An inexplicably bad display from Atletico Madrid saw their Champions League campaign all but come to an embarrassing end as they were thumped 3-0 by great city rivals Real Madrid. From the off Atleti looked sluggish and shy. In the end, they were dominated by a Merengues side who so often save their best for this competition. It is no disgrace to lose to Real in the Champions League, but to lose in this fashion is. That Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick just compounds the misery. The Calderon faithful will be praying for a miracle next week — not…
Author: David Folami
There did not seem to be anything particularly pressing to talk about when speaking with a group of British journalists at a Paris hotel in October 2014, so Monaco vice president Vadim Vasilyev shed some light on the new path his club wished to take. The short-lived boom period on the Cote d’Azur appeared to be over. Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez, both signed the previous year for huge fees, had been moved on during the summer as Monaco sought to cut their cloth according to the demands of financial fair play. Many frills that had brought attention on the…
Real Madrid dominated Atletico Madrid and put three goals past Diego Simeone’s side for a second time this season after the league derby victory last November. Cristiano Ronaldo bagged a hat trick to essentially seal Real’s place in the Champions League final for a second consecutive season. Positives Real came out firing and peppered Jan Oblak’s goal with 10 of the side’s 17 attempts coming in the opening 25 minutes. It was also the perfect stage to secure a first Champions League clean sheet of the season. Negatives It’s difficult to find any in a performance that completely nullified Antoine…
Cristiano Ronaldo said Real Madrid’s progress to the Champions League final is not yet sealed after scoring all of his side’s goals in a 3-0 win over Atletico Madrid in Tuesday night’s semifinal first leg. The Portugal forward headed Real in front on 10 minutes, then in the second half lashed the ball in from the edge of the Atletico penalty area, before Ronaldo turning in a Lucas Vazquez cut-back on 86 minutes to complete his treble. “It was a total game from the team, we played phenomenally well,” he said after the game, “We have a good advantage, but…
“I think Luke Shaw’s must be a big injury,” said Jose Mourinho after Manchester United’s latest underwhelming result, a 1-1 draw against Swansea last Sunday. “To leave the pitch after 10 minutes I am expecting a very big injury.” Depending on how you treat the context, you could view this as an expression of concern for a hurt player. But knowing what we know about the often prickly public relationship between Shaw and Mourinho, we can safely assume this was another example of the United manager’s passive-aggression towards a player he seems suspicious of. It was like an irked parent…
Cesc Fabregas appears destined to leave Chelsea this summer after being restricted to a limited, albeit important at times, role under Antonio Conte, with the Sun reporting Manchester United and Liverpool are leading the chase for the Spaniard. Both clubs are pushing to sign Fabregas for £25 million after Nemanja Matic and N’Golo Kante were preferred in a two-man midfield by Conte. The 29-year-old has struck four times and assisted nine more this term, but started only 10 times for the Blues in the Premier League. Fabregas has just two years remaining on his contract and might have his value…
Rampaging Monaco midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko, who has less than a year to run on his contract, has not held talks with Paris Saint-Germain, his agent said Tuesday. The 22-year-old whose late last-16 header sent Manchester City out of the Champions League is expected to be one of several players to leave Monaco in the transfer window. But the player’s agent, his brother Abdoulaye Bakayoko, told AFP on Tuesday talks with PSG widely reported in the French media simply did not happen. “There are plenty of rumours and the ones saying Tiemoue has held talks about a contract with PSG are…
Singer and photographer TY Bello in a recent interview says she was sexually molested as a child. According to her, it had a negative effect on her during her formative years. The Greenland singer shared all this in an interview with Kemi Adetiba on King Women. “I was sexually abused as a child and because of this, I felt like there was something ugly about me that made me encounter this. This was not the abuser’s fault, this was me. I used to see other girls as flowers and I saw myself as dirty cement, hard and ugly. I never…
Yvonne Okoro is single for the most unique reason. As hard as it is to believe, the actress is convinced that men her intimidated by her. The Nollywood actress disclosed this during an interview in Accra, Ghana. The 32-year-old explained why she has remain single in the last two years, at least. Okoro revealed that although she is very ready to date, most guys find it difficult to walk up to her. She said: “The issue is men don’t have balls to come forward to ask me out because they think I am already hooked or perhaps I am very…
Mercy Aigbe’s husband, Lanre Gentry, in a recent interview, claims he went through a lot while married to the actress. According to him, most men wouldn’t tolerate what his wife has done to him in the past 7 years, they’ve been married. He told BON that he had shown her love and support in the last seven years despite some unbelievable things he had seen her do and endure for the sake of keeping the marriage and her image intact. “Would she have been in my house for 7 years if I beat her? I don’t know why she pulled…
Governor Ayo Fayose has said that he will not vie for a seat in the Nigerian Senate in 2019. According to Punch, Fayose said he will continue to agitate for a better Nigeria, after leaving office. The Governor said this while meeting with civil servants in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, May 3, 2017. Fayose also seized the opportunity to praise the workers for their commitment, despite the economic challenges and inconsistent salaries. The Governor also debunked reports that Ekiti state has received the second payment of the paris club loan. He said “I don’t want to contest again, not even for…
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has insisted they will honour the heroes of the Biafra war on May 30, 2017. IPOB said that their supreme leader, Nnamdi Kanu has made it clear that he will not rest until Biafra is liberated. According to Vanguard, the group’s spokesman, Emma Powerful also called on ‘Biafrans’ to ignore reports that the rally has been cancelled. Powerful said “This annual event, which is now observed by Biafrans all over the world as a mark of perpetual respect to the bravery of the few men and women who stood for three years to resist…
Governor Obaseki has said that there is no free grazing land for herdsmen in Edo state. According to Channels TV, the Governor also said that the state cannot be forced to allocate land for free to the herdsmen. Obaseki said “As far as I’m concerned, grazing is an economic activity if they (the herdsmen) go to the local governments who feel they have the land, they have the water etc. “In fact, anybody who wants to come and graze and pay, let them come so that they will do so.” The Governor added that the herdsmen have to also conduct…
At one stage of Real Madrid’s Champions League semifinal destruction of Atletico Madrid, it seemed to be a case of one No. 7 coming to the party and the other staying at home. But in the end, that perspective would do not only Cristiano Ronaldo but also Antoine Griezmann a disservice. That simplistic comparison, legitimately based around Griezmann’s emergence as a genuine heir to Ronaldo’s crown as football’s most magnificent seven, was ultimately rendered meaningless by the Real forward’s stunning hat trick of a first-half header and two second-half strikes. Griezmann is a player of great talent, one who could…
Gianluigi Buffon says playing in the Champions League makes him “feel young” ahead of Wednesday’s semifinal meeting with Monaco — but is wary of the challenge their in-form opponents will bring. Buffon, 39, has won almost everything over the course of a career which has spanned two decades. He has lifted the World Cup, seven Serie A titles, three Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup but, despite playing in two finals, the Champions League is still missing from his collection. He can move closer to completing the collection by beating the Ligue 1 leaders on their own patch, and he…
After his team were beaten 3-0 at Real Madrid in Tuesday’s Champions League semifinal first leg, Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone said his team were still capable of doing the “impossible” and reaching the final. Atletico were a shadow of their usual battling selves as Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat trick put Los Blancos in full control of the tie and means that, barring a highly unlikely turnaround, Simeone’s side will exit the competition to their neighbours for a fourth-successive year. The usually fired-up Colchoneros coach looked resigned as he told a short postmatch news conference at the Bernabeu that it was…
Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu has said that President Muhammadu Buhari will likely win the 2019 election. Kachikwu made the comment during an interview with CNN anchor, Richard Quest, Vanguard reports. Quest, who has been in Nigeria, asked: “Is it likely, because within another year your president or the party will be fighting in an election, and pretty much you are already in an election mode?” In answering the question, Kachikwu said: “Those of us in government are focused on getting work done; the president is probably going to win the election anyway.” Meanwhile, the Presidency has…
If they wanted to distract themselves from the stress of preparing for the Champions League semifinal, Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane and his counterpart, Diego Simeone of Atletico, could lose themselves in an ocean of statistics, diagrams and analytical projections. I pray to a higher authority that this isn’t the case but they may, right at this moment, be poring over heat maps and trying to work out if green and pink and yellow “go” together. In fact, I think that technology permits Zidane and Simeone to have, secretly, played this match out using virtual reality headgear already. The phone…
Since unveiling his face after his 1st birthday, the actress and mom of one has not been able to resist sharing regular photo updates of King Andre. From photos of him playing football to stepping out with his mama, King Andre has become one of our fave parts of Tonto Dikeh’s Instagram account. The mother and son stepped out yesterday on the 1st of May and we love how they coordinated their outfits.
Beautiful Nollywood actress, Adesua Etomi has aired her opinion about not being a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria. She made this known after an argument between her and Toyin Abraham at the Nigerian Entertainment Conference. During the conference, Toyin in anger referred to Adesua as being one of the problems of the movie industry, after Adesua disclosed that she isn’t a member of any guild. In defense of Toyin’ s accusation, Adesua said she isn’t part of any guild or caucus because they are not structured. She noted that she has paid her dues in the industry. According…