Tag Archives: villarreal

​Memphis Depay gave Manchester United another glimpse of what could have been on Thursday night with another brilliant strike for Lyon.​

The for the first knockout round of this season’s Europa League took place in Nyon on Monday afternoon, with Celtic and Arsenal awaiting the results. Arsene Wenger’s side had little trouble progressing from a group containing FC Koln, BATE Borisov and Red Star Belgrade, while Brendan Rodgers will consider it a success that his side are even still in Europe …

The Europa League group stage draw has taken place in Monaco on Friday afternoon, Despite the presence of five English teams in the Champions League for the first time ever, there is still plenty of Premier League interest in Europe’s secondary club competition with Arsenal and Everton representing the league on the continent. While the strongest teams (including Arsenal) generally …

Arsenal and Everton will now have a reasonable idea of the standard they will face in Friday’s Europa League group stage draw. Ronald Koeman’s side came through a playoff against Hajduk Split on Thursday to join Arsenal in the draw, with only two English sides participating due to the extra Champions League place. In theory, Arsenal should get the easier …

The draw for the Europa League first knockout took place on Monday afternoon, with Manchester United and Tottenham the remaining Premier League participants. José Mourinho’s side book their place in the draw despite group stage campaign that wobbled in parts, ultimately doing the necessary against Zorya Luhansk on Thursday to progress. Their reward for progression is a tie against French …

Juventus’ lead at the top of Serie A was cut to two points at the weekend, while Barcelona and Real Madrid both recorded victories – but only just. To Serie A first, where Juve suffered defeat at the San Siro for the second time this season. Having already lost 2-1 to Inter, this time it was revitalised AC Milan’s turn to …

Spain’s top clubs tightened the screw at the weekend, while Juventus opened an ominous gap in Serie A and Bayern Munich’s blip continued. To La Liga first, where Barcelona set the tone for the weekend by beating Deportivo La Coruña 4-0 at the Camp Nou on Saturday. A Rafinha double and Luis Suárez strike before half time ended the tie …

While English clubs were busy in EFL Cup action this week, a number of their European counterparts were engaged in league action, as La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga all had fixtures taking place. In La Liga, the meeting of title rivals Barcelona and Atlético Madrid was the tie of the night, and ended in a 1-1 draw that would …

UEFA have taken the rather baffling decision of amending the qualification process for the Champions League from next season.  The top four leagues (currently Spain, Germany, England and Italy in that order) will qualify four teams automatically through to the group stages taking half of all the positions available without the risk of entering a play off. Many people will shrug their shoulders …

The draw for the Europa League group stage has been made in Monaco this afternoon. The seedings for the 48 teams involved were confirmed as of last night, meaning that the clubs have a reasonable idea of the sort of challenges they could face. As well as the 38 qualifiers from the previous round(s), Viktoria Plzen, Hapoel Be’er Sheva, APOEL, Dundalk, …

With the final round of playoffs taking place on Thursday night, the final 48 teams for this season’s Europa League group stage have been confirmed. As such, the seeding pots which each side will go into is also now known. Unlike the Champions League draw, the Europa League pots are based entirely on co-efficients rather than an automatic placing in …

Marcos Rojo’s time at Old Trafford maybe coming to an end. Although much was expected of Marcos Rojo when he arrived at Manchester United during the summer of 2014, it is fair to say the Argentinian international has not lived up to expectation. Throughout the last two seasons, Rojo has been unable to deal with the pace of the Premier …

With reports claiming that Phil Jones and Chris Smalling will be Jose Mourinho’s first choice centre back pairing next season, along with the signing of Eric Bailly and the return of Luke Shaw to full fitness, it appears the future of Marcos Rojo at Old Trafford is in huge doubt. Spanish newspaper Marca is reporting that Villarreal could swoop for the Argentine international after he …

Manchester United have officially confirmed the signing of Villarreal defender Eric Bailly. News broke over the weekend that the club had entered into talks with Villarreal, with a fee in the region of £30m (Bailly’s release clause) believed to have been agreed. As of today, that move has now been finalised. It’s official! We’ve signed @EricBailly24, subject to a work …

Though Liverpool put Villarreal away 3-0 in Thursday night’s Europa League semi final, many will tell you that the match was won before the players had even entered the stadium. There was a carnival atmosphere around Anfield last night as the players arrived at the crowd looking to overturn a 1-0 deficit and reach their first European final in over …

Liverpool reached the final of the Europa League last night with a thoroughly comprehensive 3-0 win against Villarreal on Thursday night. An own goal from Villarreal’s Bruno Soriano after just seven minutes set the tone for the rest of the match, before second half goals from Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana killed the tie as a contest. It was not …

2014 must seem like such a long time ago now for Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge. The England international scored 21 goals as Brendan Rodgers’ side came within two points of winning their first league title since 1990. Since then, however, a slew of injuries have curtailed his progress and Liverpool have suffered as a result of their reliance on their absent …

Though he still enjoys messiah status at Liverpool, a misstep from Jürgen Klopp at the Madrigal showed on Thursday night that he is human after all. Robbed of Divock Origi for the Europa League semi final first leg against Villarreal, Klopp decided to use Roberto Firmino in an advanced role rather than play Daniel Sturridge up front – a decision which backfired …