In the 82nd minute of Bayer Leverkusen's Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen, the fourth official indicated a Bayer subtitution: Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez was coming off to be replaced by Stefan Kiessling. With the scores level at 1-1 and Werder defending a corner, you can forgive defender Niklas Moisander for sticking to his task of man marking Chicharito like it was a God-given assignment.
It’s not often that the play of the weekend is a tackle, but Mats Hummels might’ve provided just that after his remarkable recovery and slide tackle in Bayern Munich’s match against Eintracht Frankfurt.
With the scores level between first and sixth in the Bundesliga table at the Allianz Arena, Branimir Hrgota raced clear of the Bayern defense for a one-on-one opportunity against Manuel Neuer. However, just as Hrgota shaped to shoot, Hummels came sliding in from behind to clear the ball for a corner.
After his trials and tribulations at Liverpool, Mamadou Sakho has been granted a new lease on life at Crystal Palace. He’s playing like a madman, helping Palace to two straight wins, two clean sheets and a rise out of the relegation zone.
Sakho is clearing anything and cleaning out anyone that comes his way. Just look at this from the Frenchman.
Sakho takes off on a Beckenbauer-esque run after taking the ball off his own teammate. He knows he’s in a blind alley, so he turns and side foots it backwards.
Brazil will travel to Montevideo, Uruguay for a clash between the top two sides in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying without David Luiz, the Chelsea center half and captain of Brazil’s 7-1 capitulation to Germany once again omitted from Tite’s latest squad announcement.
Luiz has been in great form for club this season, helping Chelsea to the top of the Premier League table with a defense that’s allowed only 19 goals in 26 matches. However, Luiz hasn’t appeared for Brazil since last March, and Tite has ignored him since being placed in charge of the Seleção last June.
The three-headed monster that is the Juventus defense will be without Leonardo Bonucci, who has the most minutes of the three in both Serie A and the Champions League, for Juventus’ first leg match against Porto. The club has every right to believe that the strength of Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli in defense will be enough at Porto’s Estadio do Dragao, but the loss of Bonucci can only benefit the Portuguese club.
This is a really good goal from AC Milan’s Suso, and it rescued a point in the 85th minute for his side against Lazio. But what really sticks out is how apeshit the Lazio defenders go after watching Suso dribble through them all.
A win for Lazio would’ve taken them to fourth, and you can tell just how devastating this late goal was. In Italy, the land of catenaccio and solid defensive organization, Suso’s ability to drift between defenders and leave two Lazio players on the floor just isn’t acceptable.
There are ownings, and then there are OWNINGS. This video shows an example of the latter, which caused two defenders to completely give up on life.
Goal from sat pic.twitter.com/ZDvV2icGsD
— † MH (@MJ_Hudson7) February 1, 2017