The football blog for fans of all clubs
Ipurua, Eibar – ‘Fabricando Suenos!’ was the phrase that adorned the arched-La Liga pitch-side entrance at Ipurua. Both sets of players – Eibar and Atletico Madrid – walked under it and onto the pitch ready for another battle. Rather symbolically, both clubs have certainly lived up to that statement in recent years. Eibar – the […]
Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Sevilla – It is the hottest city in mainland Europe. Temperatures regularly reach 40°C in the summer and pavements bake and crack under the heat of the sun. Residents often move out of their homes during July and August and head to the slightly cooler coastal areas. Sevilla is the home of […]
With La Liga returning this weekend after its winter break, Oliver Miller takes a look at how this season’s campaign is shaping up Can Barcelona see the job through? The winter champions and by some distance (9 points); Barcelona have dominated La Liga from matchday one – their 5-1 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid in […]
Bernabeu, Madrid – There was to be no white Christmas as the huge banner unfurled at the south end of the ground had predicted. Los Blancos were left with a blue Christmas at the end of the Clasico – it was the handful of Barcelona fans positioned high inside the Bernabeu who were full of […]
San Mames, Bilbao – It all started around 11 o’clock on Saturday morning in the heart of Bilbao. It was derby day. Athletic fans dressed in red-and-white-striped shirts confronted Real Sociedad fans in blue and white and tried to wind them up, get the better of them. Songs, jokes, and put-downs – all well-crafted and […]
Coliseum Alfonso Perez, Getafe – “If I’d been at home, I would have changed the channel,” remarked Eibar captain Dani Garcia after Getafe’s goalless draw against Eibar. It was certainly nothing to get overly excited about. It was a match between two inform sides that deploy a 4-4-2 formation in an organised and aggressive manner. […]
San Mames, Bilbao – On a cold and wet Basque evening, Real Madrid failed to score for a second consecutive La Liga away match. Zinedine Zidane fielded the same starting eleven as the one that started the Champions League final in Cardiff against Juventus – on that occasion Madrid got four goals, on Saturday they […]
Mestalla, Valencia – ‘The view is good from here,’ said the Valencia manager. ‘You see things that you wouldn’t normally.’ Sitting not far from the reporters who were either commentating, commenting, or providing analysis on his side, nor far from the owner of the club of whose ambitions he must fulfil; Marcelino found himself halfway […]
El Metropolitano, Madrid – The first ever Madrid derby at El Metropolitano finished goalless; the result left both of the competitors ten points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona and the match itself helped illustrate why. Diego Simeone said post-match that “there was football all over the place,” and for the opening five minutes that was […]
Sweden beat Italy to a place in next year’s World Cup after a goalless draw in Milan in what turned out to be Buffon’s swansong. There was a common consensus on a warm, Parisian evening back in June 2016 that the end of an era had approached. Italy had just beaten Spain by two goals […]
Sweden secured a slender advantage from the first leg of their World Cup play-off against Italy after a 1-0 victory in Stockholm on Friday. “The result changes nothing. Today we could’ve done more and done it better, but there’s a lot at stake over the 180 minutes,” Giampiero Ventura said in his post-match conference. The […]
Camp Nou, Barcelona – There was a lot to take in before the evening entertainment began on Saturday. Messi’s 600th appearance was greeted with an immense storm an hour before kick-off. Fortunately, the thunder and lightning had relented by the time the ball began moving, but waterproof ponchos were still needed by those who decided […]
Mestalla, Valencia – Having played nine matches Valencia are still unbeaten, winning six and drawing three – with two of those draws coming against Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. Perhaps more impressively is that, in doing so, they have scored twenty-five goals with Simone Zaza scoring eight of them, leading to the former Juventus and […]
Metropolitano, Madrid – “It was a good dinner for everyone because there was a great show” proclaimed Ernesto Valverde as he sat in the post-match press conference. “I said that we were going to adapt and we did adapt. I have a positive feeling from the game”. Barcelona and their opponents, Atletico Madrid, showed that […]
When Wales and the Republic of Ireland were drawn together in Group D on that July evening at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Saint Petersburg there was anticipation aplenty. Days later, when the schedule of fixtures was released, it was confirmed that they would face each other on the final matchday. Just imagine if it all […]
Camp Nou, Barcelona – It was 14:49 on Sunday afternoon – just 26 minutes before the scheduled kick-off time – when FC Barcelona released the following statement “FC Barcelona condemns the events which have taken place in many parts of Catalonia today in order to prevent its citizens exercising their democratic right to free expression. […]
Mendizorozza, Vitoria – Real Madrid were unable to better the goalscoring record set by Pele’s Santos in the sixties and score in 74 consecutive matches on Wednesday evening. Real Betis came to the Bernabeu and prevented Real Madrid from scoring for the first time since April 2016 when they drew with Manchester City in the […]
Metropolitano, Madrid – The Atletico Madrid players strolled out of the main building at the Ciudad Deportiva Atletico de Madrid, wash bags in hand, and formed an orderly queue in the beating Madrid sun. They boarded the team bus – Griezmann was last on, the cool kid of the gang, and went straight to his […]
Barcelona and Real Sociedad are the two at the top whilst Real Madrid drop points at home again. Riazor, La Coruna – The Real Sociedad team bus returned from La Coruna back to San Sebastian on Sunday evening – the pintxos bars were still open and brimming with life in Spain’s gastronomic capital. The relatively […]
Real Madrid are unable to keep up with Real Sociedad, Barcelona and Leganes, who are all on six points from the opening two games. Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid – Marco Asensio showed the Bernabeu crowd once again that he is a star in the making if he isn’t one already. The 21-year-old opened the scoring against […]
