As always, I’d like to say welcome back to this little corner of French Football Weekly that we like to call Frenchmen Abroad. As some of you may know, we look to take you around the globe (Mostly Europe) to pick out the best French players performances of the weekend, so without hesitation, let’s get started.
First up this week we’re heading straight over to England, in fact before I go on to the player I want to discuss let’s put in a worthy, in fact more than worthy, shout out to Hatem Ben Arfa, who I thought also had a fantastic game at the weekend, not as effective as the man we’re about to mention but nevertheless still a good performance from a man who now looks to have maybe got himself on the plane to the Euro’s.
OK well straight onto the man of the moment and well to truly jump on the bandwagon, no in fact jump on the ‘Dreamboat’, how good was Yohan Cabaye. The first thing I need to say is if anyone has seen a better pass than the one we saw at the weekend, please leave a comment below with that link, because it’s not going to happen. That, as many have already said, was one of the best passes we’ve seen in football. People talk about a player being one step ahead, Cabaye was at least four steps ahead with that one (Yes he got a little lucky that it went through the legs, but let’s just pretend that was meant).
Not only did the beautiful young Frenchmen pick out a pass and assist a team mate, he was everywhere this weekend. Scoring the other two goals from the game that ended 3-0 in favour of Newcastle as they push for a Champions League stop. To be fair to Cabaye my words would do his goals no justice, so here you have it. Please step forward Mr Cabaye.
Another game that was going on this weekend in England featured Wolves who were fighting relegation up against title chasing Manchester City. City had opened the scoring on the first 27th minute through Sergio Aguero, but then when the game was in the balance a Frenchmen stood up, one who many have turned their noses down to in recent weeks, arguably for the right reasons. That man is of course Samir Nasri, the former Arsenal man has had his fair share of both criticism and plaudits this season, came up with goods this weekend firing the away side into a two goal lead on the seventy-fourth minute. If he can keep this form up for the remaining three games surely with his earlier form in the season he’ll be in contention for a space at the European Championships come June.
Away from England for this week and we’ve found ourselves at the Granada v Getafe tie and one man sticks out for me, he is Allan-Roméo Nyom. Granada’s right-back on Saturday, he helped them to possibly the most crucial three points as the back line kept a clean sheet while front man Jara put the home side into the lead. That win took them now eight points clear of the drop with just four games remaining, one more win and that’ll do it for last seasons promoted team, a fantastic achievement for little Granada.
Lastly this week we will again leave a country behind and this time we will fly to Germany for Bayern Munich’s away trip, they were up against Werder Bremen in a tie that was pretty even, that was until the inclusion of Mr Franck Ribéry. With the league already gone, Bayern have just one target on their mind and that is Madrid on Wednesday night, if they win there then they’re in the final of the Champions League. That was surely on the mind of the Munich boss as he had Ribery, Kroos and Gomez on the bench. Ribery was introduced into the game in the sixty-fourth minute and within just twenty-six minutes he netted what was the winner. In the ninetieth minute he side stepped the defender and slotted it past the Bremen keeper, easy as you like and just a little sign of how good this man is, all he needs is thirty odd minutes to change a game.
Well that’s all we have time for this week, as always if you feel someone should be included get in touch and we will have a look out for them. Until next time, goodbye.