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La Liga preview: Real Madrid’s injury crisis, Barcelona’s season might be over, and more
The La Liga season continues this weekend, with the 24th round of fixtures featuring some exciting match-ups. The action gets underway on Friday evening, with Real Betis aiming to stay in touch with the top six as they host Getafe. Atletico Madrid will be eager to maintain their place at the top of the standings when they face Levante on Saturday. Joao Felix should be available for selection for Atletico, but Thomas Lemar, Hector Herrera and Moussa Dembele remain on the sidelines. Real Madrid have numerous injury concerns for their visit to Real Valladolid, with Marcelo, Eder Militao, Sergio Ramos and Alvaro Odriozola all ruled out. Federico Valverde, Rodrygo Goes and Dani Carvajal will also miss the game. Elche versus Eibar and Valencia vs Celta Vigo completes the Saturday line-up. Barcel...
Key Arsenal player unlikely to be risked, Tottenham star omitted
The Europa League is back with a bang on Thursday as the round of 32 gets underway. Eight clubs have dropped into the competition from the Champions League, joining the 24 who safely navigated through the group phase. Manchester United and Ajax are the biggest names to enter the Europa League at this stage, and both will fancy their chances of making progress. However, with Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Leicester City, AC Milan and Napoli amongst a strong line-up, winning the Europa League will not be easy. All four Premier League clubs are on the road for their first leg matches, with Arsenal facing the toughest test against Benfica. The Gunners have been boosted by Kieran Tierney’s return to training, but the defender is unlikely to be included in the starting XI. Spurs will be without Joe...
Predicted Spurs starting XI: Mourinho to make seven changes; 23-year-old to start
Tottenham Hotspur travel to Budapest to face Wolfsberger in the Europa League round of 32, and Jose Mourinho is expected to make a raft of changes to the side. The Austrian outfit currently sit sixth in the Austrian Bundesliga, nine points behind third-placed LASK who were beaten by Spurs in the group stage. The game will be hosted in the neutral Puskás Arena, home of the Hungary national team, as COVID-19 regulations in Austria mean Spurs won’t be playing at the Worthersee Stadion in Klagenfurt. Spurs are going through a wretched run of form at the moment, having won just once in their last six games in all competitions. They are heading into this game on the back of a 3-0 defeat against Manchester City, and desperately need a win to get their season back on track. Sergio Reguilon, S...
Two PL clubs eye move for 24-year-old ‘complete’ Leeds player
Earlier this month, popular journalist Gianluigi Longari claimed that Liverpool are showing keen interest in signing Leeds United winger Raphinha following his impressive start to the season. He has now claimed that Liverpool have been joined by Premier League rivals Manchester United in the race for his signature. Manchester United #MUFC joined the race for Leeds star #Raphinha. Liverpool #LFC are also following the winger for the summer. #LUFC keen to keep him. #transfers @tvdellosport — Gianluigi Longari (@Glongari) February 16, 2021 SL View Raphinha joined Leeds in the summer transfer window from Rennes for a reported fee of £17 million plus add-ons. The left-footed jet-heeled winger has been very impressive under Marcelo Bielsa who has described him as a ‘complete player‘. ...
Bielsa says two players won’t play on Friday + £30m summer transfer bid revealed
Leeds United will travel to Molineux to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Friday in the Premier League. Marcelo Bielsa’s side will be looking to return to winning ways following their 4-2 defeat against Arsenal last Sunday. Ahead of the game, Bielsa has delivered the latest team news. The Argentine has confirmed that Mateusz Klich and Diego Llorente are available for the game. However, Kalvin Phillips and Rodrigo are unavailable. Ian Poveda is another player who has been missing through injury in recent matches. Bielsa has revealed that he is “recovering from his injury” but it could take some time to get back into first-team action. The return of Llorente is a huge boost for the club. The 27-year-old, who joined in the summer transfer window from Real Sociedad, has made just two a...
Why Arsenal need to win the Europa League this season
Arsenal and the Champions League. The marriage between the two was a loyal one which continued from 1999 to 2017. And the one guy who made it happen was none other than the legendary Arsene Wenger. But the failure to drive the team into Europe’s most elite stage in the 2016/17 season resulted in him not getting the nod ahead of the 18/19 season. Since then, Arsenal have seen three head coaches (including Freddie Ljungberg’s brief term), but are still in the same position as when Wenger left his post at the end of the 2017/18 campaign. Even though they came the closest in Unai Emery’s first season in charge, the signs were clear that Arsenal were further away from the most prestigious competition than what they had hoped for. Chelsea cruised past them in Baku in the 2018 Europa League final...
‘I’m 100% sure’ – Fabrizio Romano claims Everton won’t sell 20y/o for less than €70m
Paris Saint-Germain took Barcelona to the cleaners at the Camp Nou last night, coming from behind to secure a 4-1 victory in the first-leg of the Champions League last-16. Kylian Mbappe bagged a hat-trick, with Everton loanee Moise Kean scoring the other goal. The 20-year-old joined PSG on a season-long loan last summer and has since registered 14 goals across all competitions. Everton fans were impressed with his performance against Barcelona last night, and manager Carlo Ancelotti and Director of Football Marcel Brands would have been pleased too. Kean’s loan deal at PSG does not include an option to buy, and the player’s market value has surely risen given his recent performances. It remains to be seen whether the French giants will look to secure his services on a permanent basis, but ...
‘Excellent’, ‘Unstoppable’: Some Man City fans react to attacker’s display vs Everton
A section of Manchester City fans on Twitter reacted to the performance of Riyad Mahrez during the club’s 3-1 Premier League win over Everton at Goodison Park. The Algeria international had recently gone through a rough patch and he managed only one goal and one assist from his 10 league appearances prior to facing the Toffees. With the minor injury to Ilkay Gundogan, Mahrez got the chance to return to the starting line-up against Carlo Ancelotti’s side and he changed the complexion of the game in the second half. The scores were level at 1-1 in the 63rd minute when the 29-year-old came up with a trademark curling strike from outside the box to beat Jordan Pickford at the far post. Mahrez had been struggling in the final third of late but made amends with an excellent first-time shot which...
Arsenal could offload nine first-team stars as part of summer overhaul
Arsenal are planning a summer overhaul which could see them part ways with nine first-team stars, a report from The Sun claims. The north London side ended the previous season on a good note as they won the FA Cup and secured their spot in the Europa League. It was anticipated that they would kick on and push for the Champions League places in the Premier League this term but that has clearly not been the case. The Gunners have been inconsistent with their displays for most of the season and they are currently languishing in the 10th spot, eight points adrift of the top four. Whatever happens for the rest of the season, the club are bound to make changes to the squad and it is reported that as many as nine players could head for the exit door. The club have been financially impacted due to...
Leeds receive boost to sign 31-cap int’l star after Euro club make transfer decision
German giants Bayern Munich have no interest in keeping Douglas Costa beyond this season, according to reports from Kicker. Costa joined the Bundesliga champions on loan from Juventus this summer. However, Bayern have no intention to make his loan deal a permanent one. His decision to join Bayern came as a big surprise. Bayern already boast two of the finest young wingers in Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry. On top of that, they also signed Leroy Sane from Manchester City on a big-money deal. Costa, who has made just three starts in Bundesliga, is unwanted at Turin and the Old Lady are looking to offload him in the summer. He is not in Andrea Pirlo’s first-team plans, with the club considering him surplus to requirements. Costa will enter the final year of his contract at the...
Agent comments confirm that Tottenham boss is spot on about underperfomer
Sports agent Jonathan Barnett has rarely been shy about sharing his opinion about his long-time client Gareth Bale. He was at it again during the Financial Times’ Business of Football event, but on this occasion may well have put his foot in it. Bale has failed miserably to make an impact at Spurs since returning to the club on loan from Real Madrid last September. His efforts have infuriated Jose Mourinho, with the Spurs manager making no secret of how unhappy he is with Bale. The latest state-of-play undoubtedly mirrors the Welsman’s fall from grace at Madrid under Zinedine Zidane. Both bosses have come under fire for their handling of Bale, but Barnett’s latest comments have confirmed where the issue lies. When asked why Bale was not playing regularly at Spurs, Barnett said it was becau...
‘Will never kick a ball for us again’ – Some Rangers fans react as 28-yr-old breaks Covid-19 rules
Rangers manager Steven Gerrard revealed earlier today that he was let down by five players from the club who have breached the Coronavirus regulations. Gerrard named the five players responsible and he confirmed to Sky Sports that all of them are now self-isolating and they will be fined in line with the club’s disciplinary code. Bongani Zungu, Nathan Patterson Calvin Bassey, Dapo Medube and Brian Kinnear are the five players who were found breaching the COVID-19 regulations. The actions of the players will certainly rule them out of the club’s midweek game. The likes of Zungu, Patterson and Bassey could have played a part in Thursday’s Europa League clash against Royal Antwerp. It will be interesting to see how their actions affect their long term future at the club. The Rangers manager a...
