Upsets

Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri is struggling to impose his style of play on the Turin side and his frustration came out into the open again after a poor performance in their Champions League defeat to Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday. 

In comments that could be viewed as refreshingly honest or a risky public criticism of his players, the chain-smoking 61-year-old said that his team were struggling to grasp the concept of passing the ball around quickly — a style dubbed "Sarri-ball" by his admirers. 

Heading into Wednesday’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg between Real Madrid and Manchester City, the narrative centered around the contrasting styles of managers Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola. In essence, how would the laissez-faire approach of Zidane, which yielded back-to-back-to-back titles in this competition between 2016 and 2018, fare against the meticulous neuroticism of Guardiola, which hasn’t earned the Spaniard Old Big Ears since 2011. 

In terms of a 1-0 scoreline, there’s no greater beatdown than the one RB Leipzig just administered to Tottenham in London on Wednesday. The difference on the scoreboard was Timo Werner’s 58th-minute penalty, but the difference on the pitch was an incredible gulf in tempo, build-up play and variation in attack.

Diego Simeone once summed up his coaching philosophy in one brief sentence: “Effort is non-negotiable.” 

On Tuesday, the Atlético team on the pitch at the Wanda Metropolitano fully embodied its manager in a heroic 1-0 Champions League Round of 16 first-leg victory over defending champion Liverpool.  

Entering Sunday’s match against league-leading Real Madrid mired in 18th place, Celta Vigo faced mission impossible at the Santiago Bernabéu — especially so since Real welcomed Eden Hazard back to the starting XI for the first time since Nov. 23.

But this is the wildest of LaLiga seasons with both Real and Barcelona looking mere shadows of their former selves, and it’s become increasingly difficult to label any result registered against the Spanish giants as a “shock.” 

It’s a confirmation of what everyone has come to understand over the past decade, but Miguel Delaney’s article in The Independent on Wednesday — entitled “How football became broken beyond repair” — is a sobering bit of realism that effectively illustrates how stale, predictable, undemocratic and hyper-capitalist the modern game has become.

Real Madrid and the Copa Del Rey simply don’t mesh well. On Thursday, the Spanish giants were knocked out of the tournament in the quarterfinals at the hands of Real Sociedad. The loss also ended a 21-game unbeaten streak for Los Blancos.

In the most ironic fashion, Real Madrid loanee Martin Odegaard opened up the scoring for Sociedad midway through the first half. Alexander Isak thought he doubled the lead in the 49th minute but his goal was disallowed. No worries though as Isak would get his goal just five minutes later, and it was a fabulous volley at that.

For a club that’s won the FA Cup six times and made it to the final on 13 occasions (only Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal have more final appearances), Newcastle’s abysmal recent record in the competition is astounding.

Heading into Tuesday’s Fourth Round replay with third-tier Oxford United, Newcastle hadn’t advanced to the Fifth Round (the Round of 16) in 14 years — that’s despite the club being a Premier League side in each corresponding year apart from two.