The obvious surprising result of the previous round was Atlético Madrid's 2-1 victory over Barcelona to hand the Catalunyan champions their first loss in La Liga this season. If analyzed deeper, however, Barça's defeat at the hands of Los Colchoneros becomes less of a shocker. Historically, Atleti had a respectable record against Barcelona in Madrid, […]

Porto’s second goal against Arsenal in today’s Champion’s League game is destined to live forever on any number of football blooper DVDs. It was a comedy of errors that resulted in a goal that any 7 year old could score. In order, these were the errors that occurred: Sol Campbell sent a backpass to Lukacz […]

Watching European football has always had an exotic element for us in Britain. In the 60s and 70s, abroad was a long way away. The world seemed much bigger and the visit of a team from Italy, Germany or Albania was like a visit from another football planet. We hadn’t heard of most of the […]

Classic European nights. When we complain about the stifling dominance of the Big Four; when we curse every transfer that sends a promising young player from a lesser club to the Big Four; when we ponder proposals such as debt-to-revenue restrictions, foreign player quotas, and playoffs for European places; when we talk about all these […]

Will Manchester United Win the Champions League?(polls) It was a textbook Manchester United performance. The Red Devils entered the San Siro with the pressure of performing against some of the top footballers in the world such as Pato, Beckham, Ronaldinho, Seedorf, Nesta, Pirlo, Ambrosini and Huntelaar. And despite being outplayed in the first half of […]

The Premier League could soon implement a plan that sees its fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh place finishers contest an end-of-season play-off at Wembley to determine England's fourth Champions League contestant. At first blush, the plan seems rather appealing as further excitement would be added to season's end while allowing clubs outside the Big Four […]

Fox, not FX nor Fox Soccer Channel, will show the live broadcast of the 2009-2010 Champions League Final this May according to a report in the industry publication Sports Business Journal. What exactly happened to force the change was not explained, but the change is a massive boost for soccer fans in the United States […]

The Bavarian club achieved a great result after returning from the trip to Bremen with all three points to climb to the top of the Bundesliga standings. Their tenure at the top could be short lived as Bayer Leverkusen will take over the top position if they can win or just tie in their match against […]

A festive atmosphere enveloped the Camp Nou on Saturday evening as the boys of the Blaugrana celebrated their unprecedented six-trophy year with their Barça faithful. Villarreal was a mere afterthought as the Barcelona players deservedly received their plaudits for a year of literal perfection. Even Villarreal showed them respect before the match when they created […]

Liverpool announced that Glen Johnson will miss at least a month after tearing a knee ligament. It may be paradoxical to claim this for a recent £18m signing, but Johnson’s absence may aid the Reds in their battle for fourth. Johnson is an attacking right back. He’s adept. He gets forward with power and pace. […]

The big story of the weekend was the snow that postponed four matches including the much anticipated Fiorentina-AC Milan match, rescheduled for January 27. However, the weekend still had plenty of drama, especially around Juventus. In honor of the holiday season, this week's Lessons will be handing out presents to various people and teams in […]

Christmas has arrived early thanks to Fox Soccer Channel with the exclusive news that the knockout stages of the Champions League on FSC and FSN, as well as the final on FX, will feature the two-person commentary teams from Sky Sports instead of the UEFA/international commentary teams. Some of you observant Fox Soccer Channel viewers […]

Barcelona's star Lionel Messi has capped his great week with two goals to lead the Catalan side to a 3-1 victory over Deportivo La Coruna. Several days ago he was named the Ballon d'Or winner after a stunning year during which he led Barca to three titles- Champions League, la Liga and Copa del Rey. […]

As expected Lionel Messi succeeded Cristiano Ronaldo as the winner of the Ballon d'Or award. The Barcelona star comfortably won the prize but he admitted his surprise at the margin of victory as he received 240 points more than Cristiano Ronaldo who finished second. Messi was quite close to winning all 480 points possible as he finished with a […]

Denial Although Real Madrid needed five goals to overturn their Round of 32 tie with Alcorcón, a certain sense of denial was important in this particular situation so that they could believe that their task was not impossible. Kaká stated, "For the pride and for the history of Real Madrid, we have to win this […]