UEFA Competitions
Josip Stanisic preserved Bayer Leverkusen’s remarkable unbeaten run with a last-gasp equaliser against Roma as the Germans reached the Europa League final.
Not for the first time in recent weeks, Xabi Alonso’s Bundesliga champions looked set to taste their maiden defeat of the season only to somehow fight back.
Continue reading...Ademola Lookman, Matteo Ruggeri and El Bilal Touré scored in Atalanta’s 3-0 win over Marseille for a 4-1 aggregate victory on Thursday. The Italian side will meet Bayer Leverkusen, who overcame Roma, in their first European final in Dublin on May 22.
Lookman put Atalanta ahead in the second leg on the half-hour with a long-range strike past Pao López before setting up Ruggeri to double the lead seven minutes after the break.
Continue reading...Bayer Leverkusen produced another astonishing comeback to take their unbeaten run to a European record 49 games
4 mins: Half a chance for Roma! An excellent lofted crossfield pass finds Lukaku running past the last defender, but his chest control isn’t good enough, and though Koval is a bit slow to come out he’s close enough to the ball when the Belgian gets to it that he can’t chip it over him.
2 mins: Piero Hincapie and Bryan Cristante have a bit of a tussle on the right flank, and after the ball goes out for a free-kick the Roma midfielder goads him with a gesture I frankly struggle to interpret – it was almost a shushing finger over the lips, except it was a finger over the chin and maybe the bottom lip if you’re lucky. It’s all a bit bad tempered and the referee has a chat with them.
Continue reading...Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund booked their spots in the final at Wembley thanks to a pair of unlikely match winners
Two second legs that both reached a dramatic crescendo, one with late goals, the other with late misses, set up a Wembley final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.
Goalkeeper: Andriy Lunin, Real Madrid
Continue reading...Logical brilliance of attacker stood out as he played with startling sense of freedom to lead team back to another final
At what point, exactly, does the relentlessly unpredictable start to become oddly routine? As ever, this was an absolute nut‑show of a football match inside Real Madrid’s steamy Centre Court‑style megadrome.
Every ex-Stoke, Newcastle and Eintracht Frankfurt journeyman has his day. And this was the day of Joselu, Madrid’s 34‑year‑old own-brand Benzema, who scored with two of his first three touches in the final moments of a Champions League semi-final to turn 1-0 down into 2-1 up and another final for these irresistible power-meringues.
Continue reading...Alphonso Davies put Bayern in front but the hosts found another late fightback to book a Champions League final with Dortmund
2 min: Sane tries to bring down a long pass but Mendy hassles him from behind and the Bayern man loses control.
38 sec: Kroos, making his 150th Champions League appearance tonight, sends in an aimless corner. Bayern clear their lines easily.
Continue reading...Defender left Spurs having fallen out of favour but has become a mainstay for Tuchel and could still have England value
“Are you serious? Why? Just why? Now we know Bayern won’t be getting a trophy this season. Kane needs a friend. Thank you for taking him, love from north London.”
This was the kind of thing that Eric Dier would have seen on his Instagram page on 11 January – were he inclined to read the comments. The centre-half had posted for the first time as a Bayern Munich player, after his transfer from Tottenham, and it should be said that most of the messages were positive, Spurs fans thanking him for his nine and a half seasons with them, wishing him well for his next challenge.
Continue reading...Marco Reus’s Borussia Dortmund career is coming to an end and what better way to sign off at the club than with a return to Wembley for another shot at Champions League glory 11 years after he lost there in the final.
Dortmund beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 on Tuesday to complete a 2-0 aggregate win and reach the Champions League final for the first time since 2013, when they lost to Bayern Munich at Wembley at the start of Reus’s Dortmund career.
Continue reading...Mats Hummels secured a return to Wembley for Dortmund, as PSG hit the woodwork four times but couldn’t find a way through
5 min: More room for Hakimi on the right wing. He looks for Gonçalo Ramos in the middle, but shanks his cross towards Kobel at the near post. The keeper gathers. Some positive early moves by the hosts.
4 min: Some space for Hakimi down the right. A low cross is met by Gonçalo Ramos, who hands out a leg and steers a shot straight at Kobel. Not enough power to fox the keeper.
Continue reading...Paris Saint-Germain lost 1-0 to Borussia Dortmund in their Champions League semi-final first leg but that does not mean they will go all out to score twice in normal time on Tuesday, Luis Enrique has insisted.
The Ligue 1 champions overturned a one-goal deficit against Barcelona in the quarter-finals, winning 4-1 in the second leg, but PSG are prepared to take the game with Dortmund to extra time if required.
Continue reading...Marseille were held to a 1-1 home draw by Atalanta in their Europa League semi-final first leg on Thursday.
Gianluca Scamacca put the visitors ahead after 11 minutes when Teun Koopmeiners found him unmarked in the box to fire low into the far post for his 16th goal in all competitions this season.
More to follow
Continue reading...Florian Wirtz and Robert Andrich goals reflected Leverkusen’s superiority and made it 47 unbeaten for the German champions
“As soon as the referee blows for kick-off, everyone starts to move,” De Rossi said of his potential formation this evening. I mean, that’s undeniable, but his point is that formations are more fluid in the modern game than perhaps they once were.
I’m looking forward to this one. Are you? Send me an email.
Continue reading...Bayer Leverkusen took a huge step towards the Europa League final after a deserved 2-0 first-leg win in their last-four clash against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.
Florian Wirtz gave Leverkusen a half-time lead before Robert Andrich struck a superb second as the German champions proved too strong for their hosts. Xabi Alonso’s side also extended their unbeaten run to 47 games in all competitions this season.
Continue reading...Although he was superb for Dortmund against PSG, this is not the time to start clamouring for a Euros place or United return for player who has had a tough two years
Perhaps the most telling Jadon Sancho clip to emerge from a wonderfully creative attacking performance during Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League semi-final first leg was the one that appeared after the match.
This was Sancho’s interview on CBS sports with a visibly buzzed-up Jamie Carragher, who had spent the evening pushing the broadcasting envelope by drinking eight pints of beer in the Yellow Wall end and was able afterwards to provide a real-time demonstration of just how hard it is to do the job of professional broadcaster while drunk. Belated respect for the scotch-sodden Ron Burgundy‑style anchor gods of yesteryear. It’s clearly not as easy as it looks.
Continue reading...Erik ten Hag has said he is happy for Jadon Sancho after the winger produced a display in Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain that showed he “represents a high value” for Manchester United.
Sancho was among Dortmund’s best performers in Wednesday’s 1-0 victory in the semi-final first leg. The 24-year-old joined the German club in January on loan having not played for United since August after a disagreement with Ten Hag regarding why the manager left him out of the squad for the 3-1 loss at Arsenal in early September.
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