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A Monthly Football Round Up

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As the top football leagues across the world take a break while their players are busy with international duties, we take a look at the major developments before it all gets to the final rounds.

  1. City the new Kings of England

Pep Guardiola’s side will be having mere formalities left to lift the elusive premier league title once the match days begin. Sitting at the top sixteen points clear of the second place Manchester United, the silverware is quite under their radar. They would be giving it all in their European campaign now, as they face Liverpool in the Champion’s league quarter-finals.

 

  1. Unstoppable Barcà

When Madrid crushed Barcelona over two legs last September, even their mouthpiece, Gerard Pique conceded that their team felt inferior to the Madrid giant but has since changed their statement. The Catalans transformed their playing style, relied on their talisman in Lionel Messi, and it has been a fairytale since then. Once the play resumes, they would look well set to lift the Spanish league, once again.

 

  1. The Madrid resurgence

Madrid had the dream start of this season. Beginning the season with the formidable win over the Catalans, they were widely regarded as the best in the world. On the back of this confidence, they let Morarta and James Rodriguez on loan and found confidence in Asensio and Lucas Varqueuz, something which did not quite turn up according to the expectations. But then, it all always depends on Ronaldo. Cristiano’s form dipped, and so did Madrid’s. And as the knock-out stages came, the Los Blancos were back at their royal best. When the house opens up again, expect the whites to win it all and claim the Champion’s league trophy for the record third consecutive time. Once again, on the back of the form of their Midas- Cristiano Ronaldo.

Feature Image Credits: Metro

 Nikhil Kumar

[email protected]

 

 

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DUB News

Revolutionising football: North Campus Football League (NCFL)

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Seldom do we see initiatives arising at college level that promise to leave a benchmark in their respective field. One such initiative, taken up by the students of North Campus certainly promises to leave an impact and bring a change in the game of football as it is currently practiced at the university level. NCFL, acronym for North Campus Football League, is that dream tournament being planned by a bunch of young talented football players and is scheduled to launch next year in January. The preparations though have already begun. The layout of the whole tournament seems promising enough to ensure an unprecedented sports league, something which the university has never seen.

The tournament will see 7 football teams of different north campus colleges. The franchisee for the teams will be auctioned for a 5 year term, preferably to the alumni of these colleges and the entire event will be webcasted live. The matches have been scheduled at the iconic Delhi University stadium which is also situated in North Campus.

The tournament assures to alleviate budding talent in the game of football not only in the colleges of North Campus but from other university colleges as well since the franchisees will be able to take in players from other colleges of DU. So the tournament will be limited in its reach at the team participation level but not when it will come to the participation of players, something which will ensure the rise of latent talent in football players from different colleges. That being said, the professional players will be allowed to participate up to a certain limit.

Promising in its nature, the initiative is still going through the early stage of clearances and is getting a satisfying response from authorities both at college and university level. Once having all the clearances, the event will be slated to finally transpire into a reality and embark on a journey to revolutionise the game of football at the university level in India.

Image Credits- ncfl.in

Brij Pahwa
[email protected]

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Spo(r)tlight

Champions League Quarter Final Draws

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The announcement of the UEFA Champions League draws of the Quarter-finals, which took place on Friday, 21st March, has brought to light a whole lot of discussion among footballing circles throughout the world. Arguably, the strongest remaining 8 teams in quite a few years, this season seems to be all but over with the Champions League matches getting more and more compelling as the knockout stages progress forward. And with the clashes of the Quarter-final fixtures finally revealed, the stage for another historic final seems to be no longer a distant dream.

The first quarter final clash involves Barcelona against their La Liga compatriots, Athletico Madrid. While Athletico Madrid may not be the favourites for this clash, their fantastic run of form in their domestic as well as European matches demonstrate that they will definitely not go down without a fight. Moreover, the 2nd leg of the competition is also at Vicente Calderon, thereby pushing the luck a little bit in Athletico’s favour. However, in order to beat this vicious Barcelona side, Athletico Madrid will definitely need to muster all the luck and support they can gather.

Another interesting fixture is the tie between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Chelsea, which not only offers a clash between contrasting styles of play, but also pits PSG’s lethal strike partnership directly against Chelsea’s rock solid defence. The English side look to be the more likely winners of the battle, but with Zlatan Ibrahimovic on PSG’s side, one can never be too sure!

Then there is Manchester United, who would consider themselves rather unfortunate as to be pitted against the favourites of the tournament, Bayern Munich. The German giants, whose hot run of form does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon, look to be spearheading their way into another Champions League final for a fourth consecutive year. However, despite Man United’s poor domestic run, their performances in Europe have been inspiring to say the least. While a German victory seems to be the more probable score-line, a repetition of the 1999 Champions League final will continue to haunt the Germans in the back of their mind.

Last but not least, Real Madrid against Borussia Dortmund also promises to be a thrilling re-run oflast year’s semi-final encounter between the two sides. Both sides will have a lot to prove as they go head to head again, which will definitely be a joy to watch from a neutral perspective. While Borussia did manage to beat Jose Mourinho’s Los Blancos last year, Real Madrid’s front line (Bale, Benzema and C. Ronaldo) have never quite looked as threatening as they have now become.

The matches for the 1st leg are scheduled for the 1st/2nd of April, while the 2nd leg fixtures will take place on 8th and 9th April respectively. The long wait for Champions League to narrow down to top teams has eventually started to bear fruit and the question on who will be crowned as the most dominant side in Europe is finally starting to unravel.

 

Image Courtesy – thesportsquotient.com

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