UEFA Champions League
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: NEUTRALIZING MESSI THREAT KEY TO BAYERN’S AMBITIONS
It is a problem that has confounded managers and players alike since 2004. How exactly do you stop a player like Lionel Messi?
Bayern Munich believe they have the solution ahead of today’s blockbuster Champions League quarter-final clash with Barcelona in Portugal, but man-marking the Argentinian is not part of their plans.
On limiting the influence of the Barcelona skipper, who possesses the greatest threat to the Bundesliga champions’ hopes of a second treble and their sixth European Cup, Germany international Leon Goretzka said: “That can only be done collectively because he is a gifted footballer.
“Thousands of people before me have tried to answer this question. It is nice – after playing against (Juventus’ Cristiano) Ronaldo a few times – to play the other formative player of the last decade.
“I don’t know how, but we have to force our game on them.”
Taking the game to Barca is easier said than done, but if any team can do so, it will be Bayern.
The Bavarian giants have won all 13 games since German football restarted in May following the coronavirus lockdown and underlined their impressive form last Saturday when Robert Lewandowski, the Champions League’s top scorer, helped seal a 7-1 aggregate thrashing of Chelsea to book their last-eight berth.
Barca, on the other hand, are staring at their first trophyless season in 12 years unless they can win their sixth European Cup.
While Antoine Griezmann put up a brave front, telling the club’s TV channel that “we have the weapons to beat them”, the failure to defend their Spanish La Liga title as well as limp exits in the domestic Cups do not lend much confidence to his comments.
Bayern have already won the domestic double and are aiming to emulate Barca in becoming just the second European club to win the treble twice.
Seven years after their maiden accomplishment and powered by the hot form of Lewandowski – he has already notched a career-best 53 goals in all competitions, including 13 in Europe – Goretzka is feeling confident.
Some critics believe the knockout format of the “Final Eight”, which is Uefa’s solution to the pandemic, could even out today’s game as compared to the usual two-legged ties.
However, it may be more of a detriment to Barca as they cannot rely on the Nou Camp, where they are unbeaten in Europe since 2013, as their safe haven.
And Goretzka revealed Bayern have spent the past few weeks training specifically for an assault on the Champions League. Unlike the rest of their rivals, the German Bundesliga season finished almost a month earlier.
“There is no easy way now. We are here in the sun in Portugal and are preparing for a knockout game in the Champions League,” he said. “We’re really up for it. Knockout matches are great.
“At the moment, we’re playing as a unit, in addition to the quality of the individual players.
“We have a clear plan in hand and our intensity without the ball can make the difference.”
Both clubs know each other intimately, with four meetings since 2013 and there will be a reunion of sorts for both Barca’s Arturo Vidal and Bayern’s Thiago Alcantara, who is a product of Barca’s La Masia academy, making today’s encounter a likely classic.
On Vidal, who is facing his former side for the first time since leaving the Allianz Arena in 2018, Goretzka said: “He has a first-class mentality with amazing fitness.
“I noticed that during fitness tests – which I took next to him – he can go beyond the pain threshold.”
UEFA Champions League
LaLiga to have five teams in 2025-26 Champions League

Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.
LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.
England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.
Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.
They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.
-Reuters
UEFA Champions League
No complaints from Ancelotti, as Real humbled by Arsenal

Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.
“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”
When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.
But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.
“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.
Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.
“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.
“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”
-Reuters
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UEFA Champions League
Arsenal cruise past lacklustre Real Madrid to reach semis

Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.
Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.
Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.
Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.
They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.
“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”
A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.
But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.
“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”
PENALTY MISS
Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.
Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.
Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.
It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.
After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.
That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.
Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.
Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.
William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.
Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.
-Reuters
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