Two of Real Madrid's hot young things, 21-year-old attacker Marco Asensio and 24-year-old center back Raphael Varane, have signed contract extensions that will keep them at the club until 2023 and 2022, respectively.
After finishing three points behind Atletico Madrid in Spain’s Primera Division while also becoming the first Spanish side to reach the semifinals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, it was evident that FC Barcelona Femení, Barca’s women’s football team, was on the cusp of greatness entering its 17th season.
With Karim Benzema recovering from a hamstring injury, Gareth Bale resting due to a hamstring complaint of his own and Cristiano Ronaldo increasing his La Liga tally to 23 shots without a goal, Real Madrid relied on Isco’s best performance of the season to defeat Espanyol 2-0 on Sunday and stay within seven points of early pacesetters Barcelona.
Barcelona have announced the club will join a Catalonia-wide one-day strike that will take place Tuesday, Oct. 3.
A release on Barcelona's website said the strike was called by a group called "Taula per la Democracia" (Table for Democracy), which is made up of variuos Catalan trade unions.
Gerard Pique has never been one to shy away from his political views. An outspoken supporter of Catalan independence, Pique has drawn a lot of ire from fans of the Spanish National Team, especially with Catalonia trying to vote on a referendum to decide whether to declare independence from Spain.
Pique's stance on the referendum will have no effect on Pique's role with Spain, said Spanish National Team manager Julen Lopetegui.
Borussia Dortmund may be just about perfect in the Bundesliga, but the Champions League has been a different story. Real Madrid may be struggling in La Liga, but it’s business as usual in the Champions League. Real Madrid walloped Dortmund 3-1 on Wednesday at Signal Iduna Park, leaving the German side in danger of missing out on the knockout rounds.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have proven once more that they are not only great on the field, but also off it. Both stars have reached out to express their solidarity with and condolences to Mexico with regards to the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck central Mexico last Tuesday.
Conditions conspired to give us a glimpse of a rarely used, outdated tactic on Saturday: an authentic and faithful use of man-marking during Girona’s hosting of Barcelona at the Estadi Montilivi. What this means is that Girona defender Pablo Maffeo was entirely sacrificed to negate the influence of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi — wherever Messi went, there was Maffeo. When Girona were in possession, Maffeo continued to mark Messi. In fact, Maffeo was substituted in the 78th minute after recording only 10 touches.
Valencia maintained their unbeaten start to La Liga play with an impressive 3-2 victory over Real Sociedad at the Anoeta on Sunday. With the score level at 2-2 and both sides down to 10-men, Italian striker Simone Zaza hit the game-winner in the 85th minute with the assist provided by 20-year-old Portuguese attacker Goncalo Guedes.
Real Sociedad have quietly gone about assembling one of the strongest squads in all of La Liga, but their promising start to the season was brought to a halt by Levante center half Chema Rodriguez last night. Levante would ultimately win 3-0, but it was Chema’s wonder goal on the stroke of halftime that put his side ahead for good.