For anyone wondering, let’s get the essentials out of the way: Fiorentina versus Juventus is a big match. This is truer for one side than the other, however. Before Sunday’s game, Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci told the press that while the fixture was the most important date in most Florentines’ football calendar, it was just another game for the reigning champions.
Three days after Real Madrid heroically set the Spanish unbeaten streak record by scoring at the death against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey, Sevilla returned the favor in La Liga action on Sunday.
Liverpool travelled to the home of their most vaunted rivals and were minutes away from securing all three points, but a Zlatan Ibrahimovic header in the 84th minute rescued Manchester United.
Liverpool appeared to be in control thanks to a series of great saves from the oft-criticized Simon Mignolet on Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ibrahimovic and an inexplicable handball from Paul Pogba while defending a corner.
James Milner dispatched the resulting penalty with a powerful effort from the spot in the 27th minute.
Luis Enrique opted to leave Neymar, Andres Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic and Gerard Pique out of the starting XI for Barcelona’s match against Las Palmas at the Camp Nou on Saturday, even though the side from the Canary Islands is eighth in La Liga.
But this is Barcelona, and they thrashed their opposition behind the primary strength of Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi. Suarez scored a brace and Messi added one of his own, bringing them both to 14 La Liga goals on the season as joint top-scorers.
Ashton Surber, a footballer who was born and raised on Guam and, according to an article on FIFA.com from 2013, serves in the US Air Force, achieved the remarkable hat-trick of scoring a bicycle kick, proposing to his now fiancee and receiving a caution for removing his shirt.
Using the sole of your boot, the roll over is a simple skill performed to create space, quickly vary the direction of your passing options or to take the ball around a defender's tackle. The likes of Andres Iniesta, Cristiano Ronaldo and Eden Hazard can show you how it’s done on YouTube.
But if you’re looking for a variant of the move, a sort of playground evolution to get people out of their seats and screaming “Holy s***! Did you see the tekkers on that young fella?”, then you’ll need to YouTube James Milner.
That’s right, Boring James Milner.
Last time we popped in for a look at the Sao Paulo Youth Cup we focused on the bad (funny) side of the Copa Sao Paulo, as we watched a Corinthians defender score one of the weirdest own goals of the past few years. Well, this time we are back showing the good side of Brazil’s premier youth competition.
With a single play, Fluminense’s 18-year-old midfielder Pedrinho went from unknown prospect to having fans bothering manager Abel Braga to call the youngster up to the senior squad.
Christian Pulisic scored another goal for Borussia Dortmund in a friendly over the Bundesliga winter break, notching the opener in his sides 3-0 victory over Belgium’s Standard Liege.
For Pulisic, it was his second goal in two games following his strike against PSV Eindhoven last weekend.
Sevilla and Real Madrid drew 3-3 in their Copa del Rey round of 16 second leg match, extending Real’s unbeaten run to 40 games, and Los Blancos advanced to the quarterfinals, 6-3 on aggregate. Karim Benzema scored with the final touch of the match to continue Madrid's remarkable streak.
You could be forgiven for forgetting that, at the age of 24, Juan Mata had already achieved the remarkable feat of winning World Cup, European Championship and Champions League titles. The diminutive Spaniard, now 28, manages to avoid the public eye, and the attentions of defenders, with a cerebral approach that wins plaudits without approaching the levels of adulation that his surrounding cast receives.