Champions League

It’s one of those types of goals you see all the time in the youth game but hardly ever see in professional football, and we just love to see it. As soon as we saw this Ajax indirect free kick goal, we knew we had to share it with you, our dear readers.

In the 12th minute with Ajax already up one, FC Midtjylland was penalized for the goalkeeper handling a pass back. Referees know this is a rare instance where the offensive team is awarded an indirect free kick in the box, not a penalty kick. Here’s what ensued.

We’ve got a new leader in rowdy UEFA Champions League Group B, and Real Madrid and Inter Milan should really just be thankful that Borussia Mönchengladbach isn’t dashing off into the sunset at this point.

After drawing 2-2 with both Real and Inter by way of conceding 90th-minute equalizers, Gladbach travelled to Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday in a violent mood inspired by French forward Alassane Pléa.

Lokomotiv Moscow’s Brazilian keeper Guilherme had himself a night to remember, pulling off five saves, many of the remarkable variety. But the lasting imagery of Atlético Madrid’s 1-1 draw on Tuesday will be that of the Luis Suárez yellow card for a bit of tomfoolery. 

Leading 1-0 after 20 minutes, Héctor Herrera had a ball deflect off his arm in the box, which can mean only one thing these days: VAR. Referee Viktor Kassai was asked to watch the replay on the pitch-side monitor to check out the infringement. He was joined by Suárez, who wanted to sneak a peek himself. 

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard said Christian Pulisic's hamstring injury is not serious but the American winger will miss Wednesday's Champions League match at home to Stade Rennais.

Pulisic, who had returned in early October from a two-month injury layoff, pulled up his hamstring during the warm-up for the match at Burnley on Saturday, with Timo Werner replacing him on the left wing in Chelsea's 3-0 victory at Turf Moor.

In all honesty, we’ve only just begun to see the torrential number of ways in which COVID-19 can disrupt football in a purely sporting sense. 

Major League Soccer’s regular season has been severely disrupted by the pandemic with a logjam of postponed matches that can no longer be completed before the start of the playoffs, forcing qualification to be determined on a points-per-game basis rather than the final standings. 

PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain's Brazil forward Neymar will be sidelined until after the international break in mid-November following his injury against Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League, the French club's coach Thomas Tuchel said on Friday.

Neymar came off with a thigh muscle problem in the 26th minute of Wednesday's 2-0 win over the Turkish side.

Juventus and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo has recovered from a COVID-19 infection, the Serie A club said on Friday.

. @Cristiano recovers from Covid-19https://t.co/4etecyAw0O pic.twitter.com/YPZSm0My8A

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) October 30, 2020

Is Frank Lampard anti-American? Jesse Marsch appeared to make such claims last week, but now the Chelsea boss is hitting back at the accusations.

Marsch, who coaches RB Salzburg, laid some heavy accusations at his fellow coach on a recent podcast. The Wisconsin native essentially claimed Lampard had anti-American bias over his treatment of Christian Pulisic upon his arrival at Chelsea.

Barcelona's 17-year-old midfielder Pedri may not have got on the scoresheet in his side's 2-0 Champions League win over Juventus but the teenager was the unmistakeable star in a victory that gave life to his wounded side and put him on the map.

Given a second start in a row despite looking fazed in Saturday's 3-1 defeat by Real Madrid, Pedri played with ambition and bravery against the Italian champions, driving Barça's play with slick passing and confident dribbling.

Speed kills. Take one look at the fastest soccer players 2020 according to the UEFA Champions League technical report and you’ll find some of the world’s most devastating attackers — players like Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Kingsley Coman.

However, it also says a lot about the changing tactics of the modern game that you’ll also find “defenders” who can more frequently be found going forward — think Alphonso Davies, Ferland Mendy and Kyle Walker.