Two historic, special clubs battled Madrid and Barça at grounds that embrace traditions rather than turn their backs on itIt’s exactly 100km from Anoeta to San Mamés as the car drives, passing Ipurúa halfway, sitting pretty in the Ego valley. Visible from the road, there was no one at the stadium this time – Eibar were down to Madrid to play Atlético – but there were thousands at each end of the AP8, striped shirts everywhere, flags hanging from bars where old photos hang from walls and they were making a lot of noise, packing Pozas Street in Bilbao, and spilling into the sunshine on Zorroaga Way, San Sebastián. Maybe even more noise than ever before. There’s something special about...
Three defeats in three games have left Schalke 17th but the club have backed their young manager to turn things aroundWhatever Schalke might be lacking, they can be sure that they have a leader of substance. After the final whistle at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, as some of his players sat dejectedly on the turf and others wandered around looking lost following a 2-1 defeat, Domenico Tedesco came on the pitch and approached the away fans, waving arms and clenching fists, with passion and defiance clear on his face.The 33-year-old manager won an army of admirers in his debut Bundesliga season and, if he can lead his team out of the hole they have started to dig, he can win...
Inter began this season billed as the team most likely to deny Juve another Scudetto, but things already look gloomyCristiano Ronaldo’s first Serie A goal arrived right on schedule. Granted, it might not have felt that way to the Juventus supporters who had been waiting impatiently for this moment since July. But by opening his account in their fourth league game, with his 28th shot of the season, he was emulating precisely the start he made with Real Madrid in 2017-18.Nobody can truly have believed his ‘drought’ would go on forever, yet the relief at its ending was evident even in Ronaldo’s performance. His first goal was a tap-in: described by Tuttosport as “pushed into an empty net from 30cm...
There may not be many more Seville derbies for Joaquín Sánchez, but even at 37 he managed to settle the latest oneAt the end of the final training session before the Seville derby, coach and captain sat on the bench together at the Benito Villamarín, surrounded by empty green seats. The following night 53,451 people would fill Real Betis’s stadium with noise but for now it was quiet. “So,” Quique Setién asked, “what do you think? How do you feel?” Joaquín Sánchez looked at him and said he didn’t know; still not quite right. He knew better than anyone that this was the game – nobody’s played more of them – but a calf injury meant he was yet to...
Never before in this era of domestic domination have they established sole possession of first place so early in a campaignTime to release the confetti, pass out the champagne and discover what clunky social media pun Juventus have planned to follow on from #Le6end and #My7th. The Bianconeri are champions of Italy for the eighth consecutive year. Or so you might think, thumbing through some of the coverage of a weekend when they moved two points clear at the top.“There is no anti-Juve,” declared the front page of Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday. Inside the pink paper, Sebastiano Vernazza lamented: “Serie A seems to have become a close relative of the Belorussian league, where Bate Borisov have won for 12...