Football
Thomas Tuchel rues PSG’s missed chances in Champions League final loss to Bayern
Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel has expressed sadness over his team’s failure to utilise their scoring chances in Sunday’s Champions League final against Bayern Munich. PSG’s hopes of landing a first-ever Champions League title was quashed after Bayern triumphed 1-0 through a Kingsley Coman second half goal. Before Coman’s goal PSG went close to breaking the deadlock but failed to take their chances. Neymar had a chance to put the Ligue 1 champions ahead but saw his effort saved by Manuel Neuer. Angel Di Maria blazed his strike over the bar inside the box while Kylian Mbappe who had their best chance could only hit his low shot straight at Neuer. And Tuchel lamented his side’s inability to put away begging opportunities. “Big fight between two strong sides, very equal sides. Bit mo...
Tromso whizkid Isak Hansen-Aaroen confirms Manchester United move
Tromso youngster Isak Hansen-Aaroen has confirmed a move to Manchester United. The Norweigan attacker will be 16 on Saturday. Hansen-Aaroen has been linked to the Red Devils for a while thanks to countryman Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being in charge at United. Now he is set to move to the English giants, where he will likely play with the under-18s or under-23s. The player put up an image of himself on Instagram with the United crest on the corner of the picture. Tromso also paid tribute to Hansen-Aaroen on the social media platform. It read: “A wonderful person. A unique football talent. Who just loves to play football now. “From Fløya to TIL as a junior, into the academy as a 10-year-old, learns at the TIL school and debut for the first team as a 15-year-old. Assist in his last match for Troms...
UEFA supremo backs continuation of one-legged Champions League knock-out rounds
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has stated his belief that the current one-legged knock-out format of the Champions League’s quarterfinals and semi-finals should be considered as a full-time fixture in the competition as it is, in his opinion, “more interesting”. The one-off format, put together in order to finish up the season in a timely manner following the coronavirus-enforced suspension of sport around the world, has produced several upsets already, most notably Manchester City and Atletico Madrid being dumped out by Lyon and RB Leipzig respectively. Eight teams headed for Lisbon in August to play out the remaining fixtures on neutral ground in order to avoid squabbles over home and away advantages, and Ceferin believes having only one game to make it through makes for more exciting...
Bruno Fernandes: I believe I’ll improve on last season
Manchester United ace Bruno Fernandes feels he’ll be even better this new season after a successful first six months in England. The Portuguese midfielder arrived at Old Trafford in January for £55million from Sporting and changed the course of United’s season. He said, “It’s instinct. Over the years, because of the position in which I was playing, I developed my ability to move around and look forward. “When we lose the ball, I try to be the first one to react and to call on the other attacking players to help out in winning back possession. “And obviously for me, to be able to build up the play, to have the ball and provide passes to my team-mates to enable them to score goals – it’s very important. “I think that’s what I need to do a bit more because, yes, I’ve provided some assists but...
Jürgen Klopp ‘very, very happy’ as Liverpool win first friendly
Jürgen Klopp admitted he was “very, very happy” with his Liverpool side as they beat Stuttgart 3-0 in their first pre-season friendly of the summer. Goals from Roberto Firmino, Naby Keita and Rhian Brewster gave the Reds a win, but it was the weather that was the most difficult opponent at times – a huge downpour turning the pitch into a quagmire. But Klopp was delighted with how his side performed and will now face Red Bull Salzburg in four days time. “I’m very happy, very happy,” he told the club’s official website. “It was a super intense session for us today because the weather, wow, it rained like crazy, the pitch was really difficult – you could see the water was still on the pitch. That makes football games always tricky. “Good organised opponent obviously but we scored nice goals a...
Harry Maguire avoids questions after appearing in court over Mykonos ‘fight’
Harry Maguire avoided answering questions following a court appearance in Greece. The England footballer was arrested following an alleged fight on the island of Mykonos on Thursday night, along with two other Britons. Police said there had been an altercation and an exchange of words with officers, and that the three men would appear before a prosecutor on the nearby island of Syros on Saturday. When asked whether Maguire was still a free man, his lawyer replied: “Right now, yes.” Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help...
Spezia win promotion to Serie A for first time despite defeat
Spezia have reached Serie A for the first time in history and follow Benevento and Crotone despite Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to Frosinone in the Serie B play-off. The Ligurians lost 1-0 against Frosinone but it was enough to take them to the top flight after the 1-0 win at the Benito Stirpe last Saturday. However, Spezia were promoted on the tiebreaker rule of having finished higher in the table in the regular season. Spezia finished third and Frosinone eighth. The other promoted teams are Benevento, which won Serie B by 18 points, and Crotone. Spezia was founded in 1906 and last played in Italy’s first division in the 1920s, before the Serie A was formed. The team is based in La Spezia, a city along Italy’s northwestern coast with a population of less than 100,000. However, Spezia were promot...
Relegated Premier League sides get fixtures as 2020-21 Championship schedule released
Bournemouth will start life back in the Championship at home to Blackburn Rovers, while Watford host Middlesbrough and Norwich City travel to Huddersfield Town. The Cherries were relegated after a five-year stay in the Premier League, while Watford and Norwich were also demoted in a top-flight campaign that was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. That halt means the new Championship season starts on September 12, with beaten play-off finalists Brentford travelling to Birmingham City on the opening day, while south Wales rivals Cardiff City and Swansea City – who also made the top six – host Sheffield Wednesday and visit Preston North End respectively. Wycombe Wanderers – playing in the second tier for the first time – welcome fellow new boys Rotherham United for their first game, while ...
Lyon return empty-handed with prospect of losing key players
Had Olympique Lyonnais’ Memphis Depay and Karl Toko Ekambi found the back of the net in the opening 16 minutes against Bayern Munich on Wednesday, the Champions League may have had its first ever all-French final. Instead, Paris St Germain will now face the German champions while Lyon return home empty-handed and without the opportunity of righting those wrongs next season after they failed to qualify for Europe’s premier club competition. Ligue 1 was the only top-flight league from the ‘Big Five’ to prematurely end its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Lyon in seventh place on a points-per-game basis — thereby missing out on the Europa League as well. The 3-0 scoreline flatters Bayern as Lyon had their chances but playing in only their second semi-final on the big stage, their ...
Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium razed as China target World Cup bid
China rapidly tore down the famous Workers’ Stadium in Beijing this week as part of grand plans to revamp its football infrastructure ahead of an expected World Cup bid. The imposing arena in the heart of the Chinese capital will be almost completely rebuilt and is scheduled for completion in December 2022. Groups of people gathered to watch as the stadium, a landmark for decades, was levelled within just a few days, with the goalposts poignantly left standing even as the stands crashed down all around. The Workers’ Stadium was built in 1959 as one of 10 major construction projects to mark the 10th anniversary of communist China. Fondly known as “Gongti” — an abbreviation of its name in Chinese — the cavernous but crumbling arena was home to Chinese Super League club Beijing Guoan and host...
FIFA partners AU, WHO, CAF to promote campaign against domestic violence in Africa
FIFA is joining forces with the African Union, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to jointly address the issue of domestic violence by launching the #SafeHome campaign across the African continent. The initiative is designed to support women and children victims of domestic violence, particularly as stay-at-home measures in response to COVID-19 have put them at greater risk. A number of African football stars are supporting the campaign via video awareness messages distributed on social and traditional media. The African Union-FIFA-CAF memorandum of understanding, which was concluded in February 2019, covers joint campaigns on topics of mutual interest and the promotion of gender equality, a key principle. Other areas of collaboration includ...
Premier League rocked by 14 mystery coronavirus cases at 12 pre-season camps
Premier League has been hit by 14 new cases of coronavirus since teams returned to training, reports claim. According to The Telegraph, the new cases have been recorded at 12 clubs who began preparations for next season last weekend. The figures are unofficial, but the Premier League are only expected to regularly publish test results when the new season starts on September 12. Club officials are said to be concerned cases could continue to rise after players were pictured partying on holiday with pals from rival clubs over the past few weeks. Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli was snapped with James Maddison and Jack Grealish in Ibiza. And Chelsea transfer target Declan Rice holidayed with life-long friend Mason Mount on the Greek island of Mykonos, where Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Chri...
