Schalke on Wednesday squeaked into the UEFA Champions League round of 16 thanks to a 1-0 win at Slovenian side Maribor. Nineteen-year-old Max Meyer scored the only goal of the gamefor the Bundesliga giant, which needed Chelsea to beat Sporting Lisbon (which it did, 3-1) in order to secure qualification from Group G for the second phase. […]
Section 2 Around the Net
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Mourinho: UCL Draw Like 'Swimming with Sharks'
Asked which team Chelsea prefers to play when the UEFA Champions League round of 16 draw happens on Monday, coach Jose Mourinho likened the choice to “swimming with sharks.” AsGroup G winner and an English club (teams from the same league cannot be drawn together in the round of 16), Chelsea has five possible opponents: […]
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River Plate Lifts First Copa Sudamericana
Argentina’s River Plate lifted the Copa Sudamericana — South America’s equivalent of the Europa League — with a 2-0 win against Atletico Nacional of Colombia in Buenos Aires onWednesday. The storied Argentine club won the series, 3-1, on aggregate after the teams had drawn 1-1 in last week’s first-leg in Medellin. The win, River’s third […]
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FIFA's Club World Cup and the Continental Chasm
Despite its billing by FIFA as the “biggest club title of all,” it’s hard to imagine any team other than Real Madrid lifting the Club World Cup trophy in Morocco on Dec 20,Reuters’ Brian Homewood writes. Though FIFA’s only club tournament brings together the club champions from each continent (plus the domestic title holder of […]
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Garcia: 'Fortune Chose its Team'
Rudi Garcia claimed that “fortune chose its team” as Manchester City qualified for the second phase of the UEFA Champions League at the expense of AS Roma with a 2-0 win at theStadio Olimpico on Wednesday night. The Roma coach was suggesting that the post was the difference, as Samir Nasri’s 60th-minute strike went in […]
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Enrique: Barca 'Controlled' PSG
Thanks to goals from forwards Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, Barcelona won Group F of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday with a 3-1 win at home against Paris Saint-Germain.The come-from-behind victory avenged a 3-2 loss in Paris in the first game between the teams on Sept 30. Despite going down to an early […]
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Platini Refuses to Back Blatter in FIFA Election
Michel Platini on Tuesday said he would not back incumbent Sepp Blatter or challenger Jerome Champagne in next year’s FIFA Presidential election. Instead, the UEFA Presidenthopes that a third option will emerge. The former France captain then claimed that its time for Blatter, who is running for a fifth term as FIFA president, to step […]
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Monaco Wins Group with Just Four Total Goals
By beating Zenit St Petersburg 2-0 on Tuesday, AS Monaco achieved what only two teams before it have ever done before: qualify for the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League after scoring fewer thanfour goals in the group phase. Only Villarreal in 2005-06 and AS Roma in 2002-03 have qualified for the second […]
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Real Wins Record 19th Game in a Row
Real Madrid on Tuesday became the first Spanish team to win 19 games in a row, eclipsing the record set by Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona in 2005-06, with a comfortable 4-0 win overBulgarian club Ludogorets in the UEFA Champions League. “The results have been achieved by hard work and professionalism,” coach Carlo Ancelotti told reporters. “It […]
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Phelan: Man United Injury Crisis is LVG's Fault
Mike Phelan, Alex Ferguson’s former assistant coach at Manchester United, has blamed United’s current injury crisis on current coach Louis van Gaal. “What’shappened is a continuation of the same players getting injured all the time, so you have to look to the reasons why,” Phelan, now a coach at Norwich City, told the International BusinessTimes. […]