UEFA Champions League
JURGEN KLOPP BLASTS ATLETICO FOR NEGATIVE PLAY
Champions League holders Liverpool will need to summon another famous European comeback at Anfield next month after they were beaten 1-0 away to Atletico Madrid in their last-16 first leg on Tuesday (Feb 18).
Spain midfielder Saul Niguez struck the only goal of the game in the fourth minute by bundling into the net from close range following a corner, their traditional weapon of choice in recent years.
Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp railed against Atletico’s negative tactics and gamesmanship and was unhappy with some aspects of Diego Simeone’s side’s play.
“You need to be really strong as a referee in this atmosphere. Already in the first 30 minutes three of their players went to the ground, I don’t know what for,” Klopp told reporters.
“They got a result, the stadium wasn’t here to see sensational football. Atletico were here to squeeze a result out of this game, they got the result and so they are happy and we are not that happy.”
Liverpool, who have won 25 of 26 Premier League games this season and are on course for a record-smashing title win, missed a series of chances to equalise in the second half, with Mohamed Salah and captain Jordan Henderson coming closest to scoring.
Klopp’s side play at home to Atletico on March 11 in the return leg at Anfield, where they produced an incredible 4-0 win over Barcelona in last year’s semi-final second leg after losing the first match 3-0.
Atletico’s Wanda Metropolitano stadium was the scene of Liverpool’s 2-0 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur in last year’s final but they faced a very different type of atmosphere this time around.
Clouds of billowing red smoke greeted the Atletico bus when it arrived at the ground as the home supporters stoked up a scorching atmosphere throughout the game to give their side a lift in the middle of their worst season in recent memory.
Simeone’s men have looked nothing like the sides that reached the 2014 and 2016 Champions League finals and challenged Real Madrid and Barcelona’s duopoly of La Liga for most of this campaign. They trail league leaders Real by 13 points.
But on Tuesday they produced a vintage defensive display, sitting deep and barely giving Liverpool any space for their attacking trident of Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane to work their usual magic.
Mane was fortunate not to be sent off late in the first half after clashing with Sime Vrsaljko while on a yellow card and he was swiftly substituted by Klopp for Divock Origi, who scored the second goal in last year’s final.
He caused little disquiet to Atletico’s towering defenders, yet Salah should have levelled with a header which went wide of the near post, while Henderson also narrowly missed the target from inside the area later on.
Klopp substituted the Senegal international immediately after the interval.
“The plan today was to get Sadio out of the game with a yellow card, I was a bit afraid that his opponent would go down if Sadio only takes a deep breath or whatever,” added Klopp, who was himself given a booking for protesting on the sidelines.
“I didn’t want to have that situation and that’s why I took him off. He was targeted. It was clear. It’s part of football but I don’t like it.”
The German coach has overseen a number of inspiring second-leg comebacks in European matches at Anfield and warned Atletico what awaited them on Merseyside next month.
“As long as we can get 11 players in a Liverpool shirt we will try with all we have. For all Atletico fans who have got a ticket, welcome to Anfield,” he added.
“It’s halftime, we’re 1-0 down, we wouldn’t give up if we had 15 minutes of half time so why should we when we have three weeks, and even better, the second half will be played in our stadium.”
-Reuters
UEFA Champions League
Osimhen and Aubameyang: Africa’s First Men of the Match in 2025/26 Champions League
The Champions League has barely started and already African fans have something to be proud of.
Two of the continent’s biggest names, Victor Osimhen from Nigeria and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Gabon, have become the first African players this season to be named Man of the Match.
For Osimhen, it was a night to remember in Istanbul. Galatasaray were up against Liverpool, a team with a European pedigree and needed someone to step up. Osimhen did just that.
His goal gave Galatasaray a 1-0 win but it was more than just the goal. His energy and how he kept Liverpool’s defenders on their toes all night made him the best player on the pitch.
So his winning of the UEFA Man of the Match award. Galatasaray fans had proof they have a striker who can change games at the highest level.
Meanwhile, on the same night in Marseille, Aubameyang was showing why he has been Africa’s most reliable goal scorer for over a decade.
At 36, some wondered if he still had it on nights like this. His answer was a thunderous “YES.”
Marseille tore Ajax apart in a 4–0 demolition that saw Aubameyang seal his stature as the orchestrator and heartbeat of the French club’s attack.
His movement, his composure and his leadership stood out. So much so that he too was rightfully awarded the Man of the Match.
The fact that these two happened on the same night made it even more special for African football fans.
Osimhen represents the new generation: quick, hungry and with still a few years ahead to make history.
Aubameyang is the veteran still out there to prove – even though he really has nothing to prove anymore – that experience and class don’t fade easily.
Together, they gave African football fans a double reason to smile.
For Nigeria and Gabon, these awards are more than individual trophies. They are ultimately a reminder of how much African players contribute to the Champions League season in, season out.
And the tournament is still in its early stages. So there’s every chance more players from the continent will follow in their footsteps before the Budapest finale in 2026. Only good omens for the 2025 AFCON that starts in a few months.
-Morocco World News
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In his glory days, Jose Mourinho celebrated dramatic goals from his teams by sprinting down the touchline, sometimes sliding on his knees for extra euphoric effect.
On Tuesday, back at his former club Chelsea as the new coach of Benfica, Mourinho’s most eye-catching intervention was down the touchline again, but this time his run was to urge his team’s fans to stop hurling objects onto the pitch.
Benfica under Mourinho, in his fourth game in charge, were defeated 1-0 by an under-strength Chelsea side in the Champions League after a fist-half Richard Rios own goal.
The self-declared “Special One” was lauded by the home fans with a few choruses of “Jose Mou-rin-ho” in recognition of his successes – three Premier League titles and four other trophies – which no other Chelsea manager has come close to matching.
Mourinho, 62, acknowledged the chants with a gentle wave, got a cheer when he ventured onto the pitch to clear a spare ball and quickly vanished down the tunnel at the final whistle after shaking the hand of Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca.
It was all a far cry from the fervour of 20 years ago when Mourinho – having led Porto to an unlikely Champions League triumph – turned Chelsea into English champions for the first time in 50 years in 2005 and won the title again a year later.
After a collapse of form, Mourinho departed in 2007 but he won the Champions League again, this time with Inter Milan in 2010, knocking out the Londoners on the way to the final.
He went on to manage Real Madrid before returning to Chelsea where he claimed a third English title and then had spells at Manchester United, London side Tottenham Hotspur – an unforgivable move for many Chelsea fans at the time – and Roma.
As the big offers dried up, Mourinho went on to coach Fenerbahce in Turkey where he lasted little more than a year before his return to Portuguese football with Benfica.
Asked after Tuesday’s defeat by Chelsea if he still had the drive of the early days of his career, Mourinho insisted he felt more motivated.
“If I am in a job it’s because I like to put myself on the line every day,” he told reporters. “I am desperate to win the next match.”
Mourinho said he thought Benfica had deserved more from the game. “We started well, we controlled well. I don’t know if I can say big chances but we had chances for sure.”
Chelsea’s Maresca said he was relieved to secure a win – albeit a scrappy one – after two consecutive defeats in the Premier League and a 3-1 loss at Bayern Munich in the his side’s Champions League opener.
“Sometimes you need to learn to win in another way,” he said of Chelsea’s improved defensive performance. “At least we learned how to win a game with a red card.”
Striker Joao Pedro was dismissed for a second yellow card after coming on as a substitute, the third time in four matches that Chelsea have finished with 10 men
-Reuters
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Hosts Eintracht Frankfurt scored four times in 29 minutes to bounce back from a goal down and hammer Galatasaray 5-1 in their Champions League opener on Thursday.
The Turkish sides are without their talismanic striker, Victor Osimhen who was injured while on international duty with Nigeria.
The Turks had hit Frankfurt on the break with Yunus Akgun completing the move from a Leroy Sane assist in the eighth minute. Germany international Sane, who joined from Bayern Munich this season, became the only player in Champions League history to play for four or more clubs and score or assist on his debut for each of them.
Frankfurt, competing for only the second time in the Champions League main round, struggled to break through Galatasaray’s defence until a defensive error from Akgun in the 37th. Ritsu Doan pounced, charged into the box and Davinson Sanchez deflected the Japanese winger’s shot in for an own goal.
The hosts took the lead in first-half stoppage time when 19-year-old Turkey international Can Uzun scored a superb goal on his Champions League debut after fine control and a quick turn in the box. The hosts netted again before halftime with Jonathan Burkardt’s well-timed glancing header putting them 3-1 up.
With the visitors forced to take more risks after the break, Frankfurt found space and Burkardt completed his dream Champions League debut with another header in the 66th for his second goal of the evening. Ansgar Knauff completed the rout in the 75th.
Frankfurt next travel to Atletico Madrid on September 30 when Galatasaray host Liverpool.
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