Champions League

Messi posted a message to his facebook followers in the lead up to FC Barcelona’s second leg against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. Messi’s Barcelona lead the match-up by 2-1, but have not won in La Liga in their last three matches, the longest such streak in the era of current manager Luis Enrique. Barcelona look mortal, or as mortal as possible, for the first time a a while, but Messi’s message gives Barcelona fans reason to remain confident. 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic just can't get enough of playing journalist.

The PSG striker interviewed himself on Instagram before the first leg of the Champions League tie between PSG and Manchester City, and he liked the idea so much he did it again this week.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said of her husband, ex-POTUS Franklin Delanore Roosevelt, that he didn’t think, he decided. The control and confidence alluded to in Elenore’s description of her husband go a long way to describing the play of modern-day superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic. 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic spoke of this control and confidence when he spoke to UEFA.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has a media relations strategy that might be described as "prickly."

As the late, great Johan Cruyff once said, “Football is simple. But nothing is more difficult than playing simple football.”

In no match has this idea been better exemplified than Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League quarterfinal between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.

Here were two giants of modern club football going toe to toe with the mouthwatering prospect of a place in the semifinals at stake. Fueled by millions of dollars of investment, the squads sent out were the remuneration of yearly fine-tuning and financial one-upmanship. 

Well that didn’t last very long. 

Real Madrid were supposed to have turned their season around after winning el Clasico, or at least, that’s what they would have hoped. Hopes, it seems, don’t count for much in the Champions League. 

Real Madrid lost to VfB Wolfsburg 2-0, and it was exactly the kind of frustrating loss that Real Madrid needed least. They looked lost on defense, something made all the more apparent by Wolfsburg’s counterattacks.

On Paper, PSG vs. Manchester City promised to be the most well-played of the Champions League quarterfinals. In reality, it wasn't. Fun, though. After a 2-2 tie, City take an away goals advantage back to Manchester.

Barcelona vs. Atletico Madrid had everything: goals, red cards, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez, comebacks, defense, everything. Atletico made Barca work for it, but the Blaugrana came away with a 2-1 win at the Camp Nou.

Barcelona lineup: Ter Stegen; Dani Alves, Mascherano, Pique, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suarez, Neymar. #UCLonFOX