Napoli fans showed their support for Kalidou Koulibaly during their side’s 1-0 win over Carpi after the defender was racially abused during Wednesday’s match against Lazio in Rome, which prompted the referee to momentarily stop the game.
Fans throughout Napoli’s San Paolo stadium held up photos of Koulibaly to demonstrate their love for the 24-year-old.
In an interview with the Guardian, Eden Hazard has revealed that he texted former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to apologize for his poor form and the role it played in the Portuguese’s sacking. The following is a transcript of that text exchange.
Leicester beat Manchester City 3-1 at the Etihad. Robert Huth had a brace. They are now five points clear at the top of the Premier League table with 53 points from 25 matches. This is real.
Leicester were in last place with 17 points from 24 matches on this day last year. In August, the odds on them winning the Premier League were 5000/1. Now they are 7/4 favorites. This is not a joke.
Their manager, Claudio Ranieri, has never won a first division title. Their top scorer, 29-year-old Jamie Vardy, who also leads the Premier League in goals, was playing non-league football four years ago. Their captain, 32-year-old Wes Morgan, is only playing his second season of top flight football. Rihad Mahrez, who scored against Man City and has been involved in more goals than any other Premier League player this season (14 goals, 10 assists) was bought for about £400,000 in January 2014. I’m serious.
Leicester City’s best ever finish in the top flight came in 1929 when they were runners-up. They have never appeared in the Champions League, which now seems certain to change next season as they are now 13 points clear of fifth-place Manchester United. You are not hallucinating this.
To repeat: Leicester beat Man City 3-1. Robert Huth has more goals than 2014/15 Player of the Year Eden Hazard this season. Leicester are in first place in the Premier League and favorites to win it. There is not a gas leak in your house, nor is it raining frogs outside.
Just to be absolutely clear: All of these words have been about Leicester City Football Club of Leicester, England in the United Kingdom on the planet Earth. The image at the top of this post has not been photoshopped. You are awake.
A goalkeeper in an indoor football match attempted a sliding clearance, sending the ball through a basketball hoop along the side of the gym. It was a rather impressive accident, but while he celebrated the feat, the quick thinking opposition scored with his back turned (on the goal, not the basket).
This is why it’s always important to only focus on one sport at a time.
A poorly timed challenge from Michael Gregoritsch on teammate Ivo Ilicevic angered Ilicevic to the point of headbutting the young winger.
Headbutt aside, Gregoritsch was the one who limped away from the challenge, apparently hurting himself more than Ilicevic. But Ilicevic’s retaliation wasn’t tolerated by manager Bruno Labbadia, who suspended him for Sunday’s match against Cologne as punishment.
Who knew headbutting your own teammates would be frowned upon?
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
MLS has an endless supply of convoluted and constantly changing rules and mechanisms, but their shirts have remained largely straight forward. They’re all made by the same company. They have sleeves. Various colors. The usual shirt stuff.
In other words, their shirts were completely out of sync with how the league operates. So they’ve changed that.
Chinese Super League clubs have used the winter transfer window to break Asian spending records on a near daily basis. And unlike most other leagues outside the European elite looking for rapid growth, they’re doing it by snagging valuable players in their primes from top clubs rather than stars pushing back retirement or young unknowns from South American leagues.
Kingsley, the confusing new mascot unveiled by Scottish club Partick Thistle last summer, has gotten a lot of attention this season. Sadly, that attention has not translated to steamy romance.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in PSG’s 3-1 win over Lorient before he was substituted in the 71st minute. So to pass the time until the final whistle, he decided to take off his boot and carefully place it on the head of PSG assistant coach Zoumana Camara, who didn’t seem to mind. Presumably because he had an idea of who did it.
When we last saw Denis Cheryshev, he was being hastily substituted at halftime of Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey round of 32 first-leg match against Cadiz once everyone realized that he was ineligible to play due to a suspension he incurred the year before with Villarreal. That got Real Madrid disqualified from the competition, delighting rival fans (and clubs) everywhere.
In an attempt to hide the embodiment of this embarrassment, Real Madrid loaned Cheryshev to Valencia, giving him another crack at the Copa del Rey as his new side had to face Barcelona in the semifinals of the competition.
Cheryshev came off the bench in the 58th minute of the first leg and Valencia ended up losing 7-0 with the Russian being shown a yellow card in the 79th minute. So, all together, this Copa del Rey appearance was even worse than his last one (at least he scored in the last one).
And to make the whole thing even worse, the Barcelona fans gave him a rousing mock ovation when he came on, as thanks for the shame he brought upon Real Madrid.
As of this moment, no one on the planet hates the Copa del Rey more than Denis Cheryshev.
