Europe

For better or for worse, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has taken every competition seriously this campaign. You could say for better because it’s resulted in United reaching the EFL Cup final, the FA Cup quarterfinals and the Europa League round of 16.

You could say for worse because with the Red Devils holding a 3-0 advantage over Saint-Etienne in the Europa League, Mourinho elected to field a strong side in the second leg, resulting in injuries that will rule both Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Michael Carrick out of Sunday’s EFL Cup final.

The Spanish city of Seville holds a special place in the hearts of Glasgow’s Celtic supporters. The Andalusian city was the site of the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in which an unfavored Celtic side, managed by Martin O’Neill and captained by the legendary Henrik Larsson, faced off against Porto, led by “The Special One”, Jose Mourinho. 

17-year-old Jordi Mboula scored an amazing solo goal for Barcelona’s Juvenil A, their U-19 team, against Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Youth League on Wednesday.  

We need your help: Can anyone come up with a hashtag for Jordi Mboula's (@FCBMasia) wonder goal? pic.twitter.com/ubvB2oFx6v

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 22, 2017

You'd have to go back to 2008-09 to find the last Bundesliga title that wasn't won by either Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund. However, there is one that is lurking, currently in second place in their debut Bundesliga season, waiting for the spotlight.

The team is the most despised in German football — RB Leipzig, a side that has literally come out of nowhere in seven years and is now challenging the traditional might of the Bundesliga.

Get ready for March 14 at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, the scenes are going to be unreal. Sevilla pulled out the victory many had predicted in the first leg but only by a 2-1 scoreline.

Sevilla cruised to a 2-0 lead by the 62nd minute, and it should’ve been much more if not for the work of Kasper Schmeichel, but Jamie Vardy scored a precious away goal to keep the tie more than alive.

From a Leicester perspective, losing 2-1 away to the back-to-back-to-back Europa League champions is a huge improvement on losing 2-0 to Swansea City away.

In direct defiance of former Manchester United hard man Roy Keane, Paul and Florentin Pogba again displayed feelings of brotherly love on the soccer pitch Wednesday: giving dap, exchanging jerseys, strolling around the pitch postgame, applauding everyone and refraining from threatening to murder each other and calling each other

The three-headed monster that is the Juventus defense will be without Leonardo Bonucci, who has the most minutes of the three in both Serie A and the Champions League, for Juventus’ first leg match against Porto. The club has every right to believe that the strength of Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli in defense will be enough at Porto’s Estadio do Dragao, but the loss of Bonucci can only benefit the Portuguese club.

Waking up this morning to work out any takeaways from the first leg of Manchester City’s clash with Monaco is like piecing together a night of heavy drinking. It was a night of degeneracy — mistakes were made, people were throwing themselves headfirst at objects and someone pulled out their Willy (Caballero).

As we move toward the second leg at the Stade Louis II in Monaco on March 15, the most obvious talking point will be City’s defense of their two-goal advantage. So what’s Pep Guardiola’s plan?

Although it was overshadowed by the 5-3 lunacy that took place in Manchester, Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid played their own fantastically hilarious game of soccer in Germany Tuesday.

Atletico prevailed 4-2 on goals from Saul Niguez, Antoine Griezmann, Kevin Gameiro and Fernando Torres, but they easily could have had eight or nine. Griezmann probably should have had a hat trick in the first half but was denied by Bernd Leno twice.

Free-scoring Monaco met Pep Guardiola’s equally attack-minded Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, and then all hell broke loose. Fox Sports guaranteed us goals on FS1, and they didn’t lie to us.

Goals guaranteed as Man City host high-flying Monaco in the @ChampionsLeague Round of 16!