Goals

Casemiro isn’t exactly known for his goal-scoring prowess. Before Saturday, the Brazilian defensive midfielder had scored 18 goals in 218 appearances for Los Blancos — about one goal every 12 matches. 

Luka Jovic, meanwhile, has struggled since joining Real Madrid from Eintracht Frankfurt for $68.4 million over the summer. He came into the weekend with one goal and no assists in 13 LaLiga appearances. 

And yet Jovic supplied what might be Real Madrid’s best assist of the season to set up Casemiro’s first of two goals in a 2-1 win over Sevilla on Saturday. 

Will all due respect to Christian Pulisic and Diego Lainez, it’s a Canadian who is the best young North American playing in Europe right now. There can be no debate after this Alphonso Davies goal vs Nurnberg on Saturday.

Well, that didn’t take long. In his first start since returning to AC Milan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted a well-taken goal to help his side beat Cagliari 2-0 on Saturday.

Ibrahimovic scored 56 goals in 85 appearances for the Rossoneri from 2010-12. Back with the club, following stops at PSG, Manchester United and the LA Galaxy, Ibrahimovic has already changed the way the team plays. 

It’s really quite dumb that the Spanish LFP decided to hold the Supercopa de España in Saudi Arabia. Almost as dumb as Valencia keeper Jaume Doménech after a clever Toni Kroos olimpico as Real Madrid won 3-1 on Wednesday.

Though they’re third and fifth in the Premier League, the gulf between Manchester City and Manchester United is vast. City is 15 points ahead of its rival in the league and now two goals ahead after a 3-1 victory over United in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semifinals on Tuesday at Old Trafford.

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 12 years since Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy went at an overzealous reporter by yelling: “I’m a man; I’m 40!” Back in 2007, Aaron Wilbraham was a spry young man in his 20s.

On Saturday, Wilbraham became a man.

At the youthful age of 40, Rochdale’s Aaron Wilbraham netted a late equalizer to record a surprising 1-1 draw with Newcastle United on Saturday at Crown Oil Arena. The League One side earned a replay at St. James’ Park in the third round of the FA Cup.

Crystal Palace defeated West Ham 2-1 on Thursday thanks to an incredible solo effort from Jordan Ayew at the death. Ayew had provided the assist on Cheikhou Kouyaté’s equalizer for Palace in the 68th minute, but he saved his ultimate contribution for last.

Last season’s Champions League semifinals were a romantic’s dream. Such was the scale of the attacking ambitions of the last four clubs remaining that almost all of the tournament’s top providers were on display: With five assists each, Ajax’s Dušan Tadić and the Barcelona duo of Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba finished as joint-leaders (along with Manchester City’s Leroy Sané). Just behind them with four assists was Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold.