Carlo Ancelotti has been pleased with LaLiga leaders Real Madrid s performances up to the halfway point of the campaign but warned there is a long way to go in the title race.
Karim Benzema s first-half double was enough to see Madrid past Athletic Bilbao 2-1 on Wednesday, the striker becoming just the fourth player – excluding Lionel Messi (nine times) and Cristiano Ronaldo (seven) – to hit 30-plus LaLiga goals in a calendar year.
Toni Kroos assisted the first of Benzema s seven-minute brace, the Germany international s 77th assist in all competitions for Los Blancos since signing in the 2014-15 campaign – no Madrid player has managed more in that period.
Ancelotti s side, who were without the likes of David Alaba and Isco due to COVID-19, managed to han…
Sure, relying on Mohamed Salah every week is a decent fantasy football strategy, it s certainly good enough for most, but what happens when the Egyptian magician isn t in Premier League action?
With Liverpool in EFL Cup final duty against Chelsea, the Reds fearsome front-line and creative full-backs are suddenly off limits to fantasy football managers across the land, while Arsenal and Chelsea are also out of league action.
However, courtesy of Opta-powered data, Stats Perform has managed to pick out some of gameweek 27 s potential stars, featuring the England captain, an in-form Burnley new boy, and one of the Premier League s most lethal defenders.
HARRY KANE (Leeds United v Tottenham Hotspur)
Despite Antonio Conte s team lurching to a fourth loss in fi…
Sean Longstaff admits he can scarcely believe how far he and Newcastle have come in the last two years.
The 25-year-old midfielder’s future looked to lie away from St James’ Park during the latter stage of the Mike Ashley era, but he has revived his career spectacularly since Amanda Staveley’s consortium completed its takeover in October 2021.
Longstaff will head into Wednesday night’s Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund having established himself in Eddie Howe’s team at the club he supported as a boy and being touted as a future England international.
Asked if he has to pinch himself when he reflects upon how his fortunes have changed, the North Shields-born player, who scored in the 4-1 demolition of Paris St Germain on Tyneside earlier this…
Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City could slip up before the season ends and still claim the Premier League title.
With Liverpool chasing hard, there appears to be little wriggle room for leaders City, who have nine games remaining in their trophy defence.
Liverpool visit City on April 10 in a fixture that could go a long way to determining the destiny of the title, given its proximity to the end of the campaign.
Former Barcelona boss Guardiola can see a scenario, though, where City do not have everything go their own way between now and the final-day clash with Aston Villa on May 22, yet still end up as champions.
We can do mistakes and win the title, so nobody knows, manager Guardiola told a news conference ahead of City s game at Burnley.
…
Jack Grealish was among the scorers as Manchester City eased past Norwich City 5-0 on Saturday for their first win of the Premier League season.
The reigning champions fell to a 1-0 loss at Tottenham in their opening game but had no trouble in seeing off their newly promoted opponents at the Etihad Stadium.
British record signing Grealish scored in an unconventional manner 22 minutes into his home debut after Tim Krul s unfortunate own goal had given the hosts an early lead.
Aymeric Laporte added to the scoring in the second half and substitutes Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez piled the misery on Norwich, who slipped to a second successive defeat on their return to the top tier.
City had won their previous three home league games against Norwich by an ag…
Geoff Hurst, Harry Kane and Gareth Southgate were among the many to pay tribute to Jimmy Greaves after the Tottenham, Chelsea and England great died at the age of 81.
World Cup winner Greaves, the leading goalscorer in the history of the English top flight, passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The clinical striker scored a staggering 357 goals in 516 First Division games and ended six seasons as the highest scorer.
Greaves is Spurs record marksman, having found the back of the net an incredible 266 times in 379 appearances, and is fourth on the list of England s leading scorers, with 44 from 57 matches – including a record six hat-tricks.
He won the World Cup on home soil in 1966, but sustained an injury and had to watch on as Geoff Hu…
Barcelona have accelerated a shake-up at Camp Nou by allowing technical secretary Ramon Planes to leave the club.
Planes, who was recently linked with a switch to Newcastle United, heads out of Barcelona within a fortnight of Xavi arriving as head coach.
He had a contract running through to the end of this season but will depart with immediate effect, having requested to be freed from his deal.
Barcelona said in a statement: FC Barcelona and Ramon Planes have reached an agreement to terminate the contract that bound both parties until 30 June 2022, at the request of the man who had until now been the club s technical secretary.
The club wishes to publicly express its gratitude to Ramon Planes for his commitment, professionalism and contributions throug…
A record-breaking defeat to Germany on matchday two leaves Portugal with work to do against France in a repeat of the previous European Championship final.
Portugal became the first defending champions to concede four goals at the Euros and now need at least a point to reach the last 16.
Top spot in Group F could still be theirs if they beat France, although Portugal s Euro 2016 final triumph was their only win against Les Bleus in 13 attempts.
Reflecting on the Germany match ahead of this tough test, coach Fernando Santos said: We all felt disappointed on our way back.
Everyone feels a sense of responsibility, and the following day the players reacted well.
They are experienced players and appreciate that sometimes you don t win. There are time…
Prediction: Draw
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The Africa Cup of Nations is underway as football fans prepare for weeks of entertainment and unpredictability. International football is a chaotic part of the beautiful game and AFCON consistently lives up to that reputation and we re expecting that trend to continue. Today, we re going to take a look at what should be a really fun showdown between Nigeria and Egypt.
Nigeria
After only reaching the group stage of the 2018 World Cup, Nigeria have their eyes on Qatar later this year but that doesn t mean they should be underestimated in the AFCON. They finished third in 2019 after winning it all in 2013 but their inconsistency often leads to frustration for many of their supporters. Now, all they can hope for i…
Valerien Ismael kicked off his Watford reign in magnificent style with a 4-0 win over a hapless QPR at Vicarage Road.
The red-hot Hornets produced a swashbuckling first-half display which saw them score all their goals inside 43 minutes as Rangers showed why many have tipped them to struggle to stay up this season under Gareth Ainsworth.
The visitors, who were without first-choice centre-backs Jimmy Dunne and Jake Clarke-Salter due to injury, handed a full senior debut to Joe Gubbins alongside recent signing Morgan Fox and both struggled to contain a rampant home side.
It took just 33 seconds for the Hornets to open the scoring when Tom Dele-Bashiru slotted past Asmir Begovic after a sublime reverse pass from the impressive Imran Louza caught out the flat-footed …