Before Euro 2020 kicked off, one of the most highly anticipated matches of the competition was Friday’s Group D match between the original soccer rivals England and Scotland. The 115th edition of the oldest international football rivalry was about as bland as food from the two nations. The teams played to a 0-0 draw in what was by far the most boring match at Euro 2020 thus far.
ASUNCION — Bolivia striker Marcelo Martins has been banned for one game and fined $20,000 by the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) after criticising the organisation for hosting the Copa America in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic.
Martins was one of three Bolivia players who tested positive for COVID-19 on the eve of their 3-1 opening loss to Paraguay.
He missed the game and posted some sharp words on social media about CONMEBOL’s last-minute decision to host the tournament in Brazil, a nation that has seen almost 500,000 people die from the virus.
FIFA finally stepped in (not like Concacaf was going to) and punished Mexico for the continuous homophobic chants from fans on Friday. On top of a $65,000 fine, Mexico will be forced to play its first two home games of World Cup qualifying without fans. Officially, the punishment is due to the chants heard during Olympic qualifying.
COPENHAGEN — Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen has been discharged from hospital following a successful operation, days after he collapsed on the pitch during Denmark's Euro 2020 opener, the Danish Football Association (DBU) said on Friday.
Eriksen had a heart-starter device implanted after his collapse due to a cardiac arrest during Denmark's first Group B game against Finland in Copenhagen on Saturday.
Anyone watching the Copa América on Thursday night saw Neymar absolutely toy with Peruvian defenders. With Brazil up a couple of goals, Neymar was just fooling around having fun before he was scythed down. But the Alexander Isak run vs Slovakia made Neymar’s skills look like child’s play, as the 21-year-old Swede diced half of Slovakia’s defense before ripping a shot that nearly opened the scoring on Friday.
Brazil continued its red-hot form Thursday night with a 4-0 victory against Peru in the team’s second Copa América fixture. Before showing the goals, you must see these silky Neymar skill moves vs Peru. Neymar was just toying with Peru’s best defenders because he can.
Good luck getting the ball from Neymar pic.twitter.com/einym8tzx7
El 18 de junio de 2016 es un día que el fútbol mexicano desea que nunca hubiera existido. Esa noche, en el Levi’s Stadium, el Tri fue goleado 0-7 por un Chile inmisericorde, en los cuartos de final de la Copa América Centenario y enfrente de más de 70 mil atónitos aficionados en las tribunas.
Week 1 of 4 of Euro 2020 brought plenty of goal-mouth action, but also some disappointing performances — especially from some tournament favorites.
While we're only just starting the second matchday of the group stage, it is never too early to make some broad and definitive conclusions about the action that has taken place thus far.
Here are the biggest things I noticed from the opening week of the Euros.
The pre-tourney favorites have been underwhelming — except for Italy (and maybe Belgium)
Ever since Cristiano Ronaldo moved those two Coca-Cola bottles on Monday, the Euro 2020 press conferences have been filled with weird bottle antics. This is by far the weirdest trend I’ve ever seen that will be one of the big stories of these Euros.
On July 3, 2001, Gianluigi Buffon became the most expensive goalkeeper in football, moving from Parma to Juventus for a fee of around $58 million. Now, two decades and 489 Serie A appearances later, Buffon is back at the club where it all started.
Gigi Buffon officially became a Parma player again on Thursday, signing with the Serie B side on a two-year deal. "Superman" had returned.