Pep Guardiola is not the only connection between Bayern Munich and Barcelona, who meet in their Champions League semi-final, first leg at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday. Both teams are dominating their leagues to an almost embarrassing extent, have won the Champions League four times apiece, share an acrimonious rivalry with Real Madrid, and owe part of their success to the flamboyant Dutchman Louis van Gaal. Both have also been...
06:27 PM, Apr 22, 2013
Madrid: Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has recovered sufficiently from a hamstring strain to feature in Tuesday's Champions League semi-final first leg at Bayern Munich, sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta said on Monday. The Argentine World Player of the Year sat out Saturday's 1-0 La Liga win at home to Levante and has not yet been given the all-clear by medical staff but was included in the squad for the clash at...
04:04 PM, Apr 22, 2013
Madrid: Spanish defender Gerard Pique believes that Spain has replaced Germany as the the top-most bet in World Football. According to Pique, the era when German teams always came out on top is over and the Spanish teams dominate the world game. Barcelona and the Spanish national team created a style which had changed soccer history, Pique said in an interview with Spanish Sports Daily As published on Monday, a...
03:59 PM, Apr 22, 2013
Madrid: As well as putting Barcelona a step closer to winning La Liga, Saturday's 1-0 home win over Levante showed that defender Eric Abidal is fit enough to play a full match after making a remarkable recovery from a liver transplant. The former France international played at centre back alongside Adriano, the first time the 33-year-old has completed 90 minutes in more than a year, and proved he is a...
03:15 PM, Apr 21, 2013
London: The bitter fallout from English football's high-profile racism case resurfaced on Friday in front of UEFA President Michel Platini as John Terry refused to shake hands with the man who stripped him of the England captaincy. The snub came at an event in London where European champion Chelsea were handing back the Champions League trophy ahead of next month's final at Wembley Stadium. Terry was sacked as England captain...
11:38 PM, Apr 19, 2013
Barcelona: Injured Barcelona centre backs Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano will miss Tuesday's Champions League semi-final first leg at Bayern Munich, assistant coach Jordi Roura said on Friday. Club captain Puyol had arthroscopic surgery on the cartilage in his right knee in March and Mascherano damaged ligaments in the same joint in Barca's 2-2 quarter-final first leg draw at Paris St Germain on April 2. "Puyol won't be available for...
10:18 PM, Apr 19, 2013
Madrid: Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho refrained from committing to remaining at the club beyond the end of this season on Friday and said a decision on his future would be taken at the end of the current campaign. Speculation about the Portuguese's possible exit has been a near-constant feature of his stint at Real, whom he joined from Inter Milan in 2010, and he has been linked with a...
06:08 PM, Apr 19, 2013
Madrid: Barcelona forward Lionel Messi was back on the training pitch on Thursday as he bids to rid himself of a hamstring injury before Tuesday's Champions League semi-final first leg at Bayern Munich. "The big novelty of this Thursday's training session was Leo Messi," Barca said in a statement on their website. The Argentine World Player of the Year damaged the muscle during Barca's quarter-final first leg at Paris St...
09:23 PM, Apr 18, 2013
Munich: Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes compared Lionel Messi to some of football greatest players. "He is a phenomenon. He is in the league of Zinedine Zidane, Diego Maradona, Pele and Johan Cruyff," Heynckes said Wednedsay. "Anyone who scores 50 goals in a season is extra-terrestrial." Bayern will come up against Messi when it plays Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday in Munich. Bayern director Matthias Sammer also...
11:46 PM, Apr 17, 2013
Berlin: Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes said he will not ask former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola for advice ahead of their Champions League semi-final with the Spanish giants. Guardiola will take over from Heynckes at the German champions next season, having led Barcelona to 14 trophies in four seasons before taking time out and signing for Bayern earlier this year. "Respect me and my work," Heynckes curtly told reporters on...
11:18 PM, Apr 12, 2013
Nyon: It's Spain vs. Germany twice over in the Champions League semifinals. Barcelona play Bayern Munich in a clash of teams ranked by UEFA as the two best in Europe. Bayern hosts the first leg. Real Madrid face Borussia Dortmund in a repeat of their 1998 semifinal, when the Spanish side dethroned the reigning champions. Dortmund are at home first. Friday's draw featured four former European champions who have combined...
04:16 PM, Apr 12, 2013
New Delhi: The Champions League Twenty20 will be played for the third time in India from September 17 to October 6 this year, the Governing Council of the tournament confirmed that on Friday. The tournament will follow a similar format to the two previous editions with a group stage preceded by a qualifier. A total of 29 matches will be played in the tournament by the best domestic T20 teams...
12:31 PM, Apr 12, 2013
Turin: Juventus coach Antonio Conte has predicted a long wait before another Italian team wins the Champions League, saying there was a huge gap between Serie A sides and the "European superpowers". In an astonishing outburst following his team's quarter-final elimination by Bayern Munich, Conte added that Italians were only interested in futile controversies and said that former European champions Ajax Amsterdam "do not exist anymore". Conte had emphasised before...
08:26 AM, Apr 11, 2013
Barcelona: Paris St Germain's performance in this season's Champions League gives them a strong base on which to build for another attempt at winning a first European crown next season, according to coach Carlo Ancelotti. Narrowly denied a place in the last four by Barcelona on Wednesday after giving the favourites a mighty scare at the Nou Camp, PSG are closing in on the Ligue 1 title and a place...
08:18 AM, Apr 11, 2013
Turin: Bayern Munich weathered an early Juventus storm before Mario Mandzukic headed a second-half goal to help the Germans to a 2-0 win at Juventus on Wednesday and send them into the Champions League semi-finals. Juventus, chasing a 2-0 deficit from the first leg of the quarter-final tie and backed by a raucous crowd, huffed and puffed but were not quite creative enough to cause the newly-crowned Bundesliga champions more...
02:30 AM, Apr 11, 2013
Barcelona: Barcelona needed a Pedro equaliser to draw 1-1 with Paris St Germain on Wednesday in their Champions League quarter-final, second leg and advance to the last four on away goals. The favourites started the match at the Nou Camp with Lionel Messi on the bench after he damaged a hamstring in last week's 2-2 first-leg draw in Paris. Without the World Player of the Year Barca, lacked cutting edge...
02:11 AM, Apr 11, 2013
Barcelona: The first half of the second leg of Barcelona vs Paris St Germain Champions League fixture ended with score on 0-0 with two sides playing attacking football early on. Lucas Moura and Andres Iniesta were the key men for their respective sides, but failed to force any real chances. Barca were clearly missing Lionel Messi who started on the bench with the host team's pace dropping considerably. The pace...
01:02 AM, Apr 11, 2013
Manchester: Malaga owner Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani could face disciplinary action from UEFA after Tweeting that his team's Champions League elimination was due to "racism." The Qatari was angry that Borussia Dortmund scored from what looked to be an offside position in stoppage time on Tuesday to reach the semi-finals with a 3-2 win. Al-Thani hit out at UEFA on Twitter after the match, and went further on Wednesday by...
06:22 PM, Apr 10, 2013
