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Chitchat The Official TCSS Thread

jw5

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Looks like you will be surprised and disappointed. :biggrin:

It will be interesting what will be the outcome after the Arsenal Board meeting next week. As a neutral, I will be surprised and disappointed if he doesn't quit.
His legacy at Arsenal is already assured, time to quit on a high...
 

jw5

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Most lucrative game of the year - happening now! :biggrin:

Gut-wrenching joy and despair: what a Wembley playoff final is like

By Gregor Robertson
espnfc.com

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Two years ago, as I lay crestfallen on the sun-kissed Wembley turf, an entire season's efforts cruelly decided by a single penalty shootout kick, the winners streamed past us in wild celebrations. It was the most gut-wrenching moment of my career.

The following year, on the same stage, the same weekend in May, when the final whistle blew my teammates and I celebrated like a bunch of delirious school children, leaping and punching the air with loose-limbed delight. It was my most joyous moment on a pitch.

In a promotion playoff final -- whichever league it is -- there is nothing in between.

On Monday, the players of Huddersfield Town and Reading will walk out at Wembley in the Championship playoff final for a place among the Premier League elite. The prize for the Grimsby Town team I played for was promotion to the Football League -- a few steps down the pyramid, of course, and worth a fraction of the estimated £170 million that will fill the coffers of the winner.
However, when the whistle blows, money is forgotten; glory and ambition fuels the fires.

The finalists have already exceeded expectations in reaching Monday's final. Both David Wagner, the spirited German-American manager of Huddersfield, and Reading's Jaap Stam, the iconic former Manchester United defender, have breathed new life into previously listless clubs in their first years in the job.

Both, too, with limited resources, have imprinted clear styles on their teams: Huddersfield with their buccaneering, high-energy football; Reading, who seek to dominate their opponents with patient build-up and possession. It may be a Championship playoff final to buck the trend of cautious, edgy affairs, though no matter what, we can expect a thrillingly hectic climax.

Handling the pressure will, of course, be key. Once your place in the final is sealed, the 10 days leading up to the big day pass by at a snail's pace. Both teams visit Wembley in the week before the game to familiarise themselves with the setting: the changing rooms, where your shirt will hang, and to take a few pictures -- as any fan would -- while you absorb the epic scale of the arena from the centre of the pitch.

These players, after all, are not England internationals, nor are they regulars in such surroundings. A win could change all of that, but for some, the chance to play at Wembley may never arise again.

I remember standing in the centre circle, slowly turning through 360 degrees, and envisaging the raucous atmosphere I would inhabit 24 hours later. I couldn't wait for it to arrive. The coach trip back to the hotel was a quiet journey as we dreamt about what the next day might bring.

Travelling to the game is when the vivid colour of the occasion bursts into life: the Wembley arch rising in the distance, the thousands of supporters lining the streets for miles, draped in club colours, spilling out of pubs, singing, waving and giving the team a heroes reception.

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As kick-off approached, on our second visit, the atmosphere in our changing room was very calm. We had lived it all before, our focus was sharpened, and the value of our experience was clear. Despite that, the occasion lost none of its lustre. Lining up in the tunnel, the atmosphere fizzes and crackles outside. The roar when you emerge into the light stands every hair on the back of your neck to attention. Some feel an extra stir of nerves; I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. It was a moment I simply wanted to relish.

The adrenaline surges and flows like never before. The immaculate pitch feels vast. Waves of noise crash around the cavernous arena and you can barely hear words leaving your mouth.

Much about the day is like a cup final, yet there is arguably even more at stake. On Saturday, when Arsenal beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final, it brought glory, a trophy and a title for the records, but a conclusion, too. The playoffs shape the future -- the leap forward that comes with winning; the backward step after defeat.

Monday will do just that for Huddersfield and Reading. And at the end, joy and despair will flood Wembley once again.

Despair is standing on the pitch, looking up as the winners climb the steps, file across the Royal Box before scenes of jubilation erupt: a scene equally as surreal and painful to watch. Your wish for another chance quickly fades as you realise the sweat and toil it will take to return. Joy is climbing those famous steps, with your teammates, the handshakes, the medal round your neck, the anticipation, then the roar as the cup is held aloft. Champagne sprays and fireworks explode as the celebrations spark into life.

On Monday, there will be no in between.
 

jw5

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David Wagner ready to seek Jurgen Klopp's advice on the Premier League

David Wagner will be on the phone to Jurgen Klopp once the enormity of Huddersfield's rise to the Premier League sinks in.

Wagner, a former reserve-team boss under Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, has guided the unfancied Terriers back to the top flight for the first time in 45 years.

They did it the hard way, needing a penalty shootout to defeat Reading in the Championship playoff final following a goalless Wembley draw on Monday.

And their hero, once again, was on-loan Liverpool goalkeeper Danny Ward who, fresh from saving two spot-kicks in the semifinal against Sheffield Wednesday, kept out Jordan Obita's effort.

Wagner now has a few calls to make, not least to see if Reds manager Klopp will allow him to keep Ward, as well as Manchester City, who loaned Town their man-of-the-match Aaron Mooy.

"I need to take a few weeks to get my head around it," said Wagner. "I will have a lot of phone calls to make. I will call Jurgen, but not just to talk about Danny."

While Ward made the crucial save, there was an unlikely man to take the penalty clincher in the shape of defender Christopher Schindler.

"I said to the players that the easiest thing in football is to put the ball from 12 yards into the net," added Wagner.

"Now after 10 months you have the opportunity to go to the Premier League and all you have to do is put the ball in the net from 12 yards.

"Take this easy challenge and do it. Everybody who wants to do so raise their hands. And they said: 'Okay give me the opportunity'.

"But I was pretty surprised when Schindi said: 'I'd like to take the fifth one.' But he was totally confident, so I said okay."

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The club have announced they will celebrate promotion with a civic ceremony on Tuesday evening.

It was a tough end to a successful season for Reading, who finished third in the Championship table in Jaap Stam's first year as a manager.

While the shootout provided high drama the previous 120 minutes was anything but, and Stam admitted the occasion may have gotten to his players.

"You can talk about taking risks and taking the initiative but this is not just a league game, in the players minds there are other things," he said.

"It's a totally different occasion and it's difficult to put that aside. We worked our way through it, got to penalties, and then basically it's a lottery."
 

jw5

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They will announce the signing tomorrow. :biggrin:

Arsene Wenger to sign new Arsenal deal on Wednesday - reports

espnfc.com

Arsenal will announce the outcome of talks with Arsene Wenger on Wednesday afternoon amid reports he will sign a new two-year contract.

Wenger's deal at Emirates Stadium is due to expire this summer and speculation over his future has been rife in the final months of the 2016-17 season.

But, after winning the FA Cup against Chelsea last Saturday, the BBC and the Daily Telegraph report Wenger met with club owner Stan Kroenke on Monday before a decision to hand him a new deal was relayed to the board on Tuesday.

"The club are planning to make an announcement on Wednesday afternoon," a spokesman told the Press Association.

A day earlier, sources told ESPN FC that Wenger had already agreed the broad outline of a new two-year contract at the club as long ago as November, with Tuesday's board meeting the final hurdle before signing it.

Along with Kroenke's support, Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis is also prepared to retain Wenger on the proviso that changes are made behind the scenes in order to ensure that the club can make a smooth transition to a new manager once the 67-year-old eventually vacates his position, sources said.

News of Wenger's stay now looks set to be announced on Wednesday, with the former Monaco boss prolonging his contract until 2019.

Wenger took over at Arsenal in 1996 and has since won three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups -- the latter a record for a single manager.

A failure to compete for the Premier League crown, coupled with missing out on qualifying for next year's Champions League after this season's 10-2 aggregate defeat in the round of 16, has seen Wenger come under intense pressure from sections of fans, but he is now due to lead the club in the 2017-18 campaign.

I fear you may be correct. Rumours abound that he will sign a two year extension to his contract.
There'll be a lot of unhappy Gooners. :biggrin:
 

jw5

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Here we go again, Same old ............................. :biggrin:

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger signs new two-year contract

By Mattias Karen, Arsenal correspondent
espnfc.com

Arsene Wenger has ended speculation over his future as Arsenal manager by signing a new two-year contract at the club.

Wenger, who has won three Premier League titles since joining Arsenal in 1996 but none since 2004, extends his reign at the London club into a 22nd season and beyond.

The club announced in a statement on Wednesday: "Arsenal Football Club and Arsene Wenger have agreed a two-year extension to his contract as manager."

The new deal finally ends a year of uncertainty that by Wenger's own admission badly damaged Arsenal's Premier League campaign, as the Gunners finished in fifth place after a two-month slump marked by fan protests and divisions.

Wenger has faced unprecedented criticism from fans and pundits alike this season but strengthened his case for staying in charge by delivering a third FA Cup triumph in four years on Saturday -- setting a record for both the club (13) and himself among managers (seven) in the process.

He said after that 2-1 win over Chelsea at Wembley that he was still the right man for the job, and he received the backing of the club board at a meeting on Tuesday.

Wenger agreed terms on a new contract back in November but had refrained from signing it amid the toxic atmosphere among fans and speculation that the club could bring in a sporting director to limit his powers. However, he now seems to have been given the assurances he was looking for in terms of keeping the final say on all technical matters.

At 67, Wenger has insisted that his hunger for success remains as strong as ever and he had pledged to continue managing elsewhere if he could not stay at Arsenal.

The new deal is also another strong showing of support from majority owner Stan Kroenke, who ultimately had the last word on whether Wenger should be allowed to stay on. Kroenke, who recently rejected a takeover bid from minority owner Alisher Usmanov, reportedly held a private meeting with Wenger on Monday to discuss the deal before it was ratified by the board.

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But Wenger remains a divisive figure among supporters and his new contract extension will undoubtedly be unpopular with sections of fans -- some of whom staged protest marches outside the Emirates Stadium before home games demanding that he step down.

However, it does allow the club to enter into a crucial summer with a clear sense of direction.

Arsenal still have several key issues to sort out this summer, with new contracts for star duo Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil among the most important. Sanchez and Ozil have yet to commit their long-term futures to the club, and Ozil has stated publicly that he wanted to know whether Wenger was staying in charge before making a decision. With the managerial situation now cleared up, the club are hoping both players will sign new contracts worth in excess of £250,000 a week each.

Other players such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey also need new contracts, while the club must decide whether to sell others such as David Ospina, Kieran Gibbs, Joel Campbell and Lucas Perez. Wenger will have the final say on all those matters, and now has the platform to begin putting his plans into action.

Wenger has also said he wants to buy "one or two" top-class players in this transfer window, with left-back Sead Kolasinac already set to join on a free transfer from Schalke.
 

jw5

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Goodness Gracious ...............! :biggrin:

Ivan Gazidis won't rule out Arsene Wenger staying longer than 2 years

By Mattias Karen, Arsenal correspondent
espnfc.com

Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis says Arsene Wenger's new two-year deal won't necessarily be his last, and defended the club's decision to stick with the manager despite widespread fan objections.

Wenger signed a contract on Wednesday after a season-long period of uncertainty around his future. It will take Wenger's Arsenal reign into his 23rd season, and Gazidis wouldn't rule out the possibility of him staying even longer.

"That is an assessment we continue to make as we move into the future, and who knows what the future holds," Gazidis told Arsenal's official website. "This is a two-year deal so we are looking at at least the next two years.

"Again, at some point of course we will have to transition to the era beyond Arsene and that is not a sentimental connection that we have, that is a connection that is driven by what is best for the football club ... Arsene would not make this commitment if he did not believe he could push this club forward."

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Gazidis also urged supporters to get behind the team after a season of turmoil and protests. Some fans staged protest marches before home games in recent months calling for the manager to step down, and planes carrying "Wenger out" banners flew over the stadium during two away games.

"We have to deliver performances to get the fans behind this team. We're very conscious of that," he said. "It's up to us to lead through the commitment we have on and off the pitch. We need to show that to the fans and we will.

"I'm convinced that our fanbase will put the football club at the top of their priorities and will get behind this team. Together, we are much, much stronger than we are when we are arguing and trying to prove who's right and who's wrong."

Gazidis also said that the club remains convinced that Wenger is the right man to lead the team towards a Premier League title challenge.

"He is driven to move forward, he is driven to evolve and he is driven to achieve those objectives of winning for this club and making those fans proud," Gazidis said.

"When you look at the world of football, and you think about the great candidates that there are -- and there are many great coaching candidates in the world and Arsenal is a club that all of them would want to work for because of the things we represent in football -- but when you look around and make that assessment, you don't find any better candidates than Arsene Wenger ...

"I think in football, the judgements are so black and white that often, if you don't fire your manager, then you're seen as being unambitious. I think that's ludicrous.

"You don't fire good people, you don't fire people who are world-class, you don't fire people who are driven to improve. What you do is work out how you can improve together and how you can move forward. That's what this club is doing and we have a very clear ambition that we want to deliver it in."
 

THE_CHANSTER

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Love him or hate, let's move on... the fact that he's extended his contact, all Gooners need to get behind him and the club.

That said, he needs to totally re-build his squad and clear out the deadwood and that includes IMHO maybe selling Ozil and Sanchez.
World class players they may be but they have not delivered when it mattered.

Just see the 5-1 thrashing (both legs) they got from Bayern in the Champions League.
 

jw5

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Apparently Riyad Mahrez of Leicester has thrown in a transfer request and he may be the replacement for Sanchez. :biggrin:

Love him or hate, let's move on... the fact that he's extended his contact, all Gooners need to get behind him and the club.

That said, he needs to totally re-build his squad and clear out the deadwood and that includes IMHO maybe selling Ozil and Sanchez.
World class players they may be but they have not delivered when it mattered.

Just see the 5-1 thrashing (both legs) they got from Bayern in the Champions League.
 

jw5

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Real Madrid look to confirm dynasty status with Juve standing in their way

By Gabriele Marcotti
espnfc.com

CARDIFF, Wales -- Dynasties are cyclical. Right up until the 1990s, Real Madrid prided themselves on having won more European Cups (six) than any other club. While it is true, their rivals could always snort and cruelly point out that all of that happened "in black and white" -- meaning it was a long time ago, belonging to the age of sepia-tone newsreels. Indeed, 32 years passed between 1966 and 1998 when the club appeared in just one final (1981), which they lost.

But Real Madrid won it three times in the five years between 1998 and 2002. On Saturday, they can make it three in four years, becoming the first back-to-back European champions since Arrigo Sacchi's legendary Milan side in 1990.

It would be their sixth European crown in the past 19 years, definitely burying those "won it in black and white" jibes. It would mean they will have won it as many times as the clubs who rank second (Milan with seven) and third (take your pick of Bayern, Barcelona and Liverpool each of whom have five) ... combined.

This won't just be confirmation of their dynasty, it will be vindication of a certain style of doing business. It's a combination of massive spending power -- three of the six most expensive players of all time are in the Real Madrid squad -- and a crystal-clear brand identity that gets maximized and monetized in every market on the planet.

They're not the only super club playing the global commercial juggernaut game, they just do it better than most.

Standing in their way are a Juventus side who, when it comes to European competition, are playing catch-up, certainly relative to their domestic dominance, which was reaffirmed again last month when they won their sixth straight Serie A title. This will be Juve's ninth European Cup final -- only Real Madrid, Milan and Bayern Munich have played more -- yet they've won just two. One came on one of football's darkest days, after the 1985 Heysel tragedy that saw 39 supporters die, and the other happened on penalties. Just as Real Madrid have won more finals than anyone, Juventus have lost more than anyone.

It's not hard to see why a clean, convincing win would mean so much to Italy's most pedigreed and patrician club.

On the pitch, at first glance, there's a clear and convenient theme of attack vs. defense, punctuated by the fact that each has its own version of the "BBC". (Leo) Bonucci, (Andrea) Barzagli and (Giorgio) Chiellini head up a Juve defense that conceded just three goals in the tournament this year. And (Gareth) Bale, (Karim) Benzema and Cristiano (Ronaldo) lead a Real Madrid attack that scored 32 times in 12 games thus far.

That's one narrative, and it feeds into the old trope of the expansive, intoxicating Spanish side against the safety-first, conservative Italian team. But, in fact, there is much more here than meets the eye. Real Madrid can beat you many ways, but they are particularly devastating on set pieces and on the counterattack, two tools typical of humbler sides. In Casemiro, who became a fixture after manager Zinedine Zidane took over 18 months ago, they have a genuine no-frills midfield enforcer.

Meanwhile, Juventus went to another level when coach Max Allegri introduced his "5-star" scheme in midseason, essentially squeezing all his more gifted attacking players into the lineup at the same time. Critics said it would unbalance the team, but Allegri believed Juventus needed an additional dimension when pitted against Europe's elite.

In fact, one of the common threads for Real and Juve is humility. Neither team could get away with such attacking firepower if not for the self-sacrifice of stars donning their hard hats and turning distinctly blue-collar. Thus Real Madrid's Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, two of the finest attacking midfielders in the world, scramble and graft when not in possession, while a centre-forward like Benzema runs himself into the ground to create space. On the Juve end, guys such as Mario Mandzukic, Paulo Dybala and Miralem Pjanic know they have to put in the grunt work if the 5-star is going to be viable.

The parallels don't end there. Both managers were attacking midfielders who were greeted by skepticism when they were appointed. Both have confounded the critics.

Zidane, a resident legend going back to his playing days, was seen as an introverted yes-man who had shown little interest in management. Yet nobody in the history of the club has been more successful in his first 18 months at the helm than Zidane.

Allegri was depicted as too much of a lightweight when he replaced a drill sergeant like Antonio Conte in the summer of 2014. In three seasons, he has won six out of six domestic trophies while making two trips to the Champions League final.

There's the delicious thicket of subplots, too. Zidane himself spent five seasons at Juventus as a player before leaving for Madrid in a world-record deal that stood for eight years, an eternity in football. His fitness coach, Antonio Pintus, Turin-born and bred, was at Juve for six years in the 1990s. Both were there in Amsterdam on May 20, 1998, when Juventus were defeated in the Champions League final by none other than Real Madrid, when they won their first European Cup "in color."

Dani Alves, long Real Madrid's nemesis and a three-time Champions League winner at Barcelona, is now driving the flank at Juventus. Where, incidentally, he'll come up against his Brazil teammate and, in some ways, photo-negative, Madrid's left-back Marcelo.

Then there's Gonzalo Higuain. Juventus took a page out of the Madrid playbook when they signed him last summer for some $100 million, making him the fourth-most expensive player ever. Higuain spent seven seasons at Real Madrid during which he won three league titles and scored 121 goals -- not a bad result given he often shared playing time with Benzema -- before the desire to be a regular week-in, week-out player prompted him to move to Napoli. Downing his old club on the biggest stage of all would be especially sweet.

Sami Khedira is the glue that holds Juve together tactically and is, arguably, their most essential player. He spent five injury-slowed years at Real Madrid before leaving as a free agent in 2015. And, of course, Alvaro Morata spent two seasons at Juve, where he was instrumental in their run to the 2015 Champions League final, before returning to Madrid as a prolific super-sub last summer.

All of this will play out in Wales, land of dragons and Celtic lore, and specifically at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, some three miles from where Bale was born. It won't be a fairy tale -- in this increasingly polarized and globalized sport, it's all about the blue-bloods and the mega-rich -- but it will likely be epic as giants square off for their place in history. Perhaps a place in Welsh mythology, too.
 

jw5

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Will Gianluigi Buffon finally get the UCL glory his stellar career deserves?

By Paolo Bandini
espnfc.com

Maybe it's that infectious enthusiasm: the way Gianluigi Buffon belts out the Italian anthem before international games and greets opposing captains like old friends.

Maybe it's the disarming honesty: those ready confessions to scarfing down too many gummy sweets and brawling with Ultras as a kid.

Maybe it's the fact that he still sounds like a big kid when he talks about sticker albums and Subbuteo.

Or maybe it's just because he has been one of the best goalkeepers on the planet for two decades, and has a strong claim to being the greatest of all time.

Whatever the reason, you would be hard-pressed to find a footballer more universally admired by his peers. Since Juventus qualified for the Champions League final, we have heard a vast chorus of players express the hope that this will be Buffon's year, at last, to lift the big-eared trophy. And perhaps to pick up a Ballon d'Or as well.

Only one goalkeeper has ever won the latter award: Lev Yashin back in 1963. As Iker Casillas put it during an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport this week: "It reminds me of the moon landing. So much time has passed now that nobody can actually remember it happening."

Yet Xavi believes Buffon deserves this recognition, as does his former Barcelona teammate Gerard Pique. So do Atlético Madrid's Antoine Griezmann and Monaco's Kylian Mbappe. The list goes on, from Edgar Davids right through to Italy's 1982 World Cup-winning keeper, Dino Zoff.

In fact, just about the only dissenting voice on this topic has come from within Juve's own locker room. When ESPN FC asked Giorgio Chiellini at Juve's media day earlier this week whether he believes Buffon would be a deserving Ballon d'Or winner, the defender was measured in his reply.

"I don't think it is right to give someone a Ballon d'Or for the career that they've had, which I've seen some people suggest," said Chiellini. "If Gigi is to earn this honour, it should be for what he does [now], not for the things he has done [in the past].

"I hope he does win it, and that he deserves it, because a Ballon d'Or win for him could only be the consequence of us winning on Saturday. ... He's certainly done some extraordinary things this season. But unfortunately he will need to do some more on Saturday, because it's unthinkable that you would not give up chances to a team like Real [Madrid]."

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Equally, it would be naive to think that Juventus could gave gotten this far without their goalkeeper playing his part. How differently might their group stage have unfolded were it not for Buffon saving a penalty kick and then making a breathtaking block to deny a deflected Nabil Fekir effort as 10-man Juventus stole a 1-0 win at Lyon? Might the semifinal against Monaco not also have seemed less straightforward without his stops from Mbappe and Bernardo Silva?

As good as Chiellini and his defensive teammates are, their performances owe something to the keeper behind them. "When you have the fortune to play with someone like Buffon, you always have the possibility that, if you mess up, he will fix the problem for you," former Juventus and Italy full-back Gianluca Zambrotta told ESPN FC. "That gives you confidence to play. Having someone like him lets you sleep better at night."

At Juventus, they can barely remember anything different. Chiellini is the longest-serving outfield player in the first-team squad, having joined in 2005. By that point, Buffon had already been with the Bianconeri for four years and had played in his first Champions League final. If his team had prevailed in that 2003 showpiece against Milan at Old Trafford in Manchester, U.K., perhaps he would not still be playing today. Buffon confessed to Germany's Kicker magazine that he has questioned his desire to keep going on a regular basis over the past few years.

"If I had already won the Champions League, then I would have had this motivation taken away from me," he said. "It spurs me on."

As it was, Buffon and his teammates lost on penalty kicks in 2003 despite his two saves in the shootout. Juventus had to wait until 2015 to return to the final. That time Buffon made one of the best stops of the season to deny Dani Alves, then with Barcelona, yet Juve fell again.

"Football works in strange ways," he said more recently. "As is true in the rest of life, those who are deserving usually get their just rewards in the end."

The first part of that sentiment is undeniably true. Who would have imagined two years ago that Buffon and Alves would return to this stage as teammates instead of adversaries? Whether they win this Champions League final remains to be seen, but Buffon is not alone in believing he is due.
 

jw5

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Real Madrid strength too much for Juventus, makes European Cup history

By Gabriele Marcotti
espnfc.com

CARDIFF, Wales -- Yes, it's a dynasty. The first back-to-back European champions for 27 years. Three titles in four seasons. It may not feel like one in the way that Pep Guardiola's Barcelona was or the Ajax sides of the early 1970s were, because there isn't a domineering tactical style or a box office figure at the helm or even a blueprint to follow.

But that's what it is.

Nine of the 14 Real Madrid players who dropped Juventus 4-1 to win the club's 12th European Cup were there in 2013-14. So, too, was Zinedine Zidane, albeit as an assistant to Carlo Ancelotti then. If there is a theme to this, it's one of quality and simplicity, of great footballers working for and with each other, of egos being stowed for a common goal.

Juventus, meanwhile, limp away heartbroken for the seventh time in nine European Cup finals. But maybe this one hurts less. They conceded more goals in 90 minutes against Madrid than in 1,080 preceding minutes of Champions League action. They were outclassed by an opponent with another level and, perhaps even one after that. Game planning, hard work and scheme will get you only so far.

"In football, there are absolute values," Juve boss Max Allegri said after the game. "And when those values emerge, if your opponent has more quality than you, then he's better. There's only so much you can do."

An hour before kickoff in Cardiff, the team sheets revealed that hometown hero Gareth Bale, who had last played 41 days ago, was on the bench for Madrid. Zidane evidently doesn't do sentimentality, not with a European Cup at stake.

That Pepe, Lucas Vazquez and James Rodriguez were in the stands was maybe not a surprise, but it did provide a forceful reminder of how polarized and top-heavy today's super clubs really are. We're talking about the hero of the Portugal team, who won the European Championship less than 11 months ago, a Spanish international who had appeared in seven of Real's past eight games and the sixth-most-expensive player in history.

That's how deep and stacked Real Madrid are.

The closed Millennium Stadium roof sealed in the din, both from the Black Eyed Peas' prematch show and Andrea Bocelli's rendition of the UEFA Champions League anthem (I can confirm the lyrics sound even more inane in Italian). When the fans were roused, the acoustics became both tinny and uneasy, at once both distant and close.

The game began as if on fast-forward, with none of the poking and prodding and getting-to-know-you we sometimes see in finals. Juventus' Gonzalo Higuain slithered into space, beat two opponents and fired from the edge of the box; Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas spilled, but recovered.

Real were coming to terms with what was, essentially, Juventus' asymmetrical formation. Andrea Barzagli was a center-back playing right-back, assigned to slow down Ronaldo's runs and provide a meaty aerial challenge at the far post. That meant Dani Alves had the whole flank to himself against his Brazil teammate Marcelo.

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On the opposite side, Alex Sandro and Mario Mandzukic were overloaded against Madrid right-back Dani Carvajal. With Isco dropping off to join Luka Modric and Toni Kroos in midfield, it felt at times as if Juve were happy to concede the middle of the park, knowing they could cause problems wide. But cover one base and the other is free.

Madrid's trio of attacking midfielders -- with only Miralem Pjanic and Sami Khedira to contain them -- found opportunities. And, after 20 minutes, Kroos' rumbling, left-to-center run culminated in the ball arriving at the feet of Ronaldo, who had wisely realized it was best if he steered clear of Barzagli. A layoff to Carvajal in the right-wing position was followed by a shimmy inside to find space and, having received a return pass, Gigi Buffon was beaten.

Juventus were unruffled. Seven minutes later, they equalized in the most spectacular fashion. After turning the screws in the final third, they trapped Madrid deep. And when the ball came to Higuain, he flicked it square to Mandzukic with his back to goal. The big man cushioned it on his chest and unleashed a long-range overhead kick with power and topspin to send it over Navas' head and into the far corner.

Game on.

But when Madrid came slingshotting out of the block in the second half, it was Juventus who crumbled, perhaps retreating and retrenching too far, perhaps simply blinded by what was on display.

Ronaldo failed to connect at the far post on a brilliant Marcelo intuition, but, moments later, Casemiro -- of all people -- unleashed a vicious right-footed wallop that deflected off the leaping Khedira and eluded Buffon. The hard-hatted Madrid midfield foot soldier was swallowed up in celebration by the very generals he serves so humbly.

Barely three minutes passed before the TKO. Modric, the Energizer Bunny, beat Alex Sandro at the byline and crossed for Ronaldo, who lost Bonucci at the near post and turned it past Buffon. It was his 12th goal of this Champions League season, and it also reopened that existential debate about his goal scoring.

What's better? His finishing or his ability to teleport into unguarded space? Suffice to say that, in a game in which Madrid needed a center-forward -- not because Karim Benzema was subpar, but because he was busy dragging Juve's defence into places they did not want to be -- that's exactly what he turned into: one of those poachers who doesn't appear often but materializes when it counts most.

"What are you going to do?" Allegri said of Ronaldo. "He looks like he's napping all game, and then he pops up and destroys you."

Call it Cristiano 2.0.

Allegri looked to the options on his bench and threw on what he could muster: the warrior Claudio Marchisio, the quicksilver Juan Cuadrado and, ahem, the holding midfielder Mario Lemina. When all your attacking options are in your starting XI, this is what you have left in reserve. Allegri looked like the kid who had spent his money on candy on the way to school. It was now lunchtime and he was famished.

Effectively, the game was over. There was only enough time for Bale to make his cameo appearance, for Sergio Ramos to throw himself to the ground and get Cuadrado sent off after a limp shove and for substitute Marco Asensio to score a fourth, set up by the immense Marcelo.

A word on Ramos: Gestures like this may be a side effect of a win-at-all-costs mentality, and referee Felix Brych and his crew ought to have handled it better. But when you're 3-1 up with seven minutes to go, is this what you want to be doing?

Questions for another time. Real Madrid had won in the most emphatic way. And deservedly so. When you have more quality and that quality has means to an end -- making the whole bigger than the sum of its parts, rather than celebrating the individual -- you will usually win.

Juventus can reflect on the deflection for the second Madrid goal -- "Pjanic's shot gets deflected away and Casemiro's shot gets deflected towards the goal ... that's football," Allegri said -- and the lapse that turned a tight 1-1 encounter into a knockout in the space of 180 seconds. On another night, in another place, maybe things end differently.

But only if they muster two halves of quality football. And that is something the purple-shirted dragons of Madrid stopped them from doing after the break, when they breathed enough fire to light up 12 galaxies, one for each European Cup soon to be displayed in the bowels of the Bernabeu.
 

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Andorra players shed tears of joy after first competitive win since 2004

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Andorra beat Hungary 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier on Friday to win their first competitive game in 13 years, ending a 66-match winless streak in official competitions.

It was only the second win for the small country of Andorra in qualifying for either the World Cup or the European Championship, and the first since a 1-0 win over Macedonia in October 2004.

Several Andorra players were in tears after the final whistle, having secured a historic victory. They are ranked 186th by FIFA, while Hungary are 33rd, a difference of 153 places.

Marc Rebes scored the winner with a 26th-minute header from the far side of the area, sending the ball over the head of Hungary goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.

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Andorra completed just 73 passes in their victory. The previous low for a winning team in the current European World Cup qualifying campaign had been 156 by Bulgaria against Netherlands.

It was only the second goal for Andorra in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. The other had come in a 2-1 home loss to Switzerland.

Andorra, only 118 kilometres in total area, has a population of about 85,660 according to the CIA World Factbook, less than one percent of Hungary's nearly 8.9 million.

Earlier this year, Andorra beat San Marino in a friendly for their first win in 86 consecutive matches.
 

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Harry Kane saves England draw after Scotland rally; Germany strike for 7

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Harry Kane scored a stoppage-time equaliser to rescue a 2-2 draw for England against Scotland in a wild finish to a World Cup qualifier in Glasgow on Saturday.

After Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had opened the scoring for England in the 70th minute, Scotland's Leigh Griffiths netted two excellent free kicks in the final three minutes to turn the game on its head, only for Kane to pop up late on to salvage a point for the visitors.

Substitute Oxlade-Chamberlain cut inside from the right before bursting into the box and firing past Craig Gordon for the breakthrough.

But Scotland went looking for an equaliser, and Griffiths curled a strike inches wide before eventually finding the back of the net with his fine 87th-minute free kick to the left of a diving Joe Hart.

And three minutes later, Griffiths stepped up and beat Hart to his other side as the home crowd at Hampden Park erupted. But there was still time for Kane to get in on the act, arriving at the far post deep into stoppage time to equalise.

England remain top of the group, while Scotland are fourth with eight points, three off the second-place playoff spot held by Slovakia, who managed a 2-1 win away to Lithuania to stay two points back behind the leaders.

Goals from Vladimir Weiss and Marek Hamsik giving the visitors the points before Arvydas Novikovas hit a stoppage-time consolation.

Milivoje Novakovic scored for third-placed Slovenia in his final game before retiring to cap a 2-0 win over Malta.

Josip Ilicic was given space to shoot in the box in first-half stoppage time and gave Slovenia the lead.

Novakovic, 38, announced a day earlier that he would retire from football, and found a farewell goal from Ilicic's low cross with six minutes to play.

Sandro Wagner scored his first career hat trick as Germany stayed perfect through six games in Group C with a 7-0 win over minnows San Marino.

Julian Draxler opened the scoring in the 11th minute, cleaning up after San Marino failed to clear the ball out of their box.

Wagner added a second five minutes later with a header from Joshua Kimmich, then got his second before the half-hour mark when Kimmich's quickly taken free kick found Amin Younes, who passed across to the Hoffenheim striker.

Younes got a goal of his own in the first half following a corner, and Shkodran Mustafi made it 5-0 two minutes into the second half, again coming after a corner.

Julian Brandt added the sixth with a diving header on 72 minutes before Wagner wrapped up his hat trick with five minutes to play.

Also in Group C, Stuart Dallas received a Jonny Evans pass and scored through traffic in the 91st minute to give Northern Ireland a 1-0 win away to Azerbaijan.

The crucial three points keeps Northern Ireland in second place, four clear of Czech Republic, whose qualifying hopes took a hit following a 1-1 draw at Norway.

Alexander Soderlund's second-half penalty cancelled out Theodor Gebre Selassie's strike for the visitors.

Robert Lewandowski also scored a hat trick as Group E leaders Poland eased to a 3-1 in Romania.

The veteran striker opened the scoring with a 29th-minute penalty and doubled their advantage when he added a second just before the hour.

A second penalty from Lewandowski sealed another win for the hosts five minutes later before Bogdan Stancu scored a late consolation.

The three goals took his tally during the qualifying campaign to 11, level with Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored twice for Portugal a day earlier.

Stevan Jovetic was another hat trick hero as Montenegro held onto second place in the same group with a 4-1 win over Armenia in Podgorica.

The former Manchester City man added to an early strike by Fatos Beciraj to secure a comfortable win for his side, while the visitors replied late through Ruslan Koryan.

Denmark kept pace with Montenegro on 10 points by defeating 10-man Kazakhstan 3-1 in Group E in Almaty.

Nicolai Jorgensen had already put the visitors ahead when Kazakhstan's Bauyrzhan Islamkhan was sent off before half-time.

Christian Eriksen scored from the penalty spot soon after the break, and though Islambek Kuat gave the hosts hope with a quarter-hour remaining, Kasper Dolberg restored Denmark's two-goal lead five minutes later.
 

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Semifinal spots up for grabs

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New Zealand are already out but Portugal, Mexico and Russia can advance. Group A at the Confederations Cup is a close affair on the final matchday and only a win will guarantee a side progress to the semifinals.
 

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Germany, Chile favourites to progress

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Germany and Chile just need a draw to get to the Confederations Cup semis. Germany face Cameroon, while Chile take on Australia knowing that if they avoid defeat then they will go on to meet Mexico and Portugal.
 

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Julian Draxler shows why he is poised to be Germany's next superstar

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By Gabriele Marcotti

SOCHI, Russia -- Age is just a number, right? We've been told enough times that it must be true. But perhaps it's more accurate to say age is relative.

Julian Draxler is 23 but has already been through more than most players go through in an entire career. At 17, he was starting a Champions League semifinal. At 18, he was a key player on a side that finished third in the Bundesliga. At 19, he was making his debut for Germany. At 20, he became the youngest player to reach 100 German league appearances. At 21, he engineered a move away from Schalke, the club he had joined at 8 years of age, and was sold to Wolfsburg. At 22, he was being booed by his own supporters after, again, looking to move on to a bigger, wealthier club.

He got his wish this past January at the age of 23, transferring to Paris Saint-Germain. And as luck would have it, he saw his new team not win the league for the first time in five seasons.

Now, a few months shy of his 24th birthday, he's the centerpiece and captain of Joachim Low's Germany (the Confederations Cup version, of course) and looking a class apart. So much so that Low seems to have rearranged the team around him, giving him the kind of freedom players are rarely afforded in the modern game. Indeed, it's the sort of license that no German player (at least not on a Low team) has arguably had for a very long time.

"It doesn't matter what the lineup is, Draxler will always have a lot of freedom with me," said Low after Germany's 3-1 victory over Cameroon that sealed their place in the semifinal against Mexico in Sochi on Thursday. "There is a variety to what he can do on the pitch, and he can find the right position on his own."

Against Cameroon, just as he did against Chile on Wednesday, Low employed a back three, with full-backs Joshua Kimmich and Marvin Plattenhardt pushing up on either flank. They offered the width while Timo Werner did the running up front as the attacking terminus. Sebastian Rudy and Emre Can protected the defence, and Kemir Demirbay was the link man.

As for Draxler?

He Draxlered.

Sometimes he drifted wide, sometimes he ghosted ahead of Werner. Sometimes he disappeared, sometimes he conjured up space between the midfield and the attack.

"And sometimes, when our lateral center-backs [Antonio Rudiger and Matias Ginter] struggled with their build-up play, he popped up near them to take off the pressure," Low added. "He has an incredible versatility, an incredible range of possibilities. And he's not afraid to use them. He's always available and has a knack for changing direction. For an opponent, it's so difficult to control."

Draxler did this time and again against Cameroon and three incidents summed up his day.

First, there was a delightful back-heel out of nothing that allowed Demirbay to romp into the penalty box and open the scoring. Then there was a gorgeous, 30-yard pass with just enough arc on it to elude a defender and fall right into the stride of a sprinting Werner, who would ultimately put his shot wide. And finally, with Ginter being pressed, there was a moment when Draxler retreated deep with such a perfectly angled run that it drew three opponents, allowing Ginter enough time to make a tidy pass to Can.

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You don't see this sort of license much in the modern game, and it raises two interesting questions.

The first is whether this was a grand experiment by Low that we might see replicated next year. There's obviously tons of competition in the attacking midfield/winger position -- Thomas Mueller, Julian Brandt, Leon Goretzka, Mesut Ozil, Marco Reus, Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry, Toni Kroos ... the list goes on and on. But unless Draxler suffers a serious drop in form, he'll be back next summer. So will Low simply deploy him wide as a cog in a well-oiled machine? Or does he rip up the German blueprint to accommodate Draxler in this free role, bearing in mind that there's probably nobody else (unless Ozil travels back in time) with a similar skill set?

In football terms, it's not a bad problem to have, brought about by their extraordinary abundance of depth. But you can't help but wonder whether Low has something up his sleeve in making this team so Draxler-centric.

The other question concerns how Paris Saint-Germain (and Unai Emery, as long as he's around) see Draxler's future. Displays like this one suggest that maybe such role would work well for him there, too. To some degree, the side is going to be redrawn this summer, and their pursuit of Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang suggests that maybe Emery is open to playing with two strikers and a man behind.

All this talk may all be premature. Maybe Draxler is just on a hot streak. At the same time, he's still just 23 and is just about to hit his prime, growing into the player his skill set suggests he can be. And his career, until now, has had highs and lows -- some of them down to injury, some of them self-inflicted by his wanderlust.

You wonder what Draxler can become if he's happy and in a stable environment with a manager willing to give him the keys to the team.
 
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