Newcastle United’s FA Cup quarterfinal plan of defending resolutely and hoping for one clear chance against Manchester City actually played out perfectly for Steve Bruce’s side at St James’ Park on Sunday, but the compact rearguard action was undone by a boneheaded play from Fabian Schär and the incredible goalscoring opportunity was wasted by Dwight Gayle.
A plane carrying a banner declaring “White Lives Matter Burnley” flew over Manchester City's Etihad Stadium on Monday at the start of the Premier League game against Burnley.
The plane appeared shortly after players from both teams took a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. There was no indication who had organized the plane and banner.
Controversy is the key ingredient for a well-seasoned, spicy football match. Flops, red cards and VAR are all ingredients for a debatable match. But the crème de la crème — as Thierry Henry’s hand would say — are controversial goals. Here are the top five most controversial goals ever scored.
Linfield FC is the most successful team in Northern Ireland, winning the NIFL Premiership an astounding 53 times, but recently they made the news for another reason.
On June 10 they launched their new away kit for the 2020-21 season, which, upon first glance, looks like an awkward combination of purple with an orange sash.
The Premier League returned Wednesday after a 100-day hiatus like it had just left its keys, wallet and cell phone. Nothing has changed: Aston Villa vs. Sheffield United featured a heinously controversial abuse of technology, and Manchester City vs. Arsenal continued the ballad of David Luiz.
If it was sporting controversy you missed, the Premier League restarted Wednesday in a big way. Relegation-threatened Aston Villa hosted European-hopeful Sheffield United at an empty Villa Park, and things descended into chaos shortly before halftime.
Sheffield should’ve opened the scoring in the 42nd minute with a free kick that ended up in the back of Villa’s net, but that’s apparently not the definition of a goal anymore in our new normal.
Sunday’s 2. Bundesliga encounter between promotion hopeful Stuttgart and relegation-threatened Osnabrück finished 0-0 at Mercedes-Benz Arena, and the home side had Osnabrück striker Benjamin Girth to thank for that.
In the 40th minute, Osnabrück mounted a beautiful attack down the right-hand side of the pitch. The flowing move included a scoop pass, a perfectly weighted and executed backheel flick and a no-nonsense square ball for Girth to tap into an empty net from 12 yards out.
But Girth somehow managed to steer his effort off the base of the post and wide.
The Austrian Bundesliga could be set for a massive shakeup at the top of the table without a ball having been kicked in months.
Two weeks after 11 of the league's 12 teams accused Valérien Ismaël's side of disregarding rules restricting the size of training groups, LASK have been hit with a six-point deduction. The rules had been set in place by the country's Ministry of Sports as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
While the Premier League and Serie A both announced their return dates, Ligue 1 players have some waiting to do with the season canceled. With Ligue 1 over and no international soccer for the foreseeable future, stars in the French top flight like Neymar have to find some way to pass the time.
The Brazilian star opted to egg his own son on Instagram.
To maintain any chance of catching Bayern Munich and winning the Bundesliga title, third-place Leipzig needed to defeat 11th-place Hertha Berlin on Wednesday at Red Bull Arena.
Things started out poorly with Hertha’s Marko Grujić, on loan from Liverpool, opening the scoring in the ninth minute. However, Leipzig responded in the first half through Lukas Klostermann before the home side had Marcel Halstenberg sent off for a second yellow card in the 63rd minute.