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.
Tag: Dirty Tackle
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.
New Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo boots reinforce their images
Both Nike and Adidas have released new footwear made to represent, be promoted by, and cover the toes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, respectively. This is an event that seems to happen every other week, but this time, both releases appear to be efforts to reinforce the most simplistic and problematic perceptions of the two biggest names in football.
Projecting Arsenal’s future Champions League misery
Arsenal carried on their consistency in Champions League masochism by soundly beating Monaco 2-0 in the second leg of round of 16 tie to be eliminated on away goals with an aggregate score of 3-3. Anyone and everyone with so much as a passing familiarity with Arsenal’s recent history in the competition — four (now five) consecutive round of 16 eliminations —predicted this exact result, as their narrow avoidance of advancing further has become more reliable than a Japanese train schedule.
It’s with this knowledge that we can accurately predict what horrors will come next for Arsenal in the Champions League. But first, a refresher on the last five years.
Neymar and Dani Alves play fun game of “kick Luis Suarez” during Barcelona training session
Though Luis Suarez has become an important member of Barcelona’s squad in his first season with the club, there’s something about him that remains distinctly…kickable. Teammates Neymar and Dani Alves demonstrated this during a recent training session.
This was surely just a bit of playfulness between teammates, but if Barca are looking for a new revenue stream, they could start charging members of the general public to play this game, too. They would never need a Qatari shirt sponsor again.
Sevilla defender subtly relieves himself on the bench
Sometimes, it really pays to have a friend who will protect your modesty when you need to urinate in front of thousands of people. Read more
Belgian newsman calls Zlatan Ibrahimovic “Ibrahim Zlatanovic”
As angry as Zlatan Ibrahimovic was at the referees of France last weekend, nothing can compare to the hellfire he must have directed towards RTL’s Michel De Maegd for daring to jumble his name into “Ibrahim Zlatanovic” on television.
Brentford fans want Chelsea to give up 1940s wartime trophy
Contrary to popular belief, Chelsea FC’s history actually predates 2003 and they even won an assortment of trophies over the first 98 years of their existence. But now Brentford supporters have started a petition to reclaim one of those trophies — the London War Cup, which has resided in Chelsea’s trophy cabinet since 1945.