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Champions League: Bayern drown out the noise, and was this the worst penalty award ever?

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Champions League: Bayern drown out the noise, and was this the worst penalty award ever?

Football very rarely goes to plan.

AC Milan’s new strike force were supposed to quickly start scoring a lot of goals. Feyenoord selling their best player was supposed to mean their season was over. Bayern Munich were supposed to crumble away from home again. Oh, and VAR was supposed to eradicate horrendous refereeing decisions.

As you can see from last night’s Champions League play-off knockout clashes, the sport rarely fails to disappoint when it comes to predictability.

Here Tim Spiers analyses the key talking points from Wednesday evening’s matches.

That penalty decision…

“Football is becoming a completely different sport. Football is now going in a direction that has nothing to do with the game… I don’t know the rules anymore and I certainly don’t like it.”

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What on earth could have happened to leave one of European football’s most highly respected managers so utterly dismayed?

Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini was rendered angry and bereft by the decision to award Club Brugge a 91st minute penalty in the first leg of their play-off in Belgium. You could understand why.

Behold, one of the worst penalty decisions you are ever likely to witness…

Video for UK readers

“Listening to footballers and coaches, they all have a completely different idea of ​​fouls,” an exasperated Gasperini added. “The tragedy is the contacts: everyone dives to steal and win a yellow or a penalty.”

To recap, a decent tie was winding down to a 1-1 draw, probably a satisfactory result for both sides, when the clocked ticked over 90 minutes and into three minutes of stoppage time.

A seemingly harmless pass went into the box, which Atalanta defender Isak Hien had under control, chased by Brugge striker and Swedish compatriot Gustaf Nilsson.

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As Hien jostled for position, his arm appeared to slightly catch Nilsson, who went to ground. There was barely an appeal from the home fans or any Brugge players, but a penalty was given.

Hien was in disbelief, kneeling on the ground, head in hands. Six Atalanta players surrounded the referee in protest, while Gasperini gestured with not one but two hands, in a manner only Italians can reasonably pull off.


Incensed Atalanta players confront referee Halil Umut Meler (Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images)

VAR Pol van Boekel (from the Netherlands) somehow upheld the decision made by Turkish referee Halil Umut Meler who, after not showing a card all match, booked three Atalanta players (Hien, plus Rafael Toloi and Juan Cuadrado for arguing) in the confusion that followed.

Nilsson got up and scored the penalty, at which point Gasperini whipped off his jacket and stormed down the tunnel before the match had even finished.

Atalanta’s incensed players continued their protests after full-time and security had to escort some of them off the field.

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Gasperini addresses the media after the game (Lars Baron – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

“Those who follow football know that it is not a penalty,” midfielder Marten De Roon said, while even Brugge player Hans Vanaken conceded they were “a bit lucky”.

“It’s just ridiculous,” added Atalanta’s Belgian attacker Charles De Ketelaere, who was returning to his old club for the first time, while calling the referee “arrogant”. “If you ask 100 people, I think out of 100 none would say that was a foul.”

Well, funny you should say that Charles, because one of those 100 people clearly wasn’t former referee Christina Unkel, who kept things tight in the referees’ union.

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Next week’s return leg in Bergamo is tantalisingly poised, then, while next month’s Sweden international get-together should be pretty interesting for Nilsson and Hien, too…

Fab Four flounder

They have been dubbed the Fab Four — a fearsome, fantastic attack that can fire Milan up the Serie A table and deep into the Champions League knockout stages.

USMNT star winger Christian Pulisic, flying wide man Rafael Leao, skilful genius Joao Felix and prolific Mexican striker Santiago Gimenez, four hugely talented players who, in tandem, could prove to be one of Europe’s most electrifying strike forces.

Joao Felix joined on loan from Chelsea last week while Gimenez was signed from Feyenoord, where he had scored 16 goals in 19 games this season, for £26.7million.

And here the Fab Four were in Rotterdam of all places, the home of Feyenoord, unleashed as a quartet for the first time.

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The result? Feyenoord 1 AC Milan 0. And Milan’s expected goals (xG) tally for the night? Precisely 0.57.

Fab Four? How about The Four Flops?


A disappointed Pulisic departs the fray in Rotterdam (Marcel ter Bals/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)

OK, it’s only one match and they will need time to gel, but this was certainly an underwhelming evening for Milan’s front players, three of whom were subbed off before the night was done.

Sergio Conceicao’s struggling side could have avoided all this had they won away at Dinamo Zagreb in the final round of group games, but ended up losing 2-1 in Croatia, reflecting what has been a hugely inconsistent season for a team that lies 17 points behind leaders Napoli in Serie A.

Out in Rotterdam they created precious little with an XI that included no Italian players, in what was a fairly incident-free encounter.

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Well, except for one that goalkeeper Mike Maignan will instantly want to forget…

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Pulisic’s Milan suffers first-leg loss to Feyenoord in UCL playoff

Who needs a manager?

This was quite a result for Feyenoord, whose fans must have been fearing the worst given recent turbulent events at the club.

Manager Brian Priske, who succeeded Arne Slot in the summer when the 46-year-old left to manage Liverpool, was sacked just two days before the visit of Milan.

Priske had actually won his final game in charge at the weekend, a 3-0 derby victory over Sparta Rotterdam, but Feyenoord are a lowly fifth in the Dutch Eredivisie, went out of the Dutch Cup to PSV last week and were spanked 6-1 by Lille on Matchday 8 of the group stage, when a victory in France would have seen them finish in the top eight.

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Given recent results — and the sale of best player Gimenez to Milan, a transfer which happened after the draw was made for the play-off round — Feyenoord’s supporters could be forgiven for thinking their club was waving a white flag for this tie.

Step forward Maignan, Milan’s France international goalkeeper, with this absolute howler in the third minute of the match.

Nothing much seemed to be on when Igor Paixao cut inside from the left and sent a fairly harmless-looking effort low towards the keeper’s near post, but Maignan, not helped by horribly wet conditions in the Netherlands, pushed the ball into the net.

Video for UK readers

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That was pretty much that for the night, other than Paixao smacking a shot off the bar in the second half, and attempting another from the half-way line.

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Feyenoord’s xG of 0.58 was only fractionally better than that of Milan on what was a fairly dull evening. But, after the week they just endured, that was absolutely fine with Feyenoord.

Bayern hush Parkhead

They may be enjoying themselves at the top of the Bundesliga, eight points clear of Bayer Leverkusen, but Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich have still shown vulnerabilities this season — especially on the road when faced with an intimidating away atmosphere.

They have only dropped nine points in the league, but seven of those have been lost away from home. In the Champions League they won all four home group games but lost three of four on the road, including at Aston Villa and Feyenoord where the volume was turned up to 11.

Football atmospheres don’t get much louder than Celtic Park on a big European night, so this was a serious test of Bayern’s European credentials. The pre-match noise was so ear-splitting that Celtic defender Alistair Johnston nodded his approval as the decibels went above jet engine levels when the teams lined up before kick off.

When former Bayern youngster Nicolas Kuhn put Celtic in front after just 25 seconds, they could probably hear the noise in Munich. However, that was correctly ruled out for offside and Bayern slowly turned the screw in Glasgow, establishing some dominance in the din and then clinically scoring either side of half time to take charge of the tie.

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Michael Olise’s strike was one to savour…

Video for UK readers

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And then a criminally unmarked Harry Kane volleyed in from close range for his 29th goal from 29 appearances this season to quell the Celtic Park roar. That was the 19th goal he has scored beyond Kasper Schmeichel for club and country — five more than he has managed against any other goalkeeper.

Brendan Rodgers’ side rallied impressively in the final stages, with Daizen Maeda’s header keeping their hopes alive, but they will need a minor miracle in Germany next week to progress to the last 16.

Card appeal dashes a dream

The Champions League is supposed to be a competition where dreams are made.

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However, for Monaco’s Libyan midfielder Moatasem Al-Musrati, his competition debut turned into a nightmare against Benfica.

The 28-year-old, who is on loan from Besiktas, was on a booking when he saw team-mate Breel Embolo unceremoniously dumped to the floor by Benfica defender Alvaro Carreras.


Denis Zakaria (left) comforts Al-Musrati as he departs the field (Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)

Al-Musrati thought it was a foul and Italian referee Maurizio Mariani agreed, blowing his whistle. Al-Musrati, though, wanted more than that; he wanted Carreras booked and so gently gestured the universal sign language for “show him a card, ref” in the official’s direction.

Nope, can’t do that. Second booking and then a red, Al-Musrati was off. He will now miss the second leg, and with Monaco 1-0 down you have to wonder if the on-loan midfielder will play again in the Champions League this season. Or perhaps ever again.

On the flip side, Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis is very much living out his Champions League dreams, scoring his sixth goal in the competition this season to give Bruno Lage’s side a crucial advantage going into the return leg in Lisbon next week.

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Pavlidis scored when this fixture was played in the group stage, too (Benfica won 3-2), as well as scoring a hat-trick against Barcelona and adding another against Juventus.

Only six players have scored more in 2024-25 and it’s an exclusive list — Serhou Guirassy (10), Robert Lewandowski (nine), Raphinha (eight), Erling Haaland (eight), Vinicius Jr (seven) and Kane (seven).

What happens next?

Wednesday’s results

Club Brugge 2 Atalanta 1
Celtic 1 Bayern Munich 2
Feyenoord 1 Milan 0
Monaco 0 Benfica 1

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Next week’s second legs

Tuesday, February 18
Atalanta (1) vs Club Bruges (2)
Bayern Munich (2) vs Celtic (1)
Milan (0) vs Feyenoord (1)
Benfica (1) vs Monaco (0)

Wednesday, February 19
Paris Saint-Germain (3) vs Brest (0)
PSV Eindhoven (1) vs Juventus (2)
Real Madrid (3) vs Manchester City (2)
Borussia Dortmund (3) vs Sporting CP (0)

Eight teams will advance to the last 16, to join Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa.

The draw for the last 16, quarter-final and semi-final will take place on Friday February 21.

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(Top photos: Getty Images)

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Fatigue a factor as early matches begin at Indian Wells

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March 5, 2026

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Fatigue a factor as early matches begin at Indian Wells

The early rounds of the BNP Paribas Open began Wednesday, with top seeds slated to start play Friday during the 12-day ATP and WTPA Master 1000 tournament.

A busy stretch of the tennis season reaches another gear at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the second largest outdoor tennis stadium in the world.

While many consider it the “fifth Grand Slam” because of its elite player field, amenities and equal prize money for men and women, professionals acknowledge the tournament is part of a stressful stretch on the tennis calendar.

Indian Wells is followed by the Miami Open, another two-week Master 1000 tournament. The tour stops are known as the “Sunshine Double.”

Some players made the short trip from Indian Wells to Las Vegas this past weekend to participate in the MGM Grand Slam, an exhibition designed to help players ramp up for back-to-back tournaments.

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American Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot–11 pro, said managing fatigue after a series of tournaments before hitting Indian Wells has altered his practice and play in exhibition matches, including a loss to 19-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca in Las Vegas.

“Normally in any kind of competition, you get excited and play with a pressure point … but you don’t feel this when you are practicing,” Opelka said.

“I was trying to feel like this a few days ago while practicing with … [Tommy Paul,] but instead we got tired and hungry. … That usually doesn’t happen. We just decided to stop and go to eat somewhere.”

Paul said despite the decision to cut practice short, he feels fresh for the upcoming events.

“I started the year pretty well and for Americans, we are excited for the Sunshine Double,” Paul said.

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Casper Rudd lost to Opelka during the first round of the Las Vegas exhibition. The Norwegian also lost a week ago during the first round of the Acapulco Open, falling to Chinese qualifier Yibing Wu in straight sets.

Rudd said he felt “extremely tired” after the Australian Open in January.

Rancho Palo Verdes resident Taylor Fritz, ranked No. 7 in the world, said the best way to prepare yourself for grueling tour schedule is “putting [in] the time, work and repetition.”

“… Be there, be focused on the quality that you are doing,” said Fritz, a 28-year-old who won the Indian Wells title in 2022.

While some players are guarding against burnout, others struggled to even reach California. Some players who live in Dubai, including Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, have to contend with closed airspace triggered by the U.S. and Israel bombing Iran.

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The ATP announced Wednesday that, “the vast majority of players who were in Dubai have successfully departed today on selected flights.”

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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

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12 hours ago

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March 5, 2026

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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue. 

Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June. 

Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male. 

 

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Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports. 

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling. 

“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.

Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case. 

(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

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“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital. 

“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13. 

Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters. 

With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.

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Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college. 

President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice. 

Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”

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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)

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SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.

“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

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'Horrible' moments exposed for UNR volleyball players when they were roped into the SJSU Title IX scandal

Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.

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Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

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March 5, 2026

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Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.

“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.

Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.

On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.

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Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.

Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.

(Lindsey Wasson / AP)

The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.

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Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.

His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”

Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.

Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.

A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.

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Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.

A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.

The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.

He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.

“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”

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Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.

“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.

“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”

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