Jody BlancoOur correspondent in BarcelonaReading: 4 minutes
Barcelona’s stunning comeback against Villarreal
With goals from Garvey, De Jong, Torres and Lewandowski, Barcelona took all three points in the away game against Villarreal. Lamine Yamal assisted on the first and final goals.
After 22 years, the continent’s top competition will no longer feature Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the two superstars at the beginning of this century.
BARCELONA – The Champions League is back… and for the first time since 2001-02, it won’t feature Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. The Argentine (who made his debut with Barca in December 2004) bid farewell to the PSG shirt last year. The Portuguese (who debuted with Sporting CP in August 2002) has already finished his previous campaign on a stormy stage in United’s second side. Now, 22 years later, mainland China’s top competition will no longer have the two superstars at the beginning of this century.
Brazilian-Portuguese international Pepe made his debut in Porto on September 14, 2004 (0-0 victory over CSKA Moscow) and will become the oldest footballer to play in the Champions League this season. He has played 115 games in the Champions League, far more than Over 187 games. Cristiano Ronaldo and Thomas Müller (144 games) (both with Bayern Munich) have the most appearances of any player participating in the World Cup.
This tournament will once again stage a new high-profile showdown between Haaland and Mbappe, who is known as the successor to Messi and Ronaldo. In addition to the Argentine, there are also the emergence of other legends. Modern football players such as Benzema or Busquets…
But most importantly, this will be the first Champions League since Messi and his great rival has been sacked, marking the end of an era that will go down in history. Cristiano Ronaldo’s 187 games and 141 goals keep him at the top, 13 top scorer trophies awarded in 15 seasons, a Portuguese record of 17 goals in a season, group stage record 80-goal record for Argentina, with both scoring eight hat-tricks… Their performances at the World Cup gave them a huge media presence and they became the undisputed kings.
In the Champions League, Manchester City are the first team to make a defensive debut since Chelsea’s group stage defeat in 2012, and Haaland’s greed under Guardiola will become the biggest favorite. The tournament will once again be the focus of a PSG side led by Kylian Mbappe and Luis Enrique, who have made a devastating start to life on the bench; Harry Kane’s dream title win as he transfers from Tottenham Hotspur Spurs became Bayern Munich; Real Madrid’s fanatical competition turned Bellingham into a Galaxy star, and also made Barcelona, which hopes to make people talk again after losing the group stage for two consecutive seasons, shudder.
Messi will follow her from Miami and Cristiano Ronaldo from Riyadh. There, one at Inter Miami and the other at Al Nasr, they are finishing the last years of their careers, but they have enjoyed and suffered for two decades in European football a level of demand that has Lifted them to the top.
In an era that has ended.