Underdogs

Déjà vu approached the viewer of CSKA Moscow vs. Real Madrid on Tuesday and punched him or her in the teeth. Whether it was the sight of Russian internationals Igor Akinfeev and Mario Fernandes doing brave defending, Marco Asensio never making the right decision in the final third or Toni Kroos not enjoying himself on Russian soil, Tuesday showed that Julen Lopetegui could only run from the demons he’d managed to avoid by getting sacked before the World Cup for so long.

Barcelona players are not used to losing, especially in LaLiga. Last season, the Blaugrana lost just once in league play. Barcelona lost 19 games in the last five seasons combined — the same number Leganés lost last season alone. 

So when Leganés scored a stunning 2-1 victory over Barcelona on Wednesday, maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised the Barça stars didn’t know how to handle defeat. 

It looked to be business as usual in LaLiga on Wednesday after leader Barcelona took a 12th minute lead against bottom-of-the-table Leganes thanks to a wonder goal orchestrated by Lionel Messi and finished by Philippe Coutinho.

What a run by Leo Messi leading to a beautiful Coutinho goal!

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Volodymyr Chesnakov has one of the oddest pregame rituals we have ever seen. 

The captain of Vorskla Poltava, Chesnakov and his teammates were in London to face Arsenal in the Europa League on Thursday. Before coming out onto the pitch at Emirates Stadium, Chesnakov spit all over his own face.

And it worked. He scored a great goal for Vorskla, the fifth-place team in the Ukrainian Premier League.

But Arsenal still won easily, 4-2, to the surprise of no one. 

In the end, Shakhtar Donetsk’s trusted strategy of supplementing its Ukrainian core of players with a bunch of Brazilians proved, once again, a masterstroke — this time in spoiling the appearance of the youngest manager the Champions League has ever seen, Hoffenheim’s 31-year-old whizkid Julian Nagelsmann.

Excuse me, I have to type this so quietly because Croatia’s hungover as all hell at the moment, and I daren’t wake it. Today, Croatia opened its eyes in Elche before quickly closing them and muttering, “I think I’m going to die. I don’t think partying for 58 days straight was a good idea.” 

That’s the amount of time that’s elapsed between the nation’s runners-up finish at the World Cup and today’s 6-0 beatdown at the hands of La Furia Roja — a nickname which certainly sounds like the sort of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky product that’d do your head in. 

The NWSL regular season wrapped up this past weekend with a mixed bag of business-as-usual and surprising results. All around the league, for playoff bound teams and doormats alike (we’re looking at you, Sky Blue), the level was turned up to 11, giving fans both feel-good entertainment and high quality football to get excited about heading into the postseason.

While we should probably wait to see what Cristiano Ronaldo offers after he gets his first for Juventus, this early September strike from Sampdoria’s Fabio Quagliarella could easily fit the bill for the 2018-19 Serie A Goal of the Season. 

The 35-year-old is in the midst of a career renaissance after scoring a personal-best total of 19 goals in 35 matches last year, and he’s now off the mark this season with one of the best goals of his legendary career. 

This world-class bit of instinctive finishing put the final touches on Sampdoria’s 3-0 win over Napoli today.

It was just one of those days for Manchester United; one of those days were crosstown rivals Manchester City absolutely decimated an opponent to climb to the top of the table while United reverted to the slapstick pantomime version of the world’s biggest club. 

A late Paul Pogba penalty made the scoreline much more respectable, but Brighton fully deserved its 3-2 win over Jose Mourinho’s men at the Amex Stadium.