Dermot Corrigan

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Dermot Corrigan

Atletico Madrid forward Julian Alvarez shook his fist in celebration after his shot flew in to the roof of the net, from his team's second penalty of Wednesday night's Champions League penalty shootout at home to their city neighbours Real Madrid. Alvarez had slipped over as he took the spot kick, but the ball had gone in, and the vast majority of the just over 69,000 crowd in Atletico's Metropolitano stadium cheered, thinking they were one step closer to victory in their last 16 tie.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Dermot Corrigan

Atletico Madrid's Angel Correa has been banned for the next five La Liga games - one game for his red card during Sunday's game at Getafe, and four gamers for insulting the referee after his dismissal. The 30-year-old was initially yellow carded for the tackle on Getafe's Djene Dakonam late in the game, but after a VAR review the punishment was upgraded to a straight red by referee Guillermo Cuadra Fernandez.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Dermot Corrigan

Arsenal's incoming sporting director, Andrea Berta, spent 12 years at Atletico Madrid, a period in which they had tremendous success on the pitch and regularly conducted startling business in the transfer market. Berta joined the Spanish club in 2013, first working in their international scouting department, but the Italian quickly climbed the ranks to become sporting director four years later.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Dermot Corrigan

Valencia's owner Peter Lim was not at their Mestalla ground as his team played a Copa del Rey quarter-final against Barcelona on February 7. They lost that match, 5-0. Nor was he present for the 7-1 away defeat to the same opponents in La Liga a couple of weeks earlier. His absence was no surprise. The Singaporean billionaire has not watched Valencia play in person since December 2019, when he attended a 1-1 home draw against Real Madrid.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Dermot Corrigan

There will be plenty of familiarity when Real Sociedad host Manchester United in the Europa League last 16 at Anoeta on Thursday - their third meeting in the competition's last four editions. United managed a 4-0 aggregate win in 2021 (during the Covid-19 pandemic) at the round-of-32 stage. In the 2022-23 Europa League group stage, La Real won 1-0 at Old Trafford through a Brais Mendez penalty, then United won the reverse when Alejandro Garnacho scored the only goal at Anoeta.