Football (Soccer) News
Harry Maguire: from up for sale two summers ago to redemption completed via a 93rd-minute nodded winner. If the defender was clearly offside when meeting Bruno Fernandes’s spiralling free-kick from the left he certainly did not care as here was his own tale of FA Cup romance.
Before the rush of Maguire’s intervention, Joshua Zirkzee’s 67th-minute equaliser appeared the lifeline United needed to keep a shaky FA Cup defence alive.
Continue reading...A contentious last-gasp header from Harry Maguire secured the hosts’ passage to the fifth round
Ruud also talked about Jeremy Monga, the 15-year-old he has on the bench. “He went up to the Under-18s, did well, went up to the Under-21s and did well there too.” They grow up so fast.
The game is on ITV in Britain and Ruud van Nistelrooy is chatting to the pundits. Asked if it feels odd to be at Old Trafford as the visiting manager, he reveals that he went into the home dressing-room by mistake. When he reached the away one, he didn’t much like it. “It’s tiny! And not comfortable. So they got that right.”
Continue reading...Jermaine Jenas insists he has taken responsibility for the conduct that led to his dismissal from the BBC as he prepares to return to broadcasting.
The former Tottenham and England midfielder was dismissed from his roles on Match Of The Day and The One Show in August after messages he sent to two women came to light. Jenas apologised for his actions and is set to return to the public eye as part of TalkSport’s coverage of the FA Cup fourth-round tie between Aston Villa and Spurs on Sunday. It is understood that has caused concern among some members of staff at the radio station who are refusing to work with Jenas.
Continue reading...Ange Postecoglou has insisted he is not thinking about the possibility of being sacked if Tottenham are knocked out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa on Sunday and has backed his players to recover from their 4-0 thrashing at Liverpool.
A weary Spurs squad returned to London in the early hours of Friday with criticism ringing in their ears after surrendering their 1-0 advantage from the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. They did not manage a shot on target at Anfield, prompting the Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp to describe their performance as “abject”.
Continue reading...Marcus Rashford could make his Aston Villa debut as Birmingham aim to bring Newcastle back to earth
For spice, consider how this tie is the sides’ third meeting this term. Manchester United won the first two with an aggregate of 8-2, Ruud van Nistelrooy was interim manager for each, then Ruben Amorim made the Dutchman unemployed when taking over as the head coach in mid-autumn. Now returning to Old Trafford as Leicester’s No 1, Van Nistelrooy can expect a warm welcome due to his former status as a star United striker. But if he engineers a knockout of the holders, Van Nistelrooy will be recast, temporarily, as the villain of the faithful. Jamie Jackson
Manchester United v Leicester, Friday 8pm (all times GMT)
Leyton Orient v Manchester City, Saturday 12.15pm
Coventry v Ipswich, Saturday 3pm
Everton v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...Internazionale missed their chance to go top of Serie A , the defending champions suffering a 3-0 defeat at Fiorentina as Moise Kean scored twice for the hosts. The defeat left Inter in second place on 51 points, three behind the leaders, Napoli, and Fiorentina moved up to fourth on 42 points, above Lazio on goal difference.
The original match on 1 December was suspended when Fiorentina’s Edoardo Bove collapsed on the pitch and was taken to hospital, and the game restarted at 0-0 in the 17th minute with a Fiorentina throw-in.
Continue reading...Chelsea supporters have accused Todd Boehly of a “breach of trust” and a potential conflict of interest over his co-ownership of a website selling tickets to the club’s games and other Premier League matches to foreign tourists.
Boehly is a director and investor in Vivid Seats, an American site that allows users outside the United Kingdom to buy and sell tickets to concerts and sporting events, often at huge mark-ups. British fans cannot use the site or others like it because it is illegal to resell football tickets in this way in the UK. The Premier League lists Vivid Seats as an “unauthorised ticket website”.
Continue reading...First-half strikes from Joël Piroe and Jayden Bogle helped Leeds stretch their advantage at the top of Championship to five points with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Coventry.
The visitors were a class above Frank Lampard’s side, who came into the game on the back of four successive league wins. Coventry could only blame themselves for being two goals down at the break. Piroe’s expertly taken finish made Ellis Simms pay for a mistake before Bogle was handed a gift by the goalkeeper Oliver Dovin.
Continue reading...A federal court jury sided with the US Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer on Monday in an antitrust lawsuit brought against the organizations by a now defunct league that sued after it did not have its second-tier status renewed.
After the verdict was announced, Judge Hector Gonzalez in Brooklyn dismissed the case brought in 2017 by the North American Soccer League (NASL), which disbanded months after the federation’s decision not to renew the status.
Continue reading...On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Jacob Feldman are joined by Sportico’s Kurt Badenhausen to discuss Sportico’s recently published MLS valuations. The average team is now worth $72 million, up 6% from 2024, but there is a growing divide between MLS’ top franchises and the rest of the pack. Badenhausen explains what …
Only one of the top six made a notable signing – and they spent £172m – in a frustrating window for several managers
Mikel Arteta’s hopes of strengthening his squad never materialised, no doubt to his frustration and that of every Arsenal supporter, despite the surprise bid for Ollie Watkins and interest in Bayern Munich’s Mathys Tel. The feelgood factor generated by the famous thrashing of Manchester City will not last long if a lack of attacking options means they cannot sustain their challenge in the Premier League. Arteta, who would not allow Kieran Tierney or Jorginho to leave with their contracts expiring in the summer, will be hoping that some winter sunshine in Dubai next week can give his players extra spark when they return. Ed Aarons
Continue reading...Chelsea boosted their push for a Champions League place after a fortunate win on Graham Potter’s return to SW6
More on the enigma that is Andy Irving.
Brendan Large gets in touch: “As a Chelsea fan I think dropping Sanchez was a no-brainer today. He hasn’t been as bad as his headlines (mostly) and has made some good saves. But all the noise around him would have made every touch a chance for West Ham fans to put him under pressure. Jorgensen doesn’t look spectacular but seems to be a safe pair of hands (mostly) from his Conference League/Cup appearances.
Continue reading...Pep Guardiola was thought to have stabilised City’s form, but Sunday’s 5-1 demolition by Arsenal shows that the champions’ reign is now surely over
By the time Ethan Nwaneri whipped in Arsenal’s fifth, the mood at the Emirates was euphoric. The 17-year-old’s finish, arced into the bottom corner from that inside-right position through which so many of Arsenal’s attacks had come, felt like the perfect finale to a dominant 5-1 win over reigning Premier League champions Manchester City. And it was, in more ways than one.
Its youthful chutzpah seemed an appropriate way to round off a win in which 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly had been the most eye-catching player, having scored the third goal with an impudent shimmy into the box. Yet there was a strange realisation on seeing the replay. Nwaneri’s finish hadn’t nestled in that close to the corner of the goal; it wasn’t quite as good as it had initially appeared. And that felt emblematic of the game as a whole.
Continue reading...Draw in Milan derby suited nobody but the English duo showed they may be the answer to defensive frailties
Sérgio Conceição said last week that he was sick and tired of this transfer window. “A month is far too long,” he argued. “It has not been positive on an emotional level for many of our players.”
The counter-point arrived in the Milan derby on Sunday night. Starting at right-back for the Rossoneri was Kyle Walker, signed on loan from Manchester City a fortnight after he had informed the Premier League champions of his desire for a move. He was outshone on his debut by the man inside him at centre-back, Fikayo Tomori, who has spent this entire window being linked with transfers elsewhere.
Continue reading...Manchester United would not be surprised if Chelsea make a cheeky late bid for Alejandro Garnacho though the early signs are the west London club may not. For United, after letting both Marcus Rashford and Antony go on loan (to Aston Villa and Real Betis) there would surely be serious uproar if Sir Jim Ratcliffe allowed another wide forward, who Ruben Amorim talked up last week, to depart.
Ruben Amorim left more than £100m of striker on the bench in yesterday’s 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace. Surely he wants the Manchester United hierarchy to invest in someone that guarantees goals. He also sanctioned the departures of Antony and Marcus Rashford, leaving them short of options in attack, not that either has done anything of note this season.
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