Another weekend of European football is in the books and, once again, there is drama everywhere you look. Minnows Wrexham and Stevenage have waltzed their way past Premier League opposition and into the fourth round of the FA Cup, while Barcelona took an almighty step ahead of Real Madrid in the LaLiga title race.
ESPN correspondents Julien Laurens, James Tyler, Rob Dawson, Alex Kirkland and Sam Marsden break down the big stuff you need to know about the weekend.
The first weekend of January is traditionally reserved for the FA Cup third round and part of that tradition is the “cupset,” whereby a lower league or non-league team catches a better-resourced club off-guard and steals a memorable win. It’s a tale as old as time and this weekend yielded several wonderful results to tell your grandchildren about many years from now.
First up, Wrexham. Yes, they’re an actual team and not just a documentary series, and this weekend saw the Welsh side shock Coventry City4-3 away from home in front of a raucous crowd. Having surged to a 4-1 lead midway through the second half with a Paul Mullin penalty, they rode their luck as Coventry scored twice in seven minutes to force a nervous final 15 minutes.
Sheffield Wednesday (third-tier) stunned Newcastle United (Premier League) 2-1, League Two‘s Stevenage scored twice in the dying embers of their match to send Aston Villa packing, non-league Boreham Wood forced a replay with League One‘s Accrington Stanley following a 1-1 draw, and West Bromwich Albion (flying high in the Championship) needed a 90th minute goal to get a 3-3 draw (and replay) against non-league Chesterfield. While not many of the biggest teams fell in the third round, the results still brought a mixture of joy and eyebrow-raising all the same. It’s a weekend like no other. — Tyler
