With 50 Europa League qualifying matches played this week, we were bound to get an interesting one eventually. FK Suduva and Shakhter Soligorsk delivered with a 2-1 thriller that featured a bicycle kick goal, a red card and an extra time winner.
First, the bike:
Yes! Arsenal fans, it’s here!
The big-money striker signing you’ve been waiting for since Thierry Henry left town.
That French forward everyone in the world covets is coming to the Emirates.
You’ll never guess who… pic.twitter.com/4Owx2Bg17i
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) July 5, 2017
While many of you were out enjoying hot dogs, fireworks and America on July 4, Scottish club Rangers was busy embarrassing itself on the European stage.
Back in European football for the first time in six years, Rangers looked poised to advance past the first round of Europa League qualifying after taking a 1-0 lead in the home leg against FC Progrès Niederkorn.
Progrès Niederkorn, which finished fourth in Luxembourg, had scored all of one goal in its history in European competition coming into Tuesday’s match.
Surely you can find some kind of profound meaning in this video of a group of British lads encountering Manchester United attacker Jesse Lingard and completely losing their shit. You could probably ruminate on the nature of fandom, how we should all try to see things through the eyes of a child sometimes, to lend perspective.
Little kids are the best because of their lack of filter. This is clearly the best thing ever to happen to them (until the next best thing ever), and they're not afraid to express it. We should all be so lucky.
Lionel Messi joined Barcelona’s La Masia youth academy at the age of 13, and his latest contract extension with the club will see him remain there until he’s 34. According to FC Barcelona, Messi has agreed to an extension through June 30, 2021, and the Argentinean will officially sign the deal in the coming weeks, when he returns to the club for preseason training.
Last campaign, Roma set a club record in Serie A for most points in a season. They had never reached 87 points before, even when winning the Scudetto. So, obviously, the summer has consisted of parting ways with the manager, the sporting director, the legendary club captain, their most productive attacker and at least one of their coveted center backs. Of course, looking at the departures on an individual basis, they sort of make sense. But it’s still a weird summer for Roma.
Summer is high-time for transfers and this might just be the most high-profile one yet. There's a lot to discuss in terms of the move itself — one of the biggest names in English football, John Terry, finishing out his career with Championship side Aston Villa.
However, much of the yesterday's buzz focused on the bizarre/unique/amusing way the club chose to deliver the news.
When it comes to the notoriously ill-advised FIFA World Ranking system, there’s generally a lot to laugh at. Nations are cruelly punished by virtue of not playing (the United States, unbeaten since November of 2016, drops 12 places to 35th) while others largely benefit by playing lesser sides in meaningful competition (Poland is up to sixth after waxing Romania in World Cup qualifying).
It turns out Trump was right. You can get sick of winning. Germany winning, that is. Especially when German guy Lothar Matthäus starts rubbing it in.
Before you get your undies in a bunch and start telling us that "Lothar Matthäus isn't just some 'German guy,'" and that he may or may not be the greatest German player in history, let us cut you off. We know. We know he played in five World Cups. We know he's the most capped player in German history. We have the internets.