Football (Soccer) News
If this proves to be a tale of two departing star strikers, Matheus Cunha eclipsed Jamie Vardy with as much comfort as Wolves have breezed past Leicester in this game and over the past five months.
Manchester United target Cunha scored the first goal and made the others for Jørgen Strand Larsen and Rodrigo Gomes while Vardy, having announced he will leave Leicester at the end of this tumultuous season, had his penalty saved by José Sá.
Continue reading...Kieran McKenna and his Ipswich players arrived in the Premier League pledging to stay true to their purist principles but had an ignominious return to the Championship rubber stamped amid acrimony, indiscipline and refereeing controversy.
In mitigation Ipswich started quite well at Newcastle, their low block frustrating Eddie Howe’s side and the striker Alexander Isak in particular. Then they imploded in a manner that perhaps reflected the frustrations of a long, hard season when, all too often, a team who were League One residents two years ago proved not quite good enough to bridge the growing chasm between the top and second tiers.
Continue reading...A stoppage-time winner from Ryan Sessegnon revitalised Fulham’s European qualification prospects and denied Southampton the chance to move past the record-low Premier League points total set by Derby.
Jack Stephens’ 14th-minute opener had already-relegated Saints on course for a first home league victory since November, but Emile Smith Rowe levelled for Fulham after 72 minutes to set up a nervy finale at St Mary’s.
Continue reading...Cardiff have been relegated on a dramatic day at the bottom of the Championship, with Plymouth left on the brink and Hull pulled into the bottom three. Cardiff were held 0-0 at home by West Brom and are now bottom after Plymouth won 2-1 at Preston. However, Argyle’s poor goal difference means they stand no real chance of survival.
Cardiff returned to the third tier after 22 years, six years after they had been playing in the Premier League. They had Aaron Ramsey in interim charge, while Albion had James Morrison in temporary control after Tony Mowbray was sacked on Monday. Both sides had chances with Albion’s Isaac Price making a goalline clearance from Calum Chambers and having a first-half effort that bounced back off a post. The result ended West Brom’s playoff hopes.
Continue reading...With Oliver Glasner and top players attracting interest, south London club know they must seize FA Cup opportunity
For Crystal Palace supporters of a certain vintage, Malcolm Allison and his famous fedora is where it all began. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the club’s first FA Cup semi-final appearance, under the maverick former Manchester City manager, when they were in the old Third Division.
Allison had already changed Palace’s nickname from the Glaziers to the Eagles and their colours to red and blue within a few months of his arrival from City in March 1973. It was after their third-round victory over non-league Scarborough that he decided to keep wearing the lucky hat that had bizarrely been inspired by the “spats” – fabric shoe covers – worn by Portsmouth’s 1939 Cup-winning manager, Jack Tinn.
Continue reading...Manager’s changeable lineups have pushed striker to usurp Ollie Watkins and likely lead the attack at Wembley
Unai Emery keeps his Aston Villa players on their toes. Sometimes he tells his squad the lineup the day before a game, on other occasions half an hour before they depart the team hotel for the stadium on a match day. Training tends to offer some clues but of late there have been surprises. Emery, a hugely emotional character, has been known to make impulsive, snap calls. Morgan Rogers, a rare mainstay and one of Villa’s trio of undroppables, recently described how his manager’s decision‑making can feel like flip‑of-the-coin stuff.
When the teamsheets are released an hour before kick-off at Wembley on Saturday, the eyeballs will jump towards the most intriguing selection dilemma: will Emery favour Marcus Rashford or Ollie Watkins?
Continue reading...Palace, Villa, Forest and Man City bid to reach the FA Cup Final while Liverpool can secure the Premier League title
FA Cup semi-finals (stats from all competitions)
Continue reading...Chelsea to give youth a chance, Ipswich look to prolong the inevitable and Jamie Vardy begins his swansong
Tyrique George has caught the eye since breaking into Chelsea’s first team. A homegrown talent, the 19-year-old winger has done well in his Conference League outings and is in contention for his first start in the league when Enzo Maresca’s side host Everton in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off. Fast, direct and sharp on the ball, George has quickly become a favourite with supporters and he lifted some of the pressure off Maresca after coming off the bench to score an excellent equaliser in Chelsea’s comeback win at Fulham last weekend. Thrown on as a striker, George made it 1-1 with a fine shot from the edge of the area. It was the latest in a series of positive contributions from the teenager. His enthusiasm could make a difference against Everton. Jacob Steinberg
Chelsea v Everton, Premier League, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)
Brighton v West Ham, Premier League, Saturday 3pm
Newcastle v Ipswich, Premier League, Saturday 3pm
Southampton v Fulham, Premier League, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...Crystal Palace defender on dreaming of FA Cup glory, Oliver Glasner and the importance of faith to the team
Maxence Lacroix is treating Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley as just another game but the same can’t be said of his mother. “She’s more stressed than me right now,” the Crystal Palace defender says. “But I think it’s really good for a mother or father to see their son running his dream and playing this type of game because she knew it was difficult before and now she sees her son growing, having a family and doing what he wants. So I think she’s proud, a little bit stressed but it’s all right.”
Growing up in Ajat, a village in the Dordogne, Lacroix knew he was never going to follow in his mother Corrine’s footsteps by becoming a doctor. Having moved to Germany from the French side Sochaux as a 20-year-old after coming through the prestigious Clairefontaine academy, he reunited with Oliver Glasner – his former manager at Wolfsburg – in south London last summer. The elegant defender is the heartbeat of the Palace side that will face Aston Villa for a place in the final and has been tipped to win his first senior cap sooner rather than later after representing France at every youth level.
Continue reading...As Everton leave their beautiful old stadium, we look back on a game that lives on in the hearts of all who saw it
“If you talk to any Evertonian who was there that night, who actually got in this ground that night, and you said, ‘You can take one game to the grave with you’. Say there was 55,000, I’m betting you 50,000 would take this game with them.” Andy Gray’s words about the second leg of Everton’s semi-final against Bayern Munich in the Cup Winners’ Cup are not hyperbole. Admittedly the official crowd figure was 49,476 but, that apart, Gray is right about how Everton fans feel about the match of 24 April 1985. It was the ultimate night in the history of Goodison Park.
It was an evening that flooded the senses: two superb teams packed with great players were both chasing trebles. Neither of them took a backward step as the line between success and failure shifted throughout 90 minutes of intense football. And it was all played out in the kind of atmosphere that has to be heard to be believed.
Continue reading...Milan ruined Inter’s push for a treble and advanced to the Coppa Italia final with a 3-0 derby win courtesy of two goals from Luka Jovic.
Inter pressed forward early on and Federico Dimarco struck the crossbar in the 23rd minute. But Jovic put Milan ahead 13 minutes later with a powerful header and then doubled the advantage from close range shortly after the break. Tijjani Reijnders added another for Milan in the 85th minute by finishing off an excellent team move, giving them a 4-1 aggregate triumph over two legs.
Continue reading...Jean-Phillipe Mateta came off to score a stunning goal as Crystal Palace twice came from behind at the Emirates
An email from Ian Copestake, one of our resident Liverpool fans
You ain’t seen me. Right?
Continue reading...Ollie Watkins has urged Aston Villa to bounce back from Tuesday’s defeat at Manchester City by knocking out their “bogey team” Crystal Palace and progressing to the FA Cup final.
Villa lost 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium thanks to Matheus Nunes’s 94th-minute winner, leaving them seventh, two points behind Newcastle in the fifth and final place that secures Champions League qualification.
Continue reading...Oliver Glasner has complained that the buildup to Crystal Palace’s FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa is unfair, after the Premier League turned down a request from the London club to have both sides play on the same night in midweek.
Villa were in action at Manchester City on Tuesday night while Palace travel to the Emirates Stadium 24 hours later.
Continue reading...Mikel Arteta will not shy away from selecting key Arsenal personnel to face Crystal Palace on Wednesday in their final game before next week’s Champions League semi-final first leg even though his team are playing for little beyond pride.
The meagre prize on offer is delaying Liverpool’s title celebrations but the manager denied he could wrap members of his squad in cotton wool. “We cannot think in those terms,” Arteta said. “I think when the players are fit and they are available and they want to play, they have to play. They are at their best when they are playing and they have consistency in their performances.”
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