Bremen, Germany | AFP | Niko Kovac says the belief is starting to return to Bayern Munich after they claimed a second win this week to climb to third in the Bundesliga table after a 2-1 victory at Werder Bremen. Bayern built on their 5-1 midweek thrashing of Benfica in the …
Read More »Madrid back to winning ways under Solari after Valencia victory
Madrid, Spain | AFP | Real Madrid’s revival under Santiago Solari appears to be back on track after they moved up to fifth in La Liga with a 2-0 win over Valencia on Saturday. An own-goal from Valencia’s Daniel Wass gave Madrid an early lead before Lucas Vazquez added a …
Read More »Mourinho bemoans lack of ‘mad dogs’ after United draw
Southampton, United Kingdom | AFP | Jose Mourinho suggested after a third Premier League match without victory that his team had not had enough “mad dogs” on the field in their 2-2 draw with Southampton. To a neutral, it seemed that it was not rabid canines that were missing but …
Read More »Denis Onyango, Uganda Cranes nominated for top African awards
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Nominees for 2018 African football awards, which will be announced on January 8 in Dakar: Player of the Year Abdelmoumene Djabou (ALG, Entente Setif), Ahmed Gomaa (EGY, Al Masry), Ahmed Musa (NGR, Al Nassr/KSA), Alex Iwobi (NGR, Arsenal/ENG), Andre Onana (CMR, Ajax/NED), Anis Badri …
Read More »Liverpool’s Salah, Mane, Keita among CAF award nominees
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Liverpool trio Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita are among 34 nominees named Friday for the 2018 African Player of the Year award. Egyptian Salah won the award last year after scoring 44 goals in all competitions during his first season at …
Read More »War on football? Chinese players get army drills, ‘thought education’
Shanghai, China | AFP | Chinese national squads and a top league team have packed young footballers off to military camps for drills and Marxist-style “thought education” as a campaign to promote Communist Party values spreads even into the sporting world. Chinese fans have watched the militarisation of football with a …
Read More »Real Madrid’s Bernabeu to host all-Argentine Copa Libertadores final
Asuncion, Paraguay | AFP | South American football’s governing body CONMEBOL on Thursday confirmed that the twice-postponed Copa Libertadores final second leg between Argentine rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors will be played on December 9 at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Originally scheduled for last weekend at River’s Monumental …
Read More »Senegal replace Tunisia as top-ranked African team, Uganda Cranes 16th
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Senegal replaced Tunisia as the highest ranked African national team when the monthly statistics were released by FIFA Thursday. The Senegalese rose from second place on the back of a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying victory in Equatorial Guinea during November. Tunisia lost …
Read More »Liverpool made to look ‘like butchers’ against PSG says Klopp
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said his team “looked like butchers” because of the reactions of the Paris Saint-Germain players to challenges during the French team’s 2-1 Champions League win on Wednesday. A “little hurdle we had to overcome was the 500,000 disruptions in the …
Read More »Spurs to go ‘all guns blazing’ after Eriksen strike sinks Inter
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Christian Eriksen said Tottenham “know what we have to play for” on a daunting mission to Barcelona after he kept their Champions League hopes alive with a late winner against Inter Milan on Wednesday. Mauricio Pochettino’s side were 10 minutes away from being eliminated …
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