English Clubs

MANCHESTER, England - It was Groundhog Day for Barcelona at Old Trafford on Thursday as Manchester United fought back to earn a 2-1 win that knocked the Spanish side out of the Europa League, leaving the Catalans licking their wounds after another continental failure.

Last season they also ended up in the Europa League playoffs after finishing third in their Champions League group and were knocked out of Europe's second tier competition in the quarterfinals after a 3-2 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou.

We haven't seen Christian Pulisic in action since his latest injury setback at Chelsea on Jan. 5 when the American hurt his knee against Manchester City with "a couple of months" out prescribed as the recovery tonic.  

RB Leipzig valiantly fought back to draw Manchester City 1-1 at Red Bull Arena on Wednesday during the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie. If you were watching CBS’ coverage of the game on Paramount+ then you were treated to some classic Ray Hudson commentary.

Hudson and his broadcast partner Andrés Cordero called Wednesday’s game. The plot of the 1-1 draw can be followed in some of Hudson’s funniest/weirdest quotes from the 90 minutes.

Jamie Carragher should probably be fired as an analyst after questioning Real Madrid's manifest destiny in the Champions League.

The 14-time winners appeared to live a charmed existence during last year's run to the title — coming back from 2-0 down in the final 30 minutes against PSG, coming back from 4-3 down in the final 10 minutes against Chelsea and coming back from 5-3 down in the final mere minutes against Manchester City before Thibaut Courtois' heroics in the final — but those are probably best analyzed as simply "Real Madrid things."

Sunday's EFL Cup final is a tale of two clubs desperate to herald the beginning of a new era with silverware. For Manchester United, ending a six-year wait for a major trophy would affirm Erik ten Hag's revolution. For Newcastle United, a 68-year drought would be remedied by the wealth of the Saudi PIF and the tinkerings of Eddie Howe. 

Leeds United have agreed terms to appoint former Valencia and Watford head coach Javi Gracia as their new manager on a 'flexible contract' to replace Jesse Marsch, the Premier League club said on Tuesday.

American Marsch was sacked on Feb. 6 after a poor run of form left the club in a relegation battle.

Leeds are 19th in the standings with 19 points from 23 games and face bottom club Southampton on Saturday.

LIVERPOOL, England - Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp conceded that he had not been able to bring himself to rewatch last season's Champions League final defeat by Real Madrid until this past weekend, insisting reliving the experience was "torture."

The Reds won their first three matches against Real in European competition, between 1981 and 2009. Since then, however, they are winless in six games against them, with five of those ending in defeat.

MANCHESTER, England - Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford's superb run of form continued as he netted a goal in each half of his side's 3-0 Premier League win over Leicester City on Sunday to extend his scoring streak to five games.

It was exactly what his side needed as they weathered an early storm from the visitors, with keeper David De Gea pulling off a superb save to deny Harvey Barnes in the eighth minute and topping that with an even better effort to keep out a Kelechi Iheanacho header.

NEWCASTLE — Liverpool ended Newcastle United's long unbeaten run in the Premier League through early goals by Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo that gave them a 2-0 victory at St. James' Park on Saturday.

Jürgen Klopp's side caught Newcastle cold with a scintillating start, and the stunned hosts were reduced to 10 men in the 22nd minute when goalkeeper Nick Pope was red-carded.

Nick Pope red card vs. Liverpool

Nick Pope gets a straight RED for handling the ball well outside of the box.