The Champions League returns and with it comes the launch of CBS Sports Golazo Network at 7 a.m. on Tuesday with Morning Footy. It's all soccer, all the time. Twenty-four hours as day, seven days a week. I'm Mike Goodman -- this is the Golazo Starting XI newsletter -- and I'm extremely excited to share all the details of the debut of CBS Sports Golazo Network.
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📺 Champions League on Paramount+
All times U.S./Eastern.
Tuesday, April 10
⚽ Man City vs. Bayern Munich, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
⚽ Benfica vs. Inter, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
🎥 CBS Sports Golazo Network will offer a live second-screen tactical cam for City-Bayern.
Wednesday, April 11
⚽ Real Madrid vs. Chelsea, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
⚽ AC Milan vs. Napoli, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
🎥 CBS Sports Golazo Network will offer a live second-screen tactical cam for Real-Chelsea.
⚽ The Forward Line
CBS Sports Golazo Network launches Tuesday
One more sleep until it's finally here! CBS Sports Golazo Network is launching with a bang this week. Tuesday's the big day when you get to see all the amazing programming we have in store for you. There's Morning Footy, where Susannah Collins, Charlie Davies, Nico Cantor, Alexis Guerreros and Jenny Chiu bring you all the biggest stories everyday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Then there's Box 2 Box every afternoon. Poppy Miller along with Ian Paul Joy and Aaron West will break down the day's news with help from some of our friends across the globe. Contributors to Box 2 Box as well as Morning Footy and the entire Network include Guillem Balagué, Anita Jones, Felipe Cárdenas and Jimmy Conrad.
Some notable programs on the first two days include:
- Morning Footy: 7 a.m. ET
- Box 2 Box: 1 p.m. ET
- UCL tactical cam: 3 p.m. ET
Be sure to stay tuned after the UCL games because CBS Sports Golazo Network will air The Champions Club, a network-exclusive post-match show hosted by Poppy Miller with extensive UCL match highlights and analysis.
Oh, and did we mention there'd be live games for free? We have tactical cams for the Champions League showdowns between Bayern Munich and Manchester City and Real Madrid and Chelsea to whet your appetite, followed by a slew of games from leagues across the globe on the network. Here's the match schedule for the first two weeks of programming:
Programming at launch also includes simulcasts of Calcio e Cappuccino, CBS Sports' Serie A studio show, magazine shows, Paramount+'s Stories from the Beautiful Game soccer documentary collection and more.
How to watch CBS Sports Golazo Network
When the network launches on Tuesday, you can find it across a host of CBS and Paramount+ properties, including your Paramount+ subscription, the free streaming Pluto TV, the CBS Sports app and more. You can just bookmark this link, and go right there once it's live.
Sponsored by Paramount+
🔗 Midfield Link Play
Ranking the top 50 players left in UCL
As the Champions League returns to action, we here at CBS Sports have ranked the top 50 players left in the competition. This is not exactly a season where there will be many surprises. Or rather, all of the surprises on this list are names you know by now because they've spend the last eight months wowing you their way onto this list. The main example of this is Georgian wunderkind Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who is tearing it up for Italian league leaders Napoli. A year ago at this time, Kvaradona, as they call him, had just left the Russian Premier League following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and returned home to Georgia to play for Dinamo Batumi. Safe to say he was not a player who would have been on any top 50 list imaginable except for maybe the 50 best players in Georgia.
What's amazing about Kvara is that he wasn't even considered that exciting of a prospect. His escape from Russia didn't start a frenzied bidding war. Heck, he wasn't even Napoli's third-most expensive summer acquisition. He only cost €11.5 million. And yet, here he is with 28 combined goals and assists from his wing position across Serie A and Champions League play.
Here's what Francesco Porzio had to say about him on our list:
- Porzio: "Kvaratskhelia is the real star of Napoli and the most decisive player on the roster as he's scored 14 goals and provided 16 assists in 31 games in all competitions this season. Kvaratskhelia has shown confidence in taking shots from outside or inside the box, scoring from headers, taking defenders one on one with his dynamic pace. You put all that together and the early returns suggests he's on pace to become one of the best players around and it won't be a surprise if top European clubs come knocking on Napoli's door this summer."
It's not a surprise then that he's in the top 10 of our list. Exactly how high up that top though, you'll have to make sure to click on the link to find out.
Listen below and follow House of Champions, a CBS Sports soccer podcast, covering everything you need to know about the beautiful game. Make sure to tune in for coverage of the biggest games, stories, transfer news with Fabrizio Romano, and everything else going on in the world's most popular sport.
And now let's get to some links:
🔗 Check out everything you need to know about how to watch CBS Sports Golazo network.
🔗 Don't miss all our Champions League expert picks.
🔗 James Benge has his Champions League bold predictions for the first leg of quarterfinal action.
🔗 Mallory Swanson's knee injury is a devastating blow for the USWNT.
🔗 Despite the injury, the USWNT downed Ireland 2-0 on Saturday featuring a feel-good return from Julie Ertz.
🔗 A wild 2-2 draw meant Arsenal dropping points to Liverpool and handing Man City control of their own title destiny.
🔗 Fabrizio Romano has the latest on Messi's contract saga in his Here We Go insider notes.
🔗 In Soccer We Trust: Jesse Marsch backs out of ANOTHER coaching job.
🔗 House of Champions: It's a Champions League preview day.
🔗 Attacking Third: All your USWNT coverage, but mostly Sandra Herrera and Lisa Roman are sad about Mal Swanson
🔗 And remember, all of your soccer needs -- from NWSL to Champions League to Serie A and so much more -- are available on Paramount+. 📺 You can try one month free by using the code: NWSL2023.
💰 The Back Line
💵 Best bets
All odds courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook and all times U.S./Eastern. SportsLine has you covered with this weekend's best bets.
- UCL: Man City vs. Bayern Munich, Tuesday, 3 p.m.
💰 THE PICK: Man City (-135) -- Increasingly, Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side are a fully operational Death Star. They're now favored to win the Premier League as well as the Champions League. They score goals for fun and nobody can stop Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, and increasingly, Jack Grealish is adding his brand of flair in attack as well. There are some sides that Bayern Munich's shaky defense might be able to get away with struggling against. Not City though. - UCL: Benfica vs. Inter, Tuesday, 3 p.m.
💰 THE PICK: Benfica (+120) -- Benfica are the hardest team to judge in the Champions League. They've had a relatively easy path to this point, though it feels odd to say that in a season where they won a group that featured Juventus and PSG. There's a chance they might just be a very good team, and at the very least, better than Inter at the moment. The Italian side is struggling with no wins in its last six and only one -- against a terrible Lecce side -- in its last eight.
