Liverpool’s strike out against Chelsea deepens trough but UCL offers redemption
March 5 – Two seasons ago they won the Champions League. Last season they finally clinched the English league title for the first time in 30 years.
Performance
Man City top backward pass ranking, Chelsea, Barca, PSG and Real Madrid follow
March 4 – Sometimes it takes a few steps backwards to make significant progress forward. Football appears to be no different with data showing that Europe’s leading teams are also the leaders in the number of backward passes they make.
Fifth time lucky? Schalke 04 now turn to Grammozis in last ditch effort to escape the drop
March 4 – German club and Bundesliga red lantern Schalke 04 have named Dimitrios Grammozis (pictured) as their new head coach on a deal that runs through to 2022.
SheBelieves Cup closes with US win and record ratings
February 26 – The SheBelieves Cup in the US completed earlier this week with a resounding 6-0 win over for the hosts over Argentina, two goals for Megan Rapinoe, and record viewing figures.
Clarke and Howe favourites for Celtic hot seat vacated by Lennon
February 25 – Scotland national manager Scotland manager Steve Clarke and former Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe are reported to have emerged as early favourites to replace Neil Lennon, who resigned on Tuesday as Celtic manager after a disastrous season in charge.
Latin American clubs trending towards home grown players as covid-consequences bite
February 25 – A study of four top tier Latin American leagues shows the covid pandemic has led to an increase in clubs playing home grown players, a drop in the recruitment of players from overseas and a trend towards a decrease in the average age of players being fielded.
Lennon walks away from Celtic as Rangers run away with title
February 24 – Celtic manager Neil Lennon has resigned with the Glasgow giants 18 points behind arch-rivals Rangers in the Scottish Premiership table.
Marseilles line up Sampaoli to take over from Villas-Boas
February 23 – Following the acrimonious departure of Andre Villas-Boas and protests by the fans about the club’s poor form, Olympique Marseille have struck a verbal agreement with Jorge Sampaoli (pictured) to become their new head coach until June 2023, according to local reports.
Dog stops play. Cookie’s pitch invasion crumbles as he feels FC Zurich president’s bite
February 23 – As far as reasons go for a match being stopped in mid-stream, this one surely took the biscuit – so to speak.
Africans jostle for FIFA ranking position as nations prepare for major competitions
February 19 – FIFA have released their first World Ranking of 2021 but in a period where only 43 full internationals were played, the top of the 32 places in the rankings remain unchanged with only the African nations showing movement.
In-your-face EFL ref told to stand down
February 19 – The referee who squared up to a player during an English league game last week has been removed from the next fixture he was due to take charge of tomorrow.
Inter, Atletico, Man City and OL to win. Juve, Real Madrid, PSG and Liverpool toppled
February 17 – A new statistical model calculating the number of points clubs will have at the end of the season is predicting that the domestic long reigns of Juventus, PSG and Barca/Real Madrid will be over this season.
PSG and Mbappé blast past Barca and Messi as old guard pushed towards CL exit
February 17 – Paris Saint-Germain stormed past FC Barcelona with a brilliant Kylian Mbappé hat-trick in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at the Nou Camp to knock the Catalans all but out of the competition.
UCL resumes with Neymar-less PSG at Barca and Liverpool on a season rescue mission
February 16 – UEFA’s Champions League whirs back into life tonight with the heavyweight round-of-sixteen clash between FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig hosting Liverpool in Budapest in one of a few fixtures where the home club had to relinquish the home advantage because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Roma go from digital to physical with Nigerian link
February 12 – AS Roma is to open their first youth academy on the African continent in Abuja, Nigeria, the Italian club have announced.