Champions League

Fred (No not that Fred. The other Fred. The good Fred.) set Shakhtar Donetsk down the path toward Champions League quarterfinal qualification with a well-placed free kick that gave Shakhtar a 2-1 victory over Roma. The second leg is still to be played of course, and Roma have an away goal, but let's not think about such things right now because all the focus should be on Fred's goal.

It takes something special to beat Roma goalkeeper Alisson when he's on his game, and Fred's goal absolutely qualifies as something special.

Back in 2003, NHL goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was unreal, but the following offseason, with Giguere’s infamously large gear the inspiration, the NHL implemented pad restrictions and a $25K fine for teams found guilty of ignoring the rule. In essence, Giguere could no longer resemble the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. 

Watching David de Gea tend the net is like watching Giguere in the days of yore. He’s obviously cheating.

The Lionel Messi goal vs Chelsea gave Barcelona a vital away goal after the first leg in the Champions League Round of 16 as the teams played to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday at Stamford Bridge. It was his first goal in nine career matches against the Blues. But it was all about that assist from Andres Iniesta, three seconds that perfectly summed up the Spaniard’s brilliance. 

Although there’s no more difficult away trip in all of football than Besiktas’ Vodafone Park, Bayern Munich’s 5-0 first leg win over the Turkish giants has almost certainly given the Bavarian side a place in the Champions League quarterfinals, which would be the club's seventh consecutive appearance in the last eight.

For 16 minutes, a battle between first in Germany and fourth in Turkey figured to be an engaging affair, but then, Besiktas captain and Canadian legend Atiba Hutchinson played a dreadful back pass which was pounced on by Robert Lewandowski.