Philippe Coutinho is coming, but before the Little Magician is able to impact his new side, Barcelona neatly summarized their 2017-18 season so far with a 3-0 victory over Levante that oozed class all around the pitch. The Camp Nou was witness to three beautiful goals on the day, one from Lionel Messi, another from Luis Suarez and the final from Paulinho off a mesmerizing Messi assist.
Liverpool has finally sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona. Initial numbers suggest Coutinho will net the Reds in the neighborhood of $192.7 million, a decent chunk of change for Jurgen Klopp to spend on a replacement or six. So let’s go ahead and start the totally unfounded Christian Pulisic to Liverpool speculation.
After months of speculation, Philippe Coutinho is moving to Barcelona. According to reports, the midfield maestro and pocket cannon will leave Liverpool for a reported $192.7 million. The Coutinho transfer fee ranks second all-time on the list of most expensive transfers in world football.
If you take your eyes off Manchester City, if you relax for just a moment, they will absolutely destroy you. Burnley learned that the hard way in the FA Cup third round. After the visitors took a surprise first-half lead, Manchester City punished them for a short lapse in concentration with Sergio Aguero scoring two goals in two minutes to turn a halftime deficit into a second-half lead on the way to a 4-1 victory on Saturday at the Etihad.
Oh Diego, how we missed you. Diego Costa made his long-awaited return to La Liga on Saturday as Atletico Madrid hosted Getafe at the Wanda Metropolitano. After the mercurial striker scored five minutes into his return with Atletico on Wednesday in the Copa del Rey, Costa had six more minutes of madness that perfectly encapsulate the best and worst he has to offer.
The institution that is Arsene Wenger was handed a three-match touchline ban and a $54,250 fine for a confrontation with referee Mike Dean after Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with West Brom on Sunday. The Wenger ban is nothing new for the Frenchman, who served a four-match touchline ban for a similar behavior last year. And Wenger didn’t even deny these accusations, fully admitting to what he said and standing by his criticism.
Mario Balotelli is either the greatest brother or the worst brother of all time. The Nice striker claims he defeated his brother, Enock Barwuah, a forward for Ciliverghe Mazzano in Italy, in FIFA and Enock will not admit his defeat. So Mario being Mario called in a few friends to make his point.
Neymar, Falcao, Kevin-Prince Boateng and even AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani, among others, joined in with Mario Balotelli trolling to call Enock a liar and a sore loser.
Ever wondered how defenders in the 60s and 70s coped with Pelé, perhaps the greatest player of all time? Defending Pelé was really quite simple: They kicked the sh*t out of him. And pushed him around. And threw him to the ground. And kicked him a few dozen more times.
Pelé scored 767 goals over his storied career but he would have had more were it not for the physical play of defenders who quickly realized the only hope they had to stop Pelé was to foul him.