Football (Soccer) – Page 78 – Worldwide Sports News

April 24, 2025

Premier League and FA Cup semis: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Chelsea to give youth a chance, Ipswich look to prolong the inevitable and Jamie Vardy begins his swansong

Tyrique George has caught the eye since breaking into Chelsea’s first team. A homegrown talent, the 19-year-old winger has done well in his Conference League outings and is in contention for his first start in the league when Enzo Maresca’s side host Everton in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off. Fast, direct and sharp on the ball, George has quickly become a favourite with supporters and he lifted some of the pressure off Maresca after coming off the bench to score an excellent equaliser in Chelsea’s comeback win at Fulham last weekend. Thrown on as a striker, George made it 1-1 with a fine shot from the edge of the area. It was the latest in a series of positive contributions from the teenager. His enthusiasm could make a difference against Everton. Jacob Steinberg

Chelsea v Everton, Premier League, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)

Brighton v West Ham, Premier League, Saturday 3pm

Newcastle v Ipswich, Premier League, Saturday 3pm

Southampton v Fulham, Premier League, Saturday 3pm

April 24, 2025

Maxence Lacroix: ‘One day I will be in the France team – but right now I want to win this Cup’

Crystal Palace defender on dreaming of FA Cup glory, Oliver Glasner and the importance of faith to the team

Maxence Lacroix is treating Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley as just another game but the same can’t be said of his mother. “She’s more stressed than me right now,” the Crystal Palace defender says. “But I think it’s really good for a mother or father to see their son running his dream and playing this type of game because she knew it was difficult before and now she sees her son growing, having a family and doing what he wants. So I think she’s proud, a little bit stressed but it’s all right.”

Growing up in Ajat, a village in the Dordogne, Lacroix knew he was never going to follow in his mother Corrine’s footsteps by becoming a doctor. Having moved to Germany from the French side Sochaux as a 20-year-old after coming through the prestigious Clairefontaine academy, he reunited with Oliver Glasner – his former manager at Wolfsburg – in south London last summer. The elegant defender is the heartbeat of the Palace side that will face Aston Villa for a place in the final and has been tipped to win his first senior cap sooner rather than later after representing France at every youth level.

April 24, 2025

Everton v Bayern Munich: 40 years since the greatest night at Goodison

As Everton leave their beautiful old stadium, we look back on a game that lives on in the hearts of all who saw it

By That 1980s Sports Blog

“If you talk to any Evertonian who was there that night, who actually got in this ground that night, and you said, ‘You can take one game to the grave with you’. Say there was 55,000, I’m betting you 50,000 would take this game with them.” Andy Gray’s words about the second leg of Everton’s semi-final against Bayern Munich in the Cup Winners’ Cup are not hyperbole. Admittedly the official crowd figure was 49,476 but, that apart, Gray is right about how Everton fans feel about the match of 24 April 1985. It was the ultimate night in the history of Goodison Park.

It was an evening that flooded the senses: two superb teams packed with great players were both chasing trebles. Neither of them took a backward step as the line between success and failure shifted throughout 90 minutes of intense football. And it was all played out in the kind of atmosphere that has to be heard to be believed.

April 23, 2025

European football: Milan blow away Inter to reach Coppa Italia final

Jovic double gives Milan 3-0 win over rivals
Juventus lose 1-0 at Parma in fresh setback

Milan ruined Inter’s push for a treble and advanced to the Coppa Italia final with a 3-0 derby win courtesy of two goals from Luka Jovic.

Inter pressed forward early on and Federico Dimarco struck the crossbar in the 23rd minute. But Jovic put Milan ahead 13 minutes later with a powerful header and then doubled the advantage from close range shortly after the break. Tijjani Reijnders added another for Milan in the 85th minute by finishing off an excellent team move, giving them a 4-1 aggregate triumph over two legs.

April 23, 2025April 23, 2025

Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace: Premier League – as it happened

Jean-Phillipe Mateta came off to score a stunning goal as Crystal Palace twice came from behind at the Emirates

An email from Ian Copestake, one of our resident Liverpool fans

You ain’t seen me. Right?

April 23, 2025

Ollie Watkins urges Aston Villa to realise FA Cup dream against ‘bogey team’

Forward shrugs off being dropped for game at City
Villa chasing first major honour since 1996 League Cup

Ollie Watkins has urged Aston Villa to bounce back from Tuesday’s defeat at Manchester City by knocking out their “bogey team” Crystal Palace and progressing to the FA Cup final.

Villa lost 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium thanks to Matheus Nunes’s 94th-minute winner, leaving them seventh, two points behind Newcastle in the fifth and final place that secures Champions League qualification.

April 22, 2025

Crystal Palace’s pre-FA Cup semi-final scheduling is unfair, says Oliver Glasner

Opponents Aston Villa have an extra day to prepare
‘You are shouting against the wind and nobody hears you’

Oliver Glasner has complained that the buildup to Crystal Palace’s FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa is unfair, after the Premier League turned down a request from the London club to have both sides play on the same night in midweek.

Villa were in action at Manchester City on Tuesday night while Palace travel to the Emirates Stadium 24 hours later.

April 22, 2025

Arteta will not rest players against Palace despite looming PSG tie

‘When players are fit and available, they have to play’
Liverpool to be league winners if Arsenal lose to Palace

Mikel Arteta will not shy away from selecting key Arsenal personnel to face Crystal Palace on Wednesday in their final game before next week’s Champions League semi-final first leg even though his team are playing for little beyond pride.

The meagre prize on offer is delaying Liverpool’s title celebrations but the manager denied he could wrap members of his squad in cotton wool. “We cannot think in those terms,” Arteta said. “I think when the players are fit and they are available and they want to play, they have to play. They are at their best when they are playing and they have consistency in their performances.”

April 22, 2025

Nunes boosts Manchester City’s top-five hopes with late winner over Aston Villa

On the touchline a picture of two managers with high, contrasting emotion coursing through them after Matheus Nunes’s 94th-minute winner. For Manchester City, Pep Guardiola showed sheer delight at a late, late victory that lifts them to third on 61 points, four ahead of Chelsea in sixth. Across from him, Unai Emery felt despair as Aston Villa were down in seventh, the Spaniard’s next job to lift his men for their FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Nunes’s far-post strike from Jérémy Doku’s cross from the left also disappointed Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United and Chelsea in the race for the top-five berth that secures a Champions League place.

April 22, 2025

Serie A matches and Italy’s Women’s Six Nations game move due to pope’s funeral

Serie A leaders Inter will now host Roma on Sunday
Italy v Wales in Women’s Six Nations to be rescheduled

Serie A has postponed its three fixtures on Saturday because of Pope Francis’s funeral being held that day in Rome. Meanwhile, Italy’s Women’s Six Nations match against Wales is also expected to be rescheduled as the country prepares to pay its respects.

Earlier media reports in Italy had suggested that Serie A might make an exception for Inter’s clash with the visitors Roma to allow Simone Inzaghi’s side additional rest time before their midweek Champions League semi-final at Barcelona. However, the league has confirmed that the game at San Siro will now kick off at 2pm (all times BST) on Sunday.

April 22, 2025April 22, 2025

Manchester City 2-1 Aston Villa: Premier League – as it happened

Matheus Nunes scored the winner deep into added time as City put some clear blue light between themselves and Villa in the race for Champions League qualification

17 secs: Ollie Watkins scored after 34 seconds against Newcastle on Saturday. Marcus Rashford nearly does so after half that tonight! He twists and turns down the inside-left channel before threading a shot across Ortega and off the base of the right-hand post!

Villa get the ball rolling. It’s not a sell-out.

April 22, 2025

Leeds are back among the elite but the real task for Farke is to keep them there | Louise Taylor

The Championship’s best team will need to be smart in the transfer market to give themselves a chance next season

When Leeds United sold £140m of playing talent last summer, Daniel Farke deviated from accepted managerial convention and declined to throw his toys out of the pram. Farke is a little too unconventional, a little too resistant to groupthink, to always do the expected and his club’s owner, the San Francisco‑based 49ers Enterprises, is poised to reap the benefits.

The German’s unusual amalgam of high emotional intelligence and advanced numeracy have helped to provide the framework for the freshly secured promotion to the Premier League that Leeds so narrowly missed out on last May.

April 22, 2025

Burnley rise again but will Parker’s battlers buck trend of recent history? | Will Unwin

The Premier League-bound Clarets and their manager have no shortage of motivation heading into next season

If the opening night was anything to go by, it looked as if Burnley’s return to the Premier League at the first time of asking was inevitable. It was Scott Parker’s first game in charge, a tricky trip to Luton, who had dropped down with the Clarets. One team had enjoyed a summer of continuity whereas everything had changed at Turf Moor but it was Burnley who left with a dominant 4-1 victory.

That warm night at Kenilworth Road was not indicative of what was to come. By the end of the month, three of the goalscorers had left – 12 first-team players departed in total in August – forcing Parker to almost reset after the campaign had started, but it helped mould his squad into his vision for a promotion push. It would not be done with the flair and style with which Vincent Kompany et al accrued 101 points and 87 goals to win the title two years ago but, with the potential to reach a century, the result could be the same.

April 22, 2025

Norwich sack head coach Thorup and place Wilshere in interim charge

Canaries missed out on playoff spot in Championship
A 3-1 defeat at Millwall marks Thorup’s final match

Jack Wilshere will take charge of Norwich’s final two games of the season after the Canaries parted company with Johannes Hoff Thorup.

Norwich have slipped to 14th in the Championship after winning only twice in 14 matches, with their 3-1 Easter Monday defeat at Millwall being their fourth loss in five games. Thorup was appointed head coach on a three-year deal last May and the Dane leaves alongside his assistant Glen Riddersholm.

April 22, 2025

AV Alta finding quick success, and strong fan support, in its inaugural season

AV Alta, a new USL League One club, has averaged 4,500 fans over its first three games playing in a stadium originally built for minor league baseball.