Inter maintain perfect start with win over Kairat Almaty Pafos beat Villarreal to earn first Champions League win Barcelona had to settle for a share of the spoils at Club Brugge after a thrilling 3-3 draw but were fortunate the English referee Anthony Taylor ruled out Romeo Vermant’s stoppage-time effort for a foul on the Barça goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. In a thriller at Brugge’s Jan Breydel Stadium, the home side opened the scoring through Nicolò Tresoldi in the sixth minute. But Barcelona hit back with Ferran Torres scoring from close range two minutes later only for Brugge to regainthe lead in the 17th minute through Carlos Forbs after another quick counter. Continue reading...

⚽️ Champions League updates from the 8pm GMT games ⚽️ Live scores | Qarabag v Chelsea – live | And email Scott There are two 5.45pm GMT kick-offs, and those matches have both just reached half-time. Pafos and Villarreal are goalless at the break in Cyprus, while in Azerbaijan, Chelsea trail Qarabağ 2-1, having led early doors. And they’ve also lost Romeo Lavia to injury. John Brewin has the latest from Baku. It’s another busy night in the Champions League. Busy, if not particularly laced with jeopardy, such is the nature of the sprawling Swiss behemoth, but let’s not start pulling at those threads now. Here’s this evening’s card … Ajax v Galatasaray Benfica v Bayer Leverkusen Brugge v Barcelona Internazionale v Kairat Manchester City v Borussia Dortmund Marseille v Atalanta Newcastle United v Athletic Club Continue reading...

Real Madrid 4-0 Valencia | Bayern Munich 3-0 Bayer Leverkusen Coach Patrick Vieira leaves Genoa by mutual consent Kylian Mbappé netted twice as Real Madrid eased to a 4-0 victory over struggling Valencia, with Jude Bellingham and Alvaro Carreras also scoring to help the La Liga leaders claim their 13th win from 14 matches in all competitions. The victory extended Real’s commanding lead, putting them seven points clear of second-placed Villarreal and eight ahead of third-placed Barcelona, who sit level with Atlético Madrid on 22 points but have a game in hand. Continue reading...

⚽️ Updates from the clásico (3.15pm GMT kick-off) at the Bernabéu ⚽️ La Liga table | Email Billy The teams are out at the Bernabéu. The roof is closed and it’s bound to be loud. Kick-off is a couple of minutes away. Another subplot of today’s game is the collapse of La Liga’s plans to play Barcelona’s away game at Villarreal in Miami in December. Continue reading...

In an embarrassing climbdown, the game in Miami is off with the league having alienated the players and even Villarreal, the club that was on its side If there is a moment that defined La Liga’s fourth failed attempt to play in Miami, an image to explain why everything went wrong, it may have been the moment it was all over. On Tuesday night, Spanish television broadcast reaction to the news from the Estadio de la Ceràmica, live and unfiltered. Cameras caught someone else who felt dismissed and disrespected, treated as if they didn’t count. This time it was someone who was supposed to be on the league’s side, but now appeared as a portrait of poor planning and poorer communication, a lack of consideration that pushed the project to collapse. Continue reading...

The WA government remains adamant that Perth will host a Serie A match between AC Milan and Como next year, despite the cancellation of a planned fixture between Barcelona and Villarreal in the United States.

Villarreal have described LaLiga's handling of the proposed Miami game against Barcelona as "poor."

Less than two weeks after LaLiga said Barcelona would play Villarreal in Miami, the first regular-season game abroad has been scrapped. What happened?

La Liga president laments promoters’ decision to cancel Tebas criticises Real Madrid and players’ union Javier Tebas has vowed that La Liga would try again after plans to take a game abroad fell through when promoters announced they were cancelling Villarreal’s meeting with Barcelona in Miami on 20 December. The league had been informed of the decision on Tuesday, with an announcement made at half-time of Villarreal’s Champions League game against Manchester City at the Estadio de la Cerámica, where they will face Barcelona, instead of at the Hard Rock Stadium. The timing of the announcement was described as “a complete lack of respect” by the Villarreal coach, Marcelino García Toral. Continue reading...

LaLiga president Javier Tebas has described the decision to cancel the overseas match between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami as a lost opportunity.

Manchester City's 2-0 away win over Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday proved to be bittersweet as striker Haaland scored his 24th goal in 14 games for club and country this season, but also had Nico González limp off with an injury.

Villarreal were Erling Haaland’s latest victims, a ninth consecutive Manchester City game clocked up with the Norwegian scoring. This time it was the first on the way to a largely comfortable 2-0 win in Spain that suggests that a team is emerging once again, with Bernardo Silva scoring the second in a first half of notable superiority before a second in which there were moments to suffer but not too many of them. When Haaland was withdrawn with five minutes to go, there were whistles and relief; he, and they, could do no more damage. He had already done enough, right from the start of what was a long night for the home side. City were not hanging about, Haaland, Savinho and Jérémy Doku combining to force Luíz Júnior into making his first save after just 26 seconds and the Norwegian heading just wide a little over two minutes later. It was not easy to define the formation Pep Guardiola applied; at times it looked something like 3-2‑4-1, with John Stones stepping in to defence when Villarreal had the ball and out of it when City did. Which is to say that most of the time he was out of it, the shape shifting with him and with others as well. City had 69% of possession in the first half, and the surprise was that it was as low as that: the naked eye suggested even greater dominance. Continue reading...

LaLiga, Spain's top-flight soccer league, on Tuesday announced it has scrapped plans to hold a regular season Barcelona-Villarreal game in Miami on Dec. 20.

As breaking news, it was reported that the clash between the Blaugrana and the 'Yellow Submarine' was cancelled  Leer