We all knew it was coming.
After Norwich City upset Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City last week, there was never any doubt Watford would be on the end of a spanking at the Etihad on Saturday.
But this was all a bit much.
Bayern Munich was on its way to an easy victory over Red Star Belgrade to open Champions League Group B play at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Wednesday. Then it decided to pull out one extra little trick to add a bit of goal difference.
After controlling nearly three-quarters of possession and not allowing Red Star a single shot on goal, Thomas Müller scored in the 91st minute to give Bayern Munich a 3-0 win.
The Müller goal vs Red Star was totally unnecessary, but it was fun to watch.
108 days after Liverpool lifted the Champions League trophy in Madrid, we’re set to do it all over again with a competition that’ll reach its conclusion on May 30 in Istanbul. Matchday one begins tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 17) with a couple massive group stage encounters before carrying through to Wednesday with a couple more.
Below, we’ll highlight those four games while also breaking down the Champions League TV schedule on TNT.
Tuesday, September 17
I know of no greater natural human curiosity than the one that demands we discover the ball’s final resting place. One of our most beloved sports, golf, is entirely based on this premise. So when a ball actually exits the field of play, the novelty of it all can lead to some of the greatest moments in all of sports.
But sometimes, you don’t want to know the end. Because how can the end be happy when so much random chance is involved?
Spain may have made beating Romania look difficult Thursday, but before the match Thiago made playing soccer look easy. A video released by the Spainish national team of Thiago skills has gone viral among the soccer community.
The video captures the Bayern midfielder making cross-field passes with another teammate; sounds simple enough right? Oh yeah, I forget to mention that he's juggling and passing the ball between teammates without the ball touching the ground.
Perhaps beginning with AC Milan’s historic Centro Sportivo Milanello and continuing to this day in previously undreamt of places like Atlanta and Utah, training facilities for the world’s most prestigious clubs have grown in importance as the most ambitious of organizations attempt to align the best in first-team training, sports science and academy development with a physical representation of an overarching ideology.
After a year-and-a-half together at the Camp Nou, it’s likely that Ousmane Dembélé and Philippe Coutinho have ended their time together as teammates on the pitch.
Money is becoming increasingly inflated in soccer over the last five years. It seems like each year a new record transfer fee is set both at a club level and international level. This has been possible thanks to incredible broadcast rights fees in other countries that then trickle down to teams in each league. Teams then have more money to spend on players and clubs take advantage of that, setting ridiculous asking prices for their players as the sponsorship money just rolls in alongside the lucrative TV deals and funding from club owners.