The 2018 World Cup was always going to be a little unhinged. This, after all, is a country in which groups of ultras get together before league games and partake in semi-organized brawls. After the Russians took the spotlight at Euro 2016 in France with some, well let's be polite and call them "antics," folks were right to be worried about fan safety during the World Cup.
Just at the beginning of the second half during Monday's Eintracht Frankfurt-RB Leipzig contest, Eintracht Frankfurt fans expressed their displeasure with Monday matches by covering the field in tennis balls and a goal in streamers, hurled from the stands.
After Sadio Mane and his pals ended Porto's 24-match unbeaten streak at home in destructive fashion Wednesday, one would think the Porto fans would be, like, mad or something.
But they weren't. Or, at least, if they had any anger they pushed it down deep inside themselves to be let out later at (to pick a profession at random) a tow-truck driver. Instead, the Porto fans cheered their team following an embarrassing loss just as loudly as they would have following a big win.
It was a harmless tweet — maybe even a funny one. Before Chelsea’s Premier League match with West Brom on Monday, the Blues’ Twitter handle (@ChelseaFC) made a Star Wars joke centered around one of the space opera’s most lovable characters. But the Chelsea Twitter fans were having none of it.
Just to confirm, it's #CHEWBA tonight, not... pic.twitter.com/u8vctTuaez
Whoever first said "never meet your heroes" obviously didn't see this young Stoke City fan's eyes light up when he figured out he was going to get to meet Peter Crouch.
Crouch, a tall, lanky center forward, is known as one of the game's good guys, so it's nice to see young fans so excited to see him, even if he is on the tail-end of his career.
Sunday’s 1-1 draw between Newcastle United and Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park kept both teams rooted in the Premier League’s 10-team relegation scrap, and perhaps that was the motivation for this pitch invader’s attempt to literally drown his sorrows on the field.
The man’s antics included pouring beer all over his face, going on a short jog before getting absolutely truck-sticked by a vigilant steward and then offering a flurry of wanker gestures and Bronx salutes while being escorted from the ground. What a day out.
Arsenal and West Brom drew 1-1 on Sunday in a match that didn’t really get going until the final 10 minutes. But catching the eye more than the insipid performance from the Gunners was the odd choice of Arsenal kit, which was all red for the first time since 1978. Social media was not exactly impressed.