For the first time, the UEFA Women’s Champions League will feature a 16-team group stage instead of jumping straight into a large knockout phase. And for the first time, the Real Madrid Women have qualified for the Women’s Champions League.
When the UEFA Champions League group draw occurs every year in August, the two biggest focuses are inevitably which group is my favorite team in and which group will be the most entertaining to follow/watch.
For a small portion of us, the most interesting section of the draw is uncovering the most obscure team that somehow made the group stage.
Usually this team comes from some tiny country in Eastern Europe, riding some sort of heavy investment toward a wave of success only for the debt to invariably catch up soon after.
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.
First, let’s look at the 11 in the Champions League.
Real Madrid have increased their offer to sign Paris St Germain forward Kylian Mbappé to $211.48 million after having an initial $188 million bid rejected, French newspaper L'Equipe reported on Thursday.
ISTANBUL - Lionel Messi's new club Paris Saint-Germain will play Manchester City, managed by the Argentine's former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, after being drawn together in Champion's League Group A on Thursday.
Messi joined Qatar-owned PSG, who will also face Bundesliga side RB Leipzig and Belgium's Club Brugge, from Barcelona this month after the Spanish side were unable to afford a new contract.
"... Die Meister... Die Besten... Les grandes équipes... The champions..."
El hemisferio derecho de tu cerebro hoy seguramente anda todo estimulado con el himno de la Champions League. Todo porque hubo sorteo de la fase de grupos para la temporada 2021-22 y hay un par de series creadas para verlas con un paquete XL de palomitas de maíz.
What a meeting we had in the Champions League playoffs on Wednesday. Portuguese giant Benfica, a two-time winner of the contest, against the Dutch behemoth PSV, winner in 1988.
How would PSV navigate a trip to the formidable Estádio da Luz in Lisbon? Would Mario Götze orchestrate a vital away goal? Or would Nicolás Otamendi inspire the all-important clean sheet?! My brain whirled and reeled with all sorts of prognostications.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been linked with a host of clubs this summer but he seems set to stay put at Juventus, tasked with an even more important role in revitalizing the Italian giants.
Be it a return to boyhood club Sporting Lisbon, a move Ronaldo's own mother suggested was a possibility, or another shot at the English Premier League with Manchester United, the 36-year-old has been subject to much transfer talk.
It was a big day for Americans in Europe on Tuesday as Brenden Aaronson’s RB Salzburg took on Brøndby in the first leg of their Champions League playoff, while over in Germany Gio Reyna’s Borussia Dortmund welcomed Bayern Munich to the Westfalenstadion for the DFL-Supercup.
Brøndby had taken a surprise 1-0 halftime lead at Red Bull Arena, prompting 33-year-old manager Matthias Jaissle (who used to be an assistant at Brøndby) to turn to Aaronson for the second 45.
That change brought good things for Salzburg.
Have you seen the potential Paris Saint-Germain starting lineups for the 2021-22 season? They all share two qualities: (1) they’ve got more boom boom than Charo and (2) they’re all wildly different.
All we know is that Mauricio Pochettino — previously a Marcelo Bielsa disciple whose high-press hit vertically, horizontally and everywhere in between — is now a protégé of FIFA Ultimate Team champion Fnatic Tekkz.
What will the tactics board look like at the Parc des Princes?
Messi moving centrally to shoehorn Ángel Di María into the starting lineup?