Despite having been at Porto only for a few months, Miguel Layun appears to have taken up a leadership role at the Portuguese club.
The Mexican defender/midfielder took to the media Tuesday after Porto were defeated 2-0 by Kiev Dinamo in the Champions League, calling for his teammates to move on from the defeat and have courage.
Raul Jimenez inspired a Benfica comeback in their Champions League encounter with FC Astana by scoring two goals for the Portuguese side.
Jimenez’s goals in the 40th and 72nd minutes kept Benfica on course for the tournament’s round of 16. The Eagles find themselves atop Group C for the time being, with Atlético Madrid and Galatasaray still to play.
Astana had taken a two-goal lead before Jimenez propelled Benfica back into the match with a powerful header and a predatory finish.
Raul Jimenez goal in the 40th minute:
We missed this, man. We really did. And now he's back, scoring amazing goals that only Messi (and to an extent only Barcelona) can score.
Barcelona obliterated Roma 6-1 in his first start and second game back, and he tallied two goals and an assist. Luis Suarez also scored twice and Gerard Pique and Adriano also scored.
Messi's first goal since injuring his knee in September came after a build-up of 29 straight passes from Barca, a Champions League record.
It had to end sometime, and it ended on Tuesday. After scoring 10 goals in seven games, Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez's goal-scoring streak is over after he couldn't find the net in Bayer Leverkusen's 1-1 draw against BATE Borisov in the UEFA Champions League.
His goals came in three competitions: the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the Champions League.
Hernandez has 12 goals in total this year so far for Leverkusen: six in the Bundesliga, two in the DFB Pokal and four in the Champions League. He is Leverkusen's leading scorer, five ahead of the next-highest scorer.
Three weeks ago in London, Arsenal beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the Champions League. This is not a particularly inventive sentence to start an Internet post, but it should be an attention-grabber nonetheless. Bayern Munich took this personally for some reason - “oh, so, a win against us on a Tuesday night constitutes a famous win?” - and got angry and took out their anger on the poor Gunners when Arsenal visited for the return leg. They bagged three before the half. They got five in total.
A long time ago, when people in Europe thought that their continent might actually be the entire world, explorers roamed the oceans and landed in Mexico. They eventually took over, which led to the westernized Mexico we see today. But now Mexico is fighting back. Miguel Layun, Chicharito and others are doing the unthinkable — taking over Europe.
Chicharito Hernandez did a number of things today. He scored in his fifth straight game (seven total during that stretch) for Bayer Leverkusen in all competitions. He set the CONCACAF record for career goals in the UEFA Champions league (12 so far).
Unfortunately for Hernandez, Bayer couldn't get a result against Roma, losing 3-2 despite Hernandez's goal.
The agony and the ecstasy. No it’s not a soap opera, just another champions league campaign for Arsenal football club and Arsene Wenger. Defeating a giant on the back of defeats to Dynamo Zagreb and Olympiacos feels commonplace, but this result demonstrates the gunners are developing into a formidable outfit.
Nothing like a good old-fashioned bout of hooliganism to ready oneself for a big Champions League match, at least, that's what, on first glance, it looked like Sevilla and Manchester City fans were doing Wednesday in a Manchester brawl prior to the Manchester City-Sevilla game.
But first glance would be wrong in this case. It turns out neither fan base is the culprit here (we think).
It's not believed the brawl had anything to do with the Manchester City-Sevilla Champions League match, other than the fact Sevilla fans were there.
Chicharito's tenure at Bayer Leverkusen seems to be going well so far. He added two goals to his season tally and Leverkusen walked away with a point against Roma in the Champions League, thanks largely to the Chicharito brace. Chicharito's two goals put Bayer up 2-0, but Roma stormed back to go up 4-2. Then it was Bayer's turn to come back, tying the game up 4-4, where it ended.