Category: Football (Soccer)

Football (Soccer) News

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Potter goes back to Chelsea with point to prove in calmer West Ham waters

A win against Fulham and draw at Villa are early signs of a better fit at West Ham on manager’s return to his old club

Graham Potter’s return to Chelsea coming on deadline day feels symbolic. West Ham’s head coach does not look back fondly at the extravaganza of player trading when he was in charge at Stamford Bridge in January 2023. It was a time of chaos and unreasonable pressure. The new owners were spending like there was no tomorrow and by the time the window closed it was left to Potter to make sense of a squad so bloated there was not enough space for everyone in the first-team dressing room.

Good luck with that. Chelsea had crowed after beating Arsenal to Mykhaylo Mudryk. Negotiations with Benfica led to a British transfer record for Enzo Fernández. Noni Madueke, David Datro Fofana and Benoît Badiashile joined. A deal for Malo Gusto was confirmed for the summer. João Félix arrived on loan. Jorginho took his experience and nous to Arsenal. Hakim Ziyech’s loan to Paris Saint-Germain collapsed because of technical issues. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had to be cut from the squad for the Champions League knockout stages. Potter, who takes West Ham to Stamford Bridge on Monday night, watched it all unfold and knew that expectations were about to go through the roof.

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Championship: ruthless Leeds crush Cardiff 7-0 as Burnley lose ground at top

  • Leaders are unbeaten in the league since 30 November
  • Sheffield United sink Derby, Pompey hold Burnley

Championship leaders Leeds thumped Cardiff 7-0 to claim their biggest win of the season and extend their unbeaten home run in all competitions to 14 games.

The Wales winger Dan James supplied Brenden Aaronson for a sixth-minute opener before crossing low for loanee Manor Solomon to tap home a second in the 13th minute. The outstanding James scored Leeds’s third five minutes into the second half to cap a fine performance as the visitors’ eight-match unbeaten run in all competitions was emphatically ended.

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Wolves 2-0 Aston Villa: Premier League – as it happened

Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Matheus Cunha got the goals as Wolves took advantage of Villa’s latest Champions League hangover

Not long now: Skippers Nelson Semedo and John McGinn lead their teams out on to the Molineux pitch with kick-off just a few minutes away. In a splendid piece of symmetry, the two clubs are separated by 21 miles geographically and the same number of points in the league table. Nice.

Fun fact: Aston Villa have failed to win any of the last six Premier League games they have contested following a midweek Champions League excursion, drawing three and losing three against West Ham (D), Nottingham Forest (L), Chelsea (L), Liverpool (L), Bournemouth (D) and Manchester United (D).

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Raúl Jiménez and Muniz on target as Fulham hit back to stun Newcastle

Maybe Newcastle were distracted by the prospect of reaching Wembley on Wednesday night or perhaps they have simply hit a bit of a mid-winter wall but, whatever the precise reason, they could not cope with Adama Traoré and his friends from Fulham.

The visiting right winger excelled on the counterattack as goals from Raúl Jiménez and Rodrigo Muniz consigned Eddie Howe’s side to a second successive home defeat. Quite apart from denting their hopes of Champions League qualification it was hardly an ideal dress rehearsal for Newcastle’s midweek Carabao Cup semi-final second leg home date with Arsenal.

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Abdoulaye Doucouré’s lightning-fast strike sets Everton up for Leicester rout

David Moyes did not play down the importance of Leicester’s final league visit to Goodison Park. “Crucial,” he called a contest that could not only nudge Everton towards Premier League safety but enable the club to start planning for a better future. A team reborn under his leadership delivered.

An opening blitz that included the fastest goal ever scored at the historic old stadium destroyed Ruud van Nistelrooy’s abject visitors and secured a third successive league win for Everton under their new manager. Sean Dyche managed three wins in five months and 19 games in the Premier League this season. Everton have now scored six goals from open play since the Scot returned, one fewer than the team had managed all season under Dyche.

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Champions League playoffs: Manchester City to face Madrid, Celtic land Bayern

  • Competition’s last two winners to battle for last-16 place
  • PSG face all-French tie against surprise packages Brest

Manchester City must overcome Real Madrid if they are to keep their Champions League hopes alive after the pair were drawn together for a blockbuster playoff tie.

In a fiendish consequence of City’s scratchy league phase, which saw them narrowly avoid early elimination by finishing 22nd, they will face the La Liga leaders and reigning European champions next month. Celtic have been dealt an equally tough assignment in the form of Bayern Munich. The play-off winners will all enter the round of 16 but there is no further safety net for those defeated.

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Manchester City to face Real Madrid in Champions League playoff; transfer news: football – live

Uefa are still preambling. I have learned that one side of the draw will be silver and the other side will be blue.

Uefa are going big on the preambles here, so I’ve got time to remind you of the basic rules. There are eight seeded teams and eight unseeded teams. The two seeded teams with the highest league finish will be drawn against the two unseeded teams with the lowest league finish and so on, until everyone’s paired up. So Atalanta will play Sporting or Brugge, and Borussia Dortmund will play the other one, while PSG will play Monaco or Brest and Benfica will get the other one. You can play teams from your own country, and teams you played in the group. Got it? Great.

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

There’s a huge game at Bournemouth, a huge game at Arsenal and … er, a huge game at Portman Road

Nuno Espírito Santo said that at Bournemouth last weekend, where they were humbled 5-0, his Nottingham Forest side had been “not accurate and missed a lot of passes”. It is interesting that four of Forest’s last five – and five of their last eight – Premier League games rank in their bottom eight of the season on pass completion. “We have to perform much better,” he said. “We have to be more solid and play better football. We have so many things to improve.” Though results in that period, at least until last week, continued to be good they have relied on statistically unlikely displays of finishing prowess. Before their trip to Bournemouth, Forest had scored with nine of their previous 12 shots on target in all competitions and the last time a Chris Wood shot on target failed to go in was before Christmas. Both Nuno and Fabian Hürzeler were sent off for misconduct during a rancorous conclusion to the fixture between these sides at the Amex Stadium last September. Simon Burnton

Nottingham Forest v Brighton, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Bournemouth v Liverpool, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Leicester, Saturday 3pm

Ipswich v Southampton, Saturday 3pm

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Rangers make late surge into last 16 as Raskin and Cerny goals sink Union SG

Rangers claimed the eighth and final direct place in the last 16 of the Europa League with a nervy win over their Belgian visitors at Ibrox.

The midfielder Nicolas Raskin scored his first goal of the season with a header and the fit-again winger Vaclav Cerny doubled that lead soon after the break. Sébastien Pocognoli’s side, who started the night on 11 points, the same as their hosts, had their chances and the defender Kevin Mac Allister reduced the deficit late on but Rangers held out for the win they needed.

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Tottenham and Rangers win to claim last-16 places: Europa League – as it happened

Tottenham’s young guns earned a 3-0 win over Elfsborg while Rangers crept into the top eight by holding off Union SG 2-1

GOAL! Braga 1-0 Lazio (Horta 6). Victor Gómez advances down the right and cuts back for his captain Ricardo Horta, who whips into the bottom left. A lovely goal, and so Braga are on for the win they need to survive. Lazio, the table toppers, have little or nothing to play for.

Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Elfsborg. A sprightly start for Spurs as Mikey Moore spins in from the right touchline and attacks the visiting defence. The ball’s switched to Son Heung-Min on the other flank. A scuffed shot. But a promising early attack.

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Manuel Akanji believes Manchester City can still ‘beat every team in Europe’

  • Akanji: ‘No team wants to face us’ in Champions League
  • City will play Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in playoffs

Manuel Akanji is convinced Manchester City can rediscover their best levels to go far in the Champions League and has warned Real Madrid and Bayern Munich they can “beat every team in Europe”.

City advanced to the playoff round with Wednesday’s 3-1 home win over Club Brugge and will face Real or Bayern, with the first leg set for the Etihad Stadium the week after next. The away tie is the week after.

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MLS Franchise Valuations Ranking List: From LAFC to CF Montréal

The average MLS team is worth $721 million, according to data compiled by Sportico. Los Angeles FC ranks first at $1.28 billion, while CF Montréal ranks last at $450 million. Below are the values of the league’s 29 franchises, which are collectively worth $20.9 billion. The league will expand to 30 teams this season when …