Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Barcelona ace Lionel Messi will be out for three weeks following his injury he sustained last Saturday in the La Liga game against Sevilla. A statement from Barcelona read: "Tests carried out on the first team player Leo Messi have confirmed that he has a fracture of the radial bone in his right arm." "He will be out for approximately three weeks." The five-time Ballon d'Or winner has been seen for the first time after sustaining a fracture in his right arm and he seems to be in good spirits. Barcelona will be back in action tomorrow (Wednesday), when they face Inter Milan in the Champions League. Both teams have six points from two games played so far. Messi will miss that and also El Clasico with Real Madrid due at Camp Nou on Sunday. Messi will likely be replaced by French winger Ousmane Dembele in the starting XI. Sunday's El Clasico will be the first game played between the two Spanish giants (Barcelona and Real Madrid) with neither Cristiano R...

How much do you know about Finland? Do you know these general facts? The Nordic country of Finland is one of the world's nothernmost countries. Finland is renowned for its "midnight sun", exciting outdoor adventures, delicious cuisine, beautiful scenery and interesting customs. The biggest cities in Finland are: Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulu, Turku, Lahti, Kuopio, Jyväskylä, and Pori. Finland's official languages are: Finnish (spoken by 88.9%) and Swedish (spoken by 5.3%). Sami is recognized as a regional language. Finland's capital is Helsinki. The country has a total population of 5.4 million people. The currency used is the Euro. The president and prime minister of Finland are Sauli Niinistö and Juha Sipilä respectively. Finland has a high average life expectancy - 80.5 years. The life expectancy for men is 78 years and that for women, 83 years. Finland's official website is  Finland.fi . Take a look at these distinctive facts about Finland....

Located in the North Atlantic, Iceland is a Nordic island country with a population of 348,580 people and an area of 103,000 square kilometers.  Reykjavík  is the capital of Iceland. It contains about 60% of Iceland's population. Iceland is geologically and volcanically active. The form of government in Iceland is a unitary parliamentary republic. Guðni Th. Jóhannesson is the president of Iceland, and Katrín Jakobsdóttir is the prime minister. The currency used in Iceland is Icelandic króna  ( ISK ). The following facts are worth noting about Iceland: 1. The first openly lesbian head of government in the world was  Jóhanna Sigurŏardóttir -  an Icelander -   who was also Iceland's first female prime minister. 2. Iceland is the most environmentally-friendly country in the world in 2018. It boasts of an Environmental Performance index of 93.5. 85% of the energy used in Iceland comes from renewable energies. 3. In I...

26 minutes into Barcelona's La Liga match against Sevilla (Saturday, October 20) , Barcelona captain Lionel Messi went down with an arm injury. The Blaugrana No. 10 clutched his right elbow as he exited the game. He was examined on the sidelines before being replaced by Ousmane Dembele.   The Barcelona talisman had assisted Philippe Coutinho in the 2nd minute of play to give Barcelona an early advantage at the Camp Nou. He further consolidated Barcelona's lead with a goal before the quarter of the hour mark. Disaster struck when Messi fell awkwardly, a few minutes after scoring, seemingly landing on his outstretched arm as he made an attempt to cushion his fall.   Messi's injury comes at a really bad time as Barcelona have a particularly tough stretch of games ahead of them. The Spanish giants are set to take on Inter in a Champions League group stage match on Wednesday, and El  Clásico  the following Sunday.  ❗ [INJURY NEWS] Tests carried o...

Renowned for her cheese, canals, tulip fields, windmills, coffee shops and flat landscape, the Netherlands is a country located in Northwestern Europe. Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands. The five largest cities of the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and Eindhoven. Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands, with West Frisian, Papiamento and English being official regional languages. The October 2018 estimate of the Dutch population stands at 17,259,111. The country's form of government is the unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The Euro and the US dollar are the currencies used in the Netherlands. Willem-Alexander is the Netherlands' monarch, and Mark Rutte is the prime minister. Herewith a good number of impressive facts about this low-lying Dutchland country: 1. The Dutch consume the most licorice in the world. Dutch shops sell more than 80 varieties of licorice, with each person eating more th...