Swansea City was on the verge of a season-defining victory against Manchester City in the FA Cup quarterfinals on Saturday. Then Raheem Sterling threw himself to the ground under a challenge from USMNT defender Cameron Carter-Vickers and the entire match dynamic changed.
A few weeks ago, Chelsea was hit with a transfer ban for illegally dealing with underage players in its academy system and third party ownership. Now, a Manchester City transfer ban could be instituted for two windows (one year), according to reports.
The 2019 Champions League quarterfinal draw set up some intriguing matchups for English Premier League clubs on Friday. Manchester City and Tottenham face off in an all-England clash while Manchester United drew Barcelona and Liverpool was paired with Porto. Ajax faces Juventus in the fourth quarterfinal.
Despite UEFA opening an investigation of Manchester City for possible Financial Fair Play violations, the club is looking in glorious shape for the future following news today that midfield maestro Bernardo Silva has elected to renew his contract until the summer of 2025 with a deal that puts him amongst City’s highest earners.
The Portuguese midfielder’s deal quickly follows on previous news of extensions for Aymeric Laporte, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus — all players who are aged 24 and under who’ll lead the side for years to come.
The 2018-19 English Premier League season is entering its final stretch of the season and for the first time in five years, it may come down to the last game to crown a champion.
How poetic that it is a race between the same two teams.
In 2014, Manchester City sealed the Premier League title with a win over West Ham. Liverpool did its part with a win over Newcastle, but needed City to lose for to hoist the trophy.
Liverpool suffered a huge home loss to Chelsea in the third-to-final game of the season, sending the EPL title in a gift basket to City.
For the longest time, those that weren’t particularly enamored with the Abu Dhabi Royal Family Sky Blues steamrolling their way to three EPL titles in seven years had one piece of consolation: Since the club’s last First Division title hadn’t come since 1968 and since they’d spent so long in the shadow of neighbors Manchester United, City was viewed as a team without fans (at least when compared to United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea).
In prospect, it was a great plan: Get up early, start with Manchester United versus Liverpool in a momentous, top four Premier League clash, and then seamlessly move on to the League Cup final between defending champions Manchester City and crisis-hit Chelsea.
There goes five hours of our day, and we didn’t get a goal to show for it.
Leroy Sané’s spectacular 85th minute free kick denied Schalke a famous victory over Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie at Veltins-Arena. The footballer that Schalke groomed entered the match in the 78th minute and then hammered the dead ball seven minutes later to draw 10-man City level — and then Raheem Sterling muscled his way to goal for a dramatic 3-2 winner in the 90th minute.
The FA Cup Fifth Round took center stage in England this past weekend. Nine clubs of the final 16 were from leagues below the Premier League, with the tie of the weekend focused on Newport, Wales.
However, there was very little magic to be found in the results, just quality winning out. Manchester United and Chelsea squared off in the final tie of the round on Monday night. Two first half goals by United saw Ole Gunnar Solskjær's side defeat Chelsea on the road.