Cristiano Ronaldo would, reluctantly, admit that most of the time he needs his teammates to score. The 699th career Cristiano Ronaldo goal, however, was all of his own making.
With Portugal struggling to break down UEFA minnow Luxembourg — Bernardo Silva’s 16th-minute strike was all that separated the two sides after an hour — the team captain showed the rarely seen defensive side of his game to give his side a little breathing room.
Wales recorded an important 1-1 draw with Slovakia in Trnava on Thursday to keep control of its Euro 2020 destiny. Ryan Giggs’ side had the better of the opening 45 minutes, and Kieffer Moore — making his competitive debut at the age of 27 — put Wales ahead before Slovakia equalized via a stonking volley from Juraj Kucka.
With Croatia looking uncatchable at the top of Group E, this meeting between second place Slovakia and fourth place Wales (only the top two advance to the finals) qualified as can’t-miss viewing during this particularly uninspiring international break.
There’s no real marquee matches in European Championship qualifying over the course of the next week, but after the country’s disastrous attempt to qualify for the last World Cup, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on Italy versus Greece on Oct. 12.
The Palestine Cup, a FIFA-sanctioned club championship that sends its winner to the Asian Champions League, was effectively canceled this week by Israel.
Now the world is waiting to see how FIFA reacts, if indeed it steps in at all.
Although she finished eighth in The Best FIFA Women’s Player 2019 voting, Lyon attacker Ada Hegerberg was omitted from the first-ever FIFPro Women’s World11 due to the inclusion of Marta in attack. With all due respect to Marta’s legacy, the 33-year-old playmaker didn’t warrant her place after scoring five goals and providing zero assists in 12 appearances for the NWSL’s worst team before a disappointing World Cup that included zero goals from open play and zero assists in three games.
UEFA made some far-reaching decisions during a meeting of its executive committee on Tuesday in Slovenia. In addition to determining the future Champions League final locations, European soccer’s governing body made changes to the UEFA Nations League, decided to finally introduce VAR in competitions other than the biggest men’s tournaments and promoted women’s rights.
A UEFA Executive Committee meeting in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana has hashed out some future Champions League final locations, so we can now confirm sites for 2021, 2022 and 2023. This year’s final will be staged in Istanbul, and then Ol’ Big Ears will travel to Saint Petersburg, Munich and London over the course of the following three competitions.
Loris Karius bloopers are like the Rolling Stones: They never get old and they never stop entertaining.
With this week's Champions League matchups done and dusted, you might be tempted to think European football is finished until the weekend. Well think again! The Europa League kicks of today and there are a ton of matches worth getting excited about. Here are the 10 I'm most excited about, and my corresponding predictions for each match.
Basel vs. Krasnodar
For the world’s 130th-ranked side, the sight of Cristiano Ronaldo “Ronaldo Chopping” and “SIUUUU-ING” his way around a 5,000-seat stadium was simply too much to bear. So Lithuania decided to stand off and give him 57 touches, seven shots and four goals in exchange for a substitution in the 79th minute of a 5-1 loss to Portugal. That’s a good trade.