On Saturday night the season kicks off with Barcelona v Real Madrid, though the latter are strictly not called thatOn Saturday night the Spanish season opens with el clásico but this time it is different. At 6pm at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, for the first time ever, FC Barcelona Femení will play Real Madrid – even if they are not actually called that yet. By popular demand Madrid have finally joined the women’s professional game and they make their debut in Catalonia against the team set to be their great adversaries, last season’s league and Champions League runners-up. Tickets are on sale from €5 and they anticipate a full house for a historic rivalry with an entire history still to...
The club that reached the 2013 Champions League quarter-finals are in such a shambolic state that they had to release the Japanese forward before he played a competitive game“I’ll never forget Málaga,” Shinji Okazaki said, and that much at least was true. Alas, so much else wasn’t. The Spanish second division team announced the signing of the former Leicester City player at 3.04pm on 30 July; at six minutes past midnight on 3 September, as the transfer window closed in La Liga, they announced that they were releasing him. Amid a crisis that could yet have far more serious consequences, Málaga had been unable to register the Japan international because of the salary limit. He leaves without playing a competitive...
There was a shoot-out between Fiorentina and Napoli, while Bologna’s manager made the bench from hospitalThe opening day of the Serie A season felt more like a recap sequence: that 30-second montage deployed at the start of a returning TV series to reacquaint viewers with key protagonists and story arcs.First came the champions, Juventus, totally in control and totally underwhelming as they plodded to a one-goal victory over opponents who lacked the tools to hurt them. The Bianconeri barely even bothered to introduce us to new cast members: only Adrien Rabiot making a 27-minute cameo. Instead there was an unexpected revival for the Gonzalo Higuaín character, thought to have been written out after he was packed off to London. Related:...
Feted, then slated, Timo Werner has since become one of Europe’s most sought-after forwards with LeipzigIt was, as Leipziger Volkszeitung put it, “an almost perfect Sunday”. Before the home game with Eintracht Frankfurt, RB Leipzig had big – and surprising – news, with the announcement that star forward Timo Werner had put pen to paper on a contract extension until 2023. It was followed by something that wasn’t a surprise at all, Werner celebrating in the most fitting way possible, giving his team the lead inside 10 minutes.The goal was the perfect reminder of why he is so highly prized, inside and outside the club. Marcel Sabitzer’s corner was helped on at the near post by Yussuf Poulsen – behind...
Two goals on his competitive home debut helped lead Barcelona into the light against Betis at the Camp NouAntoine Griezmann had watched the best and wanted to do what they do. And so, when the ball came to him just to the right side of the area 50 minutes into his Camp Nou debut for Barcelona, he did. Pausing for a moment, he looked up and curled it into the corner, bending past the goalkeeper’s hand and in by the post. If the shot was familiar, the foot wasn’t. “I see Messi do it in training and I copied him,” the Frenchman said afterwards. Beaten in Bilbao on the opening night, Barcelona had been 1-0 down to Betis, darkness descending,...