Barcelona

Barcelona cruised into the winter break with a 4-1 win over Alavés, the club’s final match of 2019 on Saturday at the Camp Nou. Lionel Messi scored a stunning strike in the 69th minute (nice) to help the Blaugrana ensure their spot atop the LaLiga table heading into 2020 (unless Real Madrid wins by more than five goals on Sunday). 

With his goal Saturday, Messi finished 2019 with 50 goals in all competitions for club and country, the ninth time he’s done that this decade.

Barcelona and Real Madrid played to a scoreless El Clásico draw for the first time in 30 years with the match largely failing to live up to the extreme prematch hype. 

Inter Milan is the best team in Italy through 15 Serie A matches.

And the Nerazzurri are now headed to the Europa League.

Barcelona’s B team, with Lionel Messi not even bothering to suit up, beat Inter 2-1 on Tuesday at the San Siro behind a late winner from record-setting 17-year-old Ansu Fati. The defeat consigned the Serie A leaders to the Europa League knockout stage.

Lionel Messi broke Cristiano Ronaldo’s record for most LaLiga hat tricks with three goals in a 5-2 win over Mallorca on Saturday at the Bernabeu, the same week Messi won his record sixth Ballon d’Or.

It's over — we can forget about gala award ceremonies and social media infighting for another year: Lionel Messi, at the age of 32, has captured a record sixth Ballon d’Or. That is, of course, one more than Cristiano Ronaldo, who finished third behind Virgil van Dijk. Sadio Mané finished fourth. 

Ronaldo did not make an appearance at the ceremony.

Barcelona returned to the top of the LaLiga following a crucial 1-0 victory over Atlético Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday, and it was a sensational Lionel Messi effort in 86th minute that secured all three points for the visitors.

Seeing Lionel Messi dive is about as rare as seeing the Argentine pick up a red card. It might happen from time to time, but not enough for anyone to legitimately call Messi a flopper.

Don’t tell that to 36-year-old referee Clement Turpin, who officiated Barcelona’s Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday at the Camp Nou.

Argentina’s 1-0 friendly victory over Brazil on Friday — thanks to Lionel Messi’s goal in the 13th minute — created quite the conversation on Twitter. From Messi telling Brazil manager Tite to shut up after he believed Messi should’ve been given a yellow card to penalty misses from both Gabriel Jesus and Messi, it was quite an entertaining match.

It’s happening with increasing swiftness: Spain’s golden generation is tiki-takaing out of existence. The latest to announce his retirement from the game is 37-year-old striker David Villa, who’ll call it quits in either December or January (depending on if Vissel Kobe can reach the final of the Emperor’s Cup).

Villa was a monster for Valencia, Barcelona, Sporting Gijón, Zaragoza and New York City FC, as well as the Spanish national team — although injury conspired against him for some of his generation’s finest moments.