The Yellow Submarine are one of only six clubs whose salary limit is over €100m: they’re too good to go down. As in 2012Sergio Asenjo just sat there shaking his head. The goalkeeper who has suffered four cruciate knee ligament tears – three in his right knee, one in his left – was in no hurry to get up this time. “I want them to see what’s at stake in our eyes,” Villarreal’s new manager Luis García Plaza had said before the game against Huesca and they could certainly see it in Asenjo’s eyes now that it was all over. Slowly, he stood, went to the end where maybe 100 fans gathered stunned, silently handed over his shirt and turned...
Before the unconvincing win over Genoa, banners and posters appeared all over the city telling Roma’s president to ‘go home’It is sometimes said, in a sporting context, that winning cures all ills. But not in Italy’s capital city. Roma beat Genoa 3-2 at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday night, their first victory in six games across all competitions. They were jeered at the final whistle, all the same.It had not been a compelling performance. Roma trailed twice to opponents who have not won a game themselves since September. Genoa appeared to have taken the lead for a third time at the start of the second half, but Darko Lazovic’s strike was ruled out after a VAR review. They ought to...
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...
The Egyptian just keeps on keeping on, and does so with a rare lightness, hinting at what may be to come in the next monthsJust past the half hour at a chilly, angsty Anfield Mo Salah was suddenly free in space on the edge of the Napoli box, scampering in on goal in that bouncy style, hair flapping, legs whirring like a cartoon kangaroo. Salah had time to look up, pause and nudge a doomed pass across the six-yard box in the vague direction of Sadio Mané. There was a groan from the stands, but not much of a groan. The one thing they know for sure about Salah around here is that he just keeps on keeping on. Some...
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...