Genoa’s captain could have left for Toronto but stayed to battle relegation, which made his penalty miss all the more painfulDomenico Criscito could have been 4,000 miles away. Everything was agreed for the defender to join Toronto FC at the start of March, swapping a relegation battle at Genoa for an adventure in Canada. It sounded like the perfect way to wind down a career: playing alongside Lorenzo Insigne, an old friend with whom he has shared family holidays.As the moment of departure neared, however, the thought of abandoning Genoa in such a perilous state gnawed away at him. The Grifone were the first professional club to take a chance on Criscito, signing him from Sporting Volla in Naples and...
A 10th title in a row has not translated into Champions League success for Bayern and club face challenge to stay at the top From 2013 to 2022, the title winner in Germany bears the same name. Bayern Munich are celebrating a 10th championship in a row. A decade of dominance is a novelty in the five strongest leagues in Europe. Such statistics are otherwise known in Europe only from clubs such as Skonto Riga, Dinamo Zagreb, Rosenborg or Dynamo Berlin from the old East German Oberliga.Bayern are a club who win titles. In the past 50 years of the Bundesliga, they have ended up on top 30 times. They owe this to their unique identity: as the club of...
Facing Liverpool was a quick-fire interrogation for the Spanish side, who suffered concussive red blows on a torrid nightVan Dijk to Konaté back to Van Dijk to Thiago and in a flash Thiago’s gone and he gives it to Fabinho Fabinho to Robertson and he’s running oh God he’s running and Díaz is making the run Henderson is making the run you see Salah out of the corner of your eye but Robertson is cutting inside and there’s a big space between Juan and Pau so you close it but now Mané is free and Robertson crosses Díaz goes for it plus some other red shirt is that Mané and the ball runs out for a goal-kick and breathe you...
José Mourinho’s Roma could not deal with Inter’s power while Olivier Giroud once again came to Milan’s rescue at LazioAmid a breathless finish to the Serie A season, spare a thought for your narrators who don’t know where to begin. In Empoli, where Napoli surrendered their title bid by conceding three times in seven minutes to opponents who had not won a game since December? Or at San Siro, where Internazionale thumped a Roma side led by José Mourinho, the man who led them to the treble, and who arrived on a 12-game unbeaten run in the league?Perhaps we should start in Rome, where Milan kept the title race alive with a 91st-minute strike from a 21-year-old midfielder who almost...
With Robert Lewandowski eyeing the exit and the pain of Villarreal still smarting, the title celebrations were mutedIt had all the hallmarks of a title celebration. The freshly-minted commemorative T-shirts, the streams of flying beer, the full stadium (for the first time in an Allianz Arena edition of this fixture for two-and-a-half years), beating opponents of name to finish the job and the rest.This was historic, as Bayern Munich secured a 10th successive Bundesliga title. Yet it felt strangely empty, a sensation that couldn’t wholly be put down either to the recent dumping out of the Champions League or just plain old overfamiliarity. Continue reading...