The Fußball Chatter

Sevilla have done it again. They were crowned champions of the UEFA Europa League for a record-extending seventh time after defeating Jose Mourinho's AS Roma 4-1 on penalties after the game finished 1-1 after extra time at the Puska Arena in Budapest on May 31st. Paulo Dybala opened the scoring for Roma in the 34th minute before an own goal from Gianluca Mancini levelled the score. In a combative final, referee Anthony Taylor dished out fourteen yellow cards in the match, the most in a Europa League game . Argentine defender Gonzalo Montiel scored the winning penalty to give Sevilla the title and qualify for next year's Champions League. Sevilla, since 2000, has dominated Europe's second premier competition, winning it seven times in seven finals. Here is a rewind of Sevilla's six Europa League triumphs. SEVILLA 3-2 INTER MILAN (2020) Before their win on Wednesday night, Sevilla last won the competition in 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic. Starting from the beg...

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...

  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...

The Round of 16 has been completed with AFC Ajax, FC Barcelona, Juventus FC, Liverpool FC, Manchester United FC, Manchester City FC, FC Porto and Tottenham Hotspur FC through to the quarterfinals. The draw for the quarterfinals has been done with some exciting match-ups. Here are my thoughts from the draw. Manchester United FC V FC Barcelona The biggest match-up from the draw, Manchester United will face the daunting task of stopping Lionel Messi and Barcelona when they meet in the last eight. Manchester United were in a different place before the knockout stages with the level of uncertainty at Old Trafford. However, since the appointment of interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær, United look like a team that has belief again and that belief grew a thousand fold when they came from behind to beat PSG to go through. With Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku, Victor Lindelöf and Ander Herrera revitalized under the Norwegian, United have a chance, even if it's slim. Barça g...

Mission Impossible Accomplished in Paris Manchester United achieved what was impossible overturning a two deficit to go through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League defeating Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 at the Parc des Princes, 3-3 on aggregate as the Red Devils go through on away goals. Paris Saint-Germain were favourites to go through after the first leg at Old Trafford with United's injury troubles forcing Ole Gunnar Solksjær to field youngsters for the tie and Paul Pogba suspended after getting a red card in the first leg. Within two minutes in the game, United halved the deficit from Romelu Lukaku who capitalized on an error from Thilo Kehrer who made a horrible back pass. Juan Bernat equalized for the Parisians with Kliyan Mbappé finding the full-back who slotted the ball home. Lukaku scored again for United as Gianluigi Buffon was unable to tame a shot from Marcus Rashford enabling the Belgian to pounce on the rebound. In the second half, PSG had a goal disallowed a...

The UEFA Champions League is back after a two month absence and it's crunch time as we begin the knockout stages of the competition with some excitement games over the next few weeks. So we begin with the games from last night. Mbappé silences Old Trafford Kliyan Mbappé played without his attacking partners in Neymar and Edinson Cavani but scored an important away goal for the PSG as they beat Manchester United 2-0 in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie at Old Trafford. Things were looking to be at United's favour as they have been unbeaten under Ole Gunnar Solskjær and PSG were without Neymar, Cavani, Rabiot and Meunier. However, during the game, United hardly threatened the French champions with only one shot on target from their 10 attempts from last night. PSG had chances but were unable to capitalize as well but in the second half, Presnel Kimpembe got the Parisians in front after converting a corner from Ángel Di Maria, giving PSG a vital away goal. Kliyan Mbapp...

The draw for the Round of 16 in the Champions League was held today at Nyon, Switzerland as we are now in the knockout stages of the competition. The 16 teams finally knew who they will face and will now prepare for the tie which will take in February with the second leg in early March. Here are the matches: AS Roma V FC Porto The least fancy fixture but still both teams will believe they have a chance of going through. Roma, who have struggled in Serie A this season, will be the happier side as they avoided better teams and are the favourites to go through. Porto will hope for a better showing as they knocked out by Liverpool last season 5-0 on aggregate with all five coming at home turf. Likely winners: AS Roma Olympique Lyonnais V FC Barcelona Barcelona are one of the favourites to win the competition this season and will fancy their chances against Lyon. Barça aren't dominating La Liga but their aim is winning the Champions League with Lionel Messi already on...