Football (Soccer) News
Leeds and Burnley held, Windass scores a worldie for Wednesday, managerless Plymouth scramble a late draw, WBA demolish Preston and more …
Plymouth Argyle 1-2 Bristol City: The Robins are back in front at Home Park, with Jason Knight firing them back into the lead.
QPR 3-1 Watford: Kwdwo Baah pulled a goal back for Watford with a deflected shot but QPR immediately restored their two-goal lead when captain Sam Field rose highest to head home a cross from Paul Smyth.
Continue reading...Danny Batth’s last-minute equaliser clinched Blackburn a 1-1 draw at Elland Road and denied Leeds a 10th straight home win.
Pascal Struijk’s late penalty appeared to have snatched Leeds all three points in their push to extend their lead at the top of the Championship before Batth struck. Leeds poured forward in pursuit of a winner during 10 minutes of added time but John Eustace’s playoff-chasing visitors held firm for a deserved point. Daniel Farke’s side had taken maximum points from their previous three festive fixtures, but they failed to spark against Rovers.
Continue reading...The flags signal the nationality of each club’s manager on the final day of the season in the order the teams finished
In some places you may see two flags together. The first represents where the manager was born, the second is the nation the manager represented in their playing days.
Continue reading...Mark Robins has been appointed as Stoke’s manager on a three-and-a-half-year contract. The 55-year-old was sacked in November by Coventry and will watch Stoke’s game at Burnley on Wednesday from the stands before being in the dugout for the first time at home to Plymouth on Saturday.
Robins spent just over seven and a half years at Coventry and oversaw two promotions to reach the Championship. His team lost the 2022-23 Championship playoff final on penalties to Luton and were beaten in a shootout by Manchester United in last season’s FA Cup semi-finals.
Continue reading...The Wolves forward Matheus Cunha has been suspended for two games and fined £80,000 following a melee after the Premier League game against Ipswich this month.
The hugely influential Cunha will now miss games against Nottingham Forest in the league and the FA Cup tie against Bristol City.
The forward was charged with misconduct and it was alleged that he acted in an improper manner after the final whistle. He admitted the charge and the sanctions were subsequently imposed by an independent regulatory commission.
Full written reasons for this case will be published in due course.
Wayne Rooney and Plymouth Argyle have “mutually agreed to part ways with immediate effect”, the club have announced. The 39-year-old was appointed in May and leaves with the club sat bottom of the Championship, four points from safety after 23 games. They most recently lost 2-0 to fellow strugglers Oxford and 4-0 to Coventry.
In a statement on the Plymouth website, Rooney said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the board of Plymouth, in particular Simon Hallett and Neil Dewsnip who I shared great relationships with.
Continue reading...Ruben Amorim admitted Manchester United need a “shock” and are being dragged into a relegation fight after their 2-0 defeat by Newcastle at Old Trafford on Monday night.
It leaves United in 14th place on 22 points at the halfway stage of the Premier League season, seven above the drop zone. The defeat came after first-half goals from Alexander Isak and Joelinton and is United’s fourth consecutive loss in all competitions and the first time three consecutive home league matches have been lost since 1978-79.
Continue reading...Goals from Alexander Isak and Joelinton in the first 20 minutes boosted Newcastle’s top-four hopes and left their sorry hosts stunned
The teams are out! Manchester United wear their storied red, while Newcastle United are in their equally iconic black and white stripes. The Stone Roses blare out of the PA system. This is indeed the one. Peter Oh is also in musical – and indeed festive – mood: “♬ Should old acquaintance be forgot...? ♪ Probably yes, if you’re Man United and you want to finally get out from under Sir Alex Ferguson’s shadow.” We’ll be off in a minute.
Pre-match postbag. “So can we expect Newcastle players to start high-fiving and hugging each other the first time they get a corner tonight? It’s as good as a goal against Manchester United these days, if they stick two Magpies on Onana” – Justin Kavanagh
Continue reading...Manchester United are dipping towards the drop zone under Ruben Amorim, a head coach who took over on 11 November and forgot to pack the “bounce” often gifted to an employer after sacking the last guy.
This was United’s fourth straight defeat in all competitions and the first time three consecutive home league matches have been lost since 1978-79. After 11 games, the Portuguese coach’s record reads six defeats, four wins and one draw. Peer at the table and United are 14th on 22 points. No wonder, afterwards, Amorim admitted relegation is a threat and “our club needs a shock”.
Continue reading...If Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton go down this season, that will be 10 of the last 15 promoted sides who have gone straight back down
And so the year ends, as always seemed likely, with the bottom three places in the Premier League occupied by the three promoted sides. With Wolves and Crystal Palace resurgent and Everton under new ownership and having found the solidity that is always the key strength of Sean Dyche teams, the situation is bleak for the three currently in the relegation zone. Each will have their own reflections on the first half of the season but, more generally, the picture is worrying: the three promoted sides were relegated last season and the gulf between Premier League and Championship is coming to feel almost impossibly wide.
The bottom side Southampton are 10 points from safety. Realistically they probably need to average a point and a half a game from here to stay up – which is to say that they are as good as down. The two games since Russell Martin was sacked have shown an improvement, but even then battling performances at Fulham and Crystal Palace have yielded a single point. Perhaps they would have had a better chance of survival had they not been wedded to a high-risk passing style that kept on surrendering possession in dangerous areas but, in truth, this never looked anything like a Premier League squad. The priority now must be to acquire the six points they need to avoid breaking Derby’s record low of 11 points for the season.
Continue reading...Paulo Fonseca failed to meet his own expectations but was treated poorly by Milan, who have appointed Sérgio Conceição
It was Paulo Fonseca who announced his own sacking shortly after midnight. Driving out of the parking lot at San Siro, he stopped briefly to answer questions from a reporter. “Yes, it’s true, I’ve exited Milan,” he said. “That’s life. Life goes like this. My conscience is calm, because I did everything I could.”
Such phrasing might make it sound like Fonseca took the decision himself. He did not. Milan eventually confirmed they had relieved the head coach of his duties in an official statement published on Monday morning.
Continue reading...Millwall have appointed Alex Neil as their new head coach. The 43-year-old Scot replaces Neil Harris, who stepped down from the role earlier this month. Neil had been out of work since being sacked by Stoke last December, having previously managed Hamilton, Norwich, Preston and Sunderland.
Millwall, who were led by caretaker manager David Livermore in their last three fixtures, sit 13th in the Championship table following Sunday’s goalless draw at Coventry. Neil will take charge of the team for the first time when Oxford visit the Den on New Year’s Day.
Continue reading...Ange Postecoglou is not ready to write off Tottenham’s Premier League campaign just yet despite more dropped points on Sunday.
Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw at home to Wolves after they conceded with three minutes left on another difficult afternoon that saw Destiny Udogie become the latest player to limp off.
Continue reading...Leeds will head into 2025 top of the Championship after a hard-fought 1-0 win at Derby. Sheffield United had briefly returned to the summit following their lunchtime kick-off against West Brom, which ended 1-1 at Bramall Lane.
However, Leeds closed out the year in pole position in the race for automatic promotion after Brenden Aaronson’s solitary second-half strike secured them an eighth win in their last 10 matches.
Continue reading...Mo Salah scored one and made two as Liverpool dismantled West Ham to move eight points clear at the top
1 min Yep, Aaron Wan-Bissaka has started at left-back in a 4-1-4-1 formation.
1 min West Ham kick off from left to right as we watch. Liverpool are wearing their black and turquoise change strip.
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