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Manchester City are on the brink of a first Women's Super League title since 2016, and a big reason for their incredible performances this season has been the midfield duo of Yui Hasegawa and Laura Blindkilde Brown. And yet, in January, the Cityzens got even stronger in that position when they added another truly world-class midfielder in United States star Sam Coffey, making a move that can have so many short- and long-term benefits.

Former BVB professional Donyell Malen moved to AS Roma on loan in the winter. There, his coach employed a certain trick – and since then, the Dutchman has been scoring goals like there's no tomorrow.

Within a Real Madrid squad that is packed full of Galacticos, Fede Valverde is rarely singled out for what he offers to Los Blancos despite his obvious importance to the team. On Wednesday, though, he was able to hog the limelight after his stunning first-half hat-trick saw off Manchester City in the Champions League. His performance also earned him the rarest of plaudits: A 10/10 rating from L'Equipe.

Despite the painfully protracted league phase running through the first five months of the season and the play-off round providing some drama, for many the Champions League doesn't truly begin until the last 16 gets underway. And after a wild week of first legs around Europe, the picture when it comes to potential winners of the tournament has been shaken up massively.

Inter Miami were forced to settle for a frustrating scoreless draw with Nashville SC in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup last 16 tie. Neither side created much, and Lionel Messi was kept surprisingly quiet in a poor fixture between two sides that looked more eager not to lose. The two teams combined for just five shots on target over the course of 90 minutes.

Errors from goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen helped condemn Chelsea to a 5-2 loss in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain. Goals from Malo Gusto and Enzo Fernandez looked to have earned the Blues a deserved draw in the French capital, only for Jorgensen to gift the ball to the defending champions on the edge of his own penalty area, which Vitinha took advantage of before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia added two further late goals.

Federico Valverde turned in a Champions League performance for the ages, bagging a first-half hat-trick to lead Real Madrid to a comfortable 3-0 win in the first leg of their last 16 tie with Manchester City. The Uruguay international headlined a classic Madrid knockout performance, but a penalty miss from Vinicius Jr in the second half might have left the door open for a City comeback.

Manchester City have a mountain to climb in the Champions League after slumping to a 3-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the first leg of their last 16 tie at the Bernabeu. Pep Guardiola raised eyebrows with his team selection in the Spanish capital and saw his team simply swept away by Los Blancos, with Fede Valverde stealing the show for the hosts with a brilliant first-half hat-trick.

Signed by Peñarol for €5 million, he found consistency under Zidane and is now one of the best players in the world.

Arsenal left it late to salvage a 1-1 draw against Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie as Kai Havertz came back to haunt his former club. The Germany international netted from the penalty spot after Robert Andrich had given the hosts the lead as the Gunners earned a result that their overall performance barely deserved.

GOAL continues its Meet the USMNT series by examining the ongoing debate surrounding the team's most hard-to-assess star.

The USL Championship is currently operating in the absence of a Collective Bargaining Agreement, but many around the league aren't optimistic that a decision will be reached soon.

With Atalanta's heavy defeat, Italy will once again miss out on the Champions League quarter-finals.

Antonin Kinsky's name will live in Tottenham and Champions League infamy for ever more. The Spurs goalkeeper was thrust into the line-up for Tuesday's last-16 first leg at Atletico Madrid, only to last just 17 minutes after twice gifting goals to Diego Simeone's side in what will go down as one of the worst goalkeeping performances in the history of Europe's premier club competition.

The yellow cards deliberately earned by Kimmich and Olise were a curious side note to Bayern's gala performance in Bergamo. It would be easy to prevent this from happening again. A commentary.

Michael Olise was named player of the match at FC Bayern's gala in Bergamo, establishing himself as a contender for the Ballon d'Or. English TV experts actually made him laugh afterwards, with coach Vincent Kompany comparing him to a fellow countryman.

Arsenal FC does not play fast or particularly attractive football – yet still wins games at a high rate. The controversy surrounding the appropriateness of the playing style under manager Mikel Arteta, which has been dubbed "terror ball", has reached a new dimension.

Real Madrid are not, objectively, having that bad of a season. They are within four points of Barcelona atop La Liga - a not insurmountable gap - and are in the Champions League round of 16 despite a tough league-phase slate of fixtures. Yes, they fired a manager in Xabi Alonso and face uncertainty in the dugout, but success is not beyond Los Blancos in 2025-26.

Paris Saint-Germain were by far the best team in Europe last season. Luis Enrique's side stormed to a Ligue 1 and Coupe de France double in France, and swept aside the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal before thrashing Inter in the Champions League final to finally claim the club's first continental crown.

There was less than an hour remaining in the Women’s Super League summer transfer window when the most stunning business of all was completed. Jess Park and Grace Clinton had been stalwarts at Manchester City and Manchester United, respectively, during the previous season. And yet, at the eleventh hour, both were sent to opposite sides of the city, to represent what had been their biggest and bitterest rival.

Lamine Yamal kept his cool to convert a penalty with the last kick of the game to earn Barcelona an undeserved 1-1 draw with Newcastle in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at St. James' Park on Tuesday. The Blaugrana's teenage sensation had, just like the rest of his team-mates, performed poorly on Tyneside and could have had no complaints had another winger, Harvey Barnes, proven the match-winner.

Newcastle were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash with Barcelona on Tuesday. Eddie Howe's side looked on course to record a famous victory when Harvey Barnes gave them the lead in the 86th minute, only for Malick Thiaw to concede a stoppage-time penalty which Lamine Yamal converted with the final kick of the game.

Igor Tudor stated that he is more confident than ever that relegation-threatened Tottenham will remain in the Premier League, but their terrible form in 2026 continued with a 5-2 thrashing by Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last-16. It was another night of embarrassing individual errors, combined with a confusing system that handed the Spanish giants all the initiative they needed to put the tie to bed in the first leg.

Liverpool coach Arne Slot claimed that his team were in a much better place as they returned to Istanbul to face Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday - but the Reds looked to have made zero progress at all as they slumped to another 1-0 defeat at RAMS Park that this time puts them at real risk of elimination.

Born in 2008, he is one of the best young players in Europe. The Italian coach is developing his talent, and his playing is enchanting half of Europe.

One month into the MLS season, the early storylines are starting to take shape - from Inter Miami finding form again to growing concerns over James Rodriguez.

GOAL takes a look at which players could feature in March, and which will need to cross their fingers for one more chance at a World Cup spot

Arsenal came out of the 2025 summer transfer window as one of its perceived winners. They didn't go toe-to-toe with reigning Premier League champions Liverpool in terms of bringing in star talent, but they stacked their squad full of enough quality so they wouldn't be hit as hard if they suffered another injury crisis this season. Their 2024-25 campaign was derailed in large part due to a drop in talent beyond their strongest XI.

It's been a little over two years since Victor Osimhen revealed that he'd made up his mind on which club to join after Napoli. Just three days later, Partenopei president Aurelio De Laurentiis revealed that the striker would "go to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain or some Premier League team". Osimhen instead ended up in Istanbul playing for Galatasaray, the biggest team in Turkey but not exactly the destination the Nigeria international had in mind when he announced his intention to leave Naples.