Very few teams in the world are as dangerous as Real Madrid in counter-attack. The technical and athletic dominance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale obviously plays a key role, but Real’s counter-attack would not be as effective without Karim Benzema..

It finally happened. After eleven games and what felt like an eternity of pain and frustration, Sunderland won a game of football.

Poor Francesco Guidolin. The Italian manager saved Swansea from relegation last season (with a bit of help from Alan Curtish while he was fighting off serious illness) but he’s in a lot of trouble now.

By the standards of this particularly excitable transfer window, Tottenham’s summer captures have been markedly low key. Maurico Pochettino…

Three weeks have passed now since Iceland beat England in Nice. But was it really as bad a performance as…

The final of the European Championships was, it is fair to say, no classic. But it could have been even worse. It should have been even worse.

So much for the theory that Italy were heading for yet another early tournament exit. Having been knocked out in the group stages of the last two World Cups, the chances are that this will be an altogether more pleasant summer for Italy. Manager Antonio Conte takes tactical preparation very seriously.

When you’re this close to the start of a major international tournament, most avenues have already been explored. We know the favourites: France; Spain and Germany. We know the nations that have it within them to win, but probably won’t: Belgium; Italy and England. We know the dark horses: Austria; Croatia and Poland. We even know the minnows: Albania; Hungary and Northern Ireland. But what about the middle ground? What about the teams with just a puncher’s chance of glory? What about Ukraine?

Sevilla are re-writing the history of European football by reaching the final of the Europa League. During their previous two matches the team, led by Unai Emery, was victorious.
Let’s have a closer look at the second semi-final of their Europa League game with Shakhtar Donetsk and see where Sevilla’s strength truly lies.

As title defences go, Portland Timbers effort had thus far fallen into the ‘Chelsea’ category. Victors over Columbus Crew on the opening day of the season (a replay of the 2015 final and with the same score too) gave a false read for the weeks ahead.

For the uninitiated, there is much that separates Major League Soccer from other notable leagues around the world. There is the single entity business structure, the draft system, the designated star player policies. But most of all, in these opening weeks, there is the sense that no team is considerably better than any other. At least, that was the case until this weekend when LA Galaxy faced the undefeated Real Salt Lake and pulled their pants down in front of everyone.

In the first six games of his managerial career, we have seen innovation and ambition from Patrick Vieira. But it’s been five games since we’ve seen a win.

Sometimes we can be a little hysterical about challenges in football. Bound up by tribal loyalties or an earnest sense of protection, we forget that football is intense, physical and occasionally dangerous. Accidents happen and they always look worse in a slow motion replay. But Nigel de Jong’s challenge on Darlington Nagbe was no accident.