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Juventus Crest (Google Creative Commons)

With this statement Juventus manager Antonio Conte said good-bye to the Uefa Champions League. But he also mentioned that he wants to regroup with his squad and finish strong at the top in Serie A for a second title in a row, according to Yahoo!

Juventus Crest (Google Creative Commons)

Bayern Munich will travel to Turin, Italy on Wednesday to take on Juventus in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals with a two-goal advantage in hand.

The first leg in Munich saw Bayern score one of the fastest goals in Champions League history (26 seconds), and would later add another thanks to a Thomas Muller tap-in in the 63rd minute.

Bayern Munich vs Juventus

The quarterfinal round of the UEFA Champions League kicks off Tuesday with two fantastic matches right off the bat.

First, Barcelona will visit Parc des Princes Stadium to face Paris Saint-Germain in a match many expect Barca to win coming off a dominant performance in the second leg of the round of 16 against AC Milan.

What is making Juventus so special this season? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

In cruising past Glasgow Celtic and into the final eight of this season's Champions League, Juventus notched up a remarkable fifth clean sheet in a row in Europe. That doesn't come with ease, and not even the might of Barcelona or Real Madrid can look upon that without some degree of envy.

We had none of last night's drama in the Champions League as both Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain progressed as expected into the quarter-finals.

In Turin, Juventus beat an outclassed Celtic side 2-0 on the night and 5-0 on aggregate.

Any hopes that the thousands of Celtic fans in the stadium had of a miracle comeback ended after 24 minutes when Alessandro Matril prodded home a parried Fabio Quagliarella strike.

AS Roma players celebrate their victory against Juventus FC-Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images

The game of this week's round in Serie A met expectations. In a low-scoring but tough match in which the better and more aggressive team won, fans were treated with another installment in a classic rivalry between each of the teams' legends: Franceso Totti of AS Roma vs.

Daniele De Rossi of Roma-Photo by Maurizio Lagana/Getty Images

This Saturday, AS Roma will host Serie A league leaders Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico. Roma recently fired manager Zdenek Zeman who had his team producing attack-minded football, highlighted by a 4-2 win over rivals AC Milan.

Scott Brown of Celtic (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

If I were to tell you that today at Celtic Park, the home team had in the first-half alone 76 percent of possession of the ball, made Juventus Gianluigi Buffon save six times against just one for the Celtic keeper, Fraser Forster, and had twice as many on target shots, you would almost say the Hoops were having an incredible night at the packed stadium in Glasgow.

At the top level there is a fine line between winning and losing. The best teams don't make silly defensive mistakes that gift goals to the opposition, while they clinically taken advantage of any mistakes the opposition make.

And that is what happened in Glasgow tonight as Juventus punished Celtic for every mistake they made and ran out winners 3-0.

The first four participants in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 will take the field today as Celtic face Italian champions Juventus and Valencia take on big-spending Paris St. Germain.

Celtic will enter the first leg at Celtic Park confident of their chances after beating Barcelona in the group stages to help book their place in the Round of 16.

There's no place like Valencia, really, and even the moody Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a warm smile on his face as he arrived in the Mediterranean city yesterday! Paris Saint-Germain take on Los Che in the Champions League last-16 tonight and no matter what they say, it is going to be quite exciting because these two clubs have never played one another competitively before.

Paul Pogba of Juventus-Photo by Dino Panato/Getty Images

After winning the 2011-12 Serie A league title and leading thus far this season, it is clear that Juventus is finally back. Struggling in the era post-Calciopoli match-fixing scandal, theBianconeri experienced a season relegated to Serie B before returning to the top of the Italian Serie A.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has signed a two-year contract extension with the Italian champions.

The 34-year-old, who joined Juve from Parma in 2001 for a fee of €55m, has made over 500 appearances in all competitions for the Bianconeri.

Towards the end of last year Buffon admitted he was considering the offer of a one-year extension with his Juve contract due to expire in June.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has said he is close to agreeing a contract extension with the Serie A champions but is looking for a "short-term deal".

Buffon and Juventus have been negotiating all season over extending his current deal with the I Bianconeri.

But the Italy keeper, who recently made his 100th appearance in European competition as Juve qualified top of their group for the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League, revealed he may not be at Juve for much longer.

Luis Suarez of Liverpool (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Getty Images)

According to talkSPORT, Juventus have remained vigilant in their pursuit of Liverpool forward Luis Suarez as the Italian outfit are looking to seal the Uruguayan's signature in the summer. Liverpool would be very reluctant to sell Suarez in January considering the difficulties the Reds have had at the forward positions due to the injury to Italian international Fabio Borini.

Paul Pogba Manchester United's Missing Link - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Four wins from Manchester United's first four Champions League games meant a rest for some and a chance for others last night.

After their early exit from the League Cup, United's kids must have thought they'd be spending the rest of the season in the reserves or on loan.

Fernando Torres of Chelsea and Andrea Barzagli of Juventus compete for the ball (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

The UEFA Champions League group stages have been competitive across the board this year. Maybe the most competitive group has been Group E, which contains defending champion Chelsea, Italian champion Juventus, and surprise Ukrainian champion Shakhtar Donetsk.

By Chris Wright

FIFA have taken it upon themselves to announce their 23-man long shortlist/short longlist of nominations for this year's Ballon d'Or prize.

Here it be (in alphabetical order) as put out by award originators and overseers France Football...

Sergio Aguero (Argentina, Man City)
Mario Balotelli (Italy, Man City)
Karim Benzema (France, Real Madrid)
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy, Juventus)
Sergio Busquets (Spain, Barcelona)
Iker Casillas (Spain, Real Madrid)
Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, Chelsea/Shanghai Shenhua)
Radamel Falcao (Colombia, Atletico Madrid)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden, Milan/PSG)
Andrés Iniesta (Spain, Barcelona)
Lionel Messi (Argentina, Barcelona)
Manuel Neuer (Germany, Bayern Munich)
Neymar (Brazil, Santos)
Mesut Özil (Germany, Real Madrid)
Gerard Pique (Spain, Barcelona)
Andrea Pirlo (Italy, Juventus)
Sergio Ramos (Spain, Real Madrid)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal Real Madrid)
Wayne Rooney (England, Man Utd)
Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast, Man City)
Robin van Persie (Holland, Arsenal/Man Utd)
Xabi Alonso (Spain, Real Madrid)
Xavi (Spain, Barcelona)

The long/shortlist will be further whittled down to just three names (the short shortlist) at the tail end of November, with the winner being announced at FIFA's annual jolly in Zurich on January 7th of next year.

"I did not think they were so strong they have everything in place to win it.

Italy 2013 Confederations Cup home shirt unveiled by Puma - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Puma has revealed the Italy 2013 kit for the FIFA Confederations Cup.

In an event held in the training ground and headquarters of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in Coverciano, Florence, Italy, Puma presented the new kit with the help of Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo to the press.

Real Madrid's Iker Casillas has been voted goalkeeper of the year by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.

Casillas finished first with 224 points, ahead of Italian Gianluigi Buffon, who totalled 128. Chelsea keeper Petr Cech (Chelsea) came third with 92 points; German Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich) came fourth with 85 points; Englishman Joe Hart (Manchester City) finished fifth on 26 points and another Spaniard, Victor Valdés (Barcelona), came sixth with 15 points.

FIFA and France Football has announced the candidates for the FIFA Ballon d'Or and for the FIFA World Coach of the Year. As expected the list is dominated by players who play in La Liga.

The winners of all of the awards, which will be decided by the captains and head coaches of the men's national teams as well as by international media representatives selected by France Football, will be announced at the FIFA Ballon d'Or gala on 7 January 2013.

� By Alan Duffy

Photo courtesy of Copamedia

Slap bang in the middle of UEFA's 32-man shortlist for the Best Player in Europe award, amidst a sea of iconic superstars such as Lionel Messi, Xavi and Cristiano Ronaldo, lies the rather less well-known Leslie Davies.

Spain made easy work of Italy that became even easier when the Italians' final substitute, Thiago Motta, went off with an injury shortly after coming on. So as Italy suffered, Spain strolled to a 4-0 win in the Euro 2012 final to seal their third straight major title and complete their pursuit of unprecedented domination.

By Alan Duffy

He of ghostly palour and lightning-quick feet, Andres Iniesta, has been named by the player of Euro 2012 by the UEFA bigwigs after a starring role in La Roja's third major tournament triumph on the bounce. � I don't think there'll be too many dissenting voices on this one, with arguably only Azzurri star Andrea Pirlo, Portugal numero uno Cristiano Ronaldo or Spanish defenders Jordi Alba and Sergio Ramos deserving of the award.

By DAN KARELL

When Mario Balotelli is playing, you never know what's going to happen.

Italy and Brazil kicked off the upcoming string of international matches with a bang, finishing the game with a scoreline of 2-2 at the Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that David de Gea will gain plenty of confidence from his brilliant performance against Real Madrid earlier this week.

The manager claims that De, who is still only 22-years-old, will become an even better goalie in the next few years.

"Maturity helps," said Ferguson.

My All-Time Top 10 Great Goalkeepers: # 4 Dino Zoff

• Nationality: Italian
• 
  
• Total appearances: 756 (League and International only)
• 
  
• Caps: 112
• 
  
• World Cups: 4
• 
  
• Titles: 11

Dino Zoff will be remembered as one of Italy's great goalkeepers, if not the greatest of all time.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

Another year is about to go into the books, but like any year, 2012 saw a handful of gems scored by the U.S. Men's National Team.

The Americans scored 23 times in 2012, and several of those goals were quality strikes.

By Chris Wright

One for the classic gamers out there...

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