Bayern’s latest elite utility man is increasingly outgrowing one of the more imposing club shadows of recent timesAfter months of cliche and assumption, they’re finally getting their due credit. It may not have quite been Bayern Munich at their best, remarkably, but Friday’s 8-2 win over Barcelona was all about context, the seismic impact of the result and the stage forcing the world to recognise that they are not just the habitual Bundesliga behemoth.Even Borussia Dortmund’s chief executive, Hans-Joachim Watzke, talking at the press conference to present the club’s annual financial results, was forced to refer to the current crop as “the best team ever to play for Bayern”. If Philippe Coutinho’s strangely inevitable cameo was the door hitting Barça...
The humiliation by Bayern was a capitulation of a major side on a level not seen since the World Cup semi-final in 2014Barcelona cannot say they were not warned. Since 2017, their exits from the Champions League have been becoming increasingly embarrassing. Humiliation has followed humiliation. Perhaps finally now, after their 8-2 humbling against Bayern, their worst defeat since 1946, a performance that became shameful in its ineptitude, action will be taken.Occasionally matches take place that are the meeting of two historical trends. Here, on the one hand, there was the tactical dominance of Germany, the high line and the hard press, the slick muscularity, the rapid exchanges of a well-structured attack, that have become increasingly familiar at the highest...
Only one French club has been European champions but after Lyon beat Juventus no country has more teams in the last eightIf Euro 2020 had not been postponed, then as world champions France would have fancied their chances of embellishing the country’s roll of honour this summer. But when it transpired that the only competitions to take place would be the eight-team Champions League and Europa League mini-tournaments that kick-off next week, hopes of French glory faded.Only once has a French club lifted one of Europe’s top two competitions and that victory was tainted, as Marseille’s 1993 Champions League triumph came in the year in which they were stripped of their domestic title for match-fixing. This year, by contrast, events...
Serie A teams spent the first weekend of August bringing down the curtain on a campaign that launched 49 weeks agoCalcio d’Agosto. The words translate simply to ‘August football’ but in the Italian sporting lexicon they have a specific place: deployed every summer to stop fans from getting carried away. Your team just beat Barcelona in a friendly, conceded six goals to a team of local lumberjacks at training camp, or even lost the league opener to newly-promoted opponents? Calm down, forget about it, it’s only ‘calcio d’Agosto’. The games that matter won’t come until the spring. Related: Serie A roundup: Immobile equals scoring record as Roma win at Juventus Related: Ciro Immobile: 'Goldilocks' footballer or deserved goal record-chaser? |...
The Lazio striker stands one shy of Gonzalo Higuaín’s record and, 14 penalties or not, he has enjoyed a stellar campaignTo listen to Ciro Immobile on Wednesday night was to wonder whether he might be in the wrong line of work. “I hate it when I absolutely have to score,” he said at the end of Lazio’s 2-0 win over Brescia. “It just doesn’t sit right.”A surprising sentiment, for a man who has made his living scoring goals – and who happens to be very good at it. Immobile netted his 35th of this Serie A campaign just a few minutes earlier, running on to Joaquín Correa’s through-ball and sweeping one of his calling-card sidefoot finishes beyond the goalkeeper Lorenzo...