Manchester City cantered into the Champions League quarterfinals at a conservational pace by putting Borussia Mönchengladbach away inside 20 minutes during their last-16 second leg in Budapest on Tuesday. Enjoyable goals from Kevin De Bruyne and İlkay Gündoğan made it 2-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate, making the final hour of the game an exercise in talking about Sergio Agüero’s future.
With his 767th Barcelona appearance coming in Monday’s LaLiga match against Huesca, Lionel Messi equalled Xavi’s record for most in the legendary Blaugrana shirt.
Right before kickoff, the club released a video in which Barcelona stars past and present congratulated the 33-year-old on his remarkable feat of otherworldly consistency and longevity.
Tottenham produced very little in the opening half of Sunday’s North London derby against Arsenal. The Gunners moved with more fluidity, occupied the more dangerous areas and limited a Spurs side starting with Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Gareth Bale and Lucas Moura to just one shot.
But holy Ødegaard, you’ve never seen a shot quite like this one.
For the second time this week, Karim Benzema has rescued Real Madrid late. The Benzema goal vs Elche in the 91st minute — his second of the day — completed a 2-1 comeback victory on Saturday, as Los Blancos at least briefly jumped ahead of Barcelona into second place in LaLiga.
Despite controlling 73 percent possession and attempting 21 shots compared to just seven for PSG, Barcelona could only manage one goal at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday — which was canceled out by a controversial Kylian Mbappé penalty in a 1-1 draw — to crash out of the Champions League at the Round of 16 stage, 5-2 on aggregate.
Harry Kane scored two and assisted two, Gareth Bale got a brace of his own and Son Heung-min provided one assist as Tottenham’s in-form front three fueled a 4-1 hammering of Crystal Palace on Sunday.
It was a complete performance from Spurs, who opened the scoring in the 25th minute after Lucas Moura poked it off Luka Milivojević and into the path of Kane. The English striker advanced towards goal before squaring to Bale for the tap-in.
It’s easy, as soccer fans, to always focus on the amazing goals or the incredible last-ditch saves. But sometimes it’s a pass that stands out. On Saturday, this Lionel Messi assist vs Osasuna ripped apart the defense and was better than any goal scored in some time.
Messi’s magical left foot can do it all. Usually we watch it ripping a gorgeous curler or dancing around defenders. So today let’s appreciate the Argentine’s marvelous passing ability as Barcelona beat Osasuna 2-0 on Saturday.
Daryl Dike is not long for the Championship. In this form, he’ll either guide his new club to promotion or be bought up by a Premier League club by the summer.
Ousmane Dembélé is perennially late.
You can easily imagine him throwing open the door of his Mercedes S63 AMG coupé, crushed Mountain Dew Game Fuel cans spilling out with him, and sprinting into Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper at a breakneck speed muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" because this really happens all the time — to the point where the club fined him hundreds of thousands of dollars and wondered aloud if he had a video game disorder that forced him to stay up all night playing with his friends (others call this disorder “having fun.”)
It is a weird quirk of my mind that whenever I see or hear the name Eli, the Three Dog Night song Eli’s Coming begins playing in my head. Needless to say, the tune will be spinning around my brain for days after this insane Eli Sam scorpion kick goal in the FA Trophy on Saturday.