Outside of Leicester City, one of the most improbable feel good stories of the year is the rejuvenation of French winger Hatem Ben Arfa's career. On January 4, 2015, Ben Arfa was released from his contract with Newcastle United, making him a free agent. Now, a little over a year later, he’s on the verge of signing for Barcelona as a vital back-up for their heralded front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.
Do you like jazz? Do you like Lionel Messi? Do you like one and not the other? Well, either way you're in luck. A redditor created a video that compiled all of Messi's passes with the sweet sounds of piano, bass, trombone and trumpet playing in the background. One thing you'll notice in this video is actually the amount of opportunities missed by Messi's teammates after he feeds them pin point passes. Alas, the Argentine still has 15 assists in La Liga, which is good enough to be tied for first in the league with his teammate, Luis Suarez.
Yaya Toure’s UEFA Champions League testimonial match went off without a hitch on Wednesday, the Manchester City midfielder ponderously strolling around the Bernabéu pitch and gently reminding his teammates not to forget his going away cake.
Like Ernest Hemingway’s aging Cuban fisherman Santiago, it almost certainly would've taken 85 days of play before Toure could've netted a goal against Real Madrid.
After a largely drama-free edition of the Champions League semi-finals, we get an already drama-filled Madrid Derby Champions League final. This will be fun.
It almost didn't happen, though, as the second leg of Manchester City vs. Real Madrid was nearly as much of a snoozer as the first leg. Gareth Bale supplied one piece of entertainment when his shot/cross/thing hit Fernando's leg and then went past Joe Hart and into the net.
On the score sheet, it will go down as Fernando's own goal due to deflection, but it was Gareth Bale's run and chip that got the scoring going in the last match of the Champions League semi finals. Real Madrid scored in the 20th minute and held on to defeat Manchester City 1 - 0 to advance to the Champions League final. Both teams traded chances as Bale hit the woodwork and Aguero had a shot just inches over the bar.
The city will be divided as Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid will face off in Milan on May 28th.
In the Champions League quarterfinals, Real Madrid were in a dire situation, having lost the first leg at Wolfsburg. A Cristiano Ronaldo hat trick later, they were in the semifinals.
It's not quite so dire this time for Madrid, having drawn the semi-final first leg 0-0 in Manchester, but they basically need to win to advance.
Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid faced off today in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals. Atletico Madrid took a 1-0 aggregate lead into Allianz Arena, however 31 minutes in, Xabi Alonso's free kick equalized that advantage. Antoine Griezmann's 54th minute goal tied the match at 1 and gave Atleti the lead on aggregate. Lewandowski added a header in the 74th, but Griezmann's goal was the tiebreaker. Atletico advance to the finals and await the winner of Manchester City and Real Madrid.
Bayern Munich vs. Atletico Madrid
Alonso 31'
Good news for Real Madrid fans: Cristiano Ronaldo is back in training. The club announced their superstar Portuguese winger completed a training session Monday, leaving the door open for the Ballon d'Or runner-up to take the pitch in the Champions League later this week.
Barcelona came into their game against Real Betis knowing that they needed to win to stay in first place in La Liga over Atletico Madrid via head-to-head point differential, but they came out of the gates like a team with little to play for.
Seven yellow cards were given out between Barcelona and Betis in the first half, more than the number of shots taken by both teams in that time, six.
It's pretty clear that Lionel Messi is naturally talented. Even when he was 17, you could see that he was just inherently special. That being said, Lionel Messi didn't make it to where he is by pure talent alone. It takes a lot of hard work and discipline to play at the top level and produce the kind of numbers that Messi does. Needless to say, the Lionel Messi diet is probably a pretty good one.