Champions League

LONDON — Villarreal held out for a 0-0 draw on a nerve-jangling night at Arsenal on Thursday to reach the Europa League final 2-1 on aggregate as visiting manager Unai Emery returned to haunt the London club that sacked him in 2019.

The Spanish side, who had lost their four previous European semi-finals, one to Arsenal in the 2005-06 Champions League, protected their first-leg advantage with a disciplined display.

MADRID — Real Madrid has long prided itself as the king of the Champions League, but its resounding defeat to Chelsea in Wednesday's semifinal second leg laid bare the need for a rebuild to reclaim its place among the continent's elite.

Zinedine Zidane's side may only have lost 2-0 on the night but there was no hiding from the fact they had been outplayed in both legs by Chelsea and had gotten away lightly with a 3-1 aggregate defeat.

The greatest Premier League title of them all (2015-16 with Leicester City), another with Chelsea (2016-17), the FA Cup (2017-18), the World Cup (2018), the Europa League (2018-19) and now a chance at the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League crown: N'Golo Kanté is one win away from putting the finishing touch on one of the most illustrious personal trophy cabinets in football history.

Operating alongside Jorginho in what frequently looked like a Chelsea 3-4-3 against Real Madrid on Wednesday, Kanté put in a monstrous performance on both ends of the Stamford Bridge pitch.

An American will win the men’s UEFA Champions League. It’s a bit unbelievable to type, read or say, but it’s true after a Christian Pulisic assist vs Real Madrid means Chelsea will face Zack Steffen’s Manchester City in the UCL final on May 29 in Istanbul. 

No USMNT player has ever taken part in a Champions League final, and either Steffen or Pulisic will lift the big-eared trophy in just over three weeks. 

How cool is that?

Just a couple guys from Pennsylvania vying to become champions of Europe.

Pep Guardiola was widely praised for putting on his “de-thinking cap” in Manchester City’s Champions League first-leg semifinal win over PSG, which basically meant that he stuck with the starting lineup that’d delivered Premier League and League Cup glory this campaign before holding his nerve (not doing anything) despite Paris

Prior to Tuesday, Ángel Di María had played 741 matches for club and country, receiving all of four straight red cards and 80 yellow cards. No one would ever say Di María is a hothead or has a habit of committing bad fouls — even Lionel Messi has more yellow cards in his career. So it makes the racist comment CBS announcer Jim Beglin said after the Di María red card all the more baffling. 

The 2020-21 UEFA Futsal Champions League came to a dramatic conclusion in Zadar, Croatia, on Monday night with 2019 winner Sporting CP playing 2020 champion Barcelona.

Barça advanced to the final behind the play of two-time Best Player in the World Ferrão. The 30-year-old Brazilian scored a hat-trick in the club’s semifinal win over Kairat Almaty, adding to the goal he scored against Dobovec in the quarters.