Europe

With three goals in the opening 20 minutes of today’s 3-2 victory over Athletic Bilbao, Real Betis captain Joaquín became the oldest ever hat-trick scorer in LaLiga history.

Mexican internationals Andrés Guardado and Diego Lainez both got the start for Betis at the Benito Villamarín, but it was Joaquín — at the age of 38 years and 140 days — who stole the show with the first three-goal game of his glittering 21-year career. 

Despite Antoine Griezmann scoring his first league goal in seven weeks with a sumptuous chip and Lionel Messi recording a record-breaking 35th hat-trick in LaLiga, all anyone wants to talk about nearly 24 hours after Barcelona’s captivating 5-2 victory over Mallorca is the Luis Suárez effort that the Uruguayan striker is labelling the best of his career. 

Just another day at the office for PSG sensation Kylian Mbappé on Wednesday. The 20-year-old scored his sixth goal in nine Ligue 1 games to keep PSG’s lead over second-place Marseille at five points. He also performed a shifty elastico and was asked by an opposing player to exchange shirts at halftime. 

After finishing sixth in 2019 Ballon d’Or voting on Monday, the prodigy delighted fans inside the Parc des Princes by looking very much like El Fenomeno with this trick.       

Beginning on Friday, June 12, with the opening match between Italy and Turkey in Rome and concluding on Sunday, July 12, with the final in London, all 51 matches of UEFA Euro 2020 will be aired live across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC while also being streamed on both the ESPN and ABC apps.

It was hailed as a cruel slam by Oh My Goal; The Sun called it a dig; The World Game went further and called it a cheeky dig; SPORTbible proclaimed it a Face with Tear of Joy emoji masterpiece; Piers Morgan jumped on the social media bandwagon; Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister tipped over the wagon and set it on fire in defense of her dear brother. 

The footballing populace hasn’t been this charged and incited into Twitter fervor since Megan Rapinoe proposed the outlandish idea of taking it upon ourselves to make the world a better place. 

So what happened?

According to The Telegraph’s Mike McGrath, Zlatan Ibrahimović has agreed to join AC Milan, putting an end to a month of speculation surrounding the 38-year-old striker following the expiration of his contract with the LA Galaxy. 

Barcelona returned to the top of the LaLiga following a crucial 1-0 victory over Atlético Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday, and it was a sensational Lionel Messi effort in 86th minute that secured all three points for the visitors.

Tuesday’s Champions League Group A encounter between Real Madrid and PSG at the Santiago Bernabéu was pretty much meaningless. Both teams entered the match with Round of 16 qualification secured, and even a Real victory would do little to wrest top spot from PSG due to the Parisians’ perfect record thus far.

Galatasaray, the reigning champion of Turkey, finally scored its first goal of the Champions League group stage, a couple days before Turkey Day in the United States. Adem Büyük scored one of the most unique goals you will ever see to keep Galatasaray’s hopes of reaching the Europa League alive with a 1-1 draw against Club Brugge on Tuesday.

But what Club Brugge did after its late equalizer made the match a perfect playoff for the Europa League.