Welcome to Europe, Diego Lainez.
Lainez, a diminutive, 18-year-old Mexican, moved to Real Betis from Club América in January to join club vice captain Andrés Guardado, a fellow Mexico international. He had played in five matches before Thursday with all of two yellow cards to show for it.
The 2018-19 Europa League has turned the page on the group stage action and now looks ahead to February with the knockout round draw having been completed. While it's no future Europa League 2, the competition still comes with a major trophy, a spot in the Champions League and features more variety amongst the clubs that will challenge for the title.
If I were to tell you that I’ve got a new highlight from Ricardo Quaresma to share, your first guess, of course, should be a ridiculous trivela from outside the area. That’s not what this footage concerns, but here’s that trivela goal against Iran that sent Portugal to the Round of 16 last summer.
Ricardo Quaresma's goal today vs Iran was straight pic.twitter.com/yapZd2r5hl
From the creative studios that brought you Michael Bay movies and the Cavemen show, it's their latest and greatest idea — Europa League 2. Have you ever sat there on a Thursday, having watched the Champions League over the past two days, a bit let down from having to see Arsenal or Chelsea play some club you've never heard of and thought: "I wish this could be Watford at Qarabağ?" Yes? Well, you are in for a treat.
The final few years of Arsene Wenger's reign over Arsenal were like a slow, painful breakup with the fans. After 20 straight seasons of finishing in the top four and qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, the club ended the last two campaigns fifth and sixth. To make matters worse, their road form had become dreadful. During the 2017-18 season, Arsenal had four wins, four draws and 11 losses, with a -11 goal differential.
For the second straight year — after 19 straight seasons in the Champions League — Arsenal is plugging away on Thursday nights in the Europa League. As someone who enjoys watching the Gunners, I’m kind of loving it.
While I would probably prefer to watch Arsenal on Tuesdays or Wednesdays back in the Champions League, facing teams like PSG and Barcelona instead of Sporting and Qarabag, Arsenal in the Europa League is so much more fun this year for one reason and one reason alone: Univision Deportes.
Recently, we’ve highlighted the stellar play of young Englishmen in the Bundesliga, with Jadon Sancho tearing it up at Borussia Dortmund and Reiss Nelson scoring like crazy for Hoffenheim. Perhaps even more surprising: A young Englishman is excelling at Chelsea, as evidenced by the Ruben Loftus-Cheek hat trick on Thursday.
On one hand, you have to give Hekuran Kryeziu credit; he single-handedly earned his team a win on Thursday. On the other, his despicable Europa League flop should probably earn him more hatred than anything else he’ll do in his entire career.
FC Zürich held on to defeat Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 in a top-of-the-table clash in Group A of the Europa League on Thursday at Letzigrund Stadion in Switzerland. That the Swiss club was able to beat the German side came down to one moment in the 94th minute, which will distract from the club’s rally from being down 2-1 in the second half.
The Europa League always has plenty of amazing goals and delightful skills to marvel at. A second-rate competition behind the Champions League, it also has plenty of horrible play. On Thursday, we saw some of both, with the latter coming in the form of a shocking goalkeeping error.
Finally, UEFA has confirmed it has common sense. On Thursday, the Executive Committee confirmed there will be VAR in Champions League matches starting with the 2019 season.
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