Welcome to The Tap-Inn. Where you can tap in to the world of soccer with me, your Irish Tap-Inn bartender, Joe. 🍻

Inspired by Easter Sunday and Jesus Christ himself, I've summoned the energy to ressurect myself from my three-day hangover just in time to write today's edition. Here's what we got on tap today:

Ready? I thought so. Let’s pour.

Back in 1955, a French sports journalist had a wild idea.

What if the best clubs from across Europe played each other in one big tournament to see who was the best? He took it upon himself to draw up some plans and pitched it to UEFA (yoo-ay-fah) — they liked it. The competition was launched as the European Champion Clubs' Cup. Or simply: the European Cup.

For decades, it was a knockout-style competition open purely to domestic champions. Win your own domestic league? You're into the European Cup for the following season.

Lose in the competition’s first round? End of the road and better luck next year — providing you manage to win your league again to qualify, of course.

“Got it. The European Cup = the crème de la crème.”

Correct and right. Then in 1992, it got a rebrand. A new format with a lower stakes group stage before the knockout rounds — and a name most people use today: the UEFA Champions League, or UCL for short. Most people just call it the Champions League.

Picture every major professional soccer league in Europe — all 55 of them. England's Premier League. Italy's Serie A. Croatia’s Hrvatska Nogometna Liga. Poland’s Ekstraklasa. The list goes on.

The Champions League distills the best clubs from all of these leagues down to 36 teams and throws them all into one giant tournament.

“So every single country’s top league gets a shot?”

Pretty much. Clubs from countries with historically successful leagues like Germany and Spain will automatically qualify if they finish in usually the top four places of their own leagues.

But if a team is from a smaller country that most Americans think is actually a Harry Potter spell (I’m looking at you, Belarus and Liechtenstein), they’ll probably need to play a couple of preliminary rounds against teams from other weaker nations to ensure they qualify for the actual competition.

This season, 36 clubs entered. They played eight games each in a mini league before the knockouts. It’s similar to the NBA regular season with one big table, before the best performing teams then go into the playoffs.

Right now, we’re down to the last eight clubs. The quarterfinal first legs kick off this week:

Games are always played on Tuesdays/Wednesdays to allow clubs to continue with their domestic leagues on the weekends.

Thirsty for more?

The semis are set — and the weekend delivered plenty of drama to get there:

Man City will host Southampton and Leeds will visit Chelsea on April 25th in the semi finals in three weeks’ time.

The Champions League returns this week with the pick of Europe's clubs fighting for a place in the last four. Here's what's on:

All games kick off at 3pm ET on Paramount+.

Inter Miami finally have a real home. After six years playing in Fort Lauderdale, the MLS champions opened their brand new Nu Stadium in Miami this weekend — a 26,700-seat venue built for $350 million right beside Miami International Airport with panoramic views of downtown.

David Beckham cut the ribbon. Marc Anthony sang the anthem. And Messi scored a rare header to open his account in the new ground.

The result? A 2-2 draw with Austin FC, which felt slightly beside the point. One small detail worth noting: the stadium features a stand named after Messi. While he's still playing there. That's a first.

Which country has produced the most different UEFA Champions League winning clubs?

Answer at the bottom 👇

If you were planning on swimming the length of the Amazon before the start of the World Cup, you’d wanna get a move on. Martin Strel battled piranhas, bull sharks and pirates during his 3,272-mile 66-day swim across the Amazon in 2007.

Sounds grim. Though if you were drawn into Group I of the 2026 World Cup, you'd know the feeling.

France. Norway. Senegal. Iraq. That's Kylian Mbappé versus Erling Haaland, with the reigning African champions lurking in the background. Three elite nations and one that won’t be turned over easily.

A group of death if ever there was one.

Also on tap:

Phrase: Nutmeg

Origin: Disputed — but the most popular theory traces it to 19th century slang, where "nutmegs" was Cockney rhyming slang for legs. To nutmeg someone was to put the ball through their legs. The term stuck.

Definition: When a player passes or shoots the ball directly through an opponent's legs. Embarrassing for the defender. Absolutely delightful for everyone else watching.

Usage: "Did you see that? He just nutmegged the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper! Go home, son."

On May 30th, one team will lift the Champions League trophy in the Puskás Aréna, Budapest.

The stadium is Hungary's largest — 67,215 seats, opened in 2019, and named after Ferenc Puskás, arguably the greatest player Hungary has ever produced. It was built on the exact site of the old Népstadion — the People's Stadium — which had stood since 1953.

It already hosted the Europa League final in 2023. But May 30th will be its biggest night yet — the first time Hungary has ever hosted a Champions League final.

And The Killers are playing the pre-match show. Nice.

Hakan Çalhanoğlu for Inter Milan vs AC Milan, the Italian domestic cup semi-final. An absolute howitzer. Enjoy.

With six different clubs having lifted the trophy: Liverpool, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Manchester City.

Spain feels like the obvious answer — Real Madrid alone have 15 titles. But Spanish glory comes from just two clubs. England spread theirs around.

Thanks for stopping by at The Tap-Inn.

If you enjoyed this, forward it to that friend who knows nothing about soccer and help spread the good word. For every 10 friends that use your referral link to pull up a stool, I’ll personally buy you a beer.

You read that correctly.

I’ll be behind the bar every week, Monday and Friday, serving up soccer. Sláinte.

— Joe