Placed in the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying group of death with France, the Netherlands and Greece, Ireland's only hope of reaching Germany was protecting Dublin against all invaders.
Up first on Monday night was a visit from the World Cup runners-up, France, who'd just blasted the Dutch 4-0 in Paris to kick-off their own campaign.
No le fue bien a Diego Lainez en su primer partido enfrentando al América. Desde lo grupal, Las Águilas no se despeinaron mucho para conseguir una sólida victoria por 2-0 en su visita al Estadio Universitario, mientras que en lo individual, Factor acabó domado y en el bolsillo del uruguayo Jonathan Rodríguez.
La narrativa Lainez vs. América concentró el morbo del duelo en la previa. Y con razón.
LONDON — Seven-time winners AC Milan reached the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in 11 years as a disciplined display earned them a drab 0-0 draw at Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday and a 1-0 aggregate victory.
On a freezing night in north London the Italians comfortably protected the slender advantage they established in the first leg of their last-16 tie at the San Siro as Tottenham huffed and puffed to little effect and exited with a whimper.
St. Louis City SC defeated Charlotte FC 3-1 in the club’s first-ever home game at a sold out CITYPARK in front of 22,423 fans. The atmosphere in the brand-new stadium was goosebump inducing.
Chelsea did the unthinkable on Saturday and actually won a game. The Blues defeated Leeds United 1-0 with center back Wesley Fofana scoring the game’s lone goal.
Fofana had another highlight — or lowlight in this case — during the game when he took out a steward on the sideline after receiving a shove from Leeds forward Wilfried Gnoto.
Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 1-0 on Thursday at the Santiago Bernabéu in the first of two legs of their Copa del Rey semifinal. The victory came as a surprise to some as Barça were without star players Robert Lewandowski, Pedri and Ousmane Dembélé.
Last Sunday, Almería defeated Barcelona 1-0 in LaLiga for a shock result. Following back-to-back losses (the other to Manchester United) and with a less than ideal starting XI, Real Madrid seemed destined to win the first leg at home. That wasn’t the case, and it should’ve been a 2-0 win for Barcelona.
César Montes came back from injury in Espanyol’s LaLiga game against Mallorca on Saturday, and a goal-saving tackle in the match's closing minutes has half the city of Barcelona sprung over the Mexican center-back.
"Cachorro" returned to the Espanyol XI, played the full 90 minutes and had a goal-saving slide tackle in the closing minutes of the game. Montes showed his recent physical problems won't stop him from getting back to his previous form. This is worthy of chronic replays.
Nashville SC kicked off the 2023 Major League Soccer season on Saturday in front of a packed GEODIS Park in Nashville, Tennessee, with a 2-0 victory vs. NYCFC. One of the biggest topics of discussion was the kits Nashville wore.
For the first time ever, Nashville wore black at home as the team showed off their stunning “The Man in Black Kit” which is a tribute to the great Johnny Cash. The thousands inside the stadium blacked out the stadium.
Part of the nod to Johnny Cash included having his son, John Carter Cash, open the season with some guitar. Epic.
I've been actively losing sleep due to feeling bad for Rennes defender Jeanuël Belocian. A freak Belocian own goal vs. Shakhtar Donetsk in the 119th minute of Thursday’s Europa League playoff match tied the aggregate score at 3-3 and sent the two teams to penalties.
Shakhtar would win the penalty shootout 5-4.
MADRID - Spain's most capped player Sergio Ramos announced his international retirement on Thursday after being told by new coach Luis de la Fuente that he was not part of his plans.
The 36-year-old Paris St Germain defender, who won the World Cup in 2010 as well as two European Championships, has not played for Spain since March 2021, yet said he should have been given the chance to show he could still be of service to his country.