Italian Clubs

Nothing ignites the kindling like Liverpool versus Milan — two clubs that’ve combined to appear in 20 Champions League finals and contested the greatest of them all — and Wednesday night’s group stage encounter at Anfield was a wildfire.    

The first half was a miniature reversal of the “Miracle of Istanbul.” Liverpool dominated the opening 40 minutes with wave after wave of pressure while Milan struggled to break through the press. The stat that best exemplified the one-way action was Liverpool earning 10 corners in the first half to Milan’s zero. 

MILAN, Italy - AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimović scored on his return from a four-month injury layoff as they comfortably defeated Lazio 2-0 at San Siro on Sunday to continue their perfect start to the Serie A season.

The 39-year-old Swede, who had not featured since sustaining a knee injury against Juventus in May, tapped in Milan’s second after 67 minutes, seven minutes after he came off the bench.

60': Subs on
67': Scores ⚽

I can’t tell if José Mourinho is trolling Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka, trying to encourage him to do the right thing or both, but the Mourinho Xhaka comment on Instagram has brought something to my attention I did not expect.

Xhaka tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the international break, keeping the midfielder out of his Switzerland’s friendly with Greece on Wednesday and putting his availability for World Cup qualifiers against Italy and Northern Ireland into doubt. 

José Mourinho is known for many things. Fielding teams which produce energetic, flowing, attacking displays is not one of them.

For the first time in history, Americans will play in all three of UEFA’s European tournaments. This season is also the first time there have been three tournaments, but minor details. There are tons of Americans playing in Europe, but only 22 have made it to the group stages across the three competitions.

Here are the numbers for Americans playing in European tournaments.

• Champions League: 11 Americans
• Europa League: 9 Americans
• Europa Conference League: 2 Americans

First, let’s look at the 11 in the Champions League.

Cristiano Ronaldo completed a medical in Lisbon over the weekend ahead of his return to Manchester United and he has agreed personal terms on a two-year contract with the Premier League club, Sky Sports reported on Monday.

United said last week they had agreed a deal to re-sign Ronaldo from Juventus after he told the Serie A club he had no intention of staying, but the transfer was still subject to the agreement of personal terms and a medical.

The 2021 summer transfer window is going to go down as the craziest one yet. The transfer gods had one more trick up their sleeve, and it was in the form of a Cristiano Ronaldo transfer back to Manchester United. 

The transfer fee for the 36-year-old was $17.7 million with an additional $9.4 million in add-ons. Just a little bit less than his $128 million transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus in 2018.

Here was the reaction from Twitter to the news.