And champions league is here!
Bayern V Barca today. If you recall, Bayern squeaked out a win last time around, 8-2! And no Messi today, so very interesting to see how the match turns out.
Lingard with a horrible back pass. Almost… Man U.
Back to the game at hand!
Mueller!!!
Bayern win decisively, 3-0. Not the same Barca that I’m used to.
Messi debut w/ PSG in the Champions League. On now!
And Italy are out, on home soil. Red card changes the game. BEL V FRA tomorrow. Should be a good one. The final looks to be the same!
Current hot topic of the week in Euro football - Newcastle United’s takeover by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. It’s nothing new with the likes of Arsenal, Man U, Man City, PSG, Chelsea and Liverpool. Happy for the fans, who overwhelming agreed with it.
Koeman out at Barcelona. It was only a matter of time. String of very results and bad encounters with players and fans, it’s surprising he lasted this long.
Wow, what a project that will be to rebuild.
Nuno out at Tottenham. Conte in. Not sure how I missed that the other day.
Xavi to Barca is not on but it’s on… very confusing
Wow, things are moving along in football.
Portugal and Italy miss out on automatic qualification for the WC. Pretty crazy for both teams, more so for Italy having just won the Euros.
Italy and Portugal on collision course for for 1 of 3 WC playoff spots. Sad to see one will not be there. The last two Euros winners in a playoff. Crazy!
Grrrrrrr, total snub, Lewangoalski for the Ballon d’Or. I’m a Messi fan, but c’mon now…
Hopefully you had a chance to watch some excellent football today. Barca out of CL. I knew it was going to happen, but still strange to see they’re heading to the Europa League. Tough times for them.
Next round should be interesting with Athletico, Chelsea, PSG and Inter playing as runners-up.
Group of 16
Confirmed group winners (seeded)
Ajax (NED)
Bayern (GER)
Juventus (ITA)
Liverpool (ENG)
LOSC Lille (FRA)
Manchester City (ENG)
Manchester United (ENG)
Real Madrid (ESP)
Confirmed group runners-up (unseeded)
Atlético (ESP)
Benfica (POR)
Chelsea (ENG)
Inter (ITA)
Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)
Salzburg (AUT)
Sporting CP (POR)
One more TBD - Atalanta and Villareal play tomorrow due to weather
What a mess. UCL drawing performed by amateur Fifa 2022 video gamers this year. Not a good look.
Okay just catching up. Looks like they screwed up Man United’s ball, which was not included in the right pot after being drawn against a team they couldn’t play. Amateur hour!
They are summarized as follows:
- They added Manchester United to Villarreal’s draw pot, even though they could not be paired due to being in the same group.
- They added Liverpool to Atletico Madrid’s draw pot, even though they could not be paired due to being in the same group.
- They failed to add Manchester United to Atletico Madrid’s draw pot, even though that was still a valid draw pairing.
UEFA blames an external software provider.
And we get a redo! With the prospect of several teams placing a complaint, UEFA redid the draw completely.
Some juicy matchups after the redo:
- Real Madrid v PSG. Matchup of the round for sure.
- Man U v AthletiCo Madrid
- Ajax v Benefica
- Liverpool v Inter
Bayern definitely lucked out with the redo.
Mbappe with the winner. Wow, Madrid will be fuming!
CL weeks is getting started today. Couple of great games today. I’ll be following ATH v ManU, and Juve and Villarreal.
Round 2 will start in March. Exciting!
Also, with Ukraine-Russia tensions growing, the St Petersburg CL final could be moved. Wembley has been mentioned. Makes sense considering active military actions aren’t a great environment for what’s supposed to be a non-political, worldly tournament.
Lots going on in the football world, related to Ukraine and Russian.
So the CL final has been moved to Paris. All Russian soccer teams, domestic and national teams, have been banned from all games by FIFA. This was coming, as nobody wanted to play them anyway.
And big for the EPL, Chelsea owner and Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich has given stewardship of Chelsea FC to the clubs charity foundation. Again, makes sense, as top Russians and their businesses in UK could be financially sanctioned and assets frozen. On a lighter note, it was announced that Abramovich was requested by the Ukrainian government to help with peace talks with Russia. So crazy.
Lewa with a hat trick in 23 mins. Now this is the FCB I’m used to seeing. Game over!
On the Chelsea front, 10 substantial parties interested in buying Chelsea for £3bn. Some American ownership groups interested as well. Swiss billionaire. Turkish billionaire Bayrak.
Immense lose for Chelsea absolutely.
Abramovich sanctions now a reality. It was getting embarrassing that the gov’t was taking so long to sanction him, given the sanctions that were already handed out. So now a deadline for the sale has been put into place.
Also, the largest Chelsea bid I’ve seen so far from an entity I’ve never heard of - Saudi Media.
Lots going on in the world.
Don’t forget, Italy and Portugal play this week. And if they win the games, they will face off against each other next week Tuesday. The winner heads to the WC, the loser is out.
Pretty crazy to think this might the last couple games for Ronaldo.