Officially intimidated
PSG and Juventus are league winners. Not that they're sufficiently happy with this, considering the latter's shocking elimination in UCL and the former's... yeah, now-yearly fizzle in that same competition.
On Argentina, Independiente got eliminated on the Copa Superliga, and there's a high chance their coach will be sacked. Considering that his latest grand feat was in 2017 (last year's Suruga Bank wasn't much, aside from putting the club at the level of having as many international trophies as Boca and Milan), I do believe he has outstayed his welcome.
Edited by MyFinalEdits on Apr 22nd 2019 at 11:31:38 AM
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Surrounded by weirdoes
PSG needs to learn how to properly deal with the decisive games at international level. As long as they keep choking like that, they won't be able to win the Champions anytime soon.
Wake me up at your own risk.
As for the other three of the "Big Five" European leagues...
Barcelona effectively have one hand on the title in La Liga after a 2-0 win at Alaves on Tuesday, but Atletico Madrid are technically still in the hunt, with a 3-2 home win against Valencia earlier today keeping them within nine points of the top with four matches left. Real Madrid are 16 points behind Barcelona with a match in hand, but the highest they can finish now is second, and that would require a massive end-of-season collapse from their crosstown rivals.
Bayern Munich remain a point ahead of Borussia Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga courtesy of a 1-0 home win against Werder Bremen (whom they also eliminated from the DFB-Pokal today); Dortmund romped to a 4-0 win at Wolfsburg to keep pace with their title rivals, so at this point it's effectively a case of who blinks first.
And so it is in the Premier League; Man City finally made up their match in hand today with a 2-0 win at Man United, which is a blow to the latter's fading hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season (Arsenal's hopes of climbing past Chelsea and/or Tottenham into the top four also went down in flames today with a 3-1 defeat at Wolves). City now lead Liverpool by a point, and both clubs have a fairly easy run-in to the end of the season, so it's hard to imagine the lead changing again.
And next week, the Champions League and Europa League semi-finals kick off. Smart money is on Barcelona and... how about Tottenham in the Champions League, and... Valencia and Chelsea in the Europa League, perhaps? We'll see.
EDIT 29 APRIL: And now Barcelona have officially been crowned La Liga champions after a goal from Messi gave them a 1-0 win over Levante; Atletico Madrid managed a 1-0 win over Valladolid (who technically scored the only goal of the match... in their own net) to remain nine points behind, but Barcelona have the superior head-to-head record and so cannot be caught. Meanwhile, an Adri Embarba penalty condemned Real Madrid to a 1-0 defeat at erstwhile table-propper-uppers Rayo Vallecano (who are now second from bottom instead), which means that unless Atletico lose their three remaining matches and Real win theirs, they'll finish third.
Liverpool thrashed Huddersfield Town 5-0, but Man City snatched a 1-0 win at Burnley (courtesy of a VAR-confirmed goal) to remain a point ahead. They had the best weekend of the top six; Man United and Chelsea fought out a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, ten-man Arsenal were embarrassed 3-0 at Leicester City, and Tottenham had better hope they can improve on their 1-0 defeat at home to West Ham when they take on Ajax in the Champions League semi-finals. This also means that Tottenham stay third, Chelsea fourth, Arsenal fifth, and Man United sixth. Two matchdays remain.
Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund both dropped points in the Bundesliga; Bayern had to settle for a 1-1 draw on their visit to FC Nürnberg, while Borussia were thumped 4-2 at home to Schalke 04. Bayern are now two points clear with three matchdays left. Bayern's DFB-Pokal final opponents RB Leipzig stay third after beating SC Freiburg 2-1.
As for the rest of the UEFA top 10 leagues, Zenit St Petersburg lead the Russian Premier League by eight points with four matchdays left, Quag15 can attest to Benfica leading Porto by two points and Sporting by eight points in the Primeira Liga with three matchdays left, KRC Genk lead the Belgian First Division A by six points with four matchdays left, Shakhtar Donetsk are seven points clear atop the Ukrainian Premier League with six matchdays left, and with four Süper Lig matchdays left, the title race looks to boil down to three Istanbul clubs, as per usual - Galatasaray, Beşiktaş, and... no, not Fenerbahçe, their season has been downright putrid as they're closer to relegation than the title. No, it's mighty İstanbul Başakşehir, who currently lead by two points and may very well win their first ever league title. Let's hope!
Edited by mlsmithca on Apr 29th 2019 at 5:58:02 AM
Eh, let's not. Not only do they barely have any fans, they're the government club (to the point that they're sometimes called "Erdogan's club"). The wannabe sultan doesn't really deserve the happiness of a title (in the past, he was, if I'm not mistaken, a Fener fan).
Yesterday, Ajax won away against Tottenham by 1-0. Today, Barcelona won 3-0 against Liverpool at the Camp Nou. Goals here
, including a brace by Messi. The second goal is his 600th goal for Barcelona. Liverpool did play well, and Salah hit the post, but Klopp's side were unlucky and will rue their wasted chances. If Ajax doesn't get complacent, we might have a Cruijff final in the CL.
Edited by Quag15 on May 1st 2019 at 2:23:55 AM
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Ah. That'll teach me to jump to "let's see someone win who hasn't won before" judgements, apparently. Well, Galatasaray and Beşiktaş are still in the hunt, although they play each other on Sunday, so someone is dropping points.
A better week for English clubs in the Europa League than in the Champions League. Arsenal came back from a goal down to beat Valencia 3-1 at home, with a brace from Lacazette and a 90th minute cushion from Aubameyang, while Diakhaby scored Valencia's goal. The away goal could prove decisive, of course; I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the return leg finish 2-0 to Valencia. As for the other semi-final, Jovic put Eintracht Frankfurt in front, but Pedro equalised for Chelsea just before the half, and 1-1 it stayed. Who knows, we could see the first London derby in a European final.
Officially intimidated
Casillas suffered a mild heart attack while training with Porto. Ouch. 
Also, Boca won the Supercopa Argentina in penalty shootouts against Rosario Central, while Monterrey won the Concachampions against eternal final-losers Tigres (seriously, they lost the 2015 Libertadores final, then the 2016 and 2017 Concacaf finals and now this year's).
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Seems some sources are saying Casillas will never be able to play professionally again if he doesn't want to have a second, probably fatal, heart attack. Here's hoping it just forces him into retirement instead of, well, something far worse. Good luck, Iker.
Bayern Munich are pulling away in the Bundesliga after a 3-1 home win over ten-man Hannover 96 that was, by all accounts, suffocatingly dull. Borussia Dortmund, meanwhile, surrendered a 2-0 lead and two points at Werder Bremen and now trail by four points with two matchdays left. Energy Drinks Leipzig (er, you know the one) likewise threw away a two-goal lead and two points at FC Mainz and trail BVB by five points, while Eintracht Frankfurt were shredded 6-1 at Bayer Leverkusen, who are now level with them on points but still have inferior goal difference.
As for the Premier League, Liverpool fought out a 3-2 win at Newcastle, but Mo Salah was stretchered off (his replacement, Divock Origi, scored the winning goal), which bodes ill for their remaining Champions League semi-final tie. Man City are at home to Leicester tomorrow; a win will put them back on top by one point going into the final matchday next week. It was another disappointing week for most of the rest of the top six; Arsenal were held 1-1 at home to Brighton (who host Man City next week), ten-man Tottenham lost 1-0 at Bournemouth, and Man United had to settle for a 1-1 draw at stone-dead-last Huddersfield. Chelsea managed three points with a 3-0 win at home to Watford, so they clamber past Tottenham into third place. Man United can now no longer qualify for the Champions League, and Arsenal will only qualify if they win their final match, Spurs lose theirs, and the goal difference flips in their favour by eight.
Good news from the Süper Lig: Galatasaray have gone top on goal difference after beating Beşiktaş 2-0 while Başakşehir were held to a goalless draw at Sivasspor. In two weeks, the top two will play each other. That should be... interesting, if possibly not for the right reasons.
(And as for the rest of UEFA's "second top five", Genk are champions-elect in Belgium as they lead by nine points with three matches to go and a comfortable goal difference cushion; Benfica still lead by two points in the Primeira Liga with two matches to go; Shakhtar Donetsk still lead the Ukrainian Premier League with five matchdays left; and Zenit St Petersburg have stitched up the title in the Russian Premier League with three weeks to spare after their nearest challengers, Lokomotiv Moscow, slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal Tula.)
Vitória SC 2-2 Nacional da Madeira
The month of April was so shit I lost motivation to write about the matches that month here. Ironically enough, Moreirense did not took advantage of this. I'll point out the reasons why below.
Anyway, we scored first (Tozé, through a penalty), but we were down to men shortly after the middle of the first half. In the second half, we did managed to score the second one (Florent Hanin with a nice shot). However, being down to 10 men would mean a price would have to be paid. Their defender Diogo Coelho scored a remarkable trivela - can't argue with this one - and then, in stoppage time, Ibrahim Abdullahi equalized. Nacional will likely get relegated, but this point gives them one last shred of hope for the final two matchweeks of the season.
As for us, we could've nailed the qualification to the Europa League second qualifying round, had we won. The reason why we're close to it in spite of Moreirense being above us is because they didn't get the UEFA license to compete in the Europa. The thing is, iirc, the FPF here have a stupid rule stating that clubs that are interested must sign up (and pay a certain amount of money, which presumably goes to UEFA) until January.
Considering some of the clubs like Moreirense (and Desportivo das Aves last year) don't have a lot of money and can't think they've got a Europa League position by January (then again, who does?) and can spend the money, this means that the gulf between the Big Three, Braga and us vs the rest will likely increase. Not even Belenenses SAD (aka the fake Belenenses) didn't get said license. Something will have to change, and I suspect the FPF is becoming increasingly corrupt and strictly on the side of the big three).
Anyway, if we win next week against the fake Belenenses, we'll clinch the presence in the Europa League second qualifying round. Or, if that doesn't happen, we'll have to clinch on the last matchday away against Moreirense. If all goes wrong, then Rio Ave might well take advantage of it (they took a draw from Porto last week, and this week they won away against... you guessed it, Moreirense). I hope the team can get enough morale to put the matter to rest next week. One thing is for sure, the club needs a bit of an overhaul in terms of policy (both signings-wise and in terms of the B team and youth squads) for the next few seasons, otherwise we'll become increasingly poor, strength/talent-wise.
Btw, speaking of the pseudo-Belenenses... they lost at "home" against Sporting CP. By 1-8(!!). Bruno Fernandes scored a hat-trick and he's now confirmed to be the top goalscoring midfielder in a single season in the European top leagues (he overcame Lampard some weeks ago and a Brazilian midfielder - can't recall his name right now - that played in Turkey, today). He has 31 goals this season (19 in the Liga, 6 in the Cup, 3 in the League Cup, and 3 in the Europa League). Manchester City and Wolves are rumoured to be interested in him, so, he'll likely leave Sporting this summer.
Edited by Quag15 on May 5th 2019 at 3:49:28 AM
Officially intimidated
River squashed Aldosivi by 6-0 in the Round of 16 in the Copa Superliga. They will face Atlético Tucumán next round.
Barcelona lost 2-0 against Celta in La Liga, while Real Madrid won 3-1. Of course, neither this nor that matters anymore.
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In tonight's final fixture of the penultimate Premier League match week, Vincent Kompany scored the only goal of the match against Leicester as Man City climbed to the top of the Premier League again; it was going to go down to the wire anyway, but now once again it's advantage City.
I suppose Klopp and co. can always hope that Celta Vigo have softened Barcelona up for their match at Anfield, but I suspect that with La Liga already decided, Barca simply took their foot off the accelerator pedal so that they'd be rested for the Champions League. As MyFinalEdits says, the results no longer matter; Barcelona will finish first, and Real Madrid will only leapfrog Atletico Madrid if they win their remaining two matches and Atletico lose their remaining two matches (which, as Atletico were thumped 3-0 at Espanyol this past weekend, is certainly possible). Getafe are poised to join the Big Three in next season's Champions League, but they're only three points ahead of both Valencia and Sevilla, so there's potential excitement there.
In Ligue 1, while PSG ran away with first place weeks ago, the other Champions League spots are still up for grabs; Lille have one sewn up, but whether it's the group stage or the third qualifying round is as yet undetermined, and while Lyon are perched in third place at the moment, they're just one point ahead of Saint-Etienne, and technically both Montpellier and Marseille could still catch both Lyon and Saint-Etienne if one of the latter loses all three remaining matches.
Similarly, Juventus may have settled the title race weeks ago in Serie A, while Napoli are ready to join them in the Champions League, but with three matchdays remaining, the other qualification spots are technically still open; Internazionale and Atalanta are third and fourth at the moment, but Milan and Roma are just three points out of fourth place. If Atalanta can hold on, they'll qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history (they finished fourth two years ago, but at the time, only the top three in Serie A qualified for the Champions League).
Surrounded by weirdoes
What's the current state of the relegations an promotions?
Wake me up at your own risk.
Hm. Well, just sticking to the "big five" UEFA leagues:
- La Liga: Huesca are currently bottom, Rayo Vallecano are a point ahead but too far away from safety to escape relegation, and Girona currently round out the bottom three but are just a point behind Valladolid, and three points behind Levante, Celta Vigo, and Villarreal; as there are two matchdays left, any of those four clubs could join the bottom two in going down. There's still a lot to play for in the Segunda Division; Osasuna are six points clear of Granada at the top, and Granada are three points ahead of Albacete, but there are five matchdays still to play.
- Premier League: Starting at the bottom, Huddersfield Town, Fulham, and Cardiff City have already been relegated. Norwich City and Sheffield United have been promoted from the Championship, while the playoffs pit Leeds United, West Brom, Aston Villa, and Derby County against each other for the third promotion spot.
- Bundesliga: The bottom three will collectively be VfB Stuttgart, 1. FC Nurnberg, and Hannover 96; which two will be automatically relegated and which might earn a reprieve in the relegation playoffs hasn't yet been settled (Stuttgart are five points ahead of Nurnberg and six points ahead of Hannover, but there are two matchdays left). 1. FC Koln have stitched up the top spot in the 2. Bundesliga, while SC Paderborn currently occupy second place but are just one point ahead of Union Berlin and SV Hamburg in that order, and technically 1. FC Heidenheim and FC St Pauli are still in the hunt for the playoff against the 16th-placed Bundesliga club.
- Serie A: Chievo are already rooted to the foot of the table (partly after being docked three points for accounting fraud - corruption in Italian football? Hard to believe, isn't it) and Frosinone are going down with them, but there are a lot of clubs who could finish 18th; it's Empoli for now, but technically Udinese, Genoa, Bologna, Parma, Fiorentina, and Cagliari are not yet safe. In Serie B, Brescia have topped the table, and Lecce are currently poised to join them in Serie A next year but are just a point ahead of Palermo. A lot of clubs could still qualify for the playoffs.
- Ligue 1: For now, the bottom three are Guingamp, Dijon, and Caen in reverse order, but there's three matchdays to go still; one or more of Monaco, Amiens, Toulouse, or Bordeaux could go down instead. (We'll have to see if Monaco's "Come back, Jardim, all is forgiven" gamble is enough to save them.) Metz have won the title in Ligue 2, while Brest are likely to join them but are just four points ahead of Troyes with two matchdays left.
(Apologies to anyone reading this from the cities known in English as Cologne and Nuremberg for omitting the umlauts in the German names; my text editor rendered them as gibberish.)
Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona (goals here)
Liverpool were on a mission, and accomplished it in the most amazing of ways. Origi (of all people) scored early on, and Liverpool kept the pressure going (apart from a couple of occasions Barça had.
But it was in the second half that everything paid off, big time. In just 3 minutes, Wijnaldum (who came on as a sub) scored twice, through a quick shot and a header. And then, at the 79', watch the absolute cheekiness of the quick corner that led to Origi scoring his second one. Against Barcelona who only seemed to truly wake up after this 4th goal. But by then, they were mentally drained. Heck, they were already apathetic before the 4th goal.
Between Liverpool and Roma the previous season, I don't know which one was more impressive (perhaps Roma, because they were full underdogs; but Liverpool tonight played like freaking Predator). Barça will have to do some serious soul searching.
Just incredible.
Edited by Quag15 on May 7th 2019 at 2:17:59 AM
Officially intimidated
Damn Venezuelan blackout,.... I was unable to watch the game because of the daily 6-hour blackout. Really wanted to see that comeback.
Surrounded by weirdoes
Did Barcelona completely forget how to play these games?
Wake me up at your own risk.
Figure of Hourai
That seems rather insulting to Liverpool. 
To echo RainehDaze, while it is true that Barcelona were underwhelming at best, it's not true that this alone explains the result; Liverpool were sensational from Alisson to Origi and everyone in between. The fact that they won 4-0 without Mo Salah or Bobby Firmino suggests they have more squad depth than they're sometimes given credit for having. And Trent Alexander-Arnold's corner to set up the fourth goal was a moment of mad genius; the guy has a bright future ahead of him.
We'll have to see if Tottenham can manage a similar comeback in Amsterdam tonight. Yes, Ajax have home advantage, but, well, so did Tottenham in the first leg, so anything's possible.
Well, I'll be damned. Goals from de Ligt and Ziyech gave Ajax a 2-0 lead at half-time, but a hat-trick from Lucas Moura - the third six minutes into injury time - gave Tottenham a 3-2 win to put them through on away goals.
Well done, Spurs. You've earned this.
De Ligt; Ziyech; Lucas Moura; Lucas Moura; a Ziyech chance that hit the post; Vertonghen's header that hit the bar; and Lucas Moura's hat-trick.
Final whistle and celebrations.
What a match. Especially that second half, so filled with twists and turns.
Pochettino crying of joy was a sight to behold.
Lucas Moura has become just the fifth different player to score a hat-trick in a Champions League semi-final, after Del Piero, Ivica Olic, Lewandowski and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Tottenham are the first debutante Champions League finalists since Chelsea in 2008, btw. London is also the first city to have 3 teams that have reached the European Cup/Champions League final (Milan, Belgrade and Madrid each have two).
Edited by Quag15 on May 8th 2019 at 2:25:29 AM
Surrounded by weirdoes
This shows how nothing is over till it's over, I guess. And to never stop pushing forward.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Officially intimidated
Now we'll see if Arsenal and Chelsea win their respective matches so the UEL has an English derby as well. In fact, that'd guarantee a Supercup for England and an English emissary in the Club World Cup.
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Will D. Downing
All-English finals it is.
Chelsea 1-1 Frankfurt (goals here, plus a disallowed goal and the penalty shootout) (2-2 on agg., 4-3 on penalties).
Valencia 2-4 Arsenal (goals here, including a brace by Kevin Gameiro and a hat-trick by Aubameyang; 3-7 on agg.). There was also a scuffle between players at the end.
Whether this is a one time thing or the start of an era with the PL at the top of European football (with La Liga declining a bit this season), I don't know. But it's certainly unique.
On a small note, the Europa League final being in Baku means that Arsenal won't bring (probably for safety reasons) Mkhitaryan (because, you know, Armenia-Azerbaijan issues).
Edited by Quag15 on May 9th 2019 at 3:02:57 AM
EL quarter-finals have ended nearly an hour ago:
With not much left to play, Valencia merely confirmed their passage to the semis after winning 2-0 over Villareal (5-1 on agg.). Goals here
.
Eintracht Frankurt had to win by 2-0 at home against Benfica and that's precisely what they did. goals here
. It's clear that Bruno Lage didn't have his mind on this match (both in terms of his starting XI and his subs, which were poor), as he really wants to win the league (now that both Benfica and Porto are out of the Euro comps, their battle for the league title will intensify, for better or worse). The German side wants to win the EL, and they'll fight fiercely in the semis, that's for sure. They are in the semi-final of an European competition for the first time since... 1980note .
Chelsea won, but they still felt a bit under pressure in the second half against Slavia Prague. A 4-3 win (5-3 on agg.) - goals here
, including two braces, one by Pedro and one by Petr Sevcik, plus an own goal - that put the visitors in a good light. They've certainly left with their heads held high (even if one takes into account how they were nearly demolished in that first half).
Napoli lost at home against Arsenal (goal by Lacazette
), and so are out (0-3 on agg.).
Semi-finals of the EL are: Arsenal vs Valencia and Frankfurt vs Chelsea.
Edited by Quag15 on Apr 18th 2019 at 3:08:35 AM