This season’s Champions League group stages had several surprises in store for us. In Group B, Real Madrid lost two games to Shakhtar Donetsk but still advanced at the cost of Inter Milan. In Group C, defending Portuguese champions FC Porto finished second in the group, surprising Marseille and Olympiacos. In-form Manchester United were unable to pass Leipzig and PSG and will instead play in the Europa League. The first…
In just a month, the regular season of the Greek Super League will be over. The Greek Super League undoubtedly has one of the weirdest league systems in Europe. Each team plays a home-and-away match against every other team, leading to a total of 26 matches. Most leagues in Europe do this, but majority have more teams and play 30 or more games. The Premier League, for instance, plays 38…
With the winter transfer window closed in most countries and the leagues at midpoint in the season, now is a great time to look at who could be promoted across the world. Brentford and Norwich are leading the way in the English Championship, and in Germany’s Bundesliga 2, Holstein Kiel and Hamburg have the advantage. In Spain, Espanyol and Mallorca look poised to return to La Liga and Mario Balotelli’s…
In 2018, the Polish national team qualified for the World Cup. This was no big deal considering that 31 other teams qualified, but for Poland it was huge. In 1974-1982, for three consecutive World Cups, Poland finished as one of the top five teams at the tournament. They finished 3rd two of those times. In 1974 they beat mighty Brazil 1-0 in the third-placed game after being denied a place…
It’s hard to believe, but it has been only two years since France won the World Cup. More importantly, there are less than two years remaining until 32 teams head to Qatar to decide who are the new world champions. Because of coronavirus, these qualifiers will be unlike any others. With all of the qualifying fixtures to be played within two years, it will come down to depth and there…
Recently, many of Europe’s traditional top leagues have come under fire. Leagues in France, Italy, and Germany have been called non-competitive, being dominated by PSG, Juventus, and Bayern Munich respectively. In Spain, La Liga is also considered not very competitive, usually just a two-horse race between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Because of this, fans have started to focus on the English Premier League. After all, five different teams have won…
In just one month, World Cup qualifying in North America will begin – but it won’t look like it used to. The format has changed. Originally, only the top six teams in North America (as of July) would advance. Those rankings would go up or down according to how well (or poorly) teams did in the friendlies: that’s usually why they play so many. But due to the coronavirus pandemic,…
Typically in the world of soccer, when a player has one or two poor seasons, they move on. Philippe Coutinho struggled in two seasons for Barcelona and was loaned out to Bayern Munich. Zlatan Ibrahimovic had one poor season for Barcelona before he was sold to AC Milan. Alvaro Morata spent just one season with Chelsea after being bought for over $70 million. This pattern likely will not continue this…
It’s been coming for a while now, but it looks like Lionel Messi will finally be leaving FC Barcelona. The reasons for this are plentiful. Barcelona have just finished a trophy-less season in which they fired two managers. They hired a new manager, Ronald Koeman, who has struggled at club level, and who has already essentially been told by Barcelona’s presidential candidates that he has no future with the team.…
The Champions League finalists are confirmed! It will be a clash of the titans between German champions Bayern Munich and French champions Paris Saint-Germain, also known as PSG. Bayern Munich continued to steamroll through the tournament, although the 3-0 victory over Lyon was closer than it looked. Meanwhile, PSG grabbed an early lead against RB Leipzig and never gave it back, advancing to the team’s first ever Champions League final.…
