Category: Football (Soccer)

Football (Soccer) News

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Atalanta 2-3 Real Madrid, Leipzig 2-3 Aston Villa: Champions League – as it happened

Aston Villa went third with a thrilling win in Leipzig while Real Madrid won a similarly exciting affair against Atalanta

If Paris Saint-Germain take an early lead at Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday they may wonder whether to stick or twist. The new Champions League format has, at least in part, been designed to ensure Europe’s superpowers have fewer opportunities to fail, so their position risks embarrassment. They will not even qualify for the playoff round in February unless they improve on 25th place and, with three league-phase games remaining, are two points and three goals shy of the cutoff.

Victor Gyokeres, formerly of Coventry, clearly has an eager social media manager.

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Goalless draw at Dinamo Zagreb takes dominant Celtic closer to playoffs

Received wisdom before kick-off at Stadion Maksimir was that this was the ideal time to face Dinamo Zagreb. Celtic proceeded to prove this campaign is not the one in which to play them in the Champions League. While there will be a tinge of frustration from Brendan Rodgers that a draw was all that could be collected from a fixture in which they were the superior team, capitulation in Dortmund early in this campaign continues to look irregular.

Celtic are again a serious team at elite level in Europe; while progression to the knockout stage could not be sealed in Zagreb, there should be every confidence of that box being ticked when Young Boys visit Glasgow in the new year. One defeat from six until now is a fine Celtic return. Dinamo never looked particularly capable of altering that record.

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‘He’s earned it’: Kieran Tierney set to make Arsenal return against Monaco

  • Left-back has not played for club in 16 months
  • Arteta lacking in defensive options in Champions League

Kieran Tierney is set to feature for Arsenal for the first time in more than 16 months after Mikel Arteta revealed he expected to be without several key defenders for Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with Monaco.

Thomas Partey, Jurriën Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Magalhães did not train with the rest of the squad on Tuesday and Arteta said “some of them probably aren’t going to be fit” to face the French side, who have an identical record of 10 points from five fixtures.

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Millwall manager Neil Harris to step down from role this weekend

  • Lions confirm that Harris will leave after next two games
  • ‘I always said I would leave when the time felt right’

The Millwall manager Neil Harris will step down from his role for a second time after Saturday’s Championship game at Middlesbrough.

The former Lions striker returned to the Den as manager in February, more than four years after resigning from the role, and led the Championship side away from relegation danger. Millwall currently sit 11th with 25 points after 18 matches – just six points outside the playoffs. The club said a “mutual decision” had been taken for Harris to leave after taking charge of Wednesday’s match against Sheffield United and the game on Teesside.

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Are Champions League goalfests down to new format or deeper disparities?

Eye-catching thrashings have been a feature of the revamped competition, but the cause is up for debate

If Paris Saint-Germain take an early lead at Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday they may wonder whether to stick or twist. The new Champions League format has, at least in part, been designed to ensure Europe’s superpowers have fewer opportunities to fail, so their position risks embarrassment. They will not even qualify for the playoff round in February unless they improve on 25th place and, with three league-phase games remaining, are two points and three goals shy of the cutoff.

A tight 1-0 would prise the door back open but that might not cut it in this season’s competition. Salzburg are a shadow of their former selves and it should be an invitation to rack up a big score. The majority of PSG’s rivals have done so at least once: this edition of the tournament has been hallmarked by booming scorelines and the question, in a week that promises more of them, is why.

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How Chelsea became unexpected Premier League title challengers | Jonathan Wilson

Enzo Maresca’s team started the season in chaos and uncertainty. But that was the case the last time they claimed the league crown

Nobody saw Chelsea coming the last time they won the title. The key moment came in the sixth game of the season when they found themselves 3-0 down at half-time away at Arsenal. They’d lost at home to Liverpool the previous week and drawn at Swansea the week before that. Their manager, Antonio Conte, having tried to accommodate himself to the squad decided enough was enough: the squad had to bend to him. At half-time he switched to his preferred back three and in the comforting drabness of a goalless second half of a game that was already lost, was born the revolution.

Chelsea won their next 13 league games and by the time anybody had worked out how to deal with their 3-4-2-1, with N’Golo Kanté and Nemanja Matić an apparently impenetrable shield at the back of midfield, it was too late. There was no European football to worry about – the previous season had seen José Mourinho’s meltdown and a 10th-placed finish – and so Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso remained fresh enough to keep tearing up and down the field at wing-back. Elsewhere the stars aligned: Manchester City were still getting used to Pep Guardiola in his first season in English football, Arsenal were still in their late-Wenger drift, Liverpool still building under Jürgen Klopp, and so Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham were Chelsea’s closest challengers. But 93 points would probably have won the league whoever came second.

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Lazio raise expectations with two victories over Napoli in 72 hours | Nicky Bandini

Marco Baroni’s team have been a surprise package this season: shaking off a wobbly start to win 11 of 12 games

Less than 72 hours after kicking off a Coppa Italia game at home to Napoli, Lazio lined up to face a different team dressed as the same one. Their opponents on Sunday wore the club badge of the opponents they had beaten 3-1 on Thursday, yet none of the faces were familiar.

That was because Napoli’s manager, Antonio Conte, had made a full 11 changes to his starting team. He would not say outright that he had deprioritised the cup, but it was clear he viewed the players used on Thursday as his second string.

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Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Fulham’s Antonee Robinson shines against Bukayo Saka, Tottenham squander another lead and woe at Old Trafford

There are numerous issues when taking over a team mid-season. One is that a new head coach might not have the right players for his plan and he has very little time to implement what he wants with those he does. Ruben Amorim has arranged his players – in various combinations – into his preferred 3-4-3 formation and it is clear what the strategy is, although there are flaws. The defence is struggling, where the three centre-backs are not performing their main duty of keeping clean sheets. Against Forest every set-piece looked like it might result in a goal. Only Nikola Milenkovic did score from a corner but the others were more farcical as André Onana got confused by Morgan Gibbs-White and a seemingly harmless Chris Wood header was allowed to drop in off the post. Maybe chopping and changing is Amorim’s issue and he needs to back a first-choice back three to allow them to settle and offer a foundation to build on. Will Unwin

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Former Manchester United coach Mike Phelan off to Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth

  • Veteran coach reunited with former Old Trafford star
  • Argyle languishing in 22nd place in Championship

The Plymouth manager Wayne Rooney has drafted in the former Manchester United coach Mike Phelan as he attempts to drag the club out of the Championship relegation zone.

The 62-year-old, who spent nine years coaching at Old Trafford in two spells, the first of them under Sir Alex Ferguson, has been appointed as the assistant head coach following the departure of Pete Shuttleworth.

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European football: Atlético stun Sevilla as Griezmann settles seven-goal thriller

  • France attacker scores injury-time goal for 4-3 win
  • Napoli miss chance to return to top with Lazio loss

A second-half double from Antoine Griezmann earned Atlético Madrid a stunning 4-3 comeback home win over Sevilla in La Liga on Sunday, as the hosts claimed their ninth straight win in all competitions.

Atlético made a dominant start at home, with Griezmann hitting the crossbar before Rodrigo De Paul opened the scoring in the 10th minute, hammering a rocket from the edge of the box and into the top corner. Dodi Lukebakio equalised just two minutes later with a powerful low strike following a corner before Isaac Romero put Sevilla ahead after a quick counterattack in the 32nd minute, shooting across Jan Oblak, who could only get a finger to the ball.

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