Spain

Lionel Messi turned one billion seconds old on Saturday. The Argentine maestro sometimes feels like he’s one billion years old with his sage, sanguine, muted reactions on the pitch. 

Despite being the target of every opponent’s defensive tactics, regularly subjected to physical play, Messi rarely loses his cool. His only red card in his career came in his first ever appearance with Argentina. 

Barcelona’s quest for a fifth straight Copa del Rey title will be decided on May 25 at the Estadio Benito Villamarín after Wednesday’s 3-0 semifinal second leg victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu. The aggregate score remained 1-1 going into the second half, but a Luis Suarez brace and Raphael Varane own goal in the space of 23 minutes granted Barcelona passage to the final at the expense of its El Clásico rival.

Neymar is currently in Brazil as he continues to recover from a broken bone in his right foot, but he’s taken the time to record a segment with Esporte Espetacular which will air on March 3. 

In a preview before the full thing, Globo Esporte has published a clip in which Neymar is brought to tears while talking about the influence that Lionel Messi had during his four-year stay at Barcelona.

Lionel Messi has now scored 650 goals in his legendary career. 

By now, you know the prototypical Messi goal. Cutting in from the right side, the Argentine curls a perfectly placed shot with his left foot into the far corner. Occasionally he’ll score on a deft chip or smash a low shot before a goalie can react and lately he’s been unstoppable on free kicks. 

In his first season in Italy after nine season with Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the Spanish capital for a Champions League Round of 16 match on Wednesday.

Facing Atlético Madrid with his new Italian club Juventus, Ronaldo was unsurprisingly a target of the home fans at the Wanda Metropolitano. He responded by mocking the Atleti fans, and Los Colchoneros responded by handing the Bianconeri a critical 2-0 defeat. 

When you think about LaLiga records, you’re automatically drawn to things like Lionel Messi’s haul of 405 goals and counting, Cristiano Ronaldo’s 34 hat-tricks and personal ratio of 1.07 goals per game, and Messi’s single-season record of 50 goals. Those are records that rightly seem untouchable; these are spectacular times indeed. 

But in the land of Spain, in the confines of the Santiago Bernabéu, there is another record that’ll likely never be touched: Sergio Ramos’ collection of 20 red cards in LaLiga. Ramos' 20th in domestic play is a record across Europe's top five leagues.

The Video Assistant Referee is in use in the Champions League Round of 16 for the first time this week. So of course conspiracy theorists are already hard at work trying to figure out the Ajax disallowed goal that helped Real Madrid grab a 2-1 away win in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 on Wednesday. 

UEFA, thankfully, is smarter than the English FA and decided to start using VAR for the Champions League in the Round of 16 instead of waiting for next season. The first two matches Tuesday were without controversy and the VAR was not required. 

Pepsi recently launched a new global marketing campaign to more than 100 countries. Its new "For The Love Of It" slogan reached both Argentina and Egypt's finest.

Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah showed off why they are two of the world’s best target strikers. They took Pepsi’s challenge with ease as Messi double dipped by kicking the ball through the target, while also hitting a perfect bottle flip.Talk about raising the standards for bottle flipping. 

Alvaro Morata had to leave Chelsea — he really had no choice after his form and confidence seemingly dissipated after a slew of shocking missed opportunities. So he returned to Madrid, where he started his professional career back nearly 10 years ago. Except, he joined Atletico, not Real.