The Brazilian forward delivered nothing overtly spectacular against Ajax but, in his brief time on the Anfield pitch, made his presence feltJürgen Klopp is too busy, bothered and generally bad-tempered these days to play silly games with selection just to prove a point. So it cannot be the case that he left Roberto Firmino on the bench for more than an hour against Ajax in an attempt to demonstrate exactly what it is he brings to the team that so many others seem unable to see.Nevertheless, for just about an hour at Anfield, that was what it looked like. Until a callow mistake by the visiting goalkeeper André Onana gifted Curtis Jones a neatly taken winner, Liverpool were, unusually, almost...
A tribute in a Barcelona or Argentina shirt might not have felt right. No one expected a Newell’s one but it worked betterLionel Messi could feel the weight of Diego Maradona’s No 10 on his back. It was the final moment before kick-off in the 917th game of his career, the first without Diego, and Europe’s largest stadium stood virtually empty and entirely silent. At each end of the ground, maternity hospital on one side and cemetery on the other, a picture of Maradona was projected on the screens, in the directors’ box a man held a framed shirt, and on the pitch Barcelona’s and Osasuna’s players gathered around the centre circle where a floral offering was made, four days...
Two almost identical goals by Ellyes Skhiri and a last-minute blunder by Haaland ended a 267-day wait for a Bundesliga winThe moments of tension tugged more frequently at Kölsch hearts as the afternoon went on, as the prize got closer and the stakes were raised. Yet Markus Gisdol stood there impassively, as watchful and inscrutable as Professor Yaffle, the woodpecker bookend in Bagpuss. When the final whistle went, the facade melted like an ice sculpture in the Sahara. Gisdol celebrated wildly, as his players did all over the Westfalen pitch, a mixture of relief and disbelief. The coach grabbed his assistant, Frank Kaspari, for a bear hug, then embraced Kingsley Ehizibue as he made it on to the field, with...
This is not a repeat of 2013-14: Atlético are playing expansive football and cemented their favourites tag against BarcelonaLate on Saturday night, not long after his players had beaten Barcelona 1-0, immortalised a moment even they hadn’t experienced before with a celebratory photo taken in an improvised recovery room beneath the stands and headed home still in their kit, Diego Simeone sat in an empty auditorium and started another Zoom call. A series of journalists appeared on screen, taking it in turns attempting to get him to say Atlético Madrid are going to win the league. Or at least try to. One by one they failed, until somebody asked if he saw any similarities between this team and the one...
Florian Kohfeldt’s team might have beaten Bayern. They also might have lost but settled for their now habitual 1-1 scoreline Werder Bremen arrived in Munich with the possibility of setting a peculiar record. Having drawn 1-1 in their last four Bundesliga meetings, they had equalled a 40-year-old run by Bayer Leverkusen and had, in theory at least, the opportunity to supplant Die Werkself in the most niche of trivia categories. With Bayern to face, nobody thought it would actually happen, of course. Related: Fifa bans head of African football for five years after misappropriation of funds Related: European roundup: Haaland scores four in second half to lift Borussia Dortmund Hertha Berlin 2-5 Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 RB Leipzig, Arminia Bielefeld...