Lionel Messi 'best without the Ballon d'Or', Paul Pogba's picture perfect - best of the week


Ian Oxborrow
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The league titles have now been decided in England and Spain with Real Madrid joining Liverpool as champions, meaning Barcelona's Lionel Messi missed out on another trophy in his fully-stocked collection.

And he's missed out on further silverware too.

Elsewhere, Manchester United were pummelled by Chelsea in the FA Cup - but are they a good or bad team? Just ask Bruno Fernandes.

Here's the best of week across social media:

No debate needed these days in Ronaldo vs Messi

It was confirmed that this season's prestigious Ballon d'Or award for the best player in Europe will be taking a break for 2020.

It's usually a case of who will win out of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi but these days, in the humble opinion of Barcelona, there isn't any need for the debate.

The club's official Twitter account was blunt in its assessment, but probably right.

Paul Pogba's latest 'caption this'

Paul Pogba's Instagram story.
Paul Pogba's Instagram story.

Paul Pogba's posture, the look on the faces of his Manchester United teammates, and the green bucket. There's a lot going on in this image Pogba shared on his Instagram stories.

Exactly what is happening isn't very clear.

Pogba is after all a master at the "caption this" type of post if you remember what occurred on the day Jose Mourinho was sacked at United.

Cheer up, Gareth Bale

The Welsh wizard's problems at Real Madrid - mainly that he can't get a game - have been well documented in recent weeks. But you'd think he would at least pretend he was happy the club won the La Liga title.

At least he had a faint smile.

Bruno Fernandes tries to work out Manchester United's level

Post-match tweets from top players are typically bland, and often put together by their media assistants.

They usually say stuff like "great game lads, on to the next match, fans were brilliant." Bland, bland bland!

Bruno Fernandes meanwhile appears to have put some thought into his after United were dumped out of the FA Cup by Chelsea.

"We were not the best before and we are not the worst now!" he wrote.

There's genuine reflection in his statement, although where that leaves United in the ranks of best to worst I'm not quite sure.

Proper pre-season training

Why wear the grass out during the summer when there's a beach just down the road.

'Weirdest kit launch ever' goes to Arsenal

Kit launches and new transfers are met with a bundle of social media fizz and video footage worthy of Hollywood these days.

For Arsenal, the availability of their new strip was celebrated by being placed in the Next online catalogue.

Borussia Dortmund show how it is done

Arsenal, take note. This is how you make a fuss over a new arrival.

New teenage signing Jude Bellingham was greeted with the squad serenading him with a rendition of Beatles classic Hey Jude.

Classic indeed.

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More best of the week

Bale brings fun to Real Madrid's title surge, Erling Haaland ready for the chop

Lionel Messi's incredible 7% of all Barcelona goals, another Neville signs for Manchester United

Marcus Rashford's breakfast club, 'God-like' Zlatan and his students

FIXTURES

Thu Mar 15 – West Indies v Afghanistan, UAE v Scotland
Fri Mar 16 – Ireland v Zimbabwe
Sun Mar 18 – Ireland v Scotland
Mon Mar 19 – West Indies v Zimbabwe
Tue Mar 20 – UAE v Afghanistan
Wed Mar 21 – West Indies v Scotland
Thu Mar 22 – UAE v Zimbabwe
Fri Mar 23 – Ireland v Afghanistan

The top two teams qualify for the World Cup

Classification matches 
The top-placed side out of Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong or Nepal will be granted one-day international status. UAE and Scotland have already won ODI status, having qualified for the Super Six.

Thu Mar 15 – Netherlands v Hong Kong, PNG v Nepal
Sat Mar 17 – 7th-8th place playoff, 9th-10th place play-off

Brief scoreline:

Tottenham 1

Son 78'

Manchester City 0

Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage

Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid 

Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani

Rating: 4/5

THE SPECS

Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder

Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)

Power: 141bhp 

Torque: 250Nm 

Price: Dh64,500

On sale: Now

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-finals, second leg:

Liverpool (0) v Barcelona (3), Tuesday, 11pm UAE

Game is on BeIN Sports