The Fußball Chatter

The UEFA Champions League makes its return as the first round of group games taking place on the 6th and 7th of September. This season's Champions League is going to be very different. Due to the World Cup taking place in November, all group games will be held from the 6th-7th of September to the 1st-2nd of November. Within the space of just two months, congesting the fixture list. Here is a preview of all eight groups and where they will likely finish by November. GROUP A: AJAX, LIVERPOOL, NAPOLI & RANGERS Group A would be interesting given all four teams' changes during the off-season. Ajax retained their Eredivisie title but many of their key players and manager Erik ten Hag have all left the Johan Cruyff Arena. Now, they have Alfred Schreuder as their new manager and had their biggest transfer spree ever . Despite experiencing these situations occasionally, the heavy turnover plus the change of manager could hamper their chances of making out of the group but Ajax wil...

The 2022/23 German Bundesliga starts on the 5th of August when Eintracht Frankfurt hosts defending champions Bayern Munich at the Deutsche Bank Park. The 60th edition of the German top flight sees the return of both Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen to the top flight, Freiburg and Union Berlin, new faces and new goals for the upcoming season. Due to the FIFA World Cup staging in Qatar in November, the Bundesliga will have an extended break, returning in January 2023. Here's a season preview of the 2022/23 Bundesliga season. CHANGES AT THE ALLIANZ ARENA Bayern Munich won their tenth Meisterschale in a row. The first time this feat has been achieved in Europe's top five leagues. Despite winning the league, they finished with 77 points. Their lowest points tally within the ten years. With Julian Nagelsman plus the higher-ups at Bayern like Olivier Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic, Bayern Munich has made significant changes that have not been seen at the Allianz Arena for some time now. Robe...

The UEFA Champions League is back for another exciting season as the heavyweights of European football battle it out to become Champions of Europe with the Final taking place on the 28th of May at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This Champions League season will be the first after UEFA scrapped the away goal rule in the summer, meaning games in the knockout stages that remain level will go into extra time. The season also sees the return of football supporters in stadiums after last season when fans did not attend games due to the pandemic. With big business done during the transfer window, expectations are quite high for this season. So, here are the eight groups in the competition and which teams have higher chances of going through to the knockout stages. GROUP A: MANCHESTER CITY, PSG, RB LEIPZIG & CLUB BRUGGE Pep Guardiola managed to get Manchester City to their first-ever appearance in the Champions League Final. However, they left empty-handed losing 1-0 t...

The UEFA Champions League is now in the quarterfinals stage with the path to the Final in Istanbul clear for the eight teams remaining. As we are now in the final end of the season, it is now crunch time for these teams and we will see who will be crowned Champions of Europe. Here's the thoughts of the quarterfinals match-ups.  Real Madrid v Liverpool  A recap of the 2018 Final which saw Madrid win it, this is probably the most 50-50 of any of the other quarterfinal games as both teams have strengths but very noticeable flaws. Despite their struggles this season, Madrid are still in the race to win La Liga again and have improved after a indifferent start to the season, which almost saw them eliminated from the group stages, including a strong performance against Atalanta in the Round of 16. Liverpool look to have gone through their worst of not just this season but under Klopp's time at Anfield with six home defeats in a row, dropping them drop to sixth in the Premier Le...

Bundesliga  It's getting to crunch time with seven games remaining in the Bundesliga, as 19 goals were scored from the past weekend. The biggest tie was the title race clash between Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena on Saturday. Bayern, who were playing without Robert Lewandowski, saw off Leipzig with a 1-0 win courtesy of Leon Goretzka. Probably the tie that decides the title. There was the Berlin Derby between Union Berlin and Hertha Berlin, which ended 1-1 which boosted Hertha's chances of staying up. André Silva scored the winner for Eintracht Frankfurt against Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalonstadion as Die Alder won 2-1, hurting Dortmund's chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season. Mainz and Arminia Bielefeld played out a 1-1 draw which keeps Arminia in the relegation zone. FC Köln are now in the relegation/playoff spot, losing 1-0 to Wolfsburg, two points behind Mainz, who are away from the relegation places. Bayer Leverkusen starte...

  La Liga 26 goals were scored in the Spanish top flight this past weekend as we are approaching the business end of the season, with only ten games remaining. Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and, Real Madrid all won their games this past weekend, as the title race drags on. Barcelona got the biggest win of the three, beating Real Sociedad 6-1 at the Anoeta with Lionel Messi and American right-back Sergino Dest both scoring braces in a big win for the Blaugrana. Atletico Madrid kept their four-point lead at the summit of the league table, beating Alaves 1-0 at home. Luis Suarez scored the only goal of the game, which was his 500th career goal, a milestone for the Uruguayan. Real Madrid went away to Celta Vigo and, got a 3-1 win thanks to Karim Benzema, who scored two goals. As well as Marco Asensio, who continued off his cameo performance in the Champions League from mid-week. In the relegation dogfight, everybody failed to win their games to get some breathing space. Cadiz lost 2-1 awa...

  Porto Shock Juventus Juventus were knocked out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 for a second straight season to Portuguese side FC Porto, who went through 4-4 on aggregate on away goals, despite losing 3-2 in Turin. The Bianconeri knew that a 1-0 win or a win by two goals will be enough to go to the quarterfinals. Things did not go to plan from the beginning for Juventus as Porto were awarded a penalty in the 19th minute after a poor challenge from Merih Demiral on Mehdi Taremi in Juventus' penalty box. Sergio Oliveira scored from the spot to give Porto the lead on the night, with a two-goal aggregate lead. The Old Lady bombarded the Porto defence with Juan Cuadrado whipping crosses from the right-hand. Juventus equalized thanks to Federico Chiesa, who scored in the first leg, to get the Italian champions back in the game. Porto would find it difficult to do for the rest of the game when they went down to ten men after Taremi went off for kicking the ball after the whis...

  Bundesliga 20 goals were in the Bundesliga this past weekend with six teams keeping clean sheets. RB Leipzig kept the pressure on Bayern Munich in the title race, winning away at Freiburg 3-0 with Nkunku, Sorloth and Forsberg scoring. That put Leipzig top of the Bundesliga before Bayern's game against Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker . There was early trouble for Bayern when Erling Haaland scored twice for Dortmund in the first ten minutes. Bayern initially clawed back, winning the game 4-2 with Robert Lewandowski scoring a hat-trick, taking his goal tally to 31 this season. Three goals off his total of last season. Borussia Monchengladbach has been on a bad run of form with no wins in their last four games. That run continued following a 1-0 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, dropping down to 10th in the league table, seven points behind Leverkusen. Hertha Berlin scored two late goals to win the game 2-1 against Augsburg, their first win since January with two late goals from Du...