Game Recaps

Tigres moved one step closer to their first-ever CONCACAF Champions League title by defeating Vancouver Whitecaps 2-0 in the first leg of the semifinals. An own goal from ‘Caps defender Kendall Waston and a half-volley from Chilean international Eduardo Vargas will have Tigres confident of seeing things through ahead of the return leg in Vancouver. 

Vancouver surprised everyone by making it this far in the competition, and their only hope was to give themselves a chance at BC Place by defending resolutely in the first leg.

We should just post our recap from the first leg between Juventus and Porto, really, because they were basically the same game. 

Both teams looked dangerous, with Juventus controlling a bit more of the possession, until Porto did something stupid, Juventus scored and that was that.

This time, it was a Maxi Pereira red card for blocking the ball with an outstretched arm after a shot from Gonzalo Higuain. Paulo Dybala converted the penalty and the tie was over, with Porto's poor finishing helping to put a lid on things.

Leicester City have defeated Sevilla 3-2 on aggregate (2-0 on the night) to advance to the Champions League quarterfinals behind goals from Wes Morgan and Marc Albrighton. Sevilla had Samir Nasri sent off in the 74th, a penalty saved by Kasper Schmeichel in the 80th and were ultimately left to rue their wastefulness in the first leg. This was Leicester's night. 

Leicester City manager Craig Shakespeare sent out the same XI that had defeated Liverpool and Hull City in his first two games in charge, Shinji Okazaki being the main beneficiary of the managerial change. 

It’s not often that the play of the weekend is a tackle, but Mats Hummels might’ve provided just that after his remarkable recovery and slide tackle in Bayern Munich’s match against Eintracht Frankfurt.

With the scores level between first and sixth in the Bundesliga table at the Allianz Arena, Branimir Hrgota raced clear of the Bayern defense for a one-on-one opportunity against Manuel Neuer. However, just as Hrgota shaped to shoot, Hummels came sliding in from behind to clear the ball for a corner.

The appointed heir to Gianluigi Buffon as Italy’s No. 1, could it be possible that AC Milan’s Gianluigi Donnarumma will eventually dwarf the Juventus legend? The 18-year-old goalkeeper was sensational in Milan’s highly controversial defeat to Juventus, recording nine saves and showcasing his strength, agility and tenacity. 

The Олимп-2 pitch in Rostov-on-Don was frozen. It was wonderfully patchy and Jose Mourinho wondered if you could even call it a field at all. His desire to have the venue changed was laughed off by a UEFA official, Mourinho claiming the official told him “the players are insured, so if something happens, no problem.”

The fight for second place in Serie A is serious business. Roma and Napoli are not fighting solely for the privilege of finishing behind Juventus, but battling to avoid a Champions League playoff qualifying spot. So bad is the history of Italian teams in the playoff rounds that Italy has, more often than not in recent years, only had two representatives in the group stages of Europe’s premier footballing tournament.

Thus, when Roma and Napoli played one another this weekend, the chance to finish in second was up for grabs.

Before Wednesday’s historic events at the Camp Nou, everyone had agreed that Barcelona would need to play a perfect match to turn the tide against Paris Saint-Germain. They would need to do unto PSG as PSG had done unto them. Sure, Barcelona could score four goals, but could they keep Edinson Cavani, Lucas Moura, Julian Draxler and Angel Di Maria off the scoresheet? 

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat-trick, with two of those strikes being assisted by Christian Pulisic, and the 18-year-old American registered his first Champions League goal as Borussia Dortmund eased past Benfica and into the Champions League quarterfinals, winning 4-1 on aggregate.

Dortmund were kicking themselves after throwing away a number of great opportunities in the first leg and found themselves trailing 1-0 in the tie before today’s match. However, those frustrations were quickly forgotten when Aubameyang opened the scoring in the fourth minute.

Ooh. Yikes.

The USWNT's worst home defeat ever, worst defeat overall since 2007, first time losing back to back matches since 2000, everything's the worst, is what we're trying to say.

The good news: the SheBelieves Cup is a made up friendly tournament and objectively does not matter.