Pep Guardiola had a simple message for the fans after becoming Barcelona head coach in 2008: Fasten your seatbelts.
In April 2011, the Catalan press recalled that promise of excitement as they previewed a once-in-a-generation event: four matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid, with three trophies at stake, in 17 days. A Clasico World Series. A defining run of fixtures where winning was everything and losing was unimaginable, with each side dreaming of celebrating a treble and terrified of watching the other do the same.
More like fasten your bandoliers. This was war.
On one side, the Barca of Guardiola, the man taking the coaching world by storm in his first senior post-playing job. A team built from La Masia, boasting some of the academy s greatest ever prod…
Defending champions Brazil kept their hopes of back-to-back titles alive after overcoming a numerical disadvantage and Chile 1-0 en route to the Copa America semi-finals.
Brazil substitute Lucas Paqueta scored in the 46th minute and it proved to be the winning goal on Friday, despite Gabriel Jesus remarkable red card in Rio de Janeiro.
Jesus was sent off for a high boot to the face of Chile s Eugenio Mena two minutes after Paqueta s strike, but Tite s Brazil withstood an onslaught from La Roja to set up a final-four showdown with 2019 runners-up Peru.
Brazil had entered the clash having won their previous for Copa clashes with Chile – scoring 11 goals and conceding just once across the streak, while the team s 10-game winning streak was snapped following a draw…
Juventus moved up to fifth in Serie A as goals from Juan Cuadrado and Paulo Dybala sealed a 2-0 win over Genoa at the Allianz Stadium.
Cuadrado got Juve on their way in the ninth minute of Sunday s game, the wing-back whipping in straight from a corner for his third league goal of the campaign.
Salvatore Sirigu made a string of saves to deny Juve after that, but Dybala ensured there was to be no tense finale with a fine finish eight minutes from full-time.
Despite now winning four of their last five Serie A matches, Juve are still seven points adrift of fourth-placed Atalanta, while Genoa remain 18th and two points from safety.
Juve went ahead when Cuadrado s corner from the left looped over Sirigu and in off the underside of the crossbar, the Co…
With a double over Inter in the Coppa Italia semi-final first leg, Cristiano Ronaldo took his tally to 22 goals in 23 appearances for Juventus this season.
The Portugal star is the leading goalscorer across all competitions from within Italy s top flight, two above Romelu Lukaku and four clear of Ciro Immobile, the winner of last season s European Golden Shoe.
Not bad for a man who turns 36 on Friday.
Of course, Ronaldo is far from your average goalscorer and few would discount him from continuing to break records even as he approaches his 40th birthday.
He has already made history in his two and a half years in Serie A and will be gunning for more before he leaves Turin.
OLD HABITS DIE HARD
Since his €112million move from Real Madrid in…
Ronaldo Nazario ranks himself alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona as part of a very special group of football s greatest ever players.
Legendary forward Ronaldo led Brazil to their most recent World Cup triumph 20 years ago, scoring eight goals as Luiz Felipe Scolari s team sealed the country s fifth title in Japan and South Korea.
No Brazilian has ever bettered Ronaldo s tally at a single edition of the tournament, while his total return of 15 World Cup goals has only been beaten by Germany s Miroslav Klose (16).
While Ronaldo believes his exploits put him in the pantheon of footballing greats, he told the Guardian it was difficult to compare his abilities to those of players from different generations.
Asked to choose between seven-…
A last-gasp Nikola Milenkovic own goal handed Milan a 2-1 victory over Fiorentina at San Siro on Sunday to cut Napoli s lead at the top of Serie A.
Rafael Leao opened the scoring after just two minutes, but Fiorentina responded fiercely, finding an equaliser before the half-hour mark through Antonin Barak s deflected effort.
It appeared Milan would have to settle for a share of the points, which would have seen them sit 10 behind Napoli, but a remarkable end saved the hosts.
Milenkovic diverted the ball into his own net to deny Fiorentina in cruel fashion, with their appeals for VAR to intervene being waved away.
4 Rafael Leão is the fourth player to have scored more than five goals in at least four consecutive seasons in Serie A with AC Milan in the thr…
Manchester United are confident change is coming and they will be relentless in attempts to bring long-term success back to Old Trafford, according to CEO Richard Arnold.
United have become accustomed to not challenging for the Premier League title since Alex Ferguson s retirement in 2013, but the 2021-22 season saw them plumb new depths.
Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, caretaker manager Michael Carrick and then interim manager Ralf Rangnick, United accumulated just 58 points, their worst record in a single Premier League campaign.
But on top of that, champions Manchester City s haul of 93 points meant United finished the season 35 points adrift of the summit – that is comfortably the furthest off the top the Red Devils have ended a term in the Premier League era.…
Inter have confirmed the signing of Piotr Zielinski on a free transfer following his departure from Napoli.
Zielinski had been widely expected to join the Nerazzurri after running down his contract with Napoli, who he helped to the Scudetto in 2022-23.
The Poland international joined the Partenopei for €16million in 2016 following spells with Udinese and Empoli, making 364 appearances for the club throughout a distinguished eight-year spell.
The 30-year-old has now penned a four-year contract with Simone Inzaghi s Serie A champions and is hoping to help them compete for more silverware next term.
He told the club s website: I will try to give it my all to make the fans happy, they are fantastic and San Siro is one of the best grounds in Italy.
…
Marseille have announced they have agreed a deal in principle for Roberto De Zerbi to be their head coach.
In a statement, Marseille said they were working with all stakeholders to formalize the arrival of the Italian coach, as well as that of his staff, on the OM bench and prepare for his arrival in Marseille in the coming days.
De Zerbi, whose shock departure from Brighton was announced the day before the end of the 2023-24 season, led the Seagulls to a sixth-place finish in the Premier League after taking over from Graham Potter in 2022, securing European football for the first time in their history.
Brighton topped their Europa League group, beating Marseille in the process, but were knocked out by Roma in the round of 16 before slumping to an 11th-place fin…
John Herdman has pledged to work on Toronto FC s shortcomings ahead of Saturday s derby versus CF Montreal, which he has described as a six-pointer .
Toronto ended a miserable 10-game winless run by beating the Philadelphia Union 2-1 last weekend but were then brought crashing back to earth in midweek.
An Inter Miami team without Lionel Messi or Sergio Busquets, and with Luis Suarez limited to a substitute role, beat the Reds 3-1 to leave them eighth in the Eastern Conference.
Speaking ahead of Saturday s trip to Quebec, Herdman said getting on the right side of the fine margins must be their focus, saying: We ll fix some things.
We ll fix our set-pieces and move forward. We ve got to look, mentally, at how we stay stronger, collectively, tactically how…