Heading into Saturday’s El Clasico on the wrong side of a six-point gap in La Liga is a less than ideal situation for Barcelona, but the mounting injuries among their defensive back line make the task at hand that much more difficult.
Real Madrid lead the Spanish league with 36 goals scored, and Barcelona’s defensive record of 14 goals conceded puts them behind the likes of Real, Atletico, Villareal and even with Real Sociedad.
With the approach of El Clasico everything must go under the microscope. The designated referee for the match, Carlos Clos Gomez, has not been left unturned in that regard. According to some, Clos Gomez exhibits a distinctly pro-Barcelona flair, and they’ve got the statistics to prove it.
Liverpool fans were probably the only people who really cared who Ben Woodburn was before this season started, but they were very excited about him.
After the youngster scored against Leeds United in the EFL Cup Tuesday, though, the cat's out of the bag. Woodburn, at 17 years and 45 days old, broke the record held by Michael Owen (17 years and 143 days) for youngest-ever Liverpool goalscorer.
Here are the match highlights:
Toni Kroos has announced his intention to retire. Maybe. In six years, at the end of his Real Madrid contract.
As a winner of the World Cup and the Champions League, maybe Kroos feels like he should go out on top, should he stay on top for the next six years?
From Kicker:
Down a goal and with only 10 men on the pitch, Fiorentina looked to their promising American youngster Josh Perez to help level the score against Inter Milan on Monday. The USA youth international made his Serie A debut for the Viola in the 75th minute. He almost made an immediate impact.
For some, this moment would get the best of them; youngsters often look skittish and lack confidence in their club debuts. However, this was not the case for the young American, who skillfully collected the ball on the top of the box and cut onto his left foot as he shaped to shoot.
Barcelona captain Andres Iniesta returned to training Friday and could yet play a significant role in Saturday’s El Clasico against Real Madrid. The original timeline for Iniesta’s recovery, stated as six to eight weeks, made his participation an extreme doubt.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It was the best of times for Vedad Ibisevic because he scored twice in Hertha Berlin's 2-1 win over Mainz, with the second marking his 100th Bundesliga goal.
It was the worst of times for Vedad Ibisevic because, less than 10 minutes after scoring his 100th Bundesliga goal, he got a second yellow and was sent off.
Barnet threw down against Enfield Town in the Middlesex Senior Cup, a competition involving Greater London clubs that we know f*** all about. Enfield Town play in the semi-professional Isthmian League, and their club badge features the Enfield beast, a fictitious creature with the head of a fox, the chest of a greyhound, the body of a lion, the legs and tail of a wolf and eagle’s talons.
If you played any sport while you were young, you most likely heard the speech that you need to practice hard in order to play well when it counts.
Well, apparently Udinese’s captain Danilo Larangeira took that message a little bit too seriously.The central defender has reportedly injured three of his teammates during a practice session.
Barcelona survived a scare earlier today when Neymar got into a car accident while driving his red Ferrari (of course Neymar drives a red Ferrari, what were you expecting?) to meet up with the team before they traveled to the Basque region to play Real Sociedad.
Fortunately, Neymar wasn't hurt, nor was anybody else, as far as we can make out.