Italy

Real Madrid will head home with a 1-0 win over Atalanta on Wednesday at Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, but the Italian side will be left wondering “what if.”

Atalanta was bossing the 13-time Champions League winners for the opening 15 minutes before a soft red card irreversibly altered the match. Fullback Ferland Mendy both drew the red card and scored the late winner as Zinedine Zidane’s side escaped with a win in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16. 

The present and future of the Champions League combined to lead Bayern Munich over Lazio on Tuesday with Robert Lewandowski scoring his 72nd goal of the competition and 17-year-old Jamal Musiala scoring his first as Bayern prevailed 4-1 in Rome.

You can’t give the world champions anything if you want to last over the course of 180 minutes, but Lazio damned itself as early as the ninth minute after Mateo Musacchio’s suicidal back-pass allowed Lewandowski to collect possession, round Pepe Reina and finish into an empty net.

Cristiano Ronaldo, like every other footballer on the planet, is underrated when it comes to headers.

Internazionale claimed the most important Milan Derby in 10 years by a resounding 3-0 scoreline on Sunday with Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martínez combining for all the goals while Zlatan Ibrahimović was brilliantly denied by Samir Handanović on multiple occasions.

The top-of-the-table derby was played without supporters inside the San Siro, but emotions ran high outside as the Rossoneri and Nerazzurri faithful gathered at opposite sides of the historic ground. 

ROME - Ten years have come and gone since a Milan Derby in Serie A mattered this much.

When the two storied Italian clubs go head to head at San Siro on Sunday, it will be the first time since April 2, 2011 that the fixture represents a clash between the league’s top two teams. The 2010-11 season proved to be the end of an era for football in the city. Milan lifted the title to halt Inter’s five-year Scudetto stranglehold, but Inter were consoled with a Coppa Italia triumph. Neither club has won either competition since.

There was a thought — an expectation even — that Cristiano Ronaldo would return to Portugal and put on a show in his home country. Juventus, the only Italian champion in the last 10 years, would be expected to take care of business against a club from outside of Europe’s top five leagues. After all, the last time Ronaldo played Porto, he scored a goal that won him a Puskás Award.

But Porto does not care for your expectations. Porto has its own plans in the Champions League. 

NAPLES, Italy — Lorenzo Insigne's first-half penalty earned Napoli a 1-0 home win over Juventus in Serie A on Saturday, with a first defeat in eight in all competitions leaving the champions seven points behind league leaders AC Milan in the standings.

Veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini was penalised for a foul on Napoli's Amir Rrahmani in the penalty area to concede a 31st-minute spot kick, which Insigne converted to score what proved to be the winner and his 100th goal in all competitions for Napoli.

TikTok will be the global sponsor for the rescheduled Euro 2020 soccer tournament set to begin in June this year, the sport's European governing body UEFA announced on Thursday.

The popular Chinese short video app, the first digital entertainment platform to sponsor a major international tournament for UEFA, also has broadcast sponsorship rights as part of the deal.

AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli insists he is not surprised by Zlatan Ibrahimović's remarkable longevity and hinted that he would like the Swede to extend his contract with the Serie A club.

The 39-year-old striker scored the 500th club goal of his career in a 4-0 Serie A win over Crotone on Sunday to send Milan two points clear at the top of the table.

The Swede fired the opening goal into the top corner to hit the landmark before adding a second after the break, taking his seasonal tally to 16 goals in 17 games in all competitions.