FOOTBALL GALLERY

R B Leipzig have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time in their history after a comfortable 3-0 victory in the second leg of their last-16 tie with Tottenham Hotspur. The French goalkeeper would've been disappointed to be beaten at his near post for the second, with Sabitzer again providing the finish, this time with his head. Julian Nagelsmann's men added a third in the closing stages of the match, with Emil Forsberg slotting home with his first touch since coming on as a substitute. Those three goals added to Timo Werner's strike from the first leg in London mean that Leipzig progress 4-0 on aggregate, while last season's finalists are eliminated. Source: MarcaSport 

The global sporting industry is worth over $600 billion and with the amount of money circulating, major sport arenas boast impressive structures. Speaking of architecture some are more remarkable than others. But, how did football stadiums look originally? How did they evolve? Who are the individuals who changed the pitches from the set aside grass areas to properly maintained stadiums? The first stadiums When Association Football was in its starting phase, people played their matches on spare playing fields, mostly within the public parks. The biggest worry of players was whether passers would understand exactly what was happening and have the courage to walk around the pitch. With growth of football popularity and professionalism, the need to develop better grounds where players would like to be arose. Football clubs started doing more than just brushing some debris off the grass and sending boys out for short matches. Ground that could be used for football and other games, lik

T he core of football tactics is the formation of the team. In football (soccer) the formations are classified in names consisting of numbers that represent defenders, midfielders and attackers (the goalkeeper is unnecessary to involve in this tactical aspect). Here are some of the most utilized formations in football presented in a historical overview. Formations are simplified ways to describe a team’s positional tactic schematically. As Jonathan Wilson writes in  Inverting the Pyramid : "designations of formations can at times seem a little arbitrary. Just how far behind the main striker does the second striker have to play for 4–4–2 to become 4–4–1–1? And how advanced do the wide midfielders have to be for that to become a 4–2–3–1?"   1-1-8 You probably never guess the existence of this formation in serious circumstances. It was a while ago, though, more exactly in the 19th century in the pre-modern era of football. To use only one defense player and one midfielder

The history of football (soccer) Football (or soccer as the game is called in some parts of the world) has a long history. Football in its current form arose in England in the middle of the 19th century. But alternative versions of the game existed much earlier and are a part of the football history. Early history and the precursors of football The first known examples of a team game involving a ball, which was made out of a rock, occurred in old Mesoamerican cultures for over 3,000 years ago. According to the sources, the ball would symbolize the sun and the captain of the losing team would be sacrificed to the gods. The first known ball game which also involved kicking took place In China in the 3rd and 2nd century BC under the name  Cuju . Cuju was played with a round ball on an area of a square. It later spread to Japan and was practiced under ceremonial forms. Other earlier variety of ball games had been known from Ancient Greece. The ball was made by shreds of leathe