French Clubs

FIFA president Gianni Infantino says a new Women's Club World Cup is being planned as part of a plan to "revolutionize" the female game.

In an interview with French sports newspaper L'Equipe, Infantino said he was looking forward to the first edition of the already agreed new 24-team men's Club World Cup but said a women's version was in the pipeline too.

"My dream is also to see the birth of the very first Women's Club World Cup. It’s coming very soon. And it will really revolutionize women's football," he said.

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. 

It was a fiery weekend across French football as 10 red cards across an equal number of Ligue 1 matches punctuated both a riveting title race and the tense fight against relegation.

At the bottom end of the table, a 15th-minute red card for Angers helped Lorient stay four points clear of the drop zone, while in Bordeaux, Steven N'Zonzi's eighth-minute sending off for Rennes helped the hosts maintain a five-point cushion from the bottom three.

The 19th overall meeting between Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola ended in favor of the Catalan maestro, giving him 11 wins, five draws and only three defeats after Manchester City produced a rousing comeback against PSG on Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead back to the Etihad in the Champions League semifinals.  

It looked like PSG was cruising. The first half went just about as well as Mauricio Pochettino could have hoped, with PSG leading by a goal, looking dangerous whenever it attacked and rarely troubled by Manchester City. One wonders what Poch said to his charges at halftime, because it all fell apart in the second 45, much like the PSG wall that completely failed to defend a Riyad Mahrez free kick.