Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s message as interim manager of Manchester United has been simple: Enjoy yourself. It’s not an earth shattering ethos, except when diametrically opposed to Jose Mourinho’s philosophy of “respect my authority.”
A lot has been made of the fact that without Eden Hazard, Chelsea would resemble nothing more than a strange, amorphous tribute to Yokohama Tires out on the pitch. That criticism is mainly aimed at Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud leading the line, where the two have combined for only six Premier League goals.
You should, maybe, know who Nicolo Zaniolo is by now. At 19, the AS Roma midfielder isn’t quite the polished product like many attackers who scored in Serie A on Wednesday, but the teen is growing in stature by the week.
Serie A has long been defined by aging Italian footballers getting better with age, just like a fine box of Franzia. Recent examples include Francesco Totti scoring 15 at the age of 34, Filippo Inzaghi hitting 13 at the age of 35, Alessandro Del Piero notching 13 at 34, Luca Toni dropping 22 at 38 and Antonio Di Natale recording 14 at 37.
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.
When you break down soccer to its simplest form, it’s all about scoring goals. Score more than the other team and you win.
Not all goals are created equally. While it’s easy to pick out the strongest, toughest, most impactful goals from the biggest matches, we here at The18 have picked out our favorite goals of 2018 for you to enjoy.
Now, these aren’t all necessarily the best goals of the year (see: No. 17), just our favorites. Some were epic World Cup golazos. Some were literally from the training ground.
If I could offer Mauricio Pochettino one piece of advice with regards to the Manchester United and Real Madrid rumors, it would be this:
Given what we’ve seen over the last four years, it’s incredibly perplexing that the Netherlands has reached the finals of the 2019 UEFA Nations League and the country’s biggest club, Ajax, is now the favorite to advance to the Champions League quarterfinals at the expense of Real Madrid, the back-to-back-to-back European champions.
How times have changed at Real Madrid. pic.twitter.com/pk73V99p2g