Juventus beat Fiorentina 2-0 on Saturday with two first half goals, the second of which came with an added bit of showmanship that even the scorer himself didn't expect. Mirko Vucinic opened the scoring with a belter from outside the box in the 20th minute, but shortly before halftime, Alessandro Matri scored the second and he did it without his boot.

Arturo Vidal found Matri all alone inside the box, but in his eagerness to bury the ball in the net, Matri ended up losing his boot just as the pass reached him. That didn't stop him from shooting anyway and he still scored with his sock as he slopped and fell backwards. Matri had a laugh about it and went back to pick up his boot and toss it in the air as he celebrated.

The lesson here: wearing expensive football boots is overrated.

(via il Corriere dello Sport)

In December, Italian street artist Raffo transformed a wall in a province of Naples into a mural of a screaming Edinson Cavani. Now Raffo has taken this motif a terrifying step further by creating a new mural of Cavani's Napoli teammate, Marek Hamsik, preparing to swallow a human baby.

Hamsik is depicted unhinging his jaw the way he does after scoring a goal (pictured below) and brandishing teeth like prison shanks with Mount Vesuvius erupting hearts behind him. The awesome yet nightmarish image is topped off with the words "Marek, Naples loves you." Perhaps not so coincidentally, this work was created the same day Hamsik's agent told a radio station that he doesn't think the midfielder will ever leave Napoli.

The streets of Naples will soon be completely covered with murals of irate footballers.

Catalan station TV3 produced a video comparing Real Madrid players' rough treatment of Barcelona's delicate angels to that of hyenas in the wild and now Los Blancos are upset. According to AS, Real Madrid will take legal action against TV3 over the video, which finishes with the climactic reveal of Pepe in a Hannibal Lecter mask.

During a Friday press conference, Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric was asked about the video, because every day needs a controversy. Said Modric (via RealMadrid.com):

"I do not know what their intentions were. I've seen it on TV and do not know what to say because I have played in Croatia and England and I have never seen anything like it. That has nothing to do with journalism and a lot less to do with football. Making videos like that and talking badly about Real Madrid’s players is not right, is not acceptable and is a bad example for youngsters. I have not spoken about it in the dressing room. Maybe some did, but I have not spoken about it, but I’ve never seen anything like it".

Surely there is now someone pulling an all-nighter in an editing room at a Madrid TV station adding fart noises to clips of Barca players.

(AP/New York Times)

Arsene Wenger's puffy coat has been a running joke amongst fans and commentators alike for years. And when Wenger started having trouble with the zipper on his sleeping bag with arms, he might've thought the mockery couldn't get much worse. But now even the New York Times has chimed in with a story about the sorry fashions of Premier League managers wherein Wenger serves as its main, puffy-coated pinata.

Though Rafa Benitez's ill-fitting suits, Tony Pulis' baseball cap and Martin Jol's "Russian shot-put team" style are all taken to task, it's Wenger's coat that is highlighted most prominently. From the New York Times:

Then there was Arsène Wenger. In the bitter cold and swirling snow at a recent Arsenal game, Wenger encased himself in what has unfortunately become his signature garment: a fluffy, puffy, oddly elongated, sausagelike parka that surely keeps him warm, but also makes him look like a caterpillar in a sleeping bag.

Roberto Mancini and Andre Villas-Boas are designated the

(Getty)

The mysterious sadness that inexplicably took hold of Cristiano Ronaldo five months ago has now lifted. So you can blow out the candles for your nightly vigil and resume living a carefree existence as the burden of a sad Ronaldo no longer needs to weigh heavy on your mind.

Way back in September, Ronaldo told the press that he didn't celebrate his first two goals of the season in Madrid's 3-0 win against Granada because "I don't celebrate goals when I am feeling sad and that's the case today." He wouldn't give the reason why he felt sad, except to say, "The people who work here know why and I won't say any more than that." He later added that it had nothing to do with money, but in the months that followed he has kept quiet on the subject. Except for that face he pulled after Lionel Messi won the Ballon d'Or again.

And now, in an interview with AS, Ronaldo has revealed that his sadness is behind him. He also reiterated that it wasn't about money. From ESPN:

"Yes, something has changed because I am doing what I like, which is playing football and I feel very good on the field and with my team-mates," Ronaldo said. "Maybe I have also changed my way of thinking and being. At this moment I feel better than I did then." [...]

"The contract renewal is a subject I do not want to talk about. It does not concern me now. The only important thing now is the team and we will speak at the end of the season. I swear by my son that my 'unhappiness' was never a question of money. It was not."

We can only guess what helped Ronaldo climb out of his funk. So let's get to it...

(Esquire)

Modeling stuff again? This is worse than eating broccoli covered in extra vitamins. Why can't they just let me play football and have fun and smile? If I wanted to be a model person I would have put on some fashion things and crossed the street without holding someone's hand and looking both ways already because modeling is dumb. They didn't even give me shoes this time. When will this be over?