Hail GFOP!

Rog writes: What a final weekend. Chelsea shattered Forest fans’ hearts, VAR broke Aston Villa’s. Manchester City’s worst season of all-time ™ ended in a third-place Champions League finish most teams would bite your arm off for, and Liverpool lifted the trophy before their fans for the first time in 35 long years, despite winning the title under pandemic restrictions five years ago. There was something about the juxtaposition between Liverpool lifting the trophy in an empty stadium then, and now seeing the streets of the city teeming with people in the afternoon sunshine, that felt like such a celebration of life. 

At the final-whistle, the cameras immediately focussed on Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Scouser in the team whose decision to leave after 20 years at the club has been met with a sense of incandescent emotional indignation. At first, Trent attempted to be stoic. There were emotional hugs exchanged with Andy Robertson and Alisson, a beautiful moment in which the Liverpool players surrounded him during the trophy celebrations, but then, he turned pensive during the team and staff photograph before the Kop, and seconds later, his family came on the field, and Trent let out all of the emotions. As his mother hugged him, the tears flowed. We often forget our footballers are human. This was the most human of moments. 

It is just 83 days until the Premier League season kicks off again. How different all of our teams will be between now and then, with possibly Kerkez, Wirtz, and Frimpong in red. A lot of football between now and then. Let’s not take a second of watching it all together for granted.

PS. Congratulations to Arsenal Women who became European Champions. What a massive achievement. Am blown away by the entire squad, and American Emily Fox and Jenna Nighswonger in particular. May the Arsenal men follow in their lead next season.

Courage,

ROG

VAR Robs Aston Villa of Champions League Dream 💔

- Written by Tommy Stewart

For a while now, the only Premier League storyline that’s still had any binge-worthy jeopardy has been the rotating five-team shuffle for three Champions League places. Manchester City, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Newcastle fans have gnawed at nails, watched through facial finger masks and prayed to Gods they’d never known before, as their teams have tagged in and out of the top five over the past couple of months. Yesterday’s Premier League precipice continued to deliver its typical lack of chill, testing the hearts of all of the aforementioned club’s supporters, perhaps other than Manchester City’s, who are used to being the star of this movie and were able to calmly proceed into the Champions League, scoring in the first half to take, remain and finish in third. The rest… Well, it was wonderful, unbridled chaos, of course.

Manchester United 2-0 Aston Villa 

Although the lack of VAR when it was really required for a disallowed Morgan Rogers goal in the second half of this Champions League clincher for Aston Villa was a decisive dagger to their hearts, there was self-inflicted drama that also damaged their cause before that. In what could sadly be his last game in an Aston Villa shirt, legendary Argentine goalkeeper, Emi Martinez, allowed his main character energy to take him to center stage one more time, but his usual casting as a Stone Cold Steve Austin-esque rogue hero was tragically overshadowed by a heel turn for the ages. When faced one-on-one with Rasmus Hojlund just before half time, he decided to run out of his box and pull out a bizarre finishing move to prevent the Danish striker from a clear goalscoring opportunity, which is perhaps a generous hypothetical, given the player in question. His red card wasn’t up for discussion and that may well have been the moment that Villa’s Champions League fantasy was demoted to a less glamorous Europa League reality. 

VAR, what is it good for?

That was until, with the game still at 0-0 in the twilight of the second half, Morgan Rogers’ relentless running was rewarded when he nicked the ball from flapping United goalkeeper, Altay Bayındır, who didn’t have it secure in two hands and was therefore not in control of it. Rogers finished into an open net, but because the referee had blown his whistle quickly, the decision could not be reversed, and VAR, the bane of so many football fans’ modern experience, was not allowed its own redemption arc to come to the rescue. Three minutes later, Amad Diallo scored at the Stretford End, and Christian Eriksen, in his last appearance for United sealed the victory with a Farvel penalty. With fifth-place Newcastle losing to Everton, Villa only needed to have drawn at Old Trafford to qualify for Europe's top-tier, so for a game of this magnitude to hinge on a moment of refereeing human error, in a world where video intervention reluctantly exists, is perplexing for the neutral, but earth-shattering for Unai Emery. The agony of injustice caused by this decision will cost Villa up to $100 million in missing out on Champions League football, begging the question: VAR, what is it good for? If you’re an Aston Villa fan, absolutely nothing.

Nottingham Forest 0-1 Chelsea

“Take Us On A Trip” was the stirring request from Nottingham Forest fans before their direct top-five dust off with Chelsea, with the knowledge that whether in the Champions League or otherwise, they will venture around the continent next season for the first time in 29 years. Eight points from the last eight games will qualify as an agonizing wilt, even though fans would have bitten your arm off for any form of European football before the season begun. For so many months, Nuno Espírito Santo’s side comfortably occupied third-place, but despite losing momentum when it came to the crunch, it’s easy to forget that their past two seasons have been spent surviving, so to have been in this position on the season’s final day, is a poem worth reading repeatedly. The fact this pragmatic team dominated possession for so much of the first half was as surprising as Tom Hanks recreating Forest Gump for Chet’s music video, but their lack of execution was consequential against Enzo Maresca’s quietly quite good Chelsea side, who themselves were title contenders at Christmas. It was appropriately center-back Levi Colwill, a boy who’s been a blue since he was nine-years-old, who was decisive in taking his club back to Europe’s top table for the first time in two years, with a finish from a Pedro Neto pass that might simultaneously be the easiest and most important goal he’ll score in his whole career. It was a perfect way to sum up a stubborn end game of a season in which his team have scored just eight times in their last six games, winning five, reeling off 1-0 win after 1-0 win. Maresca’s young side will feel they’re rightfully back keeping company with the coolest kids on the continent, which is where they should be, and despite not fully completing mission impossible, Nottingham Forest can safely dream of their own trips upon Nuno’s magic swirling ship in the Conference League next season.

Fulham 0-2 Manchester City

Despite Champions League qualification still being at stake for Manchester City, Pep Guardiola was unafraid of being a party-pooper, because on the last leg of the Kevin De Bruyne farewell tour, City’s Tintin sat on the bench. İlkay Gündoğan’s acrobatics at 34-years-old for his team’s opener showed that he’s still got it, and in the second half he won a penalty which was slotted into the bottom left corner by Erling Haaland for his first goal in 56 days, who in a slumping season, has still somehow scored 22 in the league. De Bruyne was introduced late and was ultimately given his gooey goodbye moment with the fans who have had the enviable privilege of enjoying his genius for almost a decade. KDB won’t give us an aesthetic shock if he joins the sky blue of Serie A Champions, Napoli, and a man he’ll know well from Mancunian battles, Scott McTominay, but to see him play elsewhere is going to be a surreal experience.

MORE: Phil Foden opened up about his mental health challenges. A powerful reminder that footballers are human; the gent is just 24. We wish him strength and a return to his singular self.

Liverpool Lift the Title for Their Fans ❤️

Liverpool 1-1 Crystal Palace

Perhaps humanity’s ultimate elixir–the guaranteed hangover cure–was unveiled before us at Anfield yesterday in the form of a double guard of honor! Their mutually congratulatory moods were satisfying in an almost cheesy cinematic way, like the medal ceremony at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope, or when Frodo and the boys frolic around on a big bed in slow motion in LOTR: Return of the King. Palace went up early through Ismaïla Sarr, but it was the second-half introduction of Liverpool’s much-maligned local boy, Trent Alexander-Arnold, as he said goodbye to Anfield, that was the show most were really here to see. The man who built the platform for Arne Slot’s title win, Jürgen Klopp, returned to his old house as a welcome visitor today, and his midweek words on his former faithful’s treatment of the departing Scouse fullback clearly carried weight, as the venom of weeks gone by became polite applause, and all was kind of well. Mohamed Salah, who deals mainly in miracles, scored a late-equalizer that came after a Ryan Gravenberch red card, confirming him as the first person in Premier League history to win Best Player, Golden Boot and the Playermaker Award in the same season. That goal also tied him in the most goal contributions in one Premier League season with 47, outstripping six teams this season, including Everton and Manchester United. Five years after their last league win, which came under Klopp, Anfield got the full title experience that the pandemic stole from its supporters, in a painting beautifully coloured by red smoke and the toothy smiles of generations of fans young and old. Oscar-worthy.

And Now, Rog’s Super Chill Thoughts on WTF Happened to Everton this Weekend (and Season) 💙 

Newcastle 0-1 Everton

Rog writes:

A game that meant everything and nothing. A result that was ultimately irrelevant. Newcastle fans tried to buoy their team by deriding Jordan Pickford for the opening half hour, but our hero would not be daunted. Everton actually played like the team chasing Europe, forcing Nick Pope into a reel of saves, before Carlos Alcaraz used his oddly-shaved cranium to head home from way downtown with power and guile to give Everton a win, which was outrun by results elsewhere. At the final whistle, both the winners and the losers celebrated. Newcastle are back in the Champions League, but from an Everton perspective, under David Moyes we have played 19, won eight, drawn seven, lost three and won 31 points, the fourth most in the Premier League in that period. That is the hope we experience as we U-Haul our prayers over to the new stadium, the Hill Dickinson, AKA the Big Dick. Carry on that form and the Everton that challenges for things, is back.

Elsewhere in the Premier League: Bournemouth 2-0 Leicester City, Wolves 1-1 Brentford, Southampton 1-2 Arsenal, Ipswich Town 1-3 West Ham, Tottenham 1-4 Brighton

Championship Play-Off Final ❤️🤍

Sheffield United 1-2 Sunderland 

There are few games in football so brutally consequential as the Championship play-off final, where as well as the estimated $270 million thought to be on the table for one of Sheffield United or Sunderland at Wembley, was the heady hopes of hometowns and the alluring prestige of the Premier League’s bright lights. Chris Wilder’s South Yorkshire side, Sheffield United, have lived that dream in recent years, but until now, the North East’s Sunderland, managed by the understated Frenchman Régis Le Bris, hadn’t hit English football’s most lucrative zenith since 2017. The Blades displayed why they finished 14 points above Sunderland in the league early on, only to be repeatedly prevented by local lad and player of the match, goalkeeper Anthony Patterson, who surely secured the keys to the city with his performance on Saturday. The son of the late, great Kevin Campbell, Tyrese, managed to dink one past him midway through the first half and the rhythm of the match suggested it could be the start of something destructive, but Sunderland seemed to be set on refusing to lose. In the second half, Sheffield United’s Harrison Burrows’ volley was wiped off by VAR allowing a momentum shift which was capitalized on by Eliezer Mayenda who scored in the 76th minute to reignite Black Cats’ hopes. As the game looked destined for extra time, Brighton-bound Tom Watson slalomed through a tired Blades defense before seemingly breezily passing the ball into Michael Cooper’s net from outside the box, leaving one half of Wembley stunned to silence, and the other in heavenly ecstasy. Sunderland have experienced all of the pain that the English football pyramid can provide in recent years, with two relegations and now two promotions, and the pay off that portrayed the game’s full collective beauty was a teary rendition of “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” that Elvis would be proud of. 

🏆 The 2025 Baldon d'Or Awards🏆

It’s time to get your measurements, find your nearest rental, and ask nicely if they have anything gold at the back of the store, because the inaugural Baldon d’Or Awards have arrived! Sure, the Premier League’s best performers probably care quite a lot about what their peers think of them, and that’s why other, seemingly more official awards exist, but do they have categories for the really important things in football like Best Shithousery, Worst Howler, and Biggest Miss? No, they do not, so that’s what we’re here for: to highlight the ridiculous and magical moments of the 2024/25 Premier League season that all of us really care about.

Liverpool’s title victory may have been more ‘overly-competitive dads against crying kids at a school sports day’ than an Olympic 100m sprint, and although every promoted team walked in and out of the league like Grandpa Simpson saying “hi” and “bye” in one fell swoop, there were still a plethora of moments this season that live rent free in our heads. Anyway, enough of the fluff, let’s get down to business.

Check out all 13 awards here 🏆

Serie A Sealed for Napoli by MVP McTominay 🇮🇹🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Naples became a Hieronymus Bosch painting on Friday night as Napoli sealed their fourth ever Scudetto and second in three seasons, which was manager Antonio Conte’s fifth title win with three different clubs. Just 10 months after being flogged on the cheap by his toxic ex-Manchester United, Serie A MVP, Scotland’s Scott McTominay, cemented his legacy in one of the most fervent football cities in the world with a bicycle kick that mirrored the only man until now who’s equal with God in Naples, Diego Maradona. Tattoos have been inked, murals will be painted, and babies will be named, as McFratm AKA McBro has become Conte’s protagonist, showing that with faith from a world class manager, he is an elite footballer. Another former Manchester United player, Romelu Lukaku sprinkled the basil on the top of the Neapolitan with a cool finish to truly allow the city to erupt in the shadows of Vesuvius. History and social media tells us that Naples will party all summer now, so if you’re looking for a trip to Europe and you’re not too bothered about sleeping, then get on the next plane.

Some Absolute Weekend Worldies 🚀 🥅

There were a lot of great goals this weekend, but these three get top marks:

On the Continent 🇪🇺

Women’s Champions League Final 🇪🇺: Arsenal 1-0 Barcelona

In another trophyless season for Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, just four months after being appointed, women’s team manager, 36-year-old Renee Slegers said “hold my beer”. With the Women’s Champions League final in Lisbon against regular-winners, Barcelona, bolted at 0-0, the second-half introduction of substitutes Stina Blackstenius and Beth Mead, were pivotal. It was Swedish striker Blackstenius, who with only her second goal of the season, was decisive in the 74th minute, allowing Arsenal to become the first English team since they last won it in 2007 to lift the trophy.

For more: Subscribe to The Women’s Game newsletter

Scottish Cup Final 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿: Aberdeen 1-1 Celtic (Aberdeen won 4-3 on penalties)

You might have had a double-take at your phone screen when you read this scoreline, but the unfathomable happened in the Scottish Cup Final on Saturday, as Celtic lost on penalties to Aberdeen, who lifted a trophy for the first time in 35 years. Celtic have already won the SPL and League Cup this season with the USMNT’s Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty impressing throughout the campaign, but trophy-addict Brendan Rodgers will feel aggrieved at not winning the club’s record ninth treble.

La Liga 🇪🇸: The Bernabeu said an emotional “Adios” to two true Real Madrid legends in Luka Modric and Don Carlo Ancelotti on Saturday. Both stand out as the leading figureheads in arguably the most prestigious football club in the world’s modern history, with Modric lifting 28 trophies, and Ancelotti brilliantly balancing winning stability amidst a jungle of egos and chaos. When the tears have dried, we hope to see their buddy-cop crime solving series on Netflix in the fall.

Mid-Week Matches to Fake a Meeting for 📺 

Champions League Final 🗣️🏆: PSG vs. Inter Milan (Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+)

As is usually the case, Ligue 1 was a breeze for PSG this season, but for what seems an eternity, the Champions League has been their unrequited desire, and this season the One Trophy to Rule Them All feels more tangible than ever before. Inter Milan were here only two years ago, losing against the might and wealth of Pep Guardiola’s treble-winning Manchester City side, and the torment of missing out on Serie A by a point will give them extra-incentive to win this season’s Champions League. They’ve not lifted this trophy since José Mourinho led them to it in his shithouse revenge tour against his exes, Chelsea and Barcelona in 2010, but as displayed in one of the greatest two-legged ties of all time, Simone Inzaghi’s interpretation of the Nerrazzuri are entertainers willing to play risky hands to win matches. Luis Enrique won this big-eared symbol of prestige back in 2015 with one of the great Barcelona sides, where he somehow balanced the seismic South American egos of Messi, Suarez and Neymar, but this youthful and more grounded PSG team seem ready to break their historic European duck in Munich on Saturday. 

Europa Conference League Final 🇪🇺🏆: Real Betis vs. Chelsea (Wednesday 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+)

Chelsea deem winning as an entitlement, which is why they’re so successful; seasons without silverware feel hollow, so although they might have slightly sneered through their double-Champions League-winning lens at the Europa Conference League, after securing fourth in the Premier League, Enzo Maresca will view this as more than a consolation prize. Teams throughout history have used trophies like this as the cement mix on which mansions are eventually built, but more importantly, who doesn’t want to see Cole Palmer’s big, lovely post-match grin with a medal around his neck that he’ll probably give to one of his boys in Wythenshawe. The club mantra of Seville’s Real Betis is "¡Viva el Betis manqué pierda!", translating to "Long live Betis, even if they lose!" which are poetic words that we, as football lovers, can all learn from. They’re managed by the only man who looks better than Furio from The Sopranos in a football tracksuit, the wise old Uruguayan sage who moonlights as a Sam Eagle lookalike, Manuel Pellegrini. He’s got USMNT midfielder, Johnny Cardoso, playing like a prime-Roy Keane, while also realizing Manchester United loanee Antony's potential, so much so, that Betis fans simply refer to him as GOAT. It isn’t insulting to say that this means more to Béticos than Blues, but whatever the outcome, their fans will love them, even if they lose.  

The Women’s Game Live! In Vermont 🎙️

Sam Mewis and The Women’s Game are coming to the Green Mountain State ahead of Vermont Green’s women’s week – which Sam is coaching! – for The Women’s Game Live! in Vermont. The evening will be one of storytelling, soccer, and celebration of what makes Vermont soccer so special and the creativity used to make Vermont soccer-mad.

Hosted by Sam, who is proud to call Vermont home, the show will bring together some very special local guests for a lively, heartfelt look at the state’s unique soccer culture and DIY spirit. From bike paths and lake views to grassroots football and big dreams, you'll hear how Vermont became the unlikely heartbeat of something much bigger. Expect candid conversations, behind-the-scenes stories, and a celebration of women’s soccer. This is part-live podcast, part-community gathering—with smiles, laughs, and a whole lot of heart. Whether you're a local or just passing through, come see why Vermont feels like home.

Get your tickets now

Some Non-Football to Start the Week Off Right 📖

• It Was As If Someone Had Been Murdered: what made two men cut down the Sycamore Gap tree?

• How Millennials became uncool. It's definitely my socks that make me deeply uncool, not the Peter Gabriel t-shirt I insist on wearing with them. 

• They Invented the Game. Will They Be Allowed to Play It in the Olympics? Lacrosse returns to the Olympics, but why won’t the I.O.C. let indigenous North American teams compete?

• Love a bit of niche drama: Thomas Keller asked me to leave the French Laundry. It turned into my most extraordinary night as a critic.

It’s MiB Trivia Time 🤔

Get ready for your weekly dose of trivia!

This week’s question: PSG face Inter Milan in the Champions League final on Saturday, but who were the last French and Italian teams to win the trophy?

Send your answers to [email protected] to win a coveted MiB patch!

Last week’s answer: Congratulations to Jason Bullet, who correctly answered that Chelsea are the team to have the most appearances in all-English European finals.

The patch is on its way to you, Jason 🚚👏