Barcelona won Sunday's Copa del Rey final 2-0 against Sevilla in extra time, but they did it mostly without all-world striker Luis Suarez, who won the Pichichi Award as La Liga's top scorer and had the best season of his career.
Suarez limped off in the second half, and was seen in tears on the bench afterward. It's hard not to feel for the guy.
Down a man after only 36 minutes and without Luis Suarez, their leading scorer, Barcelona were still able to overcome Sevilla after extra time in Sunday's Copa del Rey final thanks to a brilliant assist from Lionel Messi to Jordi Alba. Neymar added a second goal in the 122nd minute off of another great pass from Messi.
Barcelona, recently crowned La Liga champions, faced off against Sevilla, recent winners of the UEFA Europa League, at the Vicente Calderon Stadium in the Spanish capital of Madrid.
The Uruguay National Team have a successful relationship with the Copa America. Nobody has won the competition more than La Celeste, who have lifted the trophy on 15 occasions. That said, last year was desperately disappointing for them as Uruguay was knocked out in the quarterfinals by eventual champions Chile. Despite that, Uruguay has to be considered one of the favorites to win the Copa America Centenario this summer.
Bayen Munich have won the DFB Pokal for a record 18th time.
Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich played out an intense and draining DFB Pokal final that ended up having to go to extra time.
As expected Bayern dominated the possession and the shot count, but Dortmund would not give in to their bitter rivals and refused to back down.
When Pep Guardiola moved Lionel Messi from the right wing to the middle of the park, he unleashed a monster. The fist instance of the move resulted in a 6-2 destruction of arch rivals Real Madrid. It took a bit of time for the position to become Messi’s primary one but, once it did, world-beating results followed. Have you ever heard of Lionel Messi’s 91 goal year in 2012? Yeah, that happened when he was playing striker.
It doesn't matter which sport they play, whenever a superstar announces that he's looking for a new home, rumors start flooding in from all sides. In soccer, there are perhaps only three names more recognizable than Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the whole world.
Well, as soon as Zlatan said the words, "I came like a king, left like a legend", the media started going wild with rumors.
Isco's dog is named Messi. The Spanish international confessed that before he joined Real Madrid in 2013 he named his dog after Barcelona star Lionel Messi, stating that "Messi is the best in the world and so is my dog." Isco's dog is pretty cute, we'll give him that.
When it comes to soccer, the words and opinions of Sir Alex Ferguson are nothing if not respected. The man guided Manchester United to a dynasty and developed numerous world-class talents along the way.
Arguably the best talent Ferguson ever managed was Cristiano Ronaldo. Ferguson took the young Portuguese from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United at the age of 18 and turned him into a star. You could even go so far as to say Ferguson laid the foundation that allowed Ronaldo to become what he is today: one of the greatest players of all time.
When Germany announced their preliminary squad for Euro 2016, the accompanying names were a comforting who’s who of Die Mannschaft familiarity. There’s good old hulking center forward Mario Gomez, the ageless but totally aging Bastian Schweinsteiger and footballer turned living memorial, Lukas Podolski.
Alongside the talents of Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil, Manuel Neuer and Jerome Boateng, this is a side that should certainly be favorites to win Euro 2016 as the reigning world champions.