Europe

It’s raining sideways in Herzogenaurach on Monday evening with the temperature hovering in the low 40s. With a colossal match against Augsburg — one place above Schalke in the desperate battle to avoid the Bundesliga relegation playoff — looming the following Sunday, you could forgive Weston McKennie for being in a foul mood after traveling over 400 kilometers from Gelsenkirchen to arrive at adidas headquarters in Herzo for an evening of interviews. 

One of the greatest midfielders of his generation, Xavi has announced that he'll retire at the end of the season to pursue a coaching career. The maestro spent 17 years in Barcelona before moving to Al-Sadd in Qatar in 2015.

As a graduate of Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, Xavi made his first team debut for Barcelona in 1998 at just 18 years of age. Playing at Barcelona for over 17 years, Xavi was an integral part of the midfield three, playing brilliant through balls and very rarely losing possession.

PSG has endured quite the torpid spell in its last matches of the season. From bowing out of the Champions League to Manchester United, to losing the Coupe De France to Rennes on penalties, there hasn’t been much joy for Les Parisiens, spare eventually securing the Ligue 1 title.

The misery was compounded Tuesday as PSG traveled to Montpellier.

Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League table with a 1-0 victory over Burnley at Turf Moor on Sunday, and it was Sergio Agüero’s goal-line technology-assisted strike — his 20th of the season — that proved the match-winner in the 63rd minute.

Many predicted the most difficult match of City’s title run-in here, and the scoreline demonstrates how precarious it was, but the level of control exerted by Pep Guardiola’s side will give very little hope to Liverpool that either Leicester City or Brighton can stop City from successfully defending its title. 

With a home match to come against Levante on Saturday followed by next Wednesday’s Champions League semifinal first leg against Liverpool, Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde elected to begin today’s away match versus Alavés with Lionel Messi on the bench.

No matter.

Before Messi entered the match in the 61st minute, goals from Carles Aleñá and Luis Suárez had already put Barça on the verge of a second straight LaLiga title. If Atlético Madrid loses to Valencia tomorrow, the crown belongs to Barcelona. Regardless, there’s no way in hell Barça loses it now.

We all know what it would mean to Liverpool if the club could capture its first league title since 1989-90, but something similar has gone down in Greece where PAOK has just been crowned Super League champions for the first time since 1984-85.

Based in Thessaloniki — the most populous city in Greece outside of Athens — PAOK had suffered heartbreak after heartbreak following that 1985 title, including finishing runners-up in both 2015-16 and 2017-18. 

After two consecutive defeats turned the narrative surrounding PSG into the sort of existential crisis that could only be penned by compatriot Jean-Paul Sartre, Kylian Mbappé’s 55-minute hat trick — taking him to 30 goals on the year and just three behind Lionel Messi in the race for the European Golden Shoe — propelled the club to a sixth Ligue 1 title in seven seasons.  

After a quarterfinal round that produced two absolute classic, the semifinals of the 2018-19 Champions League can’t come soon enough. Today, UEFA confirmed the dates and times for both Tottenham vs. Ajax and Barcelona vs. Liverpool in the final four the competition.

The semifinals will begin on Tuesday, Apr. 30, with Spurs hosting Ajax at the newly opened Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Action continues on Wednesday, May 1, when Barcelona welcomes Liverpool to the Camp Nou for the first leg of their tie.