When Andre-Pierre Gignac first transferred from Marseille in Ligue 1 to Tigres in Liga MX, my esteemed coworker Sam Klomhaus said something along the lines of, “What!?
Despite having been at Porto only for a few months, Miguel Layun appears to have taken up a leadership role at the Portuguese club.
The Mexican defender/midfielder took to the media Tuesday after Porto were defeated 2-0 by Kiev Dinamo in the Champions League, calling for his teammates to move on from the defeat and have courage.
Raul Jimenez inspired a Benfica comeback in their Champions League encounter with FC Astana by scoring two goals for the Portuguese side.
Jimenez’s goals in the 40th and 72nd minutes kept Benfica on course for the tournament’s round of 16. The Eagles find themselves atop Group C for the time being, with Atlético Madrid and Galatasaray still to play.
Astana had taken a two-goal lead before Jimenez propelled Benfica back into the match with a powerful header and a predatory finish.
Raul Jimenez goal in the 40th minute:
It had to end sometime, and it ended on Tuesday. After scoring 10 goals in seven games, Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez's goal-scoring streak is over after he couldn't find the net in Bayer Leverkusen's 1-1 draw against BATE Borisov in the UEFA Champions League.
His goals came in three competitions: the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the Champions League.
Hernandez has 12 goals in total this year so far for Leverkusen: six in the Bundesliga, two in the DFB Pokal and four in the Champions League. He is Leverkusen's leading scorer, five ahead of the next-highest scorer.
It's obvious that Javier Hernandez has been in incredible form this year. But we didn't realize just how good Chicharito has been until we saw this list of records Hernandez has set so far this year with Bayer Leverkusen.
Chicharito's recent records. (Via @Bundesliga_EN) pic.twitter.com/jJhWSvnDhC
It's all going great for Chicharito Hernandez right now.
Even though he didn't score during Mexico's World Cup qualifiers (he ended up not needing to, as Mexico won both games), Hernandez has been in ridiculous form for his club, Bayer Leverkusen.
He has 11 goals in 15 games for Leverkusen after a Brace this weekend against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Most of the football world will be focused on Spain this weekend, where Real Madrid and Barcelona renew El Clasico. However, Liga MX concludes their regular season this weekend and seven of the nine matches have playoff implications.
In Mexico, the top eight finishers move onto the playoffs, where they are paired 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 in the first round of the tournament. Pumas has locked up first place and are joined by Toluca, Tigres, America and Leon as having clinched a playoff berth.
Jesus “Tecatito” Corona and Jurgen Damm have been on our radar for quite some time. They are 22 and 23 respectively, and are the future of the Mexican national team; it’s hard to not get excited about them, especially Corona. Against Honduras in a World Cup Qualifier, the young Mexican stars justified our excitement.
Mexico National Team coach Juan Carlos Osorio has been around. He's managed in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and the USA, but he cut his teeth in coaching as a young man in England. And he had a very peculiar strategy.
While studying for a science and football degree at John Moores University and living in Liverpool, Osorio tried everything he could to watch Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier's training sessions. The only problem was Houllier wouldn't let him watch.
So, he resorted to trying to find a room in a nearby house with a view of Liverpool's training grounds.
One of the burning questions of Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio's tenure at the helm of El Tri so far is what to do with Swiss-army knife Miguel Layun. Layun, currently with Porto (along with El Tri teammates Hector Herrera and Tecatito Corona) in the Portuguese Liga. Before that, Layun was at Watford in the English Premier League.