Blog (Page 224)

Arsenal made it two wins from two in the Europa League this season as they secured a convincing 3-0 victory over Bodo/Glimt at the Emirates. Eddie Nketiah and Rob Holding both found the back of the net midway through the first half, before Fabio Vieira killed things off five minutes from time to seal all three points for Mikel Arteta’s men. Predictably, Arsenal were on top in the opening stages and Nketiah came close to bending in a nice opener inside the first five minutes, instead watching as his strike whistled wide of the far post. Some nice play handed Vieira a chance shortly after,Read More →

Getafe host their capital rivals and reigning Spanish champions Real Madrid in La Liga on Saturday night. Quique Sanchez Flores is now in his third spell as Getafe manager but is steeped in links to Real Madrid. The 57-year-old followed in his father’s footsteps by playing for Los Blancos and had the club’s greatest player – Alfredo Di Stefano – as a godfather. Real Madrid prepared for the trip to the home of their former right-back with a 2-1 win against Shakhtar Donetsk in midweek that belied their dominance in the Champions League group stage encounter. Here’s everything you need to know about the localRead More →

AC Milan host Juventus as reigning Serie A champions on Saturday afternoon for the first time in 11 years. Stefano Pioli’s side go into the weekend trailing the division’s early pace-setters, Napoli and Atalanta, in fifth but with four more points than their upcoming visitors. Massimiliano Allegri was in the home dugout the last time the Rossoneri welcomed Juve to San Siro as Scudetto holders. Some were beginning to suggest Allegri’s tactics have scarcely evolved in the subsequent decade but back-to-back victories with three goals in each outing has quelled the crisis talk in Turin – for now. Here’s everything you need to know aboutRead More →

Megan Rapinoe condemned the fact the USA have become accustomed to ‘shouldering so much’ on top of football as they prepare to face England four days after the release of Sally Yates’ report into abuse in US women’s soccer. Yates’ report found verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct to be ‘systematic’ across US women’s soccer and spanned across ‘multiple teams, coaches, and victims’. Over 200 players were spoken to as part of the report, and allegation into coaches Paul Riley, Rory Dames and Christy Holly were investigated. “It’s really sad to say, but in a way, I think we’re used to having to dealRead More →

Lionel Messi has confirmed that the 2022 World Cup will be his final appearance at the competition. Now 35, Messi is yet to get his hands on the World Cup trophy, falling short in the final against Germany back in 2014 and tasting elimination in the quarter-finals in both 2006 and 2010. If he is going to win the competition, it will have to be in Qatar later this year as Messi has confirmed that the upcoming tournament will be his final World Cup. “Yes, surely yes, surely yes,” he told Star+ when asked if Qatar will be his last. “I’m counting down the daysRead More →

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has warned the Gunners not to underestimate Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday night, insisting Norwegian club football has improved in recent years following a drop in its level before that. Bodo/Glimt are reigning Eliteserien champions and have made a strong start to the Europa League group stage, taking four points from games against PSV Eindhoven and Zurich thus far. “They have always been a small club and they have often been between the first and second division in the Norwegian league. Sometimes up, sometimes down, but over the past few years they have been really strong,” Odegaard said inRead More →

With the international break thankfully in the rearview mirror, the glorious sound of the Champions League anthem returned to us this week before the goals flew in across the Tuesday and Wednesday night fixtures. Erling Haaland, you might have heard him, increased his personal tally to 28 in only 22 appearances in the competition but as Pep Guardiola took him off at half-time to deny the Norwegian the opportunity to bag his fourth hat-trick of the season, he just about misses the cut here for our Champions League team of the week. Here is an XI of our star performers across this week’s games. DiogoRead More →

Barcelona have reached agreement with Atletico Madrid over a permanent transfer for Antoine Griezmann, sources have confirmed to 90min. The 31-year-old Frenchman re-joined Atletico last summer on a two-year loan deal that was under-pinned by a number of clauses. One of those meant that Atletico would pay Barcelona €40m to complete the signing of Griezmann if he had played in 50% of games over the two-year period. He played in 80% last year which meant he was on course to hit that mark, but instead of starting Griezmann as usual, Atletico began limiting his minutes. That included bizarrely routinely only bringing him on an hourRead More →

Eddie Nketiah has admitted that he has been left frustrated by the lack of playing time he is getting at Arsenal so far this season after deciding to stay at the club in summer. Nketiah looked set to leave Arsenal on a free transfer at the start of the summer transfer window with his contract expiring, but he ultimately decided to sign a new five-year deal. While things have gone well for his club since then, with the Gunners top of the Premier League after eight games, it has been a disappointing start to the campaign from a personal perspective. With new signing Gabriel JesusRead More →

Nottingham Forest have informed Steve Cooper that he will be given more time to get the club’s season back on track, sources have confirmed to 90min. Forest have endured a torrid start to the Premier League season, sitting bottom of the table with one win from eight games. That is despite having spent £150m on new players in the summer, bringing in a British record number of signings – 22 to be precise. Cooper performed brilliantly in the Championship to guide Forest to promotion. Even with the task of gelling the new faces, many presumed that the Tricky Trees would have sufficient quality to stayRead More →