Duván Zapata scored the first goal for Atalanta in a 2-2 draw with league-leading Juventus on Saturday. Moments later he added injury to insult in quite possibly the worst way imaginable with the Zapata stomp on Matthijs de Ligt.
Zapata, a 29-year-old Colombian striker, gave Atalanta the lead when he brushed past Rodrigo Betancur to reach a pass from Papu Gómez, firing a low shot past Wojciech Szczesny in goal.
Let me just get this out of the way first: I love the VAR. I think video replay is a necessary addition to soccer and greatly improves the accuracy of match-changing calls. But that Harry Kane disallowed goal on Thursday was BS, even if the VAR technically got it right.
The moment in question came in the 33rd minute of Tottenham’s 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United. The Blades had gone ahead less than two minutes earlier through Sander Berge, but Spurs thought they had found a quickfire response.
Ante Rebic did his best Nigel de Jong impersonation, sending his cleat into the chest of Danilo immediately following a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty miss. The red card helped Juventus secure a 0-0 draw in the second leg of the Coppa Italia on Friday at Allianz Stadium. The first leg was a 1-1 draw back on Feb. 13 at the San Siro, allowing Juventus to advance on away goals in the first match in Italy in three months.
Are you ready for some football?
As the Bundesliga resumed play on Saturday, one poor cameraman sure wasn’t.
RB Leipzig and SC Freiburg played to a 1-1- draw at Red Bull Arena on Saturday. The single point left Leipzig four points back of league-leading Bayern Munich and three back of second-place Borussia Dortmund, which whipped rival Schalke 4-0 on Saturday.
In addition to the above video documenting the worst own goals in Premier League history, here are some other things I've found funny lately.
#1. The Onion’s 69-image slideshow about what happens when you zoom in on this bread.
#2. “Coach Owen” by Brendan and Cory
#3. Long Haired Businessmen Video Conference
After the success of First Team: Juventus and recent releases like The English Game and Ultras, Netflix is continuing its run of soccer-centric content with First Team: Atomic Pineapples, which drops on Wednesday, April 1.
Fresh off watching his Inter Miami franchise lose its inaugural match to LAFC at Banc of California Stadium back on March 1, the legend that is David Beckham made an appearance on Ellen to chat about his wife, kids, club ownership and the time he went trick-or-treating at Justin Bieber’s house.
It’s a tactic that’s frequently implemented during elementary school recess, but its application at the professional level is far less pronounced: After a quick throw-in during a match in Romania between Makedonija Gjorce Petrov and Akademija Pandev, a defender chased after play with a spare ball in his hands before throwing it at the feet of the attacking player and knocking the live ball away.
Sadly, there still exists a population of humans who dismiss women’s football as being lesser than the men’s game. For all those numskulls in that camp, let us present Jane O’Toole.
The captain of St. Mirren WFC showed more toughness in a single Scottish Women’s Championship Cup than most men’s footballers will show in an entire season on Sunday against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.