Football (Soccer) News
Finn Azaz’s stunner threatened a Saints shock but Nico Gonzalez responded with an all-timer of his own to send City to their fourth consecutive final
1 min: City waste no time in establishing how they plan to go about this. A lot of patient possession. Saints yet to have a touch.
Manchester City get the ball rolling. April. Wembley. Sun. It’s that time of year. What’s not to love?
Continue reading...Boro thrash Watford 5-1, West Brom 0-0 Ipswich
Charlton’s 2-1 win and Baggies’ point relegates Oxford
Middlesbrough’s hopes of winning automatic promotion remain alive after they thrashed Watford 5-1 at the Riverside. With second-placed Ipswich drawing 0-0 at West Brom, Boro moved to within a point of the top-two positions with one game to play – although Ipswich still have a game in hand.
Boro’s 5-1 victory was their joint-biggest win of the season and came thanks to doubles from Morgan Whittaker and Tommy Conway plus a goal from David Strelec. Watford’s goal came at the start of the second half from James Abankwah, but while the visitors were a match for their opponents for most of the first period, they were comprehensively outplayed after the break.
Continue reading...Roberto De Zerbi had said he wanted no crying in his camp after Brighton scored their late equaliser last week, and it was just as the Wolves fans had started chanting “You’re going to cry in a minute” that the substitute João Palhinha struck the goal that briefly helped Tottenham climb out of the relegation zone and avoid a club record of 16 consecutive league games without a win.
The Spurs manager ran on to the pitch, pumping his fists, after the Portugal midfielder, played onside by the former Spurs defender Matt Doherty, slid in to score after Richarlison had scuffed a shot goalwards when Pedro Porro’s corner fell his way in the 82nd minute.
Continue reading...Eberechi Eze’s early goal was enough to secure a win against Newcastle and keep Arsenal’s title dream within reach
Mikel Arteta’s pre-match thoughts
[On making only one change from the City game] We did a lot of great things, with some connections that we really liked througout the game.
[On how long Bukayo Saka might be able to play from the bench] We will see how the game goes. We have alternatives in the front line to change the game; we’ll use them in the right way.
Continue reading...Bayern stun Mainz with four second-half goals
Rashford strikes for Barcelona in win at Getafe
Bayern Munich fought back from three goals down to clinch a 4-3 win away to Mainz 05, with substitutes Harry Kane and Michael Olise leading a second-half comeback for the Bundesliga champions. Dominik Kohr, Paul Nebel and Sheraldo Becker scored for Mainz in the first half while Bayern, who had made eight changes to the starting lineup that beat Bayer Leverkusen in Wednesday’s German Cup semi-final, had no shots on target until the break.
The Bayern coach, Vincent Kompany, brought on Kane and Olise after the break and their renewed aggression paid off with Nicolas Jackson scoring in the 53rd minute and Olise finding the net 20 minutes later.
Continue reading...⚽ Premier League updates from the 12.30pm BST kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Table | Follow us on Bluesky | And mail Tim
2 min The first foul is committed by Morgan Rogers, needlessly, on Sander Berge – they were in the centre circle.
1 min Fulham kick off and play the ball around at the back. They’re in all white, so they bear a very slight resemblance to Real Madrid. Villa are in a lot of claret and a little blue.
Continue reading...The German has twice come close to the sack but has led team towards safety and first FA Cup semi since 1987
The crate was crammed with bottles but Daniel Farke made light work of hoisting it on to a table and inviting everyone to help themselves. It was a little after 10.30 one night in April last year, an already-promoted Leeds had just beaten Bristol City, and the manager was offering journalists an end-of-season beer.
Such gestures are increasingly unusual in an ever-more corporate and sanitised sport, but Farke brings a human touch to proceedings. Indeed, his refreshingly down-to-earth approach is reminiscent of an illustrious title-winning predecessor. Behind a blunt exterior Howard Wilkinson was a caring manager who, spotting a journalist stranded outside Elland Road late one night, drove him home to Sheffield. It seems the sort of thing Farke might also do.
Continue reading...Millwall moved back into the Championship’s automatic promotion position places but could only snatch a late 1-1 draw at already relegated Leicester.
Substitute Macaulay Langstaff’s first goal since February cancelled out a Foxes opener from Harry Souttar, who was playing his first game since rupturing an achilles 16 months ago. It moved Alex Neil’s visitors up to second, a point ahead of Ipswich who have two games in hand.
Continue reading...Fans of both sides are feeling similar levels of stress at different ends of the Premier League table
Zadie Smith once wrote that “the square mile around Arsenal’s stadium could be a suitable surrogate for the whole wide world”. Perhaps you only really glimpse this on a match day, when the jerk chicken grills and paella pans fire up and belch delicious smoke across the rows of terraced houses, when the locals in weathered replica shirts brush shoulders with tourists bearing selfie sticks, when a small group of dedicated volunteers at a kiosk by the Ken Friar Bridge accepts non-perishable donations for the Islington food bank.
And you shall scoff, and you shall sneer, because there is a north London of the popular imagination, and Islington in particular, which has become a surrogate for something else entirely. A slur, an insult, a byword for privilege and entitlement and metropolitan effeteness, the place of Blair and Corbyn and Starmer and a shrink on every street corner. North London is elite, north London is out of touch, north London looks down on the rest of you while eating plates of £16 pasta.
Continue reading...Elliot Anderson completed a stunning victory for Forest, who moves eight points clear of relegation after thrashing Sunderland
3 min A regrettable square pass from Sadiki, deep in his own half, is nicked by Hutchinson. Alderete makes an immportant challenge on the edge of the area and Anderson’s long-range shot deflects over the bar for a corner.
The corner is half cleared to Williams, who mishits a difficult volley well wide.
Continue reading...Chelsea, Leeds, Southampton and Man City are in FA Cup semi-final action, while Spurs visit Wolves in the league
Continue reading...Fiftieth anniversary of an FA Cup win still central to their city’s identity forms an evocative backdrop to Saints’ semi-final against Manchester City
Two years ago, when sixth-tier Maidstone won at Ipswich to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time, their manager, George Elokobi, distilled the unique, enduring impact of an FA Cup giantkilling into five syllables: “This binds us for life.”
The same bond, only even more powerful, will be in evidence on the south coast in the next week. All connected with Southampton hope to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their only FA Cup final triumph having reached another final.
Continue reading...After scoring the goal that knocked out Arsenal, the midfielder is relishing Saturday’s semi-final against his old club Manchester City
In the seconds after Southampton disposed of Arsenal to tee up an FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City, a camera operator scooted on to the St Mary’s pitch and got to work on locating the match-winner. As the crowd swayed to the sound of Doris Day’s Que Sera, Sera, another lasting image was born.
In between high-fiving and embracing teammates, Shea Charles tilted his head and turned towards the camera, raising his eyebrows a little with a playful ‘how-about-that-then?’ expression. It was a snapshot that snowballed into a viral meme, viewed by millions on social media, and a couple of days later Southampton asked their players to recreate the moment. “I just looked at the camera as if I was looking at my mates down the lens,” Charles says. “I’ve seen it’s gone all over.”
Continue reading...Spurs face must-win game at Wolves, Arsenal fight to keep title hopes alive and Chelsea step into a post-Rosenior world
Maybe it is a case of fourth time lucky for Nottingham Forest. Certainly Vítor Pereira – manager No 4 in the most chaotic of seasons – is doing something right. The Europa League semi-finalists are unbeaten in their last five Premier League games and will arrive at the Stadium of Light knowing victory would move them within touching distance of safety. Their visit should provide an interesting tactical challenge for Sunderland. Régis Le Bris’ side often excel on the counterattack but Forest are likely to sit deep and invite their hosts to unpick their packed defence while hoping to hurt them on the break. Le Bris will surely need Nordi Mukiele to advance with typical verve from right-back, while, in midfield, Noah Sadiki and Enzo Le Fée will be required to demonstrate precisely why they are being watched by several leading clubs. This Sunderland team often plays with real and refreshing personality. Can Forest subdue it? Louise Taylor
Sunderland v Nottingham Forest, Premier League, Friday 8pm (all times BST)
Fulham v Aston Villa, Premier League, Saturday 12.30pm
West Ham v Everton, Premier League, Saturday 3pm
Wolves v Tottenham, Premier League, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...The electric Manchester City forward on his dribbling skills, who is City’s quickest player and the potential for a domestic treble
Pace, aggression and quicksilver trickery: Jérémy Doku is the nightmare for opposition defences who breaks games open for Manchester City. In Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, Southampton’s task will be to try to contain the Belgium winger who has raised his game this season.
The Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, believes that Doku can be “unstoppable” and Arsenal’s Cristhian Mosquera discovered precisely this in City’s seismic 2-1 win in the Premier League on Sunday, the right-back booked for persistently fouling him at the Etihad Stadium. Yet the 23-year-old is not content. The ambition is to add goals to the sparkling skill set he believes will elevate him above Vinícius Júnior as the world’s best wide forward.
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