By Andrew Warshaw
May 31 – They are the underdogs with the bookmakers, are in unchartered territory and face a side desperate to make up for the pain of 12 months ago. But as the old cliché goes – or two clichés to be precise – it’s 11 versus 11 and anything can happen on the day when Tottenham Hotspur take on firm favourites Liverpool for Champions League glory on Saturday.
By Abdelaziz Abuhamar
May 31 – In what is one of the more bizarre performance-related sackings of a top manager, irritable president of Egyptian club Zamalek Murtada Mansour fired Swiss coach Christian Gross soon after his side drew 1-1 against Al-Entag in an Egyptian Premier League tie on Thursday.
By Samindra Kunti in Baku, Azerbaijan
May 30 – Chelsea demolished London rivals Arsenal to win the Europa League 4-1 after a soporific first-half and a 23-minute second-half onslaught that left Arsenal reeling and reflecting on a failed season. The North Londoners will miss out on Champions League football for a fourth consecutive season.
May 29 – Chelsea’s preparations for the first of this week’s two all-English European finals have been overshadowed by reports that manager Maurizio Sarri appeared to storm out of a pre-match training session in Baku.
May 29 – An analysis of the percentage of points needed to win one of the Big 5 European leagues shows that over the past 20 years championship winning teams have progressively increased the percentage of points available to them.
May 28 – Neymar has been stripped of Brazil’s captaincy in the build-up to this summer’s Copa America by the country’s coach Tite. He will be replaced by Daniel Alves.
May 28 – A year after the heartbreak of just missing out on promotion to the Holy Grail , Aston Villa, one of the iconic clubs of English football, are finally back in the Premier League.
May 23 – Marc Wilmots will succeed Carlos Queiroz as coach of Iran in a four-year deal 50-year-old signed with the Iranian Football Federation on Wednesday.
May 21 – FIFA experts expect this summer’s Women’s World Cup in France to produce the fastest matches yet at the tournament as established powerhouses will square off with lightweights and debutants in the 24-team tournament.
May 21 – Significant new tweaks approved earlier this year by football’s lawmakers are will come into effect across the game from the start of next season, designed to reduce a number of grey areas.
May 21 – Steve Clarke has been named as the new Scotland manager on a three-year contract.
May 20 – The Netherlands resoundingly beat Italy 4-2 in the final of the U-17 European Championship in Ireland to retain their European crown after emphatically dominating the first half to take an unassailable 3-0 lead.
May 15 – Jose Mourinho, out of a job since being sacked by Manchester United just before Christmas following their worst start to a season for 28 years, has not been able to resist a dig at both Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino, managers of Champions League finalists Liverpool and Tottenham.
May 10 – Whether or not it is healthy for the European game remains highly questionable but English clubs have made history by taking all four spots in the finals of UEFA’s two major competitions, the first time this has happened anywhere on the Continent.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9 – Never in the modern era of European football’s greatest club competition have there been two back-to-back semi-finals quite like it.