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.
Before today’s Premier League showdown between leaders Liverpool and defending champions Manchester City, a tweet from The Guardian’s German football correspondent Raphael Honigstein was shown a lot of love, and, in hindsight, for incredible reason.
Manchester United defeated Newcastle United 2-0 at St James’ Park on Wednesday evening, and that’s all anyone will remember on the night. But the ramifications of victory are again rosy for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer — the win moves them within three points of Arsenal in fifth; Romelu Lukaku scored for the second-straight game; the maligned Alexis Sanchez came off the bench and got an assist on Marcus Rashford’s strike (the Englishman’s third in four games).
It’s hard to get too excited about Scottish football these days. Sure, Rangers are back giving some sort of challenge to Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, but neither side has done anything interesting in Europe in recent years and the national team still can’t qualify for a major tournament (though at least it got promoted from UEFA Nations League C). In a perfect encapsulation of Scottish football these days is a five-second clip from the Old Firm Derby highlights on Saturday.
Arsenal shook off a shaky opening minute to take a surprise lead against Liverpool on Saturday at Anfield. Then one moment of madness — and a Bobby Firmino no-look goal — opened the floodgates for Liverpool’s 5-1 victory over Arsenal.
It was a bit of a joke that Mo Salah’s chipped effort against Everton was awarded the Puskas for the best goal of the year, only winning because Liverpool supporters took over the fan voting. The Harry Kane goal vs Wolves on Saturday was superior in every way — but probably won’t win any awards for a multitude of reasons.
Manchester United’s first match since Jose Mourinho was fired went pretty well. Former super sub striker Ole Gunnar Solskjær came in as interim manager and the Red Devils played with verve and panache unseen in years, crushing Cardiff City.
Juventus’ unbeaten Serie A campaign looked done and dusted Wednesday at the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia in Bergamo. With the score level at 1-1 in the 53rd minute, Juventus midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was sent off for his second yellow.
Three minutes later, Duvan Zapata scored his second of the match to give Atalanta a shock 2-1 lead.
¡El INVICTO de la Juventus está en PELIGRO!
Así Duván Zapata consigue su doblete y los bianconeri juegan con 10.
Think Manchester United is enjoying life without Jose Mourinho?
In the club’s first match since firing the embattled, bitter coach, the Red Devils crushed Cardiff City 5-1, the first time since Alex Ferguson’s final match in 2013 that United scored five goals in a Premier League match.
The Cruz Azul curse continues. After being repelled by a combination of Club América goalkeeper Agustín Marchesín and the crossbar in the first leg, a poor piece of attempting to play out the back ultimately doomed Cruz Azul in the second — the ever impressive Edson Álvarez punished the slack play with a curling effort from the top of the box, and then the El Tri star registered a second at the death to confirm América’s 13th title.
Cruz Azul failed to land a shot on target throughout the 90 minutes.