Steve Nicol shares his thoughts on the hat trick by the Manchester United player. (0:56) With Tom Brady in attendance, the all-time top scorer in football was the Manchester United player. Sevilla's LaLiga chances against Real Madrid are getting smaller as the drama in the Bundesliga and Serie A provide some title races. The big action across Europe was finished by Mark Ogden, Alex Kirkland, and Bill Connelley. The GOAT recognizes the meet at Old Manchester.
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Talking points, best goals, teams in trouble, and the most valuable of the weekend.
Toney the top from spot?
Who is the best penalty-taker in football? Even though they have missed just five times from 47 career spot-kicks, Mohamed Salah, Jorginho, and Mario Balotelli all claim to be as reliable as anyone when it comes to beating the keeper from 12 yards.
According to Thomas Frank, Ivan Toney is the best penalty taker in the world right now.
The forward has scored three penalties in less than a week, the last one on Saturday in the 2-0 win at home to Burnley.
In his career, Toney has taken 24 penalties and missed one, while playing for Peterborough United in a League One clash with Barnsley in October of last year. The 25-year-old has taken 19 penalties and scored every one of them.
His penalty style is slow and deliberate, with Toney watching the goalkeeper until he strikes the ball. It is a technique that has contributed to five of his 11 goals so far this season.
England and Jamaica are watching Toney, with the Northampton-born forward saying earlier this season that he is undecided about his international loyalties. Whoever he chooses will benefit from a potential match-winner in a penalty shoot-out.
The race is in full force.
The race for the title tightened a bit over the weekend, with BVB now back in the running with a game in hand. That is technically a race, but it is not close enough to get excited just yet. The race for the other two spots is not likely to be any closer.
In the current situation, Hoffenheim is in third place, and the other two are in sixth place.
3. Bayer Leverkusen: 45 points, +23 GD 4. RB Leipzig: 44 points, +27 GD 5. Freiburg: 44 points, +14 GD
6. Hoffenheim: 44 points, +12 GD
Union Berlin and Koln are still in the race, but the odds are good that two of the four teams above will make the playoffs. It is easy to assume that RBL have the edge over Leverkusen despite the fact that the star player is out for the season. Neither Hoffenheim nor Freiburg are backing down. There are still five matches left between these four, starting with Hoffenheim's trip to RB Leipzig on April 10 and ending with Bayer Leverkusen at Freiburg on May 14, the final matchday.
Barcelona won the title in fashion.
The win over Real Madrid on Sunday felt like a fitting way for Barcelona to win the title.
With six games to spare, they have done it with 24 games, 24 wins, 136 goals for and six against. This is the third league in a row that Barcelona have been in, and the seventh since 2011. The match showed how far Madrid have to go to compete with Barcelona.
The last time the teams met, Madrid held out for 90 minutes before Putellas scored in the last minute. They lasted half as long here. Two Putellas goals in two minutes ended it as a contest. A Patri Guijarro rocket, a Babett Peter own goal and a fifth from Jenni Hermoso made the gap between the two teams even bigger, as if the 31 point margin in the table left any room for doubt.
Since the appointment of Toril, Madrid have improved. They went into this match on a seven-game winning streak and although they are fifth, their games in hand over those above them means they are in a good position to get European qualification.
The two-legged quarterfinals against Barcelona will be held this month. The game on Sunday saw a record 5,430 attendance at the stadium, and the return leg will be sold out.
Napoli in chase but Milan in driver's seat
The win at Hellas Verona gave Napoli 21 points from its last 10 league matches. Victor Osimhen's brace gave the Azzurri all three points and pushed them ahead of defending Scudetto winner Inter.
Napoli have not done much wrong in the race for the title. They do not lead Serie A. AC Milan took an early lead over Empoli thanks to a long putback by Pierre Kalulu. They were able to limit Empoli to only five total shot attempts, two of which were speculative long-distance attempts, despite the fact that they couldn't find a second goal. It wasn't the Rossoneri's most impressive performance of the season, but avoiding a hangover after last week's win over Napoli was good enough.
Milan pulled seven points from their last four matches, including a win over Napoli and a draw with Inter, so they are in good shape. A first Scudetto in 11 years is starting to feel realistic.
Yarmolenko's goal brings emotion
The goal by Yarmolenko for West Ham against Villa speaks for itself due to the emotion that the Ukrainian player generated at the London Stadium.
Yarmolenko asked for time out of the team in the wake of Russia's invasion of his home country, according to the manager. Yarmolenko was bogged down by the situation in his homeland and would be supported in any way possible by the club.
Yarmolenko's appearance against Villa was significant on its own merit, but scoring a goal and breaking down in tears in the moments after gave it even more weight and emotion.
Yarmolenko turned neatly inside the penalty area before curling his shot into the net from 12 yards out.
It could have been a scruffy tap-in and the reaction inside the stadium would have been the same.
Schlotterbeck comes with the heat
You desperately need three points to keep up in the battle for a spot in the playoffs, as your team has blown a 2-0 halftime lead. What do you do? You can rip from 20 meters.
The goal by Schlotterbeck in the 87th minute was the difference in the game.
The centre-back's 87th-minute screamer was his fourth goal of the season and his second match-winner in the last month, and it kept Freiburg in a top-four dead heat.
Fidel finishes off exquisite move
You don't hear much about Elche or their wide forward Fidel Chaves, even though he is a left-winger.
The goal that gave them a win at Granada on Saturday was the best of the weekend. It took 13 seconds and 11 touches to get the ball to the back of the net.
Fidel put one into the side net to give Elche a 1-0 lead.
When he got the ball just outside his own box, he moved upfield to get involved again with a quick-thinking pass for Pere Milla, before sprinting to the end of the No. 10's through ball. It was a sweeping, clinical move in which every single player made the right decision along the way -- a team goal worthy of Barcelona, Real Madrid or any other side you care to mention.
Atalanta need to right the ship
When Duvan Zapata went down with a serious injury in February, Atalanta were in a tight race for fourth place and a spot in the playoffs. The club has taken five points from five matches since then.
The Nerazzurri were held to a pointless home draw against Genoa on Sunday, dropping them eight points behind the leaders and just two points ahead of the eighth-place team. They scored four goals on Sampdoria on February 28, but have not scored in their last six matches. They will take a 3-2 lead into the second leg in Germany in the Europa League. If they want to play in Europe again next year, they need to rediscover their scoring touch back home in Italy.
Sevilla slipping in LaLiga race
Sevilla have six draws in their last eight league games, which is a long way from their title-winning form, but they are still the team to beat in LaLiga. They are seven points off the leaders, and a ten point gap by the time Madrid visit Real Mallorca on Monday night.
Sevilla really had no-one to blame but themselves for a display that saw them create far, even though Julen Lopetegui complained about the VAR and the state of the pitch. Sevilla would be wise to forget about the title and focus on the teams that are trying to overtake them in the race to finish second.
The chasing pack is made up of both form and just five points behind, with Real Betis two points back. Sevilla will be fighting to hang onto a place in the top four if they don't start turning these draws into wins soon.
Ronaldo responds with Brady-worthy outing
It was no surprise that after a week of headlines questioning his future at Manchester United, the 37-year-old responded by scoring a hat-trick in the 3-2 win against Spurs.
It was the first hat-trick for the Portuguese since 2008 and came on the same day that he was confirmed to be the all-time highest scorer in football. He did it on the day that Tom Brady watched from the directors box. It was almost like a show for one of the very few sports stars who could claim to be in the same league as the Portugal captain.
The rest of the world was quizzing Brady over his future a full 24 hours before he confirmed that he was returning to the Buccaneers for his 23rd season in the NFL.
Ronaldo knew about Brady before us 👀 pic.twitter.com/8dxeFu5MhN
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 13, 2022
The future of the club's new permanent manager will be decided by the performance against Spurs on Saturday, but the future of the club's star player will not be decided until we learn the identity of the new manager.
Spurs will attest to his enduring quality, despite the recent blows of hot and cold. His first goal was a long-range wonder, similar to one he scored for United against Porto in 2009, while the second was the kind of goal that has accounted for many of his 800-plus career goals.
He outjumped the Spurs defender to score the match-winning goal.
Fred was United's best player on Saturday, but goals win games and steal the headlines, and nobody is better at doing both thanRonaldo.
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