Liam Tharme

Philosophy has become one of the footballing buzzwords in recent years. It is the idea that clubs, and head coaches, must have a clearly defined style they are playing with or aspiring towards. Almost every European club philosophises the same thing: high possession, attack-first and press high. “I can’t play like Ajax play — it is different players, so I came here with my philosophy, based on possession,” head coach Erik ten Hag said this week. “But I wanted to combine it with the DNA of Manch…

Completing a home-and-away double over Ajax is a rare feat. Brighton & Hove Albion’s 2-0 win in Amsterdam last night, two weeks after they also beat the four-time European champions by that scoreline at home, makes them members of an exclusive group. Since ’s promotion to the for the first time in 2017, there are only six instances of a double over Ajax: and last season in the ; Liverpool in the same competition in 2020-21; AZ Alkmaar in 2019-20, the most recent occurrence in the Netherlands’…

Every season, Ligue 1 has a surprise package. This season, it is Nice. A plucky underdog story? Not exactly. They are bankrolled by INEOS, British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s company, who , and are playing their 22nd consecutive Ligue 1 campaign. Nice have recorded top-half finishes for eight years in a row but never truly challenged for the title or had any European success. Advertisement Located on the Cote d’Azur, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Nice is sandwiched between Marseille and…

The fallout from ’s 1-1 draw away to Paris Saint-Germain was a discussion about fairness. “Yeah, we might’ve ridden our luck at times, but I think we deserved that, and it ran out at the end. I don’t think it was a penalty,” said head coach Eddie Howe, referencing ’s . following a VAR review. Riding luck and winning by fine margins . Advertisement An injury-depleted Newcastle held onto their 1-0 lead for more than 70 minutes, away to ’s top side, in what is this season’s hardest group. For comp…

Pep Guardiola really hates playing . At full time of ’s 3-1 win at the Gtech Community Stadium, the Spaniard took a deep exhale before going to shake Thomas Frank’s hand. He looked relieved, despite City having wrapped the game up by 70 minutes. His first question in the press conference was about hat-trick scorer . His response: “We lost twice (against them) last season. They’re so difficult.” Advertisement Brentford’s 2-1 (away) and 1-0 (home) wins against City in 2022-23 owed to their game ma…

Result: Barcelona will take a one-goal lead into next week’s second leg in Spain after coming from behind at Parc des Princes

Result: Barcelona will take a one-goal lead into next week’s second leg in Spain after coming from behind at Parc des Princes

Result: Barcelona will take a one-goal lead into next week’s second leg in Spain after coming from behind at Parc des Princes

Result: Follow live reaction as Paris Saint-Germain beat 10-man Barcelona 6-4 on aggregate to reach the Champions League semi-final stage

There is a cliched narrative in sport that peak performance is achieved with players “in the zone”. It is a state of tranquillity; playing on instinct where action after action goes perfectly. Paris Saint-Germain’s elimination of to reach the semi-finals for only the third time since the Qatari takeover in 2011 — and the first time since 2020-21 — did not look like that. Advertisement It was never going to be tranquil, not with the demons of 2017 (La Remontada) to exorcise. made it a comeback…