Arne Slot's relief, more AFCON fallout and Lionel Messi scores 900th goal

Arne Slot’s job security remains tenuous, but Liverpool’s emphatic 4-0 victory over Galatasaray on Tuesday has at least bought the Dutchman breathing room. The win sealed a place in the Champions League quarter-finals, where holders Paris Saint-Germain now await, and offered a rare night of cohesion at Anfield after weeks of frayed nerves and public dissent.

Slot’s second season on Merseyside has failed to replicate the fluid dominance that carried Liverpool to last season’s Premier League title. Booing greeted the side after recent domestic stumbles, and murmurs that the manager’s tenure is living on borrowed time have grown louder. Yet the midweek response was emphatic: Dominik Szoboszlai cancelled Galatasaray’s first-leg advantage inside 25 minutes, and three second-half goals—one a trademark Mohamed Salah finish—turned the tie into a procession. Whether the result signals a corner turned or merely a stay of execution will depend on performances against PSG and in the league run-in.

Elsewhere in Europe, goals have flowed freely. Bayern Munich dismantled Atalanta with 10 across two legs, PSG struck eight past Newcastle, and Atlético Madrid edged Tottenham in a seven-goal thriller. Arsenal, meanwhile, have conceded only five times in the entire competition and face Sporting CP in the most lopsided-looking quarter-final draw. The other ties—Real Madrid versus Bayern, Barcelona versus Atlético, and Liverpool versus PSG—offer no such clarity.

Off the pitch, the Confederation of African Football faces a protracted legal battle after stripping Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title and awarding it to Morocco. CAF reclassified the final’s 1-0 result as a 3-0 forfeit following chaotic scenes in January’s showpiece. Senegal’s government has branded the decision “grossly unlawful,” demanded an investigation into alleged corruption, and vowed to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The trophy remains in Dakar, and CAF has yet to receive it.

In the Concacaf Champions Cup, Lionel Messi reached another milestone, scoring the 900th goal of his professional career in Inter Miami’s 2-1 defeat to Nashville. The strike—his 50th in continental competition—was not enough to prevent Miami’s elimination on away goals, yet it extended a sequence that began 25 seasons ago. Of those 900 goals, 755 have come from his left foot, with additional efforts registered via right foot, head, chest, hip and even one with his left hand. Messi has recorded 60 hat-tricks and provided assists for 104 different teammates across every permanently inhabited continent except Oceania. With his 39th birthday three months away, the prospect of a four-figure tally no longer feels fanciful.

Upcoming fixtures include Europa League and Conference League second legs on Thursday, with Aston Villa, Roma and Porto among those protecting slender advantages, while Crystal Palace seek to break a goalless deadlock against AEK Larnaca.