As FC Barcelona discovered last Wednesday, one does not simply mess with the Juventus defense. On Sunday, Juve hosted lowly Genoa at Juventus Stadium with the opportunity to stretch their lead at the top of Serie A to 11 points before Monday’s meeting between Roma and Pescara.
Lionel Messi's 500th Barcelona goal was scored in the 91st minute of El Clasico to defeat Real Madrid, 3-2.
First, a note about the losers: Real Madrid were the better side for most of the game. They were more organized and more aggressive, even snatching an equalizer while playing with 10 men. It looked like Real would win it for a bit there, as they were entirely on the front foot in the latter stages of the game. But Real Madrid did not win this game. They did not win this game because they do not have Lionel Messi, and Barcelona do.
El Clasico is off to a hot start. It's 1-1 at the half via goals from Casemiro and Messi.
The Brazilian defensive midfielder opened the scoring with a rebound from a Sergio Ramos chance.
El Clasico is this weekend, and we happen to have some Real Madrid and Barcelona partisans on the staff here at The18. So we asked Bryce (a Barcelona fan) and Javier (a Real Madrid fan) to write about why the opposing team will win on Sunday.
By Bryce Badwan
Chelsea await the winner of Sunday’s match between Arsenal and Manchester City to contest the 2017 FA Cup Final after defeating Tottenham 4-2 in the semis. Two first half goals by Willian were canceled out by Harry Kane and Dele Alli, but Eden Hazard scored Chelsea’s match-winner in the 75th minute. Five minutes later, Nemanja Matic secured the victory with one of the best goals you’ll ever see.
The Serbian defensive midfielder hadn’t scored a single goal this year, but his maiden strike was an absolute banger.
On Friday morning, the last Champions League draw of the season took place in Nyon, Switzerland to determine the semi-final matchups and gave us some very entertaining fixtures: Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid and Monaco vs Juventus. As football fans, we are all one step closer to finding out which teams will play for Europe’s most lucrative trophy on June 3rd in Cardiff. Will the Champions League Final be played between:
Real Madrid - Monaco
Real Madrid - Juventus
Atletico Madrid - Monaco
Atletico Madrid - Juventus
Time Magazine has released its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and there is a footballer on it. It's not Messi, or Ronaldo. It's Neymar.
I agree with this. Neymar has had a great year: he won gold at the Rio Summer Olympics, got a bit part in xXx: the Return of Xander Cage, did some cool soccer stuff and kept things in perspective, if this tweet is to be believed.
“I don’t know how long I have left,” Zlatan Ibrahimovic told BT Sport prior to Manchester United’s second leg match against Anderlecht. “Rashford, Lingard have long careers in front of them. I was there 15 years ago, I don’t know how long I have left.” If the latest reports are confirmed, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has suffered a devastating knee injury that could spell the end of the 35-year-old’s career.
In the words of Bayern Munich's Technical Director Michael Reschke, "You have to make him a monument!" — Reschke was referring to the person who originally signed Real Madrid sensation Marco Asensio. Jose Angel Sanchez, a Real Madrid board member, signed a 19-year-old Asensio back in July of 2015 for 3.5 million euros from Mallorca.
It’s been more than a month since Barcelona manager Luis Enrique announced that he would not be renewing his contract (which expires after this season). At this moment, Barcelona sit three points behind Real Madrid in La Liga (Real also have a game in hand), they’ve been dumped from the Champions League by Juventus but they could give Enrique the perfect sendoff by winning the Copa del Rey title.