Previewing Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid in La Liga, with TV & live stream details, team news, predicted lineups and score prediction.

Chelsea signed off with a perfect record in the league phase of the Conference League as Marc Guiu scored a first-half hat-trick to seal a 5-1 demolition of League of Ireland side Shamrock Rovers at Stamford Bridge. The 18-year-old former Barcelona striker is yet to start for head coach Enzo Maresca in the Premier League but selected for the fourth time in Europe he demonstrated a poacher’s instinct to bury the visiting side, twice intercepting passes back to the goalkeeper to score before glancing in a fine header for his third. Continue reading...

Barcelona reminded everybody why they are the reigning European champions as they produced a scintillating performance to dismantle Manchester City and claim top spot in Group D in the Women’s Champions League. The Spanish league leaders, who have won all 13 of their domestic matches this season with a +50 goal difference, played with a great intensity and with such high quality on the ball that they could easily have won the game by a humiliating margin. Thanks largely to a superb performance from the Manchester City goalkeeper, Khiara Keating, who produced five top-quality saves, and some wasteful finishing, the home side had to settle for a mere 3-0 victory. But that scoreline was still sufficient for them to overhaul their 2-0 defeat in October’s reverse fixture in Manchester and top the group by virtue of their superior record in these two side’s head-to-head meetings. Continue reading...

Updates from the Group D fixture; kick-off 5.45pm GMTEmail Sarah | Live scoreboard – Wednesday’s latest Gareth Taylor said of tonight’s opposition: “I’ve played Barca three times in my time as head coach and been fortunate in the outcome of two of those games but they’ve been different players in those games and what Barca have done in the past few years. I want us to be there, and we have a long way to go. We proved on a special night for us that we can compete and beat one of the best in a long time but the challenge is small steps.” Barcelona manager Pere Romeu has said his side are ready to fight for the win this evening: “The team wants to play matches like this. The players thrive in these settings and will come out to bite hard from minute one. We hope to have the optimal motivation to face this match.” Continue reading...

Despite a tricky draw for England, the reigning champions will be among the teams expecting to progress Group A: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Finland Statistically, this is the weakest group. Switzerland, the hosts, could scarcely have wished for a kinder draw, having avoided England, the Netherlands and Sweden. Everybody else in Group A can consider themselves fortunate to have avoided the world champions, Spain, from Pot 1. That said, this group has thrown up the potential for very close games and an evenly fought battle for the top two spots. Norway, whose squad is full of talent and will be many people’s dark horses, could thrive. Their influential players include the Chelsea winger Guro Reiten, the Arsenal forward Frida Maanum, the Barcelona winger Caroline Graham Hansen and the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, plus three Manchester United first-team regulars in Elisabeth Terland, Celin Bizet and Lisa Naalsund. Continue reading...

Borja Jiménez’s side is packed with players who have seen it all, but they had never beaten Barça before Sunday “Today is a day to talk about my boys,” the Leganés coach Borja Jiménez said. About Miguel de la Fuente, the striker that played two months with a torn meniscus, and Renato Tapia, the Peru captain who missed the Copa América because he had no team and no insurance. About Yvan Neyou, the midfielder who faced two Simeones in one day and didn’t know, unaware that Giuliano was Diego’s son because “I don’t watch much football”. About Munir El Haddadi, who’s scored for a record seven La Liga clubs. And about the rest of them: Dani Raba, Diego García and Javi Hernandez, who was once at the best club on earth and on Sunday played for the team his captain says “will never be forgotten now”. It was a day to talk about Matija Nastasic and Óscar Rodríguez, Jorge Sáenz and Darko Brasanac, the whole Leganés side, even if most people were talking about the team they beat. About Seydouba Cissé, who grew up in Guinea sharing boots with his best mate, a half each played barefoot, and whose dad told him to be a teacher because this would never be a career; the kid who cried at the embassy gates, waited three months for the papers to get to Spain and three years to see his mum again once he had. Whose then-agent, Ilaix Moriba’s dad, told him he had a team in Madrid and for one, brief moment he thought about that team, only for it to be this one instead, and who is happy about that now. And how could he not be? Continue reading...

Liverpool produced one of the greatest comebacks in football history when they beat Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield in the Champions League - and Alan Shearer believes the atmosphere was unrivalled