There were no goals in last week’s Loan Report but we’re back with three more from another productive seven days around Europe.
Headliners
The first of them came from Lucas Piazon on Tuesday night as Reading met Huddersfield in their FA Cup Third Round Replay. Huddersfield took an early two-goal lead before suffering a red card that would change the game. Piazon stepped up, scored with the ensuing set piece, and helped the Royals kick-start a 5-2 victory.
The Brazilian retained his place for the weekend draw at home to Sheffield Wednesday but was withdrawn at half time, and whilst Michael Hector returned to the matchday squad for the first time in 2016 in the latter of the two fixtures, he didn’t see any time on the pitch.
On Wednesday night, Mario Pašalić also got in on the cup goalscoring act when he netted his seventh of the season to help Monaco overcome Evian 3-1 in the Fourth Round of the French Cup. It was a goal most typical of the Croatian midfielder, arriving in the box to meet a delivery from wide and cleaning up a scrappy situation with a smartly-taken finish.
He then sat out Monaco’s 4-0 league win over Toulouse with Leonardo Jardim adopting his usual midfield rotation policy once again.
Finally, Saturday saw John Swift score his fourth goal in Brentford colours – albeit with the aid of a deflection – to see off Preston in a 3-1 win away from home.
He also produced this rather nifty piece of skill.
England
Nathan Aké continued as Watford’s undisputed first-choice left back and completed another solid ninety minutes in their 2-1 win at home to Newcastle. Victor Moses made a playing comeback following a hamstring injury and saw 25 minutes of action from the bench in West Ham’s 2-2 draw at home to Manchester City, but Marco van Ginkel was an unused substitute as Stoke lost 3-0 at Leicester City.
In the Championship, Tomas Kalas came on just before half time as a replacement for the injured George Friend but was unable to help Middlesbrough avoid a rare home defeat as Nottingham Forest won 1-0 at the Riverside Stadium.
Alex Kiwomya joined League One strugglers Fleetwood Town on Thursday and went straight into the squad to play Doncaster at the weekend. He came on for the last half an hour but the fixture finished 0-0 and wasn’t particularly memorable for anything in particular. Mitchell Beeney, meanwhile, made his home debut for Newport County in an eventful 2-2 draw against Dagenham & Redbridge.
Netherlands
It was a big weekend for Vitesse as they took their good form to Amsterdam for a top-of-the-table clash away to Ajax, but everything went wrong for them after just 26 seconds. Riechedly Bazoer – a one-time target for the Blues’ academy as a 15 year-old – scored the only goal of the game and the Arnhem side were never really in the contest. Izzy Brown completed a hard-working ninety in attack with Dominic Solanke substituted after 75 minutes in which he was largely isolated and starved of service.
Lewis Baker played the last ten minutes as a substitute whilst Danilo Pantic remained unused, and Nathan was kept out owing to a lack of match fitness, having not played since suffering a knee injury in early November.
Todd Kane and NEC Nijmegen remain in the Europa League mix themselves; a 0-0 draw at Groningen on Friday night kept up their fine defensive record, which full-back Kane has been a keen part of.
Germany
The Bundesliga resumed after a winter break with the reverse round of fixtures from the season’s opening day. For Andreas Christensen, that meant another meeting with a Borussia Dortmund side that gave him something of a rude awakening on his debut for the club back in August. The young Dane, described in pre-match reports as Gladbach’s ‘consistent, reliable defender’, wasn’t quite so over-matched here although Dortmund did run out comfortable 3-1 winners.
Papy Djilobodji made his Werder Bremen debut on Sunday and helped them to a very impressive 3-1 win at Schalke.
Italy
There were touching scenes in Genoa on Sunday as Napoli won 4-2 away to Sampdoria and, when Dries Mertens completed the scoring ten minutes from time, he led a group celebration on the Napoli bench to embrace Nathaniel Chalobah, who has been dealing with a family tragedy during the past fortnight.
There has been increased talk of late that Napoli are looking to make his stay a permanent one and for a youngster already well-settled in the country to be comforted so warmly by a relatively new group of players is testament to the strength of feeling by all involved.
Juan Cuadrado played ten minutes of Juventus’ Coppa Italia win at Lazio before taking on their fierce rivals Roma on Sunday, when he got 25 in another 1-0 win.
Stipe Perica started for Udinese at Palermo but lasted just 56 minutes in a disappointing 4-1 defeat.
France
Jeremie Boga played the final twenty minutes of Rennes’ embarrassing French Cup defeat at home to lower league outfit Peronnas in midweek and was back on the bench in the league on Saturday too as key man Paul-Georges Ntep returned from injury. He got half an hour in relief of his more illustrious team-mate and despite being quieter than he has been of late, Rennes were able to sneak a last-gasp 1-0 win.
Belgium
Victorien Angban was finally fit to resume playing for Sint-Truiden after a nagging adductor injury dating back to pre-Christmas; he joined Cristian Cuevas in the starting line-up against former Chelsea affiliate Westerlo but was given just 45 minutes in a cautious return to playing. Cuevas got the full ninety but couldn’t help avoid a 2-1 defeat, whilst Joao Rodriguez does remain out with an injury of his own.
Mouscron drew 1-1 with Lokeren but there was no sign of Cristian Manea this time around.
Turkey
Marko Marin is being heavily linked with a switch to Hannover and had the weekend off as Trabzonspor’s scheduled home match with Besiktas was postponed due to weather conditions. Kasimpasa and Kenneth Omeruo are away to Istanbul BB on Monday evening; if the Nigerian defender does anything notable you’ll hear about it on Twitter @chelseayouth.