As Camp Nou gets ready to host the first Clasico of the season, both clubs in their own rebuilding phase will look to get one over their arch rivals. Both clubs have had rather inconsistent starts to the season, by their lofty standards. With the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, this fixture has somewhat lost its glory but the political reasons behind the rivalry will continue to fuel this fixture. FC Barcelona have come from a nightmare season,not winning any trophy and conceding 8 against Bayern Munich. With renewed hope, under Dutch boss Ronald Koeman, they have started pretty poorly in La Liga, winning two of their four matches. Although it is very early in the season, Barcelona are languishing at tenth in the table. With all the behind the scenes drama, they have coped pretty well. Lionel Messi will be their star man as usual. Coutinho has done well on his return to the club. Griezmann hasn’t yet found his feet in Catalonia. All eyes would be on Gerrard Pique, who got a red card i
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Manchester United welcome Chelsea to the Theatre of Dreams. This fixture brings back memories of Frank Lampard’s first match as Chelsea manager when Ole’s reds smashed the blues 4-0. A lot has happened since for both teams but the circumstances leading up to the game are somewhat similar. Manchester United are inconsistent as they had been. Similarly, Chelsea are a team which is trying to find their feet and sort themselves out. Manchester United, in their midweek Champions League clash against Paris Saint Germain, won via a late Marcus Rashford goal(yes, again!). Manchester United have been wildly inconsistent in the Premier League so far, and have not won two games in a row. They destroyed Newcastle 4-1 at St. James’s Park in their last match but in their previous fixture, Tottenham decimated them 6-1 at home. Their defence, which has been suspect even after expensive reinforcements, somehow conceded only one goal at the hands of Mbappe, Neymar and Di Maria, which was an own goa
Finally, those magical Champions League nights are back. Tonight’s matches feature current holders Bayern Munich, the most successful team Real Madrid, youth powerhowse Ajax and English champions Liverpool among others. Bayern Munich VS Atletico Madrid This would be a battle between all out attack and all out defense. Simeone will set his team up to defend for their lives. Bayern with their array of attacking talent will keep attacking relentlessly. Having added Luis Suarez to their team, Atletico’s attack looks much better now. He had scored in the 8-2 defeat at the hands of Bayern for Barcelona. The departure of Thomas Partey has wounded Atleti’s midfield. Bayern, on the other hand, lost Thiago, but they have covered up for him well and do not seem to have a weakness. Leroy Sane’s arrival has made their already world class attack better. Lewandowski is in the form of his life and with assistance from the likes of Gnabry and Mueller, Bayern are a threat going forward. But, if ther
It's already been two months since that famous night in Lisbon where Bayern conquered their 2nd treble equalling the record of Barcelona in the process of highest number of trebles. Now, the group stages has some mouth watering fixtures, the most notable being PSG v/s Man U. After that embarrassing night in Paris where the French outfit lost to a young Man U team even after having a healthy lead in the first leg, PSG have come a long way and were only second to Bayern Munich last time around. PSG have a strong team and their only main concern would be their defence after their long serving captain played his last match in the UCL final. Their forward and midfield line do not have much change and will look forward to carry on the form that they displayed last time around. On the other hand United have plenty of problems from their defence to attack. Their uninspiring captain Maguire has led them down more than once with the attackers struggling to be among goals but yes pena
Ever since its introduction, VAR has sparked controversies all around the globe. While it was believed before its introduction that it would reduce the human errors and provide the referees a second chance to rectify their mistakes, it now has left us pondering whether technology intervention was required in the first place. The good point is that no foul committed can possibly go unnoticed but the disadvantages are far more with the most disturbing being it stops the flow of the game every now and then and this doesn’t augur well for the beautiful game as the frequent stoppages are disturbing both for the players and the audiences. By this time, we already know there have been a record number of penalties awarded in this season’s Premier League and credit goes to VAR for awarding them without much hesitation. For the first time ever we saw a team score after the final whistle. Yes, you heard that right. Manchester United’ s game against Brighton was completed but to many people
