The Fußball Chatter

The UEFA Champions League season starts next week Tuesday as the best teams across Europe battle it out to play in the Final at the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul next year. So who are the favourites to win it and who are the dark horses that could surprise us like Ajax did last year? Favourites  Manchester City  This surely has to be their season Manchester City. They have dominated the Premier League and are in the conversation as one of the best teams in the Premier League era with four league titles in eight years. However, they have been unable to bring that to Europe. Under their current ownership, City have only reach the semifinals once in 2016 and under Pep Guardiola, have suffered defeats to Liverpool, Tottenham and Monaco in the knockout stages. The Citizens have the best squad in the competition in terms of depth and quality of the players and manager, which also includes their recent summer signings in Rodri and João Cancelo. Things should come toge...

The UEFA Champions League has already given us some big moments already even going back as last week but there were still four games left to go to see who will join FC Porto, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspurs and Ajax in the last eight. Here's the recap of this week's UCL games. Atléti really hate facing Ronaldo Atlético Madrid must really hate the sight of Cristiano Ronaldo after his inspiring performance for Juventus as the Serie A champions beat Atléti 3-0 on Tuesday night at the Juventus Stadium and go through 3-2 on aggregate. Atlético had the advantage going to the second leg following their 2-0 win at home forcing the Old Lady to do something really special to go through and they had that in the form of CR7. Ronaldo was at it again, scoring a hat-trick with two towering headers as he has now scored 22 headers in the UCL and the winning goal which was a penalty in the 86th minute. That was Ronaldo's eighth hat-trick in the Champions League, level with Lione...

The UEFA Champions League continues with another four games this week in the Round of 16 after the other four games from last week. These are the games we live for as fans of the game where every chance, challenge and error could change the game on its head. Here are the reviews from the game on Tuesday night. Bayern frustrate Liverpool in stalemate Bayern Munich produced a defensive display against Liverpool in their Round of 16 clash at Anfield that ended 0-0. Despite not being at the top in the Bundesliga, Bayern have come to this game on form as they are closing the gap on Borussia Dortmund but were without Arjen Robben, Thomas Müller and Jerome Boateng for this game. Liverpool, on the other hand, are in a title race as well and had their injury worries as well with Joe Gomez, Dejan Lovren out with injury while Virgil van Dijk was suspended with Fabinho deployed at centre-back. The game had very few clear cut chances for both sides with just two shots on target from the enti...

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...

Wednesday brought the complete end of the Champions League group stages. Groups E to H played their last group games with many knowing who are going through. Here are the highlights from Wednesday's night. Lyon make it through The only game that was a winner takes all scenario was Lyon facing Shakhtar Donetsk at the NSC Olimpiyskiy. Lyon knowing a draw was enough for them to go through went behind with Júnior Moraes opening the scoring giving the Ukrainians the edge. With 17 shots, the Ligue 1 side needed to find an equalizer which they got from captain Nabil Fekir in the 65 minute.  Finishing with 8 points while Shakhtar finished with 6 points, Lyon go through in Group F with Manchester City who topped the group after beating Hoffenheim 2-1 at the Etihad. CSKA Moscow shock Real Real Madrid experienced a shock 3-0 defeat at the hands of CSKA Moscow at the Santiago Bernabéu. Madrid rested many of their senior players as they are already through with only Marcelo, Isc...

The Champions League continued on Wednesday with teams from Groups E to H competing for those knockout places. Here are the four things learned from Wednesday's night. Mourinho: How do you like me now? Despite the negativity with Mourinho this season, United recently have been going results but many saw their chances of getting a result against Juventus at Turin very slim which was evident when Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring. However, United managed to come from behind in the last five minutes to beat the Italian giants 2-1 from Juan Mata and an own goal from Alex Sandro. While it's partly Juve's own making for wasting their chances, it was the perfect shut up response for Mourinho giving United some confidence ahead of the Manchester Derby this coming weekend and their next two UCL games in group H as they're now two points behind Juventus. Madrid got their goal-scoring boots Real Madrid are picking up form under intern coach Santiago Solari as they...

The UEFA Champions League made its return this week as we're now halfway into the group stages as teams are either getting points to keep their chances of going through alive or consolidating their place for the knockout stages. Teams from Group E to H played on Tuesday with the biggest game being Manchester United hosting Juventus which the Serie A champions won 1-0. Real Madrid, Roma, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Ajax all secured wins while Valencia and Lyon dropped points. Here are the major stories from Tuesday's results. Ronaldo's Return to Old Trafford The anticipation of United playing against Juventus was on the return of former United player Cristiano Ronaldo to Old Trafford as a Juventus player. The Portuguese was the provider for Paulo Dybala who scored his 4th UCL goal this season. Ronaldo was no doubt the centre of attention before and during the game with pitch invaders attempting to reach him during and after the game. For Juventus, they'r...

Matchday 1 of the UEFA Champions League continued with Group E,F,G and H taking action on Wednesday. Holders Real Madrid started the post-CR7 era in the Champions League with a 3-0 win against AS Roma at the Santiago Bernabèu to start their title defence. Juventus, with Cristiano Ronaldo, got their campaign off to a good start with a 2-0 win away at Valencia. Manchester United got a strong 3-0 victory against BSC Young Boys at Switzerland while Manchester City fell to a 2-1 defeat at the Etihad to Lyon. Bayern Munich and Ajax recorded wins while Hoffenheim earned a draw in their first ever game in the Champions League. Here are the three things learned from last night’s action. Ronaldo sees Red in UCL debut Juventus made a big statement bringing in Cristiano Ronaldo in their quest to win the Champions League since 1996 and while they started off with a 2-0 win against Valencia, the biggest talking point with the Portuguese and it wasn't for the right reasons. Ronaldo, 30 ...