We all know Lionel Messi is brilliant. Sometimes, though, we just need a reminder. José Gayà was our guinea pig to give us a reminder of how clever the little Argentine is with a superb Messi nutmeg of the Valencia defender during the Copa del Rey semifinals on Thursday.
El caño de Messi a Gayà es mucho más emotivo si le metés la música de Titanic de fondo. pic.twitter.com/xzbvlwrmKO
Philippe Coutinho scored his first goal for Barcelona after coming on as a halftime substitute in their Copa del Rey semifinal second leg against Valencia Thursday. Coutinho scored four minutes after coming on as Barcelona eased into the final with a 3-0 aggregate victory.
Coutinho’s finish was sure a tidy one, but the majority of the credit has to go to Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan brilliantly worked a bit of space before turning provider for Barca’s all-important away goal at a packed Mestalla.
We haven’t heard from Dimitar Berbatov in a while, but that’s probably because he’s at the age where all of his footballing contemporaries have now retired. After last appearing for Greek club PAOK in 2016, the Bulgarian was out of football for a year before signing a one-year deal with Indian Super League side Kerala Blasters last August.
Fabio Coentrao was probably having a nice day Wednesday. The Sporting left back (on loan from Real Madrid) was outside, running around on the grass, playing soccer against Porto in the first leg of the Taca da Liga semifinals.
Then, Porto's Ricardo Pereira turned on the gravity and Coentrao's day went from good to extremely bad. Pereira got the ball on the right wing and burst into space with Coentrao in hot pursuit. Then Pereira hit the brakes and a big chunk of gravity whumped into Coentrao, who hit the deck.
Liga MX’s Atlas welcomed second-tier Tampico Madero to the Estadio Jalisco on Wednesday night, and the courageous Brave Crabs of Tampico pulled off a stunning upset that all began with a 45-yard piece of violence from 19-year-old forward Eduardo Aguirre.
A penalty from Atlas’ Milton Caraglio gave his side a 1-0 lead in the 44th minute, but a five-minute brace from Aguirre turned the match on its head, gave Tampico Madero the three points and put them on the cusp of the knockout stage.
This is the sort of goal players score in practice against a goalkeeper who is only sort of paying attention, then post on Instagram and get like a bajillion likes (or faves, or whatever the currency for post popularity is on Instagram. I am not on Instagram), only Ivo Rodrigues did it in a game.
Rodrigues, a Portuguese winger on loan at Royal Antwerp in Belgium from Porto, scored that goal in a league match against Oostende (Royal Antwerp won, 4-3) near the end of August, and it just won Belgium's Goal of the Year award. Deserved, we think.
We've written about Hirving "Chucky" Lozano's so-far excellent first season in Europe more times than we can count, but we are going to do it again because Chucky scored again.
Lozano finished off a wonderful team move for PSV (the assist from Luuk de Jong is just great) in the 17th minute against Excelsior in the Eredivisie Wednesday. It was the only goal of the match.
Arsenal fans know all about catastrophic blunders in defense this year. From Granit Xhaka completely switching off to Petr Cech whiffing on a kick, the Gunners’ defensive frailty is terrifying — and that’s just the Swansea game. But Ayr United in Scotland has Arsenal beat for ineptitude at the back. This video is just under a minute long, but it’s 58 seconds of the worst football you’ll watch this year.
These Carlos Tevez career highlights are wild. He is just too strong, too potent, too accurate. In one word: uncontainable.
The Argentine turned 34 on Monday and we thought it was worth remembering some of his best goals and plays.
El Apache started his professional career playing for Boca Juniors in 2001. He was only 16 years old.