Tricks

With Lionel Messi given a rest and role as a substitute for Barcelona’s match against Leganes on Sunday, Ousmane Dembélé moved into the Argentine’s customary position on the right-hand side of Barca’s front three and spent the opening 45 minutes making the Camp Nou forget all about the man they were missing.

Dembélé opening run of the match led Leganes on a merry dance. He nutmegged one defender and then was millimeters away from dicing another. 

Maybe the trip to Qatar was a good thing for PSG, if this Neymar sombrero in the opening 11 minutes was anything to go by, not to mention the ridiculous amount of goals that followed.

Paris Saint-Germain crushed last-place Guingamp 9-0 at the Parc des Princes on Saturday. Kylian Mbappé and Edinson Cavani both had hat tricks. Neymar came close to a hat trick with two goals, but his first strike may have been the best of the lot.

Granted this isn’t much, but there’s nothing else we can do until the Bundesliga returns from its winter break on Friday, Jan. 18, so these friendly matches will have to tide us over.

We can’t wait to see how Josh Sargent carries on with Werder Bremen after scoring two goals in his first three appearances, as well as how Christian Pulisic fares for Borussia Dortmund during his final four months at the club, but we’re equally as excited for the debuts of Canadian international Alphonso Davies at Bayern Munich and USMNT midfielder Tyler Adams at RB Leipzig.