Football

A tap in from David Abraham confirmed a likely defeat for Bayern Munich on a pleasant evening at the Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt. The fourth goal by Martin Hinteregger added to the embarrassment and the fifth one from Goncalo Paciencia did nothing but triggered a collapse of the greatest dynasty in German football. At the centre of it all was the man at the helm of the most demanding job in Germany, Niko Kovac. Little did he know that the club which shot him to prominence was about to make way for his exit. Kovac's Bayern had lost to Hoffenheim in Munich just a couple of weeks back. Bayern weren't putting in convincing performances and the only grace left for him was the lack of capitalising of the other clubs. But after the Frankfurt game, he literally had no grace left. His relationship with Thomas Mullar had deteriorated further and Bayern had no option but to sack him and they didn't hesitate in doing so. Hans Flick was choosen as the interim manager because he was

     Sometimes even the most mild-mannered fans want blood, revenge, a win-at-all-costs mentality. Sometimes all they want is a villain to drag them over the line. He has dragged his team if not teams over the line, he has defended as if his life was on the line, he has scored some of the most important goals in club's history, he has done it all but is he really a villain? Many of them will say yes but to a few of us, he is an ultimate hero and an inspiration. Sergio Ramos is a media portrayed anti-hero of football. But he is very good at what he does: defending, scoring goals, winning matches and trophies for club and country. It all started when he made a gigantic 27m euro - move from Sevilla to Real Madrid in 2005. Sevilla fans didn't like the move. When Real Madrid played Sevilla at Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán on the final matchday in the 2005-06 season, Sevilla fans chanted and sweared at him. That was very hard to take for a 19 year old but after nearly 8 years, he go

On a cold english night at Selhurst Park, Leicester put on a display of near perfect football against a brilliant individual performance by Wilfred Zaha and 10 other men representing an otherwise talented Crystal Palace unit. A 2-0 victory was enough for them to stay comfortably in the top 4 of the toughest league in Europe. Amidst all the flamboyance linked to Liverpool and Manchester City, Leicester City is a club that is almost superimposing itself in front of some of the bigger English clubs by putting in some very impressive and dominating displays of attacking and organized football, both home and away. When Leicester won the title 4 years back, everyone thought it was a fluke and it actually might have been because the next three seasons were not even remotely close to matching their heroics of 2015-16. Claudio Reneiri achieved the impossible and make no mistake about it, Leicester winning the premier league will forever remain the greatest event in the premier league history.

Almost 4 months back, Juventus were staring at a disappointing Champions League exit in the round of 16 against Atletico Madrid but a certain someone scored thrice to bail Juve out of trouble. A month later, Juventus found themselves on the receiving end of some sublime football from a scintillatingly spirited young Ajax side that blew past Juve in the quarter finals. They thought that Cristiano Ronaldo was the missing piece in their quest for the European glory but even his efforts proved short. As the season ended with just a couple of trophies and not even a domestic treble, Allegri was surely on his way out. A few hundred miles away, Sarri was on the brink of an exit from Stamford Bridge and was seeking to go back to Serie A after a successful first stint there with Napoli. Sarri left Chelsea for Juventus after winning them the Europa Legaue. Some big signings were expected from Juventus this summer but not as much as they turned out to be. Juve have bought three big players to

    If anyone wanted a particular match up in this year's Copa America, this wouldn't necessarily be the one but it's a huge one we have got in the semi finals. It's Brazil vs Argentina at Belo Horizonte to compete for a place in the final. Football is a crazy game and you never know what's in front of you. Over the years, we could stick our tongue out and stand for Brazil to counter attack and be really potent on the attack but this is a different Brazilian outfit. We don't really know what we are going to get from Brazil in the last third of the pitch. The good thing with it is that they have been good enough and labelled one of the favourites to win the title even without Neymar. We know that Coutinho is good enough but he had a really poor season with Barcelona but is looking good again. Brazil have gone with the 4-2-3-1 formation till now and have been pretty good with it, at least good enough! They were brilliant on the opening day against Bolivia, found a

    Football fairytales exist, yes they do! First they put the Champions League giants to bed in their own backyard and now these young boys from Amsterdam have knocked out the greatest ever player in the Champions league. This must be like a dream for Ajax but a lovely one. Though they were not expected to win on both the occasions, nobody can stick their tongue out and say that they didn't deserve it. They definitely played the better football over 180 minutes in both the ties and were rewarded for it. When Real Madrid beat Ajax 2-1 in Amsterdam, everybody said that Madrid switch it on when they need to but it needed something incredibly special from Ajax to beat Madrid at the Bernebeu. They started the game confidently and my god, didn't they put on one of the greatest performances by any visiting team at the Santiago Bernebeu. Their front three were brilliant especially Dusan Tadic and were supported well by de Jong in the midfield and de Ligt and Blind in central defence