Football Matchday Preview and Review

Before the game, all anyone could talk about was how PSG's wonderkid, Kylian Mbappe had made a miraculous recovery from his injury. Atalanta laid out a formation that suited their attacking style. They played their 3-4-1-2 style, with the captain, Alejandro Gomez distributing balls to the two strikers ahead of him. It was certain that they weren't afraid of PSG's attack. PSG lined up with their usual 4-3-3, with Neymar and Icardi swapping their roles while going forward. PSG started the game on the front foot with Neymar dribbling past the Atalanta defenders like they didn't even exist. He played out two world-class balls that should have been converted by Pablo Sarabia and Mauro Icardi, but both lacked the bit of pace Mbappe got into the game. Neymar, too, missed two sitters that a player of his calibre should have scored. Eventually, PSG was made to rue their missed chances as Atalanta striker, Pasalic scored a brilliant first-touch goal into the corner of Keylor  Nav...

The much-awaited completion of the Round of 16 (RO16) of the UEFA Champions League post-coronavirus pandemic was completed this weekend. And the performances we saw of all the teams we are used to seeing all these years cannot even be compared to how our expectations thought they would go down. For example, Lyon, a French club, drawn to play against the mighty, Ronaldo-lead, Juventus, end up beating the mighty on the away goals rule. Juventus vs Olympique Lyonnais  The game started at a sour note from Juve's perspective when Lyon were gifted a penalty at the 12th minute. Memphis Depay made no mistake converting from the penalty spot and got Lyon leading 1-0 on the day and 2-0 on aggregate. The spectators, who were watching from home, were then shown a Cristiano Ronaldo show, where he first scored a penalty just before half-time, and got a brilliant goal from outside the box, to make it 2-1 on the day. Alas, Juventus needed another goal to qualify for the Quarter Finals, but failed ...

Football in most countries has come to the end of the season. Fans are left with two options - complain and wait till the next set of fixtures are announced, and to feel excited as all clubs start dropping their kit concepts and styles for the upcoming season. I choose to feel excited. Here, we will take an analytical view of major kit releases and leaks and rate them .  Today, we continue from where we left last time and start with the Italian clubs playing at the top-most tier. Serie A League-wide Common Font! Serie A is planning to implement a common league-wide font, which each team will have to follow and write player names from the same. Its really not that bad, except it takes away the uniqueness each kit brought with their own kits.   Fiorentina Kappa has replaced Le Coq Sportif as the official kit sponsors of Fiorentina. No jersey has been released; concepts of home and away jerseys are available. Home A regular, clean purple kit. Nothing new. Nothing ...

Football in most countries has come to the end of the season. Fans are left with two options - complain and wait till the next set of fixtures are announced, and to feel excited as all clubs start dropping their kit concepts and styles for the upcoming season. I choose to feel excited. Here, we will take an analytical view of major kit releases and leaks and rate them.   Today, we continue from where we left last time and start with the German clubs playing at the top-most tier. Bayer Leverkusen Kits for Bayer Leverkusen are officially manufactured and distributed by Jako. Home A surprise change from their traditional designs and I'm liking how this looks. There are not many teams that play with black as their primary colour in their home kits and this jersey makes the change look good. The red collars and sleeve trims add a certain depth to the strip. Rating - 9/10 Away A refreshing red colour with the right supporting yellow colours on the collar and sleeve trims. A very neat des...