“Barcelona’s La Liga juggernaut rolled into Seville on Saturday and left with the scoreboard smoking, as the leaders beat Real Betis 5-2 to make it nine wins from nine, stretching their blistering league goal tally to 39. Lamine Yamal lit the fuse with a dazzling opener before Rodri, Gabriel Jesus, Eric García and the substitute Dani Olmo joined the party, while Valentín Gómez and Ez Abde replied for Betis, who played much of the second half with 10 men after Facundo Bernal was sent off for headbutting Lamine Yamal. … Álex Baena struck in the 89th minute to snatch a 1-0 win for Atlético Madridat Espanyol. Baena smashed in from the edge of the box to claim the Rojiblancos victory from a tight game in Cornella. Atlético have won six consecutive games across all competitions and remain five points behind Barcelona. Valencia and Athletic Bilbao drew 0-0 at Estadio de Mestalla. … In Germany, Luis Díaz scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich pummelled a listless RB Leipzig 6-1 at home on Saturday to climb to the top of the Bundesliga table. Borussia Dortmund had edged ahead of Freiburg into top spot after their earlier goalless draw at Union Berlin, but Bayern responded in typically ruthless fashion. … In Italy, Inter pulled clear at the top of Serie A by coming from behind to beat Bologna 3-1. The champions were criticised after a 4-3 Champions League defeat against Club Brugge in midweek, but bounced back to move three points clear of second-placed Lazio, who face Juventus in Turin on Sunday. …”
Guardian
Europe is a blast – but more a curse than a blessing if you are not a super-club – Jonathan Wilson
“The sun shone. The temperature was in the high 20s. There was a mood of great conviviality. If you were struggling with the official allocation, it turned out you could just email the president of Torreense and he’d sort you out. Were these “Nuno-tickets” real? It turned out they were. Not only that, but you could sit anywhere you wanted in a stadium too big for the game and, if you happened to have gravitated to the comfortable hospitality seating at the back of the lower tier, the beer was inexplicably free. …”
Guardian
Brentford 1 Liverpool 2: What’s changed with Isak and how did Iraola’s side punish 10 men?
“This was the kind of win Liverpool need. Trips to Brentford have rarely been straightforward in recent seasons, with Liverpool twice suffering defeat since 2023, but a second-half comeback was enough to secure a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Victor Munoz and Alexander Isak, lifting Andoni Iraola’s side to fifth in the process. …”
NYT/ATH
YouTube: Brentford v. Liverpool | PREMIER LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS, Manchester City v. Ipswich Town, Fulham v. Hull City, Newcastle United v. Aston Villa, Newcastle United 0-1 Villa
“While Thomas Tuchel continues to 
“Alessandro Costacurta lasted 15 minutes of his first game at San Siro. He was, admittedly, not playing, but tagging along to watch his older brother’s favourite team. … But happily, far from the last. Costacurta was recruited into Milan’s academy a year later and played 663 times for their first team – helping them win Serie A seven times and the European Cup five, either side of its Champions League rebrand. Only his fellow defenders Paolo Maldini (902) and Franco Baresi (719) have made more appearances for the Rossoneri. Many of those were alongside him. …”
“THERE are surprise early leaders in the Bundesliga in the form of Freiburg, who won 5-0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, taking their tally for the season to 10 goals in three games. Freiburg’s Yannik Engelhardt and Igor Matanovic scored two apiece. After the game, Gladbach’s third defeat of the campaign, coach Eugen Polanski became the first Bundesliga coach to be sacked this season. Polanski was appointed a year ago and had a win rate of 29.73% in his 37 games with Gladbach. Borussia Dortmund also maintained their 100% record with a 3-0 win against Paderborn with goals from Serhou Guirassy, Maximilian Beier and Marcel Sabitzer. Bayern Munich made hard work of beating newly-promoted Elversberg, who fell to their first defeat since arriving in the top flight. Harry Kane and Lennart Karl scored Bayern’s goals. Augsburg kept pace with the leaders but were denied a 2-1 win by a last-minute goal from Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick. Frankfurt picked up their first win at Mainz with Can Uzun netting twice in a 3-1 win. …”
“THE first ‘big six’ clash of the season saw two clubs with a 100% record come face-to-face. Arsenal played host to Chelsea at the Emirates but the hosts received a shock in the first minute when Morgan Rogers netted his second goal since arriving from Aston Villa. Former Chelsea man Kai Havertz scored the equaliser in the 25th minute with a shot that goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez should probably have stopped and the game was clinched by Martin Ødegaard in the 50th. Arsenal showed they are out to retain their title and Chelsea suggested they are a better equipped side than last season, but they are still some way from being contenders. Manchester City also have a 100% record after beating Coventry City with a goal from Erling Haaland. Liverpool secured their first win under new manager Andoni Iraola as they beat Ipswich Town at Portman Road (pictured). …”
Torino’s Nikola Vlasic equalises from the spot against Inter Milan in Serie A
Bournemouth might have unearthed another top talent in Alvaro Rodriguez
“This has not been a happy year for Italian football. The men’s national team failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup, while 
“PORTUGAL’s Primeira Liga is always a three-horse race between the country’s biggest football clubs – Benfica and Sporting and this season’s champions, Porto. The gap between this trio and the rest of the league shows no sign of shrinking; in 2025-26 fourth-placed Braga currently stand 19 points worse off than Sporting, who have finished bottom of what is a three-team super league within a league. José Mourinho’s Benfica are the only unbeaten still side in the Primeira. Porto’s last title win was in 2022 and since then, they have had some problems to deal with. …”
“Max Allegri sought refuge in the dug-out at the Mapei Stadium. He bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. Not Sassuolo. Not again. The team with whom he began his rise through the leagues, taking ‘Sasol’ up to Serie B for the first time in their history two decades ago, has a funny way of coming back to haunt him. A 4-3 defeat in 2014 brought an end to his first spell as coach of AC Milan. The scorer of all four of Sassuolo’s goals that day was Domenico Berardi. Now a little longer in the tooth, Berardi struck again at the weekend in a 2-0 win. Historically only Enrico Chiesa and Silvio Piola have been more prolific against Milan than Sassuolo’s No 10. …”
“Arsenal will play a first Champions League final in 20 years in what promises to be a grandstand finish to their season after Bukayo Saka’s goal helped the Premier League leaders eliminate Atletico Madrid. Denied a penalty when Leandro Trossard was knocked over by Antoine Griezmann on 34 minutes, Arsenal were ahead 10 minutes later when Saka pounced on a rebound after Trossard’s shot was saved by Jan Oblak. The two sides had drawn the first leg 1-1 in Madrid last week and the Spanish visitors were looking for a spot kick of their own when Giuliano Simeone, Atletico manager Diego’s son, rounded goalkeeper David Raya and tangled with Gabriel. They sought another soon after when Griezmann was caught by Riccardo Calafiori but referee Daniel Siebert had given an earlier foul by Atletico. …”
“We were served up an all-timer of a game at the Parc des Princes last week, and the second leg promises more of the same. For Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, the 2025-26 season will be measured by the Champions League. The contest resumes at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday, with PSG holding a one-goal lead. Twenty-four hours after the fireworks in Paris came a different sort of game. Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, two coaches who have built reputations on defensive identity, played out a tense, attritional first leg that finished 1-1. Two ties, two shades of intensity. A reminder that the same sport can grip you in entirely different ways. The second legs will decide who walks out at the Puskas Arena in Budapest on May 30. But who will be in the final? Here are the numbers and trends that may give us a clue. …”
“It was a celebration in the style of Jose Mourinho. Supposedly about the players and never about him. But undeniably genuine this time. Cristian Chivu hung back. The smoke of the fireworks making him crave a cigarette. Federico Dimarco pushed him forward, so hard he almost tripped over, entangled in the blue, black, and gold streamers that had fallen from the sky. Chivu faced the Curva Nord, accepted the ultras’ applause and then turned, pointing to his team as if to say: Inter’s 21st Scudetto was down to them. He then retired to the dressing room, his face suddenly aglow from the flick of a lighter and had a smoke. …”
“Nobody in football works the touchline quite like Atletico Madrid head coach Diego Simeone. The Argentinian’s actions are often as absorbing and compelling as what happens on the pitch. The latest installment came during the Champions League semi-final first leg against Arsenal last Wednesday, particularly after the away side were awarded a second penalty of the game in the 80th minute, when Eberechi Eze went down under a challenge by David Hancko. As Danny Makkelie waited for instructions from the video assistant referee (VAR) Dennis Higler, Simeone could be seen trying to grab the Dutch referee’s attention by waving his arms in the air and imitating the ‘TV screen’ VAR signal. …”
“Atletico Madrid and Arsenal are meeting in this season’s Champions League semi-finals. A place in the final in Budapest at the end of May is at stake, of course, but so too is making history for both sides. Atletico and Arsenal, who play their first leg in Madrid tonight (Wednesday), are arguably the two biggest clubs never to have won the Champions League or its forerunner, the European Cup. Atletico have been finalists three times, Arsenal once, and both will envy the likes of Crvena Zvezda, PSV and Steaua Bucharest, who have all claimed the continental title. Each of those three would be considered ‘smaller’ clubs than Atletico or Arsenal, as would two-time winners Porto. But Porto and, for example, Hamburg and Feyenoord, could retort that their size can be measured by their trophy cabinet. …”
Franz Beckenbauer (left) shakes hands with Abelardo of Atletico Madrid ahead of the European Cup final replay in Brussels
“It wasn’t the nine goals we were treated to on Tuesday, but this week’s second Champions League semi-final was not short of drama, with two penalties given and one controversially overturned. Atletico Madrid’s spot kick was similar to the one Paris Saint-Germain received against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, with the ball striking Ben White’s hand. Arsenal’s came when David Hancko bundled over Viktor Gyokeres. But the most controversial was the third, originally awarded after Eberechi Eze was caught by Hancko, but then overturned when the referee went to the VAR screen. Just down the touchline, Atletico manager Diego Simeone was making his feelings known. …”
“Gianluca Rocchi is a member of Italian football’s 
“The Champions League is approaching its conclusion. Only four teams are left, with holders Paris Saint-Germain hosting a seemingly all-conquering Bayern Munich and Arsenal travelling to Atletico Madrid in this week’s first legs of the semi-finals. The winners of those ties will meet in the final in Budapest, Hungary, on Saturday, May 30. 
“Domestic leagues would be limited to staging one game a season in foreign countries under 
“For all the talk of nerves and late-season hiccups, Arsenal’s hopes of achieving a Premier League-Champions League double are still alive after Mikel Arteta’s men progressed in the Champions League, setting up a semi-final against Atletico Madrid. The 1-0 first-leg advantage earned in Lisbon was enough to see off Sporting CP after a goalless second leg at the Emirates. Sporting had chances. Geny Catamo came closest to breaking the deadlock towards the end of the first half, striking the post as the visitors edged the opening 45 minutes. At times, they cut through Arsenal with ease, but the way in which Arsenal held firm and controlled the match in the latter stages will please many fans, especially after their recent run of poor results. …”
“It’s the halfway stage of the Champions League quarter-finals, which is the perfect time to pause for breath to reflect. In football parlance, the job is only ‘half done’ for Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid, all of whom go into the second leg next week with a lead. As for Real Madrid, Liverpool, Sporting CP and Barcelona, they ‘have it all to do’ to reach the last four. …”
“The graphics are laid out and printed on A4. They are slipped into plastic sheets and placed in files. Corner kicks. Dead-ball routines. Designs that have defined this season in football, making celebrities out of specialist coaches, their impact so outsized they have become almost as prominent as head coaches. The discourse around set pieces has changed accordingly. Whenever they are brought up in the context of today’s game, it’s about the quality of the delivery, the block on the goalkeeper, a push on the back of a defender, a training-ground routine well-executed. The conversation is hardly ever about a free-kick shot. A curler. A daisy-cutter. A kiss on the underside of the bar. A goal of the year. …”
Can PSG become the first team other than Real Madrid to retain the European Cup since Milan in 1990?
“Cesc Fabregas’s ‘dribble’ was a one-two. He used to come short to receive the ball, attract pressure, offload a pass with the outside of his foot, run into space and ask for it back. … Whenever Fabregas talks about the game, it is patently clear he has thought deeply about it for his entire life. Not just the tactical side of it, but the skill and technique that go into every single action on the pitch. Questions don’t need to be probing and he offers forthright and detailed responses. You come away from his press conferences feeling you have learned something, thankful for the depth. In a football culture as developed and tactically-minded as Italy, you’d expect this to be welcome and to some extent it is. A new generation of Italian coaches and match analysts study Fabregas. They take ideas from him and find inspiration. …”
Roberto Bettega
“We’re at the business end of the Champions League, with the eight quarter-finalists now decided. It’s a heavyweight line-up, with four of the competition’s five most successful clubs still in the tournament, plus last year’s winners Paris Saint-Germain and Premier League leaders Arsenal. Real Madrid (15), Liverpool (six), Bayern Munich (six) and Barcelona (five) have won 32 of the 70 European Cup/Champions League trophies between them since Madrid lifted the first trophy back in 1956, but who has their name on this year’s trophy? …”
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s technical brilliance was in evidence against Chelsea
“There are many things this match will be remembered for. The goals, the errors, the disbelief that Tottenham Hotspur could be 4-0 down within 22 minutes. But, mainly, it will be for the sight of goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky walking down the tunnel, a comforting hand over his shoulder, after the goalkeeper was brutally substituted in the 16th minute after two calamitous slips in an opening 45 minutes like no other. The Czech’s Champions League debut went horribly wrong and now Tottenham not only face having to play a second-leg tie against Atletico Madrid when already 5-2 down but also likely face an inquisition over head coach Igor Tudor’s call to haul off his 22-year-old goalkeeper with the game in its infancy. …”
“Atletico Madrid’s 7-4 aggregate Champions League play-off round victory over Club Brugge sees Diego Simeone’s new-look side roll on to face either Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur in the last 16, and comes as veteran attacker Antoine Griezmann mulls a possible move to MLS. The build-up to Tuesday’s game 
“Tonight’s Champions League match between Real Madrid and Benfica sees Jose Mourinho return to the Bernabeu for the first time since his turbulent spell at the Spanish club from 2010 to 2013. He does so in dramatic circumstances. Last Tuesday’s knockout phase play-off first leg between the teams saw Mourinho sent off for protesting from the sidelines during a 1-0 defeat for his Portuguese side. After the game, he made headlines around the world with his comments about the alleged racist abuse of Madrid forward Vinicius Jr by Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni. …”
One of the biggest cheers of the night from Benfica fans was the introduction of their young Black striker Arthur Cabral
“… Anatoliy Trubin has had a bit more time to process what happened in the 98th minute of Benfica’s final Champions League group game against Real Madrid. But it still doesn’t feel entirely real. To recap: because of injuries and a couple of VAR reviews in the first half, the game was still going six or seven minutes after every other fixture on the last, chaotic day of the group stage had finished. That meant Benfica knew what they had to do to make it into the playoffs for the knockout stages. Well, in theory they did. …”
“When UEFA changed the format of the Champions League, it was for nights like this. The Swiss model, now more famous than Swiss Cottage station on the London Tube network but not yet as famous as Swiss cheese, replaced the old eight groups of four model (less catchy) in 2024. The final day was pretty good last year, with 64 goals in the 18 games, but no big teams dropped out and the big will-they-won’t-they? of the night saw Paris Saint-Germain stroll past Stuttgart 4-1 to avoid an early elimination (wonder what happened to them). …”
“A 3-2 Chelsea win in Naples has sealed a top-eight finish in the Champions League for the Premier League side and eliminated their opponents from the competition, as Liam Rosenior’s promising start at the club continues. It was advantage Chelsea early on, after Enzo Fernandez’s 19th-minute penalty put the London side 1-0 up. Napoli were unhappy with the decision to penalise Juan Jesus — jumping up from his position in a defensive wall — for handball. And the home side seemingly used that sense of injustice to shake off their lethargy, with the rest of the first half a consistent stream of Napoli attacks. …”
Galatasaray should now make the play-offs, despite a tricky-looking final-day trip to Manchester City “We are down to next Wednesday’s final-day bonanza in the Champions League, with 18 simultaneous games to close out the initial league phase. Seven matchdays in, only Arsenal and Bayern Munich have guaranteed spots in the round of 16 in March. Third-placed Real Madrid and Juventus in 15th are separated by just three points, and with some of the teams in-between them playing each other in the final round of matches, expect the table to undergo a bewildering amount of change during Matchday 8. …”
“Paulie Gualtieri wanted to know why Tony Soprano was a quiet and sullen presence at dinner. The goomahs in attendance were having to listen about the good old days, a time when many of them weren’t even born; a beach house booked on the Jersey shore, the summer of ’78, the hippie kid who mysteriously drowned during a party. … On the morning of the World Cup draw on Friday, a photo from the restaurant of the FIFA hotel went viral. It showed the coach of Uzbekistan and Italy’s last World Cup-winning captain, Fabio Cannavaro, sat round a table with Christian Vieri. Behind them were Francesco Totti, the original Ronaldo, Marco Materazzi, Roberto Baggio and Vincent Candela. ‘Once upon a time in Serie A’ should have been the caption. …”
“‘I don’t read the papers,’ Igor Tudor insisted. But the Juventus coach clearly does pay attention to what is said about him and his team. An innocuous question about how he planned to approach Wednesday’s game against Real Madrid got a six-minute answer. Tudor wanted “intellectual honesty” from the press pack that followed Juventus from Turin. Analysis of a six-game winless streak had, in the papers he doesn’t read, been unfair and lacking in context. …”
“This season, Arsenal’s in-possession shape has mainly featured a 
“The advanced plans to stage a La Liga match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami in December spectacularly and suddenly crumbled on Tuesday. Villarreal executives learned the game would no longer take place in the middle of their 2-0 home Champions League defeat by Manchester City, while Barcelona were shocked out of their celebrations having just beaten Olympiacos 6-1. …”
“When you have spent 17 years stuck behind the Electrical Contractors’ Association, the Edinburgh College of Art, and the European Cockpit Association in Google’s search results for the acronym ‘ECA’, it probably is time for a makeover. So, when the hundreds of delegates arrived at the European Club Association’s 32nd general assembly in Rome this month, they actually found themselves at the first general assembly of European Football Clubs, which is a good name for a lobby group that represents European football clubs. …”
“It was almost four in the morning in Milan. But the lights were still on in city hall. The councillors were not preparing to watch Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals of the China Open. Nor were they bringing the gavel down on another fantasy football auction, which is usually what keeps Italians up at that hour, albeit earlier in September. Something sport-related but far more consequential was going down at Palazzo Marino. A vote was being held, the outcome of which promised not only to change the face of Milan but the prospects of the city’s football clubs and the Italian game as a whole. …”
“Jose Mourinho seems to love these returns to old haunts right up to the moment the football actually starts. This was the Portuguese’s eighth return to Stamford Bridge either side of his two stints in the home dugout, and he has still only won once — with that powerful Inter with whom he went on to win the Champions League back in 2010. He spent much of the second half here scowling at perceived injustice as Benfica, impressive for periods, fell marginally short. He was booked late on, too, for good measure. …”
“It wasn’t pretty but Tottenham Hotspur’s return to the Champions League was a winning one. A calamitous own goal by Villarreal goalkeeper Luiz Junior in the fourth minute proved enough for Thomas Frank’s side in a low-key encounter in north London, although few Spurs fans were complaining at the relative lack of fireworks. Here, we analyse the major talking points. …”
“Less than four months after Paris Saint-Germain lifted their inaugural Champions League title by thrashing Inter, the 2025-26 edition is upon us. The 36-team league phase of Europe’s premier club competition kicks off on Tuesday, with Arsenal facing Bilbao’s Athletic Club in one of the two early kick-offs. There are plenty of other highlights this week too, with Bayern Munich facing Chelsea in a 
“An early memory of visiting Milan involves walking through arrivals at Malpensa and being confronted by Andriy Shevchenko. Our meeting, then at least, was in portrait rather than in person. Shevchenko was the face, the masculine muse, of a monochrome Armani campaign. The poster showed him standing against a wall, pinstripe suit loosely buttoned at the lapel, his silhouette cast on marble tile. …”
“… Champagne Papi has been in Lombardy on his ‘$ome $pecial $hows 4 UK EU’ tour. He, in turn, missed Venezia, the team the Canadian hitmaker invested in, playing in Serie B. An away day in Castellammare di Stabia, hometown of Fabio Quagliarella down by the bay of Naples, either didn’t appeal or clashed with his schedule. Drake, as it happened, didn’t miss much. Venezia’s goalkeeper Filip Stankovic, son of Dejan, was the undisputed man of the match. Kitted out in 
“It is just 90 days since Paris Saint-Germain claimed their first Champions League with 
“In an era when football is criticised for its tactical homogeneity, an interesting debate has arisen around the idea of defending a crossed free kick. It had become the accepted approach to use a high defensive line, keeping opponents away from the box and leaving space in front of the goalkeeper. 
“When Martin Scorsese saw Fellini’s 8½ for the first time he was a student at New York University. Upon returning home, he tried to sketch his favourite scenes from memory and then set about thinking what the film was about. ‘Then you realise you don’t have to because it’s very simple really,’ Scorsese explained. Dreams. Memory. ‘It’s total fantasy.’ There’s nothing to get. Don’t try to understand. Let it wash over you in all its beauty and absurdity. Following Serie A is similar. The main plot points — who will win the scudetto, qualify for the Champions League, suffer relegation — often feel secondary to the elaborate, often mind-blowing set pieces that happen simultaneously. …”
“Players are the focus of any football transfer storyline. Managers, agents and club owners add to the intrigue, of course, but it’s a relatively new role which has been garnering increased attention with every transfer window — the sporting director. Fundamentally, the remit of the sporting director is to be a link between the coaching staff and the club’s hierarchy, providing continuity, sustainability and a stable strategy in the club’s football operations. …”
“The Club World Cup begins on Saturday, June 14, when Inter Miami take on Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. How will Lionel Messi and friends get on? Are they likely to get out of Group A? And what about Real Madrid? The world’s biggest club have replaced Carlo Ancelotti with Xabi Alonso, their former midfielder, and signed Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen in the mini transfer window before the tournament. 
