A cup winner with Enrico Chiesa and Parma in 1999, the keeper repeated the trick with Federico and Juve 22 years laterAs Juventus prepared for their last shot at a major trophy this season, Federico Chiesa approached Gigi Buffon. “You won this with my father,” said the forward to the goalkeeper. “Now you need to do the same with me.”Twenty-two years had passed since Buffon claimed the Coppa Italia with Parma, playing in a team that featured Enrico Chiesa up front. Federico had not yet reached his second birthday. Who could ever have imagined that they would one day start a final together, and that each would have an essential role to play? Related: Inter fail to knock Juventus out...
As Diego Simeone had predicted, it was Luis Suárez who rescued Atlético just as fate looked to inflict another cruel blow“We’re entering into The Suárez Zone,” Diego Simeone said. Atlético Madrid’s manager knew but even he couldn’t have known it would be quite like this, another story of the absurd in a season built on them. If this was The Suárez Zone, which it was, it was The Twilight Zone too, the implausible unfolding in front of them. With 147 seconds left on the penultimate Sunday there was another twist, delirium inside the Metropolitano where they had just witnessed the Uruguayan score the goal that changed everything, and outside where they hadn’t, but went wild anyway. How could they not?...
Eder Sarabia and Gerard Piqué have FC Andorra moving up as they look to move on from one of Barcelona’s worst nightsOn a cold, wet Sunday night in a valley some way up the Andorran Pyrenees, 18km beyond the Spanish border and somewhere above the clouds, the linesman turns towards the bench and delivers a warning. Behind him the manager of the home team is on his feet, pacing and shouting. “Eder,” the linesman says, correctly imagining a long evening already, “we haven’t even been playing six minutes.”There is a smile then and again two hours later, sitting in aportable building at the south end of the pitch where coaching staff and sporting director dissect the match, magnetic players on...
Chants from Car Park B of the Wanda Metropolitano helped get an agonised Atlético over the line against Real SociedadThe Atlético Madrid fans at the Metropolitano didn’t watch the match that took the club to within touching distance of the league title, but they lived it. Still not allowed in but determined not to be left out, if they couldn’t see their players on Wednesday night their players could hear them, song drifting in through the open southeastern corner of the stadium. Supporters gathered in Car Park B beneath the biggest flagpole in Spain, the 338 square metres of red and white that normally fly from it taken down because of the wind on this night of all nights, while...
The key to a more competitive Bundesliga lies in empowering the field, rather than holding Bayern Munich backBayern Munich have found a variety of different ways to become Bundesliga champions since 2013. This title, their ninth in a row, was sealed as the team arrived in the Allianz Arena’s home dressing room before the Saturday evening kick-off against Borussia Mönchengladbach.Bayern were virtual champions as they left the team hotel to get on the bus to the stadium just before 5pm local time, with Borussia Dortmund leading Bayern’s mathematical rivals RB Leipzig 2-1. As a number of players watched the game in the north-west unfold on their phones on the journey, Dani Olmo’s equaliser for future coach Julian Nagelsmann’s team meant...