Barcelona climbed to the top of the La Liga table (at least until Real Madrid play Villarreal later today) after defeating fierce rivals Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon, 2-1.
Rafinha opened the scoring for Barca in the 64th minute with a goal that probably took a couple of years off Diego Simeone’s life.
17-year-old Jordi Mboula scored an amazing solo goal for Barcelona’s Juvenil A, their U-19 team, against Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Youth League on Wednesday.
We need your help: Can anyone come up with a hashtag for Jordi Mboula's (@FCBMasia) wonder goal? pic.twitter.com/ubvB2oFx6v
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 22, 2017
Valencia pounced on Real Madrid with two goals in the first eight minutes Wednesday, and held on to win 2-1, which was certainly the thing that everyone expected to happen in this match. Yup.
A brilliant goal from Simone Zaza was followed by a counterattack goal from Fabian Orellana. Cristiano Ronaldo pulled one back for Madrid just before halftime, but it was too little, too late.
As a flashy rich person, Cristiano Ronaldo obviously owns a lot of cool cars, but there is no car cooler than the Bugatti Veyron. The Veyron is the second-fastest street-legal car in the world and is capable of killing a driver who isn't careful in an instant. It's also, at a cool $1.5 million, so expensive urchin sportswriters like me aren't even allowed to look at it in person.
But that's why we have Cristiano Ronaldo, who has no problem buying such a car and showing it to his legions of adoring fans via social media.
Although it was overshadowed by the 5-3 lunacy that took place in Manchester, Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid played their own fantastically hilarious game of soccer in Germany Tuesday.
Atletico prevailed 4-2 on goals from Saul Niguez, Antoine Griezmann, Kevin Gameiro and Fernando Torres, but they easily could have had eight or nine. Griezmann probably should have had a hat trick in the first half but was denied by Bernd Leno twice.
In a half dominated by Atletico Madrid, Saul Niguez's goal was unquestionably the highlight. The Atletico midfielder torched his man, cut into the middle on his left foot and rifled the ball into the top corner.
Need a goalazo? Better call Saúl. #B04ATL #UCL https://t.co/bE5SnQx6P5
Dani Alves has slammed FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu for the treatment he received during his final three seasons with the club, calling the directors “false and ungrateful.”
Neymar will stand trial on corruption charges after losing his appeal. The Barcelona star is in hot water over financial details regarding his transfer from Santos to Barcelona four years ago.
Brazilian investment group DIS launched a complaint against Neymar, Barcelona, Santos and the company run by Neymar's parents, all of whom lost their appeals and will stand trial.
From ESPNFC:
After putting three past tournament dark horse Napoli on Wednesday, Real Madrid quickly turned around and showed just how frightening a prospect they are this season by defeating Espanyol 2-0.
The gap on Barcelona is four points, and Real maintain a game in hand. Cristiano Ronaldo, having just celebrated his 32nd birthday, remains a wizard on the wing. And they said he couldn't dribble anymore.