Costa's Dark Arts Defeat Liverpool, Scribes, Copa del Rey, Abu Dhabi Bernabéu, USA vs. Chile

Apologies. We lost our key to the new SSN Headquarters and failed to deliver a post yesterday. Really. We're sorry. 

Right! Diego Costa is a dirty player. Do we all agree? Good. Let's roll...

Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool (aet, agg. 2 - 1): Phil McNulty at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool (aet, agg. 2 - 1): Five Talking Points

Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool (aet, agg. 2 - 1): Five Questions

Adam Bate: Costa willing to overstep the mark to win but that's what Mourinho loves

Barney Ronay: Diego Costa tries to light up Chelsea with his dark arts

Paul Wilson: Campaign against Chelsea? More like a Mourinho campaign against everyone

Paul Hayward: Costa stamp shows need for video referees

So, Chelsea will face the winner of the Sheffield United/Tottenham semifinal. That match is at Bramall Lane and United need to overturn a 0 - 1 deficit. Here's a preview.

African Cup of Nations? African Nations Cup? Whatever you want to call it, Algeria are through. As are Ghana. Today is the last matchday of the group stage and it features Cameroon vs. Ivory Coast and Guinea vs. Mali. Oddly enough, each team has an identical record, which could mean (gasp!) the drawing of lots! Here's more on all of that with Kirsten.

This afternoon brings us more fun from Spain, where second leg of the Copa del Rey quarter-final between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona goes down at the Estadio Vicente Calderón. Barca are up 1 - 0. Here's your preview. Hit beIN Sports at 3:00 p.m. EST to view.

We were hoping she'd do it and she has. Our favorite Argentine scribe, Marcela Mora y Araujo, has written about Juan Ramon Riquelme now that he's hung up his boots. Excellent. Enjoy.

Speaking of scribes, we missed them yesterday. Let's go back in time and make things right:

Where? Spain. Who? Sid Lowe. What? Valencia's Diego Alves shows penalty prowess yet again against Sevilla

Where? France. Who? Julien Laurens. What? Without Lacazette, Lyon face tests of their Ligue 1 title credentials

Where? South America. Who? Tim Vickery. What? Juan Roman Riquelme: The master of his art will be missed by Argentina

Where? Italy. Who? Paolo Bandini. What? Parma's shrinking violets facing a sour future in Serie A

Where? Germany. Who? Uli Hesse. What? Ten memorable Bundesliga post-winter-break match-days

Where? Spain. Who? Graham Hunter. What? Cristiano Ronaldo, red card hysteria needs to calm down

Abu Dhabi Bernabéu. Get used to it, people.

Kaká is in Orlando. Pardon us, but we forgot. Grant Wahl is on hand to remind us, thankfully.

The Mill. Plus One. Plus Plus One.

And finally...The United States play Chile tonight in a friendly. So...there.

Onward!!

-SSN

nbcsoccer.com