The Fußball Chatter

It has been one of the games a lot of people were waiting for. Manchester City, the team to beat following from their 100 points winning campaign last season, face-off against Liverpool, the team likely to challenge city for the Premier League this season on Sunday at Anfield. Hyped as one of the games of the season with the attacking flair of both teams, the charisma of Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp and the world class players on both sides in front of a buoyant Anfield crowd. Both sides have started the season with both sides on 19 points from their seven games played in the league so far suggesting where the title challenge is this season. City are above just by goal difference making the game more important with the team that gets the three points will have the edge as the international break beckons. Head-to-Head (League Only)  Liverpool 4-3 Manchester City (January 2018) Manchester City 5-0 Liverpool (September 2017) Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool (March 2017) ...

The UEFA Champions League on Wednesday saw Group A to D take action. Barcelona returned to Wembley, where they have had fond memories winning 2 of their 5 UCL titles there, to face Tottenham and continued their fine start beating the lilywhites 4-2. Paris Saint-Germain were just too good for Red Star Belgrade beating them in a 6-1 rout. Liverpool continue the trend of English struggling to get something in Italy losing their game to Napoli 1-0 at Naples while Inter came from behind to beat PSV Eindhoven 2-1. Dortmund came out 3-0 winners against Monaco, Atletico Madrid continue their 100 percent UCL record beating Club Brugge 3-1 while Schalke and Porto both got three points from their games. Here are the three things from last night’s action. Messi loves the English Lionel Messi has started off the season with a bang in the UCL from his hat-trick against PSV to his performance against Tottenham at Wembley. Wembley is a ground that Messi has great memories, playing and scori...

The UEFA Champions League made its return for Gameweek 2. Group E to H were in action yesterday with teams looking to consolidate points or get their campaign on track. Title holders Real Madrid fell to a shock 1-0 defeat to CSKA Moscow while AS Roma got their first three points with a thumping 5-0 win at home against Viktoria Plzeñ. Manchester City left it late to get their first win against Hoffenheim, Benfica also won their game against AEK Athens while Juventus were fine without Cristiano Ronaldo beating BSC Young Boys 3-0. Bayern Munich and Ajax shared the points, Lyon earned a draw in a close encounter against Shakhtar Donetsk while Manchester United’s game against Valencia was the only goalless draw. Here are the three things from last night. Hat-trick heroes There were a lot of goals from yesterday. More specifically, 23 goals were scored from the eight games and there were some players that were clinical in front of goal, one of which is Paulo Dybala. The Argentine h...

We’re two weeks from the next international break and with mid-week action from the EFL Cup, Matchday 7 of the Premier League kicked off with West Ham beating Manchester United 3-1 at the London Stadium leaving United just 10 points from their first seven games. The 3pm matches saw Newcastle United still yet to get a win losing 2-0 at home to Leicester City. Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspurs and Arsenal all won their games while Wolves’ fine start to the season continued beating Southampton 2-0. Everton beat Fulham 3-0 at Goodison Park while the 5:30pm game saw Chelsea against Liverpool. The game ended 1-1 with Chelsea becoming the first team to take points off Liverpool so far this season. Here are the three things from yesterday’s action. Mourinho. What Now? It’s fair to say that Manchester United and more importantly José Mourinho, have had a week that they will clearly want to forget. Dropping points at home to Wolves last weekend, they lost their game against Champions...

So the FIFA Football Awards or THE BEST happened last night at London and Luka Modrić won the Men's Best Player Award beating Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah. Modrić has done what Wesley Sneijder, Franck Ribery and Manuel Neuer could not do. Break the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly.  Despite knowing he was going to win as Cristiano Ronaldo didn't attend the ceremony, Modrić was the deserved winner for what he has done over the past 12 months for both Real Madrid and Croatia. It's a sense of refreshment that a central midfielder who doesn't have high goals and assists numbers can be recognized as the best player in the world. Since Fabio Cannavaro, the FIFA Award mostly goes to attackers, something that former World Cup winning captain Philipp Lahm stated. There was some controversy with some of the winners from last night. Firstly, the Puskás award. Mohamed Salah's goal against Everton didn't deserve it. That wasn't even Salah's best goal from la...

Kylian Mbappe Marcelo and his family  Eden Hazard  England Coach Gareth Southgate  Germany Coach Joachim Löw signing autographs  Sergio Ramos and Pilar Rubio Mohamed Salah Luka Modric and his family  Ronaldinho Thibaut Courtois  Marta Kasper Schmeichel and Stine Gylenbrand Ronaldo De Lima Mohamed Salah receiving the FIFA Puskas Award Thibaut Courtois winning the Best Goalkeeper Award Reynald Pedros winning the Women's Coach Award Didier Deschamps winning the Men's Coach Award Marta winning the Best Women's Player Award Luka Modric receiving the Best Men's Player Award Luka Modric and Marta The FIFPro XI with host Idris Elba  The Ceremony at The Royal Festival Hall in London

Luka Modrić was crowned The Best Men's Player at the FIFA Football Awards last night at London. The Croatian beat former Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool's Mohamed Salah to win the award becoming the first player who is not Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi since Kaka in 2007 to win a FIFA Award. It has been a fitting 12 months for the midfielder who won the UEFA Champions League in May and led his country Croatia to the FIFA World Cup Final winning the Golden Ball Award for Best Player. Football's superstars, legends of the game and celebrities were in attendance with the glitz and glamour of the ceremony. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, however, were not in attendance for the ceremony. Mohamed Salah won the FIFA Puskás Award for the best goal beating Ronaldo's overhead kick against Juventus and Gareth Bale's strike against Liverpool in the Champions League Final. Thibaut Courtois won the best goalkeeper award while France's coach ...