Julian Nagelsmann promised to enjoy Bayern Munich s 3-0 win at Barcelona with a couple of drinks as he pointed to how obviously the hosts are missing Lionel Messi.
Argentine great Messi played 149 Champions League games for Barcelona, scoring 120 goals and claiming 35 assists, but his switch to Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer in August has left a void.
Without him, Barcelona offered little going forward and failed to get a shot on target, the first time they have posed such a meek threat in a Champions League game since at least 2003-04, Opta said.
When they were thumped 8-2 by Bayern in the Champions League quarter-finals 13 months ago, Barcelona at least had five shots on target, with Messi managing two of those.
In different moments, Lionel Me…
Fabrizio Ravanelli says his wife wasn t very happy after he agreed to become the new manager of Ukrainian side Arsenal Kiev.
Former Juventus and Italy forward Ravanelli will take over at the club after their promotion to Ukraine s top tier.
My wife wasn t very happy with this, but she knows how important it is for me, says Ravanelli. My three children understood it too.
I am grateful to Arsenal for the invitation. We are opening a new page of cooperation, which, I hope, will be long and fruitful.
Ravanelli, who starred in the Premier League for Middlesbrough, had a brief spell in charge of Ajaccio in 2013, lasting just over five months with the French side.
Let s just hope the Ravanelli family don t chicken out of a move to Ukraine s capital.…
Everton are ready to listen to offers for midfielder Ross Barkley, according to the Mirror.
The England international has been offered a highly lucrative new deal to stay at Goodison Park thought to be in the region of £100,000 per week, which would make him the highest paid player in the clubs interest.
The Toffees remain keen on securing his services though manager Ronald Koeman only wants players who are 100 per cent committed to the cause.
This means they may reluctantly listen to offers from the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, who have been monitoring the situation.
Barkley broke into the Everton first team in the 2011/12 campaign and became a regular in their first team two seasons later after loan spells with Sheffield Wedne…
In 2006, Ghana made their first ever appearance at a World Cup in Germany. The Black Stars may have been debutants, but they certainly showed no signs of stage fright on the big stage as they made it to the round of 16.
Four years later, in the first ever tournament staged in Africa, they went one step further. Ghana became only the third African nation to make it to the quarter-finals, before losing in heart-breaking and somewhat controversial fashion to Uruguay in the quarter-finals. It was an impressive return for a country only making their second appearance, and hopes were bright they could perhaps take that even further in their third appearance in Brazil.
However, 2014 was an utter disaster. Stories of infighting were rife in the local press as the team crashed o…
Arturo Vidal is rarely anything but candid and he made his long-term ambitions for Chile quite clear this week they want to win the World Cup.
I hope I can play for many years to come but right now we can achieve a lot, he said on Wednesday ahead of their Confederations Cup showdown with Germany. We can win this tournament, fight for the World Cup and we have the Copa America.
We have good players and a good coach. We have everything we need to keep winning. I hope I can do so for many years to come, at least until I m 40!
On this evidence, the 30-year-old might not have that long to wait to get his hands on the game s biggest prize. Chile were held to a 1-1 draw by a strong if inexperienced Germany but it would not be unfair to say they deserved more. They ce…
Southampton have announced a post-tax profit of £33.4million for the year ending June 30, 2014.
It is the first time the club, who finished eighth in the Premier League last season, have posted a profit since entering administration in 2009, when they were relegated to League One.
Total revenue increased to £106m (up from £71.8m the previous year), with the rise accounted for by the more lucrative television rights deal.
However, the St Mary s Stadium outfit expanded the wage bill from £41.4m to £55.2m and showed debts of approximately £50m.
Chief executive officer Gareth Rogers told the club s official website: There are lots of positives to take from these financial results. Recording the first profit and positive net asset position for the f…
Zlatan Ibrahimovic became the oldest goalscorer in Serie A history amid scenes of high drama as the 41-year-old netted a twice-taken penalty in Saturday s clash with Udinese.
At the age of 41 years and 166 days, the veteran Sweden international beat a record previously held by Alessandro Costacurta, the former Milan defender, who was 41 years and 25 days old when he scored, also against Udinese, in May 2007.
Ibrahimovic was making his first start in the Italian top flight since January 23, 2022, having undergone career-extending knee surgery at the end of last season s Scudetto campaign.
His goal was an equaliser for Stefano Pioli s team shortly before half-time at Stadio Friuli, with Jaka Bijol ruled to have handled the ball in the penalty area as he tried to ta…
Thomas Muller says he is angry about the way Joachim Low dumped him from the Germany squad.
Low announced on Tuesday that Muller, along with Bayern Munich team-mates Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels, would no longer be considered for selection.
Muller has made 100 appearances for Germany and, with Hummels and Boateng, helped his country to glory at the 2014 World Cup.
And the Bayern attacker has not responded well to the decision by Low and the German Football Association (DFB).
The longer I think about it, the more I get angry about the way this happened, Muller said in a video posted to social media.
I do not understand why this decision must be so final. I was totally dumbfounded by this decision out of the blue by the national coach. A nati…
Ousmane Dembele came off the bench to snatch Barcelona a 1-1 draw away to Atletico Madrid in Saturday s top-of-the-table clash in LaLiga.
Diego Costa s first top-flight goal this season looked set to give Diego Simeone his maiden league victory against Barcelona in seven years as Atletico s head coach, which would have taken them to the summit.
But it was not to be as Dembele found space in the box in the last minute to beat Jan Oblak with a low shot that evaded a desperate effort by Lucas Hernandez to clear the ball off the line.
A draw maintains the status quo at the top of LaLiga with Barca a point clear of Atletico having successfully avoided suffering back-to-back league losses for the first time under Ernesto Valverde.
94 + | 1-1 | The match en…
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp played down the significance of being top at Christmas, suggesting his team may need 105 points to win the Premier League.
A hard-fought 2-0 win over Wolves on Friday pushed Klopp s side four points clear at the top, guaranteeing them first spot at Christmas.
Eight of the past nine teams to be top on Christmas Day have gone on to win the title, with Liverpool in 2013-14 the exception.
Klopp believes this season is different, with a record 105 points potentially needed to claim the title.
I don t know how much we need, how many any team needs this year, he told a news conference.
What is really different – because everybody asks me about the situation, first in the table and all that stuff – somebody said that t…