UEFA Champions League
Smith Rowe and Ceballos start, Predicted Arsenal line-up (4-2-3-1) vs Benfica
Arsenal will play hosts to Benfica in the second leg of the Europa League last 32 on Thursday night. The game is scheduled to be played at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Greece due to coronavirus restrictions. The north London side have a disappointing record at the ground with four defeats and just one win from five European games. However, their sole victory came during the previous campaign against Olympiacos and they will be aiming for another positive result. Mikel Arteta’s side have the precious away goal advantage after the 1-1 draw against Benfica in the first leg which was played at the Stadio Olimpico. Formation: 4-2-3-1 Predicted Line-up: Bernd Leno is an automatic choice in goal for the Gunners. The German had a comfortable game in the reverse leg until the penalty scored ...
Liverpool take risky approach at the back, Barcelona set to attack
The Champions League has reached the knockout stage and the round of 16 features some exciting UCL fixtures. We’ll update this story with reports, results and the latest Champions League highlights as the first-leg games are played. Paris Saint-Germain produced a superb performance to demolish Barcelona 4-1 at the Nou Camp – Kylian Mbappe (3) and Moise Kean got the goals. Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane were on target as Liverpool triumphed 2-0 against RB Leipzig in Budapest. Erling Braut Haaland (2) and Mahmoud Dahoud bagged the goals as Borussia Dortmund triumphed 3-2 at Sevilla. Porto secured a 2-1 victory at home to Juventus – Mehdi Taremi and Moussa Marega were on the scoresheet for the Portuguese side. Olivier Giroud scored a stunning goal as Chelsea ran out 1-0 winners on the road agai...
Defender misses out for Man City, Monchengladbach forward may return
Borussia Monchengladbach and Manchester City meet in the Champions League knockout stage for the first time on Wednesday. Monchengladbach will not enjoy the privilege of playing at Borussia-Park. Due to the ongoing restrictions imposed on English travellers, the encounter will be staged at Puskas Arena in Budapest. Gladbach’s wobble on various fronts continued last weekend as they succumbed to a shocking 2-1 loss to relegation-threatened Mainz 05. The Foals have now failed to win four of their previous five competitive fixtures (D2, L2), including the last four. It is not the kind of statistic Marco Rose’s side will be looking to dwell on ahead of their meeting with one of the best European teams at the moment. A 2-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League back in November 2020 was...
Pep Guardiola provides fresh Man City injury update ahead of Monchengladbach clash
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has provided a fresh injury update ahead of the club’s Champions League clash against Borussia Monchengladbach tomorrow. The Cityzens are currently on a stunning 18-match winning streak in all competitions and are favourites to beat the Bundesliga outfit at the Puskas Arena. Ahead of the game, Guardiola confirmed that there are no fresh injury concerns and Ake is the only player out of contention as he is recovering following a hamstring problem. He told Mancity.com “Everyone except Nathan is fit. Right now I am thinking about team selection. I am not clear because I need to see how the players recover and feel. We will decide tomorrow.” Sportslens view: The Cityzens are currently on an exceptional run of 18 consecutive victories and, overall, they are...
‘Immaculate’, ‘Excellent performance’ – Some Liverpool fans drool over 7-cap international’s display
Liverpool picked up a vital first-leg win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League round of 16 last night. Jurgen Klopp will be delighted with the performance of his players especially after the kind of form they have been in over recent weeks. The Reds came into this game on the back of three consecutive defeats in all competitions and they needed a morale-boosting performance. Although the reigning Premier League champions were not at their very best, they managed to pressurise the German side into key mistakes and converted the chances they created. Liverpool were dominant in possession and did the basics well at the back. 20-year-old January signing Ozann Kabak produced an impressive display for the Reds at the heart of the defence and he was voted as the man of the match by the fans af...
Penalty Kings Part II: The Bruno bounce
The art of penalty-taking is certainly not as easy as most people make it out to be. The fact that the xG assigned to a spot-kick is only 0.76 clearly indicates that the taker has a lot to do if they are to convert their big chance from 12 yards out. While most penalties are centred around mind-games between the shooter and goalkeeper where they both try to pre-empt the other’s move, two players have been changing this. They are Jorginho and Bruno Fernandes, who have extremely unconventional penalty-taking techniques, which involve a jump just before the ball is kicked. Jorginho was the inventor of this technique, and we analysed his penalties in the first part of this series, which you should read before getting stuck into this piece. Now, onto Bruno Fernandes’ penalty technique. The Brun...
Penalty Kings Part I: The Jorginho jump
Although facing a goalkeeper from 12 yards with no-one else in your way might not seem too daunting a task to most, Manchester City fans will lead you to believe that it is one of the more difficult aspects of the game. Recently, İlkay Gündoğan (who was – and still is – in the form of his life) joined an elite club of Cityzens who have a penalty success rate of less than 70% in the Premier League, including Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez. Welcome to the club bro https://t.co/h0qs8pp7fF — Raheem Sterling (@sterling7) February 7, 2021 On the other hand, the likes of Jorginho and Bruno Fernandes (who are dubbed ‘penalty merchants’ by the same fans that watch their team attempt to send spot-kicks into lower Earth orbit) have scored 44% of their combined c...
Neymar out for four weeks; will not feature in Barcelona v PSG
Neymar left the pitch last night during Paris Saint-Germain’s 1-0 win over Caen in the French Cup after he was fouled multiple times early in the second half. Clearly injured, there was concern over whether the Brazilian would be able to recover in time for PSG’s Champions League second-round tie with Barcelona next week. L’Equipe had initially announced that Neymar was certain to miss the Tuesday game against Barca, with PSG later confirming (via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Johnson) that Neymar will be out for a period of four weeks with a left adductor injury. This will come as a serious blow to PSG’s Champions League hopes as until now, they had considered themselves favourites in the upcoming tie with Barca given the off-pitch turmoil and injuries plaguing the Catalan club. Given that&nb...
Arsenal and Man United to travel to Italy in tough Europa League games next week
UEFA have confirmed that Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool will play the first leg of their respective European ties at neutral venues this month. The Gunners qualified for the last 32 of the Europa League after topping their group with the perfect tally of 18 points from six matches. They are scheduled to face Benfica in the round of 32 and the away leg will be played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome instead of the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. Portugal is on the ‘red list’ of countries listed by the UK government and the requirement for a mandatory quarantine for Gunners players on return has led to the decision. Elsewhere, United won’t travel to Real Sociedad’s Anoeta stadium for the first leg of the Europa League round of 32 and the game has been relocated to Juventus...
Odion Ighalo: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave me the chance to live my dream
Nigeria’s Odion Jude Ighalo will forever be grateful to Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for supporting him to live his dream with the Old Trafford squad. Speaking for the first time after he moved from Saudi Arabian side, Al-Shabab, Ighalo expressed his love and admiration to the coach who believed in him and gave him the chance to live his childhood dream of playing for the Red Devils in any capacity. “Every player wants to play, but I always respect my coach. I’m a hard worker in training and match situations, It’s painful though, but the decision is not yours,” Ighalo informed 88.9 sports radion. “No player wants to be on the bench, particularly when you know you are fit or even better than those selected ahead of you. “But, I respect Ole. He gave me the chance to live m...
Will Leipzig and Leverkusen mount an effective title challenge to Lewandowski and co?
After a curtailed winter break, the Bundesliga is back. The story of the season so far has been one of fairy-tale overachievement for some, spectacular underachievement for others, teams struggling to score, scoring at will and drama on and off the pitch. The Rückrunde is set to be no different. Here’s a preview to whet the appetite. The title race: new challengers? Despite Bayern Munich going into the Christmas break top of the Bundesliga table by two points and looking to win their ninth consecutive Meisterschale, this year could very well see other clubs knock them off the top spot. The Rekordmeister have certainly not been fully firing this term when you look at last season’s treble-winning campaign. Worries over Bayern’s pre-season squad depth have only intensified throughout th...
2020 In Review: From COVID-19 to Liverpool to Maradona, looking back at a wild, wild year
2020 has been quite the year, one for the history books, for better or worse. We break down the 10 things we will remember 2020 for. Lunch is on Marcus: Rashford’s campaign to help school children Footballers have a unique position of influence, especially the younger ones in today’s era, with their millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram. While almost all players take part in some form of community service or philanthropic endeavours, Marcus Rashford decided to use his social media as a platform to appeal to UK lawmakers who were about to end a program that allows free lunches to millions of schoolchildren. Eventually, the lawmakers decided to cave into his request and made sure the program stays running. This not only bought to light the potential influence a young footballer can ...
