“Luis Enrique was always straight with me, and a coach with great ability”, the Roma captain said recently.
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Whatever happens in the rest of his career, he is already the greatest player to have graced the continental competition.
Exclusive to PlayStation 4, enter a competition to win Champions League final tickets in Milan. He has also never struggled to find the net, with an eye-popping 77 goals and counting.
The match will be live on the broadcaster’s Showcase channel, and will be the first of their free to air offerings during the group stages. In the last five seasons, of the 40 teams that have made it out of the first knock out stage and into the last eight, only seven have been group runners-up.
Enrique said he had agreed that that was for the best as Messi was exhausted after the birth of his son. Douglas Costa, in fine form since joining them in the close season, is again expected to start on the left, with teenager Kingsley Coman also an option after the talented Frenchman came on as a substitute for his Bayern debut against Augsburg. Many believed at the time that the Portuguese was the more complete player, partly due to his aerial ability.
The UEFA Champions League draw was not kind to Group D, which sees a quartet of world powers duking it out for the next couple months.
On the one hand, they could kick-start their season – while on the other, a loss against a team of such low-calibre could do untold things to the players’ confidence, not to mention Mourinho’s rage.
Leo, as usual, was at the heart of it all. It is now Roma’s task to try and stop them at the Stadio Olimpico and provide an ideal platform as they seek to reach the Champions League knockout phase for the first time in five seasons.
Pep Guardiola begins his third Champions League campaign with Bayern Munich knowing that only a repeat of the 2013 victory will sate the Bavarians’ appetite. Using Lionel Messi as a super sub, Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 in La Liga on Saturday.
No team has retained the title since the dawn of the Champions League era, with AC Milan the last club to lift the trophy with the big ears two seasons running, a quarter of a century ago in 1989 and 1990. Who else?
In their previous meetings with Barcelona, in the 2001/02 Champions League second group stage, Roma held the Catalans 1-1 away before prevailing 3-0 in the return fixture.
That included another superb strike as he tied Jerome Boateng in knots, leaving him on the ground and then beating Manuel Neuer with a delicate chip.
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Hein Vanhaezebrouck’s Ghent is perhaps unique in the Champions League as it would have preferred a tougher group. Both American Football and Association Football are in full swing, with all major leagues having played at least one week of exciting games. But he is much more than that.
