Soccer

7 things you probably forgot happened

February 16, 2023
15 4 minutes read

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The males’s Champions League returns this week after what seems like a very lengthy winter break, exacerbated by a whole World Cup going down for the reason that final time a ball was kicked in Europe’s prime membership competitors.

With six rounds of matches accomplished in simply 9 weeks, all 96 group stage video games had been finished and dusted by Nov. 2 final 12 months as 32 groups had been whittled all the way down to 16 for the knockout part.

– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, extra (U.S.)

The Champions League then took a again seat whereas the world watched Lionel Messi lead Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar, earlier than membership soccer as soon as once more returned to the fore final month.

As the spherical of 16 will get underway, here is a fast refresher of some notable occasions that unfolded within the Champions League previous to its 3½-month hiatus.

1. Messi broke yet one more UCL document (Oct. 5)

Speaking of Messi, the Paris Saint-Germain ahead warmed up for the World Cup by breaking but extra new floor within the Champions League.

Benfica had been on the receiving finish as Messi wrote his title into the historical past books as soon as once more by scoring a purpose in opposition to his fortieth completely different opposing crew, turning into the first-ever participant to take action within the competitors.

The 35-year-old scored a pleasant first-time effort in a 1-1 draw in opposition to the Portuguese facet in early October, lower than a month after Israeli outfit Maccabi Haifa had the misfortune of turning into his thirty ninth victims.

2. Rudiger put his head the place it damage (Oct. 11)

Things did not go fairly so easily for poor previous Antonio Rudiger, who completed the group stage journey to play Shakhtar Donetsk along with his head in bandages regardless of scoring the very important purpose that noticed Real Madrid qualify for the knockouts.

In the act of scoring a Ninety fifth-minute equaliser in opposition to Shakhtar to ship Madrid by means of, the German centre-back was concerned in a heavy head-on-head collision with younger goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin and subsequently departed the pitch in a daze with massive blood stains throughout his ice-white shirt.

Thankfully, the weeping reduce on his brow was largely superficial, and Rudiger posted on Instagram quickly after the sport to guarantee followers that he was okay — regardless of flying residence with a considerable swaddling on his brow and eye.

3. Salah scored quickest Champions League treble (Oct. 12)

While his crew are struggling domestically, Mohamed Salah has been in nice fettle for Liverpool within the Champions League to this point and sits joint-top of the scoring charts with Kylian Mbappe on seven targets.

Three of the Salah’s got here in his facet’s 7-1 obliteration of Rangers at Ibrox by which the Egyptian emerged from the bench within the 68th minute and proceeded to attain the quickest hat trick in Champions League historical past to complete the Scots off.

Six minutes and 12 seconds, in case you had been questioning. Almost a full two minutes sooner than the earlier document.

4. Wild end to Spurs’ group (Nov. 1)

Tottenham have been muddling by means of a topsy turvy season, and the climax of their Champions League group marketing campaign is the right encapsulation of their wildly oscillating fortunes in 2022-23.

Indeed, Group D got here to a frenetic climax on its closing matchday as all 4 groups — Spurs, Marseille, Sporting CP and Eintracht Frankfurt — discovered themselves each by means of to the knockouts and out of the competitors totally at completely different levels of the night time.

Spurs discovered themselves in first, second and third place within the “as it stands” desk because the group remained in flux all night, proper up till a dramatic Ninety fifth-minute winner from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg despatched the Premier League facet by means of as group winners at Marseille’s expense.

5. Lewis beats Benzema’s purpose document (Nov. 2)

Rico Lewis grew to become the unlikely successor to Karim Benzema when the Manchester City full-back grew to become the youngest participant ever to attain on his first Champions League begin, thus breaking a document held by the French striker since 2005.

Lewis was simply 17 years and 346 days previous when he discovered the web for City in a 3-1 win over Sevilla on the Etihad in early November, beating Benzema’s earlier mark by simply six days.

6. Rangers document worst-ever end

Thanks largely to the 7-1 drubbing they acquired from Liverpool on their very own turf, Rangers suffered the ignominy of ending their Champions League marketing campaign with the worst-ever group-stage document within the competitors.

Rangers limped residence with six defeats from six video games, 22 targets conceded and a purpose distinction of -20, with their “best” consequence being the 2-0 loss they suffered at Anfield.

The Scottish facet subsequently grew to become the brand new recipients of the wholly undesirable “worst team in the group stage” tag, seizing the moniker from Dinamo Zagreb, who registered zero factors and a -19 purpose distinction in 2011-12 after coming unstuck in group that contained Real Madrid, Lyon and Ajax.

7. Celtic’s superb tifo

Once once more, the Champions League was blessed with an array of sensible tifo and choreo shows as followers throughout Europe went to nice lengths to remodel their residence stadiums into works of dwelling, respiratory artwork.

Of the various pre-match performances, probably the most visually impactful of all of them was arguably the large “fighting leprechaun” wielding a grenade behind the purpose displayed by Celtic supporters within the terraces forward of their match in opposition to Real Madrid.

However, we have additionally witnessed pyro insanity at PSG, nostalgic banners at Anfield, loving tributes to the late Diego Maradona at Napoli and a easy but stunningly efficient membership crest that took up a whole finish of Tottenham’s stadium.



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February 16, 2023
15 4 minutes read

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