Author: admin

Arsenal could be handed a major boost ahead of their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid, with Kylian Mbappe reportedly among the players ‘at risk of being banned’ by UEFA.
Four players for the European champions are deemed at risk of suspension due to their celebrations after beating Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Los Blancos progressed on penalties after winning the first leg 2-1 and the losing the second leg away from home 1-0.
Former Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger scored the decisive penalty and is one of the Real Madrid fearing a ban.
Report confirms that Mbappe, Rudiger, Vinicius Junior and Dani Ceballos could miss their quarter-final against Arsenal.

The Madrid quartet are under investigation over alleged “indecent conduct”, with an “ethics and disciplinary inspector” analysing their actions after beating Atletico on penalties on March 12.

Arsenal will obviously hope Vinicius Jr, Mbappe and Rudiger are unavailable for both legs. They probably want former loan player Ceballos to play, to be fair.

There is no doubt that Madrid will be significantly weaker if those three players are unavailable and ultimately could cost them winning back-to-back Champions Leagues.
Arsenal are also hoping Bukayo Saka will be available for the first leg on April 8 – which is eight days before the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Saka was pictured in training for the first time since suffering a serious hamstring injury against Crystal Palace in December on Thursday.

It is unclear if the England winger is going through individual training or if he is back into full first-team training.

Either way, Arsenal fans are absolutely delighted to see Saka back on the grass.

The Premier League has announced it will have two transfer windows this summer to allow Manchester City and Chelsea to sign players before the Club World Cup.
The window will open between Sunday, 1 June and Tuesday, 10 June, then close for five days before running again from Monday, 16 June until Monday, 1 September.
This summer features the first expanded Fifa Club World Cup, which involves 32 teams and adopts the format of the regular World Cup of the past few years.
Chelsea and Manchester City are the Premier League teams in the tournament which takes place in the United States from Sunday, 15 June.
But the Premier League can only have 12 weeks of a summer window – hence the five-day break in order to run it until 1 September.
Fifa has allowed new players to be registered for the Club World Cup from 1-10 June, and again from 27 June-3 July for the knockout stage.

Why is this happening?

Firstly, to bring order to the global registration system, world governing body Fifa only permits the transfer window in any individual country to be open for 16 weeks in any calendar year.
In Europe, precedent dictates four of those weeks are for the winter window, leaving 12 in the summer. In 2024, the Premier League transfer window opened on 14 June and closed on 30 August.
However, in October, Fifa approved an additional window from 1-10 June that would allow the 32 clubs competing in the Club World Cup to register new players before the tournament.
It also agreed to open a registration window mid-tournament, from 27 June and 3 July, to allow clubs to register additional players for the knockout stage.
As well as Manchester City and Chelsea, European heavyweights Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Juventus, Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal are among others playing in the tournament.

In order to ensure Manchester City and Chelsea did not have an advantage over the other 18 top-flight clubs, the Premier League has adopted the same window.
However, 12 weeks from 1 June is 24 August. The Premier League wanted to be aligned with the rest of Europe’s big leagues around when the summer window closes. Those leagues preferred to close the window at the end of August, so that meant the window had to close and reopen.

What are the issues?

Firstly, the dates.
The Champions League final takes place in Munich on 31 May. After that, there are Nations League semi-finals and finals and World Cup qualifying double-headers. In Europe, those games take place 6-10 June.
It means players could be negotiating transfers in the build-up to important matches.
One potential impact concerns international players who may move to clubs competing in the Club World Cup.
Let us take two examples – Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kevin de Bruyne. Both are internationals who might be called up by England and Belgium for their June matches.
However, both are out of contract at Liverpool and Manchester City respectively on 30 June.
Alexander-Arnold currently plays for a club not involved in the United States this summer, but looks likely to join Real Madrid who are.

So, do Real reach an agreement over a fee with Liverpool to trigger Alexander-Arnold’s release early so he can play a full part in the competition? Or do they wait until 30 June and add him to their squad for the knockout stage?
Manchester City are involved in the Club World Cup. So, as it presently stands, De Bruyne could play in the group stage but would not be eligible for the knockout stage.
If De Bruyne does not want to commit for a further year, he could sign a short extension that covers the tournament and then leave. Or he could leave before the tournament and sign for a different club. If that club were also involved at the Club World Cup, De Bruyne would be in the same situation as Alexander-Arnold.
Fifa has also tweaked its registration rules to effectively mean clubs can sign players solely for the duration of the tournament. It is thought unlikely either Manchester City or Chelsea would be looking at that scenario.

Semi-automated offsides might come in next month

Semi-automated offside technology might be introduced to the Premier League in April.
It was trialled in the FA Cup fifth round – and will be tried again for the three quarter-final ties at Premier League grounds this weekend.
The plan was to introduce it for the Premier League in October or November, but issues with the system have delayed that.
If no problems arise from these FA Cup games, it will be rolled out in the Premier League next week.

Semi-automated offsides are designed to make the judgement of tight calls easier for officials by rendering key parts of the process automatic.
Bespoke cameras have been installed at all 20 Premier League grounds.

Since Spotify became the official sponsor of FC Barcelona and the Camp Nou was rebranded as Spotify Camp Nou, El Clasico league matches have frequently featured an artist’s logo on the jerseys of the Catalan club’s players.

Drake was the first to feature in October 2022, followed by Rosalia, Rolling Stones, Karol G, and Coldplay. With the next round of El Clasico set to enthrall us in May, one wondered who would get the opportunity to feature on Barcelona’s jersey for this particular game.
According to RAC 1 (h/t Mundo Deportivo), a number of artists were in the running for the same, including the very famous Ed Sheeran and Travis Scott (a rapper), but Taylor Swift has now emerged as the favourite to appear on the jersey in the Clasico at the Montjuic.
Taylor Swift needs no introduction, having released numerous chart-topping hits over the years. Therefore, it would be no surprise if she is ultimately chosen to feature on the Barcelona jersey during El Clasico.
Interestingly, it wasn’t long ago that Taylor Swift performed at Real Madrid’s stadium, specifically on May 30, 2024. Now, she has the opportunity to further enhance her global appeal by being featured on the Barcelona jersey.

El Clasico is arguably the biggest game in club football, and the entire world will tune in to watch the two Spanish heavyweights battle it out for bragging rights this season. It helps that there is also a tight title race on the line.
In their previous La Liga encounter earlier this season, Barcelona thrashed Real Madrid 4-0 at their own backyard. The two sides have since faced off in the Spanish Super Cup final—another match where the Catalan club delivered a dominant performance.
Everything is shaping towards the game against the two sides in May turning out to be a potential title decider. Much like Taylor Swift has around the world over the years, let’s wait and see if Hansi Flick’s men can put on a show and go 3/3 against their bitter rivals this season.

ARSENAL’S WOMEN produced a thrilling fightback from a 2-0 first-leg defeat to beat Real Madrid 3-0 on Wednesday and set up a Champions League semi-final with eight-time winners Lyon.
Alessia Russo scored twice for the Gunners in front of a crowd of 22,517 at the Emirates, either side of Mariona Caldentey’s header, to fire Arsenal into the last four.

Madrid arrived in London full of confidence after beating Barcelona for the first time in a women’s Clasico on Sunday.
However, the Spanish giants were made to wait for a first Champions League semi-final by a dominant Arsenal performance.
The home side’s pressure bore no fruit before the half-time break and indeed, they were thankful to a fine save from Daphne van Domselaar that prevented Filippa Angeldahl from adding to Madrid’s aggregate advantage.
Three goals in the first 14 minutes of the second half transformed the tie.
Russo swept home Chloe Kelly’s dangerous cross just seconds after the restart.
Kelly then picked out former Barcelona midfielder Caldentey to head in just three minutes later.

Russo produced an acrobatic finish to complete the comeback on the hour mark after Madrid failed to deal with a free-kick into the box.
The England striker thought she had a memorable hat-trick, only for VAR to intervene and rule out an Arsenal fourth for offside

But Renee Slegers’ side held out to march into the semi-finals, where the French champions will be waiting.
Lyon thrashed Bayern Munich 4-1 to advance 6-1 on aggregate in their quest for a record-extending ninth title.

Klara Buehl gave Bayern hope with a first-half strike that reduced Lyon’s two-goal advantage from last week’s first leg in Germany.
Lyon levelled on the night moments into the second half through Melchie Dumornay’s header before Kadidiatou Diani punished a defensive error to put the French champions in complete control.

Malawi international Tabitha Chawinga grabbed Lyon’s third and former Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg came off the bench to round off the scoring in stoppage time.

Three-time winners Barcelona hold a 4-1 lead over Wolfsburg ahead of Thursday’s quarter-final, second leg in Spain.
Meanwhile, English champions Chelsea must follow Arsenal’s lead in overturning a two-goal first-leg deficit against Manchester City.

Morocco is selling its first euro-denominated bonds in five years as it boosts spending for the football World Cup it’s co-hosting in 2030.

The sale of a combined €2 billion ($2.2 billion) in four- and 10-year notes has attracted total bids of more than €6.75 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The sale, the North African nation’s first foray into euro bonds since 2020, is €500 million larger than earlier expected.

The country is raising money as it prepares to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup along with Spain and Portugal. It’s encouraging a landmark investment drive, with the central bank cutting interest rates for a second consecutive time last week to ease local borrowing costs.

The final spread at 155 basis points over midswaps for the four—year note compares with initial price talk in the 190 basis points area. For the 10-year note, it’s at midswaps plus 215 basis points, also narrower than initial talk. Morocco, which holds the highest non-investment grade at all three main rating companies, last sold $2.5 billion of dollar debt in 2023, with the bonds rallying so far this year.
The bookrunners for the sale are BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co., while Lazard Inc. is acting as an adviser.

(Some insight were gotten from Bloomberg)

Two goals in the first 12 minutes helped propel Argentina to a dominant 4-1 victory over Brazil in their World Cup qualifying clash in Buenos Aires.

Having secured their spot in next year’s tournament prior to kick-off as a result of Bolivia’s 0-0 draw with Uruguay, a Lionel Messi-less Argentina were in control from the opening whistle.
Messi has an injury to his adductor and was not included in Argentina’s squad for the two latest matches.
Poor defending allowed striker Julian Alvarez to get Argentina on the board in the fourth minute and some slick passing enabled Enzo Fernandez to double the lead eight minutes later.
Brazil pulled one back in the 26th minute via Matheus Cunha, but a third Argentina goal through Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister just before half-time halted any momentum for the visitors

Brazil’s struggles continued in the second half as Giuliano Simeone picked up Argentina’s fourth goal in the 71st minute.

Striker Julián Álvarez said Argentina’s big win “is historic because of the rival, the context, what was said, the great match we played and because we are qualified to the World Cup.”
“Very humbly we did our work,” he said.
The result marked Brazil’s worst defeat in South American World Cup qualifying.
Brazil sit in fourth place in the standings with the top six clinching an automatic spot.

Defending champion Argentina qualified for the 2026 World Cup on Tuesday when Bolivia failed to beat Uruguay.
Argentina leads South American qualifying and hosts archrival Brazil at the Monumental de Nunez Stadium later Tuesday.

South America has six direct berths in the next World Cup, a 48-team tournament to be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Argentina was assured of one of the six spots when seventh-place Bolivia drew 0-0 with Uruguay in El Alto. The Bolivians have 14 points with only four matches remaining for the Andean team.
“We have a secured place for the top tournament,” Argentina’s national team said on X. “One more time, we will fight for the maximum glory. Let’s go, Argentina!”
Backed by Lionel Messi, three-time World Cup winner Argentina (28 points) has led South American qualifying from the start, with few hiccups and major away wins at Brazil and Uruguay.
But coach Lionel Scaloni has not fielded 37-year-old Inter Miami forward in several games, which still raises doubts on whether the star will play in the tournament next year.

Messi has an injury to his adductor and was not included in Argentina’s squad.

Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood was awaiting the results of scans on a right hip injury which forced him from the field Monday in New Zealand´s World Cup qualifying victory over New Caledonia.
Wood was substituted in the 53rd minute of the Oceania qualifying final with the score 0-0. New Zealand won the match 3-0 to become the second team after Japan to qualify to the 2026 World Cup

Wood was to undergo scans on Tuesday to determine the severity of the injury.

That´s where the pain is at the moment,” he said. “I felt it on that side so I´ll get it checked over and hopefully it is nothing too major and hopefully it´s just impact.”
Once the scans are completed Wood will return to England to rejoin Nottingham Forest, who face Brighton in an FA Cup quarterfinal on Saturday.
Wood currently is fourth in EPL scoring with 18 goals this season.

Arda Guler has savagely hit back at Dominik Szoboszlai, labeling the Liverpool midfielder ‘a joke’ following their fiery encounter in Hungary and Turkey’s UEFA Nations League tie. The Turkish star’s side clinched promotion to League A with a resounding 6-1 aggregate victory, simultaneously relegating Hungary to League B.

During the win in Budapest, where they triumphed 3-0, Guler notched the second goal and controversially celebrated by making a shush gesture directed at Szoboszlai. The Reds’ playmaker couldn’t resist taking a swipe at the young Real Madrid talent via social media. In a cheeky Instagram comment beneath a snap showing him silenced by Guler’s gesture, Szoboszlai slyly penned ‘1088’, poking fun at the mere 1088 minutes Guler has played for the colossal Spanish club this term.

He’s often been sidelined in Ancelotti’s star-studded squad. Unfazed, Guler has clapped back fiercely through his own Instagram story, reposting the same image but with biting sarcasm.

Adding to the picture where he’s shushing Szoboszlai, Guler wrote: “This guy is a joke. Isn’t 6 goals enough to shut you up?” To rub salt in the wounds, the forward subtly edited the scoreboard graphic on the shared photo.

It was edited with the match’s 3-0 outcome and highlighting his goal while sarcastically crediting ‘Szoboszlai, 1 Instagram comment’ to Hungary’s scoreline, a clear jibe at the Liverpool man’s online antics.

Despite Szoboszlai not outperforming Guler internationally, he was part of the Liverpool team that triumphed over Real Madrid with a 2-0 victory last November. Guler started one of his seven games this season at Anfield but was substituted after 56 minutes, shortly after Alexis Mac Allister scored for Liverpool.

Whether Szoboszlai will retaliate and prolong the ongoing verbal spat between the two remains to be seen. The Hungarian has enjoyed an impressive season with Liverpool, who sit 12 points clear atop of the Premier League.

Having scored seven goals and assisted six more across all competitions, the midfielder has surpassed his goal contribution tally from his debut campaign in Merseyside last year.

Spain have made it into the semi-finals of the UEFA Nations League after a nervy penalty shoot-out victory over The Netherlands, which came after a 5-5 aggregate scoreline across two legs.

In Thursday’s first leg in Rotterdam, Spain found the opening goal inside the opening 10 minutes, and they did so again at the Mestalla. On this occasion, Mikel Oyarzabal was fouled inside the penalty area by Jean Paul van Hecke, and that allowed the Real Sociedad captain to step up and score from 12 yards.
La Roja would hold their lead until half time, but on 54 minutes, they were pegged back. Robin Le Normand was adjudged to have fouled Memphis Depay inside Spain’s penalty area, and that gave the opportunity for the former Barcelona and Atletico Madrid striker to score, which he managed to do.
15 minutes later, Spain would find themselves back in front, and it was Oyarzabal that scored again after he was set up following great work in the build-up from Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams on the counter-attack, which ended in the 27-year-old heading home after his initial effort was saved.

However, La Roja could not hold on to book their place in the Nations League semi-finals as the Dutch found another equaliser, with defender Ian Maatsen blasting past Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon from inside the penalty area to restore parity on the night and on aggregate.
That goal meant that extra time was needed at the Mestalla, and in the first half of the additional 30 minutes, Spain thought that they scored the winning goal in the tie, and it was a special one from Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal. It was a wonderful pass over the top from Dean Huijsen, and the 17-year-old controlled brilliantly before firing into the far corner. But again, they were pulled back into a stalemate as Xavi Simons netted a penalty to make it 3-3.

That meant penalties were required, and it was Unai Simon that came up clutch at the end to save Donyell Malen’s effort. That gave Pedri the chance to secure the victory for Spain, and he did, with La Roja winning 5-4 in the shoot-out. And it means that they will take on France – who also won a penalty shoot-out in their quarter-final tie against Croatia – in the semi-finals this summer, before a possible final against Portugal or Germany.

The United States may not be bidding alone for the 2031 Women’s World Cup.
Earlier this month, a FIFA declaration all but handed hosting rights of the tournament to Concacaf, with U.S. Soccer quickly announcing its bid for the tournament.

The U.S. and Mexico initially launched a joint bid for the 2027 tournament, but eventually dropped their pursuit as they chose to focus entirely on co-hosting the men’s World Cup in 2026 alongside Canada.

Mexico wasn’t included in U.S. Soccer’s announcement this month of its bid for the 2031 tournament, raising questions as to whether the United States was set to go it alone.
But according to Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, the eventual bid could include several countries in addition to the United States.

“I would like to see perhaps a potential Caribbean [host], a potential Central America [host],” “So, over and above just a North American World Cup.

“Obviously, there’s some realities with that, because not every country has the infrastructure to host a Women’s World Cup,” he added. “But, I think we’re open minded on that.

“We all know the U.S. is a very strong candidate, even if they went on their own. But I think those discussions are being had by U.S. Soccer, by Mexico, and others as well. And Concacaf is at that table. And obviously, whatever we decide, we’re gonna support [the bid] 100%. And hopefully we can win it.”
That Concacaf will win the bid is hardly in question. FIFA decided this month to restrict bids for the 2031 event to just Concacaf or Africa. That cleared away almost every possible challenger, with FIFA also declaring that the 2035 edition could only be hosted by a European or African country.

FIFA will select hosts for both tournaments at its congress next year.
Should the U.S. host the 2031 Women’s World Cup, it would be the country’s third time staging the event. The first was the record-setting 1999 tournament, while the 2003 World Cup was moved to the U.S. at the last minute due to a SARS outbreak in host country China.

Mikel Merino was the hero for Spain as La Roja snatched a stoppage-time equaliser against 10-man Netherlands to secure a 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Nations League quarter-final.
Merino, who has deputised as a striker for Arsenal in the absence of Kai Havertz, came on as a midfielder but proved his knack for goalscoring as he tapped in a close-range rebound three minutes into added time in Rotterdam.

The Dutch had dominated much of the match – having recovered from Nico Williams’ early goal to go 2-1 up via Cody Gakpo and Tijjani Reijnders – but faltered after a late red card for 19-year-old defender Jorrel Hato.

And Merino popped up a couple minutes from time to give Spain a goal that maintain a two-year unbeaten streak and gives the European champions the advantage ahead of the second leg in Valencia on Sunday.
In the evening’s other blockbuster tie, Germany came from behind to beat Italy 2-1 as two of the continent’s most successful sides met at the San Siro.

Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali had opened the scoring early on, putting the finishing touches on a well-worked goal, and though the Azzurri continued to look dangerous it was Germany who scored next, with substitute Tim Kleindienst heading in four minutes after the break.

Both sides fought for the win but it was the visitors who grabbed it late on, with Leon Goretzka’s glancing header from a corner giving them the lead 14 minutes from time.

It means that Germany take a narrow lead into the second leg in Dortmund, with the winner facing the victor from the quarter-final between Portugal and Denmark .
And that match produced the first of two shocks of the evening, as Rasmus Hojlund scored the only goal in a 1-0 win for the Danes.

Hojlund came off the bench to net the winner in Copenhagen in a game in which the hosts created plenty of chances, with Christian Eriksen seeing a first-half penalty saved by Diogo Costa.

The Portugal goalkeeper came to the rescue on several occasions, but there was little he could do about the goal as Andreas Skov Olsen squared the ball for Hojlund to tap in in the 78th minute.

It was Portugal who applied the pressure as the game approached the final whistle but Cristiano Ronaldo and his team-mates were unable to capitalise, leaving Denmark with a slender lead ahead of Sunday’s second leg in Lisbon.

There was another shock in Split, goals from Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic gave Croatia a deserved 2-0 win over France.

The return of Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele failed to spark the visitors to life in a match in Croatia were the dominant side, with Andrej Kramaric also seeing a penalty saved by France goalkeeper Mike Maignan.

Croatia, who were runners-up in the last edition of this tournament, were good value for their win, and though France tested Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic several times, it was a below-par performance from Les Bleus.