Follow Daily Mail Sport's live coverage of Wednesday night's Champions League group phase action, as Liverpool host Atletico Madrid and Arsenal travel to Napoli.
⚽ Champions League and Carabao Cup match updates⚽ Live scoreboard | Read Football Daily | And mail DanielSometimes, what a game shows is more important than what a game’s worth, and that might be so for Liverpool tonight. After a dreadful season under Arne Slot, they’ve gone into this with the same holes in the team unaddressed, an entirely new system to learn, and a manager inexperienced at elite level. It is not, therefore, surprising that they’ve made a spotty start to the season.They do, though, boast a serious array of attacking talent that looked like it was starting to click at the weekend. Problem being, there’s a difference between looking good against Ipswich Town and looking good against even this version of Atlético Madrid, a team specifically constructed to ruin anything pleasant an opponent might attempt. Continue reading...
Argentina are reportedly finalizing friendlies against Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Benin for October, potential farewell matches for Lionel Messi with the national team following this year's World Cup. Argentina are reportedly closing in on a set of friendlies for October’s international window that could see Lionel Messi and the national team face Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Benin, according to ESPN journalist Esteban Edul. The matches are being discussed as potential farewell games for Messi following his time with the senior national team after this year’s World Cup, though nothing has been officially confirmed by the AFA or the player himself. The reported schedule has Argentina facing Bolivia on September 30, followed by Burkina Faso on October 3, with a possible third match against Benin, currently ranked 93rd in the FIFA rankings, on October 6. The AFA is said to be negotiating all three fixtures as part of the same international window, with venues under consideration including El Monumental in Buenos Aires, the Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in Cordoba, and a possible match in Rosario. Lionel Messi and teammates celebrate with World Cup replicas at Estadio El Monumental. (Getty Images) With Messi already having confirmed his retirement from the national team, what remains uncertain is whether these friendlies will actually serve as his long-awaited farewell in front of Argentine fans. A series of home matches against lower-ranked opposition would give the AFA the perfect opportunity to give him that proper send-off, while also using the games to start looking ahead to the next generation of the national team. Argentina want friendlies to be recognized as Category A The federation has reportedly also consulted FIFA to ensure the friendlies are classified as Category A matches, a designation that would allow several suspended Argentina players to begin serving bans they picked up following incidents at the 2026 World Cup. Locking in that classification is seen as a key step before any of the fixtures can be finalized. The suspensions stem from the fallout surrounding Argentina’s run to the final, when FIFA handed down sanctions to several members of the squad and coaching staff for their conduct in the tournament’s closing stages. Leandro Paredes received the harshest penalty of the group, a 10-match ban, while Nahuel Molina was hit with a seven-match suspension of his own. Thiago Almada picked up a shorter one-match sanction, and even assistant coach Roberto Ayala was not spared, receiving a three-match ban along with a fine. Without Category A status, none of those suspensions could begin to count down, since FIFA only recognizes bans as served in matches that meet that classification threshold.
The Reds, who are six-time European champions, were knocked out of the Champions League last season 4-0 on aggregate by eventual winners PSG. It has been a turbulent summer for Atletico Madrid, with the saga surrounding Julian Alvarez's future dominating much of the discussion.
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