Category: UEFA Champions League

• 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.”

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

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.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Continue reading...

The quarter-finals got going with some sparkling highlights. We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action

Arsenal

Continue reading...

PSG’s winger makes up his own moments – and he scored a beauty to set Luis Enrique’s side on course for victory

It took three minutes of the second half for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, perhaps the most watchable footballer in Europe right now, to confirm the way this game was going.

Unai Emery had sent on Axel Disasi for Matty Cash at the break, with the score 1-1 and PSG hugely dominant on every metric. Cash was effectively doomed in this game from the moment he was booked pulling Kvaratskhelia back, just trying to stop the pain on Aston Villa’s right side, and already facing a case of terminal neck-crick from staring down at those shuffling feet. That was Cash’s fourth foul with just 17 minutes gone. Tick tock.

Continue reading...

Barcelona’s front three all scored, one of them twice, as they took control of their quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund

4 mins: Which is curled over the six-yard box and back out of play on the far side.

3 mins: Raphina finds space on the left, but Bensebaini clears his low cross for a corner.

Continue reading...

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s magnificent goal symbolised an awesome PSG performance that overwhelmed Villa

Marquinhos’s suspension means there are no thirtysomethings in the Paris Saint-Germain XI. No galacticos either. The players may be younger, but the team is all growns up

“I realise PSG may well hand out a good tonking tonight, but Villa’s bench is looking strong at least!” says Rob Knap. “Is it the strongest bench among the eight teams in the quarter finals? I’m not sure on what basis you can measure that really - so I suspect some people reading this who have seen a lot of, say, Hector Fort and Pablo Torre might disagree with that idea.”

Continue reading...

There is another game to be played but on this evidence Barcelona will do so just for the fun of it, and there may be no one having as much fun as they are right now. Their captain, Raphinha, refused to admit as much, flashing a knowing smiling as he said so, but a second Champions League semi-final in a decade is virtually secure already after all three of their fantastic forward line scored en route to a 4-0 victory against Borussia Dortmund at Montjuic. The last was taken by a 17-year-old who may already be considered the best player on the continent. And if he is not, perhaps it’s because a teammate is.

After all, while Lamine Yamal completed a near-perfect Barcelona performance with a gorgeous 14th goal of the season, Pedri continues to glide across a different plane and Robert Lewandowski, 20 years Lamine’s senior, scored his 39th and 40th. At 37, the Pole is the Champions League’s second top-scorer; the man above him is Raphinha, who also scored here as Barcelona reached 144 goals this season and almost certainly the next round, and perhaps beyond. They will take some stopping, that’s for sure.

Continue reading...

Arsenal’s ‘star boy’ is the player who epitomises Mikel Arteta’s team and he was hugely influential against Real Madrid

It was a brilliant teaser, one that had Arsenal fans smiling and shaking their heads, protesting loudly, essentially calling it immoral. Deal or no deal. They win the Premier League title. But they sell Bukayo Saka.

It was posted by the @goalglobal TikTok account at the start of last season and the reactions of those in front of the camera shone a light on just how loved Saka is at Arsenal. The consensus was no deal. It would not be worth it because some things just mean more. “That’s our star boy, that’s like your son,” one of the supporters said. The video was liked by 3 million people.

Continue reading...

The reigning champions were undone by Michel Platini, Zbigniew Boniek and Paolo Rossi in March 1983

By That 1980s Sports Blog

Sometimes you have to hold up your hands and recognise that your defeat was more down to the skills of your opponent than your own failings. Take Aston Villa’s loss to Juventus in the quarter-finals of the European Cup in 1983. Thousands of fans left Villa Park after the first leg knowing their team’s grip on the European Cup had loosened. Villa were beaten 2-1 at home in the first leg and 3-1 away in Turin a fortnight later, but there was no disgrace in losing to that Juventus team.

When the draw for the last eight was made in December 1982, Villa were given one of the hardest possible tests Europe could provide. Liverpool, drawn against Polish team Widzew Lodz, were installed as 13-8 favourites to win the trophy, with Juventus priced at 11-4. Villa’s odds of 13-2 highlighted the task before them.

Continue reading...

Two majestic free-kicks from Declan Rice, the first of his professional career, inspired a stunning first-leg victory

It’s been a season of incessant frustration for Arsenal. Yet it could end with them winning the European Cup for the first time. Right now, in this exhilarating, occasionally bowel-loosening window just before kick-off, anything is possible. And nights like this don’t come along very often: it’s only Arsenal’s second Champions League quarter-final in the last 15 years.

This is great fun: Sean Ingle’s minute-by-minute report of Arsenal’s win in the Bernabeu 19 years ago.

47 min - GOAL! Real Madrid 0 - 1 Arsenal Brilliant from Thierry Henry! Absolutely brilliant! From just over the half-way line he turns past Ronaldo and ghosts past three Real defenders before coolly sliding it into the far corner from 15 yards. Superb.

Continue reading...

• Goalkeeper reveals side have trained to deal with them
• ‘The first thing is not to concede too many corners’

Thibaut Courtois has revealed that Real Madrid are wary of Arsenal’s prowess from set pieces and have been preparing specifically for the challenge of facing them.

The reigning European champions come into Tuesday’s first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at the Emirates following a 2-1 home defeat by Valencia in La Liga that left them four points behind leaders Barcelona. A poor defensive performance saw Madrid concede their 10th goal from a corner this season, although Carlo Ancelotti will welcome back Courtois and David Alaba from injury against Mikel Arteta’s side.

Continue reading...

• Winger ‘focused on coming back stronger’ after injury
• Arteta says quarter-final biggest game of coaching career

Bukayo Saka has said he feels mentally refreshed after missing three months through injury and believes Arsenal are ready to “write our own story” against Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final.

Saka is expected to start against Madrid on Tuesday in the first leg for the first time since rupturing a hamstring in December, having come on in the past two matches. The Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, said having the 23-year-old back for what he described as the biggest game of his coaching career was a massive boost as his team attempt to overcome the reigning champions.

Continue reading...

Paris Saint-Germain, who beat Liverpool with verve and energy, are the upstart newcomers among big-name quarter-finalists

Narratives are never as straightforward as they may appear. One era does not yield easily to another. What constitutes an era changes over time. While history is happening it’s often hard to make sense of it; patterns seem to emerge that, from the perspective of 20 years later are meaningless, or culs-de-sac. That seems particularly true this season. As the Champions League reaches its quarter-final stage this coming week, it feels that one age has ended and another has yet to materialise.

The past was a simpler place. First there was the age of dominance by Real Madrid and Benfica, teams from the capitals of Iberian nations under right-wing dictatorships, packed with great individuals. Then came systematisation, catenaccio and the Italian ascendancy, followed, with a brief period of crossover, by the era of domination by the northern European industrial powers, skipping swiftly over Celtic and Manchester United to the Dutch and Total Football and then Bayern Munich. Then came the long period of English superiority before the Heysel ban, after which everything gets more complicated.

Continue reading...

• Real Madrid players face inquiry for Atlético celebrations
• Rüdiger and Ceballos also under the spotlight

Uefa has opened an investigation into a possible breach of disciplinary regulations by several Real Madrid players at the end of their recent Champions League match at Atlético Madrid. The inquiry centres on allegations of improper conduct by Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior, Dani Ceballos and Antonio Rüdiger, Uefa revealed on Thursday.

Real Madrid face Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the competition on 8 and 16 April. If Uefa’s investigation results in player suspensions, they are likely to affect their availability for that tie.

Continue reading...