The sporting world never misses a beat and this weekend we saw a tale of penalties, pressure and heart stopping podium finishes to wrap one of the greatest races we have ever witnessed. 

To kick things off we go to Europe were the champions league is now in the last sixteen and we have seen some surprise knockouts with the likes of Erling Haaland and his Dortmund out of the Champions League joining the Spanish giants Barcelona under their new manager Xavi Hernandes, who will be competing with the likes of Leicester in the Europa league. Man United and their new coach, Ralf Rangnick snuck into the last sixteen with other English premier league teams like Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool, the latter becoming the first English teams to win all their six group stage matches. 

PSG star, jersey number 7 Kylian Mbappe became the youngest player to reach 30 champions league goals, at 23, beating his jersey number 30 teammate Leo Messi who did it at 24. 

Still in Europe we saw the return of the prodigal son when Steven Gerrard returned to Anfield, but this time to face his old team as the manager at Aston Villa. He lost by an odd Mo Salah penalty goal which clearly was the theme for the weekend as top clubs like Man City and Chelsea also had to rely on penalties to get their wins and stay in the fight to win the title. 

The PSL however, saw some clinical goals to keep the title race interesting. Sundowns still in the commanding position after a win in the Tshwane derby against Supersport United. Hot on the heels is Amakhosi who are now second even after reporting a great number of Covid19 positive tests and not being able to honour two of their fixtures. Coach Stuart Baxter was not available for their clash against Sekhukhune United and Arthur Zwane took the reigns and gave young stars like Nkosingiphile “Mshishi” Ngcobo a run. This proved to be a genius move as the young man scored and had an assist in his Man-Of-The-Match performance which hopefully will inspire coach Stuart Baxter to give him more game time.

For this week’s play of the week, we go all the way to Dubai as they celebrated their 50th anniversary in style with the Abu Dhabi GrandPrix closing off one of the greatest f1 seasons we have ever witnessed. It came right down to the wire, the very last race, last lap and last moment of a great duel between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. 

The Red Bull Racing driver earned his maiden Championship edging the Mercedes Benz talisman after a crash delayed the race Hamilton was comfortably leading. Verstappen joins an elite club that won their maiden championships under 25s and went on to become world beaters. With names like Michael Schumacher, Sebastien Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, he’s in good company. 

Congratulations to Max Verstappen becoming the very first Dutch f1 world champion! Here’s to more!