Domestic action returns to the fore with the FA Cup, Copa del Rey and Coupe de France dominating the midweek action, but the Champions League is set to return with the Round of 16 second legs on March 7/8-14/15.
We've got some dynamite return legs brewing with five of the eight matches separated by one goal or less, and who knows, maybe Liverpool can finally deliver some excitement now that nothing's expected from them.
MADRID — Ten-man Atletico Madrid dealt a blow to Real Madrid's LaLiga title hopes when they held the defending champions to a 1-1 draw at their Santiago Bernabeu stadium on Saturday.
After substitute Angel Correa had got a straight red card in the 64th minute for an elbow to the chest of defender Antonio Ruediger, Jose Maria Gimenez gave Atletico the lead when he netted a header from an Antoine Griezmann free kick in the 78th minute.
Netflix has been killing it already this year with a collection of celebrated sports shows that take you behind-the-scenes to a degree that few other projects have ever been able to. Much of that stems from the success of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, which has given birth to an entire generation of American F1 fans as the docuseries releases its fifth season.
Jamie Carragher should probably be fired as an analyst after questioning Real Madrid's manifest destiny in the Champions League.
The 14-time winners appeared to live a charmed existence during last year's run to the title — coming back from 2-0 down in the final 30 minutes against PSG, coming back from 4-3 down in the final 10 minutes against Chelsea and coming back from 5-3 down in the final mere minutes against Manchester City before Thibaut Courtois' heroics in the final — but those are probably best analyzed as simply "Real Madrid things."
LIVERPOOL, England - Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp conceded that he had not been able to bring himself to rewatch last season's Champions League final defeat by Real Madrid until this past weekend, insisting reliving the experience was "torture."
The Reds won their first three matches against Real in European competition, between 1981 and 2009. Since then, however, they are winless in six games against them, with five of those ending in defeat.
Rodrygo is enjoying his football at the Santiago Bernabéu this season, and a beautiful set of skills against Elche on Wednesday sent us back to the days when another young Brazilian was mesmerizing the Spanish crowd.
The match was goal-scoring fiesta for the Merengues — they managed to score four goals in a league match for the first time since September while keeping a clean sheet. Marco Asensio, Luka Modrić and a Karim Benzema’s double lit up the world champion’s celebratory victory.
Real Madrid defeated Al-Hilal 5-3 in the Club World Cup final on Saturday to be crowned world champions. Madrid’s front three of Karim Benzema, Federico Valverde and Vinícius Jr. were at their best and scored all of Madrid’s goals.
Al-Hilal became the first club from Saudi Arabia to make the Club World Cup final and didn’t give Real Madrid an easy time. No club outside of Europe and South America has ever won the competition and that streak lives on.
Al-Hilal never led in the game but managed to keep things interesting for the 90 minutes.
The Brazilian Football Association (CBF) will wait until the end of the 2022-23 European season to fill the vacant Brazil manager position with Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti their main target.
Following the exit of manager Tite after their World Cup quarterfinal penalty defeat by Croatia, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues told a news conference in November that he wanted to find his replacement between January and February.
BERLIN - A future European Super League could include as many as 80 teams, Bernd Reichart, the chief executive of A22 Sports Management, a company formed to sponsor and assist in the creation of a breakaway soccer league, said on Thursday.
In a statement outlining the preliminary results of talks that A22 had with what it said was 50 European clubs and stakeholders of football, the company said change was necessary.
A battered and bruised Real Madrid side in a poor run of form eked out a late 4-1 victory vs. Al Ahly in the Club World Cup semifinal on Wednesday in Rabat, Morocco.
The scoreline doesn’t reflect how close the game was as Madrid’s final two goals came in stoppage time.
Major League Soccer fans wished it were the Seattle Sounders playing Real Madrid instead of Al Ahly. The MLS side fell 1-0 to the Egyptian club on Saturday.