Liverpool and RB Salzburg played a frenzied game of Champions League football on Wednesday. It was the sort of match that makes you question everything — from Virgil van Dijk’s shaky status as godhead to Erling Braut Håland’s growing status as Pelé.
Club Brugge came within five minutes of recording a historic upset of 13-time European champion Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu on Tuesday, but the Belgian side ultimately had to settle for a 2-2 draw after a late equalizer from Casemiro.
Regardless, the story of the game will be the first-half brace scored by Club Brugge’s Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis.
It’s been nearly three years since the LaMia Flight 2933 disaster claimed the lives of 71 people, including 19 members of the Chapecoense soccer team. Of the six surviving passengers of the flight, three were Chapecoense players: goalkeeper Jakson Follmann, center back Neto and left back Alan Ruschel.
West Ham painted an unflattering picture of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s Manchester United on Sunday afternoon with a commanding 2-0 victory over the visitors at London Stadium.
Without the injured trio of Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw, Man United’s attack floundered and West Ham’s midfield trio of Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Felipe Anderson did a solid number on United’s ponderous pairing of Nemanja Matić, Scott McTominay and Juan Mata.
Liverpool’s defense of its Champions League crown is off to a shaky start following a 2-0 defeat to Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo in Italy on Tuesday. Liverpool supporters will disagree with the game-changing penalty that Felix Brych awarded Napoli in the 82nd minute, but it certainly wasn’t a vintage performance from the Reds.
The long, grueling road of Asian qualifying for the 2022 World Cup began back in June with the first round and continued today with the start of the second round of proceedings. A massive fixture went down this morning in Central Jakarta, pitting fierce rivals Indonesia against neighbors Malaysia.
Borussia Dortmund suffered a shock defeat to Bundesliga newcomers Union Berlin on Saturday. Dortmund lined up with Julian Brandt, Marco Reus, Jadon Sancho and Paco Alcacer leading the attack; on paper, this match should be won by Dortmund every time.
But a win for Dortmund was not in the cards. Union struck first via Marius Bulter’s low strike. Alcacer equalized for Dortmund three minutes later to breathe some life back into the match.
Last night in Atlanta, Minnesota United became a truly Minnesotan franchise. It’s got to mean more than an expansion love-in and a celebration of soccer stadia specificity — it’s got to hurt, and Tuesday had that Sisyphean quality that encapsulates everything Minnesota teams try their hand at.
After a fifth-place finish last season led to the resignations of head coach Gennaro Gattuso and sporting director Leonardo, AC Milan’s opening fixture of the 2019-20 Serie A campaign outlined just how difficult the task of improving on that record will be for replacements Marco Giampaolo and Paolo Maldini.
Udinese, 12th-place finishers last year, recorded a shock 1-0 victory over Milan at the Stadio Friuli on Sunday, condemning the Rossoneri to an opening day defeat for the fifth time in the past eight seasons.
Given a much more normal pathway to his footballing career, Martin Ødegaard is thriving. After establishing himself as one of the best playmakers in the Eredivisie last season while on loan at Vitesse (the former wunderkind scored eight goals and provided 11 assists in 31 appearances), the 20-year-old Norwegian is finally getting his chance in LaLiga, although he’s now on loan at Real Sociedad.