It’s been a difficult opening 45 for Borussia Dortmund against AS Monaco in their Champions League quarterfinal first leg at the Westfalenstadion. The match, which was postponed until today after a terrorist attack on Dortmund’s team bus, has been evenly contest, but Monaco have benefitted from two refereeing decisions and a comical own goal.
Barcelona will return to the Camp Nou for their quarterfinal second leg with less to do than in the round of 16, but that truth only goes as far as the paper it’s printed on. This Juventus side are a completely different animal than the PSG one Barcelona managed to overcome.
Hulk missed out on Shanghai SIPG’s trip to Japan for an AFC Champions League match against Urawa Red Diamonds, so this article isn’t about him scoring an absolute banger after running through 10 defenders, and that's a damn shame.
Barcelona’s form since their historic comeback victory over Paris Saint-Germain has been representative of those two ridiculous legs and Barca’s La Liga campaign on the whole.
Real Madrid's hold on the division once looked a certainty as their unbeaten streak reached new heights, but February and early March saw Barcelona win six straight matches in the league while Real dropped four points to Valencia and Las Palmas.
There are any number of farm and construction machines Bayern Munich could be accurately compared to: a threshing machine, for example. I think the best comparison, though, is the steamroller, because there's nothing you can do to a steamroller that will stop it from crushing you. Nothing.
Borussia Dortmund played the part of asphalt Saturday as Bayern Rolled over them, 4-1.
This is not a pretty goal by any stretch of the imagination, but it was Hector Moreno’s sixth league goal of the season for PSV Eindhoven. All of those goals have been scored while Moreno’s been playing center back for PSV. That’s insane.
Gol de Héctor Moreno: https://t.co/BCHVokYbGv via @YouTube
— Las Noticias (@noticiasTVP) April 7, 2017
All the hand-wringing about Liverpool dropping points at home to Bournemouth Wednesday has, sadly, overshadowed one of the best plays you'll see in the EPL this season: Artur Boruc's save on a Nathaniel Clyne Howitzer. It'm here to give the save its proper celebration.
The play starts at 2:39.
With Gianluigi Buffon’s place between the Juventus sticks unassailable for all eternity, deputy goalkeeper Neto gets to strut his stuff in the Coppa Italia. On Wednesday, Napoli substitute Dries Mertens took full advantage of that change.
The 29-year-old came on in the 61st-minute and immediately leveled the score at 2-2. Impact sub, super sub, managerial tactical masterstroke, insane goalkeeping blunder — whatever you want to call it, this was some heads-up hustle from Mertens.
Former Everton midfielder Leon Osman made headlines today with a scathing critique of former teammate Ross Barkley, saying: “He’s been playing in the first team since he was 17 or 18. That’s a long time to have been playing in the Premier League and not kicked on, and not made that next step. It’s worrying that he’s still being talked about as a young player and ‘give him time’.”
After a sensational season with Nice last season, Hatem Ben Arfa earned his dream move to Paris Saint-Germain. That dream has since turned into a nightmare for the French dribbling wizard. His many brief cameos as a substitute in league play this season have resulted in none of the magic that typified his year with Nice.