Schalke beat Leverkusen for season's first win

Schalke 04 beat fellow Champions League contenders Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 on Saturday to notch their first win of the season and end their opponents' three-game winning streak.

Schalke, with this week's new signings Kevin-Prince Boateng and Dennis Aogo in the lineup, took the lead on the half-hour with Marco Hoeger's glancing header from a Jefferson Farfan free kick.

Buoyed by their midweek qualification for the Champions League group stage, Schalke were more aggressive and Boateng could have grabbed a goal on his debut but Leverkusen keeper Bernd Leno saved his header from point-blank range.

Despite controlling the game against a surprisingly toothless Leverkusen, who had won eight straight league games stretching back to last season, Schalke had to wait until the 83rd minute to seal victory.

Peru international Farfan converted a penalty after he was brought down by Emir Spahic to end any Leverkusen hopes of an equaliser.

The win lifted Schalke into 13th place on four points, with Leverkusen third on nine.

Hanover 96 came from a goal down to crush Mainz 05 4-1, while Hamburg SV demolished promoted Eintracht Braunschweig 4-0 for their first win of the campaign.

Mainz's Nicolai Mueller scored his fifth goal in four games but hosts Hanover struck twice late in the first and second halves to climb up to fourth place on nine points, ahead of the visitors on goal difference.

Hamburg SV celebrated their first victory of the season by beating Braunschweig with two early goals from Rafael van der Vaart and Jacques Zoua.

Hakan Calhanoglou, who came on in the 79th minute, still had time to grab two goals for himself and lift Hamburg to 12th place on four points, easing some of the pressure on coach Thorsten Fink.

Borussia Moenchengladbach scored five times, including a Havard Nordtveidt own goal, to ease past Werder Bremen 4-1 and move up to seventh.

Bayern Munich top the table with 10 points after their 1-1 draw at Freiburg on Tuesday.

Last season's runners-up, Borussia Dortmund, on nine points, travel to Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday and will go top if they win their fourth successive league game

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Bayern beat Chelsea in Super Cup shootout

Bayern Munich gained some revenge for the 2012 Champions League final defeat by Chelsea when they beat the Premier League club 5-4 on penalties after a thrilling UEFA Super Cup ended 2-2 at the end of extra-time on Friday.

Nine penalties in a row were scored before Chelsea substitute Romelu Lukaku had a tame effort saved by keeper Manuel Neuer to give the Champions League winners victory over the Europa League holders.

Earlier, Fernando Torres put the Londoners ahead with a sublime first-time finish from a cross by Andre Schuerrle in the eighth minute and Franck Ribery equalised with a 25-metre drive that eluded a diving Petr Cech in the 47th.

Chelsea had Brazil midfielder Ramires sent off in the 85th minute for a second bookable offence but Jose Mourinho's 10 men went back in front three minutes into extra-time.

Eden Hazard picked the ball up on the left flank and cut inside past two defenders to unleash a venemous right-foot strike that went straight through Neuer's hands.

Pep Guardiola's Bayern continued to dominate possession, much like they did under Jupp Heynckes in the Champions League final 15 months ago, but they were thwarted by an outstanding performance from Cech who pulled off a string of excellent saves.

It seemed as though Chelsea, who also looked dangerous on the counter attack, would hold on for victory until substitute Javi Martinez dramatically levelled for Bayern from close range with the last kick of extra-time.

"They take the cup but the best team lost," coach Mourinho told Sky Sports. "For me we were by far the best team.

"They had 15 minutes in the second half which they dominated but even with 10 men we played fantastically."

 

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Bayern midfielder Can signs four-year deal at Leverkusen

Germany under-21 international Emre Can has left Bayern Munich and signed a four-year contract at Bayer Leverkusen with an option to return to the treble winners, Bayern said on Friday.

The Bavarians said the hugely talented 19-year-old midfielder, promoted from the reserves last year, was not guaranteed much playing time under new coach Pep Guardiola.

"Emre Can is one of the great talents of German football," club CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said in a statement.

"We take this step to give him sufficient playing time as we had done for Toni Kroos in Leverkusen, Philipp Lahm at VfB Stuttgart or David Alaba at Hoffenheim."

The latter three all returned to Bayern after spells at the other teams and are now part of Bayern's treble-winning core squad.

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Senegal call up AC Milan's Niang for Zambia friendly

Senegal have called up AC Milan's Mbaye Niang for this month's friendly against Zambia, suggesting the teenage striker has decided his international future is with the west Africans after being banned by the French federation.

France Under-21 player Niang was last year suspended for 13 months for going out to a night club while on international duty.

Any switch of allegiance for the 18-year-old must still be confirmed by FIFA but coach Alain Giresse told a Dakar press conference Niang had said he was ready to commit to Senegal.

"He has told me he has decided. I have had contact with him, he is a player I have admired from far," the Senegalese news agency quoted Giresse as saying.

FIFA allows players previously capped by one country at junior level to play for another, as long as they held dual nationality.

Niang is among five new caps included in the squad for the match at Saint-Leu, near Paris on Aug. 14, the Senegal Football Federation announced on Thursday.

Giresse has dropped Papiss Cisse and again ignored Chelsea forward Demba Ba, who was left out of June's two World Cup qualifiers.

The Zambia match is preparation for September's qualifier against Uganda which Senegal need only to draw to secure a berth in the final round of African preliminaries for next year's World Cup in Brazil.

---

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Molde v Legia Warsaw 31.07.2013 uefa champions league

Molde v Legia Warsaw
Football : Champions League: Third Qualifying Round
Venue: Molde Stadion, Molde (NOR)
Wednesday 31th July – Kickoff time: 19:00 GMT+1

 

Molde (Norway)

 

Exploiting Rosenborg’s downfall, Molde FK won the Norwegian Premier League for the first time in their history in 2011 and managed to defend their title one year later.

However, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s squad will not make it three in a row, they are currently fighting to avoid relegation at halfway through the season. Molde sits on a disappointing 13th position (out of 16 teams), just one point above the relegation zone.

Molde is coming into this match on the back of a 0-2 defeat against Lillestrom. The problem seems to be up front, but Molde only invested 125 000 euros to sign striker Tommy Hoiland, who scored five goals in 16 games for Sandnes Ulf during this season.

The Norwegians reached this stage of the competition after eliminating Sligo Rovers in the second qualifying round by winning both legs (3-0 on aggregate).

Legia Warsaw (Poland)

 Legia Warsaw won the Polish championship for the first time since 2006 with a six point advantage over runners up Lech Poznan and earned a ticket to the UCL qualifiers.

The Polish side will try to make it to the group stages for the first time since 1995, which was also represented their only ever presence in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.

Welsh side The New Saints were no match to Legia in the previous round of qualifiers, the Poles won both legs (4-1 on aggregate) to secure their place in the third qualifying round.

Legia Warsaw is off to an excellent start in the Polish Ekstraklasa, they’ve won both games played so far in the new season, scoring eight goals in the process.

There shouldn’t be many changes in the squad for this match, the only most important question is whether coach Jan Urban will use veteran striker Saganowski up front, or Dvalishvili, who came in as a substitute and scored in the 3-0 victory over Pogon Stettin on Saturday.

match live here

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Juventus kick off title defence at Sampdoria

 

Italian champions Juventus will kick off their bid for a third successive Serie A title with a trip to Sampdoria, following the announcement of next season's fixtures in a ceremony in Milan on Monday.

Title hopefuls AC Milan visit Hellas Verona, playing their first match back in the top flight in 11 years, while Walter Mazzarri's Inter Milan and Rafael Benitez's Napoli both begin with home matches against Genoa and Bologna respectively.

Promoted Sassuolo will play their first ever top-flight match away at Torino.

AS Roma, who start their campaign with a trip to rivals Livorno, will play their first home game of the season against Hellas Verona with the Curva Sud section of their stadium closed.

The club were handed the punishment after hardcore fans in that part of the Stadio Olimpico racially abused AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli during their last game of the season against Napoli.

Serie A will host five city derbies for the first time this season. The Rome derby between Roma and Lazio will take place in week four, the same week Milan host fellow title hopefuls Napoli.

Last season's runners-up will field a restructured squad under Benitez following the sale of striker Edinson Cavani to Paris St Germain.

The Champions League-winning coach has recruited Gonzalo Higuain, Jose Callejon and Raul Albiol from Real Madrid as well as goalkeeper Pepe Reina from Liverpool.

Other standout fixtures include Juve's trip to Inter in week three, while the champions host AC Milan in week seven and Napoli in week 12.

In late November, Hellas Verona will host neighbours Chievo in their first derby in 11 years and their third ever meeting.

Chievo have spent 11 of the last 12 years in Serie A, while Hellas, who were traditionally the bigger team, floundered in the lower leagues and suffered financial problems

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Omonia Nicosia v Astra Giurgiu 25.07.2013 uefa europa league

  

Omonia Nicosia v Astra Giurgiu

Football : Europa League: Second Qualifying Round
Venue: "GSP Stadium", Nicosia (CYP)
Thursday 25th July – Kickoff time: 19:00 GMT+1

 

Omonia Nicosia (Cyprus)

The 20 times winner of the Cypriot first division, Omonia Nicosia finished third last season to grab a Europa League spot, behind APOEL Nicosia and Anorthosis Famagusta, two sides that had excellent UCL campaigns over the last few years.

Omonia Nicosia holds a poor record against Romanian opposition, they’ve met Sportul Studentesc (1986), Dinamo Bucuresti (2005) and Vaslui (2009) in the qualifying rounds of the Uefa Cup and couldn’t avoid being eliminated by these sides. They also lost to both Steaua and Dinamo Bucuresti in the European cup (1987 and 1984).

The Cypriot sides is now in the pole position of this tie after grabbing a 1-1 draw at the National Arena in Bucharest against Astra Giurgiu, so they are just 90 minutes away from eliminating a Romanian side for the first time in their history.

Their goal was scored by former Rapid Bucuresti defender, the Portuguese Joao Paolo Andrade, (one of their many foreign players) who headed in an excellent cross.

Astra Giurgiu (Romania)

Astra GiurgAstra Giurgiu finished fourth in the 2012-2013 Liga 1 season, which allows them to participate in a European competition for the first time in their history.

They’ve had big ambitions about their first ever presence in a European cup and started off with a convincing 3-0 victory over Domzale in the previous round, but failed to take a lead after the first leg against Omonia.

Astra Giurgiu controlled the game and even took the lead after just eight minutes through Tembo, but then wasted some excellent chances and allowed Omonia to get back into the game in the second half.

Astra will now have a tough job, but their morale was boosted by a 4-0 away Liga 1 victory over Viitorul Constanta over the weekend.
iu (Romania)

 

match live here

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Liverpool's Gerrard faces likely shoulder surgery

Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard is likely to need shoulder surgery at the end of the season, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.

If the 32-year-old, who has been ever present in this season's league campaign, has surgery in the close season he could miss England's friendlies against Ireland at Wembley on May 29 and away to Brazil on June 2.

"It's looking more and more likely that he might require surgery," first team coach Mike Marsh told the club's website (www.liverpoolfc.com).

"He has been playing with a shoulder injury for quite a while now. We'll try to find the right time for him to get it fixed properly.

"It's not ideal timing, it's going to take quite a while for him to heal... If it needs repairing, it needs repairing and when he's back fit, he's back fit. There's not much we can do about it."

The midfielder, who is due to have a testimonial match against Greek champions Olympiakos at Anfield on Aug. 3, has scored nine league goals this season.

He has made 628 appearances for the Merseyside club where he has spent his entire career after coming through the youth ranks, scoring 159 goals.

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Bayern stun Barcelona with dynamic four-goal show

Bayern Munich's incredible season continued when they handed Barcelona one of their heaviest defeats for years, hammering the Catalans 4-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday.

Thomas Mueller headed the recently-crowned Bundesliga champions ahead in the 25th minute and Mario Gomez turned in the second goal amid suspicions of offside early in the second half.

Arjen Robben added a third in the 73rd minute and Mueller then grabbed his second of the night as Barca collapsed dramatically in a game where Lionel Messi, returning from a hamstring injury, made little impact.

In doing so, Bayern avenged their defeat by the same score in the quarter-finals four years ago.

Robben nearly put Bayern ahead in the third minute after a clever backheel by Javi Martinez gave him a clear scoring chance but he shot straight at keeper Victor Valdes.

Barca then put together some intricate passing moves although they rarely threatened to score and Bayern had the next chance when a goalbound Philipp Lahm shot was blocked by defender Gerard Pique.

Pique also appeared to handle when he cleared the resulting corner but the referee was not interested.

It was not long before Bayern, who won the Bundesliga with six games to spare, went ahead with the help of an overhit corner by Franck Ribery.

His effort found Robben on the other side of the penalty area and a rare right-footed cross from the Dutchman found Dante whose header fell for Mueller to stoop and score.

Barca's most dangerous first-half effort was a low Pedro cross which Dante was lucky not to turn into his own net.

Bayern extended their lead from another corner as Mueller at the back post headed back into the middle for Gomez to turn the ball in at close range after 49 minutes although he may have been fractionally offside.

The Germans threatened another as shots from Mueller and Ribery flashed wide and then Robben headed wide from a free kick.

Barca, often reduced to long balls forward, managed to impose some of their possession football but were vulnerable on the break.

Robben exploited the gaps when he burst down the right for the third and, with Barca still reeling, Mueller blasted a David Alaba pass into the net for the fourth goal.

The rout equalled Barca's worst ever defeat in European competition.

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Statistics on Borussia Dortmund's 4-1 win over Real Madrid

Statistics surrounding Borussia Dortmund's 4-1 victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday.

* Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski was the first player in the history of European competition to score four goals in a match against Real Madrid.

* It was the 10th occasion a player has scored four or more goals in a Champions League game. Barcelona's Lionel Messi is the only player to have done it twice.

* This was the first season when two teams have conceded four or more goals in one game in a set of Champions League semi-finals (following Bayern Munich's 4-0 win over Barcelona on Tuesday).

* Cristiano Ronaldo has now scored in six consecutive Champions League games, equalling Marouane Chamakh and Burak Yilmaz.

* Ronaldo became only the fifth player to score 50 Champions League goals. The competition's top scorers are Raul 71, Lionel Messi 59, Ruud van Nistelrooy 56 and Thierry Henry 50.

* A three-goal deficit has been overturned once in the Champions League knockout stages, in the 2004 quarter-final when Deportivo La Coruna beat AC Milan 4-0 after a 4-1 away defeat.

* In all European competitions, there has been one all-German final. In the 1979-80 UEFA Cup, Frankfurt beat Borussia Moenchengladbach on away goals rule.

Read More... Résuméabuiyad

Mourinho aghast over Real's handling of Lewandowski

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho could not understand how his well-drilled side let Robert Lewandowski score four goals in Borussia Dortmund's 4-1 win on Wednesday but vowed that his team could still reach the Champions League final.

The nine-times European champions have a huge task on their hands in Tuesday's home second leg after Mourinho acknowledged they had been outplayed in the semi-final first leg in Germany.

"I saw a team that was better than the other one, mentally and physically. The better team won today. I was very angry because the goals came again from our mistakes," Mourinho told reporters.

"We lose him (Lewandowski) for three goals - I don't know about the penalty - when we know exactly what he does," he added to Sky Sports.

"We know everything about him, the boy deserves credit, but we gave him big support."

The Poland striker scored in the eighth, 50th, 55th and 66th minute with a blasted penalty to leave an all-German final likely after Barcelona were humbled 4-0 by Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

"How did it go from 1-1 to 4-1, I really don't know. We lost easy possession and we couldn't cope with their counter-attacking. Many of the boys didn't perform," Mourinho added before a flash of defiance.

"We can (turn the tie around), it is of course very difficult but we can. In a crazy night where everyone performs at a high level. Of course we can," he said.

"I have learned that everything is possible in football. Everything can happen next week. If you ask my players if they can turn the game some will say no. In an hour more will say yes, and tomorrow everyone will say we can do it."

Read More... Résuméabuiyad