Competitive play won't resume in the 2015 2016 UEFA Champions League until well into the New Year, but already, fans are getting excited for the next stage of Europe's most prestigious club football tournament. On Monday, December 14th, the UEFA announced the draw for the Champions League 2016 round of 16, with the first leg matches to take place on February 16th, 17th, 23rd or 24th and second leg matches scheduled for early to mid-March. Let's take a look at the match-ups!
Probably the highest profile draw for the round of 16 is the match-up between Bayern Munich and Juventus. Bayern won five of their six group stage fixtures, only dropping one game (against Arsenal). Juventus, meanwhile, have struggled
After this coming weekend, the German Bundesliga will take more than a month off before resuming regular-season play. Luckily for fans of the Spanish La Liga, though, there will be plenty of action going on in the Primera Division throughout the holiday season. Consider this post your guide to the La Liga 2015 festive fixtures, from the games you should watch to what Spain's top teams will be hoping to accomplish with the holiday spirit (hopefully) on their side.
Week 16
Though far from the month-long break provided by the Bundesliga, the La Liga does take the better part of two weeks off for Christmas. As a result, you'll want to tune in this weekend to get your fill of Spanish league football action before you head off to spend time with family and friends for the holiday season.
There aren't any huge fixtures on the schedule for the first week of the festive period. Barcelona, who are still leading the
Real Madrid are having a solid season in the Spanish La Liga. They've secured a spot in the round of 16 for the UEFA Champions League, closing out the group stage of the tournament with a resounding 8-0 victory against Malmo FF. Cristiano Ronaldo scored 11 goals in the UCL group stage-putting him in a league of his own as the tournament's top scorer. Ronaldo is also once again a top-three finalist for the Ballon d'Or Award-though he'll probably hand the honors off to Lionel Messi.
And yet, despite all of the good things going on at the Bernabeu right now, the clubs Copa del Rey disqualification is the topic of conversation. It's a blunder that will likely go down in Real Madrid history as the defining event of the first half of the 2015 2016 season.
According to Spanish publication AS, a number of major European football clubs could soon face international transfer sanctions from FIFA. FC Barcelona, the reigning La Liga victories, will soon finish out a 14-month transfer ban of their own-a sanction handed down from FIFA after the club violated the rules for signing players under the age of 18. Evidently, though, FIFA believes other clubs have broken the same rules and is currently considering sanctions for Chelsea, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, and other major European soccer clubs.
When Barcelona played their first-leg match of the Copa del Rey round of 32, all the way back at the end of October, something odd happened: they settled for a dull, scoreless draw against third-tier football club, CF Villanovense. Rather than risk the injury of top talent like Luis Suarez and Neymar-particularly important given the then-ongoing absence of Lionel Messi-manager Luis Enrique chose to field a soccer squad of players who normally don't start. The result was a surprisingly poor showing for the reigning Copa del Rey champions and the recent treble victors.
Last week, when Barca returned to the pitch for their second leg against Villanovense-and when the rest of the round of 32 finally got underway-things looked quite a bit different for the soccer club. Enrique still left Neymar and Suarez on the bench (and Messi wasn't even on hand as a substitute), but it didn't matter. Playing at home on December 2nd, Barcelona demolished their third-tier challengers, winning
One of these years, FIFA's final shortlist of the last three Ballon d'Or contenders will not include both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. That year isn't this year, though, as both players land among the trio of Ballon d'Or finalists 2015, for the fifth year in a row and the eighth year in total. (Ronaldo was not shortlisted in 2010, but Messi was.) Also named among the top three was Messi's teammate Neymar, his first time as a finalist for the prestigious soccer award. FIFA will announce the winner of the prize on January 11th.
The three-man list of finalists was culled from a 23-man shortlist that FIFA released to the public back in October. FC Barcelona was the most represented football club on the 23-man list,
It looked like being the perfect response. Four days after being humiliated by Barcelona in the first Clasico of the season, Real Madrid stormed into a 4-0 lead after 70 minutes of their Champions League tie with Shakhtar Donetsk, taking their anger and frustration out on their Ukrainian opponents as they attempted to seal their progression into the knockout stage. While such an emphatic victory would not absolve Rafael Benitez and his players for the 4-0 loss to arch-enemies Barca, it would at least go some way towards making amends.
The final 20 minutes, though, almost saw a catastrophic collapse: two strikes from Alex Teixeira and one from Dentinho reduced the deficit to just a single goal, with Madrid ultimately doing just enough to hang on for a 4-3 victory. Despite departing Arena Lviv with all three points and qualification sewn up, all of the doubts and questions that Madrid had faced a few days previously arose once more.
After a 0-4 thrashing from FC Barcelona on November 21st, things are more uncertain at Real Madrid than they've been in years, to the point that many experts are asking who will be first out Rafa Benitez or Cristiano Ronaldo? The El Clasico loss was not only a big hit to all of the egos at Real Madrid-because the Vikings believed they had a shot to take control of La Liga after Lionel Messi fell injured in September-but it also put the football club in third place, behind Atletico Madrid.
It wasn't just bad luck that caused Real Madrid to suffer one of the worst El Clasico losses in years. On the contrary, the team just looked sluggish, sloppy, and slow. Cristiano Ronaldo had a few decent moments, but on the whole, the reigning Ballon d'Or winner couldn't elevate things for the Vikings-despite the fact that they were playing at home.
Week five of the UEFA Champions League 2015/16 began to bring the next phase of the competition into clear focus, as 10 of the round of 16 slots are now confirmed. Week six of the group stage, which the UEFA has scheduled for December 8th and 9th, will see several on-the-fringe clubs battling for last-minute advancement. For the most part, though, the big title contenders have already secured their round of 16 spots.
When we last checked in with the Champions League, following week four of competition in early November, three teams-Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Zenit St. Petersburg-had already guaranteed themselves advancement into the next round. Zenit St. Petersburg continues to carry the
Here we are; another season, another bevy of rumors about the potential departures of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo from their respective football clubs. Every year seems to bring chatter that Spain's biggest soccer stars are about to hit the road and head elsewhere for the soccer seasons that remain in their careers. Amid the mounting speculation this season we imagine the future of La Liga without Messi or Ronaldo.
Up in the Air
Last season, the rumors were loudest about Cristiano Ronaldo, who was supposedly upset about Real Madrid's decision to sack Carlo Ancelotti and hire Rafael Benitez instead. Ronaldo ultimately signed a new contract, though, potentially tying himself to the Vikings until 2018. However, sources are currently saying that Real Madrid are likely to sell either Ronaldo
