Juventus president Andrea Agnelli has questioned whether their smaller rivals Atalanta should have a right to play in the Champions League, saying they lack international history. His comments drew a blunt response from the mayor of Atalanta's home town Bergamo who said the team had earned their place with "sweat and imagination." 

Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri is struggling to impose his style of play on the Turin side and his frustration came out into the open again after a poor performance in their Champions League defeat to Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday. 

In comments that could be viewed as refreshingly honest or a risky public criticism of his players, the chain-smoking 61-year-old said that his team were struggling to grasp the concept of passing the ball around quickly — a style dubbed "Sarri-ball" by his admirers. 

Heading into Wednesday’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg between Real Madrid and Manchester City, the narrative centered around the contrasting styles of managers Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola. In essence, how would the laissez-faire approach of Zidane, which yielded back-to-back-to-back titles in this competition between 2016 and 2018, fare against the meticulous neuroticism of Guardiola, which hasn’t earned the Spaniard Old Big Ears since 2011. 

Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus traveled to the hallowed grounds of the Parc Olympique Lyonnais, home of the best women’s club team in Europe and the location of the USWNT’s 2019 Women’s World Cup triumph. 

The Italian Old Lady couldn’t live up to the ladies who have made the French stadium one of the Mecca’s of women’s football.

But Ronaldo made a funny face.

There’s a graphic doing the rounds that shows the 10 players with the most combined goals and assists in Europe’s top five leagues since August 2017. Lionel Messi is obviously miles ahead in the top spot, Luis Suárez is sixth and Neymar — despite only appearing in 52 games over that period — comes in 10th. 

It was only three seasons ago, but MSN seems a lifetime away. With a collection of arguably the world’s best No. 9, No. 10 and winger, there were endless variants to the ways in which Barcelona could go about killing you. 

Bayern Munich left back Alphonso Davies had himself a little battle with his opposite No. 19, Chelsea’s Mason Mount, on Tuesday. Well, he had a battle in the same way a child with a magnifying glass has a battle with ants on a sidewalk.

In a game that could prove crucial in the fight for European qualification, Real Sociedad plays host to Valencia on Saturday. The Basque side currently sits in eighth place, just one point behind Valencia in seventh. If other results go favorably, a win could see either team break into the top four. Valencia is only behind rival Villareal on goal difference while Atletico Madrid and Sevilla, fourth and fifth in the table, respectively, are level on 40 points, two points ahead.