Club form over last 5 games:
Madrid: W W D W W
Bayern: D L W L W
Carlo Ancelotti and Xabi Alonso return to the Santiago Bernabeu, where they won the Champions League title together back in 2014. However, this will probably not be a happy homecoming for the pair as Real Madrid have a huge advantage over the German giants.
Luis Enrique has promised a return leg for the ages at Barcelona’s Camp Nou on Wednesday night. The Barca manager says that his side will have no choice but to attack for 90 minutes, and he believes that will allow Juventus to get forward with a sucker punch of their own.
Images of Barcelona’s leaked 2017-18 home kit first began appearing in December of 2016. The jerseys, which will feature their new sponsor Rakuten for the first time, originally looked like all hell — like a printer trying to align its ink cartridges and failing.
Replica da possível camisa do Barça para temporada 2017/18. pic.twitter.com/kJ3XEDQt9E
Newcastle United's policy of purchasing young French players and selling them for a massive profit came to end following last year’s relegation. That embarrassing demise, Newcastle’s second relegation in only eight years, proved that the club’s model of operating was disastrously shortsighted.
For every revelation that chief scout Graham Carr discovered on the cheap in Ligue 1 (Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, Moussa Sissoko and Mathieu Debuchy), there were the counterpoints of Sylvain Marveaux, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Emmanuel Riviera and Remy Cabella.
The Europa League quarterfinal between Lyon and Besiktas was delayed for 45 minutes when supporters were forced to invade the pitch after projectiles and firecrackers were thrown from the upper deck and into the stand below.
At last, Yonghong Li’s Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux has completed the purchase of AC Milan from Silvio Berlusconi’s Fininvest. The deal values AC Milan at 740 million euros, which includes the club’s debt of 220 million.
Less than 24 hours after three explosions severely damaged the Borussia Dortmund team bus and hospitalized defender Marc Bartra, Dortmund hosted AS Monaco in the Champions League at the behest of UEFA.
There’s a statistic on the Leicester City vs. Atletico Madrid chalkboard that sticks out like Marc Albrighton’s foul on Antoine Griezmann. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given his isolation throughout the match, culminating in a 77th minute substitution, but Jamie Vardy, according to who you choose to believe, left the pitch with a pass completion percentage of 0.
Robinho made a name for himself in Brazil when he rose through the youth ranks at Santos to sign his first professional contract with the club as an 18-year-old. That very same year (2002), before the launch of YouTube or anything else that allowed videos to be shared virally on a global level, there was hearsay of the next Pele having drawn a penalty in the Brazilian championship final with a ‘pedalada’ so mesmerizing that it beggared description.
AS Monaco scored three vital away goals against Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion, but you get the feeling that this tie favors whichever team is forced into having the attacking onus. The second leg in Monaco promises more of the same, and this time it’ll be Dortmund needing to force the issue.
Thomas Tuchel opted for a more conservative approach to start the match, playing Sven Bender, Sokratis and Lukasz Piszcezek in the back and opting for Marcel Schmelzer and Matthias Ginter as wing backs.