Europe

On Wednesday, Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 2-1. The first Manchester United goal was scored by Paul Pogba and assisted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The second goal was scored by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and assisted by Paul Pogba.

There can only be one Man of the Match, so who was it to go to?

Well, the people who decide such things said it should go to Pogba (likely because Zlatan's assist may or may not have hit his arm), but Zlatan overruled them and said it should go to Zlatan.

Here is a video of Roberto Firmino's highlights so far this season:

Whoops! We have just been informed that this is in fact not Roberto Firmino's 2016 Liverpool highlight video. We apologize.

That video should be about Roberto Firmino, though, because Roberto Firmino's teeth are incredible.

There’s no escaping the fact that the draws for the Champions League and the Europa League are ridiculous. These hugely overdone gala affairs take three hours to achieve what could be done in ten minutes. The saving graces - scowling club directors, getting to see Clarence Seedorf again - are vastly overshadowed by the ludicrous complexity of everything and UEFA’s willingness to blow their own trumpet at every conceivable opportunity. The entire event is comical, but it doesn’t really matter.

Chelsea defeated Sunderland 1-0 on Wednesday to open an early six-point gap on nearest rivals Arsenal and Liverpool. The goal was scored by Cesc Fabregas, a player who suddenly looks very much like the footballer that led Chelsea to the 2014-15 Premier League title by forming an excellent understanding with Diego Costa. 

Every year, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales issues a plea to the website's users to donate to the nonprofit, ensuring that it maintains its independence, remains ad free and continues to perform optimally. However, according to The Washington Post, the nonprofits’s appeals have been so effective over the years that the website has tens of millions of dollars sitting in reserve. 

Saturday’s match between Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig and relegation-threatened FC Ingolstadt was remarkable in that the team at the bottom pulled off a highly improbable 1-0 upset. 

What was exceedingly exceptional was what transpired in second half stoppage time. Referee Markus Schmidt, who’d apparently just put down Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince before running out to officiate this match, showed that it is indeed safer to be feared than loved.

The 2016-17 UEFA Champions League Round of 16 draw took place early Monday morning in Nyon, Switzerland and left us with some very entertaining match ups:

We thought this year might be different. How wrong we were. We thought this might be the year that Arsenal finally catch a break in the Champions League round of 16 and push through to the quarterfinals, ending a six-year round of 16 losing streak. We thought "surely they won't draw Bayern Munich again, that would be too cruel even for the soccer gods".

Arsenal drew Bayern Munich again.

Yeo Moriba, the mother of Paul, Florentin and Mathias Pogba, is one of our favorites over at The18. From her spot in the the Adidas “Football Needs Creators” ad (“He’s always been very creative, doing everything his own way”) to raising three sons by herself on a housing estate outside of Paris, Yeo Moriba is the matriarch for us.