German referee Felix Brych will take charge of England vs Ukraine – just days after the Three Lions dumped his nation out of Euro 2020. Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane grabbed the goals as Gareth Southgate’s side defeated Germany 2-0 at Wembley on Tuesday. That was enough to fire England into the quarters where they are now preparing to take on Ukraine in Rome. And the man in the middle will be someone who would have wanted England to lose two days ago. Brych is Germany’s representative at Euro 2020 and one of the best-known referees in the world. He took charge of Portugal’s last 16 exit to Belgium, a match in which he dished out five yellow cards. He’s already refereed Ukraine at this tournament, overseeing their thrilling 3-2 defeat to Holland. That match saw Ukraine boss Andriy Shevchen...
A depleted France will draw motivation from the threat of elimination as they prepare to face Switzerland in their European Championship last-16 match, captain Hugo Lloris said on Sunday. World champions France topped Group F with one win and two draws ahead of Portugal and Germany but key players in their backline have picked up injuries to give coach Didier Deschamps a selection headache on Monday. While Ousmane Dembele and Marcus Thuram are unavailable, Deschamps confirmed full backs Jules Kounde and Lucas Digne are also ruled out against the Swiss. Left back Lucas Hernandez, who injured his knee, has a chance to feature. Speaking at a news conference, goalkeeper Lloris said France – who finished runners-up in 2016 – were accustomed to do-or-die situations and thrived under pressure. “W...
Juventus have officially announced the return of Massimiliano Allegri as head coach at the Allianz Stadium. ‘We are ready to build our future together’. Andrea Pirlo only lasted for one year as coach of the Bianconeri, as Juventus have officially announced the return of Allegri, who left in 2019. “Massimiliano Allegri is the Juventus coach again,” Juventus wrote in a statement. “Allegri finds a bench he knows very well, a club that he loves and that loves him, to start a new journey together today, towards new targets. “Those achieved in his first adventure with Juventus are engraved in the history of the club: five Scudetti, four consecutive doubles with the Coppa Italia, two Supercoppa Italiana, two Champions League Finals in three seasons, epic feats in Italy and in Europe. “And then we...
Tyson Fury has insisted that he still intends to fight Anthony Joshua this year despite committing to a trilogy fight against Deontay Wilder in July. Only last weekend, Fury announced that his much-anticipated heavyweight showdown with Joshua would take place in Saudi Arabia in August. Soon afterwards, however, Wilder won an arbitration hearing which ruled that Fury was contractually obliged to fight him for a third time. Fury’s first bout against Wilder came in December 2018 and ended in a controversial draw. In the rematch last year, the self-styled Gypsy King stopped his opponent in round seven to win the WBC heavyweight and Ring magazine titles. A planned trilogy fight was initially postponed by the coronavirus pandemic, before disputes over the rescheduling saw Fury declare that he’d ...
Britain’s Prince Charles paid a personal tribute on Saturday to his “dear papa” Prince Philip, saying the royal family missed him emormously and that the 99-year-old would have been amazed at the touching reaction across the world to his death. Philip, the husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth who had been at her side throughout her record-breaking 69-year reign, died at Windsor Castle on Friday. “As you can imagine, my family and I miss my father enormously,” Charles, the couple’s eldest son and heir to the throne, said outside his Highgrove House home in west England. “My dear papa was a very special person who I think above all else would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that have been said about him and from that point of view we are, my family, deeply grateful f...
Vox Media Over $70 billion have been invested in telecommunications infrastructure deployment in Nigeria since the liberalisation of the industry in 2001. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, who made this known said the amount represented a larger chunk of local and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attracted into the sector within the period. Danbatta made the remarks on Thursday while delivering the Bullion Lecture 2021 Edition organised by the Centre for Financial Journalism (CFJ), Lagos. According to him, the investment in infrastructures has boosted the economy and provided more opportunities for more Nigerians have access to telecoms services. “Today, the number of active telephone lines being used by Nigerians has signi...