By Martyn Herman LONDON (Reuters) – Manchester United scraped into the FA Cup fourth round after a late penalty knocked out Sheffield United on Saturday but the Old Trafford gloom remained and former midfielder Paul Scholes says even the players are bored. Fans yawned through another laboured performance in the pouring rain as the 11-times […]
MADRID (Reuters) – Zinedine Zidane’s triumphant start as Real Madrid coach set the Bernabeu buzzing on Saturday and the 10-times European champions are hoping the ‘Zizou effect’ can return the world’s richest club to winning ways. The former Real and France midfielder, appointed after the unpopular Rafa Benitez was sacked on Monday, watched his new […]
ROME (Reuters) – Fiorentina missed out on an opportunity to snatch top spot in Serie A as they slumped to a 3-1 home defeat by Lazio on Saturday. Balde Diao Keita, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Felipe Anderson struck as the visitors climbed to ninth with 27 points from 19 matches. Fiorentina, who replied through Facundo Roncaglia […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Aston Villa could find no respite from their Premier League woes as they suffered the embarrassment of being held to a 1-1 draw at fourth-tier Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup third round on Saturday. Villa, seven points adrift at the foot of the league, became the second top-flight club to be […]
Arsene Wenger took another step towards becoming the most successful manager in FA Cup annals on Saturday and hailed Arsenal’s “special solidarity” in fighting back to record a 3-1 third-round win over Sunderland. The Frenchman has set his sights on landing the trophy for a record seventh time, eclipsing the mark he shares with George […]
The role of coaches, much like tactics, has evolved in modern football and has proceeded to pretty much define success and failure, glory and gloom as present day football which depends upon as many factors as it does, or the line that separates the two. If the football being played is like music to the […]
MADRID (Reuters) – Zinedine Zidane got off to a flying start as Real Madrid coach when Gareth Bale hit a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday after a Lionel Messi treble had fired Barcelona to the top of La Liga. Zidane, a former Real and France midfielder who took over […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Aston Villa captain Micah Richards became embroiled in a heated pitchside debate with disgruntled fans on Saturday as the Premier League strugglers’ desperate season unravelled further with a 1-1 draw at fourth-tier Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup. Villa’s travelling fans, dismayed to see a 10th successive winless game under coach Remi […]
By Martyn Herman LONDON (Reuters) – Minor league Eastleigh suffered FA Cup heartbreak when they conceded a late equaliser to four-times winners Bolton Wanderers on a gluepot pitch at their snug Ten Acres ground on Saturday. The Hampshire part-timers were on the verge of causing the day’s big shock when they led through Dorian Dervite’s […]
ZURICH (Reuters) – FIFA’s ethics panel said on Saturday it had formally given outgoing President Sepp Blatter and European soccer head Michel Platini the reasons for their eight-year bans from the game, information both men could use in an appeal. Blatter and Platini were banned last month amid the worst corruption scandal in the history […]
