Goals

Barcelona moved into second in LaLiga — two points behind leaders Real Madrid — with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Sevilla at the Camp Nou on Sunday. Barça raced to a three-goal halftime lead thanks to a stunning overhead kick from Luis Suárez followed by further strikes from Arturo Vidal and Ousmane Dembélé. Lionel Messi finished the scoring with a sublime free kick in the 78th minute.

After three straight matches as an unused substitute, Christian Pulisic made his first Premier League appearance since Aug. 31 when coming on in the 80th minute of Chelsea’s 4-1 victory over Southampton on Sunday. 

The bad news for Pulisic is that the players above him in the pecking order all played well: Mason Mount scored a goal; Callum Hudson-Odoi and Willian picked up assists. The good news for Pulisic is that he made the most of his 10 minutes on the pitch.

Liverpool and RB Salzburg played a frenzied game of Champions League football on Wednesday. It was the sort of match that makes you question everything — from Virgil van Dijk’s shaky status as godhead to Erling Braut Håland’s growing status as Pelé.

There’s a lot to like about this Galatasaray club. First off, in a match against the global superpower that is Paris Saint-Germain, Fatih Terim’s side featured a quintet of guys fast approaching their mid-30s, including Radamel Falcao, Yuto Nagatomo, Mariano, Fernando Muslera and Ryan Babel.

It’s no wonder that Terim was profusely sweating his way through proceedings on the touchline.

Club Brugge came within five minutes of recording a historic upset of 13-time European champion Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu on Tuesday, but the Belgian side ultimately had to settle for a 2-2 draw after a late equalizer from Casemiro. 

Regardless, the story of the game will be the first-half brace scored by Club Brugge’s Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis.

It’s been nearly three years since the LaMia Flight 2933 disaster claimed the lives of 71 people, including 19 members of the Chapecoense soccer team. Of the six surviving passengers of the flight, three were Chapecoense players: goalkeeper Jakson Follmann, center back Neto and left back Alan Ruschel. 

Cristiano Ronaldo has, without a doubt, matured over his years as a global soccer superstar. But there’s still no doubt he wants to be the hero, he wants to be the one scoring goals and he wants to be at the center of everyone’s attention.

That doesn’t mean Ronaldo isn’t capable of humility and knowing where his bread is buttered.

Martin Ødegaard has flown under the radar over the past few seasons. The Norwegian midfielder was the talk of the town in 2014 after being signed by Real Madrid at just 16 years old but has since been loaned out to two different teams in the Eredivisie and deemed irrelevant to many Madrid fans, who see Dani Ceballos, Vinícius Jr and Rodrygo as the future of the club.