Tottenham Hotspur are in a pickle after conceding two goals via set pieces in the first 10 minutes against Juventus.
For the first, Juventus ran a pick play and Spurs switched off mentally, giving Gonzalo Higuain all the time he needed to score.
The return of UEFA Champions League and the beginning of the knockout stages marks a joyous time for any soccer fan. This season’s Round of 16 promises to be one of the most exciting yet. Matchups like Real Madrid vs. PSG, Juventus vs. Tottenham and Chelsea vs. Barcelona would be amazing finals for the event, but we’re lucky enough to have them in February and March. You're not going to want to miss any of the action.
Sitting fourth in La Liga and bounced in the Copa del Rey quarterfinals, Real Madrid heads into Wednesday’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg tie against Paris Saint-Germain a wounded animal.
The UEFA Nations League is objectively a cool idea — turn meaningless friendlies into interesting competitions, replace boring lopsided matches with enticingly even matchups, create another tournament for players and fans to enjoy. But Wednesday’s draw didn’t exactly get the pulses racing for next fall’s Nations League schedule outside of a handful of UEFA’s 55 countries.
League A, Group 1 is awesome: Germany, France and the Netherlands. Group A4 is pretty good too: Spain, England and Croatia. But the other 14 groups fail to really move the needle.
UEFA, you may be a bit late to the party. The European soccer governing body released a list of 50 players to watch in 2018 on Friday, an index of rising stars who could become household names in the coming calendar year. By naming Mexico’s Hirving Lozano one to watch, UEFA is basically admitting it didn’t pay attention to the last half of 2017, when Chucky tore up the Eredivisie with first-place PSV Eindhoven.
Most years the Europa League is barely given a second thought this time of year. Sure it might be worth watching as the competition draws to its climax, but the Round of 32, not to mention the Europa League draw itself, typically doesn’t register highly on the mainstream soccer watch list.
The Manchester clubs were rewarded for winning easy groups with easy Round of 16 foes while three other matchups pit championship contenders against each other in the Champions League draw announced Monday. Real Madrid faces Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea takes on Barcelona and Tottenham drew Juventus.
Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal thought he was being clever. In the waning moments of a 6-0 victory over APOEL on Nov. 21, Carvajal decided to hold the ball instead of throwing it back into play. The referee didn’t like this time wasting and showed him a yellow card. It was Carvajal’s fifth yellow of the Champions League campaign, meaning he would be suspended for the Borussia Dortmund match, but he would be available for the knockout rounds, for which Real Madrid had already qualified.