You should not try to blackmail Bayern Munich. This was the lesson learned by a man known as the "broomstick robber" (as far as robber nicknames go, he may have drawn the short, uh, broomstick here) when he was arrested for allegedly threatening Germany's foremost football club.
OK, first the bad news: Bayer Leverkusen lost 3-1 to Mainz 05 Sunday. The good news: that one goal happened to be scored by recently-returned-from-injury striker Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez.
Hernandez now has 23 goals in all competitions for Leverkusen, and 14 in the Bundesliga.
GOAL, Leverkusen! Chicharito gets one back for the visitors, but is it too little too late? https://t.co/90ahZ6Etpj
Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez hurt his butt a while back, but he's back in action and, two games into his comeback, he's already setting up goals.
Hernandez set up Karim Bellarabi's first goal (of two), and Bayer Leverkusen went on to beat Portuguese side Sporting CP 3-1 and advance to the Europa League round of 16.
Leg 2 of the Europa League's last 32 teams happened today, and while there were some great goals and stories, Hakan Calhanoglu's goal for Bayern Leverkusen stood out during the day. His volley in the 87th minute was the nail in the coffin for Sporting Lisbon. With the 3 - 1 victory, Leverkusen advance on aggregate to the Round of 16 in Europa League.
It was an ordinary Saturday in the Bundesliga, until Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre Aubameyang showed up dressed like this:
Photo: @Squawka | Twitter
You thought Petr Cech's double save at the weekend against Bournemouth was good? Well, we may have found one that's even better. Say hello to Kaiserslautern keeper Marius Muller. In a game against FC Paderborn, Muller was called upon to make a double save. The first one was decent, pretty standard save really. But the second one...
Today in soccer players should stick to soccer news: three youth players for German team HSV (Hannover 96, not Hamburger SV) have been suspended after botching a casino robbery asbout as badly as you can botch a casino robbery.
That's right, we said casino robbery.
It was all a disaster from the start. The would-be robbers probably thought they were going to be cool and badass like this:
Chicharito limped out of Bayer Leverkusen's DFB Pokal loss to Werder Bremen, and now we have an update.
Chicharito injury blow!@bayer04_en will be without their goal machine @CH14_ against @sv98 this weekend. pic.twitter.com/ISDG8EOpLc
Bayer Leverkusen have said that they want Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez to choose between the Copa America Centenario and the Olympics this summer. Chicharito has been absolutely on fire this season for Bayer Leverkusen, and fans of the Mexico national team are hoping he can bring that flame to their tournament hopes this summer.
Much commotion surrounded the walking out of Liverpool fans in the 77th minute of Liverpool's home match against Sunderland. The walkout protested ticket prices, which have risen to 77 pounds in some main stand seats (hence the timing of the walkout). Borussia Dortmund fans are a lot like Liverpool fans in that they care deeply about their club and also ticket prices (they are also intimately familiar with Jurgen Klopp).
Borussia Dortmund fans planned their own protest of their club's rising ticket prices, but Dortmund's was a little more comical than Liverpool's.