#manage to score THREE jhs

[slimeclimbtime]

a ggang team screentime screenshot megapost because im sad and miss them

them smol jeongjian... so cute

jeonghyeon really spent half the time just chatting to jianyu who prob only understood maybe half of what he was saying. the way they got along right away ;-; jeonghyeon does not shut up fr

something about the way they're standing is so funny to me

and junhyeon joins the team!!! look how happy junghyun is to get him if there was any friendship we were completely robbed of it was junhyeon and junghyun

mf LITERALLY just got there and he's already plotting (also jianyu smiling at him bc junhyeon is cute and i agree)

junhyeon realizing that the rest of his teammates are unhinged (also jianyu beckoning seunghwan over aawwww)

THE WHOLE SQUAD IS HERE!!!

not even like a second in and there's already a view of seunghwan comforting junhyeon :(((

GUYS QUICK IT'S JIANYU'S ONE SECOND OF SCREENTIME!!!

why seunghwan lowkey side-eye junhyeon when he volunteered (this looks like an evil edit screenshot)

junhyeon's best bp fit (im biased bc im american), look at him, what a turnaround

a deadly jeonghyeon smirk, this is where he started getting traction fr

jianyu happy to be there not knowing that would be his last performance :( or the fact he only got a second of screentime :((( even less than zihao

they stand like they're giving a group presentation and junhyeon did all the work

junhyeon just like me fr: clueless and proud

the way seunghwan looks at junhyeon <3 (once again: what is it with ggang team and lovingly staring into each other's eyes)

quick jianyu jumpscare (pretty flashbang) and the iconic thumbs up

THEY'RE PREMARITAL HAND HOLDING YOUR HONOR!!

some cute 2jh siblings core. they really busted their ass for this mission like jeonghyeon did NOT stop practicing in that practice video

dor told me jianyu suggested they do pushups and ngl i feel like he did

not at how both of them are smiling after junhyeon's glasses accidentally fell LMAO

okay im done back to my crawly hole i go

[sportsleague365]

West Ham United fans have hailed manager David Moyes after his side’s 3-1 win over Southampton on Saturday. The Hammers enjoyed an exceptional performance against the Saints and climbed out of the relegation zone as a result, ahead of the remainder of the weekend’s fixtures. Goals from January signing Jarrod Bowen, Sebastien Haller, and Michail Antonio sealed all three points and the Hammers’ first win in seven Premier League games. And supporters gave some credit to the former Manchester United boss for his team selection and tactics. DID HE REALLY PLAY FOR US?! NO WEST HAM FAN HAS MANAGED TO NAME ALL OF THESE OBSCURE IRONS SIGNINGS…. Brilliantly win. Front 3 linking up scoring and all showing commitment. Haller rabonas, 2 fornal assists and good defensively. Moyes is a winner it’s what he does 😂😂😂😂😂 #coyi — ⚒ Marky Perkins ⚒ (@Supagrova1973) February 29, 2020 Fair play Moyes for going for it with 4-4-2. That Liverpool game the catalyst for positive football. — West Ham News (@whufc_news) February 29, 2020 Well done Moyes, yeah he has his faults but you know what. Today as much as the players he deserved that. @WestHam 💪 — JH (@E6Jack) February 29, 2020 Fornals 8 diop 8. Other than that spot on. Moyes got his selection spot on too — James Ellis (@Jimthepunk) February 29, 2020 Well done David Moyes 👏🏼👏🏼 Credit where credit is due, spot on with the team selection today. #WHUSOU — West Ham Zone ⚒ (@WHUFC_ZONE) February 29, 2020 Indeed, a number of fans were particularly happy with the way that Moyes managed to bring the best out of striker Haller. He had scored just six top-flight goals prior to Saturday’s encounter but was a threat throughout, netting a fine finish before half-time to put his side into the lead. And several supporters felt that adding some genuine support to the Frenchman in Bowen and Antonio gave him the tools he needed to succeed. Haller is like a different player today. Moyes has set up to get the best out of him and it's working big time. Confidence slowly coming back. — Wᴇsᴛ Hᴀᴍ Sᴏᴄɪᴀʟ (@WestHamSocial) February 29, 2020 David Moyes has turned Sebastian Haller into prune Thierry Henry and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. — West Ham Transfers (@westhamtransfer) February 29, 2020 West Ham 3-1 Southampton. Manager Moyes has found a formation that supports striker Haller – and both the Hammers and the player were all the better for it. First of several must-win games ticked off.#GSBOUT — Oh West Ham We Love You (@OhWestHamWeLov1) February 29, 2020 Fair play Moyes. Excellent team performance. Great selection. Great effort. Bowen, Fornals, Haller and Antonio were fantastic. Back line did well. All in all, it’s great to be back. — Ian (@ironsraz) February 29, 2020 It remains to be seen, of course, if this will last, with the Hammers taking on Arsenal, Wolves and Tottenham Hotspur in their next three games. Moyes perhaps ought to enjoy this while it lasts. Meanwhile, West Ham fans have drooled over this youngster! #WestHam #SebastienHaller #DavidMoyes

[diggerhome64-blog]

Can Ghosts Buy Drugs? The Haunting of Hill House (Eps. 6-10)

NOVEMBER 7, 2018

Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Dear TV, and whatever walked there walked VERY FAST AWAY FROM THE FINALE OF THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE ON NETFLIX!

Jane Hu and Phil Maciak are back to finish their conversation about the second half of Netflix’s adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel (see the first part of their conversation here). There will be spoilers, so, if you haven’t finished the series, turn off the Paula Abdul videos, and get streaming!

Phil Maciak: Jane, welcome back to that gas station in Amherst, MA, where we’ve come together to buy all the gasoline we need to burn Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House to the ground. I’m only kind of kidding. To begin with my general take, I think the sixth episode of the series (the one with all the long tracking shots in the funeral home) is a god-level TV episode, I thought the rollout and tease of the reveal about Abigail was pitch-perfect, haunting, and entirely effective, and I love what the show did with a lot of the questions we (and it) had about the relative reality of the ghosts to the members of the Crain family over the last five installments of the show. But that finale. Jane. That was about as bad as it gets on your TV screen. What are your initial thoughts?

Jane Hu: I’m not entirely sure where to begin, Phil, except to point out that that finale was seventy-one minutes long, and when your finale is seventy ! one ! minutes ! long !, it is cruel to have it be that bad. Full disclosure, but I watched Flanagan’s Hill House finale at the end of a long night of TV binging, and might have drifted off around the 50-minute mark. But I did wake up in time to catch the…band getting back together?? Phil, this finale seems to answer our earlier thesis about the show’s generic messiness—and then some. Everything happens in this finale! From the proliferation of the Minor Character Ghost, to the tender family reunion inside the red room, topped off with the “ghosts are just our internal demons” cop-out ending. My cup of stars spilleth over. But it’s all so…boring? Hokey? Bad horror?

I have so many questions, Phil, like when did fucking Steve become the narrative voice of reason in this series? And how did Flanagan manage to adapt Jackson’s novel into a twisted moral tale about the couple form? And how exactly does time work again in this show? And is Olivia crazy? And who greenlit the soundtrack on this thing?? Help!

PM: More questions: When did Steve become a good writer? And when did the sign of being a good writer become very specifically and deliberately ruining the Shirley Jackson novel the series is pretending he wrote? (WALKED TOGETHER—WHUTTTT) And since when does finishing two whole pages in an afternoon constitute writers’ block? Is Steve secretly Jill Lepore?  

More importantly, how did that flapper ghost get the heroin to make Luke overdose? Did she take the PVTA bus to a Hampshire College house party and ask random white dudes with dreadlocks where she can score? And back to Steve: do you have any idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person? SNIP SNAP SNIP SNAP SNIP SNAP!

JH: Oh my god, was it really three? I lost count tbh.

PM: Nah, I was just contorting it for the Office reference. (That said, youth vasectomy as a dramatic plot reveal probably wasn’t on anybody’s TV bingo card this year.) I cannot agree more with your feelings about this finale—it wasn’t scary, it flooded us with the sorts of monologues that only worked in this show because of their pointed scarcity, and it turns Hill House into, like, actually not that bad after all? If Hugh and the Dudleys are perfectly happy to stay in the house, if the scary sinister red room BOO! turns into a loving and inviting white room, what was the point of all of this? Are we forgetting that the house used Olivia as an avatar to KILL AN ACTUAL CHILD?

I don’t want to nit-pick—though, for real, I would like an answer about the heroin—and we should come back to the transcendent badness of the finale, but I think the thing that made this episode stand out so much is that the series, after the fifth episode was really gaining momentum and doing kind of thrilling work. Let’s talk about “Two Storms,” that badass funeral home episode.

JH: Yes, Phil! The funeral home episode was all sorts of things—Hitchcockian, naturalistic, experimental—but, perhaps most surprisingly, I found it actually funny. I don’t think I’ve ever liked Steve more? The transitions between past and present—between the “two storms”—were deftly done, and worked to deepen our understanding of the show’s main characters. The build-up was dynamite, and I loved the almost Fellini-esque argument scene toward the end, where everyone takes turns venting their own triumphant monologue. And that ending!!! Nellie’s bent-neck lady alone by her corpse. It was genuinely poignant. What did you think, Phil?

PM: Ordinarily, I’d be suspicious of this kind of film-jock magic trick on TV. I didn’t care about Cary Joji Fukunaga’s long-take in True Detective, and, as is evidenced by my long record on the Mad Men beat, the bottle episodes I like tend to be fairly mundane. But this episode is maybe the best episode of television I’ve seen all year, and that’s because it did something wild (Rope set in a horror film) and pulled it off in a way that enhanced absolutely everything about the series around it. It’s a kind of aspirationally cinematic move, but what was so surprisingly great about it was how it paid off in a very televisual way—this fake long take is an inflection point for Hill House, the series. It’s an entirely structural piece of pyrotechnics, and, rather than making the episode feel hemmed in or overly choreographed, it made everything feel looser and more at home. It was tense, yeah, but the Hitchcockian funniness that you point to, I think, is possible because of these generative constraints.  

JH: Wow, Phil, I love this observation—the idea that the single-take isn’t a constraint here, but a formal mechanism that opens up the episode to looser experimentation!

PM: Flanagan recently tweeted that, when he pitched the series to Netflix, the idea of a (seemingly) single-take episode set in the funeral home in the present and Hill House in the past was a central selling point. And that makes sense to me in two ways: the first is that it’s really the moment, after the aforementioned time-based reveal of who the bent-neck lady actually is, where the conceptual premise of the show begins to be more than a narrative gimmick. In other words, this episode’s tricky, transtemporal camera work uses the reveal of the bent-neck lady to begin to suggest that the two timelines are not as far apart as they seem. Second, though, it’s the one episode of the series that takes up Flanagan’s strongest and most exciting idea, which is a camera or a narrative perspective that moves freely across time and does not fundamentally discriminate between periods (or visible realties). The formal thrill of this whipping, gliding camera, combined with the ghost-standing-out-of-focus-in-the-shot trickery of the rest of the series suggests that the show takes the mental aspect of haunting more seriously than merely using ghosts as figurative representations of a traumatic past. Maybe it would have been too much to handle if the series had essentially fractured at this middle-point and carried this aesthetic through to the end, but there was something so magnetic, so clear about the visual storytelling in this episode. It was a bit of a letdown to have to leave this hypnotic style behind. I guess what I’m saying is that the series kind of peaks here—emotionally, narratively, stylistically—and part of what was disappointing about the fairly conventional horror and grinding ghost-exposition of the finale was that it took advantage of virtually none of the spookily moving aesthetic gambits of this episode.

JH: Yeah, I’m sorry, but we’re not leaving until we return to the profound badness that was the finale. Your reading of the funeral home episode is helpful for reminding me how much I was digging the show, because honestly, after that finale, all I could think about is how wildly uneven serial TV can be. Within the span of 10 episodes! That’s not that many episodes to be, well, consistent? It’s not even that the rest of Flanagan’s Hill House lacked the clarity of episode 6, it’s that it fell so very off the mark—so far away from what I thought were the central driving themes of the series.

PM: It was confused and confusing in the very particular way that only a piece of storytelling obsessed with *explaining* something to us can be. I’m all in favor of tying up loose ends, but, you’re right, Jane, that, when the package was all tied up, it looked like something fundamentally different than what we’d been seeing. And that’s not a cool, twisty, surprise. Instead, in the finale, it felt like the show—which had been building such terrific momentum—planted a foot and did a hard pivot away from itself.

JH: I still can’t get over the fact that it’s Steve who gets the last line? Steve!! The patriarch of the siblings. The one who doesn’t believe that ghosts and haunting are real is…the arbiter of Truth by the end of the series? It seems so deeply wrong-headed. But even more than that, I think the show simply goes off the rails. The crazy generic maximalism that we discussed as characterizing the first half of Hill House kind of goes to its logical conclusion in its second?

PM: Yeah, it’s a mess. And it’s a shame because one of the most economical, patient, shrewdly affecting threads of the show lands right before the finale and gives us the illusion that we’re headed somewhere really strange and gnarly. We’d been aware of Abigail, even seen her, from the first beginning—this little girl in a little bob—but she existed at the level of all of those ghosts and clockmakers we couldn’t really trust our eyes to confirm. She was just under the radar enough for us to assume that she made up part of the gauzy layer of ghostliness that would eventually be acknowledged—like the boy in the wheelchair or the tall floating man—but that we were just bookmarking for later.

But she was real the whole time! And Flanagan even dared us to look directly at her, twice, in both Dudleys’ monologues. (Mr. Dudley doesn’t mention her, but he refers to their stillborn child as their “first” child. And Mrs. Dudley introduces the idea that they’re hiding a secret child even as it’s easy for us to hear her revelation as the coping logic of someone who’s gone through terrible trauma.) It’s so subtly staged that, by the time Abigail drinks the poisoned tea—so sweetly and so trustingly—and dies, it’s a shock that she was ever alive in the first place. That moment was absolutely chilling, such smart and brutal stagecraft. Like the scenes that made the “Bent Neck Lady” episode so good, it reflected this show’s signature horror philosophy: the scariest moments are also the saddest moments.

JH: By the finale, it does almost feel like the show is too full of madness—or, indeed, sadness—to conclude any way but by exorcising its ghosts through the sheer collective will of the living. Jackson’s novel is one of the best things ever written about the death drive—a theory that crucially necessitates both life and death. This is the twinned dialectic, Freud argues, that we cannot do without. Instead of ending with Nell’s car “accident,” the final scenes of Flanagan’s Hill House enact a rapid series of forgetting, of sobering up, of waking up. It’s the cop-out ending none of us want or deserve!

PM: That’s such a great point, Jane, and it gives a very specific texture to the complaints about this show so faithlessly adapting Jackson’s novel. The finale’s happy ending—its yada yada’ing of the central problem that THIS HOUSE KILLS PEOPLE—seemed, again, confused and confusing. The careful architectural reading of Jackson’s novel that you suggested might be at the center of this adaptation last time we talked turns out to be a parasitic misreading after all. It’s as if, at the last moment, Mike Flanagan tells Shirley Jackson, “You know, Hill House isn’t all that bad. You just have to get to know it!”

JH: I think what makes Jackson so therapeutic to read is how she embraces an unflinchingly pessimistic view of what it means to be a woman moving alone in this world. In this way, she’s a deeply paranoid writer. So to give the Hill House finale such a reparative reading of the house felt like the final erasure of the woman who gave life to it. Some ghosts we should keep around.

Source: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/can-ghosts-buy-drugs-haunting-hill-house-eps-6-10/

[tipsoctopus]

Lots of West Ham fans laud man who has turned "Sebastien Haller into prime Thierry Henry"

West Ham United fans have hailed manager David Moyes after his side’s 3-1 win over Southampton on Saturday.

The Hammers enjoyed an exceptional performance against the Saints and climbed out of the relegation zone as a result, ahead of the remainder of the weekend’s fixtures.

Goals from January signing Jarrod Bowen, Sebastien Haller, and Michail Antonio sealed all three points and the Hammers’ first win in seven Premier League games.

And supporters gave some credit to the former Manchester United boss for his team selection and tactics.

Did he really play for us?! No West Ham fan has managed to name all of these obscure Irons signings….

Brilliantly win. Front 3 linking up scoring and all showing commitment. Haller rabonas, 2 fornal assists and good defensively. Moyes is a winner it’s what he does 😂😂😂😂😂 #coyi

— ⚒ Marky Perkins ⚒ (@Supagrova1973) February 29, 2020

Fair play Moyes for going for it with 4-4-2. That Liverpool game the catalyst for positive football.

— West Ham News (@whufc_news) February 29, 2020

Well done Moyes, yeah he has his faults but you know what. Today as much as the players he deserved that. @WestHam 💪

— JH (@E6Jack) February 29, 2020

Fornals 8 diop 8. Other than that spot on. Moyes got his selection spot on too

— James Ellis (@Jimthepunk) February 29, 2020

Well done David Moyes 👏🏼👏🏼 Credit where credit is due, spot on with the team selection today. #WHUSOU

— West Ham Zone ⚒ (@WHUFC_ZONE) February 29, 2020

Indeed, a number of fans were particularly happy with the way that Moyes managed to bring the best out of striker Haller.

He had scored just six top-flight goals prior to Saturday’s encounter but was a threat throughout, netting a fine finish before half-time to put his side into the lead.

And several supporters felt that adding some genuine support to the Frenchman in Bowen and Antonio gave him the tools he needed to succeed.

Haller is like a different player today. Moyes has set up to get the best out of him and it's working big time. Confidence slowly coming back.

— Wᴇsᴛ Hᴀᴍ Sᴏᴄɪᴀʟ (@WestHamSocial) February 29, 2020

David Moyes has turned Sebastian Haller into prune Thierry Henry and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

— West Ham Transfers (@westhamtransfer) February 29, 2020

West Ham 3-1 Southampton. Manager Moyes has found a formation that supports striker Haller – and both the Hammers and the player were all the better for it. First of several must-win games ticked off.#GSBOUT

— Oh West Ham We Love You (@OhWestHamWeLov1) February 29, 2020

Fair play Moyes. Excellent team performance. Great selection. Great effort. Bowen, Fornals, Haller and Antonio were fantastic. Back line did well. All in all, it’s great to be back.

— Ian (@ironsraz) February 29, 2020

It remains to be seen, of course, if this will last, with the Hammers taking on Arsenal, Wolves and Tottenham Hotspur in their next three games.

Moyes perhaps ought to enjoy this while it lasts.

Meanwhile, West Ham fans have drooled over this youngster!

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/3coaymT via IFTTT from Blogger https://ift.tt/2wnjyrR via IFTTT

[ultrasfcb-blog]

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 15 targets on this season’s Champions League going into Saturday’s last with Liverpool

With just one sport of this season’s competitors remaining, BBC Sport gathered the ideas of a number of European soccer journalists on the moments that formed the 2017-18 Champions League.

This is what BBC Euro Leagues Football Show regulars Mina Rzouki, James Horncastle, Julien Laurens and Raphael Honigstein, European soccer author Andy Brassell, BBC World Service’s John Bennett and BBC Sport on-line journalist Emlyn Begley considered probably the most memorable targets, performances, disasters and comedy moments.

Finest second

Kostas Manolas’ 82nd-minute winner gave Roma a 3-Zero win over Barcelona, and a semi-final spot on away targets

JB: The Kostas Manolas header which accomplished one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history. Roma had been out of this world towards Barcelona on that Tuesday night time again in April however time was working out and it seemed as if Barcelona would squeeze via to the semi-finals, till Manolas flicked on Cengiz Beneath’s cross. Cue scenes on the Stadio Olimpico that ‘I Giallorossi’ followers will always remember. Soccer was invented for moments like that.

AB: You could possibly choose any considered one of a handful from Tottenham’s marketing campaign, an enormous leap ahead from final season, however Christian Eriksen’s equaliser away at Juventus stands out. Spurs had no simple duties on this season’s Champions League and had been equal to most of them, however Eriksen’s objective capped a shocking comeback and underlined the truth that Mauricio Pochettino and firm had one of many competitors’s most constant groups of latest years sweating.

RH: Mo Salah’s objective within the second leg against Manchester City. Simply when Liverpool had been actually starting to crumble and wanted one thing to occur, he comes up with probably the most nonchalant, cool, nearly easy end you will see to settle a tie.

EB: Cristiano Ronaldo’s bicycle kick for Actual Madrid at Juventus within the quarter-final first leg. The best goalscorer the Champions League has ever identified has grow to be extra of a poacher as he will get older – however he confirmed he nonetheless has the power to attain marvel targets with this strike. The standing ovation he acquired from the Juve followers had shades of the unique Ronaldo’s hat-trick towards Manchester United.

JL: PSG left-back Layvin Kurzawa – a really common soccer participant – scoring a hat-trick against Anderlecht. Think about all the good defenders who’ve performed within the Champions League and he is the primary one to attain a hat-trick. That is soccer taking the mick.

JH: James Pallotta, the Roma president, dropping into the Piazza del Popolo fountain after Roma accomplished probably the most unbelievable comeback we have seen on this event… since Barcelona beat Paris St-Germain. It felt like a defining second in a terrific season for Roma.

Excellent efficiency

Cristiano Ronaldo held his nerve to knock Juventus out following the Italian facet’s quarter-final fightback

RH: There have been a number of excellent workforce performances, like Sevilla’s win at Previous Trafford. For a participant, it is a bit simpler as you may identify him yearly – Cristiano Ronaldo scoring 15 targets – and the 90th-minute penalty against Juventus. It was a sport the place nothing had gone for Actual Madrid and the Bernabeu had been baying for blood. The best way he scored, the whole lack of any nervousness, was vastly spectacular. He’s an actual function mannequin for anybody who needs to see easy methods to cope with stress.

JL: The second leg between Roma and Barcelona. I believe there is no such thing as a different alternative. It was such an unbelievable sport. The Romantada, karma – hitting Barcelona after what they did to PSG final season. It was an unbelievable efficiency and deserved win.

JB: Sorry Manchester United followers however Wissam Ben Yedder’s cameo at Old Trafford stands out for me. He got here on within the 72nd minute, gave Sevilla the lead within the 74th minute after which a beautiful, nerveless end made historical past for Sevilla within the 78th minute. The definition of an affect sub. Actually he made such a big effect that two days later Didier Deschamps gave him his first worldwide call-up.

AB: Roma 3-Zero Chelsea. Many will level to the ‘Romantada’, the Giallorossi’s second-leg fightback towards Barcelona, but it surely was victory over the English champions that set the tone for Eusebio di Francesco’s workforce within the Champions League. Their key gamers had been nicely rested – due to the squad enhancements made by new sporting director Monchi – and it confirmed as they tore into Chelsea with need and attacking intent.

EB: Mohamed Salah’s masterclass within the the primary leg of Liverpool’s semi-final towards his outdated membership Roma. The winger scored two glorious targets – and assisted two extra – to beat one of many world’s high goalkeepers in Alisson Becker. All this in arguably the largest sport of his profession – towards a workforce who ought to have identified easy methods to include him higher than anybody. As if to emphasize simply how good he’d been, the Reds seemed like they might add to their 5-Zero lead when he got here off – and it ended 5-2.

MR: Tottenham going to Turin, enjoying in that stadium the place so many individuals have struggled and scoring all these targets towards Juventus within the first leg was attention-grabbing. Watching that, I assumed Spurs have introduced themselves on the largest stage.

Breakthrough participant

Mohamed Salah has scored 10 targets within the Champions League this season, plus one other in qualifying

MR: Mo Salah. It must be a Liverpool participant. This can be a man I famously didn’t think would do all the pieces he managed to do. Watching him at Roma, he was a great participant however nothing like what’s he is proved to be at Liverpool. He is a distinct participant – he has the spark, high quality, tempo and understanding together with his team-mates. He is proved to be the distinction maker. Once you have a look at what he was for Roma, that match against Real Madrid and now, he is implausible.

JB: We knew about him right here within the UK however now Scotland’s Andrew Robertson has made the breakthrough on the European stage. The Liverpool defender was excellent within the quarter-final towards Manchester Metropolis and within the semi-final versus Roma. From relegation with Hull Metropolis to a Champions League last with Liverpool in 12 months. An impressed signing by Jurgen Klopp.

RH: It’s a must to go together with a Liverpool participant. Sadio Mane has been a revelation. He’d by no means performed within the Champions League correct earlier than, he’d all the time failed within the qualifiers with Salzburg. The affect he is had, with a hat-trick against Porto and scoring in all the large video games, he will get neglected a little bit bit with the business of Firmino and brilliance of Salah however he is had a implausible season.

AB: Sevilla striker Wissam Ben Yedder. Getting into this yr’s Champions League with solely a smattering of European expertise, he confirmed what a canny finisher he’s – solely Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s phenomenal entrance three have scored greater than him within the competitors, together with his eight targets together with a double to sink Manchester United at Previous Trafford.

JL: Roma keeper Alisson Becker. We’ve stated on the pod many occasions how nice he is been this season. Regardless of the semi-final towards Liverpool, the place he was a bit let down by his defence, he is been unbelievable. He is been the most effective goalkeeper in Europe.

JH: Andy Robertson has had a terrific season and it is an unbelievable story. He did not make the grade at Celtic and was relegated with Hull Metropolis. From that to being within the Champions League last is outstanding.

EB: A £34m signing could also be an odd choice for breakthrough participant – however no one anticipated a situation the place Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah would outscore Lionel Messi on this season’s Champions League or be a critical contender to interrupt the 10-year Ronaldo-Messi Ballon d’Or duopoly. This can be a man who had scored three Champions League targets earlier than this season – and none in a knockout sport.

Greatest disappointment

Marco Verratti was despatched off as Paris St-Germain went out to Actual Madrid

AB: Paris St-Germain’s exit. There is no disgrace in shedding to Actual Madrid, after all, however the method through which Paris let this slip was vastly deflating after the fanfare surrounding Neymar’s arrival. PSG managed to throw away a promising place within the first leg and rarely looked capable of turning it around at home.

MR: Juventus travelling to the Bernabeu, scoring three targets and strolling out empty handed due to that penalty determination. They did not do sufficient to safe their passage into the semi-finals regardless of an excellent efficiency in Spain.

JB: When Actual Madrid, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund had been drawn collectively in Group H, we had been all anticipating field workplace video games and a nerve-wracking end. In the long run, the Germans allow us to down. Dortmund completed with no win and with solely two factors from two draws against Apoel Nicosia. Head coach Peter Bosz paid the value when he was sacked in December.

JL: Paris St-Germain. They’d Actual Madrid on the ropes on the Bernabeu in the first leg – and nonetheless managed to bottle it. Unai Emery made poor tactical modifications and the workforce did not present up for the second leg in Paris. That was so disappointing.

EB: Barcelona blowing a 4-1 first-leg result in exit to Roma. It was a terrific Champions League comeback – however hopes had been excessive for a workforce who nearly went via your entire La Liga season unbeaten. It additionally meant for a 3rd season in a row there was no Lionel Messi within the final 4. I’d have gone for Atletico crashing out within the group levels – however they ended the season profitable the Europa League.

JH: Atletico Madrid. No one actually anticipated Roma to get out of that group as a result of Atleti and Chelsea had been favourites. I do suppose profitable a trophy is healthier than simply popping out of a bunch and getting knocked out, but it surely was a bit disappointing. With Diego Costa, they might have been an actual pressure.

RH: Dortmund ending third in a bunch behind Spurs and Actual Madrid isn’t any crime – however should you have a look at the outcomes and performances, they had been dire. Failing to beat Apoel, I am nonetheless struggling to consider what I noticed. The writing was on the wall for Peter Bosz at that time. It is arduous to have a look at this Dortmund squad and consider how unhealthy they had been at occasions.

Strangest second

Shakhtar boss wears full Zorro outfit after Man Metropolis win

JB: World Snooker champion Mark Williams stole his thunder by turning as much as his information convention in only a towel however we won’t neglect Paulo Fonseca’s Zorro second after Shakhtar Donetsk’s 2-1 victory over Manchester Metropolis in December. Fonseca promised to decorate up as Zorro if his workforce certified for the final 16 of the Champions League and stored his phrase. He should have been assured as a result of the costume was prepared and ready in his workplace at full-time. He is simply signed a brand new deal however anticipate to see the “masked vigilante” at a Premier League membership close to you quickly. Shakhtar performed some glorious soccer on this season’s Champions League.

EB: Gianluigi Buffon is a passionate man – but it surely was shocking to see him lose his cool to such an excessive after Michael Oliver awarded an injury-time penalty to Actual Madrid of their quarter-final second leg. Submit-match interviews the place he stated Oliver had a “bag of garbage for a coronary heart”, was a “beast” and began itemizing the delicate drinks the Englishman ought to be ingesting within the crowd quite than refereeing will reside lengthy within the reminiscence.

AB: Atletico Madrid’s Gabi utilizing a four-letter expletive to explain the Europa League after his facet had been pushed to the brink of group elimination by Azeri minnows Qarabag – just for Diego Simeone and firm to go on and win it. The captain was, although, glad sufficient to poke enjoyable at himself about it after the Lyon last.

JL: Timo Werner coming off for RB Leipzig towards Besiktas as he had a headache because of the noise in the stadium. One of many weirdest issues I’ve ever seen.

JH: Paulo Fonseca, the Shakhtar supervisor, dressing up as Zorro after they certified. He confirmed he is a person who all the time retains his phrase as he’d vowed to try this in the event that they acquired out of the group.

RH: Strangest and most tragic, and humorous relying on the place your sympathies lie, was Sven Ulreich’s calamitous mistake on the Bernabeu. It is the sort of goalkeeping howler which can etch itself on to the collective reminiscence of Bayern followers. It was the largest high-profile mistake I’ve seen in a very long time.

MR: Gianluigi Buffon going completely loopy after Juventus went out to Actual Madrid. He is a veteran, a legend, an icon, everybody seems to him for his feedback and sporting-like behaviour. He is all the time been a gentleman so shedding his rag was unusual. He thought he might go out like Zidane and he did certainly.

BBC Sport – Football ultras_FC_Barcelona

ultras FC Barcelona - https://ultrasfcb.com/football/4422/

#Barcelona

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"Championship player", "He's so bad", "Sunday league quality" - Many Hammers fans destroy 32 y/o

Loads of West Ham fans have been running the rule over their setback at Cardiff, and they’re mercilessly bashing Robert Snodgrass’ performance.

The Hammers bounced back into form last weekend with a perfect professional performance, winning 2-0 against a red-hot Newcastle side without ever really clicking out of second gear.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side have struggled to maintain consistency all season though, and that was their enemy again on Saturday as they followed last weekend’s master-class with an utterly woeful performance.

Junior Hoilett finished an impressive Cardiff move just four minutes in, and Victor Camarasa bundled home a second just after half-time.

While the defending was shocking for both goals, it’s an attack-minded player that is taking all the stick from some fans, as Snodgrass continued his poor run of form.

After scoring two and assisting three in the space of four games earlier this campaign, the 31 year-old has managed just two assists in his last 14 games, and he was completely invisible at the Cardiff City Stadium.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below, look away now Robert…

That half from Snodgrass was shocking, such a championship player

— Thomas ⚜️ (@Optimistic_Ox_) March 9, 2019

I’ve never hated someone as much as I hate snodgrass, he’s so bad

— ⚒ Jack ⚒ (@Jack_Ryan_12) March 9, 2019

Agree mate, him and noble in the same midfield pic.twitter.com/idSqJ3O00V

— Benjamin (@benjamin2018x) March 9, 2019

worst snodgrass has played this season

— rosco (@rosco19048913) March 9, 2019

Snodgrass lovers, enjoy that performance. Sunday league quality

— Dani (@BeselidhjaFc) March 9, 2019

People are blinded by Snodgrass because he ‘works’ hard his working hard is pointlessly chasing down a centre back when he isn’t going to get ball and then leaving a hole in midfield cis he can’t get back

— Chris Betts (@ChrisBetts82) March 9, 2019

Snodgrass is also having a poor game – don’t understand how Antonio doesn’t start ahead of him.

— WHUFC Bulletin (@whufcbulletin) March 9, 2019

Yeah fair point. But I think Snodgrass has been awful, since his honeymoon form, period was over

— JH (@E6Jack) March 9, 2019

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Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 15 targets on this season’s Champions League going into Saturday’s last with Liverpool

With just one sport of this season’s competitors remaining, BBC Sport gathered the ideas of a number of European soccer journalists on the moments that formed the 2017-18 Champions League.

This is what BBC Euro Leagues Football Show regulars Mina Rzouki, James Horncastle, Julien Laurens and Raphael Honigstein, European soccer author Andy Brassell, BBC World Service’s John Bennett and BBC Sport on-line journalist Emlyn Begley considered probably the most memorable targets, performances, disasters and comedy moments.

Finest second

Kostas Manolas’ 82nd-minute winner gave Roma a 3-Zero win over Barcelona, and a semi-final spot on away targets

JB: The Kostas Manolas header which accomplished one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history. Roma had been out of this world towards Barcelona on that Tuesday night time again in April however time was working out and it seemed as if Barcelona would squeeze via to the semi-finals, till Manolas flicked on Cengiz Beneath’s cross. Cue scenes on the Stadio Olimpico that ‘I Giallorossi’ followers will always remember. Soccer was invented for moments like that.

AB: You could possibly choose any considered one of a handful from Tottenham’s marketing campaign, an enormous leap ahead from final season, however Christian Eriksen’s equaliser away at Juventus stands out. Spurs had no simple duties on this season’s Champions League and had been equal to most of them, however Eriksen’s objective capped a shocking comeback and underlined the truth that Mauricio Pochettino and firm had one of many competitors’s most constant groups of latest years sweating.

RH: Mo Salah’s objective within the second leg against Manchester City. Simply when Liverpool had been actually starting to crumble and wanted one thing to occur, he comes up with probably the most nonchalant, cool, nearly easy end you will see to settle a tie.

EB: Cristiano Ronaldo’s bicycle kick for Actual Madrid at Juventus within the quarter-final first leg. The best goalscorer the Champions League has ever identified has grow to be extra of a poacher as he will get older – however he confirmed he nonetheless has the power to attain marvel targets with this strike. The standing ovation he acquired from the Juve followers had shades of the unique Ronaldo’s hat-trick towards Manchester United.

JL: PSG left-back Layvin Kurzawa – a really common soccer participant – scoring a hat-trick against Anderlecht. Think about all the good defenders who’ve performed within the Champions League and he is the primary one to attain a hat-trick. That is soccer taking the mick.

JH: James Pallotta, the Roma president, dropping into the Piazza del Popolo fountain after Roma accomplished probably the most unbelievable comeback we have seen on this event… since Barcelona beat Paris St-Germain. It felt like a defining second in a terrific season for Roma.

Excellent efficiency

Cristiano Ronaldo held his nerve to knock Juventus out following the Italian facet’s quarter-final fightback

RH: There have been a number of excellent workforce performances, like Sevilla’s win at Previous Trafford. For a participant, it is a bit simpler as you may identify him yearly – Cristiano Ronaldo scoring 15 targets – and the 90th-minute penalty against Juventus. It was a sport the place nothing had gone for Actual Madrid and the Bernabeu had been baying for blood. The best way he scored, the whole lack of any nervousness, was vastly spectacular. He’s an actual function mannequin for anybody who needs to see easy methods to cope with stress.

JL: The second leg between Roma and Barcelona. I believe there is no such thing as a different alternative. It was such an unbelievable sport. The Romantada, karma – hitting Barcelona after what they did to PSG final season. It was an unbelievable efficiency and deserved win.

JB: Sorry Manchester United followers however Wissam Ben Yedder’s cameo at Old Trafford stands out for me. He got here on within the 72nd minute, gave Sevilla the lead within the 74th minute after which a beautiful, nerveless end made historical past for Sevilla within the 78th minute. The definition of an affect sub. Actually he made such a big effect that two days later Didier Deschamps gave him his first worldwide call-up.

AB: Roma 3-Zero Chelsea. Many will level to the ‘Romantada’, the Giallorossi’s second-leg fightback towards Barcelona, but it surely was victory over the English champions that set the tone for Eusebio di Francesco’s workforce within the Champions League. Their key gamers had been nicely rested – due to the squad enhancements made by new sporting director Monchi – and it confirmed as they tore into Chelsea with need and attacking intent.

EB: Mohamed Salah’s masterclass within the the primary leg of Liverpool’s semi-final towards his outdated membership Roma. The winger scored two glorious targets – and assisted two extra – to beat one of many world’s high goalkeepers in Alisson Becker. All this in arguably the largest sport of his profession – towards a workforce who ought to have identified easy methods to include him higher than anybody. As if to emphasize simply how good he’d been, the Reds seemed like they might add to their 5-Zero lead when he got here off – and it ended 5-2.

MR: Tottenham going to Turin, enjoying in that stadium the place so many individuals have struggled and scoring all these targets towards Juventus within the first leg was attention-grabbing. Watching that, I assumed Spurs have introduced themselves on the largest stage.

Breakthrough participant

Mohamed Salah has scored 10 targets within the Champions League this season, plus one other in qualifying

MR: Mo Salah. It must be a Liverpool participant. This can be a man I famously didn’t think would do all the pieces he managed to do. Watching him at Roma, he was a great participant however nothing like what’s he is proved to be at Liverpool. He is a distinct participant – he has the spark, high quality, tempo and understanding together with his team-mates. He is proved to be the distinction maker. Once you have a look at what he was for Roma, that match against Real Madrid and now, he is implausible.

JB: We knew about him right here within the UK however now Scotland’s Andrew Robertson has made the breakthrough on the European stage. The Liverpool defender was excellent within the quarter-final towards Manchester Metropolis and within the semi-final versus Roma. From relegation with Hull Metropolis to a Champions League last with Liverpool in 12 months. An impressed signing by Jurgen Klopp.

RH: It’s a must to go together with a Liverpool participant. Sadio Mane has been a revelation. He’d by no means performed within the Champions League correct earlier than, he’d all the time failed within the qualifiers with Salzburg. The affect he is had, with a hat-trick against Porto and scoring in all the large video games, he will get neglected a little bit bit with the business of Firmino and brilliance of Salah however he is had a implausible season.

AB: Sevilla striker Wissam Ben Yedder. Getting into this yr’s Champions League with solely a smattering of European expertise, he confirmed what a canny finisher he’s – solely Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s phenomenal entrance three have scored greater than him within the competitors, together with his eight targets together with a double to sink Manchester United at Previous Trafford.

JL: Roma keeper Alisson Becker. We’ve stated on the pod many occasions how nice he is been this season. Regardless of the semi-final towards Liverpool, the place he was a bit let down by his defence, he is been unbelievable. He is been the most effective goalkeeper in Europe.

JH: Andy Robertson has had a terrific season and it is an unbelievable story. He did not make the grade at Celtic and was relegated with Hull Metropolis. From that to being within the Champions League last is outstanding.

EB: A £34m signing could also be an odd choice for breakthrough participant – however no one anticipated a situation the place Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah would outscore Lionel Messi on this season’s Champions League or be a critical contender to interrupt the 10-year Ronaldo-Messi Ballon d’Or duopoly. This can be a man who had scored three Champions League targets earlier than this season – and none in a knockout sport.

Greatest disappointment

Marco Verratti was despatched off as Paris St-Germain went out to Actual Madrid

AB: Paris St-Germain’s exit. There is no disgrace in shedding to Actual Madrid, after all, however the method through which Paris let this slip was vastly deflating after the fanfare surrounding Neymar’s arrival. PSG managed to throw away a promising place within the first leg and rarely looked capable of turning it around at home.

MR: Juventus travelling to the Bernabeu, scoring three targets and strolling out empty handed due to that penalty determination. They did not do sufficient to safe their passage into the semi-finals regardless of an excellent efficiency in Spain.

JB: When Actual Madrid, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund had been drawn collectively in Group H, we had been all anticipating field workplace video games and a nerve-wracking end. In the long run, the Germans allow us to down. Dortmund completed with no win and with solely two factors from two draws against Apoel Nicosia. Head coach Peter Bosz paid the value when he was sacked in December.

JL: Paris St-Germain. They’d Actual Madrid on the ropes on the Bernabeu in the first leg – and nonetheless managed to bottle it. Unai Emery made poor tactical modifications and the workforce did not present up for the second leg in Paris. That was so disappointing.

EB: Barcelona blowing a 4-1 first-leg result in exit to Roma. It was a terrific Champions League comeback – however hopes had been excessive for a workforce who nearly went via your entire La Liga season unbeaten. It additionally meant for a 3rd season in a row there was no Lionel Messi within the final 4. I’d have gone for Atletico crashing out within the group levels – however they ended the season profitable the Europa League.

JH: Atletico Madrid. No one actually anticipated Roma to get out of that group as a result of Atleti and Chelsea had been favourites. I do suppose profitable a trophy is healthier than simply popping out of a bunch and getting knocked out, but it surely was a bit disappointing. With Diego Costa, they might have been an actual pressure.

RH: Dortmund ending third in a bunch behind Spurs and Actual Madrid isn’t any crime – however should you have a look at the outcomes and performances, they had been dire. Failing to beat Apoel, I am nonetheless struggling to consider what I noticed. The writing was on the wall for Peter Bosz at that time. It is arduous to have a look at this Dortmund squad and consider how unhealthy they had been at occasions.

Strangest second

Shakhtar boss wears full Zorro outfit after Man Metropolis win

JB: World Snooker champion Mark Williams stole his thunder by turning as much as his information convention in only a towel however we won’t neglect Paulo Fonseca’s Zorro second after Shakhtar Donetsk’s 2-1 victory over Manchester Metropolis in December. Fonseca promised to decorate up as Zorro if his workforce certified for the final 16 of the Champions League and stored his phrase. He should have been assured as a result of the costume was prepared and ready in his workplace at full-time. He is simply signed a brand new deal however anticipate to see the “masked vigilante” at a Premier League membership close to you quickly. Shakhtar performed some glorious soccer on this season’s Champions League.

EB: Gianluigi Buffon is a passionate man – but it surely was shocking to see him lose his cool to such an excessive after Michael Oliver awarded an injury-time penalty to Actual Madrid of their quarter-final second leg. Submit-match interviews the place he stated Oliver had a “bag of garbage for a coronary heart”, was a “beast” and began itemizing the delicate drinks the Englishman ought to be ingesting within the crowd quite than refereeing will reside lengthy within the reminiscence.

AB: Atletico Madrid’s Gabi utilizing a four-letter expletive to explain the Europa League after his facet had been pushed to the brink of group elimination by Azeri minnows Qarabag – just for Diego Simeone and firm to go on and win it. The captain was, although, glad sufficient to poke enjoyable at himself about it after the Lyon last.

JL: Timo Werner coming off for RB Leipzig towards Besiktas as he had a headache because of the noise in the stadium. One of many weirdest issues I’ve ever seen.

JH: Paulo Fonseca, the Shakhtar supervisor, dressing up as Zorro after they certified. He confirmed he is a person who all the time retains his phrase as he’d vowed to try this in the event that they acquired out of the group.

RH: Strangest and most tragic, and humorous relying on the place your sympathies lie, was Sven Ulreich’s calamitous mistake on the Bernabeu. It is the sort of goalkeeping howler which can etch itself on to the collective reminiscence of Bayern followers. It was the largest high-profile mistake I’ve seen in a very long time.

MR: Gianluigi Buffon going completely loopy after Juventus went out to Actual Madrid. He is a veteran, a legend, an icon, everybody seems to him for his feedback and sporting-like behaviour. He is all the time been a gentleman so shedding his rag was unusual. He thought he might go out like Zidane and he did certainly.

BBC Sport – Football ultras_FC_Barcelona

ultras FC Barcelona - https://ultrasfcb.com/football/4422/

#Barcelona

[ultrasfcb-blog]

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 15 targets on this season’s Champions League going into Saturday’s last with Liverpool

With just one sport of this season’s competitors remaining, BBC Sport gathered the ideas of a number of European soccer journalists on the moments that formed the 2017-18 Champions League.

This is what BBC Euro Leagues Football Show regulars Mina Rzouki, James Horncastle, Julien Laurens and Raphael Honigstein, European soccer author Andy Brassell, BBC World Service’s John Bennett and BBC Sport on-line journalist Emlyn Begley considered probably the most memorable targets, performances, disasters and comedy moments.

Finest second

Kostas Manolas’ 82nd-minute winner gave Roma a 3-Zero win over Barcelona, and a semi-final spot on away targets

JB: The Kostas Manolas header which accomplished one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history. Roma had been out of this world towards Barcelona on that Tuesday night time again in April however time was working out and it seemed as if Barcelona would squeeze via to the semi-finals, till Manolas flicked on Cengiz Beneath’s cross. Cue scenes on the Stadio Olimpico that ‘I Giallorossi’ followers will always remember. Soccer was invented for moments like that.

AB: You could possibly choose any considered one of a handful from Tottenham’s marketing campaign, an enormous leap ahead from final season, however Christian Eriksen’s equaliser away at Juventus stands out. Spurs had no simple duties on this season’s Champions League and had been equal to most of them, however Eriksen’s objective capped a shocking comeback and underlined the truth that Mauricio Pochettino and firm had one of many competitors’s most constant groups of latest years sweating.

RH: Mo Salah’s objective within the second leg against Manchester City. Simply when Liverpool had been actually starting to crumble and wanted one thing to occur, he comes up with probably the most nonchalant, cool, nearly easy end you will see to settle a tie.

EB: Cristiano Ronaldo’s bicycle kick for Actual Madrid at Juventus within the quarter-final first leg. The best goalscorer the Champions League has ever identified has grow to be extra of a poacher as he will get older – however he confirmed he nonetheless has the power to attain marvel targets with this strike. The standing ovation he acquired from the Juve followers had shades of the unique Ronaldo’s hat-trick towards Manchester United.

JL: PSG left-back Layvin Kurzawa – a really common soccer participant – scoring a hat-trick against Anderlecht. Think about all the good defenders who’ve performed within the Champions League and he is the primary one to attain a hat-trick. That is soccer taking the mick.

JH: James Pallotta, the Roma president, dropping into the Piazza del Popolo fountain after Roma accomplished probably the most unbelievable comeback we have seen on this event… since Barcelona beat Paris St-Germain. It felt like a defining second in a terrific season for Roma.

Excellent efficiency

Cristiano Ronaldo held his nerve to knock Juventus out following the Italian facet’s quarter-final fightback

RH: There have been a number of excellent workforce performances, like Sevilla’s win at Previous Trafford. For a participant, it is a bit simpler as you may identify him yearly – Cristiano Ronaldo scoring 15 targets – and the 90th-minute penalty against Juventus. It was a sport the place nothing had gone for Actual Madrid and the Bernabeu had been baying for blood. The best way he scored, the whole lack of any nervousness, was vastly spectacular. He’s an actual function mannequin for anybody who needs to see easy methods to cope with stress.

JL: The second leg between Roma and Barcelona. I believe there is no such thing as a different alternative. It was such an unbelievable sport. The Romantada, karma – hitting Barcelona after what they did to PSG final season. It was an unbelievable efficiency and deserved win.

JB: Sorry Manchester United followers however Wissam Ben Yedder’s cameo at Old Trafford stands out for me. He got here on within the 72nd minute, gave Sevilla the lead within the 74th minute after which a beautiful, nerveless end made historical past for Sevilla within the 78th minute. The definition of an affect sub. Actually he made such a big effect that two days later Didier Deschamps gave him his first worldwide call-up.

AB: Roma 3-Zero Chelsea. Many will level to the ‘Romantada’, the Giallorossi’s second-leg fightback towards Barcelona, but it surely was victory over the English champions that set the tone for Eusebio di Francesco’s workforce within the Champions League. Their key gamers had been nicely rested – due to the squad enhancements made by new sporting director Monchi – and it confirmed as they tore into Chelsea with need and attacking intent.

EB: Mohamed Salah’s masterclass within the the primary leg of Liverpool’s semi-final towards his outdated membership Roma. The winger scored two glorious targets – and assisted two extra – to beat one of many world’s high goalkeepers in Alisson Becker. All this in arguably the largest sport of his profession – towards a workforce who ought to have identified easy methods to include him higher than anybody. As if to emphasize simply how good he’d been, the Reds seemed like they might add to their 5-Zero lead when he got here off – and it ended 5-2.

MR: Tottenham going to Turin, enjoying in that stadium the place so many individuals have struggled and scoring all these targets towards Juventus within the first leg was attention-grabbing. Watching that, I assumed Spurs have introduced themselves on the largest stage.

Breakthrough participant

Mohamed Salah has scored 10 targets within the Champions League this season, plus one other in qualifying

MR: Mo Salah. It must be a Liverpool participant. This can be a man I famously didn’t think would do all the pieces he managed to do. Watching him at Roma, he was a great participant however nothing like what’s he is proved to be at Liverpool. He is a distinct participant – he has the spark, high quality, tempo and understanding together with his team-mates. He is proved to be the distinction maker. Once you have a look at what he was for Roma, that match against Real Madrid and now, he is implausible.

JB: We knew about him right here within the UK however now Scotland’s Andrew Robertson has made the breakthrough on the European stage. The Liverpool defender was excellent within the quarter-final towards Manchester Metropolis and within the semi-final versus Roma. From relegation with Hull Metropolis to a Champions League last with Liverpool in 12 months. An impressed signing by Jurgen Klopp.

RH: It’s a must to go together with a Liverpool participant. Sadio Mane has been a revelation. He’d by no means performed within the Champions League correct earlier than, he’d all the time failed within the qualifiers with Salzburg. The affect he is had, with a hat-trick against Porto and scoring in all the large video games, he will get neglected a little bit bit with the business of Firmino and brilliance of Salah however he is had a implausible season.

AB: Sevilla striker Wissam Ben Yedder. Getting into this yr’s Champions League with solely a smattering of European expertise, he confirmed what a canny finisher he’s – solely Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s phenomenal entrance three have scored greater than him within the competitors, together with his eight targets together with a double to sink Manchester United at Previous Trafford.

JL: Roma keeper Alisson Becker. We’ve stated on the pod many occasions how nice he is been this season. Regardless of the semi-final towards Liverpool, the place he was a bit let down by his defence, he is been unbelievable. He is been the most effective goalkeeper in Europe.

JH: Andy Robertson has had a terrific season and it is an unbelievable story. He did not make the grade at Celtic and was relegated with Hull Metropolis. From that to being within the Champions League last is outstanding.

EB: A £34m signing could also be an odd choice for breakthrough participant – however no one anticipated a situation the place Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah would outscore Lionel Messi on this season’s Champions League or be a critical contender to interrupt the 10-year Ronaldo-Messi Ballon d’Or duopoly. This can be a man who had scored three Champions League targets earlier than this season – and none in a knockout sport.

Greatest disappointment

Marco Verratti was despatched off as Paris St-Germain went out to Actual Madrid

AB: Paris St-Germain’s exit. There is no disgrace in shedding to Actual Madrid, after all, however the method through which Paris let this slip was vastly deflating after the fanfare surrounding Neymar’s arrival. PSG managed to throw away a promising place within the first leg and rarely looked capable of turning it around at home.

MR: Juventus travelling to the Bernabeu, scoring three targets and strolling out empty handed due to that penalty determination. They did not do sufficient to safe their passage into the semi-finals regardless of an excellent efficiency in Spain.

JB: When Actual Madrid, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund had been drawn collectively in Group H, we had been all anticipating field workplace video games and a nerve-wracking end. In the long run, the Germans allow us to down. Dortmund completed with no win and with solely two factors from two draws against Apoel Nicosia. Head coach Peter Bosz paid the value when he was sacked in December.

JL: Paris St-Germain. They’d Actual Madrid on the ropes on the Bernabeu in the first leg – and nonetheless managed to bottle it. Unai Emery made poor tactical modifications and the workforce did not present up for the second leg in Paris. That was so disappointing.

EB: Barcelona blowing a 4-1 first-leg result in exit to Roma. It was a terrific Champions League comeback – however hopes had been excessive for a workforce who nearly went via your entire La Liga season unbeaten. It additionally meant for a 3rd season in a row there was no Lionel Messi within the final 4. I’d have gone for Atletico crashing out within the group levels – however they ended the season profitable the Europa League.

JH: Atletico Madrid. No one actually anticipated Roma to get out of that group as a result of Atleti and Chelsea had been favourites. I do suppose profitable a trophy is healthier than simply popping out of a bunch and getting knocked out, but it surely was a bit disappointing. With Diego Costa, they might have been an actual pressure.

RH: Dortmund ending third in a bunch behind Spurs and Actual Madrid isn’t any crime – however should you have a look at the outcomes and performances, they had been dire. Failing to beat Apoel, I am nonetheless struggling to consider what I noticed. The writing was on the wall for Peter Bosz at that time. It is arduous to have a look at this Dortmund squad and consider how unhealthy they had been at occasions.

Strangest second

Shakhtar boss wears full Zorro outfit after Man Metropolis win

JB: World Snooker champion Mark Williams stole his thunder by turning as much as his information convention in only a towel however we won’t neglect Paulo Fonseca’s Zorro second after Shakhtar Donetsk’s 2-1 victory over Manchester Metropolis in December. Fonseca promised to decorate up as Zorro if his workforce certified for the final 16 of the Champions League and stored his phrase. He should have been assured as a result of the costume was prepared and ready in his workplace at full-time. He is simply signed a brand new deal however anticipate to see the “masked vigilante” at a Premier League membership close to you quickly. Shakhtar performed some glorious soccer on this season’s Champions League.

EB: Gianluigi Buffon is a passionate man – but it surely was shocking to see him lose his cool to such an excessive after Michael Oliver awarded an injury-time penalty to Actual Madrid of their quarter-final second leg. Submit-match interviews the place he stated Oliver had a “bag of garbage for a coronary heart”, was a “beast” and began itemizing the delicate drinks the Englishman ought to be ingesting within the crowd quite than refereeing will reside lengthy within the reminiscence.

AB: Atletico Madrid’s Gabi utilizing a four-letter expletive to explain the Europa League after his facet had been pushed to the brink of group elimination by Azeri minnows Qarabag – just for Diego Simeone and firm to go on and win it. The captain was, although, glad sufficient to poke enjoyable at himself about it after the Lyon last.

JL: Timo Werner coming off for RB Leipzig towards Besiktas as he had a headache because of the noise in the stadium. One of many weirdest issues I’ve ever seen.

JH: Paulo Fonseca, the Shakhtar supervisor, dressing up as Zorro after they certified. He confirmed he is a person who all the time retains his phrase as he’d vowed to try this in the event that they acquired out of the group.

RH: Strangest and most tragic, and humorous relying on the place your sympathies lie, was Sven Ulreich’s calamitous mistake on the Bernabeu. It is the sort of goalkeeping howler which can etch itself on to the collective reminiscence of Bayern followers. It was the largest high-profile mistake I’ve seen in a very long time.

MR: Gianluigi Buffon going completely loopy after Juventus went out to Actual Madrid. He is a veteran, a legend, an icon, everybody seems to him for his feedback and sporting-like behaviour. He is all the time been a gentleman so shedding his rag was unusual. He thought he might go out like Zidane and he did certainly.

BBC Sport – Football ultras_FC_Barcelona

ultras FC Barcelona - https://ultrasfcb.com/football/4422/

#Barcelona

[ultrasfcb-blog]

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 15 targets on this season’s Champions League going into Saturday’s last with Liverpool

With just one sport of this season’s competitors remaining, BBC Sport gathered the ideas of a number of European soccer journalists on the moments that formed the 2017-18 Champions League.

This is what BBC Euro Leagues Football Show regulars Mina Rzouki, James Horncastle, Julien Laurens and Raphael Honigstein, European soccer author Andy Brassell, BBC World Service’s John Bennett and BBC Sport on-line journalist Emlyn Begley considered probably the most memorable targets, performances, disasters and comedy moments.

Finest second

Kostas Manolas’ 82nd-minute winner gave Roma a 3-Zero win over Barcelona, and a semi-final spot on away targets

JB: The Kostas Manolas header which accomplished one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history. Roma had been out of this world towards Barcelona on that Tuesday night time again in April however time was working out and it seemed as if Barcelona would squeeze via to the semi-finals, till Manolas flicked on Cengiz Beneath’s cross. Cue scenes on the Stadio Olimpico that ‘I Giallorossi’ followers will always remember. Soccer was invented for moments like that.

AB: You could possibly choose any considered one of a handful from Tottenham’s marketing campaign, an enormous leap ahead from final season, however Christian Eriksen’s equaliser away at Juventus stands out. Spurs had no simple duties on this season’s Champions League and had been equal to most of them, however Eriksen’s objective capped a shocking comeback and underlined the truth that Mauricio Pochettino and firm had one of many competitors’s most constant groups of latest years sweating.

RH: Mo Salah’s objective within the second leg against Manchester City. Simply when Liverpool had been actually starting to crumble and wanted one thing to occur, he comes up with probably the most nonchalant, cool, nearly easy end you will see to settle a tie.

EB: Cristiano Ronaldo’s bicycle kick for Actual Madrid at Juventus within the quarter-final first leg. The best goalscorer the Champions League has ever identified has grow to be extra of a poacher as he will get older – however he confirmed he nonetheless has the power to attain marvel targets with this strike. The standing ovation he acquired from the Juve followers had shades of the unique Ronaldo’s hat-trick towards Manchester United.

JL: PSG left-back Layvin Kurzawa – a really common soccer participant – scoring a hat-trick against Anderlecht. Think about all the good defenders who’ve performed within the Champions League and he is the primary one to attain a hat-trick. That is soccer taking the mick.

JH: James Pallotta, the Roma president, dropping into the Piazza del Popolo fountain after Roma accomplished probably the most unbelievable comeback we have seen on this event… since Barcelona beat Paris St-Germain. It felt like a defining second in a terrific season for Roma.

Excellent efficiency

Cristiano Ronaldo held his nerve to knock Juventus out following the Italian facet’s quarter-final fightback

RH: There have been a number of excellent workforce performances, like Sevilla’s win at Previous Trafford. For a participant, it is a bit simpler as you may identify him yearly – Cristiano Ronaldo scoring 15 targets – and the 90th-minute penalty against Juventus. It was a sport the place nothing had gone for Actual Madrid and the Bernabeu had been baying for blood. The best way he scored, the whole lack of any nervousness, was vastly spectacular. He’s an actual function mannequin for anybody who needs to see easy methods to cope with stress.

JL: The second leg between Roma and Barcelona. I believe there is no such thing as a different alternative. It was such an unbelievable sport. The Romantada, karma – hitting Barcelona after what they did to PSG final season. It was an unbelievable efficiency and deserved win.

JB: Sorry Manchester United followers however Wissam Ben Yedder’s cameo at Old Trafford stands out for me. He got here on within the 72nd minute, gave Sevilla the lead within the 74th minute after which a beautiful, nerveless end made historical past for Sevilla within the 78th minute. The definition of an affect sub. Actually he made such a big effect that two days later Didier Deschamps gave him his first worldwide call-up.

AB: Roma 3-Zero Chelsea. Many will level to the ‘Romantada’, the Giallorossi’s second-leg fightback towards Barcelona, but it surely was victory over the English champions that set the tone for Eusebio di Francesco’s workforce within the Champions League. Their key gamers had been nicely rested – due to the squad enhancements made by new sporting director Monchi – and it confirmed as they tore into Chelsea with need and attacking intent.

EB: Mohamed Salah’s masterclass within the the primary leg of Liverpool’s semi-final towards his outdated membership Roma. The winger scored two glorious targets – and assisted two extra – to beat one of many world’s high goalkeepers in Alisson Becker. All this in arguably the largest sport of his profession – towards a workforce who ought to have identified easy methods to include him higher than anybody. As if to emphasize simply how good he’d been, the Reds seemed like they might add to their 5-Zero lead when he got here off – and it ended 5-2.

MR: Tottenham going to Turin, enjoying in that stadium the place so many individuals have struggled and scoring all these targets towards Juventus within the first leg was attention-grabbing. Watching that, I assumed Spurs have introduced themselves on the largest stage.

Breakthrough participant

Mohamed Salah has scored 10 targets within the Champions League this season, plus one other in qualifying

MR: Mo Salah. It must be a Liverpool participant. This can be a man I famously didn’t think would do all the pieces he managed to do. Watching him at Roma, he was a great participant however nothing like what’s he is proved to be at Liverpool. He is a distinct participant – he has the spark, high quality, tempo and understanding together with his team-mates. He is proved to be the distinction maker. Once you have a look at what he was for Roma, that match against Real Madrid and now, he is implausible.

JB: We knew about him right here within the UK however now Scotland’s Andrew Robertson has made the breakthrough on the European stage. The Liverpool defender was excellent within the quarter-final towards Manchester Metropolis and within the semi-final versus Roma. From relegation with Hull Metropolis to a Champions League last with Liverpool in 12 months. An impressed signing by Jurgen Klopp.

RH: It’s a must to go together with a Liverpool participant. Sadio Mane has been a revelation. He’d by no means performed within the Champions League correct earlier than, he’d all the time failed within the qualifiers with Salzburg. The affect he is had, with a hat-trick against Porto and scoring in all the large video games, he will get neglected a little bit bit with the business of Firmino and brilliance of Salah however he is had a implausible season.

AB: Sevilla striker Wissam Ben Yedder. Getting into this yr’s Champions League with solely a smattering of European expertise, he confirmed what a canny finisher he’s – solely Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s phenomenal entrance three have scored greater than him within the competitors, together with his eight targets together with a double to sink Manchester United at Previous Trafford.

JL: Roma keeper Alisson Becker. We’ve stated on the pod many occasions how nice he is been this season. Regardless of the semi-final towards Liverpool, the place he was a bit let down by his defence, he is been unbelievable. He is been the most effective goalkeeper in Europe.

JH: Andy Robertson has had a terrific season and it is an unbelievable story. He did not make the grade at Celtic and was relegated with Hull Metropolis. From that to being within the Champions League last is outstanding.

EB: A £34m signing could also be an odd choice for breakthrough participant – however no one anticipated a situation the place Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah would outscore Lionel Messi on this season’s Champions League or be a critical contender to interrupt the 10-year Ronaldo-Messi Ballon d’Or duopoly. This can be a man who had scored three Champions League targets earlier than this season – and none in a knockout sport.

Greatest disappointment

Marco Verratti was despatched off as Paris St-Germain went out to Actual Madrid

AB: Paris St-Germain’s exit. There is no disgrace in shedding to Actual Madrid, after all, however the method through which Paris let this slip was vastly deflating after the fanfare surrounding Neymar’s arrival. PSG managed to throw away a promising place within the first leg and rarely looked capable of turning it around at home.

MR: Juventus travelling to the Bernabeu, scoring three targets and strolling out empty handed due to that penalty determination. They did not do sufficient to safe their passage into the semi-finals regardless of an excellent efficiency in Spain.

JB: When Actual Madrid, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund had been drawn collectively in Group H, we had been all anticipating field workplace video games and a nerve-wracking end. In the long run, the Germans allow us to down. Dortmund completed with no win and with solely two factors from two draws against Apoel Nicosia. Head coach Peter Bosz paid the value when he was sacked in December.

JL: Paris St-Germain. They’d Actual Madrid on the ropes on the Bernabeu in the first leg – and nonetheless managed to bottle it. Unai Emery made poor tactical modifications and the workforce did not present up for the second leg in Paris. That was so disappointing.

EB: Barcelona blowing a 4-1 first-leg result in exit to Roma. It was a terrific Champions League comeback – however hopes had been excessive for a workforce who nearly went via your entire La Liga season unbeaten. It additionally meant for a 3rd season in a row there was no Lionel Messi within the final 4. I’d have gone for Atletico crashing out within the group levels – however they ended the season profitable the Europa League.

JH: Atletico Madrid. No one actually anticipated Roma to get out of that group as a result of Atleti and Chelsea had been favourites. I do suppose profitable a trophy is healthier than simply popping out of a bunch and getting knocked out, but it surely was a bit disappointing. With Diego Costa, they might have been an actual pressure.

RH: Dortmund ending third in a bunch behind Spurs and Actual Madrid isn’t any crime – however should you have a look at the outcomes and performances, they had been dire. Failing to beat Apoel, I am nonetheless struggling to consider what I noticed. The writing was on the wall for Peter Bosz at that time. It is arduous to have a look at this Dortmund squad and consider how unhealthy they had been at occasions.

Strangest second

Shakhtar boss wears full Zorro outfit after Man Metropolis win

JB: World Snooker champion Mark Williams stole his thunder by turning as much as his information convention in only a towel however we won’t neglect Paulo Fonseca’s Zorro second after Shakhtar Donetsk’s 2-1 victory over Manchester Metropolis in December. Fonseca promised to decorate up as Zorro if his workforce certified for the final 16 of the Champions League and stored his phrase. He should have been assured as a result of the costume was prepared and ready in his workplace at full-time. He is simply signed a brand new deal however anticipate to see the “masked vigilante” at a Premier League membership close to you quickly. Shakhtar performed some glorious soccer on this season’s Champions League.

EB: Gianluigi Buffon is a passionate man – but it surely was shocking to see him lose his cool to such an excessive after Michael Oliver awarded an injury-time penalty to Actual Madrid of their quarter-final second leg. Submit-match interviews the place he stated Oliver had a “bag of garbage for a coronary heart”, was a “beast” and began itemizing the delicate drinks the Englishman ought to be ingesting within the crowd quite than refereeing will reside lengthy within the reminiscence.

AB: Atletico Madrid’s Gabi utilizing a four-letter expletive to explain the Europa League after his facet had been pushed to the brink of group elimination by Azeri minnows Qarabag – just for Diego Simeone and firm to go on and win it. The captain was, although, glad sufficient to poke enjoyable at himself about it after the Lyon last.

JL: Timo Werner coming off for RB Leipzig towards Besiktas as he had a headache because of the noise in the stadium. One of many weirdest issues I’ve ever seen.

JH: Paulo Fonseca, the Shakhtar supervisor, dressing up as Zorro after they certified. He confirmed he is a person who all the time retains his phrase as he’d vowed to try this in the event that they acquired out of the group.

RH: Strangest and most tragic, and humorous relying on the place your sympathies lie, was Sven Ulreich’s calamitous mistake on the Bernabeu. It is the sort of goalkeeping howler which can etch itself on to the collective reminiscence of Bayern followers. It was the largest high-profile mistake I’ve seen in a very long time.

MR: Gianluigi Buffon going completely loopy after Juventus went out to Actual Madrid. He is a veteran, a legend, an icon, everybody seems to him for his feedback and sporting-like behaviour. He is all the time been a gentleman so shedding his rag was unusual. He thought he might go out like Zidane and he did certainly.

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Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 15 goals in this season’s Champions League going into Saturday’s final with Liverpool

With only one game of this season’s competition remaining, BBC Sport gathered the thoughts of several European football journalists on the moments that shaped the 2017-18 Champions League.

Here’s what BBC Euro Leagues Football Show regulars Mina Rzouki, James Horncastle, Julien Laurens and Raphael Honigstein, European football writer Andy Brassell, BBC World Service’s John Bennett and BBC Sport online journalist Emlyn Begley thought about the most memorable goals, performances, disasters and comedy moments.

Best moment

Kostas Manolas’ 82nd-minute winner gave Roma a 3-0 win over Barcelona, and a semi-final spot on away goals

JB: The Kostas Manolas header which completed one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history. Roma were out of this world against Barcelona on that Tuesday night back in April but time was running out and it looked as though Barcelona would squeeze through to the semi-finals, until Manolas flicked on Cengiz Under’s cross. Cue scenes at the Stadio Olimpico that ‘I Giallorossi’ fans will never forget. Football was invented for moments like that.

AB: You could pick any one of a handful from Tottenham’s campaign, a huge leap forward from last season, but Christian Eriksen’s equaliser away at Juventus stands out. Spurs had no easy tasks in this season’s Champions League and were equal to most of them, but Eriksen’s goal capped a stunning comeback and underlined the fact that Mauricio Pochettino and company had one of the competition’s most consistent teams of recent years sweating.

RH: Mo Salah’s goal in the second leg against Manchester City. Just when Liverpool were really beginning to crumble and needed something to happen, he comes up with the most nonchalant, cool, almost effortless finish you’ll see to settle a tie.

EB: Cristiano Ronaldo’s bicycle kick for Real Madrid at Juventus in the quarter-final first leg. The greatest goalscorer the Champions League has ever known has become more of a poacher as he gets older – but he showed he still has the ability to score wonder goals with this strike. The standing ovation he got from the Juve fans had shades of the original Ronaldo’s hat-trick against Manchester United.

JL: PSG left-back Layvin Kurzawa – a very average football player – scoring a hat-trick against Anderlecht. Imagine all the great defenders who have played in the Champions League and he’s the first one to score a hat-trick. That’s football taking the mick.

JH: James Pallotta, the Roma president, dropping into the Piazza del Popolo fountain after Roma completed the most incredible comeback we’ve seen in this tournament… since Barcelona beat Paris St-Germain. It felt like a defining moment in a great season for Roma.

Outstanding performance

Cristiano Ronaldo held his nerve to knock Juventus out following the Italian side’s quarter-final fightback

RH: There were a few outstanding team performances, like Sevilla’s win at Old Trafford. For a player, it’s a bit easier as you can name him every year – Cristiano Ronaldo scoring 15 goals – and the 90th-minute penalty against Juventus. It was a game where nothing had gone for Real Madrid and the Bernabeu were baying for blood. The way he scored, the complete lack of any nervousness, was hugely impressive. He is a real role model for anyone who wants to see how to deal with pressure.

JL: The second leg between Roma and Barcelona. I think there is no other choice. It was such an incredible game. The Romantada, karma – hitting Barcelona after what they did to PSG last season. It was an incredible performance and deserved win.

JB: Sorry Manchester United fans but Wissam Ben Yedder’s cameo at Old Trafford stands out for me. He came on in the 72nd minute, gave Sevilla the lead in the 74th minute and then a wonderful, nerveless finish made history for Sevilla in the 78th minute. The definition of an impact sub. In fact he made such a big impact that two days later Didier Deschamps gave him his first international call-up.

AB: Roma 3-0 Chelsea. Many will point to the ‘Romantada’, the Giallorossi’s second-leg fightback against Barcelona, but it was victory over the English champions that set the tone for Eusebio di Francesco’s team in the Champions League. Their key players were well rested – thanks to the squad improvements made by new sporting director Monchi – and it showed as they tore into Chelsea with desire and attacking intent.

EB: Mohamed Salah’s masterclass in the the first leg of Liverpool’s semi-final against his old club Roma. The winger scored two excellent goals – and assisted two more – to beat one of the world’s top goalkeepers in Alisson Becker. All this in arguably the biggest game of his career – against a team who should have known how to contain him better than anyone. As if to emphasise just how good he’d been, the Reds looked like they would add to their 5-0 lead when he came off – and it ended 5-2.

MR: Tottenham going to Turin, playing in that stadium where so many people have struggled and scoring all those goals against Juventus in the first leg was interesting. Watching that, I thought Spurs have announced themselves on the biggest stage.

Breakthrough player

Mohamed Salah has scored 10 goals in the Champions League this season, plus another in qualifying

MR: Mo Salah. It has to be a Liverpool player. This is a guy I famously didn’t think would do everything he managed to do. Watching him at Roma, he was a good player but nothing like what’s he’s proved to be at Liverpool. He’s a different player – he has the spark, quality, pace and understanding with his team-mates. He’s proved to be the difference maker. When you look at what he was for Roma, that match against Real Madrid and now, he’s fantastic.

JB: We knew about him here in the UK but now Scotland’s Andrew Robertson has made the breakthrough on the European stage. The Liverpool defender was outstanding in the quarter-final against Manchester City and in the semi-final versus Roma. From relegation with Hull City to a Champions League final with Liverpool in 12 months. An inspired signing by Jurgen Klopp.

RH: You have to go with a Liverpool player. Sadio Mane has been a revelation. He’d never played in the Champions League proper before, he’d always failed in the qualifiers with Salzburg. The impact he’s had, with a hat-trick against Porto and scoring in all the big games, he gets overlooked a little bit with the industry of Firmino and brilliance of Salah but he’s had a fantastic season.

AB: Sevilla striker Wissam Ben Yedder. Entering this year’s Champions League with only a smattering of European experience, he showed what a canny finisher he is – only Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s phenomenal front three have scored more than him in the competition, with his eight goals including a double to sink Manchester United at Old Trafford.

JL: Roma keeper Alisson Becker. We have said on the pod many times how great he’s been this season. Despite the semi-final against Liverpool, where he was a bit let down by his defence, he’s been incredible. He’s been the best goalkeeper in Europe.

JH: Andy Robertson has had a great season and it’s an incredible story. He didn’t make the grade at Celtic and was relegated with Hull City. From that to being in the Champions League final is remarkable.

EB: A £34m signing may be an odd selection for breakthrough player – but nobody anticipated a scenario where Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah would outscore Lionel Messi in this season’s Champions League or be a serious contender to break the 10-year Ronaldo-Messi Ballon d’Or duopoly. This is a man who had scored three Champions League goals before this season – and none in a knockout game.

Biggest disappointment

Marco Verratti was sent off as Paris St-Germain went out to Real Madrid

AB: Paris St-Germain’s exit. There’s no shame in losing to Real Madrid, of course, but the manner in which Paris let this slip was hugely deflating after the fanfare surrounding Neymar’s arrival. PSG managed to throw away a promising position in the first leg and rarely looked capable of turning it around at home.

MR: Juventus travelling to the Bernabeu, scoring three goals and walking out empty handed because of that penalty decision. They didn’t do enough to secure their passage into the semi-finals despite an outstanding performance in Spain.

JB: When Real Madrid, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund were drawn together in Group H, we were all expecting box office games and a nerve-wracking finish. In the end, the Germans let us down. Dortmund finished without a win and with only two points from two draws against Apoel Nicosia. Head coach Peter Bosz paid the price when he was sacked in December.

JL: Paris St-Germain. They had Real Madrid on the ropes at the Bernabeu in the first leg – and still managed to bottle it. Unai Emery made poor tactical changes and the team didn’t show up for the second leg in Paris. That was so disappointing.

EB: Barcelona blowing a 4-1 first-leg lead to go out to Roma. It was a great Champions League comeback – but hopes had been high for a team who almost went through the entire La Liga season unbeaten. It also meant for a third season in a row there was no Lionel Messi in the last four. I would have gone for Atletico crashing out in the group stages – but they ended the season winning the Europa League.

JH: Atletico Madrid. Nobody really expected Roma to get out of that group because Atleti and Chelsea were favourites. I do think winning a trophy is better than just coming out of a group and getting knocked out, but it was a bit disappointing. With Diego Costa, they could have been a real force.

RH: Dortmund finishing third in a group behind Spurs and Real Madrid is no crime – but if you look at the results and performances, they were dire. Failing to beat Apoel, I’m still struggling to believe what I saw. The writing was on the wall for Peter Bosz at that point. It’s hard to look at this Dortmund squad and believe how bad they were at times.

Strangest moment

Shakhtar boss wears full Zorro outfit after Man City win

JB: World Snooker champion Mark Williams stole his thunder by turning up to his news conference in just a towel but we can’t forget Paulo Fonseca’s Zorro moment after Shakhtar Donetsk’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City in December. Fonseca promised to dress up as Zorro if his team qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League and kept his word. He must have been confident because the costume was ready and waiting in his office at full-time. He’s just signed a new deal but expect to see the “masked vigilante” at a Premier League club near you soon. Shakhtar played some excellent football in this season’s Champions League.

EB: Gianluigi Buffon is a passionate guy – but it was surprising to see him lose his cool to such an extreme after Michael Oliver awarded an injury-time penalty to Real Madrid in their quarter-final second leg. Post-match interviews where he said Oliver had a “bag of rubbish for a heart”, was a “beast” and started listing the soft drinks the Englishman should be drinking in the crowd rather than refereeing will live long in the memory.

AB: Atletico Madrid’s Gabi using a four-letter expletive to describe the Europa League after his side were pushed to the brink of group elimination by Azeri minnows Qarabag – only for Diego Simeone and company to go on and win it. The captain was, though, happy enough to poke fun at himself about it after the Lyon final.

JL: Timo Werner coming off for RB Leipzig against Besiktas as he had a headache because of the noise in the stadium. One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen.

JH: Paulo Fonseca, the Shakhtar manager, dressing up as Zorro when they qualified. He showed he’s a man who always keeps his word as he’d vowed to do that if they got out of the group.

RH: Strangest and most tragic, and funny depending on where your sympathies lie, was Sven Ulreich’s calamitous mistake at the Bernabeu. It’s the kind of goalkeeping howler which will etch itself on to the collective memory of Bayern fans. It was the biggest high-profile mistake I’ve seen in a long time.

MR: Gianluigi Buffon going absolutely crazy after Juventus went out to Real Madrid. He’s a veteran, a legend, an icon, everyone looks to him for his comments and sporting-like behaviour. He’s always been a gentleman so losing his rag was strange. He thought he might go out like Zidane and he did indeed.

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Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Champions League 2017-18: The moments of this season

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 15 targets on this season’s Champions League going into Saturday’s last with Liverpool

With just one sport of this season’s competitors remaining, BBC Sport gathered the ideas of a number of European soccer journalists on the moments that formed the 2017-18 Champions League.

This is what BBC Euro Leagues Football Show regulars Mina Rzouki, James Horncastle, Julien Laurens and Raphael Honigstein, European soccer author Andy Brassell, BBC World Service’s John Bennett and BBC Sport on-line journalist Emlyn Begley considered probably the most memorable targets, performances, disasters and comedy moments.

Finest second

Kostas Manolas’ 82nd-minute winner gave Roma a 3-Zero win over Barcelona, and a semi-final spot on away targets

JB: The Kostas Manolas header which accomplished one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history. Roma had been out of this world towards Barcelona on that Tuesday night time again in April however time was working out and it seemed as if Barcelona would squeeze via to the semi-finals, till Manolas flicked on Cengiz Beneath’s cross. Cue scenes on the Stadio Olimpico that ‘I Giallorossi’ followers will always remember. Soccer was invented for moments like that.

AB: You could possibly choose any considered one of a handful from Tottenham’s marketing campaign, an enormous leap ahead from final season, however Christian Eriksen’s equaliser away at Juventus stands out. Spurs had no simple duties on this season’s Champions League and had been equal to most of them, however Eriksen’s objective capped a shocking comeback and underlined the truth that Mauricio Pochettino and firm had one of many competitors’s most constant groups of latest years sweating.

RH: Mo Salah’s objective within the second leg against Manchester City. Simply when Liverpool had been actually starting to crumble and wanted one thing to occur, he comes up with probably the most nonchalant, cool, nearly easy end you will see to settle a tie.

EB: Cristiano Ronaldo’s bicycle kick for Actual Madrid at Juventus within the quarter-final first leg. The best goalscorer the Champions League has ever identified has grow to be extra of a poacher as he will get older – however he confirmed he nonetheless has the power to attain marvel targets with this strike. The standing ovation he acquired from the Juve followers had shades of the unique Ronaldo’s hat-trick towards Manchester United.

JL: PSG left-back Layvin Kurzawa – a really common soccer participant – scoring a hat-trick against Anderlecht. Think about all the good defenders who’ve performed within the Champions League and he is the primary one to attain a hat-trick. That is soccer taking the mick.

JH: James Pallotta, the Roma president, dropping into the Piazza del Popolo fountain after Roma accomplished probably the most unbelievable comeback we have seen on this event… since Barcelona beat Paris St-Germain. It felt like a defining second in a terrific season for Roma.

Excellent efficiency

Cristiano Ronaldo held his nerve to knock Juventus out following the Italian facet’s quarter-final fightback

RH: There have been a number of excellent workforce performances, like Sevilla’s win at Previous Trafford. For a participant, it is a bit simpler as you may identify him yearly – Cristiano Ronaldo scoring 15 targets – and the 90th-minute penalty against Juventus. It was a sport the place nothing had gone for Actual Madrid and the Bernabeu had been baying for blood. The best way he scored, the whole lack of any nervousness, was vastly spectacular. He’s an actual function mannequin for anybody who needs to see easy methods to cope with stress.

JL: The second leg between Roma and Barcelona. I believe there is no such thing as a different alternative. It was such an unbelievable sport. The Romantada, karma – hitting Barcelona after what they did to PSG final season. It was an unbelievable efficiency and deserved win.

JB: Sorry Manchester United followers however Wissam Ben Yedder’s cameo at Old Trafford stands out for me. He got here on within the 72nd minute, gave Sevilla the lead within the 74th minute after which a beautiful, nerveless end made historical past for Sevilla within the 78th minute. The definition of an affect sub. Actually he made such a big effect that two days later Didier Deschamps gave him his first worldwide call-up.

AB: Roma 3-Zero Chelsea. Many will level to the ‘Romantada’, the Giallorossi’s second-leg fightback towards Barcelona, but it surely was victory over the English champions that set the tone for Eusebio di Francesco’s workforce within the Champions League. Their key gamers had been nicely rested – due to the squad enhancements made by new sporting director Monchi – and it confirmed as they tore into Chelsea with need and attacking intent.

EB: Mohamed Salah’s masterclass within the the primary leg of Liverpool’s semi-final towards his outdated membership Roma. The winger scored two glorious targets – and assisted two extra – to beat one of many world’s high goalkeepers in Alisson Becker. All this in arguably the largest sport of his profession – towards a workforce who ought to have identified easy methods to include him higher than anybody. As if to emphasize simply how good he’d been, the Reds seemed like they might add to their 5-Zero lead when he got here off – and it ended 5-2.

MR: Tottenham going to Turin, enjoying in that stadium the place so many individuals have struggled and scoring all these targets towards Juventus within the first leg was attention-grabbing. Watching that, I assumed Spurs have introduced themselves on the largest stage.

Breakthrough participant

Mohamed Salah has scored 10 targets within the Champions League this season, plus one other in qualifying

MR: Mo Salah. It must be a Liverpool participant. This can be a man I famously didn’t think would do all the pieces he managed to do. Watching him at Roma, he was a great participant however nothing like what’s he is proved to be at Liverpool. He is a distinct participant – he has the spark, high quality, tempo and understanding together with his team-mates. He is proved to be the distinction maker. Once you have a look at what he was for Roma, that match against Real Madrid and now, he is implausible.

JB: We knew about him right here within the UK however now Scotland’s Andrew Robertson has made the breakthrough on the European stage. The Liverpool defender was excellent within the quarter-final towards Manchester Metropolis and within the semi-final versus Roma. From relegation with Hull Metropolis to a Champions League last with Liverpool in 12 months. An impressed signing by Jurgen Klopp.

RH: It’s a must to go together with a Liverpool participant. Sadio Mane has been a revelation. He’d by no means performed within the Champions League correct earlier than, he’d all the time failed within the qualifiers with Salzburg. The affect he is had, with a hat-trick against Porto and scoring in all the large video games, he will get neglected a little bit bit with the business of Firmino and brilliance of Salah however he is had a implausible season.

AB: Sevilla striker Wissam Ben Yedder. Getting into this yr’s Champions League with solely a smattering of European expertise, he confirmed what a canny finisher he’s – solely Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s phenomenal entrance three have scored greater than him within the competitors, together with his eight targets together with a double to sink Manchester United at Previous Trafford.

JL: Roma keeper Alisson Becker. We’ve stated on the pod many occasions how nice he is been this season. Regardless of the semi-final towards Liverpool, the place he was a bit let down by his defence, he is been unbelievable. He is been the most effective goalkeeper in Europe.

JH: Andy Robertson has had a terrific season and it is an unbelievable story. He did not make the grade at Celtic and was relegated with Hull Metropolis. From that to being within the Champions League last is outstanding.

EB: A £34m signing could also be an odd choice for breakthrough participant – however no one anticipated a situation the place Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah would outscore Lionel Messi on this season’s Champions League or be a critical contender to interrupt the 10-year Ronaldo-Messi Ballon d’Or duopoly. This can be a man who had scored three Champions League targets earlier than this season – and none in a knockout sport.

Greatest disappointment

Marco Verratti was despatched off as Paris St-Germain went out to Actual Madrid

AB: Paris St-Germain’s exit. There is no disgrace in shedding to Actual Madrid, after all, however the method through which Paris let this slip was vastly deflating after the fanfare surrounding Neymar’s arrival. PSG managed to throw away a promising place within the first leg and rarely looked capable of turning it around at home.

MR: Juventus travelling to the Bernabeu, scoring three targets and strolling out empty handed due to that penalty determination. They did not do sufficient to safe their passage into the semi-finals regardless of an excellent efficiency in Spain.

JB: When Actual Madrid, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund had been drawn collectively in Group H, we had been all anticipating field workplace video games and a nerve-wracking end. In the long run, the Germans allow us to down. Dortmund completed with no win and with solely two factors from two draws against Apoel Nicosia. Head coach Peter Bosz paid the value when he was sacked in December.

JL: Paris St-Germain. They’d Actual Madrid on the ropes on the Bernabeu in the first leg – and nonetheless managed to bottle it. Unai Emery made poor tactical modifications and the workforce did not present up for the second leg in Paris. That was so disappointing.

EB: Barcelona blowing a 4-1 first-leg result in exit to Roma. It was a terrific Champions League comeback – however hopes had been excessive for a workforce who nearly went via your entire La Liga season unbeaten. It additionally meant for a 3rd season in a row there was no Lionel Messi within the final 4. I’d have gone for Atletico crashing out within the group levels – however they ended the season profitable the Europa League.

JH: Atletico Madrid. No one actually anticipated Roma to get out of that group as a result of Atleti and Chelsea had been favourites. I do suppose profitable a trophy is healthier than simply popping out of a bunch and getting knocked out, but it surely was a bit disappointing. With Diego Costa, they might have been an actual pressure.

RH: Dortmund ending third in a bunch behind Spurs and Actual Madrid isn’t any crime – however should you have a look at the outcomes and performances, they had been dire. Failing to beat Apoel, I am nonetheless struggling to consider what I noticed. The writing was on the wall for Peter Bosz at that time. It is arduous to have a look at this Dortmund squad and consider how unhealthy they had been at occasions.

Strangest second

Shakhtar boss wears full Zorro outfit after Man Metropolis win

JB: World Snooker champion Mark Williams stole his thunder by turning as much as his information convention in only a towel however we won’t neglect Paulo Fonseca’s Zorro second after Shakhtar Donetsk’s 2-1 victory over Manchester Metropolis in December. Fonseca promised to decorate up as Zorro if his workforce certified for the final 16 of the Champions League and stored his phrase. He should have been assured as a result of the costume was prepared and ready in his workplace at full-time. He is simply signed a brand new deal however anticipate to see the “masked vigilante” at a Premier League membership close to you quickly. Shakhtar performed some glorious soccer on this season’s Champions League.

EB: Gianluigi Buffon is a passionate man – but it surely was shocking to see him lose his cool to such an excessive after Michael Oliver awarded an injury-time penalty to Actual Madrid of their quarter-final second leg. Submit-match interviews the place he stated Oliver had a “bag of garbage for a coronary heart”, was a “beast” and began itemizing the delicate drinks the Englishman ought to be ingesting within the crowd quite than refereeing will reside lengthy within the reminiscence.

AB: Atletico Madrid’s Gabi utilizing a four-letter expletive to explain the Europa League after his facet had been pushed to the brink of group elimination by Azeri minnows Qarabag – just for Diego Simeone and firm to go on and win it. The captain was, although, glad sufficient to poke enjoyable at himself about it after the Lyon last.

JL: Timo Werner coming off for RB Leipzig towards Besiktas as he had a headache because of the noise in the stadium. One of many weirdest issues I’ve ever seen.

JH: Paulo Fonseca, the Shakhtar supervisor, dressing up as Zorro after they certified. He confirmed he is a person who all the time retains his phrase as he’d vowed to try this in the event that they acquired out of the group.

RH: Strangest and most tragic, and humorous relying on the place your sympathies lie, was Sven Ulreich’s calamitous mistake on the Bernabeu. It is the sort of goalkeeping howler which can etch itself on to the collective reminiscence of Bayern followers. It was the largest high-profile mistake I’ve seen in a very long time.

MR: Gianluigi Buffon going completely loopy after Juventus went out to Actual Madrid. He is a veteran, a legend, an icon, everybody seems to him for his feedback and sporting-like behaviour. He is all the time been a gentleman so shedding his rag was unusual. He thought he might go out like Zidane and he did certainly.

BBC Sport – Football ultras_FC_Barcelona

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