03/04/2024 - Sevilla manager Sánchez Flores and Marcos Acuña targetedGetafe forced to partially shut central stand for three matchesGetafe have been ordered to partially close their central stand for three matches by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) following the racist and xenophobic abuse suffered by the Sevilla manager, Quique Sánchez Flores, and the player Marcos Acuña in the La Liga game on Saturday.The referee Iglesias Villanueva stopped the match in the 68th minute as part of La Liga’s protocol against racism after he heard fans in the stands calling the Argentinian defender a “monkey” and the Spanish coach a “gypsy”. The club have also been fined €27,000 ($29,000). Continue reading... Collapse

18/03/2024 - Manager is helming the thrilling third stint in a trilogy that could see the club win a first major trophy in 40 years“Football is like a film,” Ernesto Valverde says, and sometimes it is an entire trilogy of them. The man who allayed fears that sequels are never any good by reminding everyone of The Godfather Part II when he returned to Bilbao for a second spell as coach of Athletic Club in 2013 and then proved it by leading to them to their first trophy in 31 years has gone and done it again. If Part II was even better than the original, the player they called “The Ant” becoming the only manager who could match what he had achieved first time round, Part III of his San Mames saga might be the best yet, Valverde back to take them where they have never been, not even with him.When Valverde rejoined Athletic in the summer of 2022, his last job had ended with him being sacked by Barcelona, he had not worked for 30 months and he signed for a single season. But at least he was home, Collapse

16/03/2024 - England captain nets in Darmstadt rout before limping offVinícius Júnior scores two as Real Madrid stay on course for titleHarry Kane bagged a record-breaking 31st league goal and Jamal Musiala scored twice in Bayern Munich’s 5-2 demolition of Darmstadt that moved the champions to within seven points of the Bundesliga leaders, Bayer Leverkusen.Kane put Bayern, who face Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals next month, 2-1 up in first-half stoppage time to take his tally to 31, more than any player has scored in their first Bundesliga season. It is also a personal league best for the England captain – the Bundesliga’s most expensive transfer at 100 million euros – but the gloss was partly taken off the achievement when he limped off injured after sliding into a post late in the game and twisting an ankle. Continue reading... Collapse

11/03/2024 - La Masia youngsters are wise beyond their years on the pitch. But with excitement comes fear of rushing something specialAt the end of Barcelona’s 1-0 win over Real Mallorca this weekend, the best two players on the pitch put their arms around each other’s shoulders and walked towards the end of Montjuic where Antonio Rebollo’s arrow once lit the Olympic flame. Wearing 33 and 27, one is a defender, the other a forward, both just a couple of kids having a laugh. Waiting for them beneath the torch and way across the track were the fans who had spent the night singing their names, holding on to a new hope. Pau Cubarsí Paredes and Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana were born in Estanyol and Esplugues, Catalonia, and they are younger than Robert Lewandowski. Put together.Cubarsí has just turned 17, Yamal is 16 and on a cold night they led Barcelona to victory and back to the light. At one end, Cubarsí had done battle with the Canadian Cyle Larin and the Kosovan Vedat Muriqi. The latter a man Collapse

04/03/2024 - The 23-year-old striker was playing in the fourth tier in December but has inspired Sevilla and now is the team’s ‘soul’December 2023, the day before a game, and the manager of a team in Spain’s fourth tier gathers his squad. He reminds them of the plan – the bus will leave at 6am for an 11.30am kick-off 230km away, stopping to pick up players en route – and puts on a video. It includes every goal the opposition’s striker has scored: there are 11 from 13 games and, the centre-back watching soon realises, not one is a tap-in. Instead, Isaac Romero, the Sevilla B forward up there on the screen, makes them all himself. “Unreal, absolutely unreal,” the defender recalls. “You could tell he had to be in the first team, and that’s what happened. He’s on fire.”That makes it sound easy, but it wasn’t. “I never imagined this,” Isaac says. That morning he played before a few hundred people and didn’t score. The next time he got a goal, there were 12,581 there. The time after that, 13,092. And a Collapse

03/03/2024 - Vinícius scores twice as Real battle back from 2-0 downBorussia Dortmund stay fourth in Bundesliga after winJude Bellingham was sent off for the first time at Real Madrid when he protested to the referee who ruled out his 99th-minute winner against Valencia. The Englishman confronted referee Jesús Gil Manzano saying “it’s a fucking goal” after the match official had blown the full-time whistle a fraction of a second before the ball was crossed in for him to head past Giorgi Mamardashvili. Had it stood, It would have been his 21st goal of the season, securing a 3-2 victory at Mestalla. The final whistle appeared to go in two seconds before the ball went into the net.Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said he had never seen anything like it before and insisted that Bellingham had not insulted the referee. The club are likely to appeal the card, which brings with it an automatic suspension. While still in the dressing room, Bellingham retweeted a post calling the decision a scandal. Continue Collapse

29/02/2024 - Javier Tebas says Greenwood’s past does not concern himForward on loan at Getafe from Manchester UnitedLa Liga’s president, Javier Tebas, says Mason Greenwood’s past does not concern him and that he would like to see the on-loan Getafe forward prolong his career in Spain.Greenwood joined the club on loan from Manchester United last September, seven months after the Crown Prosecution Service announced that criminal proceedings against him over an alleged attempted rape had been dropped. He had ­previously been suspended by United and would have been due to stand trial last November. Since returning to the pitch he has been well received at his temporary club, scoring five goals in Spain’s top flight, and Tebas is keen for him remain there for the long term. Continue reading... Collapse