The18’s Prodigal Son returns. Five years, two months and 19 days since Norway’s mischievous sprite sent Cristiano Ronaldo to the substitutes’ bench with a tender hug, Martin Ødegaard is set to the return to the Bernabéu with Zinedine Zidane ready to hand him his second LaLiga appearance for Los Blancos.
Manchester City take a 2-1 lead into their Champions League last 16 match against Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium on Friday but manager Pep Guardiola needs no reminders of how quickly games can turn in Europe's elite competition.
In last year's quarterfinals City went out on away goals to Tottenham Hotspur after looking in command when 4-2 up in the second leg. The previous year, City were blitzed by three Liverpool goals inside 19 first-half minutes as they fell to a 5-1 aggregate defeat.
Manchester City struggles to prevent the best teams from scoring against them and their central defenders could be targeted in Friday's Champions League clash against Spanish champions Real Madrid, former England skipper Wayne Rooney said.
Pep Guardiola's City leads Real after they won the away leg of their last-16 tie 2-1 in March, before Europe's elite club competition was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system is not being used correctly in LaLiga, Barcelona manager Quique Setién said on Monday following Real Madrid's controversial win at Real Sociedad.
Madrid beat Sociedad 2-1 to climb above Barcelona at the top of LaLiga but the home side were aggrieved because they had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside and Karim Benzema's winner stood after he appeared to control the ball with his arm.
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said he was disappointed that he was only asked about the referee's decisions after his side earned a 2-1 victory at Real Sociedad on Sunday to climb above Barcelona and top LaLiga.
The day before the game, Zidane had been forced to defend his team against a suggestion from Barça defender Gerard Piqué that decisions were going Madrid's way after their 3-0 win over Valencia, in which Rodrigo had an opening goal ruled out.
Former Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas has proposed a grand idea for the return of football. The current FC Porto shot-stopper tweeted on Monday the thought of bringing all the former Real Madrid and Barcelona stars together for a massive El Clásico charity match.
The adidas Predator Manias were by far the greatest cleats the 2000s had ever seen. These cleats were years ahead of their time. This was back when the new millennium was still trying to find its way, there was this whole Internet thing, nobody knew what it really was, we were all a bunch of tadpoles aimlessly wandering around in our own way.
Not adidas. Not these cleats. They just … they slapped different. As a cool 12-year-old, I was a die-hard Nike kid but damn did I trade in my Tiempos for Predator Manias real fast.
Heading into Wednesday’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg between Real Madrid and Manchester City, the narrative centered around the contrasting styles of managers Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola. In essence, how would the laissez-faire approach of Zidane, which yielded back-to-back-to-back titles in this competition between 2016 and 2018, fare against the meticulous neuroticism of Guardiola, which hasn’t earned the Spaniard Old Big Ears since 2011.
Entering Sunday’s match against league-leading Real Madrid mired in 18th place, Celta Vigo faced mission impossible at the Santiago Bernabéu — especially so since Real welcomed Eden Hazard back to the starting XI for the first time since Nov. 23.
But this is the wildest of LaLiga seasons with both Real and Barcelona looking mere shadows of their former selves, and it’s become increasingly difficult to label any result registered against the Spanish giants as a “shock.”
Real Madrid and the Copa Del Rey simply don’t mesh well. On Thursday, the Spanish giants were knocked out of the tournament in the quarterfinals at the hands of Real Sociedad. The loss also ended a 21-game unbeaten streak for Los Blancos.
In the most ironic fashion, Real Madrid loanee Martin Odegaard opened up the scoring for Sociedad midway through the first half. Alexander Isak thought he doubled the lead in the 49th minute but his goal was disallowed. No worries though as Isak would get his goal just five minutes later, and it was a fabulous volley at that.
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