Sports announcers often use cliches like "you can't write a script like that" or "that was a Hollywood ending" when describing a particularly unpredictable and exciting game.
On Wednesday, the EFL Championship took the script, ripped it up, taped it back together, wrote 20 more pages, ripped it up again, then burned it for good measure.
Before this year, the Houston Dash had never made it into the NWSL playoffs. Thanks to the Orlando Pride pulling out of the 2020 campaign, that kinda changed as all eight clubs reached the knockout stage of the NWSL Challenge Cup. Now they have a chance to win a league title.
Veteran forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice in the first half to give AC Milan a 2-1 win at 10-man Sassuolo on Tuesday as they remained unbeaten since the restart of the season and guaranteed a place in the Europa League.
The 38-year-old Swede got in front of his marker to head in from Hakan Calhanoglu's cross in the 19th minute and latched on to a through ball before rounding Andrea Consigli to add the second in first-half injury time.
Cristiano Ronaldo reached the landmark of 30 goals this Serie A season during Juventus’ 2-1 victory over Lazio on Monday. Only two players had ever reached the 30-goal milestone in Italy’s top division since 1960 — Luca Toni and Gonzalo Higuaín — but, remarkably, Monday’s match saw both Ronaldo and Lazio's Ciro Immobile hit that mark.
Ronaldo scored goal number 29 from the spot (his 12th successful penalty of the campaign) before adding number 30 after Paulo Dybala set him up for a tap-in.
Napoli forward Matteo Politano scored deep into stoppage time to give them a 2-1 win at home to Udinese on Sunday, minutes after defender Kalidou Koulibaly had rescued the hosts with a dramatic goal-line clearance.
Udinese forward Rodrigo De Paul looked set to score in the 85th minute when the ball ran loose to him with only goalkeeper David Ospina to beat. He dinked it over the Colombian but Koulibaly managed to get his knee to it and deflect it onto the crossbar.
Instead, Politano curled in the winner for Napoli, his first goal for the club, in the 95th minute.
Tottenham striker Harry Kane looked back to his best with two quality goals as his side dealt a huge blow to Leicester City's top-four hopes with a 3-0 victory in the Premier League on Sunday.
Kane struggled for sharpness when the season resumed last month, a legacy of the serious hamstring injury that sidelined him from Jan. 1, but the striker produced a dazzling display as Spurs boosted their Europa League qualifying hopes.
AFC Bournemouth’s five-year stay in England’s top flight (the club’s first stint in its 121-year history) is almost certainly at an end following Sunday’s 2-0 loss to South Coast rivals Southampton. The match-winner was scored by Danny Ings, taking his total to 21 on the season and just two behind Jamie Vardy in the Premier League Golden Boot race.
In a must-win — or at least draw — match for Eddie Howe’s side, it was 12th-place Southampton that dominated proceedings and earned its ultimate reward in the 41st minute thanks to Ings' precise finish from 18 yards out.
Before Manchester City’s FA Cup semifinal, Kyle Walker said he thought his team could score as many as eight goals if things go well against Arsenal. Indeed, the Citizens could have scored eight on Saturday, creating chance after chance against a Gunners defense that still has plenty of deficiencies.
“It’s a knockout game, it’s what both teams do in both boxes that makes the difference,” Walker said before the match. “I think we have proven that when we’re on fire and things go our way, we can go and score three, four ... and maybe even seven or eight.”
NORWICH, England — Relegated Norwich City endured a nightmare final Premier League home game of the season as they had two men red-carded and conceded an own goal in a 2-0 defeat by Burnley on Saturday.
The bottom club's hopes of ending a miserable eight-game losing streak evaporated in a crazy end to the first half with Emiliano Buendia sent off after 35 minutes for an elbow and Josip Drmic following him 10 minutes later for a lunging tackle.
The North Carolina Courage have been, by far, the best team in the NWSL. The two-time reigning league champs were the only team to go unbeaten and the only team to finish with a positive goal difference in the four-game preliminary round at the NWSL Challenge Cup.
But when it mattered most in 2020, North Carolina came up short.
Rookie Morgan Weaver scored a 68th-minute winner as Portland Thorns FC stunned the N.C. Courage 1-0 in the opening match of the knockout rounds of the NWSL Challenge Cup on Friday.