It was Montilivi that watched it, that lived it, and that would have loved a different ending. Montilivi that deserved it, too“Welcome to Miami,” the sign said. Scribbled in black pen on white cardboard and fixed to the fence by the stadium where long lines of tables were laid out and the atmosphere was building, it greeted them as they arrived – football fans heading to the biggest game of the year. Mostly, they strolled from town, through narrow, old streets, yellow ribbons attached to every lamppost, along the river where the houses overlooking the water are brightly coloured, not pastel, across the bridge and up a gentle hill in the sunshine. There, past concrete police controls was another sign,...
Also featuring Australian Open memories, Sébastien Loeb at the Dakar Rally and the joy of drones in sport1) Cody Parkey was left feeling like the loneliest man in the world after watching his last-gasp potentially game-winning field goal bounce off the upright and crossbar in the Chicago Bears’ playoff defeat by the Philadelphia Eagles (keep an eye on the mascot in the background, too). Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by Parkey’s supposed misfortune. He has a knack when it comes to finding the woodwork. Here he is clattering the goal-frame four times from four kicks in a match last November. And here are those doinks immortalised in Tecmo Super Bowl. Parkey still has some way to go before he matches...
In the past 10 years, any Premier League attacker who can maintain an A-list run has become a target of La Liga super clubs – but it would be a terrible idea for the Liverpool strikerIs English football in danger of losing Mohamed Salah to Real Madrid or Barcelona because he is now simply too good to stay?Mido certainly thinks so. Yes: that Mido. The same Mido who once issued a formal apology to Middlesbrough fans for being too fat. The same Mido who is, it turns out, a very good pundit these days and who raised a doubly interesting point this week about Salah’s trajectory in this, his second season of outright Premier League supremacy. Related: 11.7mm from glory:...
Tottenham’s support had to contemplate failure in Barcelona until Lucas Moura suddenly turned the evening on its headTottenham’s fans had just been asked to stay in their seats after the final whistle when Érik Lamela collected the ball on the left and saw Harry Kane move ahead.It was more than an hour since Ousmane Dembélé had scored the opening goal at the Camp Nou and 15 minutes since the news had come in from Milan, where their fate was also being decided and where Mauro Icardi had scored. There were six minutes to go now, Internazionale were level against PSV Eindhoven, and Spurs were out. High in the east stand, a long wait lay ahead, 6,000 of them, sitting there...
This weekend Messi did something unusual: he did something he hasn’t done before, exceeding his own expectationsSunday morning and military machines rolled down the Castellana, armoured vehicles on the move. Snipers stood on roofs and helicopters circled. Something big was happening. “We’ll know how it feels,” Marca said, which they wouldn’t of course, but like everyone else they hoped to find out. And, like everyone else, they were trying. Politicians packed the place, more even than usual, and people arrived from everywhere, papers dedicating dozens of pages. Florentino Pérez left Real Madrid’s match at Huesca early to be there and the best player in the world was due as soon as he’d finished, his club mates too. The third best...