Following this November’s upcoming international break (Nov. 14 — 19), we’ll know 20 of the 24 participating nations at UEFA Euro 2020. While the four remaining spots will be decided in late March through the qualifying playoffs, it’s safe to say that we can begin to look forward to next summer’s European Championship in earnest.
Adidas feels the same way.
It’s been a pretty disastrous start to the LaLiga season for Madrid-based CD Leganés. This is the club’s fourth consecutive season in the Spanish top flight but after achieving its highest-ever finish last campaign (13th), Los Pepineros look destined for a drop to the Segunda División.
With the club languishing in last place, manager Mauricio Pellegrino was sacked on Oct. 21 following a winless streak of nine matches. Mexican manager Javier Aguirre was appointed on Nov. 4 and he’s now tasked with saving this sinking ship.
Nutmegs — alongside cross-field rakers, back heels and an inordinate amount of step-overs — constitute one of the greatest forms of artistry in our beautiful game. The act of the nutmeg is equal parts illusion and imagination; it transcends the simple reality of moving the ball from Point A to Point B and replaces it with something sublime. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, a nutmeg tells us of beautiful, untrue things. (After all, a nutmeg is rarely ever a decisive moment.)
Even by Lionel Messi’s ridiculous standards, the Barcelona captain’s 90 minutes against Valladolid at the Camp Nou on Tuesday constitute something outrageous. After the two clubs exchanged heavily deflected efforts in the opening 15 minutes, Messi sprang into action with a beautiful assist, stunning free kick (and two brutal nutmegs) to put Barcelona up 3-1 at halftime. In the second half, he scored another goal and added another assist to lift Barça to the top of the LaLiga table.
Former Atlético Madrid youth/Arsenal flop Lucas Pérez scored the greatest goal of his career (although he did hit a nice bicycle kick earlier this season), earning Alavés a 1-1 draw with Atlético in Basque Country on Tuesday.
Granada is top of the LaLiga table. No, not the country. Granada CF, the football team from Granada, Spain. The same Granada that appointed Tony Adams in 2017 and was relegated.
El Clásico will not go on as scheduled next week, LaLiga made this much clear. But why was El Clásico postponed and when will the match be made up? Here’s a quick explainer of everything going on in Spain right now.
The first El Clásico of the season — the biggest club match in the world — was slated for Saturday, Oct. 26 at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. Now it appears the match will be rescheduled for either Dec. 4 or Dec. 18 (both Wednesdays).
But why was El Clásico postponed in the first place?
It’s been exactly 15 years to the day since Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini hopped off the bench in the 82nd minute of Barcelona’s 1-0 derby victory over Espanyol to mark his LaLiga debut. The 17-year-old replaced midfield maestro Deco and gave a tantalizing glimpse of what was to come.
What followed, in league play, is currently 453 more appearances, 420 goals, 164 assists and 10 titles. You could say that things have gone well.
Sunday marked the 21st time in Luis Suárez’s six-year Barcelona career that he’d hammered a ball flush in the air — be it a volley, scissor or overhead kick — and into the back of the net. Frankly, there’s no one better on the planet with this demanding technique. Here’s that strike against Sevilla.
They formed a four-man wall. They had a defender lie prone behind the wall to block a low shot. They dropped another defender to the goal-line to clear any effort at the near post. They had Czech international Tomáš Vaclík between the sticks.
It didn’t matter.
Lionel Messi’s first goal of the 2019-20 season flew in from 23 yards out, avoiding it all with astonishing ease.