Ronald Koeman, it’s time for your 45-second phone call.
After an embarrassingly limp (zero shots on target) 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou to begin Champions League play, Barcelona played even worse on Wednesday night during a 3-0 defeat to Benfica in Lisbon (one shot on target!).
The deal was as good as done. The year was 1978, and a 17-year-old Argentine phenom named Diego Maradona was set to become a Sheffield United player.
Harry Haslam, manager of the Second Division side, was on a scouting mission in Argentina and looking at a pair of players but couldn't come up with the requisite funds.
If you’re like most of the football world on Tuesday, you were focused on the battle between the world’s two richest sides, PSG and Manchester City. As sad as Bernardo Silva was after his miss in that match, there was no one sadder on Tuesday than Diogo Costa, the Porto goalkeeper who was caught disastrously out of position by Roberto Firmino.
Over the years, soccer matches have been temporarily suspended for a variety of bizarre reasons, whether it be canine pitch invasions, tennis ball protests or a pig head on the pitch, but it takes a heck of a lot for an event to end a match.
LISBON - It was only last month that Sébastien Haller was being jeered off the field but the towering Ajax forward proved his worth on Wednesday with four goals in their 5-1 Champions League win at Sporting Lisbon.
The gangly 27-year-old striker, who Ajax forgot to register for European competition last season, delivered a masterclass in finishing as the Dutch club got the perfect start to their Group C campaign.
In the annals of soccer history, you have to pick from some of the greatest teams of all time to find a front three that compares to the PSG lineup Mauricio Pochettino chose on Wednesday. For the first time, he was able to field Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, the much-hyped MNM trio.
The vaunted PSG lineup didn’t last long nor did it impress on the road at Club Brugge. The star forwards went scoreless as Paris Saint-Germain was held to a stunning 1-1 draw by the Belgian side. Club Brugge looked far more exciting on offense, outshooting PSG 16-9 (7-4 on target).
La tercera playera del Ajax de Edson Álvarez es una de las mejores de la temporada 2021-22. Su diseño está inspirado en la canción "Three Little Birds" de Bob Marley y ha sido un éxito entre los críticos y también entre los aficionados. "Se ha vendido al menos cuatro veces más que cualquier otro jersey del club", afirmó recientemente Menno Geele, director de márketing del club neerlandés.
When the UEFA Champions League group draw occurs every year in August, the two biggest focuses are inevitably which group is my favorite team in and which group will be the most entertaining to follow/watch.
For a small portion of us, the most interesting section of the draw is uncovering the most obscure team that somehow made the group stage.
Usually this team comes from some tiny country in Eastern Europe, riding some sort of heavy investment toward a wave of success only for the debt to invariably catch up soon after.
For the first time in history, Americans will play in all three of UEFA’s European tournaments. This season is also the first time there have been three tournaments, but minor details. There are tons of Americans playing in Europe, but only 22 have made it to the group stages across the three competitions.
Here are the numbers for Americans playing in European tournaments.
First, let’s look at the 11 in the Champions League.
Que el Ajax le pase por encima a un rival de la Eredivisie un fin de semana por medio no es una gran novedad, pero sí es poco común que uno de los que convierta los goles sea el mexicano Edson Álvarez.
Machín es una pieza fundamental en el equipo dirigido por Erik ten Hag, no se confundan. De hecho, el club resistió un par de suculentas ofertas del Stade Rennais para mantener al mediocampista.
Su aporte se manifiesta en labores defensivas y de distribución, pero este fin de semana además agregó un chícharo en el 5-0 sobre el Vitesse.