Lamine Yamal’s strike in 3-2 loss on Sunday not given by VAR Barça believe ball crossed the line and could demand replay Barcelona’s president, Joan Laporta, has threatened legal action and could demand a replay after his side were denied a goal against Real Madrid at the weekend. Lamine Yamal thought he had scored in the 28th minute of Sunday’s 3-2 clásico loss at the Bernabéu but the on-pitch officials did not rule the ball had crossed the line, and after a lengthy VAR check, their decision stood. La Liga does not use goalline technology ..read more

English midfielder ended ‘goal drought’ with impeccable timing, in a season that could hardly have gone better Jude Victor William Bellingham, this is your league. The title opened with him and effectively closed with him too, told the way it had to be, an inevitability to it all. In the beginning he had stood arms wide in front of 48,927 people at San Mamés, the ground so revered they call it the Cathedral, having scored his first Real Madrid goal on his debut. In the end, he stood arms wide in front of 77,981 at his new home, having just scored his 21st, 17 of them in La Liga. From August to ..read more

The league opened with Jude Bellingham and closed with him too. Way back in August, the Englishman stood before the stands at the place they call the Cathedral and spread his arms wide having scored on the first night of the rest of his life, his arrival announced; now, eight months later, he did it again, the entire Santiago Bernabéu welcomed in, all 77,981 of them, and millions more around the world. It has become a trademark, and it meant the title. Ninety minutes were up in the biggest game on earth and it was 2-2 when Lucas Vázquez, absolutely tireless all night, delivered one last pass t ..read more

Barcelona led twice but Madrid equalised before Jude Bellingham’s injury-time winner near enough settled the title Email! “I have no horse in this race,” says Adam Griffiths, “but Barcelona putting out their line-up in squad number rather than position order means I want them to get a) fired from a catapult into a volcano and b) a right doing tonight.” I am, of course, impartial, but also I can’t argue with facts ..read more

Having been knocked out of the Champions League, failure to win at the Bernabéu will end all hopes of a trophy On Tuesday, some Barcelona fans mistakenly threw stones and bottles at their own bus as it made its way into Montjuïc. The huge club badge and massive “Barça” written on the side were not enough of a clue. In fairness, they might not have seen that through the crowd and all the smoke. As for the metaphor, the self-inflicted damage, that was harder to miss. By the end of the night, Barcelona were out of the Champions League, failing to reach the semi-final for a sixth successive season ..read more

Domestic double the target after Champions League exit FA Cup tie against Chelsea a chance to ‘do something special’ Kyle Walker says Manchester City must channel the anguish of their Champions League exit at the hands of Real Madrid into the pursuit of a domestic double. The 33-year-old spoke of the cruelty of Wednesday night’s penalty shootout defeat by Madrid, which followed a second leg at the Etihad Stadium that City dominated from the start of the second half of normal time. The Premier League champions face Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday and are two points cle ..read more

Madrid being cast as underdogs is a grotesque measure of where we are but absorbing tie was a telling clash of contrasts It turns out Pep Guardiola was right after all. Manchester City’s pursuit of the double-treble will now remain “a hypothetical dream”. This was Pep’s own excellent phrase before Wednesday’s second leg against Real Madrid, a formulation that suggests even Guardiola’s dreams are full of theory, algebra, hypotheticals, like a footballing version of Evelyn Waugh’s professor Silenus, the modernist architect who doesn’t sleep but instead lies in the dark for eight hours with ..read more

A round packed with goals brought us a smiling Ousmane Dembélé, a frustrated Bukayo Saka and match-winning performance from a goalkeeper If Tuesday night’s Champions League second legs tipped one way and then the other with attacking flair, then Wednesday was a night for grit to win the day – and English football to be the loser. It also brought a restoration of the old order, with Bayern and Real Madrid to meet in the semi-finals. Goalkeeper: Andriy Lunin, Real Madrid ..read more

Manchester City came from behind in their quarter-final second leg at the ­Etihad Stadium, after Kevin De Bruyne’s 76th-minute strike cancelled out Rodrygo’s opener early in the first half. Despite the holders dominating ­possession, Real held on until the end of extra-time and eventually prevailed following a penalty shootout. 'We did everything, I don't have any regrets with what we have done,' said Guardiola ..read more

City still played like champions of Europe for long periods but a lack of decisive end product proved their undoing Pep Guardiola had talked about the need to suffer before this game. OK then. It’s a deal. This was a gripping, gruelling, sky blue migraine of a football match, one that Manchester City really didn’t deserve to lose, but which somehow always felt like it was slipping from their grasp even during a second half when City seemed to be very slowly, carefully, methodically pulling the legs off this Real Madrid team. There will be no double-treble now after Madrid’s victory on penaltie ..read more