The Women's Champions League has a ways to go to catch up to the men’s competition in terms of stature, but the quarterfinal pairing of defending champion Lyon and FIFA Women’s Player of the Year Lieke Martens of Barcelona was every bit as enticing for fans of the women’s game as Real Madrid vs. PSG on the men’s side. While Lyon won 1-0 to advance 3-1 on aggregate, the victory was not without controversy.
France defeated Russia 3-1 on Tuesday in a friendly at Saint Petersburg’s Krestovsky Stadium (the most expensive World Cup stadium of all time) with a brace from Kylian Mbappe and a wonderfully struck free kick from sometimes Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba.
Reading about a scoreless draw is pretty boring, right?
No goals, no costly mistakes, no tactical masterstrokes which decide the game. We might as well not bother. But here we are, with an article about a nil-nil match which happened on Saturday night when most people were somewhere having much, much more fun.
The Supercopa Argentina is a relatively new competition pitting the winner of the Argentine Primera División and the Copa Argentina, first played in 2012. Wednesday night’s edition was by far the best one yet, with a River Plate vs Boca Juniors Supercopa Superclásico.
It’s rare for the Superclásico to be a part of a cup final. The only other River Plate vs Boca Juniors match in such an event was 1976, a Boca victory.
Given the rarity of such an event, the scenes were epic, even for a match that doesn’t hold too much weight, kind of like the Community Shield in England.
Chivas defeated the Seattle Sounders 3-0 at the Estadio Akron Wednesday night in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal, comfortably overturning a 1-0 first leg deficit by the 55th minute. Oswaldo Alanis, Eduardo Lopez and Jose Godinez scored the goals to complete the semifinal bracket: it’s Chivas vs. the New York Red Bulls on one side and Club America vs. Toronto FC on the other.
The attacking trifecta of Lionel Messi (two goals, one assist), Luis Suarez (two assists) and Ousmane Dembele (scorer of his first goal for Barca) combined to devastating effect to send Barcelona into the Champions League quarterfinals, 4-1 on aggregate over Chelsea.
Samuel Umtiti was the standout performer in Barca’s defense, and although Chelsea twice struck the woodwork, the 3-0 victory on the night was well deserved for the La Liga leaders.
Thomas Muller just about nailed Wednesday's Bayern Munich-Besiktas outcome during a press conference prior to the match.
After a thrilling 3-2 Tigres win in Monterrey pulled the Liga MX club level with Toronto FC on aggregate in the Concacaf Champions League quarterfinals, the defending MLS Cup champions advanced to the semifinals over the Liga MX Apertura Champions on away goals.
Toronto FC needed a lucky Tigres own goal, some Sebastian Giovinco magic (he scored a free kick, as per usual) and a little more luck to withstand a late Tigres rally in order to advance, but advance they did.
The New York Red Bulls struck a blow for MLS pride in the early Concacaf Champions League match Tuesday when they beat Liga MX's Club Tijuana 3-1, 5-1 on aggregate, to advance to the semifinals.
The Red Bulls cut Tijuana with intricate movement in the final third, which is not a thing one normally associates with Major League Soccer. It's a brave new world.
Consider it karma for Jose Mourinho. The Special One used boring tactics to beat Liverpool on Saturday and tried similarly cynical tactics on Tuesday for Manchester United vs Sevilla. This time, the result was a stunning 2-1 defeat, the Red Devils going out in the Champions League Round of 16.