Highlights

The seventh season of NWSL play kicked off on Saturday, and the 2019 campaign will attract more attention than ever since it falls in a World Cup year. With 52 days to go until the main event in France, international players remain with their club sides for the time being. 

However, that’ll soon change, and USWNT call-ups will expect to miss around two months of the season (the Send-Off Series begins on May 12 vs. South Africa and the World Cup final takes place on July 7), although the NWSL will break for group stage play.

It was quite the evening for Serie A’s Atalanta as it hosted visitors Empoli at the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia in Bergamo. The sixth place side has been impressive in recent seasons, putting on good performances in the Europa League and doing well in Serie A.

The odds of Atalanta beating Empoli were very high as the visitors sat 18th, in the relegation zone. What looked like quite a routine match was completely turned on its head. No, Empoli did not beat Atalanta with a smash and grab, but Atalanta did not beat Empoli either.

October 14, 2017: Watford are fresh off defeating Arsenal 2-1 thanks in part to a Troy Deeney penalty, dropping the Gunners to eighth in the table. Deeney was scathing in his assessment of Arsenal after the match.

Without having ever made the jump to MLS, 31-year-old Colombian striker José Angulo has been a constant source of goals in the USL Championship over the years, including a league MVP and Golden Boot-winning campaign back in 2013. 

Angulo has bounced around the American lower divisions for 10 years now, but he’s currently on the books at Hartford Athletic, a club enjoyed its inaugural season in the USL. 

Hartford has suffered six defeats in its first six matches, but Angulo registered his first goal for the club yesterday during a 3-1 loss to the Pittsburg Riverhounds. 

After denying itself the league title last week following a 2-2 draw with Strasbourg, PSG traveled to second place Lille today with another shot at securing the crown with a victory or draw. They would achieve neither result, ultimately playing for 49 minutes down a man following Juan Bernat’s red card and losing 5-1. 

Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League table on Sunday morning with a convincing 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace, heaping the pressure on Liverpool ahead of its colossal clash against Chelsea at Anfield later in the day.

That pressure built after Chelsea kept Liverpool off the scoresheet in the first half despite decent opportunities for the misfiring Mohamed Salah and the in-form Sadio Mané, and the Blues posed their own menace on the counter through Eden Hazard and Willian. 

Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Porto at Anfield on Tuesday was a microcosm of the club’s current Premier League form: There were nervy moments, a couple lapses and some erratic finishing from Mohamed Salah, but victory was achieved and it could've been achieved much more emphatically. 

Late work in the visual arts, like those of Rembrandt, can often showcase an artist at their most profound. What’s revealed is the certainty of a master — the piece stands apart from the contemporary and proclaims its own thingness. With that being said, have a look at what Xavi’s aging right foot is up to.

It painted a stunning work in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Tuesday during Al Sadd’s Asian Champions League group stage match against Pakhtakor. 

In the sixth minute of the match, here’s the 39-year-old going top bins after ambling his way to the top of the box. 

Eden Hazard is Chelsea’s magician. The Belgian is rumored to be looking for a move away from Stamford Bridge this summer, and his performance against West Ham today might have made it more difficult for Chelsea to keep ahold of its star.

Chelsea needed three points to go third in the Premier League, above both Arsenal and Tottenham. Callum Hudson-Odoi and Gonzalo Higuain got their starts in a front three alongside Hazard, but it was the Belgian who stole the show. In the 24th minute, Hazard produced a goal of the season candidate.