Funny

Premier League relegation is a simple concept: Your team was not good enough this season so they, and two other teams, have to drop down to the tier below (the Championship) and will play their games there next season. Conversely, the Championship will promote three teams to the Premier League to take their places (let’s not get into the playoffs). This toing and froing happens all the way down the league structure.

Looking at the Ligue 1 standings, it's safe to say that bottom-of-the-table Angers are destined for relegation.

On Sunday, the club travelled to mid-table Clermont Foot in one of the most unremarkable matches across France this weekend, meaning it was up to the supporters to largely entertain themselves at Clermont's modest Stade Gabriel Montpied.

The traveling Angers fans — hoping to witness just a fourth victory in 31 attempts — had a little corner to themselves and could be seen wearing black for the first 20 minutes.

It's not every day you get a chance to see Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Busquets, Gavi and LaLiga champions-elect Barcelona in the flesh, so spectators used any accessible vantage point at the Alfonso Pérez stadium on Sunday to get a glimpse of the traveling Blaugrana. 

Following a 0-0 draw (Barça's second in a row), it's probably fair to say the main story actually concerns those who missed the trip through injury (Ousmane Dembélé and Pedri), but three ingenious young men avoided paying a dime for the nil-nil affair by scaling a large tree.

He didn’t play, but that doesn't mean that we don't have a recap.

Christian Pulisic vs. Real Madrid 

Christian Pulisic's first action was to ignore the artwork on the wall inside the Bernabéu. 

That’s the mindset of a champion right there. Why would he focus on the final in Istanbul when he has a big quarterfinal ahead of him? He takes things one step at a time like all winners do.

Next up was getting dressed and killing it in warmups.

Sweden is only just emerging from winter's deathly grip with the 2023 Allsvenskan season beginning last weekend. Some players are evidently still working off the rust. 

On Matchday 2, Häcken welcomed Hammarby to Gothenburg and stormed to a 3-1 victory with forward Bénie Traoré scoring a first-half hat trick. 

Traoré, a 20-year-old who has represented the Ivory Coast's U-23 side, opened the scoring in the fifth-minute after a howler from Hammarby goalkeeper Oliver Dovin.

Los Angeles FC and United States men's national team center back Aaron Long has a superhuman ability to block shots. This whole time Long has been hiding his true defensive qualities. 

On Wednesday night during LAFC's 3-0 Concacaf Champions League victory vs. the Vancouver Whitecaps, he showed fans a glimpse of what he’s capable of.

Long decided that defending the old fashioned way was too easy. Instead, he opted to lay face-down on the floor and dared his opponents to try and shoot. Vancouver’s Javain Brown fell for the bait and was thwarted by the Long-inator.

Vibes in the Real Madrid camp are through the roof, and after booking their ticket to yet another final in the Carlo Ancelotti era, the Italian chief of Valdebebas gave the world champions a day off following their goalscoring retaliation in Catalonia.

The players' reaction? Reminiscent of a “school has been canceled due to weather” voicemail.