Italian Clubs

The semifinals of the Champions League returned to Monaco’s Stade Louis II for the first time since 2004, and the 18,000+ in attendance would’ve surely expected their side to add to the 16 home Champions League goals they’d already witnessed since the beginning of their campaign.

But a Juventus side that had only given up two goals in this competition, and none throughout the knockout rounds, proved to be an entirely different challenge for Monaco’s goal-crazy attackers.

Despite calls from AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti and fellow professionals to have the club extend Francesco Totti’s contract another year, new Roma sporting director Monchi has confirmed that plans for this to be Totti’s last season had been put in place before he was appointed on April 24.

As FC Barcelona discovered last Wednesday, one does not simply mess with the Juventus defense. On Sunday, Juve hosted lowly Genoa at Juventus Stadium with the opportunity to stretch their lead at the top of Serie A to 11 points before Monday’s meeting between Roma and Pescara.

On Friday morning, the last Champions League draw of the season took place in Nyon, Switzerland to determine the semi-final matchups and gave us some very entertaining fixtures: Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid and Monaco vs Juventus. As football fans, we are all one step closer to finding out which teams will play for Europe’s most lucrative trophy on June 3rd in Cardiff. Will the Champions League Final be played between:

Real Madrid - Monaco

Real Madrid - Juventus

Atletico Madrid - Monaco

Atletico Madrid - Juventus

Deadlines are interesting things. For Milan in recent weeks – in recent years, really – a flurry of deadlines have been dodged, avoided, missed, and ignored. In the past seven days, however, everything seems have slotted into place. The impending deadline for the sale of one of the world’s most storied clubs to a shady Chinese investment firm was finally completed, ending the ownership of a shadiest of shady owners himself, Silvio Berlusconi.

It’s come to light that the best opportunity Barcelona had to snatch a goal to begin their famous comeback against Juventus wasn’t squandered by Lionel Messi but by Luis Suarez at kick off.

Juventus defender Dani Alves was off the pitch, shaking hands with his old coaching staff (one coach playfully holding his hand long enough to incur a slap from Alves) while Luis Enrique beckoned the Brazilian to take a seat next to him.

For all the talk regarding what it would take for Barcelona to, once again, turn around a seemingly insurmountable lead, the difference between this return leg and the one against PSG was made immediately evident upon kickoff. Juventus played higher up the pitch, they made Barcelona entirely uncomfortable, they were sophisticatedly physical and they were capable of stringing passes together.

Barcelona vs Juventus: MSN try to work their magic for yet another comeback at home

Last 5 games

Barca: W L L W W

Juve: W W W L D

Barcelona find themselves in a deja vu situation again. The Catalans are trailing by three goals after being outclassed in Turin last week, and will need another big comeback to stay alive in Europe. Although they’re trailing a goal less than they did against PSG, they’re also facing a much tougher side to break down compared to the French outfit.