Finishing

Jordan Larsson, son of Sweden and Celtic legend Henrik Larsson, secured a victory for Spartak Moscow over heated city rival CSKA with a game-winning goal in the Russian Cup on Wednesday. 

After letting an early 2-0 lead slip, Spartak required extra time to get past CSKA in the Main Moscow Derby. Having come into the game in the 74th minute in place of new signing Aleksandr Sobolev, Larsson latched onto a long ball in the 107th minute and rifled a low finish past Igor Akinfeev to put Spartak into the Russian Cup semifinals, 3-2.

Southampton forward Danny Ings required just 17 minutes of action in 2020 to begin utterly embarrassing defenders. In Wednesday's 1-0 victory over Tottenham — which saw the Saints move up to 12th place on 25 points — Ings kept up his red-hot form with a goal which is sure to leave Toby Alderweireld with nightmares. 

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. 

Despite Inter Milan’s new manager Antonio Conte being widely considered a defensive coach, Inter put on an offensive masterclass during its Serie A opener Monday. Its opponent, Lecce, which was just promoted to Serie A this year, was left hanging its heads as Inter cruised to a 4-0 win thanks to some world-class finishing from the Black and Blues.

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León striker José Juan Macías was the story of the 2019 Liga MX Clausura season after leading all Mexican goal scorers with eight in 14 appearances. That he accomplished it at the age of 19 while on loan after being cast off by Chivas only strengthened the narrative.