Athletic’s captain sought out goalkeeper after late equaliser in a gesture that symbolised why this rivalry is like no otherWhen the final whistle went at the end of the Basque derby, Iker Muniain embraced the referee and then made his way through the noise and the rain straight to Alex Remiro. By the time he got there, Iñaki Williams was already hugging the goalkeeper and soon more Athletic players came to comfort him. The clock had shown 90.47 when Remiro made the mistake that cost his team victory and there was little consolation, just a lost expression, but that didn’t stop them trying. “I tried to raise his spirits, give him affection, tell him it it’s OK, it doesn’t matter,”...
Striker hit six goals in seven days including two against Juventus to leave Max Allegri’s side 16 points off the topGiovanni Simeone gets tired of every conversation coming back to his father. All through his development as a youth player, he had to put up with the suspicions of strangers. People who might have never seen him play, yet chose to believe he was having certain opportunities because his dad, Diego, had been a superstar player and was on the path to becoming one as a manager.Even now, 26 years old and enjoying his sixth season as a starter in Serie A, Giovanni knows every success will come with a predictable line of questioning. After scoring twice to bury Juventus...
President Laporta had been trying since the summer to replace his head coach and has overcome initial reluctance over XaviRayo Vallecano scored and The Final Countdown began. The last goal Barcelona conceded under Ronald Koeman was met by Europe booming round Vallecas. “I made a mistake,” Sergio Busquets said. “I slept and they robbed my wallet. It’s my fault.”But on Wednesday it wasn’t just him and he wasn’t the one who paid. He had been caught out, Gerard Piqué was beaten, Jordi Alba absent and Lionel Messi in Paris. Radamel Falcao scored, someone hit play, 14,297 fans joined in, scarves twirling, and Rayo were on their way to victory. Koeman was just on his way. Continue reading...
Real Madrid and Barcelona meet in the league without either Sergio Ramos or Lionel Messi involved for first time since 2005Eduardo Iturralde González could see it coming. “I saw Sergio Ramos running towards Leo Messi and I thought: ‘He’s going to whack him,’” the referee recalled – and he was right. It was late on a Monday night in November 2010, Messi was left on the floor, a fight started and Ramos was sent off. On Saturday afternoon they should have been preparing for the latest chapter in a seemingly never-ending story. Instead, though neither had exactly planned it this way, they found themselves at Camp de Loges, north of Paris. Together.No one has played more clásicos than Ramos or...
Manchester United’s win over Atalanta was made up of magnificent moments but this was a gruelling watch for home fansWith nine minutes to play on a thrilling, increasingly wild night at Old Trafford Cristiano Ronaldo made one of those half-runs, the run that isn’t quite the run, then stretched his stride as he picked up the flight of the ball from Luke Shaw’s boot on the left flank.This is one of the things Ronaldo does so well, the algebra of flight, speed, timing, gravity, contact, the millions of equations and muscle‑mnemonics that go into making these moments work. Continue reading...