If it’s a Benjamin Pavard goal, you know it’s going to be a brilliant volley. The two are becoming synonymous.
The French defender who scored the best goal of the 2018 World Cup was back at it on Saturday, making perfect contact with a half-volley to fire Bayern Munich in front on the way to a 2-1 win over Union Berlin.
Some big news coming out of UEFA Youth League Group F on Wednesday — perhaps the biggest UEFA Youth League Group F news we’ve ever presented on the hallowed pages of The18: In the group’s early match, 18-year-old American winger Konrad de la Fuente scored two great goals as Barcelona thumped Slavia Prague 4-0. Later in the day, Inter Milan responded to Borussia Dortmund’s early goal with four unanswered, but that Dortmund opener was scored by Youssoufa Moukoko.
RB Leipzig went top of UEFA Champions League Group G following a 2-1 victory over Zenit Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, and the match-winner — scored by Marcel Sabitzer in the 59th minute — could ultimately end up as the competition’s best goal.
Yaroslav Rakitskiy had given Zenit the lead in the 25th minute, but Leipzig came storming back in the second half. First, Konrad Laimer (great name) provided the equalizer in the 49th, and then Sabitzer happened.
Inter Milan revived its hope of advancing to the Champions League Round of 16 with a much-needed 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund at the San Siro on Wednesday. Goals from the red-hot Lautaro Martínez and Antonio Candreva catapulted Inter up to second in Group F — three points behind leaders Barcelona — while Dortmund dropped to third.
Barcelona needed everything it could muster to hold on to a narrow 2-1 win over Slavia Prague on Wednesday in the Czech capital, surviving a late flurry from the hosts.
The three points would have been much easier to come by had it not been for a once-in-a-lifetime miss from Barcelona’s No. 10.
Match Day 8 in Serie A confirmed the early trends we’ve seen in Italy: It’s going to be an incredible title race between Juventus and Inter, while it’s going to be another season in hell for AC Milan. However, while those two plot points will dominate the headlines for months to come, a lot of the talk over the next few days will concern the wonder strike that Cagliari’s Radja Nainggolan hit against SPAL on Sunday.
Josh Sargent, like many of his USMNT teammates, will not have been pleased with how the international break went. Though the 19-year-old striker was on the scoresheet in a rout of Cuba, he struggled just like the rest of the team in the shock defeat to Canada.
Barcelona had to leave for Eibar a day early due to massive political protests around the city, but the Blaugrana got out of town with an easy three points on Saturday.
MSG all found the back of the net in the same game for the first time for Barcelona, which cruised to a 3-0 victory over Eibar, momentarily leapfrogging Real Madrid into first-place. Los Blancos can surge back into first place in LaLiga with a win over Mallorca later Saturday.
There’s something about Ángel Di María that changes when Neymar isn’t in the lineup with him for PSG. For whatever reason, the Argentine seems to take his play to another level when he’s the lead creative force.
Di María started against Nice without names like Neymar, Edinson Cavani or Kylian Mbappé alongside him on Friday. Those superstars weren’t needed, because Di María provided two magnificent goals early on in PSG’s 4-1 win.
We’re a little over a month away from the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Asunción, Paraguay, but the defending champion has just delivered a timely reminder of its mastery of the sand. The World Beach Games wrapped up yesterday in Doha, Qatar, and it was Brazil that captured the men’s beach soccer title following a 9-3 victory over Russia in the gold medal match.