Gigi Buffon is a legend. At 39 he sports a six-matche shutout streak in the Champions League, and he’s on the verge of returning to the UCL final for the third time.
A Champions League title has eluded him to this point, but Buffon has won just about everything else:
UEFA Cup (Europa): 1999
Supercoppa Italiana (6 times)
Coppa Italia (2015 and 2016)
World Cup (2006)
Golden Foot Award (2016, only GK to win)
UEFA Club Footballer of the Year (2003)
The semifinals of the Champions League returned to Monaco’s Stade Louis II for the first time since 2004, and the 18,000+ in attendance would’ve surely expected their side to add to the 16 home Champions League goals they’d already witnessed since the beginning of their campaign.
But a Juventus side that had only given up two goals in this competition, and none throughout the knockout rounds, proved to be an entirely different challenge for Monaco’s goal-crazy attackers.
For all of Real Madrid’s dominance in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal with Atletico Madrid, it looked as though Atleti would escape to the Vicente Calderon with only a one-goal deficit. But then Cristiano Ronaldo happened. And then again.
Ronaldo scored goals number 101, 102 and 103 to extend his all time record in the Champions League, and Atletico’s inability to grab an away goal, or to really trouble Real for that matter, makes the possibility of a comeback next Wednesday seem extremely farfetched.
Less than 10 minutes into the first leg of the Madrid derby Champions League semifinal, Cristiano Ronaldo did what he always does in this competition: he scored UCL goal number 101. Flying nearly two heads above every Atletico defender, Ronaldo buried a perfect cross from Casemiro.
Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid meet in the first leg of their 2016-17 UEFA Champions League semifinal matchup on Tuesday, May 2, 2017. These fierce derby rivals have made a habit of meeting each other in the later stages of this competition in recent years with Real defeating Atletico in the 2013-14 final, the 2014-15 quarterfinals and the 2015-16 final that was decided on spot kicks. Here’s everything you need to know to watch the match, either live streaming online or on TV through your cable provider.
Carli Lloyd’s Champions League ambitions may soon be at an end after Alex Morgan’s Lyon defeated Manchester City 3-1 in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal. City will now need to travel to the Parc Olympique Lyonnais on April 29 to overturn the large deficit.
City and Lloyd got off to the worst possible start in the opening minutes. An attempted Lyon cross was blocked in the box by Lloyd’s elbow, and the referee immediately pointed to the spot.
On Friday morning, the last Champions League draw of the season took place in Nyon, Switzerland to determine the semi-final matchups and gave us some very entertaining fixtures: Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid and Monaco vs Juventus. As football fans, we are all one step closer to finding out which teams will play for Europe’s most lucrative trophy on June 3rd in Cardiff. Will the Champions League Final be played between:
Real Madrid - Monaco
Real Madrid - Juventus
Atletico Madrid - Monaco
Atletico Madrid - Juventus
In the words of Bayern Munich's Technical Director Michael Reschke, "You have to make him a monument!" — Reschke was referring to the person who originally signed Real Madrid sensation Marco Asensio. Jose Angel Sanchez, a Real Madrid board member, signed a 19-year-old Asensio back in July of 2015 for 3.5 million euros from Mallorca.
Article 49 of the official Champions League regulations stipulates how repeated yellow card cautions are dealt with and when lingering yellow cards are wiped. A suspension for yellow card accumulation is a threat from the group stage until the quarterfinals, and receiving a yellow-card suspension in the second leg of the quarters will also carry over into the semifinal first leg.
It’s come to light that the best opportunity Barcelona had to snatch a goal to begin their famous comeback against Juventus wasn’t squandered by Lionel Messi but by Luis Suarez at kick off.
Juventus defender Dani Alves was off the pitch, shaking hands with his old coaching staff (one coach playfully holding his hand long enough to incur a slap from Alves) while Luis Enrique beckoned the Brazilian to take a seat next to him.