Game Recaps

BRIGHTON, England - Brighton & Hove Albion secured a 2-1 home win over Leicester City on Sunday thanks to a controversial penalty and a Danny Welbeck header that put them third in the Premier League despite Jamie Vardy's 150th goal in his 250th game for the Foxes.

The visitors will feel hard done by after a number of key decisions went against them, including the one to award Brighton the penalty that saw them open the scoring in the 35th minute.

What the hell was that?! Manchester United and West Ham produced a ludicrous script on Sunday, featuring a West Ham opener, a Cristiano Ronaldo response, an 89th-minute winner and a 90+4’ penalty save off a 90+3’ substitute. 

Let’s do the late dramatics first, beginning in the 89th minute with Jesse Lingard curling home United’s go-ahead goal after jinking inside. 

Ezequiel Barco scored his seventh goal of the season off a free kick from distance and assisted Josef Martínez's team-leading ninth to help Atlanta United to a 3-2 victory over visiting D.C. United on Saturday afternoon.

RIDICULOUS.

Picture perfect free kick from Ezequiel Barco pic.twitter.com/dfgv2lL7Hk

— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) September 18, 2021

Inter Milan broke in its beautiful third kit with a 6-1 rout of Bologna on Saturday. Edin Džeko came off the bench to score twice, including a wonderfully cheeky nutmeg goal, allowing us to forgive his awful whiff on a cross that was later put away by Matías Vecino as Inter ran riot at the San Siro.

LENS, France — A second-half goal from Przemyslaw Frankowski earned RC Lens their first victory over Lille in 15 years as they moved up to provisional second place in Ligue 1 with a 1-0 win after a derby marred by crowd trouble on Saturday.

Frankowski's strike ended a 12-game winless streak for Lens against the French champions, who had beaten them 4-0 and 3-0 last season.

The result put the "Sang et Or" (Blood and Gold) on 12 points from six games, three behind Paris St Germain, who will play their match in hand at home against Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday.

MADRID, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix was sent off as the LaLiga champions were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

Felix, Atletico's record signing, was shown a yellow card for striking Unai Vencedor in the 78th minute and the Portuguese reacted to the decision by shouting at the referee, who instantly produced a second card and sent him off.

Over a decade ago, Arjen Robben perfected using an overlapping run as a decoy to cut inside and launch a long-range shot. On Saturday, Riccardo Saponara did one better, using the flight of a random bird on the pitch as a dummy run to score a smashing goal to help Fiorentina beat Genoa 2-1. 

MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City were held to a frustrating goalless draw at home by Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday, despite being handed a reprieve when a VAR review led to a penalty and a red card for Kyle Walker both being overturned.

After an uneventful first half where City were well below par, Southampton thought they had been handed a golden chance to edge in front early in the second period as they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Adam Armstrong.