SOCCER INTERNATIONAL ARTICLES

Antonio Conte's first season at Stamford Bridge has been a tremendous one. Chelsea won the Premier League title by a comfortable seven points, and it's got a chance to wrap up a double with the FA Cup title if it can take care of business against Arsenal on what amounts to be the final day of the English soccer season.... 

The Copa del Rey final feels like it should be a walkover. Barcelona was clearly the second best team in Spain this year behind Real Madrid, but Los Blancos are done in Spain's cup competition. Alaves is one of the more improbable finalists we've seen in this tournament in a long time, but it's going to have its shot against the big boys from Barca at Vicente Calderon this weekend.... 

Jose Mourinho's first season at Manchester United didn't go according to plan. The Red Devils finished sixth in the Premier League, guaranteeing themselves at least a spot in the Europa League next season. But at Old Trafford, fans don't care about Europe's secondary continental tournament. Only the Champions League matters. There's still a path into the UCL for next season, but it requires beating Ajax Amsterdam in the Europa League Final on Wednesday night in Solna.... 

Manchester City knows that six points in its last two matches of the year will leave it in the Champions League next season. Of course, most of the players who are on the pitch probably won't be around to see it, but there's still a sense of pride that must be played for when the Citizens play their last home match of the season against West Brom.... 

Is Juventus already safely into the Champions League Final in Cardiff? The margin they have on AS Monaco is a big one for sure at 2-0 after taking a definitive victory on French soil last week. But if we've learned nothing else over the course of the last several months of action between the top clubs in Europe, nothing is for sure until the referee blows the whistle for the final time on the 180 minutes.... 

The Madrid Derby in the semifinals of the Champions League was expected to be 180, if not 210 minutes of agonizingly close soccer. However, it only took one man and effectively just 15 minutes or so to make it clear that Real Madrid is going to oust Atletico Madrid from the Champions League and move on to a date with most likely Juventus in Cardiff in June.... 

Jose Mourinho knows that he was brought to Manchester United to win silverware. He's not going to get any of it this year in England, but he still has a chance on the continental scale. The Red Devils are comfortable favorites to see off Celta Vigo, but the task probably isn't going to be quite as easy as the Europa League semifinal odds suggest.... 

Ajax Amsterdam hasn't won a major European title since winning the 1995 Champions League. But this could all change in just a few short weeks for Ajax if it can ultimately win the Europa League and claim a spot in next season's Champions League. The Dutch side though, still has to see off Lyon on French soil, and though the lead at the moment is surely comfortable, it's a margin that is far from definitive.... 

It's been a magical year for Celta Vigo. The club pulled off one of the great upsets in Copa del Rey history by beating out Real Madrid a couple months ago, and now, it's in the semifinal of the Europa League. Manchester United knows that it needs to be careful about this match, particularly with all of the injuries it's had to endure of late.... 

Relatively speaking, any season that doesn't end in a Dutch championship for Ajax is a grand disappointment. The Eredivisie only gets one guaranteed spot into the Champions League every year, and should Ajax finish short of Feyenoord Rotterdam and in front of PSV Eindhoven as looks like will be the case, that will be the fate that befalls it. Still, the Dutch giants have a potential parachute in the Europa League. Clearing this hurdle in the Europa semis against Lyon could setup an automatic spot in next year's UCL.... 

You have to go all the way back to 2004 to find the last time a French team made it to the Champions League Final. AS Monaco was the team to do it, and it was blanked by Porto in the quest for Ligue 1's first ever UCL winner. Now, Monaco is back in the semifinals and has a legitimate shot of reaching the Promised Land again, though a red hot Juventus team stands in its way.... 

La Liga has been a horrible league to try to put out of the Champions League – and all European competitions for that matter – over the course of the last several years. This year in the UCL, Spain is guaranteed a spot in the finale. But who will be there? Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid tell the first half of their tale on Tuesday night at the Bernabeu.... 

El Clasico. Are there two better words for soccer fans to hear than that? If Barcelona has any chance whatsoever to claw back into La Liga and make a title race out of this, it has no choice but to go to the Bernabeu and pick up all three points. It's easier said than done for sure, particularly with Real flying high from its win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League.... 

It's been a long week for Borussia Dortmund. A blast near the team bus postponed what was supposed to be Tuesday afternoon's match at Westfalenstadion. Instead, the fixture was pushed back to Wednesday in the middle of the afternoon, and the team came out incredibly flat. BVB hasn't been put away yet, but AS Monaco has three away goals onboard and home pitch advantage here in the second leg at the Stade Louis II.... 

How many lives does Barcelona really have in the Champions League? They were dead in the water against PSG from down 4-0 after 90 minutes and 5-3 on aggregate needing three goals without response in the final two minutes plus stoppage time of the second leg to continue on in this tournament. And continue on Barca did. But now they're down three goals again and have a large mountain to climb against a much better team. Juventus isn't likely to let this one slip away, though many will feel at the start of this 90 minutes at the Nou Camp that magic might be set to happen again.... 

The fact that we're still talking about Leicester City playing soccer that is relevant to the rest of Europe in the middle of April is astounding. The Foxes have a long, uphill battle in front of them against Atletico Madrid in the last 90 minutes of the quarterfinal tie between the two, but to count them out would be a huge mistake with the way they've played at home over the course of this entire campaign.... 

Real Madrid might have gone on and road and taken an advantage over Bayern Munich, but with as good as both of these sides are, there's nothing at all that says the Reds can't overturn that results when the two teams go back to the Bernabeu. Los Blancos though, will be assuming that this is going to be an easy jaunt into the semis from here with a 2-1 away lead in their ledger.... 

How unbelievable is it that Leicester City is one of the last eight teams standing in the Champions League? The squad that was on the verge of a disaster two seasons ago and could have ultimately found itself in the Championship last season instead won the EPL, reached the 2016-17 UCL and is now here with seven teams standing between it and the ultimate reward of winning the biggest club competition in the world.... 

There's a cruel injustice in the Champions League from time to time. A team like Atletico Madrid, clearly the third best at best in Spain, has drawn against Leicester City in the last eight of the tournament, but Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, perhaps the two best teams in the world at the moment, are stuck playing against each other in the same stage. It'll make for great drama for us in April, but it won't be fair to the team that will end up disappointed on the outside of the UCL with two stages left to play.... 

If not for the great upset Barcelona had over PSG in the Round of 16 of the UCL, the comeback AS Monaco had against Manchester City would have been referred to as an all-timer. Now, the only French side left in the Champions League has a tremendous challenge on the road against Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the quarterfinals.... 

Poor Juventus. The Old Lady had a really tough draw last year in the Champions League when it got stuck with Bayern Munich in the Round of 16. The team almost made it through, forcing the Bavarian giants into extra time before ultimately bowing out. Now, Juve is back and once again is going to be forced to play against one of the true giants of the sport a bit prematurely. The good news is that Juventus gets to play at home to open up this home and home series. The bad news is that it has to go against Barcelona, arguably the best team on the planet.... 

Manchester City and AS Monaco played in the highest scoring first leg in the history of the Champions League just a couple weeks ago. Could we be in for more fireworks when the two play the return leg at the Stade Louis II? It's one of the more intriguing matches for sure in this last week of Round of 16 action in the UCL and shouldn't end up disappointing the neutral spectators.... 

Almost quietly, Leicester City has been in much better form since the firing of last year's conquering hero, Claudio Ranieri. The Foxes are quietly relatively comfortably out of the relegation zone in the Premier League, but on Tuesday night, they'll play their biggest home match ever against Sevilla in the Champions League with a shot at keeping their dream of being the champions of Europe alive.... 

Theoretically, a 4-0 lead should be good enough for PSG to get into the quarterfinals of the Champions League, giving it a massive victory over a Barcelona side that was once favored to win this tournament. That said, Barca is still getting a bit of publicity and backing from pundits, giving belief that they can be the ones to overturn such an epically bad performance to advance. They've got 90 minutes to do anything about it, and anything less than four goals against the best team in France will send them out of the tourney at the Round of 16.... 

Barring an incredible miracle, Arsenal is going to be bowing out of the Champions League on Tuesday night at home. The team's swansong comes in the second match against Bayern Munich, and there's a common thought that the Gunners aren't going to be overly interested in this matchup with bigger games in England to come to try to get them back in the UCL next year....