When it comes to buying low, selling high, and churning out a monumental profit on promising young footballers, few teams in France can hold a candle to Lille OSC. Les Dogues signed Nicolas Pépé

The UEFA Champions League 2024/25 group stage is over, and the historic Round 8 produced 16 matches across Europe, as it was for the very first time that a single Matchday of the premier continental league of Europe had this many matches.

Arne Slot says Liverpool defender Amara Nallo must learn from his “cruel” red card in Wednesday’s 3-2 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League. The academy graduate’s first-team debut lasted just four minutes at Philips Stadion as he was sent off late in the second half for a professional foul on Johan Bakayoko.

Liverpool became the first team to guarantee a place in the last 16 of the new Champions League format by beating Lille 2-1 on Tuesday, while Barcelona fought back from two goals down to stun Benfica 5-4 in a thriller.

The details of a post-match exchange between Barcelona star Ferran Torres and Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili have on Tuesday come to the fore online.Ferran and Mamardashvili of course

Liverpool managed to reduce one of Barcelona's best players to tears with a dominant display at Anfield previously.

The UEFA Champions League returns on Wednesday with Matchday 8 and it has the potential to be a historically chaotic day in terms of results that the sport has ever seen. All 36 teams will be in action as 17 games will take place simultaneously at 3 p.

Liverpool's 100% record in the Champions League ended as they lost 3-2 at PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday but Arne Slot's side still finished top of the group stage.

Following the culmination of the Champions League group phase, Liverpool and Barcelona have established themselves as favourites to be crowned European champions. Of course, knockout soccer is not that simple.

As the league phase comes to a close, there's still plenty of shuffling that will happen in Champions League play. Only Barcelona and Liverpool have clinched their places in the top eight putting them automatically through to the last 16 but plenty of teams will be looking to join them.