Thorgan Hazard has this week’s Loan Report headline all to himself as he netted both of Zulte Waregem’s goals in their 2-0 win over Mons. We kick off the round-up in Belgium.
Headliners
It’s been an interesting start to the 2013-14 season for the younger Hazard. He started the season with a goal from a spectacular long-range free-kick, before being handed the club captaincy only to see the offer withdrawn after a number of players questioned the decision to strip the incumbent skipper of the responsibility. Throw in a Champions League elimination at the hands of PSV and it’s been a frenetic few weeks all in.
A home game against Mons promised to ease the pace somewhat and so it proved, with a relative routine performance capped by a brace by the Chelsea loanee. He opened the scoring from the penalty spot and rounded things off by tucking away neatly at the back side of a counter attacking move late on.
You can see highlights of the match here.
England
It was a considerably quieter week of action in the English leagues, with Milan Lalkovic absent from Walsall’s home game against Notts County with a hamstring problem aggravated on international duty with Slovakia’s Under-21s, whilst neither Billy Clifford (Yeovil Town) nor Daniel Pappoe (Colchester United) were involved in their teams’ respective squads.
Sam Walker did play for Colchester away to Sheffield United and whilst his performance was largely solid, he made one unfortunate error which cost his side all three points. Harry Maguire’s long shot was hit straight at the 22 year-old stopper, but a lapse in concentration saw the ball slip through his grasp and over the line to ensure a 1-1 final scoreline.
Todd Kane played 90 minutes for Blackburn Rovers away to Doncaster Rovers, where they lost 2-0, whilst Patrick Bamford saw a full workload for Milton Keynes Dons in a 2-2 draw against Preston North End. George Saville was another who received a full call of duty for Brentford, and he played well in a 1-1 draw away to Gillingham.
Netherlands
Lucas Piazon made his Vitesse Arnhem debut in a 1-1 draw at Roda JC and played well for the 83 minutes he was on the pitch for. He manned the left side of the attack, ahead of Patrick van Aanholt at full-back, and was generally lively and involved. Van Aanholt, meanwhile, provided the assist for Valeri Kazaishvili’s goal, showing good skill and persistence on his way into the box.
Despite returning to first team training this week, Gael Kakuta wasn’t considered for match duty, whilst Cristian Cuevas’ status is still unconfirmed, as he is likely awaiting a work permit to feature in the Netherlands.
Also formalising paperwork ahead of a move to the Eredivisie is Croatian striker Stipe Perica, who is set to link up with NAC Breda for the season ahead. Perica, an 18 year-old forward signed from NK Zadar last month, will seal his move before the end of the month and adds another layer of interest to Chelsea’s exploits in the country.
Spain
La Liga got underway this weekend and despite early rampages by Barcelona, there remains interest in the rest of the competition in the form of three Chelsea players borrowed by other clubs. Oriol Romeu was an unused substitute for Valencia in a 1-0 win over Málaga on Saturday before Marko Marin and Thibaut Courtois went head to head as Atlético Madrid travelled to Sevilla.
Atlético took the lead but Sevilla responded quickly courtesy of a superb strike by Diego Perotti after he was fed by Marin, who will try to claim the assist. Courtois may hold himself to standards where he would have wanted to save it but it was an extremely impressive finish.
Atléti took control of the game the longer it went on and ran out 3-1 victors, however, with both Chelsea players featuring for the full duration and Marin earning a booking too.
Jhon Pírez returned to CD Leganés in the Spanish lower leagues this summer, but their fixture list starts in a week’s time.
Serbia
Matej Delac played all 90 minutes for FK Vojvodina in a 1-1 draw away to FK Voždovac in the league’s second round of games. He had kept a clean sheet on his league debut the week before in a goalless draw against Donji Srem and is undisputed first choice. Finally.
Italy
Brazilian full-back Wallace joined Inter on a season-long loan this week, but the Serie A season doesn’t get underway until next weekend.
Comments are closed.