league

Liverpool Face Atletico In Champions League Last 16 Clash

December 16, 2019 4:43 pm

Holders Liverpool will return to the scene of last season’s Champions League triumph after they were drawn against Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the competition on Monday and Manchester City face 13-time winners Real Madrid.

Jurgen Klopp’s side will travel to the Wanda Metropolitano, where Liverpool lifted the trophy in June, for the first leg of their tie against three-time runners-up Atletico.

“The task is going to be difficult because we have opponents who are the reigning champions,” said Atletico director Clemente Villaverde.

“They are the champions, they have all the assets to be called the best team

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Europe’s ‘Big Five’ Take Over Champions League

December 12, 2019 5:34 pm

Atalanta’s achievement in reaching the Champions League last 16 despite a dreadful start is remarkable, especially for a club of their stature, but it has also had another, ominous knock-on effect.

The modest Italians, appearing in the competition for the first time, defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 3-0 on Wednesday to progress at the expense of the Ukrainians, despite taking just one point from their opening four games.

Their joy contrasted with the agony for Ajax 24 hours earlier, as last season’s semi-finalists were eliminated following a 1-0 defeat by Valencia.

The Dutch champions will have to console themselves with a crack …

Euphoria As Atalanta Pull Off Champions League ‘Miracle’

December 12, 2019 5:33 pm

Atalanta returned home to a heroes’ welcome with 2,000 fans braving bitter cold in the Alps in northern Italy after the Bergamo team reached the Champions League last 16 in their debut campaign despite losing their first three matches.

Coach Gian Piero Gasperini hailed a “victory for Italian football” after joining Serie A rivals Juventus and Napoli in the knockout rounds, with Inter Milan the only absentee after losing 2-1 to Barcelona at the San Siro on Tuesday.

The team greeted fans on board an open-top bus at Bergamo airport in the early hours of Thursday morning, amid fireworks, …

Sky Loses Champions League Rights In Germany To DAZN

December 12, 2019 5:27 pm

Broadcaster Sky has lost the rights to the Champions League in Germany, a competition it has screened for the last 20 years, to rivals DAZN and Amazon, it was confirmed Thursday.

Sky was unable to match their rivals’ bids for the three years from the 2021-22 season.

“After around 20 years of partnership with UEFA, we were unable to agree on a continuation of the cooperation in the tender procedure that has just been concluded,” Sky CEO Carsten Schmidt told German daily Bild.

Read Also: Heavy security As Pakistan Host First Cricket Since Attack

 

Schimdt said they have a …

Arsenal fight back To Claim Europa League Last 32 Spot

December 12, 2019 5:24 pm

Arsenal came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Standard Liege and make sure of a place in the Europa League last 32 as Group F winners on Thursday.

Alexandre Lacazette and Bukayo Saka were on target in the space of three second-half minutes.

The Gunners, runners-up to Chelsea last season, finished the group stage with 11 points and a relatively easier draw in the knockout rounds.

They lived on their nerves as Eintracht Frankfurt were poised to knock them off top spot when the Germans led Guimaraes 2-1.

However, the Portuguese side, already eliminated, scored twice in the

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‘Weak’ Cannavaro Guides Guangzhou To Chinese League Title

December 1, 2019 3:09 pm

Fabio Cannavaro took Guangzhou Evergrande to their eighth Chinese Super League (CSL) title on Sunday, a month after the Italian coach was publicly lambasted by the club for his “weak ability to rectify mistakes”.

With the championship going down to the final day of the season, Beijing Guoan needed to defeat Shandong Luneng at home and hope that Cannavaro’s side lost to visiting Shanghai Shenhua.

Guoan triumphed 3-2 thanks to a 91st-minute goal but Evergrande were comfortable 3-0 winners over struggling Shenhua.

It is the first major honour of his coaching career and a personal triumph for Cannavaro, 46, who …

Napoli Leave Liverpool With Champions League Work To Do

November 28, 2019 4:30 pm

Liverpool are used to making life difficult for themselves, admitted Jurgen Klopp as a 1-1 draw with Napoli leaves the European champions with work to do to reach the Champions League last 16.

Klopp’s men must avoid defeat away to Salzburg on December 10 to secure their passage into the knockout stages.

Dries Mertens threatened to inflict Liverpool’s first home defeat in the Champions or Premier League since April 2017 with a sweetly struck opener midway through the first half.

Dejan Lovren’s header protected that proud unbeaten run, but after a host of late winners in the Premier League this

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Astana Stun United Youngsters In Europa League

November 28, 2019 4:19 pm

Kazakh champions Astana fought back to surprise a youthful Manchester United 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday.

Captain Jesse Lingard opened the scoring for the visitors, who had already reached the last 32, before Dmitri Shomko equalised for the home side.

Di’Shon Bernard, 19, then put through his own goal to hand Astana victory over a United side whose average age was just 22.

United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said some of the youngsters on show put their hands up to feature against Alkmaar in the final round of group matches on December 12.

“At times we were excellent …

Guardiola

Man City Reach Champions League Last 16 After Shakhtar Draw

November 27, 2019 4:48 pm

Pep Guardiola insisted it was mission accomplished as Manchester City booked their place in the Champions League last 16 for a seventh successive season despite a lacklustre 1-1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday.

Guardiola’s side were well below their best at the Etihad Stadium, but Ilkay Gundogan’s second half strike put them on course to wrap up first place in Group C with one game to spare.

Although Manor Solomon equalised for Shakhtar, Atalanta’s win over Dinamo Zagreb ensured City can’t be knocked off top spot.

“We have qualified. We played so good in second half. The group stage …

Three Things We Learned In The Premier League

November 24, 2019 4:39 pm

Liverpool produced their regular party trick, leaving it late before securing all three points against Crystal Palace while Manchester City had to dig deep to see off Frank Lampard’s vibrant Chelsea.

Elsewhere, second-placed Leicester kept the gap to leaders Liverpool to eight points with a 2-0 win at Brighton while Jose Mourinho started his career as Tottenham boss with victory at West Ham.

Manchester United looked set to leave Bramall Lane with a victory after a helter-skelter match but a late Sheffield United equaliser meant they had to settle for a 3-3 draw.

Here, AFP Sport looks at three

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South

SA Premier League Smashes Billion-Rand Revenue Mark

November 17, 2019 1:32 pm

The South African Premier Soccer League (PSL), boosted by a lucrative TV deal, posted record revenue of more than one billion rand last season.

A statement said TV rights and sponsorships from banks, telecommunication and engineering companies were responsible for the 1,005 billion ($68 million/62 mn euros) bonanza.

“The results are due to the renewal of our broadcast deals because they contribute a high percentage of income,” PSL chairman Irvin Khoza confirmed Sunday.

“We have reached the one billion rand mark and that augurs well for the clubs as the monthly grants to them will increase next season.”

The PSL …

Why VAR Cannot Work In Nigerian Football League

November 14, 2019 10:38 am

Some sports stakeholders in Nasarawa state on Thursday observed that the use of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in local football fixtures in the country would fail due to certain obvious reasons. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that VAR is a match official in Association Football who reviews decisions made by the head referee.
The VAR works by using video footage and a headset for communication and was first used for a major competition at the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia.
NAN reports that Morocco recently became the first African country to introduce VAR in its competition, …

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𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬, 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤, is a nonpartisan online news portal founded on the truth to provide you with weekly, insightful articles written with precision and current updates on current events from Africa in particular and the rest of the world in general. All of our reports undergo extensive fact-checking to ensure their veracity, and we adhere strictly to the facts, no matter whose ox is gored.

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