Leonardo Bonucci has played in two Champions League finals, won six Serie A titles and captained Italy in the World Cup. He's faced so many elite attacking players during his career that I'm sure it's hard to keep track of them all. One, though, stands above the rest for Bonucci: Cristiano Ronaldo.
Is UEFA blaming the victim?
Celtic seem to think so — at least with regards to the governing body’s response to crowd trouble during and after Celtic’s Champions League qualifier against Linfield FC in Belfast last week.
Media reports describe Hoops officials as “stunned and astonished” after UEFA leveled charges of “improper conduct” against the club and “provocation” against striker Leigh Griffiths following the heated first leg of the tie.
Typically, second round qualifiers for the UEFA Champions League are ho-hum affairs featuring clashes between footballing “minnows” from Europe’s lesser leagues and dominant clubs from decidedly top-heavy ones.
Where Scotland’s Celtic FC fits into this picture is up for debate, but what can’t be argued is that its upcoming tie against Linfield FC, a semi-professional club from Belfast, Northern Ireland, will be anything but boring, both on and off the pitch.
Imagine you run afoul of the law and the courts deem you worthy of conviction. How would you feel if your punishment was that you weren’t allowed to go to school/work unless you were there for school or work?
Late in the 2016-17 season, four members of Istanbul Başakşehir attacked a journalist. On Monday they received their punishment: they’re banned from attending a soccer match for a full year.
Teenagers and grown adults celebrated a triumphant moment of growing independence yesterday as they learned they’d no longer need their parents’ cable television login credentials to watch the UEFA Champions League online. A monumental deal between Facebook Inc. and Fox Sports will see the page livestream two matches on Tuesday and two on Wednesday throughout the group stage, four matches from the round of 16 and four quarterfinal games during the 2017-18 tournament.
Suffering from Champions League withdrawal?
It’s been less than a month since Real Madrid thrashed Juventus to claim the crown of top club in Europe, but teams are about to begin the quest to take away that crown.
The first qualifying round for the world’s premier club competition (go away, FIFA Club World Cup, no one cares about you) begins Tuesday and Wednesday.
With Real Madrid having won its third Champions League title in four years, pundits and fans alike continue to make the case that La Liga has overtaken the other major European leagues as the most elite division in the world.
The 2016-17 Champions League ratings on FOX networks finished on a high with more than 3 million viewers watching Real Madrid defeat Juventus on the FOX's network broadcast (1.762m) and FOX Deportes (1.241m). For comparison, Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on NBCSN drew a total viewership of 2.953 million.
With their 4-1 win on Saturday, Real Madrid took home the Champions League trophy for the second straight time (and third in four years), making them the footballing kings of Europe. In spite of this, they won’t be the team taking home the most prize money from this year’s competition. That title belongs to their final counterparts, Juventus.
Gianluigi Buffon is 39 years old. He has just lost the Champions League final. He has lost the Champions League final three times. He has never won the competition. He has just one more chance.
"As far as I am concerned, I have one last chance. I still have a year on my contract, we're in the Champions League again so we will challenge to win it."
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