Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini has said that Atletico Madrid are more of an Italian team rather than a Spanish one ahead of Juventus’ Champions League clash against Los Rojiblancos.

The 34 year old veteran also lavished praise upon Cristiano Ronaldo, saying that the Portuguese superstar had helped fill the void left by Gigi Buffon’s departure from Turin.

Chiellini also remarked that the best defender in the world was not him, but Real international Sergio Ramos.

Echoing Chiellini’s thoughts, former Juventus star Alessio Tacchinardi also said that Atleti and Simeone were perhaps the “worst possible opponents” for the Old Lady at this stage of the competition.

Juventus come into the first leg of this Round of 16 clash on the back of a 3-0 win over Frosinone, while Atleti were narrow 1-0 winners over Rayo in La Liga.

All four English teams present in the group stages of the Champions League- Man City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Man Utd, progressed to the Round of 16 of the competition. Three of the four qualified as runners up and have been handed tough fixtures in the Round of 16. Man City, who won Group F, have been handed what fans and pundits would consider an easy draw, in the form of Schalke 04. The Royal Blues have been in terrible form domestically and are currently 14th in the Bundesliga, just a point above the drop zone and a whopping 24 behind leaders Dortmund. Continue reading →

Tottenham and Manchester United were joined by Chelsea recently as the Blues crashed out of the Champions League post their miserable 3-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona. On the whole, it was a pretty one-sided affair, as Lionel Messi put Barcelona on the scoreboard in around 2 minutes from the start of the game Continue reading →

Paris Saint-Germain have a mountain to climb when they take on Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League Round of 16 clash on Tuesday night at Parc des Princes.

Unai Emery’s side trail 3-1 from the first leg at the Bernabeu and will be without superstar forward Neymar Jr, who fractured his foot in their recent win over Marseille and is set for an extended period on the sidelines.

The Spanish gaffer rested several first team players for PSG’s weekend Ligue 1 clash against Troyes, with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and Marco Verratti given a break in order to keep them at 100% for the all important clash against Real. Paris eventually won 2-0 against ESTAC, with Angel di Maria and Christopher Nkunku netting for the visitors. The legendary George Weah’s son, Timothy, also made his debut for the Parisians as a second half substitute for Giovani lo Celso. Continue reading →