31 December 2020

Various types of punishments

Last week three different players have been penalized according of their doings. Majority of them has been handed a deserved financial fine, while some were very light.
At 19 December Borussia Monchengladbach played against Hoffenheim, while two days later Marcus Thuram was removed from football on five games. The home striker spitted an opposing footballer (Stefan Posch) who then received a direct red card. Stupidity like this that can be seen on social media, costed the 23-year-old 40.000 euros, which is equivalent to his one monthly pay. Apologies came after the duel, but it was way too late.
For betting on his own transfer from Tottenham to Atletico Madrid in July 2019 for 22 million euros, eight days ago Kieran Trippier was punished with 70.000 pounds (77.000 euros) from the English football association. On top of that, he got a forceful rest from this sport for two and a half months or 10 weeks as an additional penalty. He denied seven accusations about this case, however four were proven.
On 25 December the Moscow court have sentenced a former Russian captain to 100 hours of community service. Playing on a humanitarian match this August, Roman Shirokov knocked down to the ground and kicked the amateur referee Nikita Danchenko in an anger because he did not gave a penalty. Video of this incident is available on social media.

30 December 2020

Unique gift for holiday season

The dream of each striker, midfielder or even defender is to deceive the opposing goalkeeper and push the ball into the net. Such deadly attacker seven nights ago scored his goal number 644 for Barcelona, and like that broke the record from Edson Arantes do Nascimento (mostly known as Pele) that was achieved for just one club. Now that this was given throughout the years what next?
Probably the 'worst nightmare' for all goalkeepers is Lionel Messi. For this special occasion and to also celebrate this digit, on 25 December with Budweiser have thought an excellent idea for the holidays: sending to all 'keepers of the goals' bottle of beer as many times as the 33-year-old put the ball behind their backs. An absolute recorder was the former 'number one' of Valencia, Diego Alves who received 21 bottles, followed by the Real Madrid ex goalkeeper Iker Casillas who were beaten 17 times by the Argentine...International 'number ones' also played part on this accomplishment as well.

29 December 2020

Museum lawsuit

The poor Joseph Sepp Blatter is facing another accusation from the ex-affiliation that he worked for: six days ago the world football organization indicts him for 'mismanagement of funds'. When he was in office (until 2015), for renovation of the football museum were spent 140 million Swiss francs (116.6 million euros). However, five years later, the current administration (somehow) have calculated that the actual costs (that time) was actually 500 million Swiss francs (416.3 million euros), and the difference allegedly went to the previous workers. According to the world football affiliation 'the former management and companies appointed by them' are to blame, which means that falls under the leadership of the disgraced president, because since opening from 2016 the building operates at a constant loss.

28 December 2020

Awards given in most difficult year

When plenty of confederations have canceled of having an award ceremony for 2020, the world football organization has decided that its 'The best' reward had to continue. And because the show must go on, prizes were given, but in slightly different situation then before.
The big (and shocking) news (for some) was that neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi have won, where the well deserved victory was for the favorite Robert Lewandowski who triumphed for the first time. Also, for the world best manager was chosen Jurgen Klopp, while best goalkeeper was Manuel Neuer when the names got presented ten nights ago. In a 4-3-3 formation the best team of 2020 looks like this: Alisson Becker - Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sergio Ramos, Virgil van Dijk, Alphonso Davies - Kevin de Bruyne, Thiago Alcantara, Joshua Kimmich - (together with the trio that competed for the top player of the year) Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo.

27 December 2020

Role models who have gone bad

The following couple of 'smart' guys are not really famous, but nevertheless, it has to be mentioned here because with its stupidity have broke the laws when tough epidemiologic measures are presented in their own countries. In both cases entertainment is the main topic.
Jack Grealish (somewhere) in March practically begged its followers on social media to stay at home and not go anywhere no matter what. However, as this rule did not applied to him, 24 hours later the 25-year-old 'wise' player went to a party and on return with his Range rover caused an accident hitting three parked vehicles, left the scene, and refused to do an alcohol test. On 15 December the Aston villa captain got a well deserved punishment (which honestly had to be even worse): revoking his driving license for nine months plus had to give 83.000 pounds (91.235 euros) [this conversion is presented from the written day]. Police have released the footage incident described above.


Continuing with the amusements there was another, but this time fresh from Belgium. Fabrice Ondoa called 10 of his friends in his home (two weekends ago), and the fun began, well...until the police came. Because house visits are strictly forbidden in the country, the officials wrote 11 reports, where also were verbally insulted. Learning about this and after disappointments, denials and accusations, the Cameroonian goalkeeper got fired by his club Oostende on the same day as the previous footballer.

26 December 2020

Tires and football

Nine days ago Continental tires have just renewed the already existing agreement and extend it for three more years with the Asian football confederation for sponsoring the team competitions across the continent. As the deal covers events from 2021 to 2024, their name is going to be present on the Asian elimination duels for World Cup 2022 together with the Asian Cup finals at 2023 where they will host on exclusive basis the trophy presentation appearance. But before all that comes a very special moment: since entering the business market in 1871, next year is going to be an anniversary one for them as the manufacturing company will launch the campaign '150 years of confidence'.

25 December 2020

Euskadi wants dualized full membership

On 15 December an autonomous region in northern Spain have send a formal request to become a full members at the European and world football organization. Simply saying, Euskadi (in their own language) or the Basque likes to have its national team that will compete in qualifiers for the European and world championships, which is the reason why they (the Basque football association) send the necessary documents. Examples of such national teams that are presented in the papers comes from the 'old continent': Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and lately the overseas territory of Gibraltar (which is located south of Spain) are all parts of United Kingdom, together with the archipelago Faroe islands who is under the leadership of Denmark. Main project is to establish the Euskal selekzioa (Basque team) after the epidemic situation is completely gone, which is already playing unofficial friendly games mostly at the end of each year. Of course, all of the above, was send simultaneously in a letter to the Spanish football federation hoping that the agreement is going to be reached so that official confirmation is received for further steps to join towards the two affiliations.

24 December 2020

No more enormous wages for strangers

Future foreigners who will and are currently playing in People's Republic of China from 01 January 2021 are going to receive limited amount of salary. At a meeting from 14 December the Chinese football association decided the following regulations:
In the top championship (Chinese super league) an overseas players should not exceed the wage level of 24 million yuan before tax (3 million euros) annually. Exceptions may be done to those footballers who overstep this number, signing with the team an 'additional agreement' in their contract. Domestic footballers maximum can earn in one season 5 million yuan pre tax (630.242 euros). For breaking these rules the punishment is from deducting plenty of points, to throwing out the club in lower leagues. When we are on the teams topic, every year they can spend of up to 600 million yuan (75.7 million euros). Also, nearly all of them (clubs) have to erase their ownership name from the official one.
On Chinese league one (second championship in significance) the limits are: 3 million yuan (378.145 euros) for home and international players may earn up to 1.5 million yuan (189.072 euros) per season. Each team competing at this level have a barrier until 200 million yuan (25.2 million euros).
All conversions written here are from the mentioned day.

23 December 2020

Penultimate club with double celebration as debutants

We now know five champions who will participate at the first official tournament of next year. After the winners from the European, Oceanian, African and Asian confederation (Bayern Munich, Auckland city, Al Ahly, Ulsan Hyundai), joins the North American and Caribbean representative.
In the thrilling final match played this morning (or previous night local time) Tigres will participate at the Club World Cup that is going to be staged from 01 until 11 February. All the excitement was at the second half, their opponents (Los Angeles) took the lead, but the Mexican team have made a big turnaround giving two goals in 12 minutes, who like that will travel to Qatar appearing to the above competition (and lifted the Champions league trophy also) for the first time.

22 December 2020

Big accomplishments of signed business deals

Definitely it is very good to be watched within and beyond the continent, and what the Asian confederation is doing it simply has no words, because its club and team competitions are attracting supporters all over, and because of that plenty of media are just forced to cover them. From the beginning of this month their representative (Football marketing Asia) is signing these deals like chewing gums, and this success surely will only continue.
Newcomers in this report are three nations from South East Asia. After (another one from an identical region) Mongolia have secure the deal in the first part of November, on 02 December CANAL+ Myanmar has became an exclusive partner to show matches within its own borders. Thanks to the agreement, extensive football coverage is going to show through the digital platforms. Five days ago KJSM World corporation has brought this rich football tournaments in Vietnam and Laos. And of course, as this deal covers for two countries the audiences will grow even bigger.
Finally, South East Europe is going to enjoy the quality of Asian football for the very first time. Viewers in the whole Balkan peninsula (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria) are going to watch the best action, for three years. On 08 December United media is the 'guilty party' who have bought the whole package, will debut with the new programme on more than 30 channels transmitting in cable, terrestrial, direct-to-home and internet protocol television platforms, where one of the most known is Sportklub.
All of the 12 above countries have the rights to show their viewers content for the same period, from 2021 until 2024. It includes plenty of team and club competitions: resuming of the World Cup 2022 qualifiers from the second and entire third round, Asian Cup 2023, under 23 Asian Cup finals at 2022 and 2024, together with the exciting Asian Champions league and AFC Cup.

21 December 2020

Knockout pairs, schedule for phase one

At the beginning of the week the European football association did the last draw in 2020. Because part two of international club competitions are over, the little ball names have determined duels from the first round of matches which are going to resume in two months time, where officially part three is going to commence: the knockout phases.

In the last 16 of the Champions league have entered four German and Spanish clubs, three English and Italian teams, together with one from France and Portugal. The next stage of this competition is going to be a real torture as everything is going to be completed on eight dates and over two months. Start will be 16, 17, 23, 24 February, while 09, 10, 16, 17 March are the returning legs with the following duels:

Borussia Monchengladbach - Manchester city.
Lazio - Bayern Munich.
Atletico Madrid - Chelsea.
Rasenballsport Leipzig - Liverpool.
Porto - Juventus.
Barcelona - PSG.
Sevilla - Borussia Dortmund.
Atalanta - Real Madrid.

Variety of nations are expected to be at the second competition. If the predecessor have representatives from only 6 countries, 19 of them are competing in the most interesting Europa league tournament. At this phase the 32 clubs are going to finish in three nights: the first 90 minutes are on 18 February, and the decision is going to end on 24 and 25 of the same month. Layout for 16 pairs is as follows:

Wolfsberger - Tottenham.
Dynamo Kyiv - Club Brugge.
Real Sociedad - Manchester united.
Crvena zvezda - Milan.
Antwerp - Glasgow rangers.
Slavia Praha - Leicester.
Red bull Salzburg - Villarreal.
Benfica - Arsenal.
Braga - Roma.
Krasnodar - Dinamo Zagreb.
Young boys Bern - Bayer Leverkusen.
Molde - Hoffenheim.
Granada - Napoli.
Maccabi Tel Aviv - Shakhtar Donetsk.
Lille - Ajax.
Olympiacos - PSV.

20 December 2020

South Korean representative qualifies for first official tournament of 2021

Ulsan Hyundai today has won the Asian Champions league for the second time in its history, after 2012. At the first time since March, the final duel was played before live witnesses (spectators), where there were two penalties awarded against its rivals (Persepolis): in the end of first half (stoppage time) the punishment from Gleidionor Figueiredo Pinto Junior (better known as Junior Negrao) was perfectly saved, so that he scored from the rebound while the same player just sealed the win from the same spot in the second 45 minutes to lift the trophy on neutral venue in Qatar.
This result only means that the South Korean champion will represent the continent in the club competition that supposed to be staged at the end of every year, but due to special circumstances moved forward to 2021: the Club World Cup, where they are going to travel back at the identical place in two months time. It is the fourth confederation winner and fifth club overall (together with the host), which means two of them are missing. Both are from the Americas continent: the North together with the Caribbean will arrive in two nights time, while the South neighboring champion will be known at the conclusion of January.

19 December 2020

Renowned referee involved in corruption

Last Tuesday night Pavel Kralovec officiated the last group phase game from the Champions league from the sixth round between Chelsea and Krasnodar, while the following morning the local media mentioned his name in a match fixing scandal. In the summer he had a strange talk over the phone with Roman Berbr (who was an ex official at the Czech football association and in custody since October), where these two have done a serious scheme of how to rig a match that happened this July.
A duel in question was the local Cup final amongst Slovan Liberec and Sparta Praha, and numerous 'gifts' deliberately were done in favor of the visitors. Number one topic after the game was that the 43-year-old did not issued a red card to Sparta Praha player at one point although the little monitors from above (video assistant referee system) showed the real picture.
Because of these hard accusations the Czech football organization has removed his name from the referee list until the end of the season.

18 December 2020

Complaint about a game that was not even played

On 17 November Switzerland and Ukraine had to play their last game of the Nations league competition. However, this final duel from the sixth round did not even start because of the virus cases found in the visiting team. As this was a crucial duel for both teams in terms of staying and leaving, shortly after the cancelation, the European football association automatically registered the score as 3:0 which meant Switzerland has remained its league A status while Ukraine was relegated into B league.
Less than one month later this decision certainly did not like the losing side where they filed a complaint last Friday at the Court of arbitration for sport. For this duel four options remains: the guests has requested a new re-scheduled match or a lottery will be performed. And if this is chosen, then there are three scenarios: a scoreless draw together with 1:0 win for either team. There is no further news of what is going to happen to this case.

17 December 2020

Asian region expands its family members

From last Wednesday the Northern Mariana islands have joined the Asian football confederation family. The newest association in the continent, which was accepted on the thirtieth General assembly, were having an observer status from July 2009 while 11 years and 5 months later became a full member, number 47. As every affiliation is belonging to a sub-region, and because of its location, 'the younger brother' have now entered into the East Asian football federation who now counts 10 associations.

16 December 2020

Unbelievable goal

We have seen lots of beautiful targets in this sport: from corner kicks, half a pitch, or even volleys...but the next one is certainly rare, where you do not see this every day / night on any matches, because the way it was scored was simply amazing and can not be described with words of how the ball rolled into the net (that far). Most strangest thing is that the following goal was given directly from throw-in, there was a light touch from the opposing goalkeeper but before all that, comes...the acrobacy.


Explanation: this specialty was given on 07 December in the game between Gol Gohar and Paykan from the Persian Gulf pro league at Islamic Republic of Iran. Like others, it was an ordinary duel until the seventh minute where the visiting defender Nader Mohammadi has done something unique. Because under the football rules goal scored by hand is forbidden, on the scoreboard was written the opposing number one goalkeeper Alireza Haghighi (who like that has shaken its own net). However, for sure all the credit goes to the Paykan player who is already into the history books with his creativity.

15 December 2020

Little balls has determined who will play who

We are less than two years away from the most watching sport event / holiday on earth, and exactly seven nights ago the European countries found out its rivals at the draw towards the path for World Cup 2022.
In the elimination process were 10 groups formed: the first part (upper five) with 5 teams, while the last one (bottom five) has six. At stage one, March has been designated as the official start, while the end of the group stage have to finish at the middle of November of the same year (2021), where only the (group) winners will book their secure tickets to Qatar. Phase two will be (a little bit) more complicated and be in need of extra games: it is going to include every team who is going to finish second and they will be mixed up with the best two teams from the Nations league, playing semifinals and final. After that torture (of additional matches) the final three teams are going to emerge as travelers from the continent, therefore this saga has to end on March 2022. To conclude this (mini) introduction, the 55 teams were divided in the following way:

Group A: Portugal, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan.

Group B: Spain, Sweden, Greece, Georgia, Kosovo.

Group C: Italy, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Lithuania.

Group D: France, Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan.

Group E: Belgium, Wales, Czech Republic, Belarus, Estonia.

Group F: Denmark, Austria, Scotland, Israel, Faroe islands, Moldova.

Group G: Netherlands, Turkey, Norway, Montenegro, Latvia, Gibraltar.

Group H: Croatia, Slovakia, Russia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta.

Group I: England, Poland, Hungary, Albania, Andorra, San Marino.

Group J: Germany, Romania, Iceland, North Macedonia, Armenia, Liechtenstein.

For better graphical representation the schedule can already be seen at the European together with the world football organization and download it for personal use.

14 December 2020

In search for team of year 2020

As a matter of fact this will look more like team of Champions league than team of 2020, because all 50 names are coming just from this tournament. From 01 December the European football organization is asking us (the spectators) to take part in the survey to pick the perfect 11 (but without substitutes). Our selection of favorite role models (players) can be done on their website, and in return the affiliation is giving away three valuable prizes. Deadline for finishing the 2 minutes job (or more) is January.
There are six formations given, so we have to chose from 5 goalkeepers, together with defenders, midfielders and attackers which in this section are of 15 names each. After the selection everyone is in contention of the prizes, who, of course, the major one is two tickets for the final of the above mentioned competition.
Picking our 11 of 2020 may occur for men and women category.

13 December 2020

'You have to give me good financial boost to receive a gift from referee'

Because players are really 'poor' by getting small amount of finances, four 'smart guys' have decided how to become rich overnight, but obviously were not careful enough in their scam so they are lightly detected.
On 02 December at Sweden they are accused obtaining and giving bribery in football. An unnamed Elfsborg player (somewhere) in May 2019 deliberately made a foul and was awarded with yellow card from the official, and for that 'minor' thing got 'an easy' 300.000 Swedish krona (27.752 euros of that month and year). Footballer who is playing at lower leagues has received payments on six occasions from April until August 2019, and now both of them are facing jail term of up to two years. And because money has to come from someone, two more sloppy masterminds are going to appear in court who like that broke the national laws of gambling.

12 December 2020

Final for the third international club competition revealed

After Champions and Europa league, the 'old continent' awaits the third international club football event which is going to start next summer, that popularly is called the Conference league (or was briefly also known as Europa league 2).
This is mostly connected to Europa league because the winner is going to be promoted to this, second competition in significance, but before that happens lots of games have to be played. In general, here will participate clubs from countries which have low coefficient in the table (from place number 16 and onwards), and this is some kind of opportunity to prove themselves and climb one ladder (league) higher. Everything commences with three qualifying rounds plus one play-off stage. After that the official 2021-22 season begins, where 32 clubs will be left and divided into eight groups of four. Only the group winners will directly qualify for the last 16 phase, while the second and third group teams have to torture themselves a little bit more, playing duels with each other for the rest and final spots (for the last 16). Going (slowly) step by step we have already arrived at the final duel of this young club tournament, where on 03 December the European football confederation have disclosed that Albanian capital Tirana is going to host it on 25 May 2022 at the Arena Kombetare. The budget for this event is going to worth 240 million euros, and these digits are around two and a half times less than playing at Europa league tournament. Just in comparison: by mentioning this event, clubs who are qualified for the group stages are going to divide 3.1 million euros, while 1.24 million are going to split the teams who will participate at the group phases of the Conference league.
Creating a completely new tournament has always a purpose, as the idea is to lessen the burden of Europa league (Cup) competition which from 48 is going to have 32 teams, and in it are going to participate clubs from just the first 15 strongest national leagues.

11 December 2020

Group stages for this year are over

Europa league group stage, single night, final round number 6:

Standard Liege - Benfica 2:2

Scorers: 1:0 12 (11.44) Nicolas Raskin
               1:1 16 (15.43) Everton Soares
               2:1 59 (59.00) Abdoul Tapsoba
               2:2 67-pen (66.47) Luis Miguel Afonso Fernandes (also known as Pizzi)

Lech - Glasgow rangers 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 31 (30.53) Cedric Itten
               0:2 71 (71.02) Ianis Hagi

Hapoel Be'er Sheva - Nice 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 71 (70.57) Rotem Hatuel

CSKA Sofia - Roma 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 05 (04.54) Tiago Rodrigues
               1:1 22 (21.28) Tommaso Milanese
               2:1 34 (33.55) Ali Sowe
               3:1 55 (54.34) Ali Sowe

Young boys Bern - Cluj 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 84 Gabriel Debeljuh
               1:1 90+3-pen Jean-Pierre Nsame
               2:1 90+6 Gianluca Gaudino

- Direct red cards received in this match were for three players: Cristian Balgradean at 90 and Damjan Djokovic on 90+7 (both from Cluj) together with Jean-Pierre Nsame (Young boys Bern) in 90+5.

Dundalk - Arsenal 2:4

Scorers: 0:1 12 (11.38) Eddie Nketiah
               0:2 18 (17.47) Mohamed Elneny
               1:2 22 (21.49) Jordan Flores
               1:3 67 (66.41) Joe Willock
               1:4 80 (79.25) Folarin Balogun
               2:4 85 (84.49) Sean Hoare

PSV - Omonia 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 35 (34.56) Donyell Malen
               2:0 62-pen (62.04) Denzel Dumfries
               3:0 90 (90.20) Joel Piroe
               4:0 90+3 (92.49) Joel Piroe

- Omonia had a penalty at 69 (69.19), but Jordi Gomez failed to score as he missed the whole goal.

Rapid Wien - Molde 2:2

Scorers: 0:1 11 (11.11) Magnus Wolff Eikrem
               1:1 43 (42.44) Marcel Ritzmaier
               1:2 46 (45.21) Magnus Wolff Eikrem
               2:2 90 (89.47) Melih Ibrahimoglu

Napoli - Real Sociedad 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 34 (34.01) Piotr Zielinski
               1:1 90+1 (91.03) Willian Jose

Rijeka - AZ 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 50 Luka Menalo
               1:1 57 Owen Wijndal
               2:1 90+2 Ivan Tomecak

- Jesper Karlsson (AZ) was awarded a direct red card on 79.

PAOK - Granada 0:0

Bayer Leverkusen - Slavia Praha 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 08 (07.42) Leon Bailey
               2:0 31 (31.16) Leon Bailey
               3:0 59 (58.25) Moussa Diaby
               4:0 90+1 (90.37) Karim Bellarabi

Wolfsberger - Feyenoord 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 31 (30.29) Dejan Joveljic

Braga - Zorya Luhansk 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 61-own goal (60.43) Joel abu Hanna
               2:0 68 (67.51) Ricardo Horta

Celtic - Lille 3:2

Scorers: 1:0 21 (20.58) Christopher Jullien
               1:1 24 (23.21) Nanitamo Jonathan Ikone
               2:1 28-pen (27.43) Callum McGregor
               2:2 70 (70.10) Timothy Weah
               3:2 75 (74.50) David Turnbull

Slovan Liberec - Crvena zvezda 0:0

Maccabi Tel Aviv - Sivasspor 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 66 (65.57) Enris Saborit

Ludogorets - LASK 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 46 (45.40) Elvis Manu
               1:1 56 (55.35) Philipp Wiesinger
               1:2 61-pen (61.00) Rene Renner
               1:3 66 (66.01) Mads Emil Madsen

- For a nasty foul, a direct red card went to Alex Santana (Ludogorets) on 60 (59.32).

Hoffenheim - Gent 4:1

Scorers: 1:0 21 Maximilian Beier
               2:0 26 Robert Skov
               3:0 49 Maximilian Beier
               4:0 64 Andrej Kramaric
               4:1 81 Nurio Fortuna

Dinamo Zagreb - CSKA Moscow 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 27 (27.14) Josko Gvardiol
               2:0 41 (40.32) Mislav Orsic
               3:0 74 (74.09) Lirim Kastrati
               3:1 76 (75.45) Kristijan Bistrovic

Sparta Praha - Milan 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 22 (22.13) Jens Petter Hauge

- The home team finished the match with 10 players because of the automatic red card on 76 (76.07) for Dominik Plechaty.

Tottenham - Antwerp 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 56 (55.53) Carlos Vinicius
               2:0 70 (70.20) Giovani lo Celso

Villarreal - Qarabag POSTPONED (because of virus cases in the visiting team).

An only and last extra information: Roma, Young boys Bern, Arsenal, Molde, Bayer Leverkusen, Slavia Praha, Glasgow rangers, Benfica, PSV, Granada, Napoli, Real Sociedad, Leicester, Braga, Milan, Lille, Villarreal, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Tottenham, Antwerp, Dinamo Zagreb, Wolfsberger, Hoffenheim and Crvena zvezda have qualified for the first knockout round, where the draw is on Monday, 14 December at 14.00 CET, while the whole thing will restart again on second half of next February.

10 December 2020

Hat trick was scored on the postponed game

Group phase of Champions league, night 2 of 2, last round number 6:

Midtjylland - Liverpool 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 01 (56 seconds) Mohamed Salah
               1:1 62-pen (61.41) Alexander Scholz

Ajax - Atalanta 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 85 (84.43) Luis Fernando Muriel Fruto

- Two yellow cards turned into red for Ryan Gravenberch (Ajax) at 79 (78.50).

Bayern Munich - Lokomotiv Moscow 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 63 (62.21) Niklas Sule
               2:0 80 (79.43) Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting

Olympiacos - Porto 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 10-pen (09.21) Otavio Edmilson da Silva Monteiro
               0:2 77 (76.13) Mateus Uribe

- At 79 Ruben Semedo (Olympiacos) got his second yellow card.

Red bull Salzburg - Atletico Madrid 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 39 (38.29) Mario Hermoso
               0:2 85 (85.14) Yannick Carrasco

Inter - Shakhtar Donetsk 0:0

Real Madrid - Borussia Monchengladbach 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 09 (08.41) Karim Benzema
               2:0 31 (31.01) Karim Benzema

Extra duel played tonight: PSG - Basaksehir 5:1 (this game was not whole as it started from 13.32 minutes)

Scorers: 1:0 21 (20.36) Neymar da Siva Junior
               2:0 37 (37.04) Neymar da Siva Junior
               3:0 42-pen (41.38) Kylian Mbappe
               4:0 49 (49.13) Neymar da Siva Junior
               4:1 57 (56.29) Mehmet Topal
               5:1 61 (61.11) Kylian Mbappe

Second additional information: on the last night at this competition Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Borussia Monchengladbach, Manchester city, Porto, Liverpool, Atalanta, PSG and Rasenballsport Leipzig have made it to the knockout stage whose draw will be performed on Monday, 14 December at 12.00 CET. Europa league travelers are the following five teams: Red bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympiacos, Ajax and Manchester united.

09 December 2020

Mysterious and shameful night: racist word spoken on an empty stadium

Group phase of Champions league, night 1 of 2, last round number 6:

Zenit Saint Petersburg - Borussia Dortmund 1:2

Scorers: 1:0 16 (15.45) Sebastian Driussi
               1:1 68 (67.33) Lukasz Piszczek
               1:2 78 (77.52) Axel Witsel

Lazio - Club Brugge 2:2

Scorers: 1:0 12 (11.29) Joaquin Correa
               1:1 15 (14.32) Ruud Vormer
               2:1 27-pen (26.55) Ciro Immobile
               2:2 76 (75.24) Hans Vanaken

- At 39 (38.33) Eduard Sobol (Club Brugge) had to leave the pitch due to two yellow cards.

Stade Rennais - Sevilla 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 31 (31.03) Jules Kounde
               0:2 45+2 (46.35) Youssef en Nesyri
               0:3 81 (80.50) Youssef en Nesyri
               1:3 86-pen (85.25) Georginio Rutter

Dynamo Kyiv - Ferencvaros 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 59 (59.12) Denys Popov

PSG - Basaksehir SUSPENDED

- If the stadium tonight was filled with spectators, either of the two clubs would have been severely punished, but on this case the stupidity falls on the fourth Romanian official Constantin Sebastian Coltescu as he used 'black guy' towards the assistant coach of Basaksehir on a completely empty space. In protest, the whole staff together with the players walked out off the pitch after 22 (22.17) minutes of play, and in solidarity the home team followed them in the dressing room. The game was re-scheduled for 09 December at 18.55 CET with definitely a new team of judges (officials from Netherlands).


Chelsea - Krasnodar 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 24 (23.41) Remy Cabella
               1:1 27-pen (27.09) Jorge Luiz Frello Filho (just known as Jorginho)

Barcelona - Juventus 0:3

Scorers: 0:1 13-pen (12.22) Cristiano Ronaldo
               0:2 20 (19.53) Weston McKennie
               0:3 52-pen (51.30) Cristiano Ronaldo

First additional information: at the first knockout stage of this competition we are going to see again Chelsea, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, Lazio, Juventus and Barcelona. Krasnodar, Club Brugge together with Dynamo Kyiv are transferring into Europa league.

08 December 2020

Adopted fresh layout for commencing elimination path towards World Cup 2022

Because in every corner of the globe in the first part of 2020 there was a well known health problem for the football schedule, everything had to be re-written again so that confederations towards the end of this year can only confirm it. Exactly that what happened to one member which had already gave a green light to that suggestion three days ago.
As it is way behind, the North American and Caribbean region has accepted the new schedule for their elimination duels for the World Cup finals in two years time that supposed to have started at the end of August. This confederation is going to be played in an (slightly) altered format, thus three rounds have to conclude.
In phase one the lowest teams from places 06 until 35 (in the world ranking list from July 2020) who are divided in six groups of five, will kick off the journey at March and (beginning of) June 2021. Only the group winners will advance to the second stage where everything is going to be decided in 180 minutes of play (home and away game). The three predetermined duels have to be concluded within two nights: 12 and 15 June 2021. Winners from these three pairings will join the five best teams of the continent who will form an octagon tournament in the third and final round. Months for kick offs are: September, October and November 2021 together with January and March 2022, where in some of them can be played even three times or two. Finally, the fourth team will have to play an additional game or in here known as the inter-continental play-off which have to end in June (just five months before commencing of the World Cup).
For better understanding and graphical view the newest playing layout can be seen and download on the website of the confederation.

07 December 2020

Weather as a greatest challenge

At the end of each year we have to say goodbye to something, and on this case are the group stages in both European Cups (leagues) tournaments. Besides its rivals, all players are going to have a big challenge ahead of themselves, and that is the weather. If the previous stage (maybe) it was cold, in the second week of this month will be extreme cold as temperatures throughout the continent, in some areas are known to be below zero or much lower. On the last three playing group nights in 2020 the following 40 duels from the sixth round are going to entertain us at the following order:

Champions league...

Tuesday, 08 December at 18.55 CET: Lazio - Club Brugge.
Tuesday, 08 December at 18.55 CET: Zenit Saint Petersburg - Borussia Dortmund.

Tuesday, 08 December at 21.00 CET: Barcelona - Juventus.
Tuesday, 08 December at 21.00 CET: Chelsea - Krasnodar.
Tuesday, 08 December at 21.00 CET: Dynamo Kyiv - Ferencvaros.
Tuesday, 08 December at 21.00 CET: PSG - Basaksehir.
Tuesday, 08 December at 21.00 CET: Rasenballsport Leipzig - Manchester united.
Tuesday, 08 December at 21.00 CET: Stade Rennais - Sevilla.

Wednesday, 09 December at 18.55 CET: Ajax - Atalanta.
Wednesday, 09 December at 18.55 CET: Midtjylland - Liverpool.

Wednesday, 09 December at 21.00 CET: Bayern Munich - Lokomotiv Moscow.
Wednesday, 09 December at 21.00 CET: Inter - Shakhtar Donetsk.
Wednesday, 09 December at 21.00 CET: Manchester city - Olympique de Marseille.
Wednesday, 09 December at 21.00 CET: Olympiacos - Porto.
Wednesday, 09 December at 21.00 CET: Real Madrid - Borussia Monchengladbach.
Wednesday, 09 December at 21.00 CET: Red bull Salzburg - Atletico Madrid.

...plus Europa league.

Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Bayer Leverkusen - Slavia Praha.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: CSKA Sofia - Roma.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Dundalk - Arsenal.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Hapoel Be'er Sheva - Nice.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Lech - Glasgow rangers.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Napoli - Real Sociedad.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: PAOK - Granada.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: PSV - Omonia.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Rapid Wien - Molde.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Rijeka - AZ.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Standard Liege - Benfica.
Thursday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Young boys Bern - Cluj.

Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Braga - Zorya Luhansk.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Celtic - Lille.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Dinamo Zagreb - CSKA Moscow.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Hoffenheim - Gent.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Leicester - AEK.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Ludogorets - LASK.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Maccabi Tel Aviv - Sivasspor.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Slovan Liberec - Crvena zvezda.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Sparta Praha - Milan.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Tottenham - Antwerp.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Villarreal - Qarabag.
Thursday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Wolfsberger - Feyenoord.

06 December 2020

New chairman is going to be known next month

This Monday it was confirmed that Barcelona on 24 January of next year will have a new president. In chronological order: the official race begins 16 December, at least 2.257 approval signatures from members have to collect the potential candidates between 23 December 2020 and 11 January, while the campaign is going to start out of 15 as far as 22 January 2021.
For the first time club shareholders can cast their vote in 10 places: alongside the Camp nou stadium itself, together with eight more cities throughout Spain (Girona, Lleida, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Sevilla, Tarragona, Tortosa, Valencia) and in neighboring Andorra. Eight nominees are running for the job, on the list as well will be the resigning president from August Josep Maria Bartomeu, but big chances for victory is the favorite Victor Font.

05 December 2020

Schedule for semi finals performed

Yesterday night was the draw for the Nations league closing stages, where it was supposed only to connect four teams that qualified for the finals that will be played in Italy from 06 until 10 October 2021.
On the first Wednesday of that month the hosts are going to meet Spain in Milan, while 24 hours later Belgium and France at Torino will conclude the semi final line-up. In the finish of the week two duels have to be staged: the same place is going to welcome the loosing teams from the above two games (just to determine which one is going to be third), and the grand final is rewarded to Milan where new champions will be crowned.
What is more interesting, is that not a single team from the 2019 finals is going to appear next year.
At the related news from this tournament is that one postponed duel from the group stages was decided without a play and sweat. Last Wednesday the European confederation officially confirmed that Switzerland - Ukraine duel (that was suspended due to virus cases at the visiting camp) is already registered 3:0. Because this duel was decisive of who is going to stay or who is going to be relegated this result means that the home team will remain in A league, whilst the guests are going into league B.

Unusual pair that played tonight and on this month closes elimination cycle for 2020

World Cup qualifiers for 2022 - Asian region together with Asian Cup eliminations for 2023, round 07 out of 10:

Qatar - Bangladesh 5:0

Scorers: 1:0 09 (08.34) Abdulaziz Hatem
               2:0 33 (32.51) Akram Afif
               3:0 71-pen (71.09) Almoeez Ali Abdullah
               4:0 78 (77.43) Almoeez Ali Abdullah
               5:0 90+2 (91.43) Akram Afif

04 December 2020

Deficit of two turned into surplus at four

Europa league group stage, single night, round 5 out of 6:

Zorya Luhansk - Leicester 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 84 (83.33) Allahyar Sayyadmanesh

LASK - Tottenham 3:3

Scorers: 1:0 41 (41.12) Peter Michorl
               1:1 45+2-pen (46.21) Gareth Bale
               1:2 55 (55.12) Son Heung-min
               2:2 84 (83.26) Johannes Eggestein
               2:3 86-pen (85.54) Dele Alli
               3:3 90+2 (92.06) Mamoudou Karamoko

Gent - Slovan Liberec 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 32 (31.21) Kamso Mara
               0:2 55 (54.25) Taras Kacharaba
               1:2 59 (58.53) Roman Yaemchuk

CSKA Moscow - Wolfsberger 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 22 (21.39) Dario Vizinger

Qarabag - Maccabi Tel Aviv 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 21-pen (21.15) Yonathan Cohen
               1:1 37 (36.28) Jaime Romero

Feyenoord - Dinamo Zagreb 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 45+5-pen (49.37) Bruno Petkovic
               0:2 52 (51.21) Lovro Majer

Antwerp - Ludogorets 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 19 (18.56) Martin Hongla
               1:1 53 (52.37) Kiril Despodov
               2:1 72 (71.50) Ritchie de Laet
               3:1 87 (86.25) Manuel Benson

- The visiting team finished this duel with 10 players, because on 90 (89.45) Dragos Grigore had to leave early as he received his second yellow card.

Crvena zvezda - Hoffenheim 0:0

AEK - Braga 2:4

Scorers: 0:1 07 (06.36) Vitor Tormena
               0:2 09 (08.56) Ricardo Esgaio
               1:2 31 (30.20) Nelson Oliveira
               1:3 45 (44.33) Ricardo Horta
               1:4 82 (82.00) Wenderson Rodrigues do Nascimento Galeno
               2:4 88 (88.07) Stavros Vasilantonopoulos

Milan - Celtic 4:2

Scorers: 0:1 07 (06.51) Tom Rogic
               0:2 13 (13.04) Odsonne Edouard
               1:2 24 (23.23) Hakan Calhanoglu
               2:2 26 (25.23) Samu Castillejo
               3:2 49 (49.10) Jens Petter Hauge
               4:2 81 (81.12) Brahim Diaz

Sivasspor - Villarreal 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 75 (74.39) Samuel Chukwueze

Lille - Sparta Praha 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 71 (70.39) Ladislav Krejci (II)
               1:1 80 (79.44) Burak Yilmaz
               2:1 84 (83.44) Burak Yilmaz

- On 64 (63.49) Ondrej Celustka (Sparta Praha) saw his second yellow card.

Benfica - Lech 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 35 (35.03) Jan Vertonghen
               2:0 57 (56.21) Darwin Nunez
               3:0 58 (57.45) Luis Miguel Afonso Fernandes (or just Pizzi)
               4:0 89 (88.51) Julian Weigl

Real Sociedad - Rijeka 2:2

Scorers: 0:1 37 (36.47) Darko Velkovski
               1:1 69 (68.30) Jon Bautista Orgilles
               1:2 73 (72.49) Stjepan Loncar 
               2:2 79 (78.32) Ignacio Monreal Eraso

Arsenal - Rapid Wien 4:1

Scorers: 1:0 10 (09.21) Alexandre Lacazette
               2:0 17 (17.00) Pablo Mari
               3:0 44 (43.41) Eddie Nketiah
               3:1 47 (46.42) Koya Kitagawa
               4:1 66 (65.22) Emile Smith Rowe

AZ - Napoli 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 05 (05.18) Dries Mertens
               1:1 53 (52.55) Bruno Martins Indi

- AZ could have lead the game at 60 (59.29), but the 11 metres shot from Teun Koopmeiners was perfectly saved.

Cluj - CSKA Sofia 0:0

- Second yellow card was awarded to Alexandru Chipciu (Cluj) on 85 (84.40).

Slavia Praha - Hapoel Be'er Sheva 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 30 (30.09) Abdallah Sima
               2:0 36 (35.39) Nicolae Stanciu
               3:0 84-own goal David Twito

Omonia - PAOK 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 09 (08.28) Andronikos Kaoullis
               1:1 38 (38.15) Christos Tzolis
               2:1 84-pen (83.40) Jordi Gomez

Roma - Young boys Bern 3:1

Scorers: 0:1 33 (33.03) Jean-Pierre Nsame
               1:1 44 (43.38) Borja Majoral
               2:1 58 (58.12) Riccardo Calafiori
               3:1 80 (80.18) Edin Dzeko

- Direct red card in this duel was for Mohamed ali Camara at 82 (81.48).

Glasgow rangers - Standard Liege 3:2

Scorers: 0:1 06 (05.46) Maxime Lestienne
               1:1 38 (38.14) Connor Goldson
               1:2 40 (39.54) Duje Cop
               2:2 45+1-pen (45.46) James Tavernier
               3:2 62 (62.08) Scott Arfield

Granada - PSV 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 38 (37.51) Donyell Malen

Molde - Dundalk 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 29 Magnus Wolff Eikrem
               2:0 40 Ohi Omoijuanfo
               3:0 67 Martin Ellingsen
               3:1 90+3 Jordan Flores

03 December 2020

Quadruple and hat trick scorer appeared on a night where seven goals were scored on one exciting duel

Group phase of Champions league, night 2 of 2, round 5 of 6:

Basaksehir - Rasenballsport Leipzig 3:4

Scorers: 0:1 26 (25.37) Yussuf Poulsen
               0:2 43 (42.37) Nordi Mukiele
               1:2 45+2 (47.01) Irfan Kahveci
               1:3 65 (65.08) Daniel Olmo
               2:3 72 (71.30) Irfan Kahveci
               3:3 85 (84.30) Irfan Kahveci
               3:4 90+1 (91.18) Alexander Sorloth

Krasnodar - Stade Rennais 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 71 (70.56) Marcus Berg

Ferencvaros - Barcelona 0:3

Scorers: 0:1 14 (13.49) Antoine Griezmann
               0:2 20 (19.57) Martin Braithwaite
               0:3 27-pen (27.20) Ousmane Dembele

Club Brugge - Zenit Saint Petersburg 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 33 (32.30) Charles de Ketelaere
               2:0 58-pen (57.36) Hans Vanaken
               3:0 73 (72.54) Noa Lang

Sevilla - Chelsea 0:4

Scorers: 0:1 07 (07.02) Olivier Giroud
               0:2 54 (53.29) Olivier Giroud
               0:3 74 (73.26) Olivier Giroud
               0:4 83-pen (82.52) Olivier Giroud

Juventus - Dynamo Kyiv 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 20 (20.05) Federico Chiesa
               2:0 57 (56.34) Cristiano Ronaldo
               3:0 65 (65.10)  Alvaro Morata

02 December 2020

Lazy players chased the ball like crazy, but did not do anything significantly with it

Group phase of Champions league, night 1 of 2, round 5 of 6:

Lokomotiv Moscow - Red bull Salzburg 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 27 (27.11) Mergim Berisha
               0:2 41 (40.49) Mergim Berisha
               1:2 78-pen (78.14) Anton Miranchuk
               1:3 81 (80.30) Karim Adeyemi

Shakhtar Donetsk - Real Madrid 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 56 (56.02) Bruno Ferreira Bonfim (with a nickname Dentinho)
               2:0 82 (81.53) Manor Solomon

Porto - Manchester city 0:0

Atalanta - Midtjylland 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 13 (12.53) Alexander Scholz
               1:1 78 (78.16) Cristian Romero

Liverpool - Ajax 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 58 (57.46) Curtis Jones

Atletico Madrid - Bayern Munich 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 25 (25.16) Joao Felix
               1:1 85-pen (85.09) Thomas Muller

01 December 2020

Confirmed preparatory tournament

Once it was the Confederations Cup (which is terminated for good), but for the next World Cup at least a preparatory tournament was found. For the future, and until now, this is an uncertainty as no one knows what (or if) will be invented in 2025, so that the 32 best teams of the globe could gather again one year later (or in 2026).
At 25 of June was suggested - on 24 November is accepted that the Arab Cup would be treated as a warm-up for the most watchable sports tournament in the world at 2022. However, there is a trick: not all teams from the six confederations is going to 'feel' the stadia in Qatar as only Middle East countries together with invitees from Africa will be privileged to participate. Therefore Algeria, Bahrein, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen are going to entertain us from 01 as far as 18 December 2021.