I just want to make it clear quickly, that I'm not being petty here; I've got over Chelsea winning the Champions League and this article is not intended to have a dig (I've done that more than enough already), merely to have a look at something, admittedly kind of pointless, that interests me.

Arsenal to swap Bendtner for Lewandowski-Yes Please! by BA Robert Lewandowski has just scored 30 goals from 46 appearances in all competitions this season. He led his side, Borussia Dortmund, to an historic league and cup double, scoring a hat-trick against Bayern Munich in the cup final. He was also voted player of the year [.

ECWC Semi-Final, Second Leg, 1984-85
Everton 3-1 Bayern Munich
Date 24 April 1985
Stadium Goodison Park, Liverpool
Aggregate Everton 3-1 Bayern Munich

Brendan Rodgers has admitted the chance to manage a footballing "dynasty" like Liverpool was something that he could not turn down.

Speaking to the South Wales Evening Post ahead of his introductory press conference today Rodgers had this to say about taking over at Liverpool:

"For me, the only way I was going to leave Swansea was for a big club, and I mean a big club.

Last week FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced that he would like to see an alternative to penalty shootouts, calling them a "tragedy". He asked Franz Beckenbauer (who is head of a task force to recommend rule changes for the 2014 World Cup) to brainstorm a better way to settle matches that end in draws.

By Alan Duffy

As great Irish poet Ronan Keating said, life is indeed a rollercoaster, with Chelsea veteran Frankie Lamps the latest poor sod to experience life's ups and downs. Coming only weeks after the midfielder lifted the Champions League trophy with Chelsea, he has now been forced out of England's Euro 2012 squad courtesy of a thigh injury suffered in training.

78 de los 368 futbolistas que jugarán la Eurocopa militan en algún club inglés, esto representa el 21% de los jugadores, las ligas que le siguen son: Bundesliga (49 futbolistas), la Liga BBVA (32) o la Serie A italiana (31).
Los clubes que mas aportan son Bayern Munich (12), Real Madrid (11), Chelsea, Shakhtar y Dinamo de Kiev con 9.

The gates of Gaal: What Brendan Rodgers could face

Brendan Rodgers is set to become the new manager in Liverpool. An appointment which should please many fans. Rodgers will have to do a lot of heavy lifting overseeing what could be an accelerated re-structuring of the squad in the off season to bring in more creativity and make Liverpool more nimble and effective up front.

After Chelsea's heroics in this season's Champions League, the comparisons are mounting between what Chelsea have achieved, and what England could potentially achieve, this summer, at Euro 2012.
Of course, Chelsea were the underdogs going into both the semi-final, against Barcelona, and Bayern Munich, in the final, but they came through to be successful.

The Netherlands continues their warm-up to the Euro 2012 tournament with a friendly against Slovakia. The match will take place at De Kuip Stadion in Rotterdam, Netherlands with kickoff scheduled for 2:30 PM USA Eastern time.

Netherlands player Arjen Robben

"It was a special week (playing in UCL final for Bayern Munich) but I am back here on the practice field with Holland and the Euros is the new target.

Louis van Gaal could soon be plying his trade in the Premier League with Liverpool, but it is unclear whether this will be in a managerial role.
The Sun has reported that the Dutchman expects Liverpool to make him an offer in the coming days but it is unclear whether this will be in the role of sporting director or manager.

Presently, you could argue that the German National Team has the most overworked players (apart from the Dutch, Spanish and England) at the Euro 2012 tournament. The likes of Thomas Mueller, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Gomez were barely given a week to recover themselves before turning up at their training camp in Tourrettes, France, while Arjen Robben played a friendly for The Netherlands a mere three days after Bayern's Champions League final loss!

I just spent ten days in Europe: Barcelona, Prague, Brussels and Madrid. I had originally planned to try to go to Munich to the CL final, but when I could not get tickets, I went to Prague and watched the final at the lovely and lively Old Square. It was on the same day where the Czech Republic had played and lost to Slovakia in the semifinal of the hockey World Cup, so there was a disappointed

By Max Grieve

Imagine this for a moment. In little over a month's time, England, having finished as runners-up in their group at the European Championships, are playing Spain for a place in the semi-finals. Roy Hodgson's men are literally filling the face of the goal; Gerrard instructing a human-tetris formation between the posts and the bar — and it's working.

Everton Football Club is one of English footballs great institutions. Founder members of the Football League in 1888, they are second only to Arsenal in terms of their unbroken record in the top flight they will celebrate their sixtieth consecutive season next year and have won a clutch of trophies along the way as well.

Liverpool have made the first steps towards appointing Louis van Gaal as sporting director after meeting with him in Portugal last week.
There are, though, complications as to whether the Dutchman's methods match the way the Fenway Sports Group are seeking to restructure the club.
Van Gaal has been spending the summer at his house near Albufeira in the Algarve and it is understood that Ian Ayre, Liverpool's managing director, flew out to meet him last week.

Liverpool must move quickly or risk missing out on long-term target Matias Suarez, with Bayern Munich reported to be readying a bid for the Argentine striker.
Anderlecht hitman Suarez has been on the Merseyside club's shortlist for some time and they had looked set to lure him from Belgium to Anfield this summer.

Papiss Cisse has talked today about his hero, Didier Drogba of Chelsea, and how important the Olympic games are for him this summer. Didier Drogba - after scoring against Bayern Munich Drogba has probably played his last game fort Chelsea - and what a way to end his career at the London club.

Barcelona provided Pep Guardiola with the perfect sendoff by routing Athletic Bilbao 3-0 in the Copa del Rey final on Friday night, the club's 14th trophy in four seasons under its most successful coach.

Pedro Rodriguez scored in the third and 25th minutes, and Lionel Messi ended his record-setting season with his 73rd goal in the 20th minute.

Roberto Di Matteo hasn't received anywhere near enough praise for our achievements this season in the FA CUP and Champions League. If anything, Robbie has taken a back seat compared to the likes of Didier Drogba and Roman Abramovich this week and I think he is more than happy with that.
At some stage today no matter where he is, Robbie will look back to a week ago and relive the whole Champions League final.

After the Torres story broke soon after Chelsea won the Champions League, it's been good to hear an update from Nando as it was clear he needed to speak with the club. I wrote a post straight after the story broke and made it clear that he has never said he wanted to leave and what's wrong with wanting to confirm the clubs plans for him and the future!

If you are in the group of fans that cannot stand that important matches can come down to a penalty shootout, you are not alone. The president of FIFA has your back.

Sepp Blatter called for an alternative solution to penalty shootouts at the FIFA Congress in Budapest, saying that, ''Football should not go to one to one, because when football goes to penalty kicks, it loses its essence as a team sport.

By Chris Wright

FIFA dumpling Sepp Blatter has hinted this morning that he and his minions are looking at alternative methods to decide games after the inhumane cruelty of penalty shootouts caused him to wake up screaming in a cold sweat, leaving him needing a few hours in his onyx meditation chamber to stop the palpitations.

By Chris Wright

FIFA dumpling Sepp Blatter has hinted this morning that he and his minions are looking at alternative methods to decide games after the inhumane cruelty of penalty shootouts caused him to wake up screaming in a cold sweat, leaving him needing a few hours in his onyx meditation chamber to stop the palpitations.

En el caso contrario a Arjen Robben tenemos al delantero marfileño Didier Drogba, ganador de la Champions League, apareció en el lugar y momento oportuno, esperó no solo los 90 minutos para buscar la jugada de gol, sino que ademas de meter el balón en el momento decisivo y darle al club del Chelsea el primer titulo de Champions , hizo feliz a millones de aficionados ingleses y de todas las partes del mundo que apoyan al equipo londinense.

Didier Drogba had initially kept matters serious when asked about Bayern Munich manager Jupp Heynckes' accusations of him as a player who 'acts' too much on the pitch. However, the departing Chelsea striker has now comically turned the tables such that the joke is on Heynckes.

It was widely assumed across the English media that Heynckes' comments ahead of the UEFA Champions League final between the two sides were intended to derail Drogba's focus.

Juventus has jumped into the Didier Drogba sweepstakes.

The Italian champions have reportedly offered the prolific striker a two-year deal that would play him $125,000 a week, as well as a $15 million signing bonus. Drogba, who Saturday led Chelsea to a win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, is departing Stamford Bridge after eight seasons with the London outfit.

The turmoil in CONCACAF has spread and Chuck Blazer may be in trouble.

The USA representative on the FIFA Executive Committee has been accused of overseeing financial irregularities and is also considering a lawsuit against FIFA over unpaid TV commissions. CONCACAF is still under heavy scrutiny following the scandal that saw former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner resign in disgrace over bribery allegations.

Bayern Munich have responded to Wesley Sneijder's accusations that the club has not been supportive of Arjen Robben following his penalty miss in the Champions League final defeat to Chelsea, particularly since the winger was jeered by some fans in a home friendly against Netherlands.

Tuesday night's exhibition match saw Bayern's Robben don his national team colors and every time he touched the ball, sections of the crowd voiced their disapproval by whistling at him.

By Chris Wright

Bayern Munich have just opened their snazzy new 'FC Bayern Erlebniswelt' ('The Bayern Munich Experience) museum at the Allianz Arena for the first time, which has over 400 exhibits representing the entire history of the club including vintage tickets, matchballs, a scale cutaway model of the stadium, replicas of every trophy the club have ever won and this corking display of every shirt the club has ever worn in one huge glass case (click thumb for brilliant full-size image).

Even though Chelsea won the FA Cup and Champions League this season, there's still some doubt whether interim manager Roberto Di Matteo will return for next season. He took over the position after Andre Villas-Boas was sacked and even though the team finished sixth in the EPL, the two trophies have made for a successful season.

La vida como el deporte es de momentos , muchos de ellos no podemos evitar a que lleguen ,momentos que nos harán sacar lo mejor o lo peor de nosotros como deportistas, cuando esos momentos aparezcan debemos de estar preparados.
Este post no pretende hacer leña del árbol caído, pero es que cuando te dedicas a una sola actividad y pretendes ser de los mejores debes de saber que hay momentos que no se presentan tan a menudo.

La vida como el deporte es de momentos , muchos de ellos no podemos evitar a que lleguen ,momentos que nos harán sacar lo mejor o lo peor de nosotros como deportistas, cuando esos momentos aparezcan debemos de estar preparados.
Este post no pretende hacer leña del árbol caído, pero es que cuando te dedicas a una sola actividad y pretendes ser de los mejores debes de saber que hay momentos que no se presentan tan a menudo.

Bayern Munich welcomed back Franck Ribery for a second-half stint in yesterday's 3-2 exhibition win over the Netherlands international team merely three days after the Frenchman had to leave the UEFA Champions League final in extra-time due to a tackle on the ankle from Chelsea's Didier Drogba.

Not only did Ribery come off the bench to participate in the farewell match for some of his departing Bayern teammates, but the Frenchman was also quick on the ball as he entertained the 33,000 attendees throughout the last 20 minutes of the match.

With Martin Kelly set to make his senior England debut and everyone remembering the club has more than just a new managerial hire to worry about, it's been a surprisingly busy day of Liverpool news after most of the week has seen a single-minded focus on questions over who would replace Kenny Dalglish and whether the fans could trust Fenway Sports Group's judgement in the matter.

Netherlands stars Wesley Sneijder and Mark Van Bommel have hit out at Bayern fans for jeering Arjen Robben during an exhibition match at the Allianz Arena last night while manager Bert van Marwijk will understand if the winger now chooses to walk out on the club despite recently signing a new contract.

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has revealed that his penalty shoot-out heroics against Bayern Munich in Saturday's Champions League final triumph are directly attributable to homework rather than guesswork.

Even before the shoot-out, Cech was brilliant in denying former Blues teammate Arjen Robben five minutes into extra time, thus thwarting Bayern's hopes of taking a 2-1 lead in the contest.

Chelsea defender Gary Cahill has expressed his sympathy for a dominant Bayern Munich side that the Blues overcame against all odds to win Saturday's Champions League final at the Allianz Arena.

Cahill, 26, recovered from injury to make it to the final to provide cover for the suspended John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic.

Didier Drogba is reportedly moving closer toward making China the next stop on his career path.

The former Chelsea striker, who confirmed Tuesday that he was leaving the Blues after eight years and just delivering a UEFA Champions League title, has entered into negotiations with Shanghai Shenhua, according to the Chinese club that also employs his former Chelsea teammate, Nicolas Anelka, as a player/coach.

Just three days after Arjen Robben missed a penalty kick that might have won the Champions League final for Bayern Munich, his club hosted his national team -- the Netherlands -- for a friendly in the same stadium that housed his nightmare. And though some of the 33,000 fans in attendance at the Allianz Arena were forgiving, others booed Robben's every touch of the ball after he entered the match as a second half substitute for the Netherlands, who lost 3-2.