capital. Earlier in the day Chile
cancel an international friendly
at home to Bolivia that was
scheduled to be played on Friday.
SPAIN: Barcelona fail to score at
home for the first time in 46 games
in all competitions as they are held
to a 0-0 draw in the Champions
League by Slavia Prague. They did,
however, extend their unbeaten
home run in the competition to
a record 34 games.
TUNISIA: An appeal for financial
help by Club Africain sees their
supporters donate more than
$450,000 over a 24-hour period.
The country’s second-oldest
club, who have been deducted six
points, were sanctioned over unpaid
salaries to former players and the
Tunisian Football Federation puts
the club’s total debt at almost $6m.
Wednesday November 6
BRAZIL: Bragantino from Sao
Paulo, who will be known as Red
Bull Bragantino as of next season,
will play in the top flight under their
new name after securing promotion
from Serie B with a 3-1 victory
over Guarani. The club received
an investment of nearly $15m from
the energy-drink maker this year, a
figure that will double for 2020.
ITALY: Cristiano Ronaldo equals
Paolo Maldini with 174 UEFA club
competition appearances as
Juventus beat Lokomotiv Moscow
2-1. He is now second only to Iker
Casillas, who played 188 games.
SPAIN: Eighteen-year-old Rodrygo
is the second-youngest player –
after Raul – to score a Champions
League hat-trick as Real Madrid
beat Galatasaray 6-0. Karim
Benzema also scores and equals
Lionel Messi’s record of scoring in
a 15th consecutive campaign.
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:
Bayern Munich, Juventus and Paris
Saint-Germain are the first three
teams to qualify for the knockout
stage of the tournament.
Thursday November 7
EUROPA LEAGUE: Basle, Celtic,
Espanyol, Manchester United and
Sevilla all make it through to the
knockout stage.
Saturday November 9
AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Peru
international Andre Carrillo gets the
only goal of the game as Al Hilal
of Saudi Arabia beat Japan’s Urawa
Red Diamonds in their home leg of
the Final in Riyadh.
GERMANY: Bayern Munich thrash
Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker,
with Robert Lewandowski scoringrecord with an 8-0 thrashing of
Paris FC in the Coupe de la Ligue
round of 32.
Thursday October 31
NORTHERN IRELAND: The Irish
FA rejects a proposal to join an All-
Ireland league. It believes that “the
best interests of our member clubs
and football in Northern Ireland are
better served by remaining with the
club-led model established in 2013
via the Northern Ireland Football
League” and points to a “balanced
league which has seen a substantial
increase in attendances, awareness
and television coverage”. The IFA
also queries a lack of “specificity or
guarantees”, particularly as “UEFA
competition places, prize monies
and youth solidarity funding are
important to our clubs and we do
not wish to put these in question”.
Friday November 1
FRANCE: Bottom-of-the-table
Dijon, who only survived in Ligue
1 last term by winning a relegation
play-off, come from behind to beat
reigning champions and league
leaders Paris Saint-Germain 2-1.
Sunday November 3
GERMANY: Bayern Munich part
company with coach Niko Kovac
following a 5-1 defeat at Eintracht
Frankfurt the previous day.
TOGO: National under-20 coach
Ayivi Ekuevi dies at the age of 60
following an illness. At club level he
led AS Togo Port to the league title
in 2017 and was in charge when
they became the first Togolese
club to reach the group stage of
the African Champions League.
Monday November 4
AFC CUP: Al Ahed are the first
team from Lebanon to win Asia’s
secondary club competition,
beating April 25 SC of North Korea
in a Final that was moved from
Pyongyang to Shanghai and
eventually played in Kuala Lumpur.
Despite having goalkeeper An
Tae-song sent off in the 26th
minute, the North Koreans hold
out until 16 minutes from the end,
when Issah Yakubu heads home
the only goal of the game.
Tuesday November 5
CHILE: South American football’s
governing body CONMEBOL
announces the Copa Libertadores
Final between River Plate and
Flamengo on November 23 has
been moved from Santiago to Lima
in Peru due to ongoing political
demonstrations in the Chileansome experienced names are brought in to add
ballast, and the team marches on.
Nothing seems to faze them. Asuncion was
hardly a neutral venue, with Colon having almost
40,000 travelling fans while Independiente del
Valle had a little over 500. Then there was the
weather. Right after the kick-off, fierce afternoon
sunshine gave way to a torrential downpour and
the pitch became unplayable. The game was
halted for almost an hour, but Independiente
scored either side of the stoppage, with a header
from centre-back Luis Fernando Leon and a shot
from rampaging left-winger John Jairo Sanchez.
Colon star Luis Rodriguez had a penalty saved- not trusting the pitch, he went with power rather
than his usual subtlety – and the game seemed
to be petering out until, from nowhere Colon
scrambled an 89th-minute goal from centre-back
Emanuel Olivera following a corner. It set up some
late drama – bearing out, perhaps, the hope that
the one-off Final would produce a better spectacle
than the old home-and-away format.
The Argentinian fans roared their team forward
in search of an equaliser, but the Ecuadorians
wrapped it up with a typically well-constructed
counter-attack, rounded off by a tap-in from
right-winger Cristian Dajome.
Under Spanish coach Miguel Angel Ramirez,
Independiente del
Valle were composed
and collective,
defending in groups,
passing in clusters
and looking to free
their rapid wingers.
It was much the
same on the big day as it was through the course
of the campaign. In the semi-finals they beat
Brazil’s Corinthians, who later confessed they were
given a football lesson. In the previous round they
overcame Independiente of Argentina, another
traditional powerhouse, and they also beat
Caracas of Venezuela, thrashed Chile’s Universidad
Catolica and opened their campaign with a
triumph over Colon’s local rivals Union Santa Fe.
Independiente del Valle played some fine football
in a competition not always known for a profusion
of quality but one that fulfils the function of giving
many clubs their first taste of continental action.
WORLD SERVICESplash...Colon’s Federico Lertora slides through the waterA decade ago,
Independiente del Valle
had never even played
in Ecuador’s top flight