A pair of results caught my eye on Sunday, and while there were certainly compelling matches elsewhere throughout Europe (notably in England where Stevanage drew Spurs, in Italy where Palermo thrashed Lazio and in The Netherlands where Groningen thumped PSV Eindhoven) I found myself drawn to the day’s grande match between Paris Saint-Germain and Montpellier and Athletic Bilbao’s convincing display at home to Malaga.
Montpellier are a side I’ve tried to keep up with since their last promotion in 2009 and Bilbao are a club I really believe are destined for great things, so long as they can keep hold of manager Marcelo Bielsa.
Here’s how their matches played out.
PSG 2-2 Montpellier
The result: Clusters of goals around the half-time and final whistles added extra drama to a top-of-the-table tilt that pitted one of the richest clubs in the world against one of the most quirky.
The story: One of the fascinating themes of this contest was money, and the match commentator made sure to mention on more than one occasion that PSG playmaker Javier Pastore’s move from Palermo to the French capital in the summer commanded more cash than Montpellier owner Louis Nicollin could expect if he put his club up for sale.
Of course, what Montpellier lack in funds they more than make up for in fun, and Nicollin is very much a part of the good feeling at Stade de la Mosson at the moment. The bombastic, cigarette-smoking 68-year-old is never found lacking for a quote and in the run-up to Sunday’s match remarked that PSG were “stupid” for paying new manager Carlo Ancelotti a salary of five hundred-thousand Euros per month. He also claimed to have never heard of the capital side’s recently-acquired left-back, Maxwell, deadpanning that the player sounded like a brand of coffee.
On the pitch there hasn’t been a more exciting team to watch in Ligue 1 this season than Montpellier, and just six minutes after former Chelsea defender Alex opened the scoring for PSG on Sunday Younes Belhanda equalised, his seventh goal of the season coming in the second minute of first-half injury time.
The act was more or less repeated, albeit reversed, as the second period drew to a close. Montpellier actually went ahead in the 81st minute through John Utaka (Portsmouth fans will remember him) and looked to be headed for a victory before Guillaume Hoarau ensured a splitting of the points with his strike two minutes from time.
The result leaves the status quo intact, which coming into the weekend had PSG atop the Ligue 1 ledger, leading Montpellier by a point.
Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Malaga
The result: Outplayed much of the first half, Athletic Bilbao were fortunate to go back down the tunnel on level terms and re-emerged for the second period a changed side. Manager Marcelo Bielsa, as he so often does, made a pair of inspired substitutions that changed the course of the match, and with the win Bilbao moved into a tie with Espanyol for fourth-place in the standings.
The story: It’s impossible to separate Bielsa from the Bilbao narrative, as the Argentine manager has been the central figure in the Basque side’s surge up the standings this campaign. It was Bilbao who laid down the template for taking points off Barcelona—which they did on November 6 at the San Mamés—and one of the heroes of that encounter, defender Fernando Amorebieta, was not coincidentally one of the players Bielsa tapped on the shoulder to do the business at the interval.
Top-scorer Ferlando Llorente was also deployed (both he and Amorebieta were being rested following Bilbao’s Europa League match against Lokomotiv Moscow), and while both were central figures throughout the second 45 minutes it was Gaizka Toquero who really propelled Bilbao to the eventual three points.
Toquero, a veteran of the lower Spanish leagues before joining Bilbao in 2008, took the corner-kick that Amorebieta converted into goal just shy of the hour-mark, and his delivery from another set-piece just two minutes later was once again worthy of goal, this time turned past Malaga ‘keeper Wilfredo Caballero by defender Mikel San Jose. A minute after that Toquero found the back of the net himself to round out the scoring when he connected expertly with Ander Herrera’s cross and volleyed pat Caballero for his third goal of the season.
With Osasuna, Real Sociedad and Villarreal next up for Bilbao there’s no reason why Bielsa’s men can’t consolidate fourth place before their showdown with third-place Valencia on March 18. Bilbao are currently seven points adrift of Los Che and are showing all the signs of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 1998 and just the fifth time in their history.
