Desperate Crotone was no match for Juventus, who has the double and can't really be considered underdogs against Real Madrid in Cardiff. The Dybala free kick inside the near post watched by a motionless goalkeeper was the game in a nutshell.
Liverpool took nearly a half to do it, but they asserted their dominance over relegated Middlesbrough to make our game against Everton meaningless...
...and what a crazy game it was. Arsenal totally dominated the Toffees, scoring a goal (Bellerin's) that looked to be the first of many. But then Koscielny made an inexplicable decision to challenge far from goal--there was no need--and not only missed the ball, but left his feet and clobbered Enner Valencia to earn a straight red in the 14th minute. Suddenly things looked very shaky indeed. But in this game of mistakes, Everton made the next one. They stopped playing after Welbeck found himself with the ball deep in the six yard box. Robles had to come out on him, and he simply rolled it into the path of Alexis for an easy finish. There were chances for Everton, but Cech was up to them. Then Holding allowed the ball to hit his arm, and Lukaku finished the PK coolly: 2-1. Arsenal kept looking for another goal, and had their finishing been better, they'd have had a couple. But Robles did enough to keep the game close until injury time, when Ramsey curled a beauty into the top right corner from yards outside the area. It finishes 3-1 and the lads looked happy. The supporters appeared somewhat mollified by the courageous response of the Gunners to going down to ten men. It was a really good game for neutrals, with all the end-to-end action.
It looks really bad now for the FA Cup final. I didn't hear the announcers say anything about it, but surely Kos is ineligible now for that game due to his red card. Gabriel did his knee in. And Alexis pulled up lame late on. The return to first team action of Per Mertesacker is not much consolation. Well, we have some players, and we have enough shirts for them, so they'll give it a go and maybe the ball will bounce the right way and the referees will see the close calls our way.
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