It’s tough being a soccer fan, sometimes. You spend all your effort and energy trying to keep an eye on two tantalizing Champions League Round of 16 matches and then the best goal of the day is scored in a league match in France. But damn, did you see that Angel Di Maria free kick?
We entered the FA Cup Fourth Round with three massive underdogs to cheer for — fourth division sides Newport County and Oldham Athletic and fifth division Barnet, the only non-league side remaining in the competition. Unfortunately, Oldham got dumped out by Doncaster, but Newport forced a replay against Middlesbrough.
A 1-1 draw between Atletico Madrid (second in LaLiga) and Sevilla (third) saw Barcelona’s lead at the top of the table reduced to two points, but with the Blaugrana set to play Getafe later today, both contestants will rue the inability to take three points from the match.
Borussia Dortmund maintained its nine-point advantage at the top of the Bundesliga following a 2-1 win over Werder Bremen on Saturday, and not even the 83rd minute introduction of Josh Sargent could disrupt BVB’s continued run of excellence.
That excellence has been highlighted by the play of Paco Alcacer, who scored Dortmund’s opener in the 19th minute after this extremely well-worked set piece (also, VAR is a great thing).
Raphael Guerreiro and Marco Reus stood over the ball, and Guerreiro ran over it once before sneakily returning and delivering with his left foot.
Lionel Messi had one of those matches where you just can’t defend him, inspiring Barcelona to a 4-0 win over Espanyol on Saturday. Not one but two perfect free kick goals from Messi vs Espanyol highlighted another magnificent performance from one of the legends of the game.
Messi was voted the fifth-best player in the world on Monday and wasn’t in the squad for Barcelona’s Copa del Rey win over Cultural Leonesa on Wednesday. In his first match since the absurd suggestion that he isn’t among the top one or two players in the world, he reminded everyone of just how good he is.
Iceland and 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar played to a 2-2 friendly draw on Monday in Belgium, and the match was highlighted by an exchange of exquisite free kicks between the two nations.
In the third minute, Qatar captain Hassan Al-Haydos (currently number four all-time in goals for his country), hammered a free kick from an acute angle across the face of goal and just inside the far post — a despairing, sprawling Rúnar Rúnarsson could do nothing to keep it out.