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Montrose v Motherwell

Scottish League Cup: Group G

Tuesday 16th July 2024

Motherwell of the Scottish Premiership travelled up to Angus to take on Montrose, who play two divisions beneath them in League One. The match was part of the second round of fixtures in Group G of the Scottish League Cup, which is currently known as the Premier Sports Cup following a sponsorship deal with a pay TV company. Motherwell were the early group leaders, having beaten Edinburgh City 3-0 at home the previous weekend whilst Montrose were losing 3-2 at Partick Thistle.

Fans queuing to enter Links Park for Montrose v Motherwell.
Fans queuing to enter Links Park for Montrose v Motherwell.

Links Park, the home of Montrose Football Club since 1887, can be found just to the east of the town centre, some 600m inland from the long, sandy North Sea beaches that are so enticing on a fine summer’s day. The stadium’s capacity of 4,936 includes 1,338 covered seats in the Bryan Keith Stand, which was constructed in the mid-1990’s, shortly after the eponymous Keith gained control of the club.

This wasn’t my first visit to Links Park, but it was the first time that I successfully managed to witness a football match there. My previous attempt, some ten years earlier, was abruptly thwarted just after I’d paid on the turnstile. Within seconds of entering the ground on a late summer’s Saturday afternoon, the PA system announced that the referee had decided to postpone the match due to high winds. I did at least get a free pie by way of compensation as they sought to find a home for all the hot food that had been prepared.

Montrose prepare to kick off against Motherwell.
Montrose prepare to kick off against Motherwell.

The stadium boasts a 3G artificial pitch, which sees plenty of use as it is shared by local non-league side Montrose Roselea and can also be hired out by the local community. My £12 match ticket (purchased in advance online) allowed access to all home sections of the ground, including the seating, so I opted for a spot in the main stand close to the home dugout.

Links Park as seen from the top of the Bryan Keith stand.
Links Park as seen from the top of the Bryan Keith stand.

Motherwell started the game well and enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession without creating many clear cut opportunities. Montrose defended resolutely but found it difficult to gain a foothold in the opposition half and it seemed only a matter of time until the visitors broke the deadlock.

When the goal came, it was courtesy of a set piece straight from the training ground. Motherwell won a corner on their left side and manager Stuart Kettlewell was heard shouting ‘number 1’ several times to the taker and to some of the players waiting inside the penalty box. The pre-planned routine worked a treat, with an in-swinging corner met at the near post by Irish centre-back Shane Blaney, who headed into the net past the helpless Cammy Gill in the Montrose goal.

The players leave the field at half time with Motherwell leading 1-0.
The players leave the field at half time with Motherwell leading 1-0.

The half time interval came with Motherwell a goal to the good and looking comfortable. I took the opportunity to spend fifteen minutes wandering around the ground to check out the view from some different perspectives. Phyllis’s Pie Hut was clearly popular amongst the home fans, with a sizeable queue of people waiting to taste her wares. It was formally renamed in honour of it’s long-standing custodian, Phyllis McLean, earlier this year to mark her 25 years of service.

Phyllis's Pie Hut did brisk business at half time.
Phyllis’s Pie Hut did brisk business at half time.

I would estimate that around 450 Motherwell fans made the 116 mile journey from North Lanarkshire to Angus, and the bulk of them occupied the end third of the main stand, with the remainder gathering behind the the goal at the eastern end of the ground. It was an impressive travelling support for a Tuesday evening and they were a vocal minority in the crowd of 1,036.

The Motherwell substitutes doing their half time rondos in front of the main stand at Links Park.
The Motherwell substitutes doing their half time rondos in front of the main stand at Links Park.

The second half initially followed a similar pattern to the first, but as it wore on, the home side started to get more and more into the game. It became a more open encounter with Montrose realising that they were capable of getting something out of it whilst Motherwell strove to quell any hopes of a comeback with a killer second goal.

A view from behind the goal in the home end at Links Park.
A view from behind the goal in the home end at Links Park.

It seemed as though Motherwell had done enough to take the three points until Montrose produced a spirited late rally. They had one effort cleared off the line with eight minutes to go and then, four minutes later, they conjured up an equaliser through Ali Shrive, who turned sharply inside the box and guided the ball just inside the far post.

The players watch the penalty shoot-out from the centre circle at Links Park.
The players watch the penalty shoot-out from the centre circle at Links Park.

A quirk of the Premier Sports Cup is that drawn matches go straight into a penalty shoot-out, with the winner getting a bonus point. Therefore, with the match ending 1-1, we were treated to the spectacle of a spot-kick contest. It took place in front of the away fans, and perhaps that made the difference as Motherwell players slotted home all five of their penalties with Montrose missing one to hand the visitors a 5-4 win.

A Motherwell player scores during the shoot-out in front of the away end.
A Motherwell player scores during the shoot-out in front of the away end.

All of which meant that it was close to 10:pm by the time we began to file out of the ground, musing on the rarity of an evening match going to penalties yet still finishing in broad daylight. That’s the beauty of summertime football in Scotland.

Elgin City v Hibernian

Scottish League Cup: Group C

Saturday 13th July 2024

Scottish League Two side Elgin City welcomed Hibernian of the Scottish Premiership to their historic Borough Briggs ground for the opening round of fixtures in the 2024 edition of the League Cup. It was an unseasonably cold ‘summer’s day’ in Moray and warm coats were in order for many of the spectators. There was even a smattering of woolly hats in evidence amongst the crowd. Thankfully, despite the heavy cloud cover, it stayed dry throughout.

Fans arriving at Borough Briggs
Fans arriving at Borough Briggs for Elgin City v Hibernian

Borough Briggs is a quaint little stadium situated just to the north-west of the city centre and easily walkable from the train station. It dates back to 1921 and retains a grassy bank at each end, with a small amount of uncovered concrete terracing behind the goals. The main stand has 478 seats and a covered terrace runs the length of the opposite side of the ground, allowing for a total capacity of 4,520. The site is overlooked from the south by a monument to the 5th Duke of Gordon, which dominates the Eglin skyline atop a small hill.

Elgin City players warming up on the pitch.
Elgin City players warming up on the pitch ahead of their Scottish League Cup Group C clash with Hibs.

Arriving in plenty of time for the 3pm kick off, I found a parking spot in a sizeable public car park conveniently situated a few meters down Boroughbriggs Road from the stadium at a very reasonable rate of £2 for the remainder of the afternoon. Having purchased my £16 ticket online a couple of days previously, I was able to bypass the queue of people paying on the gate and present my QR code for scanning at a turnstile dedicated to ticket holders. The seating area was long-since sold out, so I’d bought a standing ticket and opted for a spot close to the halfway line with a pillar to lean on underneath the terrace roof.

Elgin's Borough Briggs ground starts to fill up.
Elgin’s Borough Briggs ground starts to fill up with a bumper crowd of over 1,700.

I’d estimate that some 400-500 Hibs supporters had made the journey up from Edinburgh to see their club’s first competitive fixture under new manager David Gray. Gray is a former Manchester United youth teamer who went on to have a distinguished career as a player with Hibernian between 2014 and 2021. He’s had three spells as a caretaker manager at the club before finally landing the role on a permanent basis this summer, aged just 36.

Some fresh-faced Hibs ultras take their place in the away end.
Some fresh-faced Hibs ultras take their place in the away end.

A small band of youthful looking, self-styled ‘ultras’ took up residence behind the goal in the away end and provided a backing sound-track of drum beats to accompany the proceedings. The bulk of the visiting fans occupied the end third of the covered terrace that is segregated from the home section by a metal grill just to the right of my vantage point. They accounted for a sizeable proportion of the 1,788 crowd.

Elgin City and Hibs players contest the ball in midfield.
Elgin City and Hibs players contest the ball in midfield.

Elgin City were formed in 1893 and, for the majority of their existence, they competed in the Highland League. However, they gained Scottish Football League status in the year 2000 when they and Peterhead were incorporated into the fourth tier of the national league system. Elgin have remained at that level ever since and struggled last season, only avoiding the relegation play-off by four points. In contrast, Hibernian finished eighth out of twelve in the Scottish Premiership and the gulf in class was apparent from the early stages.

A rare attack for the home side.
The stony gaze of the 5th Duke of Gordon falls upon Borough Briggs as he contemplates a rare attack for the home side.

Hibs’ Dutch striker Dylan Vente opened the scoring in just the eighth minute with a tap-in following a low cross into the danger zone from the right. The visitors were largely in control thereafter and Elgin struggled to hold onto possession for long whenever they ventured into the opposition half. The second goal came just a minute before the interval when the same player struck again, this time heading in a cross from the left.

Yet another cross into the Elgin City box.
Hibs apply some second half pressure with yet another cross into the Elgin City box.

It was one-way traffic for most of the second half, with debutant centre-back Marvin Ekpiteta heading in a cross five minutes after the restart, having stayed forward following a corner. Australian international winger Martin Boyle added a fourth a few minutes later with a strong run and shot from the right flank before Vente rounded off the scoring with another header to complete his hat-trick. A comparatively uneventful final half hour saw Hibs keep their hosts at arm’s length to see out the 5-0 victory.

Full Time. Elgin City 0-5 Hibernian.
Full Time. Elgin City 0-5 Hibernian.

Elgin will rue the fact that four of the goals came from crosses, so there will be plenty of work for them to do on the training ground to address that deficiency ahead of their forthcoming fixtures. Both teams will go on to play Peterhead, Queen’s Park and Kelty Hearts in Group C, with Hibs strong favourites to top the table and progress to the knockout rounds. The best three runners-up from the eight groups will also qualify, but Elgin will require a rapid upturn in form if they are to challenge for one of those spots.

The only dampener to a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon came as I exited the ground, when one of the numerous local seagulls scored a direct hit to my bald patch with some particularly well aimed droppings as it swooped over the concourse. I was thankful that the washrooms were close at hand.

At the time of writing, match highlights were available on YouTube via the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU2seQkcgHk

Saïd Benrahma – Player Profile

Saïd Benrahma initially joined Lyon on loan from West Ham United in February 2024, but the move was made permanent the following summer after the winger impressed with three goals and four assists in his fifteen appearances during the second half of the season. The transfer fee was said to be something in the region of €14 million.

Playing primarily on the left side of the forward line, Benrahma settled in quickly at Lyon and linked up well with Alexandre Lacazette to help the club pull clear of the danger zone at the bottom of the Ligue 1 table and eventually qualify for the Europa League. He had become frustrated by a lack of playing time during his final few months at West Ham under David Moyes, and will be hoping to reignite his career as a regular starter in Pierre Sage’s Lyon outfit.

Growing up in Algeria and France

Benrahma was born in the small city of Aïn Témouchent in the north-west of Algeria, not far from the Mediterranean coast and the bustling port city of Oran. Sadly, Aïn Témouchent was devastated by an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale in December 1999, when Benrahma was just four years old. Growing up in nearby Sidi Bel Abbès, a larger city once synonymous with the French Foreign Legion, young Saïd took his first steps in youth football with a small club named NRB Bethioua.

The Benrahma family emigrated to France when Saïd was eleven and he soon found himself a football club near his new home in the suburbs of Toulouse. By the age of sixteen, he was on the books of US Colomiers, one of the most prominent amateur clubs in the city. He started to catch the eye of visiting scouts with his performances there, and earned himself a move to Nice shortly before his eighteenth birthday in 2013.

First team opportunities few and far between

Initially playing in the reserve team in the Championnat de France Amateur, Benrahma was a regular goalscorer but he found first team opportunities hard to come by. He mustered a paltry eighteen appearances for the Nice senior team in his first three years at the club before a series of loan moves took him to Angers, Gazélec Ajaccio and Châteauroux, the latter two in Ligue 2. His twelve goals in 34 games for Châteauroux in the 2017-18 season was an impressive haul, but not enough to convince Nice to persevere with him and they sold him to Brentford for €1.7 million.

The twenty-three-year-old Benrahma made 38 appearances in The Championship for The Bees during his first season in west London, plus another seven in cup competitions, scoring eleven times as he quickly became a fan favourite. His numbers were even better the following season as Brentford narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League, losing 2-1 to Fulham after extra time in the play-off final.

Big-money move across London

By now, Benrahma had become hot property and West Ham moved to sign him on loan in October 2020, before paying around £25 million to make the move permanent the following January. He became an integral component of their first team squad over the following three seasons, playing primarily on the left wing or as an attacking midfielder. Following on from two impressive Premier League campaigns, the pinnacle of his West Ham career came during the 2022-23 season when they lifted the UEFA Europa Conference League title.

Benrahma scored some crucial goals as The Hammers progressed towards the final, including a penalty to give them a 2-1 win against AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of the semi. He repeated the trick in the final in Prague, where his 62nd minute spot kick conversion opened the scoring against Fiorentina in what would be a 2-1 win for the Londoners.

Stop-start career with Les Fennecs

To date, Saïd Benrahma has amassed twenty-eight caps for his native Algeria since making his debut in a friendly match against Senegal at the Stade du 5 Juillet in Algiers in October 2015. He came off the bench with twenty minutes to go and helped inspire a 1-0 victory courtesy of a goal from Yacine Brahimi nine minutes from full time.

Benrahma had to wait almost three and a half years before his next international appearance, and first start, in a 1-0 friendly win over Tunisia in March 2019. Injury forced him to miss that summer’s Africa Cup of Nations, but he’s been a fairly regular squad member since then. He scored his first goal for the national team during a 4-0 win in Djibouti in the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup. His second and most recent international goal proved to be a the winner in a World Cup 2026 qualifying match against Uganda in Kampala in June 2024.

Orel Mangala – Player Profile

Orel Mangala is a Belgian international midfielder who joined Lyon from Nottingham Forest in the January transfer window of 2024. The move was initially a loan, but the French club have an option to make it permanent when the deal expires at the end of June 2024. It remains to be seen whether or not they will choose to do so, as Mangala hasn’t been a regular starter during his time with Lyon, but he has, nonetheless, made some important contributions.

Serial youth semi-finalist

Orel Mangala was born in Brussels, Belgium, to a family of Congolese descent. He was on the books of local giants Anderlecht in his teens and represented their Under-19 team in the UEFA Youth League, helping them reach the semi-finals in both 2015 and 2016.

By then, he had already been turning out for the Belgian national age group selections for several years, having made his debut for the Under-15s in 2013 and been a regular squad member ever since. He had a particularly busy year in 2015 when he was a key part of the Red Devils U17 team that made it to the UEFA European U-17 Championship semi-finals in Bulgaria, where they lost to eventual winners France on penalties.

Later that same year, he also went to the FIFA U17 World Cup in Chile, where Belgium again reached the semi-finals. This time they lost out to Mali, but did have the consolation of beating Mexico in the Third Place Play-off to pick up the bronze medals.

An early move abroad

Mangala went on loan to Borussia Dortmund in Germany for the 2016-17 season and turned out for their Under-19 team in the UEFA Youth League and A-Junioren-Bundesliga, which is split into three regional divisions. His Dortmund team won the Western division and went on to secure the national U-19 championship title in the play-offs, beating Bayern Munich on penalties in the final, although Mangala was suspended for that match, having been sent off in the semi-final second leg against Wolfsburg.

That summer, Anderlecht opted to cash in on their prospect and sold Mangala to VFB Stuttgart for €1.8 million. He went straight into the first team squad at VFB, but was primarily used as a substitute during his first season with the club as they finished seventh in the Bundesliga. Due to the strong competition for places in central midfield, Stuttgart decided to to send Orel Mangala out on loan for the 2018-19 season in order to gain experience as a regular starter at Hamburger SV in the 2. Bundesliga.

Gaining experience in the 2. Bundesliga

Mangala became a cornerstone of the Hamburg team that finished fourth in the 2. Bundesliga, just missing out on promotion, and also reached the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal, losing to RB Leipzig. He enhanced his reputation as a combative, tough-tackling, defensive midfielder during that campaign and was eagerly welcomed back to Stuttgart the following summer in the wake of their own relegation to the 2. Bundesliga.

Upon his return, the twenty-one year old Mangala quickly became established as an automatic first choice in the centre of the Stuttgart midfield as they bounced straight back to the top flight with a second place finish in the 2. Bundesliga in 2019-20. He only missed one of the first twenty-five games of the following season before a torn muscle prematurely ended his campaign in mid-March with Stuttgart safely in mid-table.

Stuttgart form earns an international call-up

2021-22 was to prove much more challenging for Stuttgart as they only narrowly avoided the relegation play-off thanks to a final day win against Köln. Mangala was again a consistent performer in midfield and was rewarded with his first full international cap for Belgium in a friendly against the Republic of Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin in March 2022. Manager Roberto Martínez summoned him from the bench to replace Arthur Theate in the 75th minute of a 2-2 draw.

Mangala got a few more minutes for Belgium as a substitute in a friendly against Burkina Faso three days later, but was then discarded by Martínez and didn’t feature in any further national team squads under the Spaniard’s tenure, thus missing out on the 2022 World Cup finals. The arrival of Italian Domenico Tedesco as Belgium manager in February 2023 saw Orel Mangala immediately restored to the squad and he has kept his place ever since, accumulating a total 14 caps. He’ll get his first taste of a major international tournament at Euro 2024 in Germany, where he’s part of a highly fancied Belgian selection.

A move to the Premier League

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2022, Mangala had moved to Nottingham Forest for a fee of €13 million, one of twenty-seven players signed that season by the newly promoted Premier League club. He managed to hold down a fairly regular first team spot in the face of stiff competition for places during his eighteen months at the City Ground as Forest toiled at the wrong end of the table.

However, Forest’s transfer policy had landed them in hot water with regards to the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and would ultimately lead to a points deduction before the end of the 2023-24 season. Therefore it became necessary to cash in on some of their bankable assets, so they happily accepted when Lyon made a sizeable offer to take Mangala on loan.

On loan to Lyon

Mangala’s Lyon debut came as a substitute in a 2-1 win at Montpellier in February and he then started the next three fixtures, scoring a crucial winner against Nice, before missing the next six matches. He made his return for the final four games of the Ligue 1 campaign and scored another priceless winner at Clermont Foot on the penultimate weekend. That match is the only occasion on which he played the full ninety minutes for Lyon during his initial loan, so he has yet to cement his place in the team, but he could be seen as a long-term replacement for Corentin Tolisso.

His goals played a large part in Lyon’s unlikely late surge into the Europa League qualification places and securing European football for then 2024-25 season means that Lyon are better placed financially to make his loan move permanent. Mangala is reportedly keen to extend his stay at Lyon, so there’s a decent chance that we could be seeing him in the club colours again after the summer.

Nemanja Matić – Player Profile

Serbian central midfielder Nemanja Matić signed for Olympique Lyonnais from Ligue 1 rivals Rennes for €2.6 million in the January 2024 transfer window. The thirty-five year old becomes the oldest player in the current Lyon squad and has joined on a two-and-a-half-year contract, taking him through to summer 2026.

Matić had only spent half a season at Rennes, having joined them from AS Roma in the summer of 2023. However, he was reportedly unhappy with the schooling arrangements for his children in the Breton capital and consequently pushed for an early departure. He was in the stands at the Groupama Stadium to witness Lyon’s 2-3 defeat to Rennes in late January and completed his transfer in the immediate aftermath of the match.

Saving Lyon’s Season

Matić was thrown straight into the Lyon starting XI the following weekend for the visit of Marseille, and his calming presence at the heart of the midfield prompted an instant upturn in Lyon’s fortunes. They secured a 1-0 victory over their bitter rivals in a hard-fought contest, which proved to be the start of a winning run that lifted the club out of the relegation zone and into mid-table.

A tactically and positionally disciplined defensive midfielder providing a protective screen in front of the defence was exactly what Lyon had been missing in the first half of the season. Matić may no longer possess the speed and energy of his peak years in the Premier League, but he has the experience and awareness to compensate.

A recurrent problem had been the bombardment of shots that Lyon were facing from around the edge of the box due to opposition players being given too much time and space in dangerous areas. Matić is adept at sniffing out danger and closing players down before they get into a shooting position. Furthermore, his composure and assuredness in possession and his expansive range of passing have helped Lyon transition more effectively from defence to attack.

Growing up in Serbia

Nemanja Matić was born in Šabac, a town of some 50,000 inhabitants in the west of Serbia. It sits on the right bank of the River Sava, which meanders its way downstream towards its confluence with the Danube in Belgrade, around 50 km to the east. Back in 1988, that was at the heart of the former Yugoslavia. However, as the country disintegrated in the bloody conflict of the early 1990’s, Šabac founds itself just 25 km from the border with Bosnia.

Growing up in the nearby village of Vrelo, Matić lived in the shadow of that war for almost a decade from the age of two onwards. Indeed, Vrelo was a target of the NATO bombing campaign of Spring 1999 as Matić approached his eleventh birthday, which was the motive behind his decision not to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day later in life.

Initially coached by his own father in the youth sections of FK Vrelo, the young Matić was on the books of various Serbian clubs before breaking through to make his senior debut at FK Kolubara during the 2006-07 season. Based in the southern suburbs of the capital, FK Kolubara were competing in the Serbian League Belgrade division, which is one of four divisions at the third tier of the Serbian football pyramid.

An early move abroad

However, after just a few months in the first team, Matić was scouted by Slovak club Košice and joined them permanently in January 2007. He quickly became an integral part of their line-up and spent two and a half seasons learning his trade in the Slovak Superliga, picking up a Slovak Cup winners medal in 2009. In 2008, he had been joined at the club by his younger brother, Uroš Matić, also a midfielder, but the two weren’t together for long as Nemanja was snapped up by Chelsea for €1.75m in August 2009.

The twenty-one year old Matić only made three appearances during that debut season for Chelsea as they won a domestic double under Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti. Therefore, he didn’t qualify for a Premier League winner’s medal, but he did pick up an FA Cup medal, having played 25 minutes as a substitute in the 5-0 win over Watford in the Third Round and being on the bench for the 1-0 win over Portsmouth in the final at Wembley.

His Chelsea debut had come in a 4-0 home win against Wolves in November 2009, where he replaced former Lyon star Florent Malouda in the 69th minute. His only other outing came in the final league game of the campaign, an 8-0 crushing of Wigan Athletic at Stamford Bridge in which he replaced Michael Ballack in the 70th minute.

Not yet ready for Chelsea

The following season, Nemanja Matić was loaned out to Vitesse Arnhem in the Dutch Eredivisie, where he soon established himself as a first team regular. He made twenty-nine appearances and scored two goals as he helped them avoid relegation by the skin of their teeth. By then, Chelsea had decided that Matić was surplus to requirements and they moved him on to Benfica in the summer of 2011 for a fee of €5 million.

It would cost José Mourinho five times that amount to re-sign him for Chelsea in January 2014 after two and a half years in the Portuguese capital. During that spell, Matić actually faced Chelsea in the UEFA Europa League final at the Amsterdam Arena in 2013. Unfortunately for him, Benfica were beaten 2-1 by his former, and future, employers but Matić had the consolation of being named as the Portuguese Primeira Liga Player of the Season at the end of that campaign.

Bossing it in the Premier League

The three and a half years that Matić spent back at Stamford Bridge between 2014 and 2017 were perhaps the best of his career. He picked up two Premier League titles and was in the PFA Team of the Year for 2014-15. Having been virtually ever-present in midfield for the Blues since his return to the club, it was somewhat surprising that they allowed him to leave in the summer of 2017 to link up with Mourinho again at rivals Manchester United for a fee of around £40 million.

Matić quickly established himself as a key component of the United midfield and the five years that he spent at Old Trafford is the longest period that he settled at one club during his itinerant career. He slotted into the team as a long-term replacement for Michael Carrick at a time when the Red Devils were struggling to forge a new identity in the post Fergie years. Unfortunately, despite some consistently solid individual performances, Matić was unable to help the team collect any silverware.

It was a case of so near yet so far on several occasions. He once again lost out to Chelsea in a final when United were beaten 1-0 by the Blues in the 2018 FA Cup decider and it was double disappointment that season as they also finished runners up in the Premier League. A similar thing happened in 2020-21 when, now under the stewardship of Ole Gunnar Solskjær, they again came second in the league and lost the UEFA Europa League final on penalties to Villareal.

Following in José’s footsteps

Matić’s final season at Old Trafford was underwhelming on all fronts as they limped to sixth place under interim boss Ralf Rangnick and he was allowed to depart on a free transfer in the summer. He was signed for a third time by José Mourinho, who was by now in charge of AS Roma.

Matić spent a single season in Italy, where he made fifty appearances across all competitions, helping Roma to a sixth place finish in Serie A and the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia. It was, however, Roma’s European campaign that provided the most excitement as the club made it all the way to the UEFA Europa League final in Budapest, where they faced Sevilla. It represented a chance for Matić to make it third time lucky in that competition after his two previous final defeats, However, he was forced to settle for a runners-up medal once again following more penalty shoot-out heartbreak.

Nemanja Matić’s international career with Serbia spanned eleven years from 2008 to 2019, during which time he accumulated 48 caps and scored two goals. The highlight was the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where he played in all three matches as Serbia finished third in Group E behind Brazil and Switzerland.

Lucas Perri – Player Profile

Lucas Estella Perri is a Brazilian goalkeeper who signed for Olympique Lyonnais for €3.25 million from Botafogo in the January 2024 transfer window. Having recently turned twenty-six, he arrived in Lyon to initially serve as a back-up for long-term custodian Anthony Lopes, replacing erstwhile reserve goalkeeper Rémy Riou, who moved on to Paris FC.

Born in Campinas, São Paulo state, Perri spent his early years in the youth setup of local clubs Ponte Preta and São Paulo, before graduating to the São Paulo first team squad aged seventeen in 2015. However, for the next couple of years he continued to feature primarily for the youth teams and his senior appearances were restricted to the relatively minor Copa Paulista.

He notably won the U-20 Copa Libertadores in 2016, keeping a clean sheet in the final, a 1-0 win against Liverpool of Montevideo at the Estadio Defensores del Chaco in Asunción, Paraguay. He earned his first cap for the Brazil U-20 team the same year, saving a penalty in a 2-1 victory over Uruguay.

A long wait for first team chances

In January 2019, by now aged twenty-one, Perri was loaned to Crystal Palace for a six month period, but he never made the first team squad for the Eagles and returned to São Paulo at the end of the season. A few months after his homecoming, in December 2019, he made his first, and indeed only, Série A appearance for São Paulo in their final game of the season, a 2-1 away win at Centro Sportivo Alagoano.

A frustrating couple of years followed, during which Perri was on the fringes of the first team squad and only made a handful of sporadic appearances. His path to the starting eleven remained resolutely blocked by first choice goalkeeper Tiago Volpi and it became clear that he needed to look elsewhere to gain experience.

Successful stint in Série B

Salvation came in the shape of a move to Náutico, based in Recife in Pernambuco state. Perri was immediately installed as first choice goalkeeper at the north-eastern club and he soon helped them triumph in the Campeonato Pernambucano. He made a telling contribution in the final against Retrô, saving two penalties in the 4-2 shoot-out victory following a 1-1 draw.

Náutico’s Série B campaign didn’t go quite so well. They were in the thick of a relegation battle and wins were few and far between, although Perri himself earned plaudits for his personal performances. That was despite only keeping three clean sheets in twenty-two matches and picking up the only red card of his career to date. He impressed enough to catch the eye of Rio de Janeiro’s Botafogo, competing in Série A, and they paid São Paulo around €350,000 to cancel his loan to Náutico and sign him permanently in August 2022.

Finally hitting the big time

Lucas Perri was part of the Botafogo squad for the last fifteen games of their 2022 Série A campaign, but he spent most of them on the bench as understudy to Paraguayan goalkeeper Gatito Fernández. However, he did make four appearances and managed to keep three clean sheets in them as Botafogo finished eleventh in the table.

2023 was to become his big breakthrough season. He took over as first choice ‘keeper during Botafogo’s Taça Guanabara campaign (the first stage of the Carioca championship) and never looked back. April brought some silverware in the form of the Taça Rio, and Perri was then ever-present in the 2023 edition of Série A as Botafogo set the early pace at the top of the table before fading to finish fifth. He also earned his first call-ups to the full Brazil squad in the second half of the year, as a third choice ‘keeper behind Ederson and Alisson.

Lopes’ long-term successor?

Perri has earned a reputation as something of a penalty saving specialist and is also known for occasionally distributing the ball up-field by punching it boxing style over an impressive distance. He has a big physical presence, standing almost half a foot taller than Anthony Lopes, and he exudes confidence.

As Botafogo and Lyon are both part of the Eagle Football Holdings multi-club ownership group headed by American businessman John Textor, it was no surprise that they opted to redeploy Lucas Perri to Lyon as soon as the January transfer window opened. He will provide some much needed competition to Lopes for the number one spot and, being seven years Lopes’ junior, will expect to inherit the shirt from him in the future.

The cut price €3.25 million fee that Lyon paid was well below Perri’s market value, which was estimated to be upwards of €8 million at the time. An arrangement over the fee is one of the advantages of buying from a partner club, but Botafogo do have a 50% sell-on clause in the contract, so they stand to benefit if he is successful at Lyon and moves on in a big money deal.

Gift Orban – Player Profile

Gift Emmanuel Orban is a Nigerian striker who joined Olympique Lyonnais from Belgian club Gent for a fee of €12 million in the January transfer window of 2024. He made his Lyon debut later that month in a 3-2 defeat at home to Rennes. He came off the bench at half-time to replace Mahamadou Diawara with Lyon trailing 3-0 and helped his new team claw their way back into the game in the second half.

That performance earned Orban his first start in the following match, which was the ‘Olympico’ clash against Marseille at the Groupama Stadium. Playing on the left side of attack, he put in a good shift and caused the visitors a few problems before he was replaced by Malick Fofana with twenty minutes left to play, having helped set Lyon on the way to a hard-fought 1-0 win.

Gift Orban didn’t have to wait much longer to open his scoring account for ‘Les Gones’. He was handed another start three days later in a crucial Coupe de France Round of 16 tie against Lille, leading the line in place of Alexandre Lacazette, who was being rested. His big moment came in the 40th minute when he latched onto a through ball from Rayan Cherki to finish off a slick passing move with a cool dink over the out-coming goalkeeper. He proved to be a handful for the Lille defence until he was replaced by Lacazette mid-way through the second half of the 2-1 win and he looks like a very useful addition to Lyon’s roster of attacking options.

Scouted by Stabæk

Born in Benue State, in the eastern central region of Nigeria, Gift Orban was playing for Bison FC when he was spotted by representatives of Norwegian club Stabæk whilst playing in an amateur tournament. Aged nineteen, he was invited to spend the winter training with Stabæk, but he returned to his homeland upon the expiry of his visa. However, he had impressed enough people to convince them to make a formal move for him a few months later, in Spring 2022.

Orban was initially thrown into the club’s reserves, competing in the fourth tier of Norwegian football, but it was immediately apparent that he was too good for that level. They moved him up to the first team squad at the end of May and he hit the ground running. He scored or assisted in almost every game between then and the end of the season, finishing with 19 goals and seven assists in 24 games across all competitions. Despite having missed the first third of the season, he was joint top scorer in the OBOS-ligaen (Norway’s second division) and won the Young Player of the Year award. Stabæk finished second in the table and won promotion back to the top flight, thanks largely to Orban’s performances.

A Gift for Gent

Such was his impact in Norway that bigger clubs from around Europe started to take notice and Gent took the plunge in January 2023, shelling out €4.6 million for his services. Unfazed by the step up in standard, Gift Orban wasted no time in finding his feet at his new club. He scored a brace in his Jupiler Pro League debut at Westerlo (a 3-3 draw) and plundered fifteen goals in sixteen appearances during that second half of the season and play-offs, via which Gent qualified for the Europa Conference League.

However, it was his exploits in the 2022-23 Europa Conference League knock-out phase that made headlines around Europe. Three minutes after coming on against Qarabag in the Intermediate Stage 2nd Leg, he scored a goal to level the tie and then scored in the penalty shoot-out that saw Gent progress to the last 16. There they faced Basaksehir and, after a 1-1 draw at home, he went to Istanbul and scored the fastest ever hat-trick in UEFA club competitions, breaking Mo Salah’s record. His goals in the 31st, 32nd and 34th minutes were only three minutes and twenty-five seconds apart and set Gent on their way to a 4-1 win. Sadly they were knocked out by West Ham in the Quarter-Finals.

Moving on up

Orban wasn’t quite as prolific in the first half of the 2023-24 campaign with Gent. His rapidly burgeoning reputation meant that he was now a marked man and he only managed three goals in the Jupiler Pro League prior to his January move to Lyon. In mitigation, his numbers were adversely affected by the lack of playing time he was afforded in the league – he only started nine of Gent’s first twenty games as coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck rotated his squad to cope with the dual demands of domestic and European football.

On the European scene, Orban was consistently in the starting line-up and he scored a hat-trick against Pogon Szczecin in the Europa Conference League qualifiers and another triple against Breidablik in the group phase. His five goals helped Gent to second place in Group B made him joint top scorer in the 2023-24 Conference League group stage. These exploits contributed to his transfer value quadrupling in the space of twelve months at Gent, and Lyon moved to secure his signature amidst interest from a host of big clubs around Europe.

MUACOL players at AFCON 2023

Five MUACOL players were called up to their respective national team squads for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, which somewhat confusingly took place in January 2024, in the Ivory Coast. There wasn’t a huge amount to celebrate for any of them as they all experienced somewhat disappointing campaigns. You can read a summary of their involvement below.

Manchester United players at AFCON 2023

Goalkeeper Andre Onana was called up by Cameroon for the tournament, although he seemed a bit reluctant to go. Perhaps he was fearful of losing his starting place at United to his Turkish understudy Altay Bayindir, as he delayed his departure until the last possible moment. He played in United’s Premier League match against Spurs on the 14th of January and had hoped to make it to the Ivory Coast in time for Cameroon’s opening fixture against Guinea the next day.

However, in the event, he arrived too late and missed that game. He finally took his place in the starting line-up for the second Group C match against Senegal, but was unconvincing in a 3-1 defeat, which resulted in him being dropped for the 3-2 win over Gambia that qualified Cameroon for the second round.

Onana remained on the bench throughout the subsequent 2-0 defeat to Nigeria that saw Cameroon eliminated from the tournament, so his involvement in the competition amounted to ninety underwhelming minutes. It did, however, mean that he was able to return to England in time for United’s 4-3 win at Wolves on the 1st of February. He’ll be relieved to have only missed one match – the 3-2 win at Newport County in the FA Cup.

Sofyan Amrabat was ever present for Morocco during their Africa Cup of Nations campaign. He met up with the squad in time for their 3-1 win over Sierra Leone in a warm-up match, before helping them top Group F with wins over Tanzania and Zambia and a draw with DR Congo. Playing in his usual defensive midfield role, he was powerless to prevent Morocco’s surprise elimination by South Africa in the second round and he ended the tournament on a personal low by picking up a red card for a second bookable offence in stoppage time.

Athletic Club players at AFCON 2023

Iñaki Williams was the sole Athletic Club player at the tournament, representing his native Ghana. However, he was used sparingly by coach Chris Hughton. He came off the bench for the last half hour in the opening game against Cape Verde with the score at 1-1, but had little impact and Ghana succumbed to an injury time winner.

Hughton did hand Williams a start in Ghana’s second Group B fixture, a clash with highly fancied Egypt. He played the first 73 minutes on the right side of attack before being replaced with Ghana leading 2-1, and could only look on from the bench as Egypt equalised soon after he had left the fray.

Williams was only brought on with a minute of normal time remaining in the final group match against Mozambique. Ghana were two goals to the good at the time, and looked to be coasting into the second round. However, a late capitulation saw them concede twice in stoppage time and crash out on the back of a 2-2 draw.

The silver lining was that Iñaki Williams was able to make it back to Bilbao in time to take a seat among the substitutes for their Copa del Rey quarter-final against Barcelona the following day. He boarded a plane from Abidjan to Paris just a couple of hours after the final whistle and flew through the night before transferring to a flight to Bilbao the next morning.

It was all worthwhile because he came off the bench just before the hour mark with the score at 2-2 and played a decisive role in slaying the Catalan giants. He scored what proved to be the winning goal at the start of the second half of extra time and then set up his younger brother Nico to make it 4-2 and wrap things up in the final minute.

Olympique Lyonnais players at AFCON 2023

Ernest Nuamah was also in Chris Hughton’s Ghana squad, but he didn’t get a lot of playing time. He featured as a substitute in a warm-up game against Namibia at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, replacing Jordan Ayew for the last twenty minutes. It was a similar scenario in Ghana’s first group game against Cape Verde in Abidjan where he came on in the 62nd minute with the score at 1-1 but was unable to prevent an eventual 201 defeat. He was then an unused substitute in the 2-2 draws against Egypt and Mozambique that sealed Ghana’s elimination from the tournament.

Mama Baldé started at centre-forward in Guinea-Bissau’s opening match against the hosts, Ivory Coast, at the Stade Olympique Alassane Ouattara in Ebimpé, in the north of the capital Abidjan. However, he wasted a couple of chances and ended up getting substituted with five minutes to go. He appeared to have picked up a minor knock prior to being replaced with Dálcio.

Guinea-Bissau’s second Group A fixture was against Equatorial Guinea at the same venue. This time Mama Baldé started on the left side of attack, but things didn’t go his way and he was again withdrawn before the finish by coach Baciro Candé. This time he was replaced with Marciano Sanca after 63 minutes with Guinea-Bissau trailing by four goals to one. They went on to lose 4-2. Mama Baldé wasn’t involved at all in the final group match against Nigeria where a 1-0 defeat confirmed their exit from the competition.

Malick Fofana – Player Profile

Malick Fofana is a Belgian winger who signed for Lyon from Gent in the January transfer window in 2024. The eighteen-year-old had caught the eye competing in the Belgian Pro League over the previous eighteen months, convincing Lyon to shell out €17 million to secure his services.

Born in Aalst, in East Flanders, to a father of Guinean descent, Malick Fofana spent the early part of his youth career with local clubs such as FCV Dender EH and Eendracht Aalst before joining Gent as a nine year old. He would go on to spend the best part of a decade on the books of ‘The Buffalos’, as they are known.

Having progressed through the ranks, Fofana signed his first professional contract with Gent in January 2022, a couple of months before his seventeenth birthday. By then, he had already represented Belgium at Under-15 level, and been promoted to their Under-17 squad. Indeed, he helped the Red Devils qualify for the 2022 UEFA European U-17 Championships in Israel, scoring four goals along the way, but only played a small role in the finals as Belgium went out at the group stage.

First Team Debut in the Super Cup

A couple of months later, at the start of the 2022-23 season, Malick Fofana made his senior debut for Gent in the Belgian Super Cup. Gent were there in their capacity as Belgian Cup holders, and they faced reigning champions Club Brugge at the latter’s Jan Breydel Stadium. Unfortunately Gent went down 1-0 to a 39th minute goal from Denmark’s Andreas Skov Olsen as Fofana looked on from the bench. He had to wait until the fifth minute of added time for a taste of the action, when he replaced Gent captain Sven Kums, and he was unable to alter the result with his late cameo.

Fofana made his first appearance in the Julipiler Pro League, Belgium’s top division, later that month, and his first start came in a 2-1 win at home to Westerlo in August 2022. However, he spent the majority of the next few months playing for Jong Gent, the club’s development squad, in the third tier of Belgian football.

Come January 2023 he was deemed worthy of a regular place in the first team squad and started to feature in most games as Gent chased Europa Conference League qualification, which they eventually achieved via the play-offs. He was also heavily involved in Gent’s run to the Europa League quarter-finals, where they lost to West Ham.

Malick Fofana ended the 2022-23 season with 33 senior club appearances to his name, and a solitary goal, which came against Cercle Brugge in the Belgian Cup. He also progressed to the Belgian national Under-18 team and even picked up a cap for the Under-20s, all of which earned him a contract extension from Gent in summer 2023.

A big money move to Lyon

The 2023-24 campaign was the first that Fofana began as an established first-teamer. He played primarily down the left flank for Gent, and occasionally at centre-forward, as the team hovered around third spot in the table and progressed from their Conference League group. He added four goals and six assists to his career tally in the first half of the season and stepped up to the Belgian Under-21s before Lyon snapped him up in early January.

Malick Fofana’s Lyon debut came as a substitute in a 3-1 defeat at Le Havre in Ligue 1, but he got his first start five days later in the sixth round of the Coupe de France. He scored the opening goal in a 2-1 win against Bergerac and retained his place for the following match against Rennes. However, that one didn’t go so well and he was substituted at half-time with Lyon trailing 3-0, having struggled at left wing-back.

Lyon made five other signings during that January 2024 transfer window, so Fofana faces stiff competition for a starting role. He’s still an inexperienced and raw talent and it remains to be seen whether he’s ready to hold down a starting place or be used more as an impact substitute during the remainder of this season. One thing is for sure, however, and that’s that his rise over the past eighteen months has been meteoric. If he continues to progress at a similar rate then he has a bright future ahead of him.

Adryelson – Player Profile

Adryelson is a Brazilian centre-back who signed for Olympique Lyonnais from Botafogo for €3.58m in the January 2024 transfer window, aged twenty-five. He’s the second player to make the move from Botafogo to Lyon since the clubs have both been part of American businessman John Textor’s multi-club ownership project. He’ll hope to make a bigger impact in France than his compatriot Jeffinho, who spent less than a year at Lyon, largely sitting on the bench, before returning to Botafogo.

Adryelson made his Lyon debut as a late substitute in the 3-1 defeat away at Le Havre just a few days after completing his transfer. He was brought on for Rayan Cherki in order to plug a hole in defence created by Duje Ćaleta-Car‘s red card as Lyon ended the game with nine men. His first start came five days later in a 2-1 win over Bergerac in the Coupe de France. He picked up an early yellow card and looked a bit rusty before being replaced at half-time, so it’s safe to say that his best is yet to come..

Growing up in rural Brazil

Adryelson Shawann Lima Silva, to give him his full name, was born in Barão de Grajaú, a rural town of some 19,000 inhabitants on the northern bank of the Parnaíba river that forms the border between the states of Maranhão and Piauí. The son of policeman, he made his way in local youth football before being picked up by Sport Recife from Pernambuco state, based on the coastal city of Recife some 1,000 km to the east of his home town. He was just thirteen when he joined the junior ranks of ‘the Lions‘ in 2011.

In March 2015, before he had made his senior debut in club football, Adryelson was included in the Brazil squad for the South American U-17 Championship in Paraguay. His debut came as a substitute in their opening 3-2 win over Colombia. He then played the full ninety and scored in a surprise 3-2 defeat to Venezuela but was an un-used substitute throughout the remainder of the tournament as Brazil went on to lift the trophy.

His Sport Recife debut came the following month in the state league, the Campeonato Pernambucano. However, it was to be his sole outing in that 2015 season and he only added three more appearances during the course of the 2016 and 2017 campaigns. He continued to cut his teeth in the youth teams and spent a seven month spell on loan at Palmeiras before finally getting his breakthrough in the second half of 2018.

Finally first team football

Adryelson made his Série A debut aged 20 in a home match against high-flying Internacional in front of around 10,000 fans at the Estádio Adelmar da Costa Carvalho. His 79th minute equaliser laid the platform for Sport Recife to snatch an unlikely late winner through Mateus Gonçalves, with an assist by former Lyon legend Michel Bastos, who was winding down his career back in his homeland. That result ended a three-game losing streak for Sport Recife and Adryelson kept his place in the starting line-up for the remainder of the season. He helped bring about an upturn in form for the Lions, but the damage had been done earlier on in the campaign and it wasn’t quite enough to avoid relegation to Série B.

The 2019 season was a much happier affair. Adryelson only missed a handful of games as Sport Recife bounced straight back, finishing second in the table to secure promotion. He also won his first (and only) cap for the Brazil U-23 team in a 5-0 friendly win against Qatar. Back in Série A for 2020, Adryelson helped Sport Recife avoid relegation with a 15th place finish and he was ever-present bar two single-match bans for accumulated yellow cards.

The following season he spent the year on loan at Al-Wasl in the UAE Pro League before returning to Brazil for the 2022 Série A campaign. It was at that juncture that his eleven year association with Sport Recife came to an end in some acrimony due to a dispute over unpaid wages. A tribunal ruled that he could leave on a free transfer and he duly signed for Botafogo.

Almost a champion

It didn’t take Adryelson long to integrate the first team at the famous old Rio club and he helped them to an eleventh place finish in 2022. Botafogo began the 2023 Série A season in fine form and soon hit the top of the table. At one point their lead stretched to a massive thirteen points but they failed to win any of their last eleven fixtures and eventually slipped down to fifth. They also made the quarter finals of the Copa Sudamericana and did manage to capture the Taça Rio, a minor competition for Rio state clubs.

Ultimately though, what had looked set to be a very promising season ended in disappointment. On a personal level, however, Adryelson had looked impressive and he earned his first call up to the full Brazil squad in October when another centre-back, Nino, dropped out through injury. His notional transfer value had likely risen far higher than the €3.58m that Lyon paid for him, but when you’re buying from a partner club you can come to an arrangement on fees. There is a 50% sell-on clause, so Botafogo stand to benefit from a future transfer should he do well in France.