A Hong Kong toy manufacturer has made a Nazi soldier action figure that looks remarkably like Bastian Schweinsteiger. And to fully eliminate any doubt as to the inspiration for the doll, they even named it “Bastian.”
Real Madrid’s scoreless draw with PSG on Wednesday highlighted Cristiano Ronaldo’s extended struggle in an area where he once dazzled. Cristiano has only scored two of his last 89 direct free kicks — a far cry from the days earlier in his career when he would knock them in from any angle and at any distance. And yet, he keeps taking them and he keeps squandering them.
Arsenal recovered from losing to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiacos in their first two Champions League group stage matches to end Bayern Munich’s undefeated run with a 2-0 win. This type of careening back and forth between the disastrous and the brilliant has become something of a trademark for Arsenal in the Champions League, but this win has sparked renewed belief in what the club can accomplish, while denting the perception of Bayern’s overwhelming power. Naturally, we must now ask, “What if it continued?”
“The referee was weak and naive!” @ChelseaFC boss Mourinho’s stern assessment of the officials tonight. #UCL https://t.co/CqEM1QAGSE
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) October 20, 2015
Chelsea had to settle for a 0-0 draw with Dynamo Kiev in part because Cesc Fabregas had a penalty shout ignored by the referee. This was just one more frustration for an already frustrated club, but it did provide Jose Mourinho with a chance to try and prove his recent point about Arsene Wenger getting away with things that he doesn’t.
Even when you manage to prevent Robert Lewandowski from scoring for an entire half hour, you still have to get one past Manuel Neuer to take a lead against Bayern Munich. Which is like asking someone to prevent all human suffering and then discover the meaning of life in order to win three points.
If Theo Walcott sues Neuer for doing this to him, he’d probably win a sizable compensation. Walcott can be thankful that at least he didn’t get reduced to a pile of dust like Douglas Costa did to Hector Bellerin…
With halloween coming up, Bayern mascot Berni the bear decided to hit the streets of London during the club’s trip to face Arsenal in the Champions League and startle and/or annoy random people. The result is…strange.
It seems Berni hasn’t quite grasped the concept of Halloween just yet. Pretending to drive a bus isn’t really a part of it.
Following his latest complaints of being underappreciated, Yaya Toure has laid out an a comprehensive plan for how the world should praise him properly.
Thomas Müller once again proved that he can always be relied upon to do what’s needed for his team when he scored the only goal in Bayern’s win against Werder Bremen. And after the match, he demonstrated this in another way by providing a timely dog bark while Philipp Lahm praised his “dog’s nose” to the media.
There is nothing Thomas Müller can’t do.
Juventus came up one win short of becoming just the second Italian club to ever win the treble last season, but Barcelona were just too much for them to handle in the Champions League final.
In case Juve and their fans somehow forgot this bitter end to an otherwise stellar campaign, fans of the only Italian club to ever win the treble, Inter, produced a large tifo display to remind them before Sunday’s 0-0 draw in the derby d’Italia. It also included a subtle nod to Juve’s time in Serie B as a result of their Calciopoli punishment.
Late in the first half of Portsmouth’s League Two match at Newport County, the referee got hurt and could not continue. So the fourth official had to replace him, but who would replace the fourth official? That proved to be a problem.
A call was put out over the public address system asking if there were any qualified officials in the house and 28-year-old Portsmouth season ticket holder and level seven referee Mike Hurdle answered the call, giving him the story of a lifetime.