Cristiano Ronaldo is back on the score sheet for Portugal — and in some style.
Ronaldo blasted a brilliant free kick past Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer in the 25th minute to give Portugal a 1-0 halftime lead in the UEFA Nations League semifinals on Wednesday at Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal.
Just two days after celebrating Liverpool’s Champions League triumph in riotous fashion with roughly 750,000 Liverpudlian’s lining the city’s streets, international compatriots Virgil van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum have shown up for international duty ahead of the Netherlands’ UEFA Nations League semifinal match against England on June 6.
A promotion/relegation playoff between Le Mans (third-place finishers in the Championnat National, France’s third division) and Gazélec Ajaccio (18th-place in Ligue 2, France’s second division) was decided in the most extraordinary of circumstances on Sunday.
The first leg, played at MMArena in Le Mans last Friday, finished 2-1 in favor of Gazélec. Accordingly, the Ligue 2 side was heavily favored to retain its division two status ahead of today’s return leg at Stade Ange Casanova.
Liverpool FC returned home on Sunday to present its sixth European Cup on an open-top bus parade through the city’s streets. It’s the club’s first major title since the 2006 FA Cup (no, we don’t count the 2012 League Cup), and a massive crowd turned out to greet the players and staff as they made their way around the city before finishing near Strand Street, where the River Mersey empties into Liverpool Bay.
Apart from the match itself, last night’s most anticipated action in Madrid was I̶m̶a̶g̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶w̶a̶i̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶d̶r̶u̶m̶s̶ taking place inside the beIN Sports studio at the Wanda Metropolitano, where longtime Premier League rivals José Mourinho and Arsène Wenger sat side-by-side for pregame, halftime and post-game analysis of the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final.