UEFA

The arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo at Juventus has somewhat upset free kick duties. Before the Portuguese legend came, it was Paulo Dybala, Miralem Pjanic and Federico Bernardeschi who did the honors, and they did them well.

This season, Pjanic and friends have taken a back seat to Ronaldo. In fact, the only set piece Pjanic has converted this season was against Napoli back on Mar. 3 with Ronaldo hovering over the dead ball. Still, it’s a nice setup for what I’m about to show you.

France turned on the style in the second half to thump Iceland 4-0 in Paris, making it two wins from two matches in Euro 2020 qualifying for the world champion. Three days ago, it was Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud and Raphael Varane on the scoresheet in France’s 4-1 victory over Moldova, and it was the same three attackers that again scored today, but instead of Varane, it was defensive partner Samuel Umtiti amongst the goals.

For those of us that are old, we see a meeting between the Netherlands and Germany sans Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller and even more of our already decrepit existence goes to die.

Still, a meeting between Holland and Germany in Amsterdam remains on of the few fixtures on the international calendar that you’re innately drawn to, and today's exercise showed exactly why.

Scottish football has been the butt of the joke in the British Isles for quite some time now. The Scottish Premier League, or SPL, has been trying to fight the stereotype that Scottish football is terrible via an active YouTube page. The Scottish national team has been including new and talented young players that ply their trade in a diverse number of high level leagues across Europe in order to show that Scottish football is indeed quality.

The list for the Champions League top scorers of all time stretches from players who played in the European Cup (first held during the 1955-56 season) to its current branding as the Champions League (renamed as such in 1992). The competition is now synonymous with the active footballing behemoths known as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and for good reason.

The German national team had a shambolic 2018. After losses to Mexico and South Korea knocked Die Mannschaft out of the World Cup at the group stage, a catastrophic performance in the UEFA Nations League saw them relegated to League B in the new competition.

Out of the 13 matches Germany played last year, only four of those were wins.

Chelsea’s youngest star, Callum Hudson-Odoi, has officially received the call to join England’s national team. The 18-year-old will be the youngest player on England’s squad for a pair of Euro 2020 qualifiers, joining the stacked attack of Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling.

Hudson-Odoi has quickly become a fan favorite in London, and supporters are hoping he’ll be a big part of a potential Chelsea transformation next year.

A few weeks ago, Chelsea was hit with a transfer ban for illegally dealing with underage players in its academy system and third party ownership. Now, a Manchester City transfer ban could be instituted for two windows (one year), according to reports.