Oh sure, the little Champions League was kinda entertaining this week, what with Roma beating Barcelona and Real Madrid holding off Juventus. But the 6-5 FC Salzburg comeback against Lazio in the Europa League on Thursday made all the drama from Tuesday and Wednesday look like child’s play.
Let’s just get this straight — we don’t know what we just saw, but we know we liked it. Arsenal cruised to a 4-1 win over CSKA Moscow in the Europa League quarterfinal first leg on Thursday thanks to an absolutely absurd Aaron Ramsey goal.
To set the stage, Ramsey had already put the Gunners ahead with a goal in the ninth minute only for Aleksandr Golovin to equalize six minutes later with a brilliant free kick. Alexandre Lacazette restored Arsenal’s advantage with a penalty kick but the Gunners weren’t done.
Add another zero to Antoine Griezmann’s transfer fee. After the Atletico Madrid forward leads France to 2018 World Cup glory while winning the tournament’s Golden Boot, he will now cost either Barcelona, Manchester United or PSG roughly sixty-eight trillion dollars.
It’s a princely sum to pay, but as showcased here and on the evidence of last five years of European football, it’s totally worth it. The Greasy Spice is the man your club needs, the man your father wishes you were and the boyfriend everyone wishes they had.
Danny Welbeck is part of the pantheon of great English forwards who do not score goals. That’d seem to be a terrible oxymoron, but you forget that supporters love a grafter. If you had to rely on one striker to effectively man-mark a center back out of a match, it’d be Danny Welbeck.
I don’t know why you’d ever employ that tactic, but that’s the highest praise I can bestow on Welbeck.
Even though Lazio obliterated Steaua Bucharest on Thursday on their way to the Europa League round of 16, no person in his or her right mind would contend that Lazio defender Patric had a good time.
Patric, a product of La Masia in his first season with Lazio, is probably wishing he was back in Spain. If he can even remember being back in Spain.
For the first time since the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League Round of 16, Arsenal have been drawn against AC Milan in European competition. But, with the encounter now taking place in the Europa League and the added coinkydink of both sides sitting sixth domestically (both are also eight points back of fourth place), there’ll be a lot of glorious nostalgia mixed with contemporary handwringing before the San Siro first leg on March 8.
Ostersunds FK, the Swedish side that stunned the footballing world by qualifying for the knockout stages of the Europa League, and a glamor tie against Arsenal, may have been punching above its weight.
But they are hardly unfamiliar with the British game.
A 30-yard ballistic missile from 23-year-old midfielder Bruno Fernandes helped Sporting CP to a 6-4 aggregate victory over FC Astana in the Europa League Round of 32 Thursday, the Portuguese international scoring the first of his two goals on the day in the 53rd minute with this rocket.