St James' Park was reveling in a glorious attacking display with the atmosphere inside the ground turning into a carnival — every completed pass was greeted with an "olé" while the crowd bellowed "shoot" at goalkeeper Nick Pope whenever he took possession.
We still had 60 minutes to play.
MAINZ — League leaders Bayern Munich slumped to a 3-1 loss at Mainz 05 on Saturday, conceding all three goals in a span of 14 minutes in their latest slip-up which could prove costly in the race for the Bundesliga title with five games remaining.
The Bavarians, eliminated by Manchester City in the Champions League last eight on Wednesday, could not have imagined a worse afternoon after going 1-0 up courtesy of Sadio Mane's 29th minute header at the far post.
Those looking for trials and tribulations in Arsenal's quest for the Premier League title weren't left disappointed Sunday as the Gunners travelled to West Ham for a London derby that initially looked over inside 10 minutes.
In the seventh-minute, a wonderfully constructed Arsenal move was finished by Gabriel Jesus after Martin Ødegaard played Ben White into space for a pass across the goalmouth that West Ham's Vladimír Coufal refused to deal with.
A dream start for the Gunners at the London Stadium!
Julián Carranza's second goal of the night, in the 78th minute, lifted the Philadelphia Union to a 3-2 aggregate victory over Atlas on Wednesday in Guadalajara, Mexico, at the conclusion of a CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series.
The Union escaped with a 2-2 draw in Mexico after beating Atlas 1-0 in Chester, PA, on April 4 in the two-game, total-goal series. Philadelphia moves on to a semifinal series against Los Angeles FC, with the first leg scheduled for the last week of April and the second legs due to be played in the first week of May.
In beating Napoli 1-0 in their Champions League quarterfinal first leg at the San Siro, Milan exemplified all the UCL cliché's that Real Madrid have entirely owned and turned into bonafide pieces of wisdom over the last decade. Hell, Milan even used a Real Madrid loanee to get it done.
Cliché No. 1, you need to be street wise — basically you need to be in the mold of Theo Hernández.
Theo Hernandez is not messing around. pic.twitter.com/p3ga9PMVgJ
Inter Milan's top four hopes took a major blow when Salernitana held them to a 1-1 draw on Friday after Antonio Candreva scored a 90th-minute equalizer against his former club while teammate Guillermo Ochoa made a string of exceptional saves.
Simone Inzaghi's Inter went ahead in the sixth minute when a flowing passing move ended with Romelu Lukaku heading the ball into the path of wing back Robin Gosens, who fired home his first goal since November.
MUNICH — Freiburg stunned favorites Bayern Munich 2-1 in their German Cup quarterfinal on Tuesday thanks to a second-half stoppage-time penalty from Lucas Hoeler.
In a shock defeat for the Bundesliga leaders, in coach Thomas Tuchel's second game in charge, Hoeler sent keeper Yann Sommer the wrong way to book their spot in the last four.
"I am not really angry. We conceded two goals with two shots. I can't remember another chance from Freiburg," Tuchel said after his team missed out on the first trophy of the season.
The Second Round of the 2023 U.S. Open Cup kicks off Tuesday with clubs from the third (USL1/NISA) and second (USLC) divisions now joining the fray — there will be cupsets.
After a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic, 2022 was one of the competition's best years with Union Omaha (USL1) reaching the quarterfinals and Sacramento Republic (USLC) going all the way to the final before MLS side Orlando City won its first piece of major silverware.
There was an interesting moment during Saturday's MLS 360 show when analyst Shep Messing said he had "inside info" on a Lionel Messi move to MLS and that "it is going to happen and it's going to happen soon."
Like any great amateur sleuth, I then carefully watched PSG's home match against Lyon on Sunday looking for clues. I think I found them: Messi wants to get out of Paris like a bat out of hell.
NAPLES, Italy - The face of a young Diego Armando Maradona gazes down from a mural in Naples' Miracles Square, watching the city gear up for a celebration it hasn't enjoyed since the Argentine soccer star was at his peak more than 30 years ago.
Miracles for Neapolitans, who grew up in a city steeped in mysticism and superstition, are happening on the pitch, as their team cruise towards a third Serie A triumph and prepares for their first ever quarterfinal in the Champions League.