Dani Alves has slammed FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu for the treatment he received during his final three seasons with the club, calling the directors “false and ungrateful.”
A lot can change in a few months. The gap between the draw for the Champions League round of 16 and the matches themselves can be vast. Even in countries where a winter break (or the lack thereof) is not just an annual excuse for under-pressure managers, the sides which face off in February can be entirely different from those which were first drawn out of the pots. Now, after a relatively normal week in Serie A, what should we expect from the Italian teams still in Europe’s premier cup competition?
This is a really good goal from AC Milan’s Suso, and it rescued a point in the 85th minute for his side against Lazio. But what really sticks out is how apeshit the Lazio defenders go after watching Suso dribble through them all.
A win for Lazio would’ve taken them to fourth, and you can tell just how devastating this late goal was. In Italy, the land of catenaccio and solid defensive organization, Suso’s ability to drift between defenders and leave two Lazio players on the floor just isn’t acceptable.
On February 22nd and March 14th, two titans of the goalkeeping position will clash in their final duel at the highest level of the game. Perhaps we shouldn’t ever write-off the possibility of the 35-year-old Iker Casillas and the 39-year-old Gianluigi Buffon encountering each other on the pitch again, but we should be exceptionally grateful for at least one last bout.
Scoring too many goals is graceless. In Italy, when a team gets a few goals ahead, an unspoken agreement settles over the pitch; the team in the lead won’t score too many goals and the team behind won’t try too hard to get back into the game. The energy and the pressure eases off and the three points are settled early on.
On Sunday, millions of people watched the Atlanta Falcons take a 28-3 lead on the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, then throw that lead away in spectacular fashion and lose the game in overtime.
It was, depending on your perspective, either the most incredible comeback or the most heart-wrenching defeat in recent memory, and will not be forgotten by fans of either team or sports fans in general.
One of those people watching was Orlando City midfielder and former AC Milan man Kaka.
Meet Riccardo Orsolini. Juventus officially signed him earlier this week. We think it is a very good signing, because Orsolini does things like this:
Welcome my smol son Riccardo Orsolini to Juventus pic.twitter.com/jFgEPF1HoU
— AWEST BRO DUDE (@ayyy_west) January 30, 2017
Cast your eye over the fixture list this past week and you might be forgiven for thinking that Serie A was taking a moment to recuperate. As the Coppa Italia fixtures grew increasingly heated, with the major sides playing one another, the league featured nothing of the sort. When the highest-profile game is Udinese versus Milan, then the week’s results can probably be pencilled in before a ball has been kicked.
Juventus defeated Milan 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia on Wednesday which, unfortunately for Italian football, isn’t really news. Juventus have won five straight Serie A titles, and, even with the higher likelihood of upsets in knockout football, they’ve managed to win the Coppa Italia two straight years.
Their hegemony of Italian football makes a neutral viewer more apt to turn to other competitions, like The Great British Bake Off. But the romance of Italian football can still be found if you know where to look. You should be looking at Carlos Bacca.