It’s been a day the small mountain town in northern Catalonia will never forget. Girona FC welcomed the mighty Real Madrid to its humble home, the Estadi Montilivi, for a late-season duel. The newly promoted side has attracted attention after several entertaining performances this season, but none will stay as long in the minds and souls of fans as Tuesday's 4-1 battering of the World Champions.
The old LaLiga logo wasn't perfect. It was guilty of what I consider a cardinal sin: containing that damn generic soccer ball that's way too heavy-handed in getting its point across.
But LaLiga had established a powerful brand identity with its iconic color wheel over the past 30 years, and when news broke of an all-new LaLiga logo for the 2023-24 season, the initial thought was concerning how the league would reimagine and update the famous design while retaining some sense of history.
For the 11th time in 13 seasons (mercy me), Real Madrid are through to the Champions League semifinals after Rodrygo's second-half brace at Stamford Bridge put the finishing touches on a commanding 4-0 aggregate victory over Chelsea.
He didn’t play, but that doesn't mean that we don't have a recap.
Christian Pulisic's first action was to ignore the artwork on the wall inside the Bernabéu.
That’s the mindset of a champion right there. Why would he focus on the final in Istanbul when he has a big quarterfinal ahead of him? He takes things one step at a time like all winners do.
Next up was getting dressed and killing it in warmups.
Vibes in the Real Madrid camp are through the roof, and after booking their ticket to yet another final in the Carlo Ancelotti era, the Italian chief of Valdebebas gave the world champions a day off following their goalscoring retaliation in Catalonia.
The players' reaction? Reminiscent of a “school has been canceled due to weather” voicemail.
Vini Jr. and Karim Benzema stole the show at Camp Nou Wednesday as the attacking duo were dominant during Real Madrid’s 4-0 victory vs. Barcelona in the Copa del Rey semifinals. Madrid won on aggregate 4-1.
Benzema scored a hat trick while Vini Jr. scored one, drew a penalty and had what could be assist of the year.
Let’s skip straight to the good part and look at that fancy assist from the Brazilian. With Los Blancos leading 3-1 on aggregate in the 80th minute, Vini Jr. and Benzema put the nail in the Camp Nou coffin with a splendid move.
MADRID - Karim Benzema scored three goals in seven first-half minutes as Real Madrid thrashed Real Valladolid 6-0 on Sunday to cut Barcelona's lead in LaLiga to 12 points.
The hat trick moved Benzema up to 14 league goals this season and second on the list of top scorers — three behind Barça's Robert Lewandowski.
Rodrygo's opener from a smooth counter-attack after 22 minutes opened the flood gates as Benzema took charge at the Santiago Bernabéu, netting a first half hat-trick for Real Madrid for the first time in his career.
Germany's World Cup-winning midfielder Mesut Özil announced his retirement from football at the age of 34 on Wednesday.
The former Real Madrid and Arsenal player was a key member of Germany's World Cup-winning side in Brazil in 2014.
He retired from the squad in 2018 amid a political debate in Germany about an influx of migrants and after backlash over a photograph taken with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, saying he faced "racism and disrespect" over his Turkish ancestry.
Talking points from the weekend in European soccer leagues:
BARCELONA TAKE HUGE STEP TOWARDS LALIGA TITLE
Barcelona have tightened their grip at the top of the LaLiga standings after an electric 2-1 comeback win in an El Clásico against bitter rivals Real Madrid on Sunday.
Franck Kessié's stunner in added time gave Barça a well-earned victory that left second-placed Real trailing the leaders by 12 points with only 12 games to be played.
NYON — Holders Real Madrid will play 2021 winners Chelsea in the Champions League quarterfinals while Manchester City's Pep Guardiola will visit his former club Bayern Munich after the teams were drawn together on Friday.
Reigning Serie A champions AC Milan will face this season's runaway leaders Napoli in an all-Italian clash while Inter Milan play Portuguese side Benfica.