After finishing last season in sixth place in the Premier League and qualifying for the Europa League, David Moyes' West Ham has yet to slow down. The East Londoners sit in seventh in the league and enter Thursday's matchup on the back of a 1-0 win over Manchester United in the League Cup and a league victory over Leeds.
Our European journey continues this Thursday...
The Federico Chiesa goal vs Chelsea came only 11 seconds into the second half. The sole goal in Juventus’ 1-0 group stage victory against Chelsea was missed by anyone who didn’t quite get back to their screens in time.
FEDERICO CHIESA. 11 SECONDS INTO THE SECOND HALF. pic.twitter.com/W3KkSWJE37
There are some things that will never get old, no matter how often they happen or how much you hate the team doing it. Two of those things are volleys off set pieces and Cristiano Ronaldo taking his shirt off to celebrate a goal. Both happened on Wednesday at Old Trafford.
It took him 263 minutes — a long drought by his lofty standards, a great goals per game ratio for everyone else — but Lionel Messi got his first goal for Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night against Manchester City in the Champions League.
The deal was as good as done. The year was 1978, and a 17-year-old Argentine phenom named Diego Maradona was set to become a Sheffield United player.
Harry Haslam, manager of the Second Division side, was on a scouting mission in Argentina and looking at a pair of players but couldn't come up with the requisite funds.
If you’re like most of the football world on Tuesday, you were focused on the battle between the world’s two richest sides, PSG and Manchester City. As sad as Bernardo Silva was after his miss in that match, there was no one sadder on Tuesday than Diogo Costa, the Porto goalkeeper who was caught disastrously out of position by Roberto Firmino.
Manchester City looked like a world beater in its first Champions League match of the season, the type of team that can score at will, whenever it wants. Match Day 2 was a different story for Pep Guardiola’s side, and the Bernardo Silva miss vs PSG may haunt the Citizens if they’re unable to claim first place in Group A.
It was billed as the most expensive football match in the world — the $1.10 billion squad value of PSG against the $1.16 billion of Manchester City. There was also the subplot of the most expensive transfer of the summer, City’s Jack Grealish at $135.5 million, versus PSG’s acquisitions of Lionel Messi, Georginio Wijnaldum, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Achraf Hakimi. All five started.
More famous than our smartest minds, richer than our most corrupt politicians, footballers are the pinnacle of cultural relevance in today’s society, especially in Europe. All the best footballers have, at one time or another, been paid to appear in an advertisement to promote a product. So what is the best soccer commercial of all time? I submit for your viewing pleasure, Peter Schmeichel’s bacon promo.
"Goalkeepers are a different breed," as the old adage goes, but what exactly makes the pair of keepers different from the other 20 players on the pitch?
The ability to use their hands is what formally sets these shot-stoppers apart, yet I'd argue that the biggest distinction between keepers and field players is their mindsets on the pitch.
There's a certain mentality you need to have to be able to succeed as a goalkeeper, and it requires you to disregard your body and do whatever it takes to keep the ball out of the net.