FOOTBALL:
Saint-germain and Atletico Madrid. It is a first season in the Champions League for Atalanta, but they are now regarded as more likely winners among the bookmakers than both Real Madrid and Barcelona.
There is good reason.atalanta are a fabulous, entertaining side who have scored more goals in a Serie A season than any team for 70 years.they had
98 goals going in to their final match last night, needing two more for the first Italian century since 1950.
They are also riding an emotional wave because their home town Bergamo was the place hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the whole of Europe.
Atalanta’s leading scorer and talisman is Colombian striker Duvan Zapata, who plays as a force of nature, rather in the style of his idol Didier Drogba.
“It is a source of pride to be compared to him,” says Zapata. “Maybe I have some of Drogba’s characteristics.”
Another new star of European football is emerging at Leipzig, where he is seen as the successor to the crown vacated by Timo Werner leaving for Chelsea.
That is attacking midfielder Dani Olmo, a young Spanish international hugely gifted on the ball and bursting with self-confidence, signed only in the winter transfer window.
“He is cheeky,” says Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann. “He is not scared to speak up, he wants to play, and also has the necessary humility to learn.”
Nobody would have backed Olmo or Zapata to be potential heroes at the start of the season. But that would also have been true of Bayern Munich’s rampaging full-back Alphonso Davies.the teenage Canadian destroyed Chelsea with his pace and skill at Stamford Bridge, and is one reason why Bayern are now the tournament favourites just ahead of Manchester City.
There is also the possibility that City could throw their dazzling young English talent Phil Foden into the mix as one of the unlikely heroes. title in 1968, Big Mal said we were going to terrify Europe – and we were immediately knocked out of the European
Cup by
Fenerbahce!
“We had the quality but we lacked experience. By
AUGUST 7 – Round of 16 Juventus v Lyon (0-1)
Man City v R Madrid (2-1)
AUGUST 8 – Round of 16 Barcelona v Napoli (1-1)
B Munich v Chelsea (3-0) 1970, we had the lot. When we hammered Schalke 5-1 at Maine Road in the semifinal, Helmut Schoen, the Germany manager, said we were the best British team he had ever seen. “City are in the same place we were. They’ve
AUGUST 12 – Quarter-finals Atalanta v PSG
AUGUST 13 – Quarter-finals RB Leipzig v A Madrid
AUGUST 14 – Quarter-finals Juventus or Lyon v Man City or Real Madrid won the Premier League and lots of domestic cups over 10 years – but the one they want now is the Champions League.
“They’ve got the best coach the world has ever seen in Pep. And while the team I played in had great players like Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell (right), I’d have loved to have played with six
AUGUST 15 – Quarter-finals Barcelona or Napoli v Bayern Munich or Chelsea
AUGUST 18-19 Semi-finals 1 & 2
AUGUST 23 Final or seven of the current side.”
Lee hails a family connection between the team he played in and the one to face Real Madrid on Friday. Mike Doyle and
Glyn Pardoe, the two grandads of current
City midfielder Tommy
Doyle lined up in City’s defence on that rainy night in Austria.
LOUIS VAN GAAL has made the astonishing claim that there are only a few gay players in football.
The former Manchester United boss insisted in an interview with Dutch LGBT newspaper the Gaykrant that the game “is not a mirror of society.”
Van Gaal (below), 68, who retired a year ago after a glittering coaching career that also saw him work in Holland, Spain and Germany, admits that he had his suspicions that certain players he managed were homosexual.
But he said that sexuality remains such a taboo subject inside dressing rooms that he would never advise a player to come out.
Asked if there are any gay players in the professional game, Van Gaal said: “Yes, but not many. The football world is not a mirror of society.
“You need to be incredibly brave and you need to have a lot of strength if you want to come out. Because the football world and today’s angry society seem to deal with a different sexual choice.”
ASTON VILLA boss Dean Smith has been given the green light to undertake a £100m transfer splurge this summer – but his imports will not include Pepe Reina.
Smith (below) can celebrate the club’s Premier League survival with a significant play in the market after being handed a sizeable kitty.
He is targeting four arrivals – and it will be more if Manchester United pay the £80m required to snare Jack Grealish.
But on-loan keeper Reina will not be among them even though he played a key role in Villa’s relegation escape.
Smith has decided upon a more conservative approach than the one the club had to undertake 12 months ago.
Back then, several players – such as Tammy Abraham and Tyrone Mings – were on loan deals and Villa had little option but to bolster their numbers.
They are now keen to recruit at least one pacey wideman, one out-and-out-striker, additional help in the midfield area and another centre-half.
Brentford winger Said Benrahma will almost certainly be on Smith’s wishlist.