Bayern Munich take on Juventus on Wednesday in the Champions League last 16 return-leg clash eager to cut out mistakes and prevent a repeat of the Italians’ first-leg fightback. Bayern host the Italian champions at the Allianz Arena looking to seal their fifth consecutive quarterfinal appearance in the Champions League. The Germans were steaming towards the last eight when Thomas Mueller and Arjen Robben put them 2-0 up in Turin before Juventus pounced on mistakes in Munich’s ranks with goals by Paulo Dybala and Stefano Sturaro. “We played well for the first 60 minutes, went 2-0 up and suddenly it…
Author: David Folami
Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is loving his duel with Leicester City forward and England team mate Jamie Vardy for the Premier League golden boot this season. Kane, who finished runner-up in the scoring charts last season with 21, netted twice in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa to take his tally to 19 goals, level with top scorer Vardy and just ahead of Everton’s Romelu Lukaku (18) and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero (16). “It’s good fun. It’s good competition, to be up there and fighting for the golden boot. There’s a few people going for it during the run-in,”…
Manchester United no longer lord it over their Premier League rivals but are still a club the world’s top players dream of joining, according to former Reds defender Gary Pallister. The Old Trafford outfit’s fall from grace since the retirement of manager Alex Ferguson in 2013 has been painful, with England’s most successful team now involved in an unedifying scrap simply to finish the season in the top four. With an income stream the envy of almost every club in the world United have always signed marquee names, and even a second season in three without any Champions League involvement,…
Sadio Mane’s red card for serious foul play in Southampton’s Premier League game against Stoke City on Saturday has been overturned, the Football Association said on Tuesday. Mane was sent off by referee Lee Mason in the dying minutes of the match, which Southampton won 2-1, after clashing with Stoke’s Erik Pieters. Southampton appealed against the decision and an independent commission upheld the challenge, the FA said on its website. The Senegal striker will not now have to serve any suspension and is available for Southampton’s next match, at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
Ryan Giggs is ready to become Manchester United’s next manager if Louis van Gaal is shown the door a year early at the end of this season, former club captain Bryan Robson told Reuters. Out of work former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has been tipped to takeover at Old Trafford but Robson says United great Giggs, who has been assistant to Van Gaal, would be a perfect choice. “The thing for me is that Van Gaal was always going to be a three-year contract with Ryan working under him so that they could see whether he was ready to step…
Watford’s reward for knocking out FA Cup holders Arsenal is a semifinal date with Crystal Palace, while Everton will take on Manchester United or West Ham in the other tie at Wembley. After handing Arsenal their first FA Cup defeat since February 2013 with a surprise 2-1 victory in the quarterfinals at the Emirates Stadium, Monday’s semifinal draw pitted Watford against fellow Premier League side Palace. The Hornets, bidding to reach the final for the first time since losing to Everton in the 1984 showpiece, won 2-1 at Palace in February, but lost at home to the Eagles in September.…
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admitted his side face an almost impossible task when they travel to face a red-hot Barcelona on Wednesday looking to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in six years. As so often in the second half of Wenger’s 20-year reign, Arsenal will travel to the Camp Nou with a sense of what might have been. They had their chances to lead at the Emirates three weeks ago before Barca’s brilliant forward triumvirate of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez cut through them with an unerring ease they…
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger labelled the intense criticism he and his players are under a ‘farce’ as supporter anger rose following their 2-1 defeat at home to Watford in the FA Cup on Sunday. Arsenal have managed only one win in their last seven games in all competitions to fall eight points behind Leicester City in the Premier League, with some fans unveiling a banner at Hull City last week calling for Wenger to leave. With their bid to become the first club since Blackburn Rovers in the 1880s to win three successive FA Cups over, Arsenal now face holders…
Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes has labelled Arsenal a “small team” and played down the north London side’s Premier League title chances after the Hornets ended their FA Cup campaign on Sunday. Goals from Odion Ighalo and Adlene Guedioura dashed the Gunners’ hopes of becoming the first club since Blackburn Rovers in the 1880s to win the competition three years in a row. Arsenal suffered their 13th defeat in all competitions this season, three more than last campaign, with at least 10 games left to play. “It is the best time to play Arsenal and we came to the match very…
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said that he felt “sad” after seeing his side’s two-year reign as FA Cup holders ended by a 2-1 quarterfinal loss to Watford on Sunday. FA Cup winners in 2014 and 2015, Arsenal were bidding to become the first team to win the competition for three consecutive years since Blackburn Rovers between 1884 and 1886. But their hopes of a record-extending 13th FA Cup triumph were shattered at the Emirates Stadium as Watford prevailed courtesy of second-half goals from Odion Ighalo and Adlene Guedioura. “Our fantastic run has come to an end on a day where…
Barcelona boss Luis Enrique admitted his side couldn’t be in better form heading into the second-leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Arsenal after sweeping aside Getafe 6-0 on Saturday. The European champions already hold a 2-0 lead from the first-leg and look destined to make the quarterfinals for the ninth straight year as they haven’t been beaten in 37 games in all competitions stretching back to October. “This is a unique team, different to the rest and which does things that make it seem like there is nothing the opponent can do,” said Enrique. “It is a great…
Defender Thomas Vermaelen has urged his Barcelona teammates not to underestimate how dangerous Arsenal will be in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 encounter at the Nou Camp on Wednesday. Vermaelen, who left the Londoners for the Catalan giants in 2014, said his old club must still be regarded as a serious threat even though they lost the first leg 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium last month. “Of course we will be the favourites but I know Arsenal and I know it’s not going to be easy,” he said on the eve of the match. “You can never…
Centre-backs Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi were forced off by injury inside 23 minutes as Manchester City made a calamitous start to Tuesday’s Champions League meeting with Dynamo Kiev. Captain Kompany, who has been dogged by recurring calf problems, was forced off in the seventh minute after hurting himself when he slipped in a tussle for possession with Dynamo midfielder Vitaliy Buyalskiy. Otamendi was injured in a heavy collision with Buyalskiy moments later and after initially trying to play on, he signalled to the bench that he would not be able to continue. The departures of Kompany and Otamendi left…
Manchester City kept a lifeless Dynamo Kiev in check to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time on Tuesday with a 0-0 draw that came at an injury cost for Manuel Pellegrini’s men. City captain Vincent Kompany limped off after five minutes with a muscle problem and fellow defender Nicolas Otamendi followed soon after as the hosts moved into the last eight with a 3-1 aggregate success that was entirely due to their first-leg victory. There was little in terms of goalmouth action throughout the return leg at the Etihad Stadium, with City having the game’s…
Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri said he was still refusing to look at the Premier League table despite his team re-establishing a five-point lead by beating Newcastle United 1-0. Shinji Okazaki’s stunning 25th-minute overhead bicycle kick gave Leicester a hard-earned 1-0 win at the King Power Stadium on Monday and left them needing 20 points from their final eight games to complete one of the most improbable title triumphs in the history of European football. But while teams like Arsenal and Manchester City continue to flounder in their slipstream, Ranieri was insistent that neither he nor his players are allowing…
President Buhari has confirmed the appointment, Mr Sunday Aghaeze, as Personal Assistant to the President, State photographer. According to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal, took effect from June 1, 2015. Aghaeze is an award winning photo journalist was who has won many laurels. He was 2007 Best Photo Journalist of the year, and 2010 second runner up photo journalist at Prof. Wole Soyinka Award 2010. Before his appointment, he worked as a photo editor with THISDAY Newspapers. Aghaeze holds Higher National Diploma from Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra state, and a National Diploma in Mass…
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed the former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire as his Senior Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The appointment was announced today by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu via Twitter. Mrs Orelope-Adefulire served as deputy governor under former governor, Babatunde Fashola.
Senator Ben Murray-Bruce has criticized President Muhammadu Buhari for saying that no foreign exchange will be made available to parents whose children are studying abroad. Buhari made the comment during a recent interview with Al Jazeera in Qatar despite being questioned on the status of his own children who are also in schools outside the country. Ben Bruce reacted to the president’s comments via a Facebook post. It reads: It’s awkward for a leader to say no #ForexForEducation for our kids schooling abroad when his own kids school abroad! Mr. President, these are people who voted for you. You ought…
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has done well in the implementation of the government’s change agenda. Mohammed made the remark on Saturday, March 5, 2016, while speaking at the annual general meeting of the Alumni Association of the National Institute (AANI) in Kuru, Plateau State. According to a statement released by his aide, Segun Adeyemi, the minister said: “We have faced and tackled, with sincerity and courage, both anticipated and unanticipated challenges. Our major security nightmare, Boko Haram, is fast giving way to a sweet dream, while we have not shied away from taking…
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that some people in his government are not “100 percent loyal” to his administration. Buhari made the remark during a recent interview with Al Jazeera during his visit to Qatar. “I will like people to assess Nigeria, especially this government on where we found ourselves. When we came in, we found out that there were 42 ministries and we found out that the economy could not take 42, so we reduced it to 24. We also removed 21 permanent secretaries,” he said. “People who want to be fair to us to sit and reflect, from…