IN RECENT years, Champions League finals have not been dull but this one was a little on the uninteresting side at times, definitely not the goal feast some people suggested it might be. To put it into context: Bayern, in 50 games prior to the final, were involved in just three games settled by a […]
IT MAY be a clash of the titans, but Paris Saint-Germain go into their first UEFA Champions League final on August 23 as the underdogs, a role they are relatively unaccustomed to, such has been their dominance of French football. Bayern Munich, meanwhile, judging by their form in the competition and in post-lockdown Germany, are […]
AND SO, UEFA gets the final it probably hoped for, the emerging force of Paris Saint-Germain against German aristrocrats Bayern Munich. New versus old money. It will be the first time since 1997-98 that two teams have reached the final having qualified for the competition as champions. The fact a team does not have to […]
IT was shades of Brazilian’s dramatic World Cup capitulation in 2014, the curtain-down on a golden age, the beginning of the end of a glittering career and the awe-inspiring intent of a team determined to become European champions. It wasn’t just Barcelona that looked shell-shocked, resigned and distraught, the millions who watched the epic, “The […]
BAYERN Munich could be eyeing the “impossible treble” this season as they look ahead to the conclusion of the UEFA Champions League in August. Not many clubs have managed to win their two main domestic prizes and the UEFA Champions League, in fact it has been achieved just eight times, the last in 2015 with […]
SURPRISINGLY, only eight teams have managed to win a comparable trio of competitions, although many have gone close. Some of this select group have been built around outstanding individuals, such as Lionel Messi and Ajax’s Johan Cruyff, while others – like Celtic in 1967 – were founded on the team ethic. Inevitable comparisons will be […]
WHAT chance has any club got when you have Bayern Munich on your doorstep? TSV 1860 Munich, the Bavarian capital’s oldest club, has an unenviable task in trying to get air time when the behemoth that is FC Bayern pervades every side street, kiosk and newspaper. As a city, Munich has much to offer as […]
IT’S well known that Real Madrid were the outstanding team of the UEFA Champions League in the period between 2010 and 2019, winning the trophy four times. In terms of overall European prizes, Chelsea, Sevilla and Atlético Madrid all won three, although only the Londoners lifted the “cup with the big ears” from that trio. […]
CHELSEA and Bayern Munich are supposed to be in transition, two teams in reconstruction mode. Of the two, on the evidence of their UEFA Champions League meeting at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea look a long way off moulding a team capable of living up to the heights of the Abramovich era, while Bayern look to be […]
