Soccer

9:43 AM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said the reaction to his team’s Champions League defeat to Young Boys on Tuesday has been has been over the top but added the performance was “not up to our standard.” United lost 2-1 in Bern thanks, in part, to Aaron Wan-Bissaka‘s early red

6:45 AM ET The Champions League group stage is underway, with Chelsea defending their title and 31 other clubs seeking to emulate them next May in Saint Petersburg. Following an exciting first round of games, we asked James Olley, Julien Laurens and Tom Hamilton to answer some big questions. What caught your attention on Matchday

5:58 PM ET LIVERPOOL, England — Trent Alexander-Arnold. You only have to mention the Liverpool defender’s name to spark an avalanche of opinion about the strengths and weaknesses — and best position — of the world’s best right-back, or most overrated, depending on your point of view. And Liverpool’s 3-2 win against AC Milan in

5:15 PM ET Alex KirklandESPN FC Real Madrid’s Rodrygo and Eduardo Camavinga combined for the Spanish side’s late goal, with Thibaut Courtois’ heroics ensuring a clean sheet. AP Photo/Antonio Calanni Rodrygo scored a late goal set up by fellow substitute Eduardo Camavinga as Real Madrid won 1-0 at Inter Milan on Wednesday in their 2021-22 Champions

1:30 PM ET After weeks of qualification and months of gnashing teeth over future format changes, the most important and high-quality continental club competition in the world, the UEFA Champions League, begins group-stage play on Tuesday. Somehow, this behemoth of a tournament almost snuck up on us, coming in on the heels of a particularly

5:19 PM ET Live to fight another day. That was likely what Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman was thinking around the hour mark on Tuesday when, 2-0 down at home and on the way to defeat against Bayern Munich, he hooked veterans Sergio Busquets and Sergi Roberto and did the football equivalent of a bedraggled basketball

4:02 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent BERN, Switzerland — It should have been a night for this new-look Manchester United team to display their Champions League credentials, but in the end it was another evening to suggest there is more to be done than simply signing Cristiano Ronaldo. – Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S.

3:00 PM ET Between May 2013 and early December 2020, seven-and-a-half long years, Barcelona went a record 38 games unbeaten at home in the Champions League, winning 34, drawing four and scoring 112 times. Indomitable form. Between December 2020 and the beginning of Tuesday’s Camp Nou meeting with Bayern Munich, a span of nine months,

9:38 AM ET The Champions League is anything but predictable. The past four seasons have given us four different winners, while nine different teams have contested the most recent six finals. But as European football continues to shake on its axis through a combination of financial mismanagement and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, that

12:43 PM ET The European soccer weekend was full of highs and lows, ups and downs — as per usual. Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United and looked great, Antoine Griezmann returned to Atletico Madrid and didn’t. The Bundesliga’s best team, Bayern Munich, humiliated their closest rivals, RB Leipzig, while Serie A’s previous force, Juventus,

3:37 AM ET With the Premier League back in action for the first time since the summer transfer window closed, this feels like a good time to take stock. The clubs who have finished in the top four in each of the past two seasons — Chelsea, Liverpool, defending champions Manchester City and Manchester United

6:00 PM ET Two big players returned to their former clubs and had very different “debuts” in Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United and Antoine Griezmann at Atletico Madrid, while Bayern Munich showed how they’re still the clear front-runner to win the Bundesliga this season and make it a stunning 10 in a row. Here’s the

2:31 PM ET Harry Kettle Liverpool showed the resolve of title contenders on Sunday with a comprehensive 3-0 win over a lively Leeds United at Elland Road. The clash of two intense Premier League teams was alive and well in the first 20 minutes with some incredible back-and-forth action, but after Mohamed Salah gave Liverpool

11:14 AM ET Cristiano Ronaldo made his second debut for Manchester United on Saturday. Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Gender justice group Level Up flew a plane over Old Trafford on Saturday in protest of Cristiano Ronaldo‘s second debut for Manchester United in their Premier League game against Newcastle United in support of the woman who

1:23 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said the Manchester United squad made Cristiano Ronaldo introduce himself at the team hotel the night before his debut against Newcastle but joked that if any of the players didn’t know him before “they do now” after he scored twice in a 4-1 win at Old Trafford.

2:44 PM ET MANCHESTER, England — It’s never easy to turn back the clock and recreate magic moments — they say never go back, after all — but Cristiano Ronaldo‘s football career has always defied logic and by, making a spectacular return to Manchester United with two goals in a 4-1 win against Newcastle United,

Sep 8, 2021 ESPN’s lead Bundesliga commentator Derek Rae returns with his regular column, this week looking ahead to a back-to-back Saturday treat for all German football fans. Super-Samstag is almost upon us. There was a certain eeriness about that train journey from Cologne to Munich on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020. My colleagues at the

Sep 9, 2021 RB Leipzig are familiar with Bayern Munich, their opponents on Saturday (12:20 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+), and not just in the sense of competing in the same league. Defender Dayot Upamecano and playmaker Marcel Sabitzer both left Leipzig for Bayern in the offseason, as did their former manager, Julian Nagelsmann.