Articles
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Adama Traoré: The rip-roaring winger who’s refining his gems under Nuno Espírito Santo
Old Trafford. 31st December 2016. Just two minutes gone. The game is goalless. The ball falls kindly for the young Spaniard, Adama Traoré. The space opens up. He gallops forward, roared on by the small corner of fans who had travelled from the North East in hope of a giant-killing. To his left, Stuart Downing,…
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Group Stage Fan Preview: PSV Eindhoven
As the Dutch champions, PSV qualified for the Champions League play-off round, where they comfortably eliminated BATE Borisov 6-2 on aggregate. In the 2015/16 season, PSV finished 2nd in the groups, which made it the first time since 2004 that a Dutch side (also PSV, who reached the semi-finals that season) survived the group stage.…
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Champions League Fan Preview: Borussia Dortmund
17/18: nothing short of a parlous season for Borussia Dortmund packed tight with uncertainty, inconsistency and a gradually thickening smoke of dissatisfaction around the Westfalenstadion. The black-yellows flew into the season with Dutchman Peter Bosz handling the joystick, going seven Bundesliga matches unbeaten in a thrilling run that boasted spectacular results such as a 6-1…
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Fran Beltrán: Celta’s new metronomic midfielder
Many children across the globe grow up with the ambition of someday playing football on the very highest stage. For Celta Vigo’s newest midfield maestro Fran Beltrán, however, this was not initially the case. “I could not stand it. When my father put football on TV, I took the controller and turned off the…
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Champions League Fan Preview: Hoffenheim
Zach Lowy, creator of Breaking The Lines, talks with Ronan Murphy, Bundesliga expert and Goal.com writer, about Hoffenheim’s chances going into the Champions League. ZL: Do you think the fact that Julien Nagelsmann has already confirmed his departure will impact Hoffenheim’s season? RM: I think the experience of playing in the Champions League will negate…
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The Rise of the Centre-Back; from World Cup to Club Season
The centre-back; often disregarded or underrated in some way or another – despite being one of the, if not the, most important positions in the sport. The centre-back’s duty is typically to sit in the central heart of the defence, usually alongside one or two fellow centre-backs; with a variety of different sub-duties and responsibilities…
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Quashing the Third-Season Syndrome
“What is playing well? It is scoring more goals than the opponent, it is to concede less than the opponent, it is to make your fans proud because you gave everything and you win. I want everything. I want to win matches, play well, play young players, score goals, not concede goals.” – Just a…
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La Furia Roja: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
On the slopes of the Cherepanov hill, on the right bank of Dnieper River, there’s a 70,000-capacity edifice overlooking the entire city of Kiev. This is the heartbeat of football in Eastern Europe, but at the turn of the decade, this historic sporting venue became more significant to Spaniards than to Andriy Shevchencko and 45…
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Sarrismo: The Anatomy of Italy’s most coveted tactician
In 2003, Roman Abramovich started sowing seeds for one of the most captivating transition stories in English football –Stupendous wealth, shrewd recruitment and astronomical ambition surpassed only by the will to dominate and rewrite Premier league history. Meanwhile, there was a certain Mr. Sarri cutting his teeth in the Tuscany regional leagues. Doubling as a bank…
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Group Stage Fan Preview: Juventus
The upcoming season for Serie A looks rather threatening for all clubs, but none have produced a more lethal lineup, just as the 7 consecutive scudetto winners have. Coming into the new season with a well-constructed midfield, an unbreakable backline, and a rather menacing attack, they seem to have yet again pulled together a strong…
