On the eve of Liverpool’s big match against Manchester United, Mario Balotelli posted (and subsequently deleted) a video to his Instagram account clarifying two things:
1) That he supports Liverpool.
2) That he does what he wants.
Author: Brooks Peck
Milan ultras boycott Cagliari match, leave “Game Over” banners
Roma fans made their feelings known about their club’s current form by walking out during their Europa League match against Fiorentina earlier in the week, but now Milan fans have gone a step further by starting their own boycott before kickoff.
Several positives that will hopefully dry Falcao’s tears
Radamel Falcao is sad. After missing out on Colombia’s exhilarating World Cup run due to injury, his loan move to Manchester United has been little more than a different brand of awful with four goals in just 19 appearances and a demoralizing run out for the U-21s in which he only lasted 71 ineffective minutes. And now Falcao’s friend and former agent, Silvano Espindola, is apparently telling the press that the striker is sitting in a puddle of his own tears.
From the Guardian:
“We talk a lot. I’m not going to say that he feels happy because he’s not,” he said. “We’ve spoken many times and cried together. It’s not an easy situation because every player wants to play and every goalscorer wants to score goals, that’s normal.”
Espindola is right about that. These things happen and it’s important that Falcao doesn’t lose sight of the positives. Of which there are, you know, some. So let’s cheer him up with a few.
The solutions to Chelsea’s “penalty puzzle”
Earlier this week, Chelsea’s official website published an unusual article highlighting the low number of penalties awarded to them this season (spoiler: it’s two).
Filed in the “news” section, the article was simply titled, “Penalty Puzzle,” which seems to imply a link to manager Jose Mourinho’s belief that there is a sinister conspiracy actively working against his team. Because puzzles are purposefully arranged circumstances and not the result of mere coincidence, which is something that doesn’t exist. In fact, that’s probably not even a real word.
During his Friday press conference, Mourinho discussed the article. From the Telegraph:
“Our two closest challengers in the Premier League this season, Manchester City and Arsenal, have both been awarded seven penalties, the most in the division,” said the article. “Last term the two teams that finished above us, Man City and Liverpool, were awarded more penalties than any other team bar us.
“Of course it could be that when teams have played the league leaders they have been particularly careful inside their own area. We all have plenty of recollections suggesting this is not the case however.”
Mourinho went on to say that he thinks it was “a very objective article” and “not an opinion article that can lead to discussions. It’s just the numbers.”
Every puzzle has a solution, though. And this one has several.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s expert analysis of the Champions League quarterfinal draw
Gianni Infantino has stopped talking long enough to do the Champions League quarterfinal draw and I must say I am disappointed. First, because UEFA only reduced my ban for that stupid red card against Chelsea to one game instead of wiping it completely and begging for my forgiveness. Second, because they said that my idea to open the draw by using a French referee as a human Zlacrifice to acknowledge that PSG are too good for France was “inappropriate.” And third because I must wait even longer to get my revenge on Pep Guardiola, who gets super lucky again.
Louis van Gaal is already talking about retiring
Louis van Gaal got off to a rough start at Man United, but things are starting to come together. He’s got them back up to fourth in the Premier League and just two points behind second-place Man City. So less than a third of the way through his contract and still a month away from outlasting predecessor David Moyes in the job, Van Gaal is already talking about how wonderful it will be to retire to his Portuguese paradise.
Roma fans refuse to watch after 30 minutes of Europa League nightmare
Roma earned a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie against Fiorentina, giving them an away goal advantage that they promptly and spectacularly pissed away at the start of the second leg.
DTotD: Costa Rican player gets fouled, then kicked in the face by Club America
Costa Rican side Herediano beat Club America 3-0 in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League semifinal, prompting the losing side to take out their frustration on one player specifically.
Herediano’s Cristhian Lagos took the ball off of Michael Arroyo, who retaliated by planting his studs in Lagos’ ankle. This sent the Costa Rican to the ground and when Arroyo’s teammate went to kick the ball away, he connected with Lagos’ face instead.
Arroyo was shown a red card for the initial challenge, but Paolo Goltz went unpunished for the face kick. Lagos was substituted in the 78th minute and his replacement, Jonathan Hansen, went on to score Herediano’s third goal four minutes later.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
Joey Barton reads mean tweets, tries to be mean right back
It’s finally happened. In the unified pursuit to have every celebrity read mean internet comments about themselves on camera, we have reached red card enthusiast and antagonistic Twitter philosopher Joey Barton.
BT Sport gave Barton a selection of mean tweets with him as their target and as he read them, he tried very hard to be mean right back. This time he used his words and not his fists (or a cigar), though.
Pep Guardiola does a miserable job of hiding how happy he is to watch Barca
It’s been about three years since Pep Guardiola stepped down as Barcelona manager, but on Wednesday he returned to the Camp Nou as a spectator. Ostensibly, he was there to scout a team that might face his Bayern Munich in the next round of the Champions League, but his reactions to the game made it clear that he was also very much a fan. Even though he tried to hide it.