Football (Soccer) News
Igor Thiago scored twice in the last 10 minutes to help Brentford beat Burnley, who have now lost their past four league games, in an exciting finish at the Gtech Community Stadium.
The Brazilian opened the scoring in the 81st minute from the penalty spot before Zian Flemming responded with a spot-kick of his own a few minutes later.
Continue reading...When Phil Foden struck the winner in the second minute of added time Pep Guardiola’s leap was laced with relief at Manchester City’s pursuit of Arsenal still being live. They are back up to second, four points behind the Gunners, who travel to Chelsea on Sunday. This was Leeds’s fourth straight league reverse but the fight shown augurs well for Daniel Farke’s job security.
City had spurned a two-goal interval advantage after Dominic Calvert-Lewin, a half-time substitute, terrorised the hosts. The 28-year-old scored in the 49th minute, then claimed the penalty that led to Lukas Nmecha’s 68th-minute equaliser, rattling Josko Gvardiol enough for him to scythe the striker down.
Continue reading...Manchester City, Brentford and Sunderland all win, while Championship leaders Coventry City come from behind to record another victory
Manchester City v Leeds United: A lovely dank Mancunian afternoon with a low cloud and the whispers of bygone Manchester City matchdays in the east of town as Pep Guardiola sends out an XI in an hour or so that will not certainly show the same 10 changes as the dire Bayer Leverkusen defeat on Tuesday here at the Etihad Stadium.
Expect many of the manager’s big guns to be reinstated and intent on downing Leeds and arresting the two-game run of losses. Think Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku etc, and so on …
Continue reading...Coventry stay 10 points clear with win over Charlton
Gelhardt’s Hull winner sparks mass confrontation
Coventry maintained their 10-point lead at the top of the Championship with a 3-1 victory over Charlton. Harvey Knibbs put the visitors ahead before Josh Eccles and Ellis Simms completed a first-half turnaround for the hosts. Simms added his second with 15 minutes to go to make it five goals in three games.
“I’m really pleased,” said their manager, Frank Lampard. “Tough match to go 1-0 down, from a set-piece, the first threat that they had. But I thought the attitude of the players to keep playing in the first half was good, they moved the ball well. We’re a positive team, we try to create chances, we try to play with speed and with a good pre-season the players understand what we want to be, how we want to train and we’ve managed to score a lot of goals.”
Continue reading...Top two clash when Arsenal travel to Chelsea on Sunday while Liverpool aim to break their poor run at West Ham
Saturday 3pm Venue Gtech Community Stadium
Continue reading...Cherries fans wait on word of Semenyo, Gueye’s red card could leave Everton blue and Nuno needs new plans
With Thomas Frank, Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa, Christian Nørgaard and Mark Flekken leaving Brentford in the summer, the Bees looked the established club most likely to go down, thereby allowing a promoted one to stay up. In the event, though, they’ve made a solid start to life under Keith Andrews, more or less alternating wins and losses to sit 13th in the table, five points above the relegation zone. Burnley, on the other hand, find themselves roughly where most people thought they’d be: second-bottom having lost three games in a row. As it happens, they’ve not been that bad, asking difficult questions of more exalted opponents with tidy midfield play, before succumbing to defeat anyway. Ultimately, conceding two goals a game is not sustainable, but it’s worth noting that one of Burnley’s three league victories came against Sunderland, a side whose physical, intense and forward-thinking style is not dissimilar to Brentford’s. If they can get their passing going, they’ve a chance. Daniel Harris
Brentford v Burnley (Saturday 3pm, all times GMT)
Manchester City v Leeds, Saturday 3pm
Sunderland v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm
Everton v Newcastle, Saturday 5.30pm
Continue reading...Martin O’Neill’s side win 3-1 in Rotterdam
Lyon go top after 6-0 thrashing of Maccabi Tel Aviv
Martin O’Neill wrote a memorable final postscript in his history with Celtic in Europe as the interim manager led his team to a 3-1 win over Feyenoord.
Goals from Yang Hyun-jun and Reo Hatate saw Celtic come from behind before half-time and the substitute Benjamin Nygren added a late third as the Scottish champions revived their Europa League campaign.
Continue reading...Arsenal rout Bayern to stake a claim as Europe’s best, Liverpool spiral again, Benfica revive under Mourinho, and Estevão dazzles on a crowded week of stars
• Bayern Munich’s unbeaten run and claim to be the best team in European football were both punctured at the Emirates. Arsenalwere rampant against an opponent who have handed them so much pain in the past. The Gunners opened the scoring through their habitual set-piece goal, Jurriën Timber fulfilling the role of the absent Gabriel Magalhães. Lennart Karl, the 17-year-old, showed off his chops with a fine goal; from within Bayern have found the player they desired when they were thwarted in moving for Florian Wirtz. After that, Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze took control in midfield, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli scoring the goals, the latter a humiliation of Manuel Neuer’s sweeper-keeper stylings. Amid the fug of the extended Champions League group-stage format, where matches between elite clubs are routine rather than novelty, this was still a statement victory. “I think they had an incredible match against, in my opinion, the best team in Europe,” Mikel Arteta said of his players. That status surely now lies with his team: Arsenal top the group-stage table with a 100% record.
Continue reading...New players have come in, too many of them, and that has meant a dilution of the collective will instilled by Klopp
Before this game Arne Slot had announced that he was “almost confused”. Which does at least raise some tantalising questions. Mainly, what is this Liverpool team going to look like when he gets there, when a state of full confusion is finally attained, when even Slot’s confusion stops being confusing and reveals its diamond-cut final form.
Continue reading...Real Madrid edge home 4-3 in Greece
Giménez heads home in injury time for Atlético
Kylian Mbappé scored the second-fastest hat-trick in the Champions League as he helped himself to all four goals in Real Madrid’s 4-3 win at Olympiacos. The La Liga leaders were trailing to Chiquinho’s early strike at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis before he intervened with a seven-minute treble after 22, 24 and 29 minutes.
Only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, who achieved the same feat in six minutes and 12 seconds against Rangers in October 2022, is ahead of him in the all-time list.
Continue reading...Blades beat Portsmouth after owners’ merger statement
Wednesday rock bottom following defeat at Millwall
Sheffield United lifted themselves out of the Championship’s relegation zone on the day their owners reiterated their desire to take the club to the Premier League with a 3-0 win against 10-man Portsmouth.
Patrick Bamford scored on his full United debut, turning home a scrappy rebound early in the second half for his first goal in 19 months, after Sydie Peck’s penalty had given the Blades a 1-0 interval lead. Peck converted his first senior goal for the club after the Pompey defender Terry Devlin had been shown a straight red card for handling on the goalline shortly before half-time.
Continue reading...Vitinha was the star of an eight-goal thriller in Paris, while Liverpool’s abysmal run of form continued as PSV routed them at Anfield
All across the continent, teams line up to hear Zadok the Priest get his usual Uefa-sanctioned kicking. Poor Zadok’s a-cold! All of which is a roundabout way to say that we’ll be off in a minute. Big night coming up.
TNT have a quick word with Thomas Frank before kick-off. “There is one game in front of us, that’s PSG … if you look too much in the past you forget to look forward and do everything you can to perform now … that is all about performing tonight … make sure we compete … are brave … we are playing against a very mobile team … we have to match that … be aggressive … we need mobile, front-footed midfielders … a big night for us … we need to put a fight in.”
Continue reading...The final remains curious in a Celtic context because it is the showpiece occasion the club would rather forget
It feels cruel in part to use Thursday’s meeting of Feyenoord and Celtic to reflect upon illustrious times. The Dutch side are 29th in the 36-team Europa League table, with Celtic’s position in 27th only more slightly more palatable to supporters because Rangers are bottom of the pile.
Those fans disrupted an annual general meeting to the point of abandonment last week, demonstrating the disharmony that has engulfed Celtic for months. A club that progressed to the Champions League’s knockout phase last season, looking an overdue but serious European force, have starkly regressed. Celtic have the spending power to outshine clubs who routinely embarrass them in a bigger pond than St Mirren and Motherwell occupy.
Continue reading...Kitching and Sims strike late for league leaders
Southampton’s Eckert makes it four out of four
Late goals from Liam Kitching and Ellis Simms helped Coventry to extend their advantage at the top of the Championship table with a 4-2 win against Middlesbrough.
The Sky Blues landed two early blows in the opening 15 minutes, going ahead through Simms’s stunning top-corner strike and Kitching’s header.
Continue reading...Serhou Guirassy scores twice in 4-0 victory
Juventus off the mark with winner at Bodø/Glimt
Borussia Dortmund ended a three-match winless run with a decisive 4-0 triumph against 10-man Villarreal, powered by a double from Serhou Guirassy.
The Guinean striker broke the deadlock in stoppage time before the break, heading home from a corner, and he made it 2-0 early in the second half.
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