Yep, Barca B will play Real Madrid Castilla in the promotion playoff semifinals, with the first leg being played this Saturday at 21h00 local time! Can't find any TV info on this yet. They must have tweaked the format of the playoffs because I thought they stayed within their own group until the final promotion playoff game. But this season its A2 v B5; A3 v B4; A4 v B3 and A5 v B2. Four winners meet for the 2 remaining promotion places. Furthermore, the semis are 2 legs instead of a single match (which makes me think the previous format was due to COVID).
Incredibly, Celta Vigo are probably in the most trouble apart from the 2 clubs that are already down; Despite having had 39 points after 33 matches. They had to have thought they were safe! By comparison, in Serie A, one of Spezia or Hellas Verona will survive despite 31 points from 37 matches
Sevilla win the Europa League ... again. The win on PKs over Roma after a 1 x 1 draw in regular time. It's their 7th title. And they've had a bad season this year with 2 manager changes. Mourinho ... porque ?
I don't feel so bad for Mourinho Roma as much as I do Serie A in general. It's good to see them back challenging in Europe. Hopefully Inter can bring full glory back to the Lega..
Benzema informs Real he wants to join Al-Ittihad. If Al Hilal signs Messi too, it'll be an enormous coup for Saudi football today. Sportswashing in full effect as Saudi Arabia will use these players' clout to bid for the WC 2030.
Insane that Sevilla have qualified for the UCL after being near relegation just a couple of months ago
Astounding stat: Spanish teams remain undefeated in European finals (EL/CL) since 2001. 23 finals since. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/13wzo2c/spanish_teams_remain_undefeated_in_european/
Sevilla was made for this tourney. They trailed early then got an equalizer from an own goal, then ended up winning. Its like they got the plot armor like Real often had in CL.
Lol I thought meeting up in the parking lot was just a cliché. He's so insecure too. I know lots of people throw away their second place medals, but Jose has to make a big show of it. Then talk about all the finals he won in the post match interview. Still fun to watch him lose though.
While he is already 35, an age I typically consider a player going into retirement (league) mode, he is the current Balon d'Or holder. People saying he slowed down compared to last season (which was always going to be tough to match), but he still scored 18 in 23 in the league and 30 in 42 overall. His problem this season seems to be more due to injuries. So he definitely can still play at the highest level if he wishes to aside from physical problems. Perhaps after the WC disaster, he may have lost motivation to keep doing it Europe and now it's all about money even though he doesn't really need it.
That bid looks pretty dead after Egypt pulled out. Now all CAF nations will presumably vote for the ESP-POR-MOR bid. As well as the vast majority of UEFA nations, especially as they were the most vocal against the Qatar WC. They'll get no votes from the Americas either.
Technically, 4 clubs from La Liga have lost finals. But those happened in all-Spanish meetings. 2007 Europa : Espanyol (lost to Sevilla on penalties) 2012 Europa : Athletic Bilbao (lost 3-0 to Atletico Madrid) 2014 Champions : Atletico Madrid (lost to Real Madrid in extra time) 2016 Champions : Atletico Madrid (lost to Real Madrid on penalties)
Early Saturday morning out in north america. Alexia has made appearances in 5 games since recently recovering from her ACL tear, but just 118 minutes so far in Liga play, no CL appearances.
3 key matches in Ligue 2 tonight involving the top 3 teams, none of whom have secured promotion yet. Two of the matches have now been abandoned! The Bordeaux match was abandoned late in the first half with Bordeaux losing at home in a match they needed to win. Now Le Havre's match has been abandoned very late on, with Le Havre leading 1-0 (they just need a draw to clinch top spot)!
Looking at the games that are tomorrow and saw 5 of teams can get Conference in La Liga and calculating what their chances were. Looked at Sevilla and realized their chances are very low ..... then I remembered So 4 teams are fighting for the last place (I assume they all want it) and 2 of them are playing each other and Athletic are playing Real so even Vallecano has real chance