Category: UEFA Champions League

• Club given 2,000 tickets for Paris semi-final second leg
• Supporters’ Trust request Arsenal join them in appeal

Arsenal have been urged by their supporters’ trust to make an official complaint to Uefa as a row about ticket allocations for the Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain escalates.

It is understood the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust plans to lodge a complaint with European football’s governing body after they were given only 2,000 tickets for next week’s second leg in France. That is 500 below the 5% away teams are entitled to by Uefa in European competitions, although PSG were given special dispensation to reduce that to 4.1% before the start of the season owing to a request from local police.

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As Inter and Barcelona meet again in a Champions League semi-final, it’s hard to ignore their epochal clash in 2010

Has there been a Champions League tie since that has felt more consequential? As Inter travel to Barcelona for Wednesday’s semi-final first leg, the mind turns inevitably to their 1-0 reverse at the Camp Nou 15 years ago – “the most beautiful defeat of my career” as José Mourinho has described it.

Playing with 10 men for a little over an hour, Inter secured a 3-2 aggregate victory. Suddenly it became apparent that it didn’t matter whether you had the ball or not: you could win even with 19% possession. But the outcome was only part of it. The whole tie was played out amid an apocalyptic atmosphere symbolised by the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, whose eruption made it impossible to fly over western Europe, forcing Barcelona to travel to Milan for the first leg by bus.

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As Everton leave their beautiful old stadium, we look back on a game that lives on in the hearts of all who saw it

By That 1980s Sports Blog

“If you talk to any Evertonian who was there that night, who actually got in this ground that night, and you said, ‘You can take one game to the grave with you’. Say there was 55,000, I’m betting you 50,000 would take this game with them.” Andy Gray’s words about the second leg of Everton’s semi-final against Bayern Munich in the Cup Winners’ Cup are not hyperbole. Admittedly the official crowd figure was 49,476 but, that apart, Gray is right about how Everton fans feel about the match of 24 April 1985. It was the ultimate night in the history of Goodison Park.

It was an evening that flooded the senses: two superb teams packed with great players were both chasing trebles. Neither of them took a backward step as the line between success and failure shifted throughout 90 minutes of intense football. And it was all played out in the kind of atmosphere that has to be heard to be believed.

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Unai Emery has built a side with high standards and a squad with depth – they’ll need both in the coming weeks

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Most teams in the battle for Champions League qualification are staggering to the line, battered, exhausted, done in by a season that feels like it finished in February but somehow still has a month to run. But as they falter, Aston Villa have seemingly found another gear.

Liverpool are secure in the Champions League qualification slots and Arsenal soon will be, which leaves the remaining three places between five contenders who are separated by just two points, although Nottingham Forest face Tottenham on Monday. Forest, though, have won just three of their last eight in the league. Newcastle had won six in a row in all competitions before Saturday’s 4-1 defeat to Villa. Manchester City are unbeaten in five in the league. Chelsea have won five of their last 11 in the league and have a notably tough run-in. But Villa have won 10 of 11 in all competitions, the only blip their Champions League defeat away to Paris Saint-Germain. There is no question that they are the side in form.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

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With one trophy and hundreds of millions up for grabs, league position means more than pride as TV payouts shape the financial future of every club

Points mean prizes. And money. Lots and lots of money. Only one trophy is handed out at the conclusion of the Premier League season, meaning the most tangible reward most teams are playing for over the final few weeks of the campaign is a bigger check.

Last season, each Premier League team received anywhere between £175.9m and £109.7m for their participation in the self-styled Greatest League in the World. These payouts take into account everything from league position, the number of matches broadcast on TV and commercial revenue among other factors.

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Teenager looked at home in Bernabéu contest as Mikel Arteta’s side celebrated progress six years in the making

Where is la remontada? Seriously. There really was supposed to be a remontada around here somewhere. Of all the sprinkles of sugar, the crispy, salty, crunchy morsels for Arsenal’s supporters to pick over after Wednesday night’s brilliantly assured victory at the Bernabéu it is probably Myles Lewis-Skelly’s part that will give the most lasting satisfaction.

Sadly for the banter-angle it seems the immediate post-match rumour that Lewis-Skelly had approached Jude Bellingham and asked him: ‘Where is la remontada?’, as recycled across social media in a dizzying range of languages, turns out to have been, of all things, made up.

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Arteta’s side delivered a performance for the ages to knock out Real Madrid, while PSG held firm at Villa Park and Inter outlasted Bayern to set up a semi-final of contrasts

Arsenal

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• Defender reacted after ballboy threw ball away from him
• Bayern were chasing goal to force extra time at San Siro

Bayern Munich’s Josip Stanisic said it was “stupid” of him to push a ballboy off his stool after he tossed the ball away in stoppage time of their Champions League match against Inter on Wednesday.

A 2-2 draw in the second leg at San Siro enabled Inter to advance to the semi-finals 4-3 on aggregate.

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Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli scored as Arsenal laughed in the face of the remontada

“Is there really any point watching this game?” asks Matt Dony. “I mean, is there really any point even playing it in the first place? It’s Madrid in Europe. We all know what’s going to happen. They’ll have a blindingly good 10-minute spell towards the end of the first half, where they score two goals. There’ll be a scruffy third goal around the 70th minute, then they’ll willpower a winner sometime after the 87th minute. And there is nothing Arsenal can do about it.”

The emergence of the Arsenal players for their warm-up is the cue for the home fans to pay tribute to Joe Root. The noise is quite something, especially as we’re still half an hour away from kick off.

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Luis Enrique’s fearlessness sets apart arguably the most watchable team in Europe after years of disappointment

Luis Enrique had one word to describe Gianluigi Donnarumma. “Sensationnel,” the Paris Saint-Germain manager said, switching briefly into French from his native Spanish; no translation required.

Donnarumma was the difference for PSG against Aston Villa on Tuesday night, the goalkeeper making five saves in the Champions League quarter-final second leg at Villa Park, three of them, well, sensational, as his team just about got the job done, losing 3-2 on the night having been 2-0 up but advancing 5-4 on aggregate.

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Villa fell just short of completing one of the great European comebacks with a rousing second-half display

1 min: McGinn loops a pass down the left for Rashford to chase. Hakimi shepherds the ball back to Donnarumma, who blooters clear. From the resulting throw, McGinn wins the first corner of the evening.

Villa kick off. They’re kicking towards the Holte End in this first half. It’s tipping down in Birmingham.

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Serhou Guirassy’s hat-trick gave Barcelona a scare but they held on to reach their first Champions League semi-final since 2019

The players gather round the centre circle to pay tribute to Dortmund legend Wilhelm Burgsmuller, who died last week aged 93.

A reminder of the teams

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• Manager wants Villa Park to be ‘a fortress’ on Tuesday
• Villa trail French champions 3-1 from first leg in Paris

Unai Emery urged his Aston Villa players to “write history” by recording a memorable comeback victory over Paris Saint-Germain to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League. Villa must overturn a two-goal deficit after a first-leg defeat in France and the Villa manager doubled down on his belief that his side can cause a shock, with Emery adamant the “fortress” atmosphere at Villa Park on Tuesday can help his players find a winning formula.

Emery said PSG’s 3-1 lead does not alter the task at hand. “I have experiences coming back from results, positively and negatively,” he said. “Now it is something different, we want to write here the history with Aston Villa. Last year [we played] in the Conference League and this year in the Champions League and [now] hopefully for a long time in Europe. My experiences before were different … sometimes losing away and winning at home, sometimes losing at home and winning away. More winning than losing … but I had some negative experiences as well.”

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• Rice scored two free-kicks against Real Madrid
• Nicolas Jover had told him to cross the ball

Mikel Arteta has praised Declan Rice for his initiative after the midfielder ignored the instructions of Arsenal’s set-piece coach before scoring the first of his two free-kicks against Real Madrid.

Rice revealed that Nicolas Jover had been telling him to cross the ball rather than shoot in the 58th minute of the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday. Rice had never scored a free kick in 338 appearances but said Jover’s instructions “didn’t make sense” and opted to shoot instead after being encouraged by Bukayo Saka.

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Whether it’s Ed Sheeran at Ipswich, Michael McIntyre at Spurs or Hugh Grant and the Osman brothers at Fulham, celebrity fans always need to be on their very best behaviour, given the almost psychopathic obsession TV directors have with cutting away to them as the action on the pitch unfolds. Last night it was the turn of Prince William to find himself under constant surveillance in his VIP seat in nominative determinism’s Parc des Princes, where he and his son, George, were forced to abandon any plans they might have had to pick their noses, flick Vs at Paris Saint-Germain players or offer home fans out for a scrap on the concourse, for fear of being caught on camera and enjoying a surge in public popularity that no end of gladhanding elderly war veterans or official visits to former colonies could ever provide.

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