Real Madrid’s comeback to eliminate Wolfsburg from the Champions League after going down 2-0 in the first leg of their quarterfinal was arguably the greatest moment of Zidane’s brief managerial career. And as he reacted to a near miss after his side took a 3-2 aggregate lead, he tore his pants.
Wolfsburg shocked the world by beating Real Madrid 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal and no one felt the pain of that upset more than Marcelo. The frustrated Real Madrid defender tried to be sneaky with a kick at goal scorer Maximilian Arnold before setting up for a free kick. When Arnold then stepped up to Marcelo as he bent over to place the ball, Marcelo headbutted him in the chest and fell over holding his face.
Fernando “Barcelona Can Call Me Daddy” Torres scored and then was booked twice all in a span of 10 minutes before Barca came back to beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal.
From the man who brought you the fourth place trophy concept comes a new thesis of defeatism that’s sure to provide Arsenal fans with zero comfort after losing to Barcelona in the Champions League. A club Wenger says are “more beatable than ever before.” Seriously.
From ESPN FC:
“Maybe the Premier League has become the Champions League for English teams. Because every game is so difficult in the Premier League that maybe we suffer a bit in Europe,” Wenger said. “Barcelona can walk through their games before they play against us. They played on Saturday afternoon with a team that after 20 minutes was 3-0 up. … They can select a little bit how much they go for it. In the Premier League you cannot.”
If a Premier League club had Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez at their disposal, maybe they could walk through their games, too.
But yes, Arsene, the reason Arsenal haven’t gotten past the Champions League round of 16 in seven years is because Watford might be better than Espanyol and not because your injury plagued team consistently underperforms while you hoard more cash than any other club in the world.
If Spurs finish ahead of Arsenal this season, look for Wenger to say something even lamer like “everyday we’re alive is like finishing in first place.” Might as well call him the limbo king because he keeps pushing that bar lower and lower.
Barcelona took two big away goals from the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie against Arsenal, leaving them in good position going into Wednesday’s second leg. Still, preparations must be made and proper training must be done to ensure that they are ready to finish off their opponents. With that in mind, Barcelona trained against three children who invaded their session on Tuesday.
Since the beginning of time, shirt swaps have always been a one for one deal. “I give you my shirt and you give me yours.” Well, Zlatan Ibrahimovic laughs in the face of this arrangement.
This is it. The most adorable use for the Champions League trophy imaginable. We can only hope that UEFA sees a chance at monetization here and starts producing replica Champions League trophy baby carrying devices for the common parent.
Iker Casillas and Porto entered the final day of Champions League group stage play at the top of Group G, thanks in part to a win over Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea back in September. This was a meaningful victory for Casillas, not only because it provided valuable points, but because it gave him a taste of revenge against the man who callously destroyed his idyllic existence at Real Madrid. This moment of satisfaction would prove fleeting, however, as Mourinho ended up losing the battle but winning his endless war on Iker’s happiness.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored four times in span of 20 minutes during Real Madrid’s 8-0 win over Malmo. In doing so, he broke his own Champions League group-stage scoring record and become the first player to record 10 or more goals over the six matches, ending up with 11. This gave him more goals than 27 of the 32 TEAMS in the group stage.
Once he was finished beating up on a clearly inferior club, he made a statement that was so impressively egotistical that it sounded like a quote from a parody of Cristiano Ronaldo. From ESPN FC:
“On a personal level, I am happy for another record. I don’t seek out records, records seek me out.”
He doesn’t seek out records. Records seek him out. That’s something a WWE villain would say! It’s brilliant.
Love or hate Ronaldo, you can’t deny that the game is more entertaining with him and his colossal ego.
Manchester United silenced the critics who have accused them of playing boring and overly defensive football this season with a thrilling Champions League group stage finale against Wolfsburg.
