Spain

Jan Oblak is the best goalkeeper in the world right now. Period. End of discussion.

Oblak, the 26-year-old Slovenian and Atlético Madrid No. 1, put on a masterful display against Barcelona on Saturday at the Camp Nou. 

But it was in vain.

Luis Suarez hit a perfect strike to break the deadlock and Lionel Messi took advantage of a dazed defense moments later as Barcelona scored twice late to beat 10-man Atlético Madrid in a massive LaLiga match, a potential title-decider. 

Relegation-threatened Villarreal almost recorded a stunning victory over LaLiga leader Barcelona at El Madrigal, and the result would’ve certainly meant more to the Yellow Submarine’s survival than to the Blaugrana’s title charge, but Lionel Messi was inserted with 30 minutes remaining and you know what happened after that.

With 11 goals and four assists in his last eight appearances for Barcelona, including hat tricks against Sevilla and Real Betis, it’s become increasingly difficult to separate Lionel Messi’s image from that of the divine. 

Although Real Madrid entered today’s match against SD Huesca with 10 games still remaining in LaLiga, a 15-point deficit to Barcelona at the top combined with a 10-point lead over fifth-place Alaves has rendered the rest of the season somewhat inconsequential for Zinedine Zidane’s men.

Regardless, it’s interesting to watch how the team performs following the French manager’s return, particularly restored players like Isco and Marcelo as well as the ongoing drama that is Gareth Bale. Extra spice was added today when Zidane elected to start his 20-year-old son Luca in goal.

This summer, the International Champions Cup returns for the seventh straight year as the globe’s premier preseason competition.

This story is only going to dominate the entire summer transfer window from start to finish, so we might as well keep abreast of it now. We know that Real Madrid has its eyes on both Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, but which PSG star will ultimately makes his way to the Santiago Bernabéu?

The latest reports say that it won’t be Neymar.

Presently, it looks like Real will turn to Chelsea’s Eden Hazard — who only has one-year remaining on his current contract at Stamford Bridge, so the club might have to sell this summer — to remedy the left-hand side of the attack.

The bidding war for center back Milan Škriniar has officially gone berserk. 

While teams have been bidding on the defender for a few months now, his agent has come out with some numbers.

“Real Madrid and Barcelona both want (Škriniar); Manchester City offered €55 million but he’s worth €100 million,” Škriniar’s agent Mital Halis said.

Yesterday, Barcelona opened a ten-point gap at the top of LaLiga with only ten matches remaining, all but guaranteeing the club’s fourth league title in five years. The performance that earned the cushion was a 4-1 away victory over Real Betis at the Benito Villamarín, and all four Barca goals were of the highest order.

Barcelona looked to take advantage of Atletico Madrid’s defeat to Athletic Bilbao yesterday by defeating Real Betis and opening up a 10-point gap at the top of LaLiga, and the first half of the match at the Benito Villamarín couldn’t have gone better from a Blaugrana perspective.

In the 18th minute, Lionel Messi opened the scoring with an exquisite free kick that flew beyond Pau Lopez in goal. This was Messi’s 27th league goal in 26 games.