UEFA

Tottenham is tired. How much of it is the World Cup? How much of it the complete lack of rejuvenation by way of transfers? How much of it is the media incessantly telling us that Tottenham’s tired (although Son Heung-min told us as much too)? How much of it is the dopey-looking faces of Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen? I just don’t know. 

Excuse me, I have to type this so quietly because Croatia’s hungover as all hell at the moment, and I daren’t wake it. Today, Croatia opened its eyes in Elche before quickly closing them and muttering, “I think I’m going to die. I don’t think partying for 58 days straight was a good idea.” 

That’s the amount of time that’s elapsed between the nation’s runners-up finish at the World Cup and today’s 6-0 beatdown at the hands of La Furia Roja — a nickname which certainly sounds like the sort of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky product that’d do your head in. 

Portugal defeated Italy 1-0 Monday at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon to go top of UEFA Nations League Group 3 while Italy crashed to the bottom of the three-team group with only one point from two matches. The Azzurri’s worrisome 1-1 draw with Poland in Bologna last Friday served to foreshadow the day’s events: Italy mustered only two shots on target while creating absolutely nothing of note.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s life is harder than you may think. There are days his six pack abs do not show off very well or a fan takes a bad selfie of him. Sometimes he does not even score for two or three games.

But this? Not winning what would have been a 98th trophy? Not having to clear space in your cabinet for another award. Now that, that, is really tough. 

San Jose Earthquakes central defender Guram Kashia was honored with the inaugural UEFA #EqualGame Award on Wednesday for his public stand for the LGBTQ community while with Dutch club SBV Vitesse last season.

Kashia, 31, wore a rainbow captain’s armband with Vitesse along with other captains in the Dutch top division. Unlike most of his fellow captains, Kashia faced harsh criticism, threats and abuse back home in his native Georgia. Nonetheless, he took a stand for equality, despite calls for him to step down from the national team.

It's hard to imagine narrowing the shortlist from a field that also included the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann, but a jury comprised of coaches and journalists have spoken and named their top three: Today, UEFA announced that one of Luka Modrić, Cristiano Ronaldo or Mohamed Salah will be named the 2018 UEFA Player of the Year, an award given to the best footballer “irrespective of nationality, playing for a club within the territory of a UEFA member association during the past season” for their “performances in all competition — domestic, continental and interna

In what can only be described as absolutely nuts, Zenit Saint Petersburg defeated Belarusian side Dinamo Minsk 8-1 to win 8-5 on aggregate in its Europa League qualifying match, constituting the biggest Europa League comeback in 33 years. Dinamo Minsk had won the first leg 4-0 at its home ground, Traktor Stadium. 

Latest scores:

AS Trencin 4-0 Feyenoord

Dinamo Minsk 4-0 Zenit St Petersburg