Another year of football is over and it's time to start looking ahead to 2026. The Premier League will reach its conclusion in May, with Arsenal looking to win their first title in over two decades - but can the Gunners see the job through this time? Will an English club be crowned champions of Europe? Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham are all looking to reach the last 16.
FC Barcelona are set to enter into 2026 with the league position that Hansi Flick would have hoped for at the beginning of the season. Top of La Liga, 46 points from 18 games and a four-point cushion over Real Madrid make for good reading. The numbers are loud: 51 goals scored already, but the feeling is even louder. This is a team that plays with incisive attacking power, sometimes, even at the cost of defensive solidity.
Mike Maignan's contract situation at AC Milan is difficult to unpack. There has been positivity recently, but how much that actually means must be seen. Everything at the moment revolves around Maignan, and it is understandable why, as frustrating as it may be. The Frenchman's fine form has come at a time when Milan have no real strength over his contract situation.
"Of course, we need to do more. We are not happy, the lads are not happy with themselves," he told Sky Sport Italia. "At times, we did the bare minimum. Some situations in the first half were frankly embarrassing. "It's true we allowed Pafos too much in the first half. We also made some cheap errors. Sometimes, it is incredible seeing the mistakes made, realising that our players cannot take advantage of those situations. "We relaxed a little after the break and were calmer on the ball in making those decisions."
A different kind of comeback - FC Barcelona Barça's season has had one clear theme: comebacks. Especially over the past month, with Flick's side repeatedly overturning difficult scorelines to walk away with all three points. The latest example came on Tuesday in the Champions League against Eintracht Frankfurt, though this one had a twist. Dani Olmo targets Espanyol - Mundo Deportivo
They didn't really create us too many problems, and it is important when it is 1-0, in the first ten to 15 minutes of the second half to stay in the game and give yourself the best opportunity to win.
With the assist, as per Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona's number 10 reached an astonishing 14 goal contributions in the competition for players of 18-year-old or under, split evenly between seven goals and seven assists. This achievement makes him the most productive player in Champions League history since the tournament adopted its modern format in 1992. The figure surpasses Kylian Mbappe's long-standing record of 13 contributions, placing Yamal at the top of a list that features legendary names.
