The Fußball Chatter

When Argentina lost the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final to Germany, it felt like a missed opportunity to claim the coveted trophy in the home of their bitter rivals Brazil. They entered the final without conceding a goal, with two knockout games going into extra time. Not to mention their attacking options in Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Angel Di Maria and Lionel Messi.  Messi's impact during the knockouts and the final was underwhelming, failing to score in the entire knockout phase. Though he won the Golden Ball (Best Player), it felt undeserved. Many greats of the game are lucky to reach one World Cup Final, and given what happened in the coming years for Messi and Argentina, 2014 was their best chance that got away from them. Now, come Sunday, Argentina has that rare second chance to win the World Cup. Argentina has made it to the sixth World Cup Final, making their second World Cup Final in three editions. They were winners for the first time in 1978 on home soi...

Great players come and go, they define an era of their teams and the sport itself. They produce moments that we tell to younger generations decades after, the innovate the game that many follow what they did and their success adds to their immortality. Pele defined the Brazil side of 1958 to 1970, Johan Cruyff defined the Netherlands team in 1974, Franz Beckenbauer defined West Germany and Bayern Munich during the 1970s, Diego Maradona defined Napoli and Argentina during the 1980s, Ronaldo Nazario defined the 1990s, etc. There's without a doubt that Lionel Messi has defined Barcelona over the past 15 years producing incredible moments, taking Barcelona to the top of world football and has rarely let his performances drop despite being in his 30s and seeing Barcelona's decline as a force in the European game. Now, he's finally leaving Barcelona after an emotional press conference on Sunday confirming he is leaving the club where he came in as a 13-year-old from Rosario, Arge...

The long relationship between Lionel Messi and Barcelona has now come to an end. Or has it? On Thursday evening, Barcelona announced that they could not sign Lionel Messi to a new deal. This was a shock as the Argentine and the club agreed on a new deal where the player will take a 50% wage cut with an announcement imminent. However, strange turns of events saw Barcelona unable to sign Messi to a new deal, leaving the Argentine a free agent, which he has been since July 1st when his former Barcelona contract expired. It is a very bitter pill to swallow for Barcelona fans as the greatest player the football club has ever seen is gone. A relationship between the player and the club spans over twenty years when Messi was in La Masia before making his first-team debut in November 2003 and has gone on to make 778 appearances, scoring 672 goals and winning 35 trophies with the Catalan club. Although this scenario was there, it is still a shock as some thought Messi would see out his career a...

With the attention surrounding the Final of the European Championships between Italy and England on Sunday, it is easy to forget that there's another final taking place in the early hours of Sunday. The Copa America is at its climax with the Final taking place on Saturday night in Rio De Janeiro. The hosts and defending champions Brazil will face arch-rivals Argentina to see who will become the kings of South America. For many who are not from the Americas, the tournament has not gained much coverage due to the Euros and there was a lot of speculation if the competition can go ahead with Brazil coming in at the last minute to host the tournament with Colombia and Argentina, who were supposed to co-host the competition, pulled out due to political tensions and rise of coronavirus cases. The tournament has been played behind closed doors, making it a quiet tournament. The tournament is at its end so let's at each team's route to the Final. BRAZIL Despite being hosts, the Braz...

Things aren't so sunny in Barcelona. Following a very disappointing season, Barcelona look set for a revamp. Quique Setién is gone with Ronald Koeman appointed to take charge of that rebuild. Several players have been put on sale with the likes of Luis Suárez, Arturo Vidal, Ivan Rakitić, and Jordi Alba all on sale or worst-case scenario, have their contracts terminated. However, the biggest discussion has been the future of Lionel Messi. The Argentine has talked with new coach Ronald Koeman and, has stated that he feels more out of the club than in. Now, reports have confirmed that Lionel Messi has asked to leave the club by activating an exit clause on his contract or to have his contract terminated which expires in 2021. This has sparked the entire football world into a frenzy. People are shocked that Messi, Barcelona's greatest player is leaving the club. Particularly under these circumstances. How did this happen and will this affect his legacy in Barcelona? Lionel Mess...

To say that Barcelona's season has been a failure would be the biggest understatement of the year. The Spanish giants complete the 2019/2020 season without any major silverware for the first time since 2008, losing the La Liga title to Real Madrid. They were knocked out of the Copa Del Rey to Athletic Bilbao and were completely humiliated in the UEFA Champions League at the hands of Bayern Munich who inflicted an 8-2 defeat, Barcelona's worst defeat in 75 years. Barcelona's decline has been noticeable for some time from the Roma defeat to the capitulation at Anfield last year. A team that was seen as the gold standard of club football just about a decade ago are a shadow of their former selves with drama both on and off the field, an ageing squad and a heavy reliance on Lionel Messi to make things happen. The embarrassment against Bayern truly marked the end of an era for Barcelona with massive wholesale changes needed to refresh the squad. There is also a question mark...

FA Cup Action The semifinals of the FA Cup took place during the weekend at an empty Wembley Stadium. The first semifinal was between the holders Manchester City and Arsenal. Following their win against Liverpool in midweek, the Gunners pulled off a shock 2-0 win with Pierre Emerick Aubameyang scoring the two goals. Despite City having 71% possession and 16 shots, Pep Guardiola's side were nullified by Arsenal and did not look to have created a key chance during the game. Credit has to go to Mikel Arteta as he has taken the North London side to another FA Cup final, hoping to add to the 13 FA Cup titles the club has won. They will meet their London rivals Chelsea in the final on August 1st as Frank Lampard was fourth time lucky against Manchester United this season, winning the game 3-1. Olivier Giroud, Mason Mount and an own goal from Harry Maguire  gave the Blues the win while United paid the price for fielding a rotated side for the semifinal with David de Gea having a poor...

The Spanish La Liga makes its return this weekend with all 20 teams have a renewed feeling of hope and success this upcoming season. This will be exclusively be on the top three teams in the division namely Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. All three teams have done a tremendous amount of business this summer but what will that bring this season for each of them? Atlético Madrid Last season, many tipped Atlético Madrid to take Barcelona all the way in the title race. However, that wasn't the case. Los Rojiblancos finished 2nd but were 11 points behind the Champions Barcelona which was very disappointing as they were far behind for much of last season. This season is one for change in Atléti. The likes of Juanfran, Felipe Luís and Diego Godín, who have been crucial to Atlético's success under Simeone are gone. Key assets like Antonie Grizemann, Rodri, Lucas Hernández have also gone for big money with a combined total of €270m. Atlético have lost k...

As the season gets closer to its end, games carry more weight than usual that one mistake can be catastrophic and hurts the chances of any team's quest for a title, a place in Europe or a relegation fight. Here are the highlights from the weekend. United and Liverpool in rugged stalemate Manchester United and Liverpool played to a goalless draw at Old Trafford in Sunday that took Liverpool back on top of the Premier League but by only one point. The game was massive for both sides. United in damaging the title hopes of their rivals and Liverpool in making a statement win in a ground where Liverpool have won just twice over the past decade. The first half was frantic with a lot of hard challenges coming from both teams but seems to affect United with Ole Gunnar Solskjær forced to make three substitution with Juan Mata, Ander Herrera and Jesse Lingard coming off while Marcus Rashford had to carry a knock throughout the game. Liverpool also had their injury troubles with Robert...

We are now approaching the festive period of games and the halfway point of the season which can help where teams are likely to finish and see what they can improve by the new year. Here are the highlights from the weekend. Shaqiri scores twice to thump United Liverpool returned to the summit of the Premier League table after beating archrivals Manchester United 3-1 at Anfield. Liverpool clearly domainted with 36 shots against the Red Devils, the most amount of shots from Liverpool this season. With United getting a goal from an error from Alisson, Liverpool needed to find something different which Xherdan Shaqiri answered by scoring a brace from the bench to seal a first win in eight from the Reds and Jürgen Klopp's first victory against United. Still unbeaten. Austin ends Arsenal's unbeaten streak Charlie Austin scored his fifth goal in five games against Arsenal to inflict Arsenal's first defeat since August losing to Southampton 3-2 at St. Mary's. Dann...

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...

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...

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 ...

The 2018/19 UEFA Champions League season has finally begun with Group A, B, C and D kicking things off on Tuesday. Barcelona got their campaign off to a perfect start with an easy 4-0 win against PSV Eindhoven at the Camp Nou. Liverpool beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-2 in a thrilling encounter at Anfield continuing their perfect start to the season while Spurs fell short losing to Inter Milan 2-1 at the San Siro. Galatasaray, Dortmund and Atletico got their campaign started with three points while Napoli and Porto dropped points. Here are the three things from yesterday’s action. Messi Is On a Mission Lionel Messi before the season started stated that Barcelona have unfinished business in the Champions League and will try their hardest to win the Champions League this season. So basically, Messi is on a quest this season starting with a magical display against PSV Eindhoven. The Argentine was at his best as usually scoring a hat-trick in Barcelona’s comprehensive 4-0 win against ...