Since the Champions League went from using a second group stage to a 16-team knockout tournament in 2003-04, no league had ever qualified five teams for the knockout rounds — until now. With Liverpool’s 7-0 destruction of Spartak Moscow on Wednesday, the English Premier League officially placed five clubs into the Champions League Round of 16 in what is a remarkable turnaround for the league. Kind of.
A magnificent Jamie Vardy goal put the Foxes in front early in Leicester City’s match against Tottenham on Tuesday. Less than 13 minutes into the match, Vardy first-timed a lobbed pass over Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris in impressive fashion.
Vardy apparently does not care about level of difficulty. He just wants to score. Vardy entered Tuesday with a five-match scoreless streak and he ended it in style.
Real Madrid’s 46-goal victory over APOEL dumped Borussia Dortmund from the Champions League on Tuesday regardless of their result against Tottenham, but a Christian Pulisic-less BVB still succumbed to a 2-1 defeat to Spurs at the Westfalenstadion.
And it all started so well for the home side. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gave Dortmund the lead in the 31st minute after Andriy Yarmolenko provided a filthy assist for the Gabonese striker.
Arsenal fans gave the mercurial Mesut Ozil a standing ovation as he was subbed off with the Gunners holding a 2-0 lead over archrival Tottenham they would not relinquish in the North London Derby on Saturday at Emirates Stadium. It was the type of adoration bestowed upon a man of the match who had given everything to defeat a hated foe.
And yet it was a performance that only made Arsenal fans grow more frustrated with Ozil and the team they love.
Arsenal fans are a sensitive lot. They want to think their club is the best in the world, even though it hasn’t been the best in England in well over a decade. They want to think their club plays the prettiest football in the league, even though that torch has long-since been passed to Manchester City. They want to think their club reigns supreme in North London, but as of last season that is no longer the case.
For a moment, it looked like plucky Ireland were going to qualify for the World Cup. Shane Duffy's silly goal put them up 1-0 on Denmark at home. All they had to do was see the game out without conceding. But then Christian Eriksen decided he had had enough, as only a handful of players in the world can do, and tore Ireland up on the way to a hat trick, a 5-1 win and World Cup qualification for Denmark.
Lord ! pic.twitter.com/bJDmMb9ZQe
Son Heung-min scored Tottenham’s only goal in a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday. More importantly, it was his 20th league goal, making him the highest scoring Asian in English Premier League history. Son, a 25-year-old South Korean, passed former Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung, who scored 19 goals from 2005-2012.