The president of Equatorial Guinea Obiang Nguema Mbasogo wants the national team to finish off the Black Stars. . The Nzalang Nacional – or the National Thunder – have been described by the head of state as heroes for reaching the semifinals of the Africa Cup of Nations so far, but he wants more. . “We’ve won battles, but we must win the war and get the Cup of the CAN 2015.” . The military-laced admonition will certainly charge the team who beat Tunisia 2-1 in an ill-tempered quarterfinal on Saturday. . Thursday’s semi will be a first appearance at…
Author: David F.
Dortmund slumped again in Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at home to fourth-placed Augsburg, who played the last 20 minutes with ten men. . Borussia are desperately low on confidence and have just three league games before their Champions League last 16, first-leg clash at Italian league leaders Juventus. . The 2011 and 2012 German champions are facing their first relegation since 1972, but have another chance to claim some badly needed points at fellow strugglers Freiburg on Saturday. . Borussia’s passionate fans voiced their frustrations with a chorus of whistles after the Augsburg match as veteran goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller and captain…
Jos Luhukay became the fifth coach to be sacked in the Bundesliga this season when he was dismissed by Hertha Berlin, the club confirmed on Thursday. The 51-year-old was shown the door after Hertha’s 1-0 defeat at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday left them second from bottom of the German league. . “We had a long night, we analysed everything and decided to part company with our team of coaches. We need a new impulse,” said Hertha’s sports director Michael Preetz. . The loss to Leverkusen was Berlin’s third straight defeat and Hertha are bidding to avoid their third…
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that James Rodriguez and Sergio Ramos will miss the Madrid derby against La Liga champions Atletico on Saturday after suffering injuries in his side’s 2-1 win over Sevilla on Wednesday. . Ramos limped off with a hamstring problem after only eight minutes, while Rodriguez suffered an injury in his right foot after opening the scoring. . Ancelotti is short of defensive options with Portuguese international centre-back Pepe also currently sidelined due to a rib injury. . However, the Italian insisted he is confident that youngsters Raphael Varane and Nacho can handle the challenge posed…
Ruben Dario has been sacked from the Equatorial Guinea camp after absconding to chill out at night without authorization, according to local reports. . The 21-year-old who plays for local side Leones Vegetarianos has been axed by the Football Association of Equatorial Guinea (FEGUIFUT) for breaking camp rules on the eve of their Afcon 2015 semifinal clash with Ghana in Malabo. . Ruben’s conduct is allegedly not new as he is known to be a night party freak according to quotes attributed to Bienvenido Ateba Mango Nchama, the second vice-president of the Equato-Guinean Football Federation and a director of his…
Ghana have decided not to start Asamoah Gyan against Equatorial Guinea in their Africa Cup of Nations semifinal. . The game will be played on Thursday evening in Malabo and ends a frenzied build up in the speculation of the captain’s fitness. . The 29-year old suffered an abdominal injury after Guinean goalkeeper Naby Yattara hit him in the dying minutes of the quarterfinal last Sunday. . In his place will be Jordan Ayew, who will start upfront against Kwesi Appiah in attack at the Estadio de Malabo. Otherwise, the team is unchanged from the one which started against Guinea.…
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says Emmanuel Adebayor still has an important role to play after the Premier League club blocked the striker’s deadline-day move to West Ham United. . Adebayor has played only once in the Premier League since the beginning of November, in a 2-1 win over Sunderland on January 17, and looked set to leave White Hart Lane as the January transfer window came to a close on Monday. . A proposed move to West Ham, however, collapsed when Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy refused to loan the 30-year-old to their London rivals, who are two places and four…
Premier League giants Liverpool on Thursday announced that they have agreed the biggest kit supplier deal in their history with American sportswear manufacturer New Balance. . In 2012 Liverpool signed a six-year deal worth £25 million a season with Warrior Sports, whose parent company is New Balance. . Their kits will be made by New Balance from next season onwards in a deal reportedly worth up to £300 million. . “We are thrilled to announce this partnership with one of the world’s leading sportswear brands, which is a record-breaking deal for the club,” said Liverpool’s chief commercial officer Billy Hogan…
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard will follow his 700th club appearance with his final outing in a Merseyside derby on Saturday and manager Brendan Rodgers says Everton will be glad to see the back of him. . Gerrard became the third player in the club’s history to reach the 700-game mark, behind Ian Callaghan (857) and Jamie Carragher (737), in Liverpool’s last gasp 2-1 win at Bolton Wanderers in an FA Cup fourth round replay on Wednesday. . It was another in a long line of remarkable achievements for the midfielder who joined the club as an eight-year-old schoolboy and went…
Yaya Toure remains much of an enigma at international level but glimpses of his club form at the African Nations Cup is a major boon for Ivory Coast as they prepare for Sunday’s final. . “Yaya has never before got his level for the national team,” said coach Herve Renard of his captain after their 3-1 win over the Democratic Republic of Congo in Bata on Wednesday saw the Elephants to their third final in 10 years. . “But he has worked, he has scored and he has played with a lot of determination. To have players like him, Gervinho,…
Crystal Palace snapped up South Korean attacking midfielder Lee Chung-yong and re-signed Manchester United winger Wilfried Zaha on a five-year deal before the transfer window closed on Monday. . Lee joined from English second tier side Bolton Wanderers for an undisclosed fee, while 22-year-old Zaha made his temporary move permanent by signing a five-year-deal. . Zaha was the last signing of the Alex Ferguson era, joining United from Palace in January 2013 for a reported 15 million pounds before being loaned back to the south London club. . He never started a Premier League game for United. . A short…
Tottenham Hotspur’s long-serving winger Aaron Lennon joined Everton on loan for the rest of the season on Monday. . Lennon, who joined Tottenham from Leeds United as a teenager in 2005 and has made 267 Premier League appearances for the club, has found it hard to nail down a first team spot this season under new manager Mauricio Pochettino. . At 27, however, England international Lennon is still highly-regarded and Everton manager Roberto Martinez apparently beat off interest from other clubs to sign Lennon. . He could make his debut in this weekend’s derby with Liverpool. . “We all know…
Bastia reached the French League Cup final by beating Monaco 7-6 on penalties after the game ended in a goalless draw after extra time on Wednesday. . Bastia will face holders Paris St Germain in the April 11 showdown at the Stade de France after the French champions beat Lille 1-0 away on Tuesday. . Monaco, who as usual relied on their steely defence, suffered an early setback when defender Wallace was forced off the pitch through injury. . Dimitar Berbatov had a clear chance midway through the first half of a dull encounter but he was denied from close…
Sampdoria coach Sinisa Mihajlovic said forward Samuel Eto’o had shown a “serious lack of respect” by missing an extra training session on Monday following their 5-1 Serie A defeat at Torino. . Mihajlovic had scheduled two training sessions on Monday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, as a reprisal for his team’s performance. . But Eto’o, who only joined Sampdoria last week from English club Everton, left after the morning session without speaking to the coach and did not return, Italian media reported. . “I don’t know where he’s gone and I don’t know what the club…
Gonzalo Higuain pounced in stoppage time to give holders Napoli a 1-0 win over Inter Milan in their Coppa Italia quarterfinal on Wednesday, adding to the misery for Roberto Mancini’s team. . Mancini’s Inter have dropped to 13th in Serie A after losing their last two games and had been hoping that the Cup would bring a change of fortune. . But, with only seconds remaining, a quickly taken throw-in caught Inter defender Andrea Ranocchia off his guard and Higuain got away to side-foot the ball past fellow Argentine Juan Pablo Carrizo into the far corner. . The finish left…
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu insinuated that bitter enemies Real Madrid had a part to play in the Neymar transfer court case in which he has been called to give evidence. . “We have done nothing wrong and we will keep saying the truth. The signing of Neymar took place using the most prestigious lawyers,” Bartomeu told Spanish television. . “Other clubs wanted to sign Neymar paying more money but they didn’t manage it and they didn’t like that. Someone now has overstepped the line. . “I’m not saying Madrid are behind this but Neymar’s father told me that there…
Barcelona’s vice-president on Wednesday appeared to contradict the club’s boss by claiming that the Catalan giants want to retain a sponsorship deal with Qatar for “many, many more years”. . Javier Faus said the club had “zero problems” with either the shirt sponsor, Qatar Airways, or the Gulf state itself, which has come under fire for its human rights record. . He was speaking in Doha at a star-spangled launch of the latest marketing campaign involving the football club and the airline, with Brazilian superstar Neymar and Spain’s 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 winning central defender Gerard Pique in…
Germany winger Andre Schuerrle said Wednesday he is happy about his return to the Bundesliga at Wolfsburg and not intimidated by the big price tag of his move from Chelsea. . “To be honest, I haven’t thought about it much but the sums written t (in the press) are of course a lot. (But) I am here to play football,” Schuerrle said at his official presentation. . Schuerrle, 24, joined Wolfsburg on transfer deadline day Monday for an estimated 32 million euros (36.4 million dollars), a club record sum for the ambitious Volkswagen-backed 2009 Bundesliga champions. . Wolfsburg lie second,…
Schalke striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was suspended on Wednesday for the next three Bundesliga games by the German Football Association (DFB), ruling him out until the club’s Champions League clash against Real Madrid. . ‘The Hunter’ was shown a straight red for tackling Hanover’s Manuel Schmiedebach from behind last Saturday, earning him an automatic one-game ban. . Having already sat out Schalke’s 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich on Tuesday, the DFB decided his offence, a wild hack at the back of Schmiedebach’s legs, warranted a four-game ban in total. . The Dutch striker will not now play again until Schalke host…
Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho has committed his future to Liverpool by agreeing a new long-term contract, the club said on Tuesday. . According to media reports, the deal will keep him at Anfield until 2020. . Coutinho, 22, has made 81 appearances since joining from Inter Milan in 2013 and has been one of Liverpool’s most impressive performers over the last two seasons. . “It means so much. This club has given me the opportunity to play and believed in me even though I hadn’t been playing regularly at my previous club,” he told the Anfield team’s website. . “Liverpool…