The Camp Nou was just over half full on Sunday as Barcelona — already confirmed league champion — hosted Getafe in the penultimate game of the LaLiga season. Ernesto Valverde named a strong lineup for the meaningless match, giving the 57,000 in attendance the chance to voice their displeasure at the capitulation the team suffered last Tuesday at Anfield.
Juventus has unrelieved its jersey for the 2019-20 season, and it’s a radical change for the club that includes Le Zebre (The Zebras) amongst its nicknames. Instead of the traditional black and white striped shirts that the club has worn since 1903, Juve will go monochrome next campaign with a line of pink dissecting the colors.
Dare to set new standards.
Torino stayed in the mix for European football next season — perhaps even the Champions League — with a 3-2 victory over Sassuolo in Serie A action on Sunday, and the entire match was really dictated by Torino striker Andrea Belotti.
The 25-year-old Italian missed a penalty in the 17th minute, had an incredible bicycle kick saved in the 47th, equalized 1-1 for Torino in the 56th and then converted the club’s match-winner in the 82nd minute with ANOTHER bicycle kick.
Look how similar these two efforts are.
Everyone knows the famous boxing photograph of a victorious Muhammad Ali towering over the vanquished Sonny Liston. It’s an image that screams pride, power and the futility of attempting to fight the sport’s GOAT. During today’s Europa League semifinal second leg between Chelsea and Eintracht Frankfurt, we got a recreation of that famous moment, except Ali was substituted for Kepa Arrizabalaga (who refuses to be substituted himself) and Liston for a soccer ball.
In great news for Jamaica, the 2019 Gold Cup and fans attending the USMNT’s upcoming friendly against the Reggae Boyz at Audi Field in Washington, D.C., 21-year-old Bayer Leverkusen winger Leon Bailey is reportedly finally set to make his international debut for the side after years of disputes between the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), the player and his representative, step-father Craig Butler.
Last night in Amsterdam, Tottenham’s Lucas Moura scored the latest-ever match-winner in the history of Champions League regular time (90+6’) to transform the scene inside Johan Cruijff ArenA from that of full-fledged euphoria to utter devastation.
In the end he was left to perform for the Doping Control Officer. And the sad, silent song of Lionel Messi’s stream, deep in the bowels of an Anfield that had threatened to rupture, made the hour twice as long as he waited for the sun to go sinking.
With Mohamed Salah ruled out of Tuesday’s Liverpool-Barcelona Champions League semifinal second leg with a concussion, maybe Jordi Alba thought he was in for a beautiful stroll across the lovely confines of Anfield. Maybe, looking across at replacement Xherdan Shaqiri, he thought, “Hell yeah, I might be marginally taller than this dude.”
Or perhaps he thought he’d simply feed it to Lionel Messi (as has been the case on three occasions in LaLiga and twice in the UCL this season) and let him do the rest.
Last Wednesday, Lionel Messi recorded his 600th goal for Barcelona during his club’s 3-0 Champions League semifinal first leg victory over Liverpool. It was an astonishing free kick, the 42nd of his Barça career, that venomously flew right past Joe Gomez’s face before curling into the top corner from 35 yards out.
Real Madrid completed its penultimate home match of the season when recording a 3-2 victory over Villarreal on Sunday. With a Champions League spot already secure next year, los Blancos have nothing to play for, and that fact was mirrored in the stands at the Santiago Bernabéu.