Football (Soccer) News
Dango Ouattara’s Panenka attempt cost Brentford as West Ham set up a quarter-final with Leeds
1 min Brentford set us away. Given the side Nuno’s sent out, they’ll surely fancy themselves.
Our teams come out, Brentford wearing their away pyjamas.
Continue reading...Newcastle host Barça in Champions League last-16 first leg
Howe: ‘It’s an opportunity to grab a moment we never get again’
For Eddie Howe it was quite a statement. “Barcelona is the biggest game in this club’s history,” said Newcastle’s manager. “It’s massive.”
Given Howe usually seems allergic to exaggeration it was a surprising way to approach Tuesday night’s Champions League last 16 first leg with Hansi Flick’s side.
Continue reading...League One side Port Vale will head to Stamford Bridge while Manchester City host Liverpool in last eight
In such situation I didn’t expect even Marco Silva to blame someone other than him, and yet:
A very bad day for us,” Silva said. “It is probably not the moment to be emotional. It is a moment for us to look deeper.
It is not just another defeat. We lost a big chance. If you want to be in a club that wants to get better your ambition has to always be there. If you are pushing to win a game there are certain standards you cannot drop. Some things are about mentality.”
Continue reading...The leaders haven’t won the title in more than 20 years. Yet very few neutrals are excited about seeing them as new champions
What was striking after Arsenal’s grim 1-0 win at Brighton on Wednesday was less Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler’s attack on the Gunners’ style than the way his criticism seemed to resonate. In England, it feels as though almost nobody, other than Arsenal supporters or anyone-but-City fans, wants them to win the title.
“If I would ask everyone in the room: ‘Did you really enjoy this football game?’ I’m sure maybe one raises his arm because he’s a big Arsenal fan but, besides that, no chance,” Hürzeler said.
This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.
Continue reading...Full-back has struggled since his move but fierce strike took his side seven points off neighbours who could wobble
Pervis Estupiñán called it “the most important goal of my career”. He does, admittedly, have only 12 to choose from, but to score the winner in a Milan derby is something few players ever experience. It could only feel better for having done it towards the end of a difficult first season in Italian football.
The Ecuadorian was billed as a replacement for Theo Hernández when he joined Milan from Brighton last summer, lumbered with unreasonable comparison from the start. Hernández, at his best, was one of the most effective attacking full-backs in the world. Estupiñán, at 28, is yet to put himself in that conversation, but the hope was that he could offer some of the same directness and ability to get up and down the left flank.
Continue reading...Max Dowman and Rio Ngumoha staked their claim for more game time while Fulham paid for a lack of ambition
Port Vale have only ever reached the last eight of the FA Cup once before in their entire history, in 1953-54, when they went one stage further, losing the semi-final at Villa Park 2-1 to West Brom thanks to a much-disputed winning goal. If only VAR had been present then, you might say. In their fifth-round victory over Sunderland this weekend, they were also unfortunate despite the presence of technology. Why was referee Anthony Taylor not asked to go and check the TV monitor when George Hall was cynically taken out by the Sunderland goalkeeper Melkor Ellberg, just outside the penalty area with the match on a knife-edge? Even if the striker’s run was going away from goal, he surely had the pace to have got a shot away. Let’s hope VAR give the remaining lower-division teams fair shrift when it comes to the rest of the competition. Peter Lansley
Match report: Port Vale 1-0 Sunderland
Match report: Mansfield Town 1-2 Arsenal
Match report: Newcastle 1-3 Manchester City
Match report: Wrexham 2-4 Chelsea (aet)
Match report: Wolves 1-3 Liverpool
Match report: Fulham 0-1 Southampton
Continue reading...Full-back scores only goal of derby at San Siro
Wolfsburg sack head coach Daniel Bauer
Milan cut Inter’s lead at the top of Serie A to seven points after a 1-0 victory in the derby at San Siro. Pervis Estupiñán’s first-half strike helped Milan complete a Serie A double over their fierce rivals for the first time since 2011.
Inter had gone 15 league matches undefeated since their 1-0 loss to Milan in November but it was the full-back Estupiñán who found the only goal in the 35th minute.
Continue reading...Daniel Farke enjoyed victory over his former club in a fluent display that booked their first quarter-final in 23 years
There are 52 league places between Port Vale and Sunderland, and it’s Vale’s first quarter-final for 72 years. Magic.
“I’ve a strange feeling that Leeds are going to go all the way to the final this year,” emails Justin. “It’s just odd to think they’ve played a European Cup final and won two league titles but have not been back to Wembley for an FA Cup Final since 1973! Even Sunderland got back for one in 1992. Right, that’s Leeds jinxed for another year.”
Continue reading...Pep Guardiola had Omar Marmoush in the tightest of bear hugs and seemed strangely unwilling to release the smiling Egyptian.
It was the 73rd minute and two goals from the newly withdrawn Marmoush, the second a real show stopper, and another from Savinho had enabled Manchester City to come from behind and potentially shatter Newcastle’s entire season.
Continue reading...City came from behind to swat aside Newcastle and keep their quadruple hopes alive
1 min: The kick-off’s sent long, and Newcastle win a throw deep in City territory on the left. Hall launches long. The ball nearly drops first to Woltemade, then Elanga, but neither can get an effort on target and turn themselves into the Jackie Milburn de nos jours. The 45-second mark ticks over without the scoreboard being troubled.
Newcastle United get the ball rolling. City are kicking towards the Gallowgate in this first half.
Continue reading...Chelsea survived a major scare at Cae Ras, twice coming from behind before beating 10-man Wrexham in extra-time
7 min Chelsea look happy to move the ball around and take the sting out of the atmosphere. Wrexham aren’t seeing much of the ball but haven’t been troubled defensively.
4 min A pretty quiet start to the game, at least on the field. The Wrexham fans are still making a very decent noise.
Continue reading...Sakamoto and Wright give leaders victory at Bristol City
Lions close to within a point of Boro with 3-1 away win
First half goals from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Haji Wright strengthened Coventry’s position at the top of the Championship as they won 2-0 at Bristol City in a match that ended with both teams reduced to 10 men.
The visitors took a 37th minute lead when the former Robins player Jay Dasilva crossed from the left and Sakamoto outjumped his marker to net with a downward header. Coventry’s task was made more difficult when Joel Latibeaudiere was sent off in the 43rd minute for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, pulling back Emil Riis. But in first-half added time the Sky Blues doubled their advantage when Wright eluded a weak challenge before beating Radek Vitek with a low right-footed drive.
Continue reading...Youthful manager on his unlikely career path with Germany and Sunday’s FA Cup fifth round trip to Fulham
As a 19-year-old studying at a sports university in Cologne, Tonda Eckert jumped at the chance to work for Germany as an analyst at Euro 2012. “It was nice, eh? Take somebody who doesn’t understand anything about the game and put them in,” says the now Southampton head coach, smiling as he recalls being thrust into an elite environment. He entered the same sphere as Joachim Löw, Hansi Flick and a team of greats: Miroslav Klose, Philipp Lahm, Toni Kroos, Manuel Neuer, the list goes on.
For the 2014 World Cup, Eckert was tasked with preparing a dossier on Argentina, who Germany overcame in the final. “The celebrations in Berlin were amazing, at the Fanmeile,” he says of the scenes at the fan zone by Brandenburg Gate. In the semi-finals, Germany humiliated the hosts Brazil, triumphing 7-1 in Belo Horizonte. “You know what Joachim Löw said at half-time? That he wouldn’t let anyone play in the final if they didn’t finish the second half with a sense of humility, because he knew how much it meant to Brazil, in Brazil.”
Continue reading...Injury-hit Real Madrid snatch victory at Celta Vigo
Bayern Munich extend their lead at top of Bundesliga
Monaco opened up the Ligue 1 title race by inflicting a first home defeat of the season on the defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain on Friday night.
Maghnes Akliouche had Monaco ahead at half-time, with Aleksandr Golovin and Folarin Balogun scoring after the break for the visitors, while Bradley Barcola grabbed a consolation for PSG, who are still four points clear of second-placed Lens in the standings. Lens, however, have a chance to cut into that lead when they host bottom-placed Metz on Sunday.
Continue reading...Playmaker has become peripheral as Manchester City chase quadruple and is no longer a shoo-in for the World Cup
With 76 minutes gone at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night, Phil Foden was culpable for what might prove the title race’s defining moment. With Manchester City leading Nottingham Forest 2-1, Foden lost Elliot Anderson, who ran off him and curled home a 20-yard equaliser. Sixty seconds later, Pep Guardiola substituted his England playmaker.
As Morgan Gibbs-White’s first equaliser could also be traced back to a loose Foden touch, this was a miserable evening for him: City managed only a draw, and as Arsenal won at Brighton, the title race tilted the Gunners’ way.
Continue reading...