Sports

UCL: Madrid begin title defence with 3-0 away win as Mbappe, Haaland shine

Published

1 year ago

September 7, 2022

Defending champions Real Madrid got off to a blistering start in their bid to successfully defend the UEFA Champions League title they won last season.

Despite starting a bit slow in their group opener away to Celtic on Tuesday night, Los Blancos romped to a 3-0 victory to show their intent of extending their dominance in the European Cup competition.

Though the Scottish champions were able to hold Carlo Ancelotti’s men to a 0-0 scoreline in the first half, the second half was all different as they crumbled like a pack of cards after their initial resolute display.

Vinicius Junior who scored the all-important goal that gave Real Madrid the title ahead of Liverpool last season got the opening goal against Celtic

The Brazilian found the back of the net in the 56th minute. This is the first time Vinicius has scored in four consecutive games for Real Madrid.

Los Blancos didn’t have to wait for too long before Luka Modric doubled the advantage for the visitors at the hour mark.

The 36-year-old Croat with Tuesday’s goal is the third oldest Champions League goal scorer for Real Madrid behind the duo of 38-year-old Ferenc Puskás and 37-year-old Alfredo Di Stefano.

Real Madrid completed the rout with a 77th-minute goal from a revitalised Eden Hazard as they start on the front foot in Group F.

While Real Madrid were fantastic in their group opener, Manchester City were even more ruthless in their away tie at Sevilla as they thumped the Spanish side 4-0.
Erling Haaland was once again colossal for the Cityzens; scoring two of the goals while the duo of Phil Foden and Reuben Diaz were also on hand to supply a goal each.

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Elsewhere, Paris Saint-Germain were able to fend off a second-half fightback from Juventus to win their opening Champions League game 2-1 thanks to Kylian Mbappe’s brace.

Juve were clearly overshadowed by their hosts at the Parc des Princes in the first half, with Mbappe volleying home twice inside the first 22 minutes.
However, a defensive mistake from Christophe Galtier’s side allowed Weston McKennie to give Juve a lifeline eight minutes into the second half.

Dusan Vlahovic and Manuel Locatelli both came close to restoring parity, PSG had enough to see out a first competitive win over Juve.

There were also opening day victories for Borussia Dortmund and Benfica who recorded 3-0 and 2-0 wins respectively over FC Copenhagen and Macabi Hafia.

The only game which ended in a stalemate on Tuesday was between RB Salzburg and AC Milan as the final score stood at 1-1.

The remaining matchday one fixtures will be completed on Wednesday.

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2024 WAFCON qualifier: Super Falcons arrive Praia for Cape Verde clash

Published

19 hours ago

December 4, 2023

Seun Okerayi

Ahead of Tuesday’s second leg of the 2024 Women’s African Cup of Nations qualifier, Nigeria’s Super Falcons have landed in Praia for the game.

The Nigerian side dominated and won the first leg 5-0 at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja on Thursday and the result gave them hope to scaling the hurdle to the competition.

Super Falcons departed the shore of the country on Saturday and safely arrived at the Praia, the capital city of Cape Verde in the early hours of Sunday.

Falcons are willing to qualify and do better in the competition next year after they finished in the 4th position in the last edition that was held in Morocco.

The game against the Blue Shark of Cape Verde is scheduled to take place on Tuesday with the winner over the two legs reaching the competition slated for Morocco.

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Sports

Osimhen won’t renew Napoli contract

Published

4 days ago

December 1, 2023

Seun Okerayi

Nigeria international Victor Osimhen’s departure from Napoli is almost looking certain after Italian football transfer expert Fabrizio Romano said the striker was unlikely to renew his contract with the Italian champions,

Osimhen has been linked with several European clubs with English Premier League duo, Chelsea and Arsenal, leading the race for the Nigerians.

Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, had on several occasions said that the club’s most prized asset would not be sold this summer even if their valuation of €200m was met.

“Osimhen will stay here. He won’t leave,” he told Sky in August.

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Sports

Super Eagles drop two places in latest FIFA rankings

Published

5 days ago

November 30, 2023

Seun Okerayi

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have dropped by two spots in the latest FIFA ranking to place 42nd in the world.

In the ranking table on the website of the world football governing body, on Thursday, the Eagles dropped 16.04 points to rank 1474.44 points as against 1490.48 in October.

However, the drop did not affect the team’s placement on the continent, as it still remained the 6th team on the continent, behind Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, respectively.

The drop in ranking comes after the Super Eagles were held to a 1-1 draw in their two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against Lesotho on Nov. 16 and Zimbabwe on Nov. 19.

Although Argentina (1st) still leads the way ahead of France (2nd), England (3rd, up 1) is now in the trio of teams at the front of the pack, followed by Belgium (4th, up 1), who have also climbed one place.

Although Brazil (5th, down 2) have lost ground following back-to-back defeats by Colombia and Argentina, they have clung on to their place in the top 5.

The Netherlands (6th, up 1) and Portugal (7th, down 1) have traded places in the top 10, which is once again completed by Spain (8th), Italy (9th) and Croatia (10th).

Uruguay (11th, up 4) have made solid progress, but they have to be content with a place just outside the top 10.

The Comoros Islands (119th, up 9), meanwhile, enjoyed an even better month with wins against the Central African Republic and Ghana, and have two reasons to celebrate as they are now in 119th place, their highest-ever position.

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Kosovo (101st, up 4) may not have climbed as many positions as the Comorans, but the Kosovans are also now higher in the ranking than ever before.

Guinea-Bissau (103rd, up 7), Azerbaijan (114th, up 6), Libya (120th, up 6), Malaysia (130th, up 7) and Rwanda (133rd, up 7) are the other big movers in the November ranking.

The ranking also had the re-entry of Samoa (187th), American Samoa (188th) and Tonga (196th), who were all playing international football again following months of inactivity.

The ranking took into consideration FIFA World Cup qualifiers that took place in African countries as well as in Asia and South America.

The other confederations’ schedules considered included UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying matches, Concacaf Nations League 2023-24 encounters and the Pacific Games 2023.

These matches all had a significant effect on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, including on the make-up of the podium.