The 2019 Champions League quarterfinal draw set up some intriguing matchups for English Premier League clubs on Friday. Manchester City and Tottenham face off in an all-England clash while Manchester United drew Barcelona and Liverpool was paired with Porto. Ajax faces Juventus in the fourth quarterfinal.
Despite UEFA opening an investigation of Manchester City for possible Financial Fair Play violations, the club is looking in glorious shape for the future following news today that midfield maestro Bernardo Silva has elected to renew his contract until the summer of 2025 with a deal that puts him amongst City’s highest earners.
The Portuguese midfielder’s deal quickly follows on previous news of extensions for Aymeric Laporte, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus — all players who are aged 24 and under who’ll lead the side for years to come.
After playing to a scoreless draw at Anfield, Liverpool’s trip to Bayern Munich looked like a scary proposition for a side that had yet to win away from home in the Champions League this season.
But Jurgen Klopp’s side shrugged off its road woes with one of the most impressive performances of the Champions League this year, crushing Bayern Munich 3-1 at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Wednesday.
The 2018-19 English Premier League season is entering its final stretch of the season and for the first time in five years, it may come down to the last game to crown a champion.
How poetic that it is a race between the same two teams.
In 2014, Manchester City sealed the Premier League title with a win over West Ham. Liverpool did its part with a win over Newcastle, but needed City to lose for to hoist the trophy.
Liverpool suffered a huge home loss to Chelsea in the third-to-final game of the season, sending the EPL title in a gift basket to City.
Alexis Sanchez, right now, is a disappointment, and that’s not up for debate.
Since signing for Manchester United, his performances have been inconsistent and for the most part poor. While he has contributed to some important goals for United, Sanchez still makes the Red Devils play like they have 10 men on the pitch. United’s recent injury crisis could have been Sanchez’s chance to prove himself, but yet again he has fallen short.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been rumored to want to offload the Chilean in the summer, as he’s racking up quite the wage bill in Manchester.
Trend meets trend: Another U.S. national team or youth prospect makes the jump to Major League Soccer as Sporting Kansas City signs a talented, young player off the radar of most clubs. That's what we got today when Sporting officially announced that Gedion Zelalem had signed from Arsenal. The 22-year-old joins Kansas City for the 2019 season, with club options for two additional years.
According to Portuguese media outlet Record, Wolverhampton has agreed to a deal with Benfica and Raúl Jiménez to sign the on-loan striker permanently in the summer.
From Nutmegs to Sitters, The18 brings you a fool-proof guide the the idioms of the British soccer announcer.
As soon as the announcers started reminiscing about David de Gea’s 14-save match against Arsenal back in 2017, you knew the Spaniard was either going to do the exact same thing today or get beaten from distance by a strange Granit Xhaka strike. You just knew it.
So when Xhaka took aim and sent a whirly dirly beyond De Gea — leaving the goalkeeper wrong-footed and looking somewhat like that gif of Neymar that’s taken over the internet — you could only smile.
Wolves nearly stole a win against struggling Chelsea, but a late stoppage time goal from Eden Hazard saved the Blues on Sunday at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea dominated the ball, possessing it for an incredible 76 percent of the match, but the Wolves defense held strong despite facing 22 shots (six on goal). Wolves managed 47 clearances and 38 tackles, smothering most attacks.
As the away side, Wolves only took two shots, but their counter attack in the 56th minute almost proved too much for Chelsea.