Author: Anuraag Peesara

There is never a dearth of drama in German football, and Saturday night’s football provided no different results. After Bayern Munich went down to Borussia Monchengladbach by slender margins at the Allianz Arena, Borussia Dortmund provided a comeback win for the ages to remember against Eintracht Frankfurt. Julian Nagelsmann had nine players ruled out due to COVID and was not best-placed for this tough fixture. He had called up a few U19 players to start like Malik Tillman, and Marcel Sabitzer was asked to play at left-back, but they did get off to a good start. Robert Lewandowski was their first goal-scorer of 2022, who got…

It wasn’t the most satisfying comebacks for Barcelona’s Dani Alves, who made an assist in his first game for the club since departing in 2016. The same wasn’t the case for their arch-rivals Real Madrid, who steered further clear with a sensational 4-1 win against Valencia. They are within Valencia’s catching distance but are maintaining a stronghold on the top position. The Catalan giants went to the Nuevo Los Carmenes to face Granada, and there was no separating both sides in the first half. In the second half, turning back the clock to the golden era for Barcelona, Daniel Alves delivered an inch-perfect…

One of France’s most successful clubs, Olympique Lyon find themselves in the bottom half of the table with their goals drying up post the departure of Memphis Depay. While there is plenty lacking in the side across different positions, Peter Bosz is actively looking to find a solution to it as they don’t intend on losing European football for next season. They finished 2021 on a peculiar note, having registered four draws in a row, three of which came in the league. They’re currently seven points behind for a Europa League spot, and 11 behind the Champions League qualification slot, making…

If reports by The Athletic’s David Ornstein are to be believed, Real Madrid star Gareth Bale could announce his retirement at the end of this season. The Welshman’s current contract, which gets him 33 million euros per year from Los Blancos, will expire at the end of this season and the 32-year-old was becoming increasingly likely to exit the club. This isn’t the first time Bale has been rumored to quit professional football. The same was speculated during the Euro 2020 that the player will quit football after Wales’ campaign comes to an end. But it wasn’t to be the…

Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique had posted the details of his wages that he received from the club amidst the salary leak controversy. It was revealed by Spanish journalist Lluis Canut that he had access to the details of Barcelona players’ salaries and some of the senior players in the squad like Pique, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba were receiving higher amounts than they did before. To respond to these allegations directly, Pique had posted a payment acknowledgement slip on his Twitter and said that he had received half his salary, as he was promised by the club. The club also…

Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri confirmed that Aaron Ramsey will leave the club before the winter transfer campaign ends. The Welsh midfielder has been out of Allegri’s consideration for a while and with injuries not doing him a favour, the manager has no other idea but to keep him out of his future plans. “Ramsey, he returned today after we had given him a few days off to work, to train separately, in England. In any case, he’s an outgoing player,”the Italian said in the press conference before the Old Lady took the field again. He also confirmed that Alvaro Morata…

Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant is regarded as one of the most energetic and entertaining characters on the field. He showed many shades of his sledging stories during his visits to Australia, and now, he is continuing the same in South Africa. This time, his target man is Rassie van der Dussen, the South African number 4 keen to settle his place in the XI. Dussen and Pant had a go at each other during the Indian second innings. Pant’s stay was cut short by just three deliveries with the batter going for an extravagant swing, only to find an outside…

Barcelona are considering a massive overhaul in the squad over the next few transfer windows, but this will include more exits than entries. Already having signed Ferran Torres from Manchester City earlier in January, the Blaugrana are now looking to off-load some of their existing players like Philippe Coutinho or Ousmane Dembele to accommodate the new arrival. According to El Nacional, another player they are looking to make a move for is Liverpool’s Naby Keita, who will be running out of contract in 2023, making the upcoming summer the final opportunity for the Reds to avail some returns on the player…

Many speculated Internazionale to struggle under Simone Inzaghi, but as it turned out, they are mounting yet another serious title challenge despite losing two massive players and a league-winning manager due to club debts. Throughout the 2021/22 campaign, they lost just one league fixture and against all the odds, are leading local rivals AC Milan by four points at the top. They have a tricky fixture next up when they travel to Bologna, where there is not much room to lose ground by dropping points. The manager and the players are well aware of the responsibility that sits on their shoulders,…

Only 46.5 overs were bowled on Day 1 due to rain interruption, but Australia are off to a decent start in Sydney. Having confirmed yet another Ashes title in their cabinet, Australia are now keen on delivering the fourth-ever Ashes clean sweep. In that pursuit, the 4th Test got underway at the Sydney Cricket Ground, but not a lot of cricket transpired due to unfavourable weather conditions. However, the Aussies found themselves in a decent position at the end of day 1, which saw just more than half of the mandatory overs being bowled. England made just one change to their line-up, bringing…