Blog (Page 16)

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that he substituted Karim Benzema in Tuesday’s win at Chelsea as he had picked up an injury. Los Blancos beat the Blues 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to secure a 4-0 aggregate win in their UEFA Champions League quarter-final. They will face either Manchester City or Bayern Munich in the last four. A second-half brace from Rodrygo killed off any hope of a Chelsea comeback, with the reigning champions eventually easing their way into the semi-finals after a strong first 45 minutes from the hosts. “It was known that we had to suffer in this type of game. TheyRead More →

Frank Lampard has argued that Chelsea were the stronger side on the night, despite the Blues crashing out of the Champions League with a 2-0 defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday, Chelsea produced a much-improved performance compared to recent weeks and had their chances to tie the game up early on as N’Golo Kante and Marc Cucurella both failed to convert, but they ultimately came unstuck to two second-half strikes from Rodrygo, pushing the Blues onto their longest winless run since February 1995. Despite the result, Lampard was keen to highlight the positives and insisted there were real signs of improvement from Chelsea. “We playedRead More →

Chelsea put on a much-improved performance but were still no match for Real Madrid, who booked their place in the semi-final of the Champions League with another 2-0 victory over the Blues. A double from Rodrygo in the second half got the job done for Real and crushed all spirits at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea once again being made to pay for their lack of cutting edge in attack in what was an otherwise solid performance. Chelsea made a solid start to proceedings, pressing high and forcing even Luka Modric into a misplaced pass. The Blues could have even taken a lead ten minutes inRead More →

After loathing each other to varying degrees for the best part of a century, the fiery relationship between Barcelona and Real Madrid had shown some signs of cooling in recent years. Both could unite against a common enemy in the form of La Liga – with the Spanish top flight proving to be a stubborn obstacle in the way of a shared ideal, the European Super League. However, Real Madrid squashed any links that had formed when they sided with La Liga and the Spanish FA in the complaint against Barcelona regarding alleged payments made by the Catalan club to former referee chief Jose MariaRead More →

Constantine Hatzidakis, the assistant referee who was briefly stood down from duty for an alleged elbow on Liverpool defender Andrew Robertson, will be back assisting VAR on Saturday. Hatzidakis was accused of striking Robertson as he shrugged off being confronted by the Liverpool player as both were walking off the pitch at half-time during the Premier League clash between the Reds and Arsenal at Anfield earlier this month. The FA investigated the matter, with Hatzidakis cleared of wrongdoing. He has also since apologised directly to Robertson for what happened. But rather than be thrown straight into a Premier League game, where the spotlight is likelyRead More →

Manchester City’s resurgence this season has proven that Gareth Taylor and his side are capable of overseeing a re-build on the job. Coming into this season, City undertook some drastic changes. The departures of Keira Walsh, Caroline Weir and Georgia Stanway to Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively gutted their midfield. Lucy Bronze went to Barcelona, while Ellen White, Jill Scott and Karen Bardsley retired. The massive overhaul came with a lot of questions. After all, City were losing many key players in the dressing room and most of the seven new arrivals had come from overseas league and were playing in England forRead More →

The Portland Timbers grabbed just their second win of the season with a 4-1 thumping over rival Seattle Sounders at Providence Park as goals by Dairon Asprilla, Nathan Fogaca, Jaroslaw Niezgoda, and Juan Mosquera gave the Timbers all three points.  Head coach Gio Savarese was excited about his team’s performance during his postmatch conference, hailing Asprilla’s goal specifically. “The energy that we got after Asprilla’s amazing goal – that was I think the moment that took the team to a different level,” Savarese said. “And then we finished very, very strong. Very good. I mean, one of the best finishes I would say that weRead More →

Gameweek 31 in the Premier League season felt like a rather important one. Arsenal dropped points in the title race. Leeds United continued to sink like a stone. And Aston Villa proved themselves to be genuine top four contenders. After all that fun, here’s 90min’s team of the week: Current Premier League table, top scorers & upcoming fixtures Eberechi Eze is in superb form for Crystal Palace / Sebastian Frej/MB Media/GettyImages GK – Emiliano Martinez – The World Cup winner was once again in top form at the weekend, keeping a clean sheet against high-flying Newcastle United thanks to a few great saves. RB –Read More →

Another week, another football club in crisis. This time, however, we’ve decided to scour the continent instead of just the Premier League for the ‘crisis club’. The club we found? Punch-drunk Bayern Munich: What’s the crisis? Out of DFB-Pokal at the hands of Frieburg. Thumped by Manchester City 3-0 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final. Trying their very best to not win the Bundesliga with a rather disastrous draw with Hoffenheim at the weekend. Read the latest Champions League news here Oh, and their big-money replacement for Robert Lewandowski was suspended by the club for literally punching another player after thatRead More →

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota has called on the Reds to follow up Monday night’s 6-1 thrashing of Leeds in the Premier League with a consistent run of performances and results that could still give them a chance of finishing the season in the top four. Jurgen Klopp’s side stayed eighth after the win, their first since hammering Manchester United 7-0 at the start of March, and are nine points behind fourth place Newcastle with eight games left. On only one occasion this season have Liverpool put together more than two Premier League wins in a row. Even then, their four successive wins in November andRead More →