Swaths of empty seats around the Camp Nou on Tuesday for Slavia Prague's visit in the Champions League reflected the current malaise surrounding Barcelona, one amplified by this past weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Levante in LaLiga. That match both increased the pressure on manager Ernesto Valverde and condemned Luis Suárez to a three-week spell on the sidelines with a new calf injury.
Jamie Vardy became the first Premier League player to reach 10 goals this season following his late strike in a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday, taking the Foxes up to third in the table following Match Day 11. The last time Vardy became the first player to reach 10 PL goals? The 2015-16 campaign, when Leicester captured the title.
If you’re an American, there’s absolutely every chance that you missed Wednesday’s Carabao Cup Round of 16 fixtures . . . unless you called in sick, which would be grounds for an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary starring you.
Nutmegs — alongside cross-field rakers, back heels and an inordinate amount of step-overs — constitute one of the greatest forms of artistry in our beautiful game. The act of the nutmeg is equal parts illusion and imagination; it transcends the simple reality of moving the ball from Point A to Point B and replaces it with something sublime. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, a nutmeg tells us of beautiful, untrue things. (After all, a nutmeg is rarely ever a decisive moment.)
Even by Lionel Messi’s ridiculous standards, the Barcelona captain’s 90 minutes against Valladolid at the Camp Nou on Tuesday constitute something outrageous. After the two clubs exchanged heavily deflected efforts in the opening 15 minutes, Messi sprang into action with a beautiful assist, stunning free kick (and two brutal nutmegs) to put Barcelona up 3-1 at halftime. In the second half, he scored another goal and added another assist to lift Barça to the top of the LaLiga table.
Former Atlético Madrid youth/Arsenal flop Lucas Pérez scored the greatest goal of his career (although he did hit a nice bicycle kick earlier this season), earning Alavés a 1-1 draw with Atlético in Basque Country on Tuesday.
We’re almost a third of the way through the 2019-20 European club season, giving us an ample enough sample size to analyze this year’s current statistics in a somewhat meaningful way. There’s one giant caveat to it all and that’s Lionel Messi’s restricted start to the campaign due to a calf strain followed by an abductor muscle injury. He’s only started three of Barcelona’s nine league games thus far, so he's yet to dominate every statistical category.
The second division of Germany, the 2. Bundesliga, seems to be one of those leagues that no one really cares about outside of Germany. But after a few weekend incidents, maybe we should be watching it more.
The first incident was a substitute giving up a penalty. You read that right: A substitute for Holstein Kiel gave up a penalty.
The NWSL’s best team confirmed that, yes, they're by far and away the NWSL’s best team on Sunday. The North Carolina Courage captured their second-straight title after thumping the Chicago Red Stars 4-0 in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,227 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.
The partisan crowd roared its side to a 3-0 lead by halftime with goals coming from Debinha, Jessica McDonald and Crystal Dunn. Any chance of a miracle comeback from Chicago was put to rest following Sam Mewis’ header in the 61st minute.
If it’s a Benjamin Pavard goal, you know it’s going to be a brilliant volley. The two are becoming synonymous.
The French defender who scored the best goal of the 2018 World Cup was back at it on Saturday, making perfect contact with a half-volley to fire Bayern Munich in front on the way to a 2-1 win over Union Berlin.