Former Belgium national team player Radja Nainggolan has been arrested in connection with an investigation into cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe, a source told Reuters on Monday.

The cocaine was allegedly trafficked through the Port of Antwerp, the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office said in an official statement, adding that 30 house searches had been carried out on Monday as part of the probe. As per Belgian practice, the statement did not name Nainggolan, giving only his initials and profession.

The arrest was earlier reported by local media.

Nainggolan's management team did not immediately reply to Reuters' request for comment.

Nainggolan's club Lokeren-Temse said in a statement that the player was absent from training on Monday morning. The club added it respected the presumption of innocence and declined to comment further.

Last year, former Netherlands international Quincy Promes was sentenced to six years in prison in absentia by a Dutch court for his involvement in smuggling of 1,360 kg of cocaine through the Belgian port to the Netherlands in two shipments in 2020.

PHILADELPHIA -- A car hit and injured three pedestrians in a crowd of people leaving the Philadelphia Eagles' playoff game on Sunday night, police said.

A driver is in custody, and the collision did not immediately appear to be intentional, the Philadelphia Police Department said in a social media post.

The victims did not suffer any life-threatening injuries, according to news reports citing the Philadelphia Police.

The car struck the large crowd near the historic Center City area around 9:30 p.m. after the NFC Championship Game at Lincoln Financial Field, according to news reports.

The Eagles defeated the Washington Commanders 55-23, and they will face the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Feb. 9.

Welcome folks, it's a resplendent fall day in Flatbush, and six months ago, who could have imagined this? The visiting Los Angeles Dodgers are ready to take the field in Brooklyn at the new Ebbets Field with the 2025 National League pennant on the line.

Standing in the way of the L.A. nine are their literal offspring, the Brooklyn Trolleys, the most unusual expansion team in baseball history. Champions of the NL West, the Trolleys' 98 wins earned them today's homefield edge over the 87-win wild-card Dodgers.

The grandstand at Ebbets is already full on this clear autumn day, the patrons shuffling through the fabulous rotunda down below. The scoreboard is gleaming and the reconstituted Schaefer Beer sign above it is ready to call the hits and errors.

Roki Sasaki is making his final warmup throws now for Brooklyn. Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani watches from the on-deck circle, ready to lead off the game for Los Angeles. Game 7 of the NLCS is about to get underway.

It's time for Trolleys baseball!

Wait ... what is happening here?

The Los Angeles Dodgers -- the real ones -- are working on a streak of 12 straight playoff appearances. Eleven of those seasons have ended with an NL West title. Four have added to the franchise's pennant count. After last fall's World Series win over the New York Yankees, two of those seasons have resulted in championships.

After this winter's stunning run of high-level acquisitions, people are asking with real concern about whether the Dodgers might have finally broken baseball. It's not hard to understand why.

The expectations for the Dodgers have never been higher, and that's saying something. ESPN Bet currently has the Dodgers' over/under for wins at 103.5, 10 more than any other team. Cot's Contracts estimates L.A.'s CBT payroll number at $374.1 million. If you split that in half -- $187.05 million -- the CBT payroll would still rank 15th in the majors.

Hmmm, split the Dodgers in half? Is that a solution? Well, obviously it is not. But let's imagine that it was, that some trust-busting commissioner took over, or some bizarre schism took place in the Guggenheim Baseball Management group.

This is fantastical, but stick with me. Here's the sequence of events that have led to our dream game at a brand new version of Ebbets Field.

The Dodgers' dominance and hoarding of superstar talent becomes viewed as an existential threat to baseball. Fans are screaming. Owners are wringing their hands.

Partially in response to this situation, Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort announces that his franchise is withdrawing from MLB and will join the Banana Ball Championship League. The Rockies struggle in their new circuit, but their fans keep turning out anyway.

Fights break out in the Guggenheim group. Who knows why. Lawsuits are filed. Desperate to resolve the situation and to fill the one-team void in the NL West, commissioner Rob Manfred takes up a Brooklyn developer's offer to construct an exact replica of Ebbets Field on the same block where the sacred old green cathedral stood for decades. The residents who are currently there are respectfully relocated. The new park springs up with alarming alacrity.

At the winter meetings, Manfred's solution is announced. The Dodgers will be split in half. Everything. Their organizational talent -- on the field and off -- is divided evenly. The offshoot of the Dodgers will play at the reconstituted Ebbets Field and will be called the Trolleys, keeping with tradition. The new club will be managed by Gabe Kapler and its front office run by Farhan Zaidi.

It's a lot, I know. It's impossible. But let's suspend disbelief for just a moment so we can get at a real question: Have the Dodgers accumulated so much talent that, at this point, they could field two contending rosters?

Before Game 7 gets underway, let's run through the lineup Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will pit against Brooklyn ace Sasaki.

Designated hitter Ohtani will lead off. Batting second is shortstop Tommy Edman. Catcher Will Smith is in the three-hole. Batting cleanup is right fielder Teoscar Hernandez. Out in left and batting fifth is Michael Conforto. Batting sixth is center fielder Andy Pages.

Youngster Dalton Rushing will play first and hit seventh, followed by third baseman Chris Taylor in the eight-hole. Finally, batting ninth and playing the keystone is second baseman Andy Freeland.

Let's get started.

To divide the Dodgers' current organizational roster, I took a straightforward approach. I started by flipping a coin for Ohtani. Los Angeles got him. Since Ohtani pitches and hits, I then gave Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman to Brooklyn.

From there, I just ranked each positional group by projected WAR and assigned every other player to one team or the other. Some jostling was done to make sure the spread of positions was equitable and that the bottom-line WAR projection was as close as possible. Each team was assigned 35 players.

Kirby Yates, whose reported agreement with the Dodgers has not yet gone official, was included. So was Clayton Kershaw, still a free agent, but let's face it -- we all think he's going back to L.A.

We had to dip pretty deep into prospect lists to fill things out, accelerating the MLB arrival of some young players in a way that would never happen. The Dodgers' list of non-roster invites for spring training was light on veterans with any kind of track record, so other than Yates and Kershaw, we had to stick with who is already on hand.

Here are Opening Day rosters of the split-in-two Dodgers, which are also the rosters in effect for our imaginary game.

There's nothing going for the Dodgers against Roki Sasaki in the first despite Ohtani's drive to the screen in the deepest reaches of right-center. Nice play by Outman on that one.

Mookie Betts striding to the plate, getting ready for the first offering by Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Let's run through Gabe Kapler's lineup for the Trolleys.

Betts, playing right, will get things going. He'll be followed by second baseman Kim and first baseman Freeman in the three-hole. Hitting cleanup is third-sacker Max Muncy, followed by young left fielder Josue De Paula.

Shortstop Miguel Rojas is hitting sixth, followed by center fielder Outman, catcher Barnes and, batting ninth, rookie Austin Gauthier.

Yamamoto is set. Betts digs in. Yamamoto winds. Someone in the grandstand is ringing a cowbell. Here's the pitch ...

The position player groups on our split rosters are thin. That's the first thing that jumps out. That's why there are so many prospects in the mix who are not ready for prime time. If these teams were real, Zaidi and Andrew Friedman would have been much more proactive about filling out the benches with veteran options.

Still, both rosters can field nearly full lineups of bona fide big league regulars, including a smattering of stars for both sides. Neither would be close to the worst lineup in the majors.

Now about that Rockies thing ... I needed to pull a team out of the league to accommodate the new club. To do that, I changed all of the Rockies players into free agents and then flagged my future Trolleys as members of the Rockies. This allowed me to easily fold the new team into my projection machinery.

My projection system includes some organizational factors that are blended to the team forecast to account for depth (or lack thereof), which some teams are better at producing consistently than others. I beefed that factor a little here to account for the youth on the teams.

That helped, but neither squad projects as elite on offense. In the park-neutral run projections, the Dodgers came in at 672 (24th) and the Trolleys at 655 (26th). That might not read as impressive but it actually is because -- remember -- we are literally measuring two half-teams.

Still, the split Dodgers aren't contention-worthy from an offensive standpoint. They'll need some elite pitching to enter the playoff picture.

We're in the top of the second. Two down, no one on base. Sasaki has set down the first five Dodgers in order. Andy Pages is stepping up to the dish for L.A.

From here, I can see a group of confused-looking people wandering around on the sidewalk on the other side of Bedford Avenue. They're probably looking for that coffee shop that was there a few weeks ago. Things have changed fast around here.

Pages sends a bouncer toward short. Rojas races over, but it's going to get through into left field. Pages rounds the bag at first, but he'll hold on there for the Dodgers' first hit of the game. Dalton Rushing is next.

... After two misses from Sasaki, Rushing is up in the count 2-0. Sasaki checks the runner at first but Pages has a short lead. Sasaki from the stretch ... Rushing crushes a fastball to right-center! Outman is giving chase. He's back, to the warning track -- and it's gone!

Dalton Rushing crushes a two-run homer off of Roki Sasaki, clearing the green canvas batting eye in center field. The Dodgers have grabbed the early 2-0 lead.

What really stands out on our split rosters is the pitching, both in terms of the quality and the depth. That's true for both rotations and both bullpens. This gives you a sense of just how much pitching the Dodgers have accumulated for their coming title defense.

Both teams have a star-studded rotation of big threes: Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani for the Dodgers; Snell, Sasaki and Kershaw for the Trolleys.

Both have three legit closer-level back-end relievers: Scott, Treinen and Yates for the Dodgers; Phillips, Vesia and Kopech for the Trolleys.

I didn't overinflate inning projections. In most cases, they are within bounds of what I've forecasted for the real Dodgers, who have so many injury returnees and young arms that they will monitor.

That means prospect depth is tapped more deeply than it would be in real life, just as with the position players. This is a drag on the split teams' forecasts, but the outlook for both remains promising. As with position players, an organizational depth factor was blended into the projections.

The Trolleys have the edge with a projection of 680 park-neutral runs allowed (11th) while the Dodgers come in at 703 (15th). A pitching staff split in two. Both average or better.

That is pretty stunning.

One down, bottom of the sixth. We're still knotted at 2. Yamamoto will stay in after walking Freeman, with Max Muncy striding to the plate. Muncy's solo homer in the bottom of the second accounted for Brooklyn's first run. Josue De Paula's fourth inning single plated Freeman with the other tally, after Kim was thrown out at the plate by Teoscar Hernandez on Freeman's double off the screen in right.

I'm a little surprised Roberts is sticking with Yamamoto here. The lefty Scott has been getting hot in the bullpen and Muncy represents the go-ahead run for Brooklyn if he goes yard again.

... Here's the 2-2 pitch. Muncy lines one into right for a base hit. Freeman rounds the bag at second and retreats. The Trolleys have something cooking. And here comes Roberts. That'll do it for Yamamoto, who has been excellent.

... So Tanner Scott whiffs De Paula and it'll be up to Rojas. ... Scott checks the runners. Here's his 2-2 pitch. Popped up! Moving over toward the line is Taylor. He's there and puts the squeeze on it. The side is retired.

The Trolleys threaten but Scott works out of Yamamoto's jam. We're through six and the Dodgers and Trolleys are tied at 2.

Our baseline projections have both versions of the Dodgers being outscored, but not by much. The Trolleys fare a little better with a baseline win projection of 78.2, while the Dodgers are at 77.7.

Thus, rounding off, both squads project as 78-84 teams. The balance between them was intentional, of course. So was the decision to keep the Rockies-turned-Trolleys in the same division -- the NL West -- which in real life wouldn't make sense. But sense isn't what we're after today.

Both teams would be forecast to finish behind, in order, the Diamondbacks, Padres and Giants in the NL West, but both are also close to the 80-win Giants. All of those teams would certainly be very happy about the Dodgers being broken up.

While a 78-win projection isn't super exciting, in the current landscape of MLB, it's good enough that a team can enter a season with realistic playoff hopes. How realistic? To answer that, we of course turn to simulations.

Freeland flailed at that 1-2 offering from Kopech and there's two down in the Dodgers' half of the eighth. Kapler emerges from the Brooklyn dugout. He wants the lefty Vesia to face Ohtani, who represents the go-ahead run.

... Ohtani jumps in front 1-0 after Vesia misses with the fastball. It's been a tough day for Ohtani, who flew out to the fence twice in the early innings and whiffed against Sasaki in the sixth.

Vesia, an absolutely vicious southpaw, stares at Barnes behind the plate and nods his head. Here's the pitch.

Ohtani swings and there's a fly ball into right center. This one's got a chance. Hernandez and Pages are fading. They look up and it's gone! Ohtani has clubbed one over the Schaefer sign and out onto Bedford Ave.

The Dodgers have broken the logjam, nabbing a 3-2 lead in the eighth. Dave Roberts has already used Tanner Scott and, in the bottom of the inning, Blake Treinen will enter his second inning of work. He still has Ryan Brasier and Kirby Yates in reserve.

Our 78-win split Dodgers rosters were fed into my simulation machinery and 10,000 runs of the 2025 schedule were logged.

Both teams made the playoffs about 19% of the time, mostly as wild-card entrants. They landed at less than 1% odds to win it all, but, of course, that means it did happen on occasion for both the Dodgers and the Trolleys. The Braves emerged as the new overall favorite to win the World Series.

I scanned the simulation logs and found four instances out of 10,000 when the Dodgers and Trolleys squared off in the NLCS. In one of them -- simulation #3,368 -- the series went seven games. That's the one in which the Trolleys won the NL West with 98 wins, while the 87-win Dodgers nabbed the six-seed.

Those are the squads I decided to breathe virtual life into by recreating those rosters in the sim Action! PC Baseball, produced by Dave Koch Sports. The play-by-play you're reading in these alternating sections comes from that game, in which I managed both teams. Yes, it's actually my fault, not Roberts, that the Dodgers nearly waited one batter too long to get Yamamoto out of the game in the sixth.

And, yes, I even went so far as to use the Los Angeles and Brooklyn logos and to play the game in a rendering of Ebbets Field. Hey, it's January, and we've been without baseball for too long now.

The Trolleys are down to their last two outs. The usually raucous crowd at Ebbets Field is quiet and a nervous energy pervades this little block of Brooklyn. The walk Gauthier drew against Yates to start the inning had the gathering stirred up again, but the strikeout of Betts has silenced them for now.

Those two insurance runs the Dodgers tacked on against Vesia are looming large now, even after Evan Phillips limited the damage in the ninth. Hyeseong Kim steps to the plate. He's reached base three times on a single and a pair of walks. The Trolleys need him to reach for a fourth time to get Freeman to the plate representing the tying run.

Man, this place is tense.

Yates checks Gauthier at first. He's got a huge lead but the Dodgers, with that three-run bulge, don't care what he does. Not sure why Gauthier doesn't just break for second. Here's the pitch.

Kim reaches and taps a little bouncer toward Freeland, he scoops and flips to Edman for one, the relay to first is ... in time! It's a game-ending double play! The Dodgers are the National League champions!

Can you believe it? After all of that drama and tumult of last winter, one during which the entire industry rose to break up the Dodgers' dynasty, they've done it anyway. L.A. is headed to the World Series.

Again.

Cherry picking one simulation out of 10,000 doesn't prove anything, but hopefully it does illustrate the point: The Dodgers are unbelievably stacked.

Going through the actual exercise of pitting two teams, comprised only of right-now Dodgers players, really draws that out. While the game unfolded, it never felt like I was working with two strange, thin teams, but two bona fide, well-constructed big league rosters full of outstanding and interesting players.

I went with the Yamamoto-Sasaki matchup, but it would have been just as exhilarating had I gone with any combination of those two, Ohtani, Glasnow, Snell or Kershaw.

Because the sim game was close, I had to think situationally in the late innings, but at no point was I confronted with a bad bullpen option. The closest I came to it was when I had to use Brasier to get two outs in the eighth after Treinen tired. I had already burned Scott and wanted to keep Yates for the ninth.

This is the kind of thing the Dodgers' opponents are going to have to overcome next October. If the Dodgers can get that staff to the postseason healthy -- obviously far from a sure thing -- there will be no room for opposing offenses to breathe.

And those lineup holes that pop up when you split the Dodgers' position group in two? Those won't be there.

The 12-team playoff format, so inclusive and so random, means no team can be a sure thing in any projection of the next champion. I have referred to that as the illusion of competitiveness, and the Dodgers are the perfect example. They have built a powerhouse roster and set themselves apart from every other team in baseball. Yet they still have less than a one-in-three shot at repeating as champs.

Make no mistake though: These Dodgers are an absolute on-paper powerhouse. It's a team that has a chance to do truly historic things. If they do, the other 29 teams still can't collude to break them up as if they were an 1890s railroad monopoly.

But some of those teams might well look into joining the Rockies in the Banana Ball Championship League.

Another topsy-turvy weekend of European football is in the books, and there are talking points galore across the big leagues.

In the Premier League, Tottenham's latest defeat piles more pressure on manager Ange Postecoglou, while Manchester City shrugged off an early deficit to Chelsea -- and shaky debut for Abdukodir Khusanov -- to pick up a 3-1 win and get back into the top four.

In LaLiga, Real Madrid took control of the title race as Kylian Mbappé scored an impressive hat trick to beat Real Valladolid, though Barcelona thrashed Valencia to remain in contention. Elsewhere, there were talking points for Borussia Dortmund and their caretaker manager, AS Monaco, AC Milan and Juventus.

Luis Miguel Echegaray, Sam Marsden and Constantin Eckner take a look at what you might have missed this weekend.

English Premier League

Top takeaway: Postecoglou's future in doubt as Tottenham endure worst-ever Premier League run

On Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur lost 2-1 to Leicester City, a result that moved the Foxes out of the relegation zone. For Spurs and Ange Postecoglou, however, the numbers are not good. Spurs have now recorded their 13th loss of the season -- as many as Ipswich Town -- which also marked their fourth straight in the league. They haven't earned a league victory since Dec. 15 and are 15th in the table, only eight points from the relegation zone.

A counterargument could highlight the fact that key injuries are impacting their ability to execute their style of play. Another angle could be the available players and how they should shoulder the responsibility. But these are one-dimensional excuses because this is a situation where, sadly, the main focal point is the manager's stubborn approach and how it's costing the team's physical and mental stamina. For a while now, Spurs have looked very tired and when you have a diminished squad, it is the role of the manager to be more pragmatic and alter the style of play. That's not happening under their Greek-Australian manager.

I still think he's a good coach with good ideas and the Carabao Cup run could be their only saving grace, but if this rut continues, the club's executive chairman and decision-maker, Daniel Levy, will have a lot to think about.

Best match: Manchester City 3, Chelsea 1

Part of the reason this game earned my vote was its erratic nature as well as the introduction of two league newcomers.

Pep Guardiola opted to start two of his three new signings -- defender Abdukodir Khusanov and forward Omar Marmoush -- and both delivered headlines for varying reasons. The 20-year-old Khusanov, who doesn't speak English and had only two training sessions leading up the game, made a huge mistake that resulted in Chelsea's opener. Then he received an early yellow card after a foul on Cole Palmer. Only Jonathan Woodgate's debut with Real Madrid (an own goal and a red card) was looking worse for a centre-back, but as the game developed, the Uzbekistan defender grew into it.

Marmoush, however, was a beautiful revelation for the Premier League. His pace, aggression and ability to make dangerous runs will add another dimension to a City side that's returning to form. To add more erratic themes, Chelsea's goalkeeper Robert Sánchez wins the lot after his terrible decision to come off his line, allowing Erling Haaland to score and make it 2-1 before Phil Foden netted the third in the 87th minute.

Best goal: Alexander Isak, Newcastle United vs. Southampton

Newcastle United returned to winning ways on Saturday thanks to a 3-1 win over Southampton with Isak scoring a brace in the space of four minutes. It was another trademark weekend by the Swedish international, who at this point is possibly winning the argument for currently the best striker in Europe. The first was a penalty, but the second? A wonderful ball from Jacob Murphy, which split the defensive line and found Isak, who beautifully controlled the ball before putting it past Saints goalkeeper Alex McCarthy. The movement, the placement -- all of it was world class.

Our colleague and former Man City defender Nedum Onuoha mentioned this weekend on BBC Sport that Isak brings reminiscences of Thierry Henry, and I have to tell you, I don't disagree.

MVP of the weekend: Riccardo Calafiori, Arsenal

There's an argument for Bournemouth's Dango Ouattara following his second-half hat-trick in Bournemouth's 5-0 rout of Nottingham Forest, but my vote goes to the Italian defender who entered the game in the second half to help the Gunners earn three very valuable points.

Calafiori's winner against Wolves served as inspiration in a game that saw Arsenal had to fight hard with 10 men after Myles Lewis-Skelly's red card due to "serious foul play," but it also delivered the most important takeaway: Calafiori's goal keeps Arsenal's title hopes alive. -- Echegaray

LaLiga

Top takeaway: Real Madrid have daylight at the top of LaLiga

There has been heat on Real Madrid this season -- at times fairly, as they have failed to deliver in big games -- yet this weekend saw them open up a four-point lead at the top of LaLiga. Carlo Ancelotti's side took full advantage of second-placed Atlético Madrid being held to a 1-1 draw by Villarreal as they dispatched Real Valladolid with little fuss, Kylian Mbappé netting three in a routine 3-0 win.

Ancelotti points out there is still a long way to go (17 games, to be exact) but it's going to be tough for the chasing pack to catch Madrid given this is supposedly them out of form. Their latest win came without Vinícius Júnior, too, who was suspended, but with Mbappé in increasingly devastating form. At the moment, despite injuries in defence and doubts about a Toni Kroos-less midfielder, that is enough.

Atlético, though, will be kicking themselves. After winning eight games in a row to climb to the top of the table, they are now without a win in two. The pending Madrid derby on Feb. 8 at the Bernabéu is not quite make-or-break, but it looks like a game Diego Simeone's side can afford to lose in the scheme of the title race.

Best match: Barcelona thrash Valencia

Barça showed they cannot be written out of the race yet, however, with a sensational first-half display against Valencia on Sunday. They scored five goals in the opening 45 minutes on their way to a 7-1 win that keeps them within seven points of Madrid.

Raphinha and Lamine Yamal were once again good, but coach Hansi Flick will have been happy with the performances from Fermín López and Frenkie de Jong, two players who have struggled for minutes this season. Fermín, in particular, was impressive, scoring twice and creating two more goals.

Best goal: Loïc Badé, Sevilla vs. Espanyol

Badé was the goodie this weekend as he rescued a point for Sevilla against Espanyol with a brilliant curling effort from 25 yards. What made the defender's goal even more memorable was that it came after he'd just had a goal cruelly ruled out and had been battling back days of transfer links to Aston Villa. He celebrated by sliding into the corner and kissing the Sevilla badge.

MVP of the weekend: Kylian Mbappé, Real Madrid

The Frenchman says he has finally adapted to his new surroundings following his summer move from Paris Saint-Germain and the evidence backs him up. He netted a hat trick in the win over Valladolid, his first for Madrid, and he has now scored eight times in his past five appearances in all competitions.

His first two finishes were typical Mbappé, shaping in from the left and finishing with the inside of his right foot. His third came late on from the penalty spot, and was his 15th in LaLiga this season. He is now just two behind the league's top scorer, Robert Lewandowski. -- Marsden

Bundesliga

Top takeaway: No win for Dortmund under caretaker manager Tullberg

Dortmund assigned Mike Tullberg, usually the Under-19s head coach, to manage the team against Werder Bremen following Nuri Şahin's dismissal last Wednesday. The 39-year-old Dane demanded the same kind of grit and hardnosed mentality he himself showed as a player. "I always slogged away ad nauseam, was never the best on the ball. It was all willpower in my case," Tullberg said before the game.

While we have witnessed the caretaker manager bump time and time again, with teams generally looking reenergized after a change in the dugout, it did not work out quite like that for Dortmund. In front of a passionate and nervous crowd inside Signal Iduna Park, the similarities to previous outings were striking, with Dortmund having loads of ball possession while looking vulnerable against counterattacks. One fast-paced attack by Bremen caused Nico Schlotterbeck to attempt an unwise last-man tackle, the veteran defender getting a red card barely 20 minutes in.

Fascinatingly, Dortmund did not change their strategy much despite being one man down, scoring twice before making familiar errors that ultimately cost them two points. Bremen staged a comeback thanks to Leonardo Bittencourt and Dortmund native Marvin Ducksch, as both teams played to a draw.

Surely, Dortmund's courageous display following Schlotterbeck's dismissal can create hope that there is life in this team. But mentality and willpower are not enough if the Schwarzgelben commit a number of mistakes in almost every game. Whoever is hired as Şahin's successor will have their hands full.

Best match: RB Leipzig 2, Bayer Leverkusen 2

The most high-profile game of the matchday was the clash between fifth-placed RB Leipzig and second-placed Bayer Leverkusen. Even though Leipzig were coming off their first win in the UEFA Champions League this season and should have felt confident, they were barely able to contain Leverkusen's transcendent playmaker Florian Wirtz during the first half. The Leverkusen playmaker scored the first goal after a beautiful dribble and he set up Aleix García to score the 2-0, which marked García's maiden goal for Leverkusen. However, Leipzig fought their way back into the game and were able to snatch points away from Leverkusen.

Interestingly, the match had almost the identical dynamic as their encounter on matchday two, when Leipzig beat Leverkusen 3-2 to end the unbeaten streak for Xabi Alonso & Co. in exciting fashion.

Best goal: Leonardo Bittencourt, Werder Bremen vs. Dortmund

As mentioned above, Bremen managed to get back into the game at Signal Iduna Park despite being down 2-0 at the hour mark. In the lead-up to Bremen's first goal, Julian Ryerson headed the ball in front of Miloš Veljković from a high cross, with Veljković immediately passing it on to Bittencourt, whose shot from 23 yards out hit the top left corner of the goal. The Bundesliga measured the speed of Bittencourt's strike at 62 mph.

MVP of the weekend: Florian Wirtz

While Wirtz was unable to secure the win for Leverkusen at Leipzig, he once again stole the show. He could be awarded the MVP laurels this weekend for the way he fooled both Willi Orbán and Arthur Vermeeren before scoring the go-ahead goal alone. -- Eckner

What else you missed this weekend

AC Milan, Pulisic, Musah deliver in fantastic comeback win

On Sunday, new arrival Kyle Walker watched in the stands as AC Milan and American duo Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah produced a wonderful comeback to beat Parma 3-2 at the San Siro. Parma led twice thanks to Matteo Cancellieri and Enrico Del Prato's goals, which were sandwiched between Pulisic's penalty. The visitors seemed as if they were about to do the league double over Milan, but in stoppage time, magic happened.

Tijjani Reijnders received Musah's ball to make it 2-2, with Samuel Chukwueze earning the winner in the fifth minute of added time. There was a long check for offside but once the goal was confirmed, the stadium erupted. It was a big win for Milan and Sérgio Conceição, as they try to keep up in the battle for European places. -- Echegaray

Juve's invincible dream over

Sticking in Italy, Napoli ended Juventus' unbeaten start to the Serie A season, sparing us what might well have been Europe's worst invincible campaign. Frank Anguissa and Romelu Lukaku's second-half goals helped Antonio Conte's side come from behind to reaffirm their place at the top of the table, after Randal Kolo Muani had given Juve the lead on his debut. Incredibly, considering they are a staggering 16 points off the pace, it was the Old Lady's first league defeat of the campaign, but they've won just eight of their 22 Serie A games, drawing 13, and slumped to fifth following this weekend's loss. -- Marsden

Panic stations at Benfica?

It has not been a great month for Benfica, who suffered their third defeat in four league games with a surprise 3-1 defeat to Casa Pia this weekend. They are now seven points behind leaders Sporting CP. Throw in the midweek 5-4 loss to Barcelona -- a game they led 3-1 and 4-2 -- in the Champions League and the pressure is on when they travel to Juventus on Wednesday, attempting to book their place in the knockout round of the competition. -- Marsden

AS Monaco end weeks of misery

The winter months have not been nice to Monaco. Following their win over Toulouse in early December, Monaco stumbled from one disappointing result to the next ... until this week. First, Adi Hütter's side beat Aston Villa in the UEFA Champions League thanks to a Wilfried Singo header, improving its chances of qualifying for the first knockout round. Then, it beat Rennes 3-2 in a real shootout on Saturday.

Hütter, who recently extended his contract until 2027 despite the recent slump, must feel some relief. With 30 points after 16 matchdays, Monaco had an identical record as last season. But it seemed as if Hütter's team could not maintain its level of performance this time around. Perhaps the two recent wins mark a turnaround.

Paris Saint-Germain might already be too far ahead in the Ligue 1 standings, but finishing second once again would still count as a success for the Austrian manager. -- Eckner

PHILADELPHIA -- Washington Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu was determined to stop the tush push. The officials just wanted him to wait for the snap of the ball to do so.

In Washington's 55-23 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday, Luvu had a moment that officials deemed unnecessary -- and teammates called symbolic of their overall mindset.

Luvu was flagged for diving over the line of scrimmage while the Eagles lined up in their tush push formation at the 2-yard line. And then he was flagged again for doing the same thing -- prompting referee Shawn Hochuli to announce, "Washington has been advised that at some point the referee can award a score if this type of behavior happens again."

According to the NFL rule book, Hochuli can do just that. The rule states that a player "shall not interfere with play by any act which is palpably unfair." The rule says that an offender could be disqualified and officials may award a score.

"Simply put, a team can't commit multiple fouls in an effort to prevent the score," Hochuli told a pool reporter after the game. "If it's meant to prevent a score, we can essentially award the score."

Both times Luvu dove over the pile and landed on the Eagles' linemen as well as quarterback Jalen Hurts. But, for Luvu, all that mattered was his team trailed 34-23 with 12 minutes, 58 seconds left in the game and needed a stop.

The Eagles were aligned in their tight formation with tight end Dallas Goedert and running back Saquon Barkley lined up directly behind Hurts.

"I was just timing the jump over," Luvu said. "They've been doing a lot in short yardage and I was going to take my shot. That's the mindset I came in with. Take my shot; if I make it, I make it, if not, I bounce back. The third time they told me I get a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. I didn't know what that was about. I guess they wanted them to score. So, I stopped from there and that's how it played out."

Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner spoke to the officials to let them know that wasn't the only penalty on the play.

"I was trying to inform them they were lined up offsides," Wagner said. "I didn't know they could just award a touchdown."

After Luvu was flagged twice, defensive lineman Jonathan Allen jumped early when Hurts used a hard count. That moved the ball even closer to the goal line and then on the next play, Hurts scored.

"On that play, as a defense that showed a little bit of the fight," defensive end Clelin Ferrell said. "We don't care in that moment. We're going to play with our hair on fire to the end. That's what you look for, that tells the character of your team -- 1-yard line and guys are still fighting."

That fight helped define the Commanders this season, one in which they weren't predicted to be a factor in the NFC. Yet, they won 12 games in coach Dan Quinn's first season and with a rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels.

But, Sunday, they could not overcome four turnovers that led to 28 points by Philadelphia. Washington had been plus-6 in turnover margin in the first two postseason games; the Commanders were minus-4 on Sunday.

The last turnover occurred with Washington at its own 49-yard line early in the fourth quarter and trailing by 11. That led to the tush push sequence and the Commanders never threatened again.

Perhaps the toughest one took place late in the first half when Jeremy McNichols fumbled a kickoff after an Eagles touchdown. Philadelphia capitalized with another touchdown and took a 27-15 halftime lead.

"They thrive off turnovers and we didn't take care of it good enough," Washington receiver Terry McLaurin said. "Credit to them. It's hard to win games when you turn the ball over."

The Commanders, notably Quinn and Wagner, were not ready to reflect on the season. Quinn had been adamant all season about not looking ahead and that included any thoughts on what this season meant.

"Too early for me," he said. "What I can say is no locker room is the same year to year and I wanted to make sure they spent that time together because they've created something that's very cool here. It's going to pay off for years to come."

Washington's story is well-known by this point: The Commanders were 4-13 a year ago but hired general manager Adam Peters and Quinn and drafted Daniels. Each of those moves helped pave the way for a remarkable turnaround. They finished the regular season 12-5 -- the organization's most wins since 1991. That's also the same season in which they last played in the championship game.

There were long embraces by players; safety Jeremy Chinn sat at his locker and wiped away tears. It was a season they didn't want to end. Tight end Zach Ertz, who was playing in his third championship game in 12 seasons, said he knows how hard it is to reach this point. His one regret: the timing of his career and Daniels.

"Playing with Jayden, I wish I was 22 and playing with him and had my whole career ahead of me with him," Ertz said.

Meanwhile, Daniels was upset over his first playoff loss.

"It sucks man, it just sucks," said Daniels, the favorite to be named NFL offensive rookie of the year. "We all meshed. We lost, it sucks but we'll move on from this.

"I don't want to have a feeling like this again."

After a quiet first week of WNBA free agency, the first domino of player movement has fallen -- and it's a massive one.

In a blockbuster three-team trade, the Las Vegas Aces are acquiring Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd while sending Aces guard Kelsey Plum to the Los Angeles Sparks, sources told ESPN on Sunday, creating the first trade in league history involving multiple No. 1 overall picks.

The Storm are also acquiring the No. 2 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft and forward Li Yueru from the Sparks, as well as Las Vegas' 2026 first-round pick, sources told ESPN. Los Angeles receives the 2025 No. 9 pick and a 2026 second-round pick from Seattle. The Aces will get the 2025 No. 13 overall pick from the Sparks.

Since the deal involves a sign-and-trade for Plum, it can't be made official until Feb. 1.

Plum entered the offseason as a free agent, an indication that her time in Las Vegas -- as part of the championship-winning core alongside A'ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray -- might be coming to an end.

By being cored by the organization, Plum's only way of changing teams was to get traded, but she had to sign off on her final destination. She joins L.A on a one-year deal hoping to be a Spark beyond 2025, sources told ESPN.

The vast majority of WNBA players -- including Plum and Loyd -- are anticipated to become free agents in 2026, ahead of the implementation of a new collective bargaining agreement that's expected to feature significant salary increases.

Loyd, meanwhile, still had one year left on her contract with the Storm, but news of her trade request came out after her allegations of harassment and bullying against the Storm coaching staff. That prompted an external investigation that concluded without finding any violations.

Plum and Loyd, both shooting guards, share similar trajectories as pros. They were both No. 1 overall picks -- Loyd in 2015 to Seattle; Plum in 2017 to San Antonio, which relocated to Las Vegas one year later. They both emerged as all-WNBA talent and perennial All-Stars, each winning a pair of championships with their respective franchises. They established their value on the international stage as Olympic gold medalists in Tokyo, where Loyd played 5-on-5 and Plum 3x3, and in Paris, where they were teammates as Team USA won an eighth-consecutive gold medal.

And they'd both spent their entire WNBA careers playing for the franchises that selected them -- until now.

Plum, who until last year held the NCAA women's basketball scoring record, joins a Los Angeles organization that hired a new coach this offseason in Lynne Roberts and is building around 2024 lottery picks Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson, plus veterans Dearica Hamby and Azura Stevens. With a star of Plum's caliber in tow, the Sparks, historically one of the league's most iconic franchises, look well-positioned to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

Loyd's arrival in Las Vegas will automatically help the Aces, who fell short of their three-peat bid last season, aim for their third championship in four years. A six-time All-Star and the WNBA scoring leader in 2023, Loyd will bring an additional perimeter scoring threat to a team already featuring three-time MVP Wilson, three-time All-Star Young and 2022 Finals MVP Gray.

Coming off a disappointing first-round postseason exit, the Storm move up in the draft and, picking second overall, could have the chance to select a player such as Notre Dame's Olivia Miles or USC's Kiki Iriafen. Seattle still has Skylar Diggins-Smith under contract, cored Gabby Williams earlier this month and will look to re-sign unrestricted free agent Nneka Ogwumike.

Sources told ESPN the Sparks were ultimately uncertain about who would even be available to be drafted No. 2 overall, which combined with the hope of bringing Plum in for multiple years, made it palatable to give up the lottery pick. Miles and Paige Bueckers, the presumptive No. 1 overall pick, are both considered top prospects, but both maintain their college eligibility for the 2025-26 season.

ESPN's Shams Charania, Ramona Shelburne and Kendra Andrews contributed to this report.

PHILADELPHIA -- Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts lit it up through the air and on the ground in Sunday's NFC Championship Game win over the Washington Commanders, totaling 262 yards and four touchdowns to lead Philadelphia to a 55-23 victory and into Super Bowl LIX.

Hurts quipped afterward that coach Nick Sirianni "let me out of my straitjacket a little bit today."

With a dominant run game led by MVP candidate Saquon Barkley, the Eagles have largely leaned conservative when it comes to the passing attack. Hurts' 246 yards through the air against Washington marked just the second time in the past eight games he hit the 200-yard mark passing.

"It's not about me. I don't play the game for any statistical measure," Hurts said. "You play the game to win. I play the game to win."

Barkley continued his remarkable season. He broke off a 60-yard touchdown run on the Eagles' first offensive play and finished with 118 yards on 15 carries with three touchdowns.

Hurts costarred. He ended 22-of-28 with one touchdown pass and no interceptions for a quarterback rating of 110.1 and ran for three scores. Hurts and Barkley became the first teammates to have at least three rushing touchdowns in a playoff game in NFL history.

The formula for much of the season has been to lean on Barkley and the No. 1 defense in football and to limit turnovers. Hurts has been instrumental in handling that last order of business. He was second in the NFC through four weeks with seven giveaways but has had only three since then, helping the Eagles bounce back from a 2-2 start to finish the regular season 14-3.

The Eagles won the turnover battle 4-0 against Washington and have 10 takeaways and zero giveaways through three games this postseason.

"I don't want anybody else leading this team at quarterback other than him," Sirianni said of Hurts. "He's a winner."

There were questions about Hurts' health entering the game after he suffered a knee injury against the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round. Hurts said this week of prep was "challenging" and "in some ways exhausting" as he revealed he was also dealing with an illness in the leadup to the Washington game.

But he looked unimpeded against the Commanders, helping to fuel a convincing win that has Hurts and the Eagles in the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons.

"In a sense, I think this game chose me and this position chose me," Hurts said, when asked about handling a reduced role as a passer for much of the season. "To be able to come this far and have these opportunities in front us, you just want to take advantage of them.

"But I've never been motivated by achieving the personal things, personal goals. All of those things come when you put the work in, have the right mentality and embrace what the group's mission is. And the mission is to win."