Chelseas goalkeeper was uneasy around a stunning penalty save but the hosts missed a golden opportunity late onThe man who can teach any bird to sing silenced a football stadium, but not for long. Instead as the final, wild, open, epic minutes went by this place was as loud as anyone could remember it, more than 40,000 people standing to applaud, almost as exhausted as the men collapsing to the floor before them. It seemed almost absurd to think then, at the end of those last seven minutes of additional time when two teams were on the edge, knowing that a win would put them through and a defeat would pretty much put them out, that this place had ever...
Manager once again turned to his blundering centre-back and the attackers had to atone for his team’s defensive failingsBefore this match Valencia had always had Arsenal’s number. They had won all three previous ties between the pair and then, in 2016, took £35m off the Gunners for Shkodran Mustafi. That is what folks in north London might refer to as being properly mugged off and if it did not exactly make this a grudge match, it at least reinforced the need for Arsenal to win for their own sense of worth, before anything else. That was true for Mustafi more than anyone.Although the first meeting between these clubs ended in a penalty shootout defeat for Arsenal after a 0-0 draw...
It may be only two years since the club were last in Europe’s premier contest but it feels like a watershed as a return looms“They’re all talking about that long run in the dressing room,” Gabriel Paulista said. It had been 14 years, after all. On Saturday, Valencia beat Sevilla 2-0 at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, the first time they had won there since May 2004, back when Pep Guardiola was a midfielder, not a manager, Lionel Messi had not played a senior game and Sergio Ramos was just starting out, a 19-year-old dreaming of Claudio Caniggia. Of the 30 footballers who took to the field that day, he and Dani Alves are the only ones still going and now...
Only Barcelona and Atlético can match Eibar’s results over the last three months as another unlikely run at Europe continuesIván Ramis took off his shirt and put his hat on, a flat red porkpie perched on his head as he stood in the corner of Butarque where a couple of dozen Eibar fans down from the Ego valley were going wild in wigs: some red, some blue and some Scottish, ginger locks tumbling from tam o’ shanters. As he had flung his top high into the air before running towards them shouting, they had thrown the hat on the pitch; so he wore it, along with a smile that even the referee trotting over with a yellow card couldn’t wipe...
Standing there at Mestalla, it no longer felt impossible for them to compete to be champions for the first time since the late Jaume Ortí wore an orange wigRodrigo Moreno sprinted towards the near post, slotted the ball past Marc-André ter Stegen and ducked behind the goal at the north end of Mestalla, team-mates racing to join the celebrations. In front of him, Valencia’s fans went wild; behind him a ballboy in a grey bib was busy reaching into a plastic carrier bag. David Vassilev is 14, he plays for Valencia’s Infantil A and in the middle of all the noise and excitement, the gathering crowd, players piling on, he had a job to do. He pulled out a big...