Europe

Manchester United is filthy. Filthy filthy filthy. The Red Devils defeated Newcastle 4-1 on Saturday in a wildly entertaining match that featured the homecoming of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Old Trafford gave the warmest of welcomes to Ronaldo who started his first game for Manchester United in over a decade.

"NUMBER SEVEN, CRISTIANO RONALDO!"

The noise inside Old Trafford as Ronaldo's name is announced in Manchester United's starting XI pic.twitter.com/fivRej0qs5

Was it the prettiest goal? Not by any means. Do we care? Absolutely not. This Cristiano Ronaldo goal vs. Newcastle still had all the feels.

With the first half coming to a close, Ronaldo had a true poacher’s finish when Mason Greenwood’s effort from outside the box took a deflection that Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman spilled. Ronaldo was waiting on the doorstep to sweep home the game’s opening goal.

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.

LONDON - As the Premier League resumes following the international break all eyes will be on Cristiano Ronaldo's homecoming party at Old Trafford on Saturday, with the Portuguese international set to resume his Manchester United career after 12 years away.

The 36-year-old re-joined United from Juventus on a two-year deal last month and could make his 'second debut' as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side host Newcastle United.

No nation plays the spoiler quite like Greece.

The pinnacle was reached at Euro 2004, but it should be remembered that the Ethniki dumped out Andriy Shevchenko’s Ukraine in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and then ended the Ivory Coast’s golden generation of Didier Drogba, Yaya Touré and company at the 2014 finals.

After failing to qualify for its last three major international tournaments, Greece again assumed the role of gate crasher in UEFA Group B for 2022 World Cup qualifying alongside the favorites Spain and Sweden.   

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. 

Imagine traveling back in time to March 1, 2020, for El Clásico at the historic Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid. After Sergio Ramos captained his side to a 2-0 win over Lionel Messi’s men, you could’ve stood up and screamed, “Well, I guess I won’t see any of you for 550 more days, and when we meet again here both Ramos and Messi will be at PSG!”

You would’ve been correct, but they would’ve put you in an asylum. 

On Sunday, Sept. 12, Real Madrid finally returns to the Bernabéu with a LaLiga match against Celta Vigo after opening the campaign with three away games.

Premier League clubs could face sanctions from FIFA if they play South American players who were not released for international duty in this weekend's games.

Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City are among clubs who did not release Brazilian players for the current international break due to them having to travel to "red list" countries and face a choice of not selecting those players this weekend or running the risk of sanctions.

A massive Group G World Cup qualifier between first-place Turkey and second-place Netherlands resulted in a famous 6-1 victory for Louis van Gaal’s side in Amsterdam.

The Netherlands moved to the top of the group with 13 points from six games, while Turkey dropped to third after Norway took care of business against Gibraltar to climb into the second-place spot. It’s going to be an almighty battle between the three nations over the final four matchdays, but it’d be shocking to see Holland slip-up now.