Fan Fervor Assured at Rare Champions League Home Games for Newcastle, Lens and Union Berlin 

Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Burnley - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - September 30, 2023 Newcastle United's Miguel Almiron celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Burnley - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - September 30, 2023 Newcastle United's Miguel Almiron celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
TT

Fan Fervor Assured at Rare Champions League Home Games for Newcastle, Lens and Union Berlin 

Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Burnley - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - September 30, 2023 Newcastle United's Miguel Almiron celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Burnley - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - September 30, 2023 Newcastle United's Miguel Almiron celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)

For their first home games in the Champions League in more than 20 years, Newcastle and Lens will walk out to rousing ovations in their famously noisy stadiums this week.

Union Berlin makes its Champions League debut in the borrowed 75,000-capacity Olympic Stadium that will be a raucous home in the competition for a team that played in the German third tier as recently as 2010.

Don’t tell fans at these three clubs the Champions League group-stage format that is being dumped next year became stale and predictable.

Newcastle, Lens and Union were nowhere near the debate when the European Super League was plotted, launched and failed in 2021 by club owners who took the Champions League for granted and craved extra riches and control running their own show.

Exactly two years ago, Newcastle was still in a grim winless run in the Premier League relegation zone.

The Champions League survived the closed-shop Super League threat and now includes long-time absentees and a debutant that qualified on merit – fourth in the Premier League, runner-up in France’s Ligue 1 and fourth in the Bundesliga.

Newcastle will show Kylian Mbappé and Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday the atmosphere 52,000 create inside St. James’ Park.

Lens welcomes Arsenal on Tuesday to Stade Bollaert-Delelis where the capacity of 38,000 is bigger than the town’s population.

Union is using the Olympic Stadium – which hosted the 2015 Champions League final – because its intimate Stadion An der Alten Försterei (Stadium at the Old Forester’s House) is too small for home games in Group C, starting Tuesday against Braga.

“A Champions League for all Unioners,” club president Dirk Zingler explained to club members. “We were guided by this idea and we will try to ensure that as many people as possible can afford these games too.”

The interim move takes the club from the former East Germany into the west of once-divided Berlin.

Napoli and Real Madrid will later visit Union, and the group favorites first meet Tuesday at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

100th birthday

Few club homes that are 100 years old still host Champions League games. Fewer still waited more than 60 years between staging games in Europe’s top club competition.

Royal Antwerp hosts Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday at the Bosuil Stadium on the site where the club has played since 1923.

There were 45,000 fans there in October 1957 — most of them standing on steep curved terraces – at the venue once known as “Hell of Deurne” when defending champion Real Madrid won 2-1 in a European Cup first-round, first-leg game.

Antwerp’s wait for a next home game ended in August in the qualifying playoffs. Just over 13,000 were there in the compact seated stands to see a 1-0 win over AEK Athens.

Bosuil is not the oldest stadium site seeing Champions League action this week.

Manchester United hosts Galatasaray on Tuesday at Old Trafford where it moved 113 years ago. Celtic welcomes Lazio on Wednesday to Parkhead where the Scottish champion has been playing for 131 years, since 1892.

Rematches

Erling Haaland scored five against Leipzig in March when Manchester City won 7-0 in the second leg of the round of 16.

On Wednesday, Leipzig hosts the defending champion who managed without Haaland’s scoring in a 3-1 win over Red Star Belgrade two weeks ago.

Inter Milan eliminated Benfica in the quarterfinals on its way to losing the final last season and hosts the Portuguese champion Tuesday.

Old hand Pepe

European soccer can unite the generations if Porto captain Pepe makes a historic appearance Wednesday against Barcelona.

At 40 years, 220 days old on Wednesday, Pepe can become the oldest outfield player ever to play in the European Cup or Champions League. Only a few goalkeepers, including Gianluigi Buffon, will be ahead of him in the record book.

When Pepe made his Champions League debut in September 2004, Barcelona’s new 16-year-old starlet Lamine Yamal was still almost three years from being born. Gavi was six weeks old and Pedri was approaching his second birthday.

Pepe played the full game two weeks ago as captain in Porto’s 3-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk. Barcelona opened its campaign by beating Antwerp 5-0.

The current oldest outfield player in the competition’s 68-year history is AC Milan defender Alessandro “Billy” Costacurta. He played in a 1-0 loss at AEK Athens in November 2006 at 40 years, 211 days.



Real Madrid Fans Bid Emotional Farewell to Ancelotti and Modric at the Bernabeu

Football - LaLiga - Real Madrid v Real Sociedad - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - May 24, 2025 Real Madrid's Luka Modric acknowledges fans on the pitch after playing his last LaLiga match for Real Madrid. (Reuters)
Football - LaLiga - Real Madrid v Real Sociedad - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - May 24, 2025 Real Madrid's Luka Modric acknowledges fans on the pitch after playing his last LaLiga match for Real Madrid. (Reuters)
TT

Real Madrid Fans Bid Emotional Farewell to Ancelotti and Modric at the Bernabeu

Football - LaLiga - Real Madrid v Real Sociedad - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - May 24, 2025 Real Madrid's Luka Modric acknowledges fans on the pitch after playing his last LaLiga match for Real Madrid. (Reuters)
Football - LaLiga - Real Madrid v Real Sociedad - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - May 24, 2025 Real Madrid's Luka Modric acknowledges fans on the pitch after playing his last LaLiga match for Real Madrid. (Reuters)

Real Madrid fans bid an emotional farewell to coach Carlo Ancelotti and midfielder Luka Modric — the club’s most decorated figures — in their La Liga finale on Saturday.

The 65-year-old Ancelotti is taking the Brazil job after winning 15 titles in his two stints with the club. The 39-year-old Modric is not returning after winning 28 titles in 13 seasons with Madrid.

Ancelotti and Modric shed tears at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, where Madrid beat Real Sociedad 2-0 with a pair of goals from Kylian Mbappé.

“It's been a pleasure to coach this club,” Ancelotti said while speaking to the fans in a ceremony after the match. “It’s been unforgettable."

The game was stopped for a few minutes when Modric was substituted in the final minutes, and players from both sides did a guard of honor for the veteran as he left the field.

He also spoke after the match, and he and many fans teared up.

“The moment that I didn't want to arrive has arrived,” Modric said. “But it's been a long journey, a wonderful journey."

Modric received a standing ovation by the Bernabeu crowd and couldn’t hold back tears. The crowd chanted his name, and some fans held signs thanking Modric and Ancelotti.

Modric, the team captain on Saturday, hugged his teammates and then his wife and kids who waited by the sideline. He also hugged Toni Kroos, who left Madrid last season after they formed one of the greatest midfields in the club’s history.

A video was shown on the stadium videoboards with key moments by Modric. The midfielder will still play in the Club World Cup next month.

Modric helped Madrid win six European Cups, six Club World Cups, five European Super Cups, four Spanish leagues, two Copas del Rey and five Spanish Super Cups. He is one of only five players to have won six European Cups.

The Croatia international made 591 appearances for Madrid — eighth on the club’s all-time list — and scored 43 goals. He had been playing fewer minutes in recent seasons under Ancelotti.

Ancelotti is leaving after four mostly successful seasons in this stint, which ended on a down note as the club lost the Spanish league title and was eliminated in the Champions League.

He also coached the club from 2013-15. In total, he was in charge of Madrid in more than 350 matches and helped it win three Champions Leagues, three Club World Cups, two Spanish leagues, two Copas del Rey, three UEFA Super Cups and two Spanish Super Cups.

Mbappé scored in the 38th and 83rd minutes to take his league-leading tally to 30, five more than Robert Lewandowski. He and Barcelona, the league champion, finish the season at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

Madrid had already secured second place.

It was also a farewell for Real Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil, who is stepping down this summer after a mostly successful six-and-a-half-year stint in charge of the Basque Country club.

Referee Mario Melero López also was appearing in his final match.