TURIN, Italy - Cristiano Ronaldo scored a perfect hat-trick inside 32 minutes as Juventus bounced back from their midweek Champions League exit by beating Cagliari 3-1 away in Serie A on Sunday.
The 36-year-old striker found the net with a header, a right-footed penalty and a left-foot shot and celebrated by pointing to his ear in an apparent response to recent criticism.
Lionel Messi. Thomas Müller. Koke. Lynden Gooch. When you think of footballers that personify the passion and commitment of one-club men, the 25-year-old American winger doesn’t instantly spring to mind, but Gooch’s fifth year as a first-team regular with the Black Cats is elevating him to mythical status on Wearside.
Born in Santa Cruz, California, Gooch joined Sunderland’s youth system as a 10-year-old. He would travel their during school holidays to train, and then he made the switch permanent when emigrating to the north-east of England at the age of 16.
For the second time this week, Karim Benzema has rescued Real Madrid late. The Benzema goal vs Elche in the 91st minute — his second of the day — completed a 2-1 comeback victory on Saturday, as Los Blancos at least briefly jumped ahead of Barcelona into second place in LaLiga.
BREMEN, Germany — Bayern Munich cruised to a 3-1 victory at Werder Bremen on Saturday with striker Robert Lewandowski climbing to second place in the Bundesliga's all-time scorers list as the champions opened up a five-point lead at the top.
The 32-year-old Lewandowski, the 2020 FIFA World Player, twice hit the woodwork early in the second half before tapping in for to make it 3-0 and join Klaus Fischer on 268 Bundesliga goals, second on the all-time scorers list only to Gerd Mueller and his astonishing 365-goal record.
Thursdays are the quirkiest of footballing days. With the Europa League in action, there’s simultaneously too much for any one person to follow and yet not enough to keep anyone but the most devoted of fans interested. It’s a perfect day for r/Soccer to ensure you’re up to date on all things football, and this Thursday was a doozy. It was a day made for r/Soccer.
Let’s start, as with all things r/Soccer, with something that overpromotes an American, and as usual, that American is Christian Pulisic.
PARIS - Paris Saint-Germain looked shaky as they completed a 5-2 aggregate victory against Barcelona to reach the Champions League quarterfinals, but keeper Keylor Navas kept them afloat when their demons resurfaced.
On the stroke of halftime on Wednesday, Barça had a penalty that could have put them 2-1 up and two goals away from forcing extra time after a 4-1 defeat in the first leg at the Camp Nou. A repeat of the 2017 "remontada”, when Barça beat PSG 6-1 to overturn a 4-0 first leg defeat in the last 16, seemed more than just a pipe dream.
Jurgen Klopp will breathe a sigh of relief on Wednesday night. Liverpool finally put away an indifferent RB Leipzig with a 2-0 win at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, completing a 4-0 aggregate victory in the Champions League Round of 16. But this was far from a return to form for the defending Premier League champions, and it wasn’t the type of performance that will inspire a turning point in Liverpool’s season.
Despite controlling 73 percent possession and attempting 21 shots compared to just seven for PSG, Barcelona could only manage one goal at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday — which was canceled out by a controversial Kylian Mbappé penalty in a 1-1 draw — to crash out of the Champions League at the Round of 16 stage, 5-2 on aggregate.
When we look back at football in 2020/21 over the years to come, there will be no classics, no games to remember — because without fans, matches just don't have the same impact.
Of course, these changes were necessary to prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus, and, if current trends hold, it seems that fans will soon be allowed back in stadiums again.