Domestic action returns to the fore with the FA Cup, Copa del Rey and Coupe de France dominating the midweek action, but the Champions League is set to return with the Round of 16 second legs on March 7/8-14/15.
We've got some dynamite return legs brewing with five of the eight matches separated by one goal or less, and who knows, maybe Liverpool can finally deliver some excitement now that nothing's expected from them.
Loris Karius' one-day Redemption Tour is at an end. Playing his first competitive match in nearly two years and his first representing an English club since that infamous night in Kyiv, Karius could not prevent Newcastle's defeat in the EFL Cup final on Sunday as Manchester United scored two goals in a six-minute first-half span to claim the season's first major piece of silverware.
LONDON - Tottenham Hotspur bolstered their hopes for a top-four finish and extended Chelsea's miserable run under coach Graham Potter with a 2-0 win over the Blues in the Premier League on Sunday, thanks to second-half goals from Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane.
Seconds after the break, Skipp picked up a clearance by Chelsea's British record signing Enzo Fernández and fired in from more than 20 yards, his shot going in off the bar after Kepa Arrizabalaga could not get enough of a hand on it.
West Brom may have only finished Saturday’s EFL Championship game with 30% possession, but that’s all they needed after two early Daryl Dike goals vs Middlesbrough was enough for a 2-0 victory.
Dike’s pair of goals came just two minutes apart as he bested fellow American goalkeeper Zack Steffen in the 8th and 10th minute.
The first goal for Dike came at the end of a great sequence of passes from West Brom. His darting run into the middle gave him enough space to slip the ball past Steffen.
Leeds United States of America have won a game. Thank goodness. Leeds defeated Southampton 1-0 on Saturday in what was a battle between the two teams bottom of the Premier League.
American fans will be pleased with new Spanish manager Javi Garcia. In his first game in charge Garcia started all three American players (Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie and Brenden Aaronson). This was the first time the trio of USMNT players have started for Leeds together.
MANCHESTER, England - It was Groundhog Day for Barcelona at Old Trafford on Thursday as Manchester United fought back to earn a 2-1 win that knocked the Spanish side out of the Europa League, leaving the Catalans licking their wounds after another continental failure.
Last season they also ended up in the Europa League playoffs after finishing third in their Champions League group and were knocked out of Europe's second tier competition in the quarterfinals after a 3-2 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou.
We haven't seen Christian Pulisic in action since his latest injury setback at Chelsea on Jan. 5 when the American hurt his knee against Manchester City with "a couple of months" out prescribed as the recovery tonic.
RB Leipzig valiantly fought back to draw Manchester City 1-1 at Red Bull Arena on Wednesday during the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie. If you were watching CBS’ coverage of the game on Paramount+ then you were treated to some classic Ray Hudson commentary.
Hudson and his broadcast partner Andrés Cordero called Wednesday’s game. The plot of the 1-1 draw can be followed in some of Hudson’s funniest/weirdest quotes from the 90 minutes.
Polarizing soccer pundit Alexi Lalas ruffled feathers in the USMNT sphere after sharing his opinion about the midfield duo of Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie. Lalas doesn’t seem to be a fan of their physical approach in the Premier League.
Adams and McKennie have only played four EPL games together at Leeds United and have already earned a name for themselves. We at The18 refer to them as the ‘Premier League Bad Boys’ due to their hard tackles and how they never back down from a fight.
Jamie Carragher should probably be fired as an analyst after questioning Real Madrid's manifest destiny in the Champions League.
The 14-time winners appeared to live a charmed existence during last year's run to the title — coming back from 2-0 down in the final 30 minutes against PSG, coming back from 4-3 down in the final 10 minutes against Chelsea and coming back from 5-3 down in the final mere minutes against Manchester City before Thibaut Courtois' heroics in the final — but those are probably best analyzed as simply "Real Madrid things."