The football blog for fans of all clubs
Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos billed Saturday’s Champions League final in Cardiff as a “date with history” and, following Madrid’s 4-1 win over Juventus, the achievement will certainly be etched into the history of European club football. Real’s victory meant they became the first team to defend the title in the 25-year UEFA Champions League […]
Under a closed roof, the floodlights of the Principality Stadium lit up the biggest stage of them all – the Champions League Final between two of the finest sides in world football. 65,000 fans created an atmosphere fitting of the occasion, with the Juventus end displaying a clear message, “The Time is Now”. A complete […]
Real Madrid lost to cross-town neighbours Atletico Madrid 2-1 in the second leg of their UCL Semi-Final, but advanced to the Final on an aggregate score of 4-2. Isco’s goal was enough to cancel out the effect of Saul and Griezmann’s goals for the home side. Atletico began the match with a bang, storming into […]
Juventus defeated Monaco 2-1 in the second leg of their Champions League Semi-Final, thrashing their opponents 4-1 on aggregate to advance to the Cardiff final. Mandzukic and Alves scored for Juventus, while Mbappe got one back for his side. Both teams created so many chances in the first half, but some great defending from Juve’s […]
Borussia Dortmund had qualified for the Champions League in 1996/97 after winning the Bundesliga the previous season, beaten Bayern Munich to the top spot by six points. Manager Ottmar Hitzfeld had brought in Paul Lambert from Motherwell and Paulo Sousa from Juventus to strengthen the midfielder and produce a challenge in the Champions League. A […]
Juventus advance to the Semi-Finals of the Champions League with an aggregate score of 3-0 after a stalemate draw at Camp Nou. The Spanish mega club failed to overturn a seemingly impossible deficit, and even their fortress couldn’t help them save their season. With this win, Juventus have now avenged their UCL final defeat at […]
Real Madrid thrashed ten-man Bayern Munich 4-2 in the second leg of their Champions League quarter final tie. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a sumptuous hat trick as he became the first player ever to reach 100 Champions League goals. The match went to extra time as the regulated time saw the two teams level on aggregate. […]
It wasn’t too surprising when Juventus crushed Barcelona 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter final last week. Many fans, as well as betters, were expecting a Juventus win. Fresh from their 2-0 defeat away at 14th placed Malaga, their second league loss in the space of a month, people were branding […]
Today, when you read the match reports on Barcelona’s 3-0 loss to Juventus, you will see repeatedly reporters giving the La Liga side a chance to advance simply because they did so against Paris Saint-Germain in a similar instance. Don’t believe it. Luis Enrique made a gamble prior to this match that backfired and, in […]
Juventus go into this quarter-final match against Barcelona with the hopes of rewriting history and erasing their memories of the 2015 Champions League Final. Times have changed since that night in Berlin. Juventus will only field two players from the starting XI of the 2015 Final against Barcelona in tomorrow’s game. The same thing cannot […]
The Champions League quarter-finals draw did not disappoint on Friday as the last eight teams in European football’s elite found out their fate. With some real footballing heavyweights going toe-to-toe next month, the battle to make the final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff looks set to be tightly contested. Here is a breakdown of […]
As someone who writes about coaches and tactics, I was interested in watching the return leg of the Monaco/Manchester City matchup. Setting aside the obscene number of goals in the first match, there were two questions in my mind I could not wait to see how Leonardo Jardim addressed. The first was the line-up. Monaco […]
Listening to Zinedine Zidane, the Real Madrid manager, it seems they are really determined to defend their title this year. Looking at the past statistics, elite European teams can bag consecutive national titles, win premium knockout trophies or win the Europa League consistently, but it’s not characteristic. Surprisingly, retaining the Champions League title has been […]
Arsenal have been involved in several gaffe in the past especially one that involves how a player’s injury was managed. The recent injury to Mesut Ozil was a case in point. The German playmaker was ruled out by its national team medical staff for a period of three months in October. But Arsene Wenger was […]
Arsenal face stern competition on Tuesday night as his side face Anderlecht in a must win match should they hope of coming out of the toppling the group. Arsenal lost to Borussia Dortmund in their first Champions League encounter and ended up winning their second Group stage match against a helpless Galatasary in a 5-1 […]
After a comfortable 2-1 away win at the Selhurst Park over Crystal Palace on Saturday, Chelsea directs attention to the Uefa champions league match day three fixture against Slovenian side NK Maribor at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. Chelsea’s last outing in the champions league was against Sporting CP of Portugal in Lisbon where the visitors […]
Ahead of Chelsea’s UEFA Champions’ League match against NK Maribor, the Slovenian Champions, Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho has dropped a hint of a very rare start for midfielder Nathan Ake. Mourinho would be without midfielders Ramires, Andre Shurrle and John Obi Mikel, leaving Nemanja Matic and maybe Cesc Fabregas to the holding midfield role for […]
Manchester United is set to make a ÂŁ4m January bid for Ron Vlaar. Louis Van Gaal will look to reunite with his former international player Vlaar at Manchester this January. Manchester have struggled at the backline this season conceding cheap goals. The players at the back have found it increasingly difficult to play in the […]
With just 2 months gone into the new 2014/2015 football season, Arsenal currently has 7 players out of 25 registered for the new season, on the treatment table. According to a comprehensive compilation done by physiroom.com, Arsenal now occupy the 5th position in the injury log of English Premier League teams with David Ospina, Mesut […]
On Tuesday, 10th September, Man City was held to a draw in their home ground by Roma in the group stage fixtures for this season’s champion’s league. After the match which ended 1-1, there were headlines screaming about the failure of City to qualify from the group despite the fact that there are four matches […]
