazard & Kylian Hazard representing Belgium.

Chelsea sold Eden Hazard to Real Madrid for €130 Million and replaced him with Borussia Dortmund's Christian Pulisic.

Dortmund signed Borussia Mochengladbach's Throgan Hazard to replace Christian Pulisic.

In other words, we can Say 'Chelsea signed Pulisic to replace Hazard and Dortmund signed Hazard to replace Pulisic'. Now that's a funny but weird one.

3. Harry Maguire 

Harry Maguire joined Unted from Leicester for £80 Million.

Manchester United broke the world Record Transfer Fee for a defender for a Defender whose stats in the League last Season was no better than Mustafi's.  The 26 year old Sheffield product was sold by Leicester for a whopping £80 Million. That's £5M more than what Liverpool  paid for Van Dijk Last year. The price tag seems very absurd and it's gonna raise question to the players performance this season.

Harry has got to prove his worth this season or he'll be consider as one of the greatest flops of all times.


2.Antoine Griezmann

Griezmann in Action for Barcelona.

Why Leave Atletico and move to Barcelona only for you to go under Messi's shadow??. The move seems inappropriate for the fact that Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are bitter rivals at the moment.


The French Forward left atletico to a rival side, Barcelona. The catalonian giant had to trigger the released clause of the world cup winner to Secure his service and i can say it was one which no one saw Coming. Griezmann who have previously shown loyalty to the madrid side by turning down Transfer from top clubs of which England giant Manchester United are among. Griezman Signs a five year deal with barcelona with his new release clause set about €800million.

What's more weird is his release Clause, who would want to pay €800M for a 27 year old?. It's ridiculous!!!.

1 . João Felix

João Felix in Atletico.

Paying  £113M for a Teenager is Mind blowing, And binding him the no.7 seven shirt is weird. Although, Kylian Mbappe has put us wrong on the “He is too young” mentality . But João Felix move to Atletico is super weird. Atleti are replacing a 27 year old Griezmann with a 19 year old Felix. João Felix has some big boots too fill and he has to justify his Price tag.

Mind you, João Felix had only 1 international cap to his name and has a release clause of €350M. The whole transfer feels weird but João is an Amazing talent.