Champions League

Manchester City captain Kyle Walker said he was subjected to vile, racist and threatening abuse after the team's loss to Juventus in the Champions League and called Thursday on social media platforms to do more to stamp out the problem. City condemned the abuse, calling it disgusting and saying the club will be offering Kyle our full support. Walker posted one of the racist messages on his Instagram Stories, and wrote underneath: Instagram and the authorities need to stop this happening for the sake of all who are suffering this abuse. It is never acceptable. England's account on social media platform X said: "We are incredibly disappointed that Kyle has been subject to such abhorrent abuse on social media. Discrimination of any kind is completely unacceptable. We support strong action by the authorities and social media companies. City was beaten 2-0 by Juventus and has won just one of its last 10 games in all competitions, an improbably poor run of results for the winner of the

Manchester City plunged deeper into trouble in the Champions League by losing 2-0 at Juventus, the latest setback in a scarcely believable run of poor results for the ailing English champions. City dropped to 22nd place in the 36-team standings, with only the top 24 advancing. Progressing to the next round of the new-look format looked a certainty before the season for a team that was European champion in 2023 and has won the last four Premier League titles. But not anymore as City manager Pep Guardiola battles injuries and an apparent loss of belief among his players. City has won just one of its last 10 matches in all competitions, with goals by Duan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie inflicting the latest defeat and igniting Juventus' qualification hopes. City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan described the team's problem as a "mental issue." Opponents "are able to break our rhythm with the smallest of things," Gundogan said on Wednesday. "They don't even need to do much and it has such a b

Mohamed Salah scored a second-half penalty to maintain Liverpool's perfect Champions League record in a 1-0 win over Girona. A sixth straight win kept the Merseyside club at the top of the revamped 36-team league stage five points clear of second place Inter Milan. Girona was 30th with just one win from six games. Salah struck from the spot in the 63rd minute in Spain. It was his 16th goal of the season in 22 appearances overall. Dinamo Zagreb drew 0-0 with Celtic and both teams remain in the playoff positions. Liverpool's outstanding start to the campaign goes on with Arne Slot's team also on top of the Premier League. Former Manchester United midfielder Donny van de Beek handed Salah the chance to fire the visitors ahead with a clumsy tackle from behind on Luis Diaz in the box. Salah stepped up to convert the penalty and Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga went the wrong way. Liverpool's two remaining games are against Lille at home and PSV Eindhoven away in January. U.S. ...

Real Madrid's big stars turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant's faltering Champions League title defense. Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win at Italian league leader Atalanta. But Madrid still had to ride its luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage time when handed a golden chance to level the game. It was only Madrid's third win in the competition's revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champion in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. It's a very important win. Not everyone wins here. We suffered and competed. In the Champions League, you have to suffer, Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. It's still difficult to finish in the top eight, but we have two games left to earn points. Six-time champion Liverpool leads the way after maintaining its perfect record in Europe this season with a 1-0 win against Girona. Like Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain also picked up a much-neede

Kylian Mbapp was due to have tests on his broken nose on Wednesday as France tried to assess what part he could play in the European Championship. The World Cup winner sustained the injury during his team's 1-0 win against Austria on Monday and will have to wear a face mask if he plays on at the tournament. There will be more tests tomorrow to see how things are developing. Obviously it was a big collision," France coach Didier Deschamps said Tuesday. "The medical staff have done what they needed to reduce it as much as possible. This morning he was a bit better, so we will see that and we will follow it closely each day. France plays the Netherlands in its second game of Euro 2024 on Friday. It was not known if Mbapp would be able to play after his face collided with the shoulder Austria's Kevin Danso as he attempted a header late in the Group D match at Dusseldorf Arena. The French Football Federation said it had received positive news about Mbapp's chances of continuing at the .

Real Madrid has won the competition 15 times, including the first ever. The winner of Champions League 2024 final gets 21.5 million dollar

Champions Leagyue 2024 final, Real vs Dortmund LIVE SCORE: Real Madrid eying 15th title, Dortmund 2nd. UCL final live streaming will take place on Sony LIV application and website.

Wembley Stadium has significantly beefed up its security operation for the Champions League final on Saturday, intent on avoiding a repeat of the lawlessness that tarnished the Euro 2020 showpiece. Real Madrid faces Borussia Dortmund at England's national stadium, where three years ago 2,000 ticketless English fans violently stormed past stewards to get inside to watch their men's national team play Italy in the European Championship final. The past two Champions League finals have also been marred by problems. UEFA was primarily blamed for security failures in 2022 in Paris when Liverpool and Madrid fans were held in crushed queues. Last year, fans complained of transportation problems accessing the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, where Manchester City beat Inter Milan. Saturday's final will feature the largest deployment of stewards 2,500 in Wembley Stadium history and follows 5 million pounds ($6.3 million) of security upgrades including new gates and perimeter fencing, improved locks

Real Madrid is going for a record-extending 15th European Cup. Borussia Dortmund is aiming to pull off one of soccer's biggest upsets in recent memory. Whoever wins the Champions League final on Saturday will be defying the odds in their own way. Madrid's domination of European club soccer's biggest prize confounds belief. Its record of 14 titles is twice as many as its closest rival AC Milan. The club has created its history in this competition," coach Carlo Ancelotti says. Madrid's record in the Champions League era is even more impressive: Eight wins since the tournament was rebranded in 1992; three in a row from 2016-18 and five in the last 10 years. In the same period, Madrid has won La Liga only four times. Madrid has also been a semifinalist in 12 of the last 14 seasons. It's something special for the club, for all the madridistas (fans) and for us, who are also madridistas. It's a competition where we're more focused, says Ancelotti, who can win a record-extending fifth

Real Madrid weathered the storm, silenced the crowd and ultimately ended Manchester City's brief hold on the Champions League. The all-time kings of Europe moved a step closer to a record-extending 15th title in the competition they have dominated after a 4-3 win Wednesday on penalties at Etihad Stadium. But not before being pushed to the limit by defending champion City. I was pretty much dead on my feet at the end, Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham said. It's so difficult. They are continuously probing with the ball and move you around. Most teams would fall apart when City get on top of you, but we stood up really well. The game had gone to the uncertainty of a shootout after ending 1-1 on the night and 4-4 on aggregate. City dominated the chances after going behind to Rodrygo's goal in the 12th minute, but only had Kevin de Bruyne's leveler in the 76th to show for its superiority, which included 64% of possession and 18 corners to Madrid's one through extra time. That counted

Playing with an extra man for more than an hour, Paris Saint-Germain rallied against Barcelona to reach the Champions League semifinals. Kylian Mbapp scored twice as PSG reversed its first-leg loss at home with a 4-1 win at Barcelona on Tuesday to advance 6-4 on aggregate and keep alive its hopes of a first European title in what is the France star's final season with the club. Former Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembl and Vitinha also scored for PSG, which took advantage of a 29th-minute red card to Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo after he fouled Bradley Barcola while trying to stop a breakaway. When it was 11 against 11 we were well organized. The sending off changes everything. The match changed completely, said Barcelona coach Xavi Hernndez, who was later sent off himself for complaining. We would have liked to play PSG 11 against 11. That should not have been a red card. Barcelona had gotten off to a good start and opened the scoring with a goal by Raphinha in the 12th, but the

About 10 years after its last edition was played, "active conversations" are taking place between cricket boards of India, Australia and England to revive the Champions League, a club-based international T20 competition. The last edition of the CLT20 was held in India in 2014 with Chennai Super Kings winning the title after defeating Kolkata Knight Riders in the final at Bengaluru, with the edition involving three teams from India, two each from Australia and South Africa and one team side from Pakistan, the West Indies and New Zealand. As many as six editions of the CLT20 were played between 2009-10 to 2014-15, with four of these being organised in India and two in South Africa. The tournament was won twice each by Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, while Australia's New South Wales and Sydney Sixes won it one time each. While the cricket calendar remains jam-packed, the biggest challenge would be to find a window for reviving such an event, said Cricket Victoria CEO Nick ...

Uefa Champions League 2023-24 quarterfinal draw: The first leg of the ties will be played on April 10 and 11 while the reverse leg will be played on April 17 and 18 respectively, according to IST

Atletico Madrid will take on Inter Milan at Civitas Metropolitan Stadium at 1:30 AM IST on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The match will be telecast live on Sony Sports and can be live-streamed on Sony LIV

Barcelona will take on Napoli at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on March 13, 2024 at 1:30 AM IST. The match will be telecast live on Sony Sports and can also be live-streamed on Sony LIV in India

Arsenal will take on Porto at the Emirates Stadium at 1:30 PM IST on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. The match will be telecast live on Sony Sports and can also be live-streamed on Sony LIV in India

Kylian Mbapp led Paris Saint-Germain back to the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday, scoring both goals in a 2-1 win over Real Sociedad that kept alive the French club's hopes of winning the European title in its last season with the France forward. PSG advanced 4-1 on aggregate, with Mbapp also scoring one of the goals in the 2-0 win in the first leg in Paris three weeks ago. Mbapp has already told PSG he will not stay with the club after this season. Despite huge spending to try to win the Champions League for the first time, PSG had been eliminated from the last 16 five times in the last seven seasons, including the last two. It had made it to the semifinals in 2021 and was runner-up in 2020. We knew right away that we couldn't go to sleep, Mbapp said. If they had opened the scoring, they would have pushed on with their fans' backing. We had to dampen their hopes early on. That's what we did, and we're very happy to be back in the quarterfinals. Mbapp was the ...

The Champions League narrative is so often about Manchester City and Real Madrid. The past two champions of Europe were the only teams to sweep through the group stage with six wins. They also are first in action Tuesday when the most prized competition in club soccer resumes in the round of 16. Man City is away to a Copenhagen team playing in the knockout stage for the first time in 13 years and Madrid is at Leipzig for the first leg. The two teams favored to lift the trophy warmed up with comfortable wins Saturday and goals from signature players. Erling Haaland confirmed his return to form after a foot injury with both goals in Man City's 2-0 win over Everton, his first since Nov. 28 when Leipzig was beaten 3-2 in their Champions League group. Haaland has a Premier League-leading 16 goals and Madrid's Jude Bellingham has a La Liga-best 15 after also scoring twice in a 4-0 rout of second-place Girona, which is owned by the same Abu Dhabi group as Man City. But Bellingham has an

Following a thrilling couple of months of group-stage action, the focus now shifts to the knockout rounds where 16 teams will fight it out to win the ultimate crown

So much for the English taking over European soccer. The final Champions League group stage in its current format ended with representation from the supposedly all-powerful Premier League cut in half as Manchester United and Newcastle United failed to advance to the knockout stage and were even knocked out of European competition altogether. Instead, there was a Spanish resurgence, a decent showing from the German contingent, and a couple of nice surprises making their way into the round of 16 in the form of Copenhagen and PSV Eindhoven. This was the last year of the 32-team, eight-pool group stage, with the Union of European Football Associations pivoting next season to a single 36-team league that will see clubs play eight games up from the current six. The top eight teams will advance automatically to the round of 16 knockout bracket and Nos. 9 to 24 in the standings go into a playoff round to decide the other eight qualifiers. So, what have we learned ahead of the round of 1