Category: Football (Soccer)

Football (Soccer) News

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Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea: Premier League – as it happened

Arsenal secured their first league win in over a month thanks to a first-half Mikel Merino header

Arteta says this is a big game and the players are focused on that. They’re excited to face Real Madrid and the international break is coming next so they need to play well and hopefully get some players back afterwards.

Where is the game? Arsenal will fancy Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard to run off James and Moises Caicedo, while their left flank of Lewis-Skelly and Leandro Trossard will surely target Jadon Sacnho, unrenowned for his physicality or relentlessness, and Wesley Fofana, a centre-back playing out of position.

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European football: Mbappé’s quickfire brace takes Real Madrid top of La Liga

  • Milan enjoy thrilling 2-1 comeback against Como
  • Bayern held to a 1-1 draw away to Union Berlin

Kylian Mbappé scored twice to help Real Madrid fight back to beat Villarreal 2-1 and move top of La Liga overnight.

The hosts opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Álex Baena’s corner was deflected by Aurélien Tchouaméni, allowing Juan Foyth to score from close range. Real Madrid levelled 10 minutes later when Mbappé pounced on Brahim Díaz’s blocked shot and the ball landed at his feet for a close-range finish.

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Championship roundup: Farke blames himself as leaders Leeds drop points

  • Leeds held 2-2 by QPR while Burnley go second
  • Coventry beat play-off rivals Sunderland 3-0

Daniel Farke blamed himself after his Leeds side were forced to battle back from two down to salvage a 2-2 draw against QPR. Farke considered starting with the defensive midfielder Ilia Gruev but instead opted for a more attacking approach, which backfired as goals from Koki Saito and Steve Cook put Rangers, who had lost their previous four matches, into a surprise lead.

Morgan Fox’s own goal gave the visitors a much-needed boost before the interval and Jayden Bogle equalised soon after the restart. QPR ended the match with 10 men after Saito was sent off in stoppage time for a studs-up challenge on Dan James.

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Strand Larsen’s double at Southampton moves Wolves nine points clear of drop

Vítor Pereira said he is feeling the challenge of keeping Wolves in the Premier League “with my heart” after they took a significant step towards survival with a 2-1 victory at rock-bottom Southampton.

Jørgen Strand Larsen’s double moved Wanderers nine points clear of third-bottom Ipswich, with Paul Onuachu pulling a goal back for Southampton, who are now without a win since the start of February.

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Manchester City left outside top four as Khusanov hands Brighton a draw

This showdown of Champions League contenders ended with spoils shared so Manchester City, in fifth place, still lead Brighton, who are seventh, by a point. The draw is a rosy result for Newcastle, as they are sandwiched between them and have played a game fewer so have an opportunity to leapfrog City.

Match day 29 for City and Brighton fired the gun on the final 10 matches and with many teams in the chase for a shot at the European Cup, final-day excitement surely awaits.

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Bournemouth v Brentford: Premier League – as it happened

Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard got the goals as Brentford came from behind to notch up a club record fifth consecutive league win on the road

Thomas Frank was effusive in his praise for both his own team and Bournemouth during his pre-match press conference. “Bournemouth have been really, really impressive,” the Brentford manager said.

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Pep Guardiola fires back at Capello’s jibe about making football boring

  • ‘It’s not the first time he’s said that’
  • Capello said Guardiola ruined Italian football

Pep Guardiola has responded sarcastically to Fabio Capello’s claim that he is arrogant, has “ruined Italian football” and has made the sport boring. The former England coach offered his view of Guardiola to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo this week. On Friday Manchester City’s manager was asked whether he listened to someone of the Italian’s stature in the game.

“I listen to everything that people say about me. Everything. So be careful. I am controlling you,” he said as a joke. “It’s not the first time that Mr Fabio Capello said that. I’m not good enough to win Italian football. Italian football is much, much more important than the way you do it. A big hug from Fabio. A big hug.”

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James Maddison looks to Europa League to make a special season for Spurs

  • Spurs face Eintracht Frankfurt in last eight
  • ‘We’re a good team, the belief is definitely there’

James Maddison believes Tottenham are real contenders to win the Europa League and is hoping their victory over AZ Alkmaar can be the catalyst for Ange Postecoglou’s side to make it a “special season”.

Spurs overturned a 1-0 deficit from the first leg with a stirring 3-1 home victory over the Dutch side on Thursday to set up a quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt next month. Maddison was instrumental in the move that created Wilson Odobert’s winning goal, having earlier scored his 11th of the season to make it 2-0.

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Fernandes takes aim at Ratcliffe for saying some players ‘overpaid’ and ‘not good enough’

  • ‘It’s not nice to hear certain things,’ says United captain
  • Fernandes responds after co-owner’s critical interviews

Bruno Fernandes has aimed a barb at Sir Jim Ratcliffe by stating no player wants to be told they are “not good enough or overpaid”, as Manchester United’s co-owner said this week regarding some of Ruben Amorim’s squad.

The captain was speaking after his hat-trick in Thursday’s Europa League last-16 second leg 4-1 win over Real Sociedad that sealed United’s passage to a quarter-final against Lyon.

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Bristol City’s Liam Manning: ‘Losing Theo will be a hole in my heart for the rest of my life’

Manager opens up on losing his baby son, how close he came to quitting and the Premier League promotion push

After victory at Middlesbrough in October, Bristol City’s players headed towards the pocket of the Riverside Stadium housing their supporters. As the away fans sang on loop the name of their head coach, Liam Manning, the squad unravelled a giant red and white banner displaying the words “Fly High Theo” in block capitals. Manning, on leave after the death of his baby son eight days earlier, was watching from a rural cottage 300 miles south, on a much-needed getaway. “I sent a long message to the lads about it afterwards … yeah, lump in the throat,” he says. “The celebrations epitomised everything. It was above football.”

It is not the only heavy moment in a raw and moving conversation but the one thing Manning stresses, as he discusses the hardest episode of his life in an interview for the first time, is that this is not a sob story. He takes huge pride in sharing Theo’s name.

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Myles Lewis-Skelly could return to an old role, Wolves are still in danger and United’s strikers are running out of time

Premier League safety is all that matters to David Moyes and an eight-game unbeaten run – Everton’s best sequence since going nine matches without defeat under Ronald Koeman in 2016-17 – has almost accomplished a task that looked much more onerous when he returned in January. Publicly, the Everton manager maintains the job is not done and that no contract issues will be resolved until the club’s top-flight status is mathematically confirmed. Privately, and beneath the more relaxed demeanour that he has brought back with him to Goodison Park, there may also be a fierce ambition to finish above two clubs who deemed him surplus to requirements. Everton can go three points clear of one, West Ham, and leapfrog another, Manchester United, with victory over Graham Potter’s visitors on Saturday. With Liverpool, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Chelsea to come after an impending two-week break, Moyes could do with a more clinical display from Everton to step closer to his aims. Andy Hunter

Everton v West Ham, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Ipswich v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Southampton v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Bournemouth v Brentford, Saturday 5.3pm

Arsenal v Chelsea, Sunday 1.30pm

Fulham v Tottenham, Sunday 1.30pm

Leicester v Manchester United, Sunday 7pm

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Manchester United must win titles for Bruno Fernandes, says Ruben Amorim

  • United in Europa League last eight after beating Sociedad
  • ‘We need to help him win titles because he deserves this’

Ruben Amorim praised Bruno Fernandes’s hat-trick performance that swept Real Sociedad aside and took Manchester United into the Europa League quarter-finals, saying his side “needs to win titles” for the captain.

After Mikel Oyarzabal struck first via an early penalty, United dominated, Fernandes scoring two from the spot on 16 and 50 minutes, before a superb late strike to complete the hat-trick. Diogo Dalot’s added-time fourth sealed progress.

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‘Why not dare to dream?’: McGinn and Villa fear no one in Champions League

  • ‘We can compete against the best in the world’
  • Midfielder excited at prospect of facing PSG

Not so long ago, John McGinn presumed a detour to the Paris Saint-Germain club shop on a family holiday as a kid, getting kitted out en route to Disneyland, would be the closest he got to playing at the Parc des Princes. Unai Emery is a former PSG manager, Marco Asensio is on loan from the Ligue 1 club, but McGinn’s ties are more modest, if not tenuous.

“The only place I’ve been there is the shop,” he says, smiling. “We were in a big campervan and stopped off in Paris. I think I was about seven or eight … I remember getting a PSG strip.”

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Fernandes hat-trick powers electric Manchester United past Real Sociedad

Manchester United’s trophy hopes live to fight on against Lyon in the Europa League quarter-final after a swaggering display that battered Real Sociedad and must be the Ruben Amorim blueprint.

From the moment they fell behind early on, his side was electrified, as if finally locating the high-voltage socket under Amorim and gleefully plugging themselves in. United came at Sociedad relentlessly, a whir of energy and creativity that is the best advertisement yet for where their head coach might take them.

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