Category: Football (Soccer)

Football (Soccer) News

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Arsenal v Fulham: Premier League – live

⚽ Updates from the 5.30pm BST kick-off at the Emirates
⚽ Scores | Premier League table | Read Football Daily

“My thanks to Richard Hirst, but if we’re talking races to the grave, I’m probably a way ahead of him,” writes Charles Antaki. “So should the Arsenal men’s team fail at this Premier League hurdle, the next may be beyond my span. Today, the universe has a chance to right the wrongs of the women’s unsatisfactory performance at Lyon; but given that the universe seems to show absolutely no interest in righting wrongs of any description, and there are a few around at the moment, I’m not particularly hopeful. But, as ever, we shall see.”

Mikel Arteta’s pre-match thoughts

Some of the changes are forced. There are other reasons as well – we need a lot of energy, freshness and quality as well.

[On Myles Lewis-Skelly playing in midfield] He’s been very patient, extremely understanding about the situation and he deserves another chance. Every time he’s played, he’s done really well.

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Barnes wraps up Newcastle win against Brighton to ease pressure on Howe

Brighton had limbered up for this trip to Tyneside by working out with an acclaimed German cage fighter. The idea was that a spot of mixed martial arts training would toughen up Fabian Hürzeler’s players at set pieces and enable them to pack a collective punch far too powerful for Newcastle to resist.

Happily for Eddie Howe and his players it did not quite work out like that. On a day when Yasir al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s chair, and a delegation of his colleagues from the club’s majority owners, Saudi Arabian’s Public Investment Fund, looked on from the director’s box, Howe’s team finally ended a debilitating run of five straight defeats.

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Championship finale: Ipswich, Millwall and Middlesbrough vie for automatic promotion – live

⚽ Updates from a crucial afternoon of football action
⚽ Ten things to look out for | Scores | Tables | Mail John

Bill Preston gets in touch: “I think Wednesday beating West Brom and finishing on zero points, the same as they began the season with*, would be fitting. It would reflect a new start to the club, a fresh page, a story yet to be written.

“Although, one can’t help but feel I’ll be writing the same email again this time next year albeit into the League One finale if they get the expected fourteen points deduction post takeover and slide again.”

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Pacific Northwest Sportswatch Daily Listings

(All times Pacific)
Schedule subject to change and/or blackouts
Saturday, May 2
COLLEGE BASEBALL
9:05 p.m.

Fresno State at Washington State — Prime Video

10 p.m.

Oregon at Washington — BTN

MLB BASEBALL
9:40 p.m.

Kansas City at Seattle — MLBN

SOCCER (MEN'S)
2:30 p.m.

MLS: Seattle Sounders vs. Sporting Kansas City — FOX, Apple TV

4:30 p.m.

MLS: Portland Timbers vs. Real Salt Lake — FOX, Apple TV

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive TV listings provided by LiveSportsOnTV.

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Ipswich, Millwall and Boro face fight for promotion in crunch Championship finale

Gloves will be off in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-offs as all three clubs hope to join Coventry in the top-flight

If Ipswich do not achieve promotion this month the image may be permanently seared into Jack Clarke’s retinas. He had slalomed through Southampton’s defence in the final act of a dizzying cameo on Tuesday night and, from an angle on the left, unleashed a near-flawless drive across Daniel Peretz. Replays barely do justice to the home No 1’s left-handed save but the key detail is that he somehow got a touch on the ball and glanced it millimetres wide, with Clarke preparing to wheel off towards the visiting fans. It was 2-2 in the 94th minute and Ipswich would have been home and dry with a win but for the merest snick off the edges of Peretz’s goalkeeping apparel.

It means the gloves will be off on Saturday lunchtime at Portman Road, the Den and far beyond. The league’s finale is poised deliciously and, even if the Championship winners, Coventry, are long gone, nobody is going quietly in the wait for second. Will Ipswich, experienced in such scenarios under Kieran McKenna, use quality and muscle memory to preserve second spot? Could Alex Neil’s relentless Millwall offer up the story of the season by returning to the big time after 36 years away? Or will Kim Hellberg and Middlesbrough, seemingly a top-flight team in waiting for much of the campaign before falling away, orchestrate one last twist?

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Eddie Howe is under pressure, Rayan needs protection at Bournemouth and John Stones returns to Everton with City

The equation is simple. If Leeds beat relegated – and now managerless - Burnley at Elland Road on Friday they will reach 43 points and be extremely unlikely to meet the same fate as their opponents. Daniel Farke’s losing FA Cup semi-finalists are then scheduled to travel to Tottenham, but victory against Burnley, who they pipped to the Championship title last season, would settle nerves in West Yorkshire. Farke, though, does not necessarily expect a straightforward match. “There’s definitely no complacency,” he said, speaking before the news of Scott Parker’s departure. “I’ve got so much respect for Scott. I’d say there’s not one time this season Burnley were played off the field. They’re always very competitive, they’ve had many tight games.” As Mike Jackson takes caretaker charge at Turf Moor, Farke hopes another three points will persuade Leeds to extend his own contract. Louise Taylor

Leeds v Burnley, Friday 8pm (all times BST)

Brentford v West Ham, Saturday 3pm

Newcastle v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Wolves v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm

Arsenal v Fulham, Saturday 5.30pm

Bournemouth v Crystal Palace, Sunday 2pm

Manchester United v Liverpool, Sunday 3.30pm

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Nottingham Forest 1-0 Aston Villa: Europa League semi-final, first leg – as it happened

Chris Wood’s second-half penalty gave Forest a narrow to lead to take into next week’s second leg at Villa Park

Villa, on the other hand, are more likely to build through the middle. They’ll condense the play and look for quick interchanges, Ollie Watkins attacking the space in behind – especially in the absence of Murillo – with Emi Buendia in particular but also John McGinn looking to feed him in.

And as Gibbs-White does for Forest, so Rogers will do for them, mooching about dropping grenades, while Youri Tielemans will look to conduct from deep and arrive on the edge of the box to hit shots.

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Champions League review: a stone-cold classic, Díaz’s perfect timing and a defensive puritan

The first leg of the semi-finals produced a nine-goal thriller and a tense evening in Madrid. Next week’s matches are set to be a treat

Football’s role as a leading hot-take commodity was taken to the nth degree after Tuesday’s nine-goal slugfest between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris. Best game ever? What happened to the lost art of defending? Proof that France and Germany’s dominant clubs enjoy the luxury of not being challenged in their domestic leagues so they can keep their powder dry for the latter stages of the Champions League? Proof that the best attackers in Europe are sequestered at PSG and Bayern Munich? All of the above may well be true.

The debate will continue until next Wednesday’s second leg in Munich. Those who said it was the competition’s best ever semi-final – it had the most goals of any 90-minute match in the Champions League last-four – forgot previous contenders. “The best match I have ever coached,” said Luis Enrique. The PSG coach omitted to mention La Remontada of 2017, when his Barcelona team won 6-1 at the Camp Nou to complete the greatest comeback of all. And how about last season’s 7-6 semi-final double-header when Inter edged Barça? Only when the second leg delivers the same excitement can accusations of recency bias be dismissed.

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From Shankly v Revie to the ‘ghost goal’: all-English European semi-finals

Before Nottingham Forest face Aston Villa in the Europa League, we look at seven other all-English semi-final clashes in Europe

There can be few more enjoyable feelings for an away player than to silence Anfield. Billy Bremner did so in the first leg of this tie when he headed home unmarked to score what turned out to be the only goal across 180 minutes of action. John Toshack tried to respond but his shot was blocked on the line as Leeds’ fearsome defence defied Liverpool. “If you miss chances like we did, you do not deserve to win,” Bill Shankly said. The clubs were at the top of their game under Shankly and Don Revie and Liverpool had defeated Leeds in the 1965 FA Cup final after extra time, creating a heated rivalry. Bremner had struggled badly with injury in the 1970-71 season and was made to prove his fitness in a friendly against Bradford the day before the match at Anfield, something modern sports scientists would not suggest but which clearly worked. He was recalled to the lineup and ignited Leeds’ charge to winning the trophy. They beat Juventus on away goals in the final.

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PSG and Bayern’s box-fresh talents or Premier League title tussle: you can only have one | Barney Ronay

The Premier League isn’t as fun and fizzy as PSG v Bayern but that’s the price of the twice-weekly churn that rewards discipline and sacrifice

In the novel Rabbit, Run, John Updike has one of his characters, a groovy and progressive 1960s priest, calling round to talk to his fellow minister, a hard German Lutheran, about the secret doubts he harbours about his faith. Is the doctrine really necessary? Is hell just, you know, a metaphor? He likes Jesus. But maybe he also likes sinful things, like sex and recklessly open attacking football.

The hard German Lutheran takes one look, curls his lip and tells the groovy progressive priest to get down on his knees in the kitchen and beg for forgiveness. Who is he to reason with divine suffering? Life is pain. Joy is pain. Pain is pain. Frankly, the groovy priest who likes flying full-backs and an open midfield disgusts him. He will burn in hell for his spineless debauchery. The groovy priest leaves in tears.

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Aston Villa chase destiny against resurgent Nottingham Forest in all-Midlands showdown

While Unai Emery’s side are hoping to right past wrongs, their opponents are a serious threat under Vítor Pereira

It is eight years since Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest played out a Championship classic, a topsy-turvy 5-5 draw at Villa Park in which Tammy Abraham got four goals. John McGinn was also in the Villa side and Matty Cash scored to earn Forest a 3-2 lead with 22 minutes on the clock, before more drama ensued. Forest were reduced to 10 men but Lewis Grabban, who played for Villa the previous season, struck the final goal to earn a point.

It is the first top-flight meeting between the teams this millennium; however, that goes some way to telling the story of these sides, particularly Villa’s stealth. It was three and a half years ago, a couple of weeks before Unai Emery took the reins at Villa, and a glance at the teamsheet speaks volumes for the stability that has underpinned his success. Eight of Villa’s starting XI for that 1-1 draw could start against Forest on Thursday, when the Midlands clubs meet at the City Ground for the first instalment of an enticing all-Premier League Europa League semi-final. While there have been plenty of all-English finals, it is the first major European semi-final between English sides since Manchester United overcame Arsenal in the Champions League in 2009.

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