On this week, historically within the world of football, Lionel Messi turned on the magic in the MLS, with the first in a prolific spell of scoring stateside, while Liverpool won the title. Go back to the 1970s and 80s and this was not an unusual occurrence, but this title was a long time coming for the Merseysiders, ending a 30-year wait since they last won it.
While Arsenal, having left Highbury, started life at a new home at the Emirates, a stadium that was built to enable them to continue winning league titles. Since moving there, they’ve come close, but as yet, they’ve yet to win another.
Lionel Messi Shows City of New York He’s Still Got it
21st July 2023: New York Red Bulls 0-2 Inter Miami
This week in football history saw Lionel Messi open his scoring account for Inter Miami. Nearly a year on, the Argentine has scored 25 goals for his current club in only 29 games, some of which have been beauties. The twenty-six thousand in the Red Bull Arena in New York were not impressed that Messi started this game on the bench. Brought on with half an hour still to play, Messi took a few minutes to get going, but with a minute left on the clock, he made all those who came to watch him glad they made the trip, showing the vision and close control he’s so well known for.
Taking the ball in the penalty area, he managed to split the Red Bulls’ defence open with a perfectly weighted through ball played with the outside of his boot, before moving into space in the six-yard box to meet the ensuing squared ball with a casual side foot into the empty net.
Liverpool End 30-Year Title Drought
22nd July 2020: the Reds lift the Premier League at Anfield
Between 1970 and 1990, Liverpool won the English title a total of 11 times – four times in the seventies and six times in the 1980s. If, when Alan Hansen lifted the old first division title at Anfield in 1990, you told Liverpool fans they would have wait for 30 years to win it again, you’d have been laughed at, but that’s what happened. Jurgen Klopp had got the Reds close in 2019 – with 97 points, they could count themselves unfortunate to finish second by a point to Manchester City.
The following season, they amassed a whopping 99 points, winning the title by 18 points. Although no stranger to being the English champions, this was the first time they’d achieved it in the Premier League era. Setting off on an incredible run, the Reds won 26 of their first 27 games, not losing in the league until late February 2020, when they went down 3-0 at Watford. This was the first of only three league defeats, which included a four-nil drubbing at Manchester City.
Having won the title with seven games to spare, the 2019/20 season was to be interrupted by Covid. They had to wait until 22 July until they lifted the trophy. Having beaten Chelsea 5-3 at Anfield, Reds skipper Jordan Henderson was presented the Premier League trophy by Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish.
Gunners move into new home
22nd July 2006: Emirates opens with first game vs Ajax Legends
A few months earlier, Arsenal had lost the Champions League final to Barcelona, but in July they played their first game at their new ground, the Emirates, in a friendly with Ajax, which was actually Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp’s testimonial. The Dutchman ranks as one of Arsenal’s greatest-ever players and it was a night where many famous names took to the field.
In the first half, both sides played their traditional teams, with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar giving the Dutch side the lead, before Thierry Henry took Lee Dixon’s cross in his stride to equalise. Nwankwo Kanu scored a deflected winner for Arsenal, but perhaps the biggest part of the night came in the second half, when with 20 minutes left, Denis Bergkamp could be seen beaming as both Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten came off the bench for Ajax, with the latter, leaving Steve Bould for dead before volleying towards goal.
Figo Makes Barcelona Fans Furious With Real Madrid Move
24th July 2000: Unveiled by Madrid after Barca switch
Luis Figo shocked Spanish football 24 years ago, by leaving Barcelona to join Real Madrid, representing one of if not perhaps the greatest shock transfer of all time. Having helped Barca win back-to-back La Liga titles in 1998 and 1999, the Portuguese international not only seen as one of the best players in the world at the time, but was treated like a god by the Catalans, so when he moved to their arch-rivals, they were furious, famously throwing a pig’s head at him on his return to the Nou Camp in a Madrid jersey.
Figo said that during the build-up to that game and in the match itself he felt as if he was in the skin of a murderer. Barcelona won this match 2-0, but that match isn’t as well recalled by the world as the day Figo joined Madrid.
Another milestone for Ronaldo
26th July 2020: helps Juve lift ninth straight title
Cristiano Ronaldo was on the score sheet in a 2-0 win over Sampdoria that secured a ninth Serie A title in a row for Juventus. It capped one of the longest title-winning streaks in football history, and a great goal-scoring year for Ronaldo, who claimed 31 league goals in a season in which he ended with 37 goals in 46 games. This title-sealing goal came on the stroke of half-time, with Ronaldo being involved in Juve’s second, when his goal-bound strike wasn’t held by the Sampdoria goalkeeper, allowing Federico Bernardeschi to score.
A league and cup double was missed by the smallest of margins, with Juve losing the Coppa Italia final to Napoli on a penalty shoot-out. Ronaldo didn’t score in the shoot-out simply because he didn’t get the opportunity to take one. He was designated as the fifth penalty taker, but wasn’t required to take it because Napoli had already won the game.