LONDON - West Ham United claimed fourth spot in the Premier League as goals early in each half by Michail Antonio and Jesse Lingard earned them a nervy 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Their seventh win in their last nine league games moved West Ham two points above Chelsea in their mounting challenge for a Champions League spot while Tottenham have slumped to ninth.
LIVERPOOL, England — Everton enjoyed their first Premier League win at Liverpool since 1999 with a 2-0 victory at Anfield condemning Juergen Klopp's fading champions to a fourth straight home defeat.
The win moved seventh-placed Everton, who had not won in 20 attempts in the league against their Merseyside rivals, level with Liverpool on 40 points.
While the victory boosts Everton's hopes of making a push for a top four Champions League place, it continues the stunning collapse in form for last season's champions.
Thursday’s Europa League Round of 32 first leg between Lille and Ajax featured a heavy dose of CONCACAF as the USMNT’s Timothy Weah and Canada’s Jonathan David started for the French side while Mexico’s Edson Álvarez went the full 90 for the Dutch team in their dramatic 2-1 win at Stade Pierre Mauroy.
BUDAPEST - Gareth Bale scored one goal and created another as Tottenham Hotspur enjoyed a 4-1 win in the first leg of their Europa League last-32 clash with Austrian side Wolfsberg on Thursday.
The Welshman, whose starts have mainly been limited to the Europa League since returning to Spurs on loan from Real Madrid in October, set up Son Heung-min for his side's opener.
There was a thought — an expectation even — that Cristiano Ronaldo would return to Portugal and put on a show in his home country. Juventus, the only Italian champion in the last 10 years, would be expected to take care of business against a club from outside of Europe’s top five leagues. After all, the last time Ronaldo played Porto, he scored a goal that won him a Puskás Award.
But Porto does not care for your expectations. Porto has its own plans in the Champions League.
With 18 goals in his first 13 Champions League appearances, Erling Haaland is on pace to overtake Cristiano Ronaldo’s all-time scoring record sometime next month. The 20-year-old Norwegian scored two and assisted one — all in the first half — of Borussia Dortmund’s electric 3-2 victory over Sevilla in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie on Wednesday.
Christian Pulisic is better than Landon Donovan. That’s not my opinion — that’s Landon Donovan’s. At the age of 22, Pulisic has established himself at Chelsea. Donovan, at 22, was experiencing one of his least productive MLS seasons with an average San Jose Earthquakes team.
If this is the end of the Lionel Messi era at Barcelona, it’s a fitting one. It’s not what the six-time Ballon d’Or winner deserves, but at least it’s definitive. There’ll be no backwards glances, no what-ifs, just the resounding truth that a beautiful cycle has clearly reached its end: After losing 8-2 to Bayern Munich last season, Barça is on pace to match that level of embarrassment after getting rinsed 4-1 by PSG at the Camp Nou on Tuesday.
Liverpool secured a vital 2-0 away victory in Budapest against RB Leipzig on Tuesday in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 clash. The Reds’ goals came courtesy of two absolutely horrendous Leipzig errors that could spell the end of the Bundesliga side’s time in the Champions League.
The two bizarre mistakes fit the theme of an unusual night. Due to fears of the UK Covid-19 strain Leipzig was forced to play its “home” leg in a country in which the club has never played.
Sometimes as a goalkeeper you have a day where you're unbeatable. But this is a rare nadir that requires the perfect combination of variables.
You have to be feeling great, every shot is just within the outer reaches of your diving range and you have to make a big save early.
Due to the amount of luck involved, these matches are scarce — not unlike a no-hitter or perfect game in baseball — but not unachievable.
The most likely ending is a deflected shot finding the back of the net in the 85th minute, a result of luck finally running out.