Claudio Bravo, Chile’s goalkeeping hero during penalty shootout victories over Argentina at both the 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals, came up trumps again against Portugal at the 2017 Confederations Cup semifinal stage. Bravo faced penalties from Ricardo Quaresma, Joao Moutinho and Nani, saving all three of them.
Bravo!
Spain’s team competing at the UEFA U-21 Euros is ridiculously talented, as we’ve laid out before.
Saúl Ñíguez is making a case to be the best of the lot.
The Atletico Madrid midfielder notched a brilliant hat trick to send Spain past 10-man Italy 3-1 in the semifinals to set up a date with Germany in the final on Friday.
Poor Gianluigi Donnarumma didn’t have a chance.
Does Cristiano Ronaldo exist? Scientists have pondered this question for millennia. French philosopher Rene Descartes provided perhaps the most widely-believed theory when he posited that "I think, therefore I am." This, in essence theorizes that one can only know that one's self is real, therefore it is impossible to prove whether Cristiano Ronaldo exists.
Writing about Donnarumma is getting too easy. It’s not only hilarious, but the player, agent, and club are managing to handle events in the worst way possible. It’s also moving at a ridiculous pace.
The "will he/won’t he" saga has long since passed Ross and Rachel levels of intrigue. We have newspaper headlines, press conferences, social media posts, and social media posts that have been retracted, allegedly as the result of a hack. Honestly, it’s too hot to keep track of all of this. But it’s the summer and there’s not much else to get excited about in Italian football.
Chile found themselves in an unenviable position Sunday, going down 1-0 to Australia and putting their spot in the Confederations Cup semifinals in jeopardy.
Australia scores against the run of play to make things interesting in Group B! @Powerade #CHIAUS #ConfedCup https://t.co/cczRpn2q8I
We all figured Germany would make it through to the knockout stage of the Confederations Cup, and guss what: they did. The reigning world champions beat Cameroon 3-1 behind Kerem Demirbay and Timo Werner, who scored his first two senior international goals, to advance at the top of Group B. They will face Mexico in the semifinals on Thursday.
No disrespect to Carlos Bacca, but the Colombian forward's status as AC Milan’s premier forward has somewhat come to symbolize the seven-time European champion's fall from grace. More industrious than stardust, Bacca simply isn’t cut from the same cloth of Andriy Shevhenko, Filippo Inzaghi or Marco van Basten.
Goals from Nestor Araujo and Hirving Lozano were enough to see Mexico through to the semifinals of the FIFA Confederations Cup. Russia took an early lead through Aleksandr Samedov, but Yuri Zhirkov’s red card in the 68th minute extinguished any hopes of a Russian comeback.
Portugal’s 4-0 victory over New Zealand consigned Mexico to a runners-up finish in Group A, setting up a semifinal match against, most likely, either Germany or Chile.