It was raining goals in Manchester on Tuesday but where does City’s 5-3 win over Monaco stand alongside other great Champions League nights?Dynamo Kyiv’s wonderful team of the late 1990s deserved a Champions League final – but on a pulsating night at a packed Olympiyskiy they threw away the best chance they would ever have. It was exquisite fare for much of the evening and, when Andriy Shevchenko squeezed in his second goal of the night two minutes before half-time, seemed to be going precisely as the old master Valeriy Lobanovskiy had designed. Moments later Michael Tarnat’s daisycutter of a free-kick restored some doubt but Vitaliy Kosovskiy’s 50th-minute goal – capitalising on some sloppy defending – suggested Dynamo would cut...
The 28-year-old captain sported another unusual armband and led his younger team-mates to a big win at Chievo after a week of off-field upheavalNot for the first time, Papu Gómez’s biceps stole the show. The Atalanta captain has made headlines all season with his unconventional armband designs. First there was the Mother’s Day tribute, then the Spiderman logo, the Holly & Benji cartoon and, most famously, a celebration of Pro Evolution Soccer’s original Master League XI. As Serie A returned to action on Sunday, he unveiled a new design, inspired by the movie Frozen.It was chosen to mark his daughter Constantina’s second birthday, with her face appearing alongside those of Anna, Elsa and Olaf. But he might unintentionally have also...
It was billed as the battle between Juve’s nearest rivals and while Roma defeated Milan, Saturday’s trip to Turin will be a truer test of their credentialsThumbing through the newspaper previews for Roma’s match against Milan, one might have come away with the impression that Italy was preparing not for a football match but rather an assault on King’s Landing. Like the put-upon peasants in Game of Thrones, columnists yearned for a less oppressive form of leadership. It was time, as La Repubblica put it, for the “One, True, Anti-Juve” to emerge.In the standings, there was nothing to choose between these two pretenders to the Serie A throne. Joint second on 32 points, they each trailed Juventus by seven. But...
The Nottingham-born lacemaker, who died in 1916, seems to be Milan’s first guiding spirit after heading to Italy at the end of the 19th century but only now is he being recognised in his home townToday the body of a Nottingham lacemaker who helped found one of the world’s most important football clubs lies alongside those of famous poets, sculptors, actors, politicians, musicians and racing drivers in Milan’s Cimitero Monumentale, a place of ornate marble tombs and elegant tree-shaded avenues. But when Herbert Kilpin died on 22 October 1916, aged 46, the memory of his role in establishing the place of football in Italian life already seemed to be fading fast enough to deny him even a name plate on...
After his youngsters shone in the 4-3 thriller against Sassuolo, it is easy to see why Vincenzo Montella might feel optimistic about Milan’s long-term futureIn the end, it was all just a little bit much. Manuel Locatelli could not hold back the tears, so he stood in the middle of the pitch at San Siro and blubbed. His chest was still shaking when the Mediaset TV crew arrived, the interviewer placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It’s all real, I want to tell you that,” said the kind man with the microphone. Locatelli forced half a smile, glanced at the ground and started to well up all over again.This is what they mean on the peninsula when they tell...