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UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, semi-finals, final draws out

The draw for the quarter-finals, semi-finals, final draws of by was conducted in Nyon on Friday.

The event was streamed live on UEFA website from 11:00CET.

The Champions League quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final will be played in Lisbon, Portugal next month (August).

Quarter-final draw

1. Real Madrid (ESP) / Manchester City (ENG) vs Lyon (FRA) / Juventus (ITA)
2. Leipzig (GER) vs Atlético (ESP)
3. Napoli (ITA) / Barcelona (ESP) vs Chelsea (ENG) / Bayern München (GER)
4. Atalanta (ITA) vs Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)

Semi-final draw
The Champions League season so far
1. Winner quarter-final 1 vs winner quarter-final 3
2. Winner quarter-final 2 vs winner quarter-final 4

The winner of semi-final 2 was drawn as the home team for administrative purposes for the final which is being held at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica on Sunday 23 August.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s, they do not reflect the views o

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo could be set for Champions League semi-final collision after draw made in Switzerland

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo learned their respective Champions League fates after the draw on Friday .
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi could renew their rivalry in the Champions League after Friday’s draw set a course for Real Madrid to meet Juventus in the semi-finals, although both will face tough tasks to reach that stage.
Several subplots have come to the fore following Friday’s draw at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, with Ronaldo central to a number of them.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner could be set to take on former team Real Madrid in the quarter-finals if the Spaniards are able to overcome a first-leg deficit away to Manchester City – a tantalizing prospect only outweighed by the potential of a clash with Barcelona and Lionel Messi in the semis.
However, Quique Setien’s misfiring Catalan side will have their work cut out for them after only drawing the first leg of their last-16 tie with Napoli in February.
If that test is passed in the second leg, it is likely that Barcelona will take on Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals, unless Frank Lampard’s Chelsea can overcome a 3-0 first leg defeat when they travel to Munich to conclude their last-16 tie.
The prospect also exists of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola returning to the Camp Nou to potentially pile further misery on to what has been a disappointing season in Cataluna.
Semi-final 1:
RB Leipzig / Atletico Madrid
VS
Atalanta / Paris St-Germain
Semi-final 2:
Real Madrid or Manchester City vs Lyon or Juventus
VS
Napoli or Barcelona vs Chelsea or Bayern Munich
With the tournament placed on hold following the coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, four teams had already qualified for the quarter-finals where they have been drawn against one another, with RB Leipzig taking on Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain facing Atalanta.
The resumption of the Champions League will take place in the format of a mini tournament in Portugal from the quarter-final stage onwards, beginning on August 11 and lasting for 12 days. Matches from the quarter-finals onwards will be one-off affairs.
The remaining games in the round of 16 will take place in the original stadiums as initially planned on August 7 and 8.

Barcelona’s Greatest Players Of All Time Have Been Ranked, Lionel Messi Only Third

Maradona takes top spot on Ranker’s list with 582 up votes, over 100 more than second place
Ronaldinho who sits on 440 votes.
His Argentine compatriot Messi has more up votes with 663, but his 337 down vote total gives him a lower average than both Maradona and Ronaldinho.
Image Credit: PA
Check out the top 25 below.

FC Barcelona star players present and past

Patrick Kluivert (1998-2004)
Gheorghe Hagi (1994-1996)
Laszlo Kubala (1950-1961)
Deco (2004-2008)
Michael Laudrup (1989-1994)
Victor Valdes (2002-2014)
Hristo Stoichkov (1990-1995, 1996-1998)
Romario (1993-1995)
Ronald Koeman (1989-1995)
David Villa (2010-2013)
Rivaldo (1997-2002)
Image Credit: PA
Samuel Eto’o (2004-2009)
Sergio Busquets (2008-present)
Dani Alves (2008-2016)
Luis Suarez (2014-present)
Gerard Pique (2008-present)
Neymar (2013-2017)
Ronaldo Nazario (1996-1997)
Carles Puyol (1999-2014)
Xavi (1998-2015)
Andres Iniesta (2002-2018)
Image Credit: PA
Johan Cruyff (1973-1978)
Lionel Messi (2004-present)
Ronaldinho (2003-2008)
Diego Maradona (1982-1984)
While there is no doubting Maradona’s status as one of the game’s greatest ever players, his two year stint at Barcelona didn’t produce as many accolades as other names on the list.
He joined the Catalan giants for a then world record fee of £5 million from Boca Juniors but suffered an injury plagued two years at the Nou Camp.
Image Credit: PA
Maradona left for Napoli in 1984 and he would go on to become a bonafide superstar.
Many will argue that Messi is the one who deserves top spot however.
The 33-year-old has smashed all kinds of records during his 16 year stint at the club and has won the Ballon d’Or six times.
He’s won 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies alongside some of the world’s best players.
Two of the best he played with are Xavi and Andres Iniesta, who are sixth and fifth on the list respectively.
Other players from recent history in the top 25 include Neymar and Luis Suarez, with the trio making up the deadly ‘MSN’ strike force between 2014 and 2017.

Marco Materazzi Reveals What He Said To Zinedine Zidane Before 2006 World Cup Final Headbutt

Marco Materazzi has finally given the full story to what happened when Zinedine Zidane headbutted him in the World Cup final, nearly 14 years after it happened.
There’s few more iconic World Cup final moments than Zidane’s final ever moment as a player in the 2006 final, when he was sent off for landing a headbutt in the centre of Materazzi’s head.
Over the years there’s been lots of rumours about what happened and what the Italian said to cause the reaction and he’s now revealed all, talking about the fact they’d clashed several times before the eventual moment of madness from Zizou.
Image: PA
“Zidane’s headbutt? I wasn’t expecting it in that moment,” he told Spanish outlet AS in an interview, “I was lucky enough that the whole episode took me by surprise because if I had expected something like that to happen and had been ready for it, I’m sure both of us would have ended up being sent off.
“There had been a bit of contact between us in the area. He had scored France’s goal in the first half and our coach (Marcello Lippi) told me to mark him. After that first brush between us, I apologised but he reacted badly.
“After the third clash, I frowned and he retorted: ‘I’ll give you my shirt later’. I replied that I’d rather have his sister than his shirt.”
It’s the first time the former Inter defender has confirmed exactly what he said. There has been many rumours about it in the past and last year he would only go as far as confirming it wasn’t about Zizou’s mother.
“My words were stupid but did not deserve that reaction. In any neighborhood of Rome, Naples, Turin, Milan Paris, I hear much more serious things.
“I talked about his sister not his mother, like I have read in some newspapers. My mother died while I was a teenager, I would never insult his.”
A sculpture of the famous moment in Paris in 2012. Image: PA Images
The two men were at the centre of the final from the off. It was Materazzi’s foul on Florent Malouda that allowed Zidane to open the scoring with a Panenka penalty.
The defender made amends for his earlier mistake when he equalised 12 minutes later by heading in from Andrea Pirlo’s corner.
Zidane’s moment of madness came in the 110th minute of the game, with the Real Madrid manager’s final moment as a footballer seeing him walk past the World Cup trophy with his head down, and Materazzi put away his country’s second penalty in the shoot out as Italy were named champions.
There’s a good chance Materazzi didn’t end up with Zidane’s shirt after all, or his sister’s.

Yet another Premier League record set as Liverpool go marching on

Although this season’s Premier League title race has been long since over and it was just a matter of when, not if, Liverpool would be crowned champions, it’s encouraging to see that the Reds aren’t just going through the motions in their final few games.
It would’ve been easy for Jurgen Klopp’s side to take their foot off of the pedal once their first English top flight title in 30 years had been confirmed, but the Reds appear intent on creating records that may never be beaten.
Having won 30 of their 34 Premier League games this season, they have become the fastest to have reached 30 wins in a single campaign in the history of the English Football League, per BBC Sport .
Further, the win at Brighton was Liverpool’s 13th away from Anfield this season, which is the joint-most they’ve ever won in a league season in their history.

Having also never won more than 30 league games in a single season (level with 1978-79 and 2018-19), one more victory will give them another record.
Under Klopp, there really does seem no limit to what this team can achieve.

ADAM LALLANA HAS PLAYED HIS LAST GAME FOR LIVERPOOL.

Adam Lallana looks set to have played his last game for Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp confirmed that he will not select him again because he doesn’t want to jeopardise the midfielder’s forthcoming free transfer.
The midfielder, who arrived from Southampton in 2014, signed a short-term extension to stay with Liverpool until the end of the season to be a deserved part of Premier League celebrations, has not featured in a match-day squad since the restart.
The 32-year-old, recently described by Klopp as “a legend”, looks set to have several options when his deal expires including a possible reunion with former Reds’ boss Brendan Rodgers at Leicester.
The former England creative midfielder has made 178 appearances for Liverpool since his £25m arrival, but Klopp will not consider using him in the final five matches.
Instead, Lallana will be utilised in training only in an attempt to ensure he remains fit and injury-free ahead of his exit.
Klopp told reporters in his pre-match press conference:
It’s clear that Adam will leave the club in the summer. He’s there and trains 100% but as long as we don’t need it, he’ll just train. We will miss him.
The soon to be out of contract Lallana’s last outing for the club looks set to be a six-minute cameo appearance away at Bournemouth in March, where he came on as a substitute for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. His last goal came against Manchester United, a late equaliser at Old Trafford to maintain Liverpool’s then unbeaten league campaign.
Lallana will now follow another former Southampton player, Nathaniel Clyne, in making a summer exit from Liverpool on a free transfer. Unlike Lallana, Clyne did not stay on a short-term basis to see out the season.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?