Barcelona defeated Olympiakos 3-1 in the Champions League despite having defender Gerard Pique sent off in the 42nd minute. A Dimitris Nikolaou own goal, Lionel Messi free kick and Lucas Digne insurance strike were enough to overcome their Greek opposition on a wet and wild night at the Camp Nou. Messi’s goal was his 100th overall in European competition with 97 coming in the Champions League and three in the UEFA Super Cup.
Wednesday’s Chelsea-AS Roma game had everything. It had six goals in total, Antonio Rudiger playing against his former team, Gary Cahill wearing a bandage around his head like he just went to the dentist in 1876, Frederico Fazio getting magic spray on his junk because Pedro’s head smashed into his nether regions and an Edin Dzeko goal that might be one of the best you’ll see all year. In the end, Chelsea and AS Roma played to a wildly entertaining 3-3 draw in Champions League group play at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
Atletico Madrid were held to a 0-0 draw with FK Qarabag in Azerbaijan in Champions League group play on Wednesday despite playing with a man advantage for over 15 minutes. Atletico landed only three shots on target in another tepid display that makes Diego Costa’s January arrival all the more pressing.
Malmö FF clinched its Swedish record 23rd Allsvenskanliga championship on Monday and they did it in style. Anders Christiansen dribbled a good 30 yards before launching a right-footed strike that zipped into the upper 90 to seal a 3-1 win over IFK Norrkoping.
The win put Malmö on 60 points with three matches remaining. Second-place AIK is 10 points back and cannot catch make up the ground.
SVENSKA MÄSTARE 2017! pic.twitter.com/fG5Ex9MJDD
Lindsey Horan struck in the 50th minute to propel the Portland Thorns to their second NWSL championship, a 1-0 victory over the North Carolina Courage in the NWSL final on Saturday in Orlando, Florida.
A crowd of 8,124 watched the final at Orlando City Stadium.
Portland won the inaugural NWSL championship in 2013 and lost in the semifinals to North Carolina last year after winning the NWSL Shield. On Saturday, the Thorns edged the Courage, who themselves won the NWSL Shield this year as the league’s best regular-season team.
Being handed his Norwegian senior debut at 15 and promised first team training with Real Madrid at 16 was clearly too much too soon for the now 18-year-old Martin Odegaard, but to call the precociously talented midfielder a burn out for failing to disrupt the back-to-back European champions’ starting XI is obviously extremely harsh.
Tuesday sure was wild, huh? CONCACAF CONCACAF’d the sh*t out of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers for two insane hours. There was a lot to take in. A lot. Wacky own goals, rampaging ball boys and hugging commentators. And USMNT World Cup dreams dashed. So like Hillary Clinton after her election loss, let’s revisit what the hell just happened.