Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo opened 2020 in fine style following a 4-0 beatdown of Cagliari on Monday with Ronaldo featuring in all four goals. The Portuguese legend scored a hat-trick and provided an assist — all in the second half — as Juve opened up a three-point lead at the top of Serie A ahead of Monday's late encounter between Inter and Napoli.
An FA Cup Third Round Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton was decided by a wonder goal from 18-year-old Reds midfielder Curtis Jones on Sunday. Although Liverpool had the support of Anfield behind them, Jürgen Klopp fielded a much younger and less experienced side than his counterpart Carlo Ancelotti.
Back in January of 2010, Mario Balotelli was a 19-year-old phenom clashing daily with José Mourinho in the midst of Inter Milan’s treble-winning season. On Jan. 6 of that year, Balotelli scored Serie A’s first goal of the decade when providing the game-winning strike against Chievo Verona in the 12th minute. It was his fifth goal of the 2009-10 league campaign.
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.
Coming off a tantalizing victory against Manchester City sealed by an 89th minute Matt Doherty winner just 43 hours earlier, fifth-place Wolves made Liverpool sweat as the Reds held on 1-0 to record their 10th straight victory in the Premier League and run their unbeaten league home streak to 50 games on Sunday.
Fresh off cementing their reputation as the third-best team in the world, Rayados have captured the 2019 Liga MX Apertura title after a brilliant performance inside the house of the beast.
For 82 minutes against Chelsea on Sunday, Arsenal put forth a performance of rare shape, commitment and defensive solidity on manager Mikel Arteta’s home debut. But then Mason Mount’s innocuous free kick fluttered over the despairing arm of Bernd Leno and the excrement hit the air-conditioning again inside the Emirates.
Norwich City, with no hope of getting off the bottom of the table before the new year, held Tottenham to a 2-2 draw thanks to a slapstick Serge Aurier own goal on Saturday at Carrow Road.
Mario Vrancic put the Canaries ahead in the first half and the home side could’ve led by two but for a VAR reversal on Teemu Pukki. Christian Eriksen struck a brilliant free kick to briefly pull Spurs level before Aurier bundled the ball into his own net. Jose Mourinho was spared a second loss this week when Harry Kane drew and converted a penalty kick in the 83rd minute.
Even for the best of teams, playing down a man for 80 minutes is a most difficult task. Thanks to an idiotic Ederson red card, Manchester City suffered to a 3-2 defeat to Wolverhampton on Friday.
Despite two first-half goals from Raheem Sterling after City went down to 10 men, Wolves rallied with three in the second half to beat City, further denting Pep Guardiola’s title defense.
After doing CONCACAF proud with a third place finish at the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar, Monterrey finally returned home to contest the first leg of the Liga MX Apertura final on Thursday night. Coming off four games in ten days in Qatar, it was always going to be a test of Rayados’ fortitude against a Club América side that hadn’t played a match in over two and a half weeks.