Brentford began life without Ivan Toney with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Southampton.
Bryan Mbeumo’s brace and a Yoane Wissa goal proved to be the difference between the two sides and condemned the Saints to their third straight loss since promotion back to the Premier League.
With departed striker Toney watching in the stands after his move to Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, the hosts proved too strong for Russell Martin’s men. They created the superior chances and capitalised on an error-strewn performance from Southampton’s backline.
Mbeumo opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before doubling the lead halfway through the second period and Wissa then got on the scoresheet moments later to continue Brentford’s strong start to the campaign. Yukinari …
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Getting their Champions League knockout stage adventure underway on Tuesday night, Tottenham will make the trip to the San Siro when they meet AC Milan.
AC Milan
Starting with the hosts, while AC Milan might have managed to make a much-needed return to winning ways over the weekend, it doesn t cover what has been a nightmare spell for the Italian heavyweights. Although Stefano Pioli s side might have opened the 2022/23 campaign with their sights set on reclaiming their domestic crown, there appears to be a huge amount of pressure on the ex-Lazio boss. Despite being last seen a few days ago clinching a gritty 1-0 victory at home against Torino, that was the first win that AC have recorded from any of their previous eight matchups acros…
Jurgen Klopp gave Liverpool just a one per cent chance of conjuring one of the great all-time Champions League comebacks in Wednesday s last-16 second leg with Real Madrid.
For any other club, maybe, but this is a side that wrote the book on making the impossible possible in the biggest club competition of them all – none more so than their triumph from three goals down against Milan in the 2005 final.
One of four sides to have progressed from a tie having lost the first leg by three or more goals – doing so against Barcelona in the 2018-19 semi-finals – Liverpool simply could not be completely written off.
Even as Karim Benzema fired in Madrid s fifth goal in their 5-2 win at Anfield three weeks ago, there was still that glimmer of hope. The one per cent c…
Harry Kane wants the officials at Euro 2016 to stay strong in order to clamp down on any play-acting.
The England striker was on the receiving end of a high challenge from Bruno Alves on Thursday, with the Portugal defender shown a red card after his boot made contact with Kane s head.
Kane manfully picked himself up to chase the loose ball, which was in stark contrast to the theatrics produced by some players.
I m always someone who always gets up and doesn t make the most of it, said the striker.
It s good that the ref stayed strong. Other refs might have thought it wasn t as bad as it was and maybe given him a yellow, but it was a sending off at the end of the day.
Kane s international and Tottenham team-mate Eric Dier spoke of the need for …
Aston Villa have announced captain John McGinn has signed a new long-term contract.
The midfielder’s new deal keeps him at the club until 2027.
McGinn moved to Villa Park from Hibernian in 2018 and helped them earn promotion to the Premier League in 2019 with a goal in the Championship play-off final against Derby.
Signed and sealed. 2 0 2 7
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial)
The 28-year-old was named club captain last summer and was a key part of the Villa set-up last season, making 34 Premier League appearances.
He helped the club secure European football for the first time since 2010 after a stunning turnaround under manager Unai Emery saw Villa finish seventh in the league.
McGinn also represents Scotland on the international…
According to Sky Germany journalist Florian Plettenberg, Thomas Tuchel is very much interested in the idea of Manchester United as his next club after his spell with Bayern Munich ends in the summer. And as things stand at the moment, United will reportedly wait until the end of the season to make a decision on the future of Erik ten Hag, so a vacancy at Old Trafford in the summer isn t impossible.
Tuchel is also believed to be on the list of Barcelona, who are looking to replace Xavi Hernandez, but United is apparently more appealing to the German tactician as he feels he has unfinished business in the Premier League, after leading Chelsea to Champions League glory in 2021. The 50-year-old succeeded Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund in 2015, but there is little chance of that …
It is 16 years since Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid were all beaten to the Spanish title. Valencia were the victors then.
The season before saw Real Sociedad push Madrid all the way in the title race; Sevilla entered the final day of the 2006-07 campaign with a chance of an unlikely success, while Villarreal finished second the following year.
In more ways than one, it feels like a bygone era. As the money in football grew exponentially, so did the margin for error for the biggest clubs.
Atletico managed to buck the trend, re-establishing themselves as a top club through smart recruitment, plenty of money and finding a coach in Diego Simeone who was not only able to get the best out of players, but improve them.
Although they haven t quite ki…
Chelsea and Emma Hayes have once again fallen short of securing a place in the final of the Champions League.
There will be a feeling of déjà vu as Barcelona stopped Chelsea at this stage of the competition last season and seem to be the Blues’ Achilles heel.
Hayes, who is leaving at the end of season to manage the US Women s National team, was hoping she could complete her last season with Champions League glory, the only trophy to elude her during an illustrious spell at Chelsea, but it was not to be.
Chelsea had pulled off a remarkable result in the first leg and were leading 1-0 at the halfway point of the tie.
With a record crowd of 39,398 roaring them on, it felt like Saturday could be the night on which Chelsea changed their fortunes in this …
A FIFA task force decision to move the 2022 Qatar World Cup has received backing from CAF despite a potential clash with the 2023 AFCON.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has become the latest governing body to support the FIFA task force s recommendation to move the 2022 Qatar World Cup to November and December.
Six-months after a consultation process around the hosting of the competition began, the task force announced their preference for the tournament to be played in the final two months of the year.
With the Africa Cup of Nations due to take place in early 2023, the recommendation could have implications for that tournament, given it would start weeks after the World Cup final.
CAF has already moved the AFCON to avoid it falling in th…
Harry Kane surpassed the 400-goal mark for his senior career as his double helped Bayern Munich beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
Kane moved within one of the milestone as he put Bayern 1-0 up after just nine minutes, coolly finishing from close range after Konrad Laimer s pass had set him up.
Then, after Frankfurt levelled through Hugo Ekitike, Kane slotted home a penalty with typical aplomb following a foul on Thomas Muller to move himself onto 400 career goals and ultimately lead Bayern to victory.
Kane scored 280 of his goals in 435 appearances for Tottenham, overtaking Jimmy Greaves to become the club s all-time leading scorer when he netted for the 267th time in Spurs colours against Manchester City last February.
400 Ha…