THE last time a team from outside football’s top 20 clubs won the UEFA Champions League was in 2004, Porto beating Monaco 3-0 and launching the career of a certain José Mourinho. Since then, eight clubs have won the competition and the likelihood is that future winners will come from a select band of wealthy, […]
SEVILLA’s 2-1 victory in Köln was not only a reminder that Manchester United are far from the finished article, it was a warning that the UEFA Champions League, for which they have qualified, will be a tough exercise for a “work in progress” team. United were beaten by a club that knows all about Europa […]
MANCHESTER UNITED and Wolverhampton Wanderers may be feeling good about their UEFA Europa League hopes this season. The last 16 of the competition includes some big names, such as Inter Milan, Roma and Glasgow Rangers, but the Premier League duo must fancy their chances of going all the way to the Gdansk final. It looks […]
WOLVERHAMPTON Wanderers have been playing competitive football since the last week in July. Before they kicked off their Premier League programme on August 11, they had played three UEFA Europa League games and in total, they have now completed seven ties in addition to their five Premier fixtures. Their latest game, a 1-0 home defeat […]
THE EUROPA League struggles to win public acclaim until the very last stages, but one look at this season’s list of entrants is a reminder that some big names are among the contenders. Wolverhampton Wanderers may have been playing in the competition since early summer, but they have clearly been stimulated by European football coming […]
IF Arsenal or Chelsea were not up against a local rival, Baku and the Europa League might not mean as much as it probably does to the fans of both clubs – those that decide to make the journey to Azerbaijan. The fact that the clubs have returned tickets to UEFA says a lot about […]
THIRTY years ago, it would be nigh on impossible for one country to provide all the European finalists. The only way it could have happened was if the holders of the European Cup and European Cup-Winners’ Cup were English and the qualifying clubs from England were not the holders. In 1971-72, we had a UEFA […]
VALENCIA is the third largest city in Spain, which dovetails nicely with its football club’s status in its home country. Most neutral observers would say that Valencia Club de Fútbol is Spain’s fourth club, and given two of the three above it are from the capital Madrid, Els Taronges (the oranges) know their place in […]
IF YOU’VE visited Madrid recently, you’ve no doubt flown over the gleaming new home of Atlético Madrid, the Wanda Metropolitano. It’s an impressive site, fashioned out of a stadium built in anticipation of the Spanish capital being awarded the Olympic Games. If Atléti play their cards right, they could be playing at home in the […]
