Football

After Manchester City lost 4-2 to Paris St Germain in Champions League action Pep Guardiola acknowledged his team was thoroughly beaten and their chances of advancing out of the group stage now appear slim.  On Wednesday Guardiola's team let a two-goal advantage fade after PSG scored four goals in the second half. The match left City in 26th place on the standings table and prevented them from qualifying for the playoffs.  The team needs to defeat Club Brugge at home in their final

Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said on Tuesday that Salah should agree a new contract to stay at Anfield past the end of this season.  "I hope he stays.  He is an excellent footballer, an excellent human being, an excellent sportsman, the best representative your nation could have. So I want him to stay at Liverpool.' Klopp answered a question on Salah from an Egyptian journalist at a press conference in Austria.  Klopp was unveiled as Red Bull’s global soccer chief, in which

This weekend in England we had the typical FA Cup round where smaller teams tried to upset big names and where, as Manchester United versus Arsenal, you had two of the nation’s best known names.  Like everyone knows I was at United as well as at Arsenal and to this day I am still very fond of them both once I am retired.  I also like the FA Cup and when I was a boy I remember watching in France because back then

Barcelona smashed Real Madrid 5-2 in an exhilarating Spanish Super Cup Clasico final in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to take the first trophy of the Hansi Flick era.  Madrid got their first goal through Kylian Mbappe, but Barcelona scored five as their team had their keeper Wojciech Szczesny sent off in the 88th minute.  Madrid tried to get revenge on their 4-0 home loss against Barcelona in the La Liga Clasico in October but instead got battered and bruised by their rivals in

Dubai: Age is no object to Cristiano Ronaldo.  The Portuguese man got things going early in the new year by scoring for Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, a first goal by a footballer in his career.  A record-breaking streak   Cristiano Ronaldo made his first start in nearly a month after he scored a penalty as his side won 3-1 against Al Okhdood on Thursday. It was his 917th goal in his professional career and now has 60 goals from 60 Saudi

Didier Deschamps has announced on Wednesday that he is leaving France for Europe at the end of the 2026 World Cup, saying it was time to retire as Zinedine Zidane seems the heavy favourite to replace him.  The French soccer federation (FFF) said Tuesday it will not seek to renew Deschamps’ deal until 2026, and that the president of the FFF Philippe Diallo would wait to announce a successor. Deschamps is France’s longest-serving national team coach, but it was too soon to determine

Manager Ruben Amorim was delighted with his side’s fight during their screamer-free 2-2 draw against Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday, but admitted he wanted more.  A week after Amorim announced that his sulking club might be relegated, Lisandro Martinez and Amad Diallo both hit United’s first goals in the pot at Anfield since 2018, taking it head-to-head with the title contenders in a deserved draw.  "Today I can be the only guy who is mad at the team," Amorim told reporters. "But

Alexander Isak was on the score sheet once again for Newcastle United as he sealed their second goal in the game against Manchester United at Old Trafford, making it the sixth time he has scored consecutively. With this result, this means that Rube Amoris side have gone on their worst home winless streak once again. Ipswich, who are on the brink of relegation, secured their first home win of the season against Chelsea with a scoreline of 2-0. On the contrary, Aston Villa

Liverpool overcame a first half deficit to beat Leicester City 3-1 at Anfield on Thursday and have a seven-point advantage at the top of the Premier League.  Stiff Leicester led 1-0 with a Jordan Ayew penalty in the sixth minute but then made love to themselves until Cody Gakpo scored a goal on the break.  Neither Leicester nor Liverpool were going to let this run out as they besieged Leicester from the start and led four minutes in, with Curtis Jones opening the

Messi-Ronaldo era ends; Man City crisis, Sunil Chhetri goodbye headlines drama-filled 2024. The football season 2024 was a rollercoaster, a season of glory and disaster. The good game provided drama to the last, from Rodri’s Ballon d’Or victory to Kylian Mbappé’s celebrity transfer to Real Madrid.  It was a spectacular season for Real as they did double, by claiming the 2023-24 La Liga title and 15th Champions League trophy. Manchester City on the other hand remained top of the domestic table with another

Chelsea's Premier League run continues, as they moved closer to league leaders Liverpool after a battle-hardened 2-1 win over Brentford on Sunday. Marc Cucurella and Nicolas Jackson scores gave Chelsea the points and now Chelsea are just two points off the top.  The Blues held possession at the start and pushed Brentford back inside their own half. Chelsea created a few chances but they didn’t strike back until the 43rd minute. Spanish fullback Marc Cucurella run great into the box and heads in

Fireworks light up Riyadh sky as Saudis celebrate successful World Cup bid. Sparklers and drones carrying the golden World Cup trophy blasted through the air over the capital of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after Fifa confirmed the Gulf kingdom would host the 2034 edition.  Not surprising as the only candidate was Saudi Arabia last year, but on the formal announcement officials organised celebratory ceremonies to celebrate the successful bid.  In Riyadh, Saudis paraded in their new sporting splendour.  "Welcoming the World 2034" was

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was still cheerful after his side lost 2-0 at Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday, continuing their dismal run.  Guardiola men languish 22nd in the Champions League standings, three points away from automatic disqualification with two matches to play.  The Premier League victors have lost just one of their last 10 games in all competitions.  "We played good, really really good," Guardiola told. "And we were down on the last pass, the last move, of course, a

Wednesday will decide who hosts the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, with Morocco, Spain and Portugal, in an alliance bid, getting the former, and Saudi Arabia acquiring the latter.  Hosting for both tournaments will be decided by a vote in a virtual Fifa Congress, but there is no mystery about which bid wins without a competition.  The 2030 World Cup will be the 100th World Cup that Uruguay hosted and it will be the South American nation to get a game as well

Blasters Football Academy (GEMS American Academy - Wukair) is the buzz word in Qatar and it delivers grass roots football training to budding youngsters. It is run under Blaster Sports Centre Qatar and it is also the licensed grassroots training ground of Kerala Blasters Football Club (KBFC), one of India’s most reputed football clubs.  Kerala Blasters FC: A History of Legendary Performance  Kerala Blasters FC or KBFC as it is also called, is a beast of Indian football. It is a club formed

Thousands of people will have been looking at the Arsenal goalless draw this weekend and scoff two points.  But for me it showed they’re a lot tougher than some make them out to be – a goal down against a Fulham side that had a lot to prove and in truly terrible English conditions around this time of year.  They played and honestly ought to have been able to win. I feel like the players will come out strong this week as a

Ruud van Nistelrooy, who is now the manager of Leicester City and formerly a striker for Manchester United, has recently revealed that he left Manchester United after a very short period of being an interim coach.  I see why the new manager, Ruben Amorim, wanted to bring in his people but that still disappoints van Nistelrooy who has known the club for years. Van Nistelrooy managed to finish at United in the shadows of Arik ten over Ten Hag's sacking, but Amorim's arrival

In spite of the fact that Saudi Arabia has yet to build most of the the stadiums it proposed to use for the tournament, the nation’s 2034 World Cup bid beat the joint one of the US, Canada and Mexico in technical evaluation of Fifa which was 2026. Fifa in an announcement made on Thursday gave a submission of its bid evaluation report and as such confirmed that the 2034 bid averaged as high as 4.2 although eight stadiums remain still to be

India ace first pink ball Test. Canberra: One-day cricket with its traditional whites, red balls and white sight screens as the bowler’s background can be imagined. Those scenes were however acted out except that the red ball was replaced by the pink one as it was on a Sunday afternoon when it was raining and briefly interrupted the game in any case.  After their match against Primer’s XI was cut short by drizzling and wet field on Saturday, the two teams resumed practice

In the case of the Spanish La Liga, Arsenal managed to pull off a severe knee injury to their star player with the second leg scheduled to commence in a couple of weeks. Manchester City’s midfield general, Rodri, expressed a strong belief in making a remarkable comeback before the conclusion of the season after undergoing surgery earlier in the year. This came months after he won the coveted Ballon d'Or last October and suffered an anterior cruciate ligament ALB injury in the words