Sports announcers often use cliches like "you can't write a script like that" or "that was a Hollywood ending" when describing a particularly unpredictable and exciting game.
On Wednesday, the EFL Championship took the script, ripped it up, taped it back together, wrote 20 more pages, ripped it up again, then burned it for good measure.
In a season already filled with insanity, it’s no surprise that there's also been a slew of hilarious and outrageous surprises on the pitch.
Now, most of us would agree that we put professional athletes on a pedestal where they can do no wrong and everything they do is perfect, but what if I told you the 2019-20 season — in all of its absurd glory — produced some of the best bloopers and open-goal misses? Comic relief might be something we all need.
Christian Pulisic tried everything in his power to be the “Johnny Raincloud” for Liverpool on the day where the Reds would lift the Premier League trophy for the first time in club history. And damn did Pulisic come close.
The American sat on the bench for the start of the match and had to watch Liverpool open the floodgates in the first half with three goals in the span of 20 minutes.
The scoring frenzy began with Naby Keïta picking up Willian’s loose touch and going for top bins with a thunderbolt of a strike.
Manchester United dropped crucial points in the Champions League race and West Ham secured its safety in the Premier League after the two clubs drew 1-1 on Wednesday.
The real story out of the feisty tie was Paul Pogba’s questionable decision making that led to the Hammers’ goal.
West Ham took the lead moments before halftime courtesy of Pogba pulling the most youth soccer move you’ll ever see at the highest level of the sport. Pogba was clearly caught off guard during a West Ham free kick and instinctively chose to protect his face.
Veteran forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice in the first half to give AC Milan a 2-1 win at 10-man Sassuolo on Tuesday as they remained unbeaten since the restart of the season and guaranteed a place in the Europa League.
The 38-year-old Swede got in front of his marker to head in from Hakan Calhanoglu's cross in the 19th minute and latched on to a through ball before rounding Andrea Consigli to add the second in first-half injury time.
Napoli forward Matteo Politano scored deep into stoppage time to give them a 2-1 win at home to Udinese on Sunday, minutes after defender Kalidou Koulibaly had rescued the hosts with a dramatic goal-line clearance.
Udinese forward Rodrigo De Paul looked set to score in the 85th minute when the ball ran loose to him with only goalkeeper David Ospina to beat. He dinked it over the Colombian but Koulibaly managed to get his knee to it and deflect it onto the crossbar.
Instead, Politano curled in the winner for Napoli, his first goal for the club, in the 95th minute.
Former Manchester United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard — who made 29 appearances for the club between 2011 and 2014 — is back on our radar after scoring the first goal of his career while playing for Sweden’s Helsingborg.
In a match between Allsvenskan strugglers, Helsingborg escaped with a draw against Falkenberg after Lindegaard came forward for a corner kick in the 90th minute and planted a towering header inside the far post.
Tottenham striker Harry Kane looked back to his best with two quality goals as his side dealt a huge blow to Leicester City's top-four hopes with a 3-0 victory in the Premier League on Sunday.
Kane struggled for sharpness when the season resumed last month, a legacy of the serious hamstring injury that sidelined him from Jan. 1, but the striker produced a dazzling display as Spurs boosted their Europa League qualifying hopes.
AFC Bournemouth’s five-year stay in England’s top flight (the club’s first stint in its 121-year history) is almost certainly at an end following Sunday’s 2-0 loss to South Coast rivals Southampton. The match-winner was scored by Danny Ings, taking his total to 21 on the season and just two behind Jamie Vardy in the Premier League Golden Boot race.
In a must-win — or at least draw — match for Eddie Howe’s side, it was 12th-place Southampton that dominated proceedings and earned its ultimate reward in the 41st minute thanks to Ings' precise finish from 18 yards out.
Before Manchester City’s FA Cup semifinal, Kyle Walker said he thought his team could score as many as eight goals if things go well against Arsenal. Indeed, the Citizens could have scored eight on Saturday, creating chance after chance against a Gunners defense that still has plenty of deficiencies.
“It’s a knockout game, it’s what both teams do in both boxes that makes the difference,” Walker said before the match. “I think we have proven that when we’re on fire and things go our way, we can go and score three, four ... and maybe even seven or eight.”