Have you ever heard of the curse of Bela Guttmann? After defeating Real Madrid 5-3 in the final of the 1962 European Cup, Benfica manager Bela Guttmann asked the board of directors for a pay raise. He was denied and left the club, but not before saying, “Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champions.”
The club has since lost eight subsequent European finals.
Poor Sven. All he wanted to do was hang out on the Bayern bench and rack up trophies, but then Manuel Neuer had to go and get injured in September. Now, after another Sven Ulreich howler against Real Madrid on Tuesday, the Bayern Munich backup is making a name for himself in all the wrong ways.
Gianluigi Buffon is one of the greatest goalkeepers to have ever taken up gloves and played between the sticks. The Italian legend turned 40 in January and after nearly 200 appearances with the Azzurri and more than 500 with Juventus, everyone is wondering: Is Buffon retiring? It appears so. Probably. Maybe.
On the day before Liverpool and Roma face off at Anfield in the Champions League semifinals, Roma goalkeeper Alisson was linked (again) with Liverpool. This was, presumably, much to the chagrin of Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, who just recently won the starting job from Simon Mignolet and has been playing very well as of late.
The real question is how these two opponents and potential rivals for Liverpool's starting job stack up head to head.
So let's go through some of the main stats, shall we?
Michael Oliver, the referee who took a stand and freed Narnia from the evil grasp of Sauron, returned to Premier League duty on Monday in a 1-1 draw between West Ham United and Stoke City. Okay, fine, Oliver didn’t fight any orcs or free Narnia, but the man did end Gianluigi Buffon’s dreams of winning the Champions league.