🔴🟢Portugal’s Major Tournament record before & with Cristiano Ronaldo:
🇵🇹 Before Ronaldo (1990–2002):
1998 WC — Did not qualify ❌
2000 Euro — Semi-finals 📈
2002 WC — Group stage ❌
🇵🇹 With Ronaldo (2004–2026):
2004 Euro — Final 🥈
2006 WC… see thread
🚨 Players likely playing their LAST World Cup (2026)
• Luka Modrić 🇭🇷
• Neymar Jr 🇧🇷
• Robert Lewandowski 🇵🇱
• Mohamed Salah 🇪🇬
• Kevin De Bruyne 🇧🇪
• Olivier Giroud 🇫🇷
• Guillermo Ochoa 🇲🇽
• Manuel Neuer 🇩🇪
• Thomas… 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲
🚨🎙️Paul Merson on Matvey Safonov's towel for the TAB session during the penalty shootout in the champions league final between PSG and Arsenal:
“People are calling it clever. I’m calling it what it looks like: a massive grey area that UEFA cannot keep ignoring.
We’ve spent years hearing about integrity, sporting fairness and competitive advantage. Then I watch a Champions League final and see a goalkeeper standing there with what looks like a scouting dossier hidden inside a towel. Names, tendencies, instructions, preferred sides, everything laid out in front of him. And somehow we’re all supposed to shrug and say it’s just preparation?
Hold on a second.
If clubs can get dragged into investigations over intelligence-gathering controversies, then why shouldn’t this be examined as well? Football cannot have one standard for everyone else and another standard when it’s happening on the biggest stage in Europe.
The argument I keep hearing is: ‘Every club studies penalties.’ Of course they do. Nobody is disputing that. Teams analyse opponents all week. But there’s a difference between doing your homework before the exam and bringing the answers into the exam hall with you.
Where exactly is the line? Today it’s a towel. Tomorrow is it a tablet? An earpiece? A live analyst feeding information between every kick? If football doesn’t define the boundary, clubs will keep pushing it further and further.
And spare me the nonsense that nobody would care if the result were different. If Arsenal had won a Champions League final with their goalkeeper pulling out a detailed PSG penalty guide before every kick, social media would have exploded. We’d be hearing demands for explanations from every corner of Europe.
I’m not saying PSG broke a rule. I’m saying UEFA owes football an answer. Either this is acceptable and every goalkeeper in Europe can start carrying penalty cheat sheets next season, or it’s not. You can’t have ambiguity in a competition decided by the finest margins.
Because when a Champions League trophy is on the line, even the perception of an unfair advantage damages trust in the competition. And looking at those images, a lot of people are going to ask the same question:
If this isn’t gaining a competitive advantage during the shootout, what exactly is?”
🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: Arsenal would NOT have won the Premier League.😬❌
After reviewing every major incident from the 2025/26 Premier League season including penalties, red cards, and attacking fouls in the build-up to goals it was concluded that Manchester City should have entered the final matchday TOP of the table, sitting 2 points clear of Arsenal.
Two key decisions highlighted:
— Diogo Dalot should have been sent off after just 10 minutes in the Manchester derby, a match Manchester City went on to lose 2-0.
— Manchester City should have been awarded a penalty away to Newcastle United, a game they eventually lost 2-1.
— @TheAthleticFC