Association Football 2020/21

[Santander]

Two exciting games tonight which were key in their respective leagues’ title races. Barcelona kept their La Liga hopes alive after coming from a goal behind to beat Valencia 3-2 (in spite of a late wonderstrike by Carlos Soler), while Monaco’s Ligue 1 ambitions now probably look to be dead following a dramatic last-minute loss to Lyon (who can now challenge them for a UCL spot) by the same scoreline.

It would be so sweet if Sevilla won La Liga, Lille won Ligue 1, Atlanta, Napoli and Lazio qualify for the Champions League, and PSG won the Champions League. Shut out as many of the Super League scum as possible.

[Santander]

Tough result for Sevilla. They bossed the game, but just couldn't break Athletic down. The sucker punch goal at the end just added insult to injury. Although if they beat Madrid and Barca/Atleti draw, who knows what could happen with how inconsistent the top 3 have been...

[JGibson]

The UCL Final matchup is set: It's an all-England affair for the 2nd time in 3 seasons, as Chelsea and Manchester City will contest for the UCL crown.



The UEL Final could also be an all-England affair, as Manchester United seems likely to go to the UEL Final, and maybe Arsenal gets firing on all cylinders. 

[JGibson]

The Europa League Final is set: Manchester United and Villarreal will be contesting for a potential place in next season's UCL.  


Manchester United lost to Roma 3-2, but won 8-5 on aggregate to advance. 


Arsenal drew 0-0 to Villarreal and lose 2-1 on aggregate to send them home, likely without any European football for the first time since the 1995-96 season.   

[Santander]

Arsenal were perhaps a bit unlucky to not score today, but over the two legs, Villareal deserved to go through. The first leg could easily have been 3-0 or worse, but Villareal backed off after the Ceballos red card and Arsenal got a relatively soft penalty to get out of jail. The second leg, Villareal came to London looking for a 0-0 draw, and they achieved it.

Wouldn't be surprised if Villareal won the final... Emery loves the Europa League, after all, and who doesn't want to see Man Utd lose?

[Santander]

Burak Yilmaz... lead from the front.

[Lechasseur]

The UCL Final matchup is set: It's an all-England affair for the 2nd time in 3 seasons, as Chelsea and Manchester City will contest for the UCL crown.

Eww gross

Eh, I'll be pulling for City as the lesser evil, but I won't bother to watch this year.

Then in the Europa League I'm pulling for Villarreal, but I prefer both Europa League finalists to either Champions League finalist this year (opposite of last year).

[JGibson]

Norwich City and Watford are promoted to the Premier League for next season, but the playoffs to determine the final promotion place will be coming soon.


EFL Championship Promotion Playoffs Matchup:

Brentford [#3] v. Bournemouth [#6] and Swansea City [#4] v. Barnsley [#5]

[Santander]

Lille only 4 points away now.

I'm glad I've been proven right that Pochettino is not a top manager. I don't think it'd have been terribly unrealistic for Tuchel to have won the Treble with PSG this year, but the Qataris decided to gift him to Chelsea for free.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Salernitana to Serie A for the third time, 26 years ahead of schedule! 1948, 1998, 2022

[Mike88]

A lot of dust in the air this evening in Portugal...

In other news, it seems that the Champion League final will be in Porto city, Dragão stadium.

[JGibson]

Manchester City have clinched the 2020-21 Premier League title, thanks to Leicester City's 2-1 win over Manchester United. This also helps Leicester City's UCL chances.

[JGibson]

LaLiga news: ESPN is expected to snatch the league's English and Spanish language broadcast packages from beIN Sports, effective next year. Most of the games will be on ESPN+, with some on ESPN/ESPN2/ABC. This could be the death knell for beIN Sports.

WorldSoccerTalk:

ESPN is expected to announce later this week that it has acquired the English-language and Spanish-language media rights to Spain’s LaLiga, multiple sources have confirmed to World Soccer Talk.

Expectations are that an official announcement will be made on Thursday with confirmation that ESPN’s coverage of LaLiga will begin in August 2021, according to our sources.

World Soccer Talk reached out to both LaLiga and ESPN for comment. Spokespeople for both organizations declined to comment.

As first reported by World Soccer Talk in January, ESPN has been in talks to acquire LaLiga rights for the U.S. market for several months. beIN SPORTS had the exclusive rights in the United States through 2024 in a global deal between TV broadcaster and the league. However, carriage issues have plagued beIN SPORTS since 2019, and have prevented LaLiga from being a more popular league in the United States due to the limited distribution of its games.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Congrats to the inbred sheikh on another bought trophy.

[Santander]

LaLiga news: ESPN is expected to snatch the league's English and Spanish language broadcast packages from beIN Sports, effective next year. Most of the games will be on ESPN+, with some on ESPN/ESPN2/ABC. This could be the death knell for beIN Sports

In the US, maybe. But only like 5 people watched it anyway.

I'll start watching La Liga when they get rid of the horrible American and Latin American commentary for global broadcasts. The Premier League and Serie A aren't amazing, but at least they're watchable without muting.

[Santander]

lol Jorginho. That was a robbery by Arsenal, but Chelsea can't complain when they make mistakes like that...

[JGibson]

Arsenal just might have a chance at European footy next year, if everything breaks right.

[Mike88]

It's official:

https://twitter.com/UEFA/status/1392790995624935428

[Lechasseur]

It's official:

https://twitter.com/UEFA/status/1392790995624935428

This is pretty dumb imo. With the current context, given two English teams are on the final, it should have gone to a British stadium. I don’t understand this decision honestly.

[GenerationTerrorist]

^ It is because UEFA wanted exemption from Covid testing for their sponsors/guests. The UK Government told them to jog on.

Also....I'm off to Wembley next weekend for the FA Trophy final. Mighty mighty Hereford FC 

[Mike88]

Benfica is humiliating Sporting right now. Let's see how it ends.

[Alcibiades]

Very nice to see Leicester lift the FA Cup, and what a goal to win it.

[GenerationTerrorist]

A pair of absolutely amazing saves by Kasper Schmeichel 

[Mike88]

Benfica is humiliating Sporting right now. Let's see how it ends.

It was closer than expected at the end. Sporting was able to fight back but it wasn't enough. Benfica defeated Sporting 4-3, and Sporting suffers its first defeat in this year's Championship, just 4 days after winning their first title in 19 years.

It's now a fight for second place and the millions from the Champions League. Porto will face Rio Ave, this evening, and if Porto wins, the 2nd place is home and dry for them.

[Mike88]

Final line up of the 2020-21 Portuguese league:

1. Sporting CP
2. FCPorto
3. Benfica
4. Braga
5. Paços de Ferreira
6. Guimarães

Porto won 0-3 against Rio Ave and made it mathematically impossible for Benfica to surpass them. Sporting and Porto go automatically to the Champions League, while Benfica still has to go to the playoffs.