By: Casey Rhine
Ohhhh El Clásico, where to begin. One of soccer's most heated, yet most deeply cherished rivalries.Few of you readers get to experience El Clasico, in Barcelona, while it's happening. This was my mission on December 23rd and should be your mission on May 6th if you are not lucky enough to go to the game in the Camp Nou.
Ronald Koeman might be right that Barcelona could still cobble together a league challenge, but Barça hasn’t been this far from competing for Europe’s ultimate club prize since it played in the Europa League (the same season a 16-year-old Cesc Fàbregas left La Masia for Arsenal).
Exactly 13 months after Barcelona suffered ultimate humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich, the Blaugrana welcomed Die Roten to the Camp Nou to open Group E play in the Champions League. Based solely on scores, Barcelona improved by three goals, but it looked so much worse in doing so. At one point, Serge Gnabry took pity on his defender and kicked the ball out of bounds.
The Seville skies opened up to a torrent of rain just before halftime, sending players to the locker room to regroup after an historic first half. The Sevilla-RB Salzburg match set a record for most penalties in a Champions League match — in the first half alone.
Sevilla and RB Salzburg played to a bizarre 1-1 draw on Tuesday in Seville to open Champions League play. The final score will take a back seat to the flood of penalty kicks awarded in the first half, when the referee pointed to the spot four times in the opening 42 minutes.
MADRID - Real Madrid's Karim Benzema netted a hat-trick as they capped their return to the refurbished Santiago Bernabéu stadium with a thrilling 5-2 comeback win over Celta Vigo in LaLiga on Sunday.
The Frenchman was unplayable at times as Madrid were reunited with their fans for the first time since March 1, 2020.
They played the whole of last season at reserve team Castilla's Alfredo Di Stéfano ground at their training complex.
BARCELONA - Thomas Lemar scored in the ninth minute of added time to give Atlético Madrid a last-gasp 2-1 victory at newly-promoted Espanyol in LaLiga on Sunday.
THOMAS LEMAR IN THE 98TH MINUTE!! pic.twitter.com/e9NG6CC0CW
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 12, 2021
The USMNT injury updates include a mixed batch of good and bad news.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel gave a Christian Pulisic injury update after the American forward suffered a knock to the ankle during the USMNT’s 4-1 victory against Honduras. Good news U.S. and Chelsea fans, Pulisic will only be out for 10 days.
“For Christian, unfortunately he came yesterday on crutches and he has an ankle injury with about 10 days," Tuchel said.
For the first time, the UEFA Women’s Champions League will feature a 16-team group stage instead of jumping straight into a large knockout phase. And for the first time, the Real Madrid Women have qualified for the Women’s Champions League.
