Pep Guardiola says he will not compromise his principles despite his Manchester City side being well beaten by Leicester City. The Premier League Champions led at one stage by four goals thanks to a Jamie Vardy hat trick and Andy King strike before two late goals from Aleksander Kolarov and Nolito made the final scoreline look a more respectable 4-2. But Guardiola insisted his side didn’t play badly, though he admitted he must quickly find a way of stopping the opposition from scoring so easily. “I have to improve to solve that, yes, that’s true,” he told a news conference.…
Author: David Folami
Barcelona ended a run of three straight draws as they beat La Liga’s bottom side Osasuna 3-0 on Saturday. Luis Suarez opened the scoring at El Sadar in the second half before Lionel Messi added two more to become the league’s outright top goal scorer with 11. Luis Enrique’s side are now three points behind Real Madrid, although they’ve played a game more. 7 — Luis Enrique made two big calls: Samuel Umtiti over Javier Mascherano and Andre Gomes over Ivan Rakitic. It will be interesting to see if they’re decisions which will be replicated when there is more on…
“You don’t give yourself a chance when you go 2-0 down after four minutes.” Not the words of Pep Guardiola but Stuart Pearce, Manchester City manager in 2006, after a memorably inept display at Wigan Athletic in 2006. Guardiola’s leaky line-up reminded the onlooker of those tactically barren days ten years ago, as City’s defence was once again trampled to pieces in the rush to score. With the away side racking up in excess of 600 passes, it must have been particularly galling to be 4-0 down to a Leicester side using less than a total of 10 passes for…
Real Madrid set a club record of 35 games unbeaten in all competitions with a late rally for a 3-2 win against Deportivo on Saturday. They needed a remarkable comeback to extend the run. Substitute Mariano Diaz equalised with six minutes left and Sergio Ramos sent the Bernabeu into delirium when he powered in a header from a corner during stoppage-time — just a week after his late equaliser against Barcelona. Madrid had equalled the record with a 2-2 draw against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Wednesday that saw the holders only qualify for the knockout stages of…
With Real Madrid’s top three attackers out of the lineup, Sergio Ramos delivered a stoppage-time goal to complete a late comeback for a 3-2 win over Deportivo La Coruna in La Liga on Saturday. The result set Real Madrid’s club record of 35 games unbeaten in all competitions, though the run looked to be in jeopardy until Mariano Diaz’s 84th-minute equaliser. Madrid were playing without any of their front-line stars Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzama for the first time in the league since May 2014, and had to wait until the second half to take the lead from…
Luis Enrique says Barcelona will have to continue improving if they want to catch La Liga leaders Real Madrid. Barca took advantage of playing before their title rivals this weekend by beating Osasuna 3-0, moving within three points of Zinedine Zidane’s side. Lionel Messi scored twice after Luis Suarez had opened the scoring in the second half, but Luis Enrique felt the match should have been wrapped up before half-time. “We were aware of the difficulty of this game,” the Barca coach said after his side ended a run of three consecutive draws in the league. “It was key to…
Jamie Vardy scored a hat trick as Leicester City put their recent poor form behind them with a 4-2 win over Manchester City at the King Power Stadium. The Foxes tore into their visitors from the start and were two goals to the good after only five minutes. After three minutes, Riyad Mahrez laid the ball off to Islam Slimani, who slipped a pass between two defenders for Vardy to run on and bury an emphatic finish for his first Leicester goal in two months. Manchester City looked uncertain in teeming rain in the Midlands, with Premier League champions Leicester…
While speaking yesterday at the Music Week Africa conference yesterday, Nigerian music star D’banj was reported to have said that Nigeria has no piracy issues and he has never had any piracy issues. In his words, ‘Nigeria is the only country in the world that does not have piracy. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve never been pirated because it’s the same place they are selling original that they are selling the fake CDs.’ Wait. Let’s see if he means the same piracy that the whole Nigerian music industry has been railing against since forever. Simply put, music piracy is…
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria must prove to Africa and the world that it is not a big-for-nothing country. Buhari made the comment on Friday, December 9, while meeting with members of the National Planning and Implementation Committee of the first National Youth Open Water Swimming Competition at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. “Our size as Nigeria, our natural resources and our population have put us in a very difficult position, not only in Africa but throughout the world. Everybody expects Nigeria to perform because of our quality human and material resources. So this is putting a lot…
Former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, will be back into the waiting arms of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) soon enough, according to sources at the anti-graft agency. Obanikoro was only just granted administrative bail for allegedly partaking in the $2.1B looted from the treasury by former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki. Investigators say N4.7B was paid into the account of Sylvan McNamara (a company which has Obanikoro’s sons as Directors) by Dasuki. Obanikoro was set free by EFCC personnel after returning N134M with a promise to refund more. He had turned himself into the…
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a suit seeking the removal Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River State, on an alleged of age falsification and loss of membership of his party, PDP. The appellant, Mr Joe Agi (SAN), alleged that Ayade had lost his membership of the PDP as of the time he was sponsored by the party for last year’s election due to the governor’s alleged consistent failure to pay his dues to the party. Agi had participated along with other aspirants on the Dec 8, 2014 governorship primary of the PDP, which produced Ayade as the governorship candidate…
The Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on Friday echoed the Federal Government’s call for public support in the anti-corruption crusade to achieve sustainable national development. The minister made the call at a seminar to commemorate the International Anti-Corruption Day with the theme, “Corruption: An Impediment to the Sustainable Development Goals’’. The event was facilitated by the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) in collaboration with the EU, U.S. Embassy and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Fayemi, who chairs the IATT, stated that Nigeria was one of the first countries to ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)…
Ember Entertainments artiste, GT Da Guitarman, is out with a new effort titled ‘Wire the money’. This is his latest music work following a long absence in the game. It is off his “Animal Instinct” album. Fans will be itching for him to get back to churning out more good music like always. ‘Wire the money’ was produced by Tee Mode.
Timi Dakolo and his kids will never stop amusing fans. The singer is currently teaching his little ones how to speak the pidgin english. The ‘Iyawo mi’ singer took to Instagram today, December 9, 2016, to share a video of his two girls and a boy seated on a chair while he instructs them. “PIGIN CLASSES HAS COMMENCE FOR THE YARD PEOPLE… TOO MUCH ENGLISH FLYING AROUND,” he captioned it. Recently, he took to Instagram on December 7, 2016, sharing a photo with his adorable girls. “MY GIRLFRIENDS…..” he captioned the photo of himself in the middle of his two…
While fans anticipate the official trailer for “Fast and Furious 8,” an official title has been revealed. The movie which comes after the successful and record breaking “Furious 7” has been titled “The Fate of the Furious.” Directed by James Wan, the upcoming film stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Statham and Ludacris. Now that Dom and Letty are on their honeymoon and Brian and Mia have retired from the game—and the rest of the crew has been exonerated—the globetrotting team has found a semblance of a normal life. But when a mysterious woman…
Arsenal came from behind to go top of the Premier League table and extend their unbeaten league run to 14 league games with a 3-1 win over Stoke at the Emirates Stadium. Birthday-boy Charlie Adam opened the scoring from the spot when Stoke were awarded a penalty after Granit Xhaka elbowed Joe Allen him in the face but Arsenal got themselves back into the game with five minutes left of the first half through Theo Walcott’s close-range finish. The Gunners took the lead shortly after half time with Mesut Ozil heading the ball over Lee Grant, with substitute Alex Iwobi…
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger expects centre-back Shkodran Mustafi to be sidelined for at least three weeks with a hamstring strain after getting injured in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Stoke. Mustafi had to come off after just 25 minutes at the Emirates, dealing an injury blow to the Gunners going into the busy Christmas period. The defender has formed an impressive partnership with Laurent Koscielny since his £35 million summer move from Valencia, but Arsenal will now have to do without him in several crucial league games, including next weekend’s visit to Manchester City. “It’s a bad one,” Wenger said about…
Under-fire Manchester City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo insists that he will use any criticism of his performances to improve. Bravo, 33, has struggled to adapt to the Premier League after arriving to replace Torino-loanee Joe Hart this summer and has been at fault for a number of goals, while he was sent off on his return to Camp Nou in the Champions League. However, the Chile international is ready to use the experiences to get better. “The problem is that, from 300 passes, you make one mistake… I had that bad luck in one game, the Champions League tie in Barcelona,…
The Ministry of Budget and National Planning has explained that the Federal Government is not sourcing any loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Minister of Budget and National Planning’s Media Adviser, Mr James Akpandem, made the clarification on Friday in Abuja. Akpandem said that the minister, Mr Udoma Udo Udoma, did not mention turning to IMF as reported by a national newspaper on Friday. He said the minister while briefing a French delegation that visited him in Abuja on Thursday, explained generally that government was exploring both internal and external sources to fund infrastructure. According to him, the…
The withdrawal of the Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike’s Chief Security Officer is causing quite a lot of commotion. According to Vanguard, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has also issued a statement condemning the Governor’s CSO. Wike had announced at a rally in Rivers state that the police authorities withdrew his security aide so he will be an easy target. The police authorities however issued a statement saying Wike’s CSO was redeployed because he was participating in political activities. Speaking further on the issue, the Executive Director, Comrade Ibuchukwu Ezik said “The attention of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has…