..::Football III::..

[Wolverine GTR]

Ospina shows off his unique bowling skills as Arsenal play cricket

There is a reason why Colombia are not known for their cricketing prowess. Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina, along with Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, padded up on Friday with bizarre results.

The two England internationals practised some bowling of their own before Ospina, normally so reliable with a ball in his hand and with all the gusto you could hope for, got a bit ahead of himself when it was his turn.

On a day in which England's batsmen failed against Australia in the fifth Ashes Test at the Oval, two of the nation's top footballers staked their claim for a call-up for future matches, Walcott showing off some crisp strokeplay and Oxlade-Chamberlain hitting a massive six.

Perhaps they can follow in the footsteps of Ian Botham and Denis Compton by excelling in both sports.

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Wenger bemoans shortage of strikers

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has bemoaned the shortage of world-class strikers and says he would rather work on the players at his disposal.

The Gunners have been keen on a move for Real Madrid's Karim Benzema all summer but Goal understands hopes are fading over a proposed £45 million move for the Frenchman.

And Wenger says he will not be pressured into making signings for the sake of it, especially if the available options do not improve upon his current squad.

He told reporters: "There is a shortage in the world [of strikers] and there is a difference between financial power and the availability of top-class players.

"When players are not free you cannot buy because it is the club who owns the contract that decides. Today in Europe you have maybe 15 clubs with huge financial resources and they don’t need money at all.

“It hasn’t been a frustrating window for me because I’m always more focused on developing the team and the players we have inside the club. I’m not against buying when it is really a plus for the team.

“If it is just buying players at the level of the players you have I am not ready for that. But in every position we have strong players."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Pedro? We'll still be unstoppable - Bartra

Barcelona will remain "unstoppable" this season regardless of the sale of Pedro to Chelsea, according to Marc Bartra.

The winger fell behind Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez in the pecking order at Camp Nou and opted to leave the club for Stamford Bridge earlier this week.
His exit followed Barca's Spanish Supercup defeat to Athletic Bilbao over two legs, but Bartra says they remain the same force that won the treble last season.

"Losing Xavi and Pedro hasn't made us weaker," he told the club's official website. "I'm going to miss them a lot but teams like Barça lose very good players and get back very good players.

"We still have a good group of homegrown players. You can't always bring up players who are ready for the first team. But with those who have joined us from other clubs, we'll continue to be unstoppable."

Regarding the prospect of facing Bilbao for a third straight game in Sunday's opening La Liga game of the season, he added: "When things don't go very well one day, I really want to have another shot at that day.

"Barça are lucky enough to be competing again very quickly and there are lots of ways we can learn from our mistakes.

"We play well as a team and we make mistakes as a team as well. We have to improve in all aspects and try to avoid individual errors.

"Aduriz is a striker who's scored a lot of goals and he really knows how to move. He's pretty clever and we have to be at a high level, but above all we have to be ourselves."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Blanc: PSG ready to buy and sell

Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc says the club are ready to make further signings and sell several players.

The Ligue 1 champions have already brought the likes of Angel di Maria, Kevin Trapp and Benjamin Stambouli to the Parc des Princes during a busy summer transfer window.Blanc is thought to be keen on signing Monaco full-back Layvin Kurzawa, while Lucas Digne is expected to move to Serie A side Roma.

But, the coach's comments are sure to spark more speculation regarding the futures of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani - who have both been linked with other clubs.

"Until the end of the transfer window there may be some things in terms of recruitment," he told beIN Sports after watching PSG scrape past Montpellier 1-0 on Friday.

"What is certain is that players will arrive at PSG and players will depart PSG."
Blaise Matuidi scored the only goal of the game as PSG maintained their 100 per cent winning start to the season at the Stade de la Mosson.

The champions were far from their best, but Blanc felt there were reasons for the lacklustre performance."If one analyses the game, there are things to improve on the technical side," he added.

"The conditions were difficult and the pitch was not the best. It was very hot. I think that all players have suffered."
Blanc also reiterated that Gregory van der Wiel was not involved due to injury, despite the full-back taking to Twitter earlier on Friday to claim that was not the case.

He said: "For us Van der Wiel is injured. He trained apart [from the team] and did not take part with the group."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Mourinho names and shames Chelsea flops

Jose Mourinho has named and shamed the players that have let down Chelsea so far this season.

The Blues have yet to win a Premier League game, drawing their opener against Swansea 2-2 and falling to a heavy 3-0 loss at Manchester City last weekend.

And Mourinho admits he is unhappy with the efforts of some of this players.

He told reporters: "I'm not happy with anyone.

"I'm not happy with Branislav Ivanovic's form, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Cesar Azpilicueta, Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas, Nemanja Matic."

"I'm not happy with my form because I used to get better results than I'm getting now."

Chelsea head to West Brom this weekend looking to get their title defence back on track and Mourinho admits he is striving to do all he can to get the Blues back on song.

"I go to the gym every day now to get fitter. I was going twice a week, but with no discipline. Maybe I need more action on the touchline, so I need to be fitter.

"What we are doing this week is being more active in training, watching more videos, working harder.

"We have one point from two matches. I'm not happy at all. I'm not happy with anyone.

"I'm either happy with everybody or not happy with anyone."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Pellegrini: Mangala stay all part of the Manchester City plan

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini insists he never had any intention of letting centre-back Eliaquim Mangala leave the club.

City completed the £32 million signing of Argentina international Nicolas Otamendi from Valencia, with Mangala - who had earlier been linked with a move in the opposite direction on loan - ultimately not involved in the deal.

Otamendi's arrival further increases the competition for places at City, with Vincent Kompany, Mangala and Martin Demichelis already vying for the centre-back role.

And while he hints he was tempted to send Mangala to Spain for the season, Pellegrini revealed that it was he who made the final decision to keep Mangala.

"There was a lot of talk of different options, the option that we wanted was to bring Otamendi here," Pellegrini told reporters. "That conversation may have had lots of options but finally I decided that Mangala must stay here with Otamendi."

Mangala and captain Kompany have kept back-to-back clean sheets in convincing City wins over West Brom and Chelsea and will continue their burgeoning defensive partnership away to Everton on Sunday.

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Van Gaal: Very bad Rooney will get back on track

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has commended under-fire captain Wayne Rooney for publicly admitting his performances have been below par in 2015-16.

Rooney acknowledged his growing critics following United's 3-1 Champions League play-off win over Club Brugge, conceding he has made an underwhelming start to the season.

The 29-year-old, who is yet to score a goal in the opening three matches of the campaign, singled out his below-par display at Aston Villa last week, and Van Gaal lauded the United skipper for his honesty.

"It always starts with the player himself, when you are saying publicly that you are so bad, you know that you are very bad at that time, but I think that's fantastic that a player admits that," Van Gaal told reporters ahead of Saturday's Premier League match against Newcastle United.

"But also for me, it's unbelievable because he's one of few players who are saying such things.

"After a few weeks it can bring pressure from the media, he took a risk, but he is very confident that he shall make the goals that we expect from him, and I have that confidence also.

"My standards he knows already, he knows what I want from a striker, how he has to perform, he thinks he can do it and I do also, otherwise I wouldn't put him in that position. Last season he played in all the positions, but I think his best position now is the striker position, and the second position is the number 10.

"He has to admit he was bad so he can improve, if you do not admit you cannot improve."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

LVG Rooney ganama balagena inna 1ka echchara hoda deyak newei team 1kata​

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Chelsea did well to sell 'crying' De Bruyne - Mourinho

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho insists he was right to sell Kevin De Bruyne to Wolfsburg as the player was "crying every day to leave".

The Belgium international has established himself as one of the brightest attacking talents in the Bundesliga since leaving Stamford Bridge in January 2014, and Manchester City have been pushing hard to bring the player back to the Premier League.

But Mourinho is adamant that Chelsea made the right call to allow De Bruyne to leave as he does not believe the 24-year-old would have blossomed in the same way had he been forced to stay in west London.

"With De Bruyne, if you have a player knocking on your door and crying every day he wants to leave, you have to make a decision. At that time, Chelsea did well," Mourinho told reporters.

"If De Bruyne stayed here, not happy and not motivated, and we'd sold him after a year, we'd have got less - 50 per cent less than we sold him for. So we sold him. At that moment, it was very good business.

"If somebody comes and pays for him what somebody would pay for Messi or Cristiano, it looks from the eyes of the world that it's bad business from us.

"But, if he was at Chelsea and not at Wolfsburg, he wouldn't have reached this level. It was like a wall, a block. He was not ready to compete. He was an upset kid, training very bad.

"He always said he had trained well in his life, but he needs motivation to train well by playing every game. Andre Schurrle a bit the same."

Mourinho also believes that the decision to oust De Bruyne has been vindicated by the rise of Eden Hazard, who has flourished during his three years with the Blues.

"If you think it [De Bruyne's sale] is my mistake, then it's my mistake that Eden Hazard is worth more than £100 million," he added.

"What I cannot do is bring us up to a certain level and then not play him. If I don't play Hazard and play De Bruyne or Andre Schurrle, they would have been playing for Chelsea, but Hazard wouldn't."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Chelsea on course for the treble, jokes Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has jokingly predicted that Chelsea will win the treble this year, despite their disappointing start to the new campaign.

The Portuguese coach claims his side’s 2-2 draw with Swansea City in their first game of the season has mirrored similarly disappointing results in the opening game of treble-winning seasons at Porto and Inter.

But Mourinho has another, less encouraging superstition he has to deal with too: losing to managers with surnames beginning with ‘P’.

His last six Premier League defeats have come against sides managed by Tony Pulis, Gus Poyet, Alan Pardew, Mauricio Pochettino and Manuel Pellegrini – and next up is a trip to take on Pulis’ West Brom at the Hawthorns.

“I wouldn't mind to go to the superstitious side of the game: I never win against a P," he told reporters.

“And seasons where I start with a 2-2 at home, I win the treble. Porto, Inter v Bari, 2-2 against Swansea. So maybe this season... the treble?”

Contrary to Mourinho’s claim, Inter in fact drew 1-1 with Bari the year they won the treble, but Porto began their trophy-filled 2002-03 campaign with a 2-2 draw at home to Belenenses.

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Cassano: No Zlatan, no Scudetto for AC Milan

AC Milan must sign Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to end their four-year drought without a Serie A title, according to Antonio Cassano.

Ibrahimovic has been linked to Milan throughout the current transfer window, with club president Silvio Berlusconi claiming the Sweden international would be welcomed back to San Siro "with open arms".

Cassano's two-year stint at the club matched that of Ibrahimovic and the former reckons Milan "cannot win the Scudetto" without the latter.

The attacking duo played together at Milan in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, combining for 49 Serie A goals and 39 assists.

Juventus have won the past four Italian championships, and when Cassano was asked which club would be best placed to challenge Massimiliano Allegri's side in 2015-16, the Sampdoria forward replied: "Together with Sampdoria, Inter are a team close to my heart. I hope Inter can win the Scudetto but it will be hard.

"Juventus are favourites for the next four or five years, with Roma able to cause them some problems.

"As for AC Milan, unless Zlatan Ibrahimovic returns they cannot win the Scudetto."

Since leaving Milan, Ibrahimovic has played three seasons with PSG, winning Ligue 1 each time and scoring 75 league goals in 91 appearances.

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Gerrard tells Lampard: It's war

Steven Gerrard has warned Frank Lampard to be prepared for "war" when the two former England team-mates go head to head in MLS on Sunday.

The midfield duo enjoyed numerous battles in their respective roles at Liverpool and Chelsea, with Gerrard's LA Galaxy against Lampard's New York City set to be the latest showdown between the pair.

And Gerrard, who sought to play down the focus on his personal duel with Lampard, insists there will be no room for sentiment at the StubHub Center this weekend.

"I'm sure Frank agrees it's slightly embarrassing to have all the focus on you when it's Los Angeles Galaxy versus New York," he said.

"It's about the game and the three points. But we understand it – we've played together for so many years. [The rivalry] it's real. When that whistle goes and we're competing for 90 minutes against each other, it's war.

"We fight against each other, we always have. When the whistle goes to finish there's a mutual respect there. We've always got on off the pitch regardless of what other people say.

"So if Frank plays from the beginning or if he comes on we become enemies, and when the game's over we become friends again.

"I've got nothing but respect and admiration for him as a player. We're both winners we're both professional. But he's coming into town for three points and I want the three points to stay here so that's where the rivalry begins."

Galaxy are the favourites as they sit top of the Western Conference, while City are eighth in the Eastern.

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Hazard: I want to learn from Chelsea new boy Pedro

Eden Hazard insists he is looking forward to playing alongside new Chelsea signing Pedro, declaring that he always wants to "learn from the best".

Chelsea completed a €30 million (£21.5m) deal to bring the 28-year-old from Barcelona on Thursday, with Jose Mourinho claiming that his club had signed "one of the best attacking players in the world".

Last season's PFA Player of the Year Hazard agrees and thinks Pedro's track record of success with the Catalan giants - winning five La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues in seven years in the first team at Camp Nou - will serve Chelsea well in the defence of their Premier League crown.

"When you play with Chelsea, you want to play with big players," Hazard told Sky Sports. "He can bring a new experience. He is very good, fast, I want to play with him.

"I want to learn, I'm still young, I want to be one of the very best and I learn from the best."

Chelsea's one point from their opening two matches this season is the worst start by any defending champion in the Premier League era and Hazard knows he and his team-mates have no choice but to work harder to turn their fortunes around - starting against West Brom at the Hawthorns on Sunday.

"Of course we need to change, we have just one point," he added. "We need to play our game, our football. We need to score more goals, defend very well. Everybody has to be better.

"I'm not surprised [at how hard it has been]. The manager said to the players last season 'you will see next season will be hard'.

"It's the beginning of the season, we have to work. Now we play the third game and if we want to be at the top at the end, we have to start winning games."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

New-look Atletico won't forget values - Simeone

Diego Simeone insists Atletico Madrid will not stray from their style of play, despite a summer of transition at the club.

Atletico have been active in the transfer market, signing Jackson Martinez, Luciano Vietto, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, Filipe Luis and Stefan Savic for a combined total believed to be in the region of €126 million.

The 2015-16 squad assembled by Simeone is regarded as arguably Atletico's best ever, with the Madrid club set to adopt a more offensive approach in their bid to dethrone reigning champions Barcelona.

However, the Argentine says he will not neglect their trademark values, based on discipline and commitment on the pitch.

"Reading the squad list you can see some important names, a lot of young players like Vietto, Oliver [Torres], Carrasco or Koke, [Antoine] Griezmann although they're already regulars, but that's important," Simeone said ahead of Saturday's Liga opener at home to promoted Las Palmas.

"We want to do everything we can not to lose the essence of the team and be up for what each game asks of us.

"We've only really had half a pre-season because we were searching for players, the new signings are integrating into the side and are learning what we're looking for in the game.

"There is some beautiful competition, particularly up front, their different strengths give us options. I'm going to look for an XI and a bench that gives me solutions."

Simeone admits he is relishing the chance to open the Liga season in front of the home crowd and says more new faces could yet grace the Vicente Calderon before the transfer deadline.

"We're very excited to be back in the Calderon, the adrenalin pumps, the expectations begin and we're looking forward to seeing the stadium full again. There's a lot of enthusiasm," he added.

"We're open to whatever happens, we're very happy with the squad and if we get anyone in he'd be welcome. If anyone leaves, I hope it's the best for the player."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Benitez to give Bale free role

Real Madrid coach Rafael Benitez is ready to give Gareth Bale a free role this season as he bids to get the best out of the Welshman.The winger was criticised for his performances by supporters last term and suffered a crisis of confidence as the club failed to win a major trophy.

However, Bale has played as a No.10 behind Karim Benzema during pre-season, with Benitez keen to give him more freedom in the final third."Bale behind the striker? I like to give freedom within an order. Like that we are more unpredictable," he said on Saturday.

While Sergio Ramos has committed his future to the club, the future of Karim Benzema has continually been the subject of continued speculation this summer.

Arsenal and Manchester United have both been credited with an interest in the player, but Benitez shrugged off any suggestion he could leave.

"I have said many times that I am convinced that Benzema is a great striker and I think he has demonstrated that. We also have Ronaldo and Jese [Rodriguez]...so now we do not seek any number nines."

New signing Mateo Kovacic could make his debut against Sporting Gijon on Sunday, with Benitez set to take charge of his first competitive fixture since arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu.The Spaniard was quizzed on the make-up of his side on Saturday and told reporters: "I think I have a great squad, I'm thrilled with what I have and my job is to improve what we have.

"As for the line-up, I am not going to say, they are all motivated to play and we will work with all of the players so that they feel that they can be starters.

Defending Liga champions Barcelona get their title defence under way against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday and Benitez is confident his side can wrestle the title from their rivals."For me it is a great challenge to be at the most important club in the world and I will try to win everything that I can win," Benitez added.

"Luis Enrique is normal to think that Barcelona are favourites, but I think we will fight until La Liga is over."Real Madrid approach each match and each competition with the idea of winning it.

"For me it is a great challenge to be at the most important club in the world and I will try to win everything that I can win."

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Van Gaal rules out De Gea sale

Louis van Gaal has ruled out David de Gea leaving Manchester United for Real Madrid this summer.

Goal revealed in July that the goalkeeper informed United of his intention to move to Santiago Bernabeu with the 24-year-old omittted from the club's opening Premier League and Champions League matchday squads.

United are adamant they will not let De Gea leave for less than €35 million (£25m) despite the player having fewer than 12 months left to run on his contract and Van Gaal has now moved to end all speculation.

"I think when Manchester United wants a player he shall come, [apart from] when a club is not selling," he told reporters on Friday.

"Okay, then it is the same with us. We are not selling De Gea. It's the same."

United have already moved to bolster their goalkeeping ranks this summer with the free signing of Sergio Romero, who has played all three of the club's games this season in De Gea's absence.

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Van Gaal rules out De Gea sale

Meka thamai wennath one...ath ada match 1katath chance 1ka dunne nahane​

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Full Time

Manchester United 0 Vs 0 Newcastle United

​

 

[Wolverine GTR]

Congratulations Manchester United!

Draw unath hoda fight 1kak giya match 1kakbut Rooney ge goal 1kanam offside newei...clear goal 1kak...1ka dunne nahane

& Set una chances hariyata take kalanam loku margin 1kakin win karanna thibba Goal finishing nam anthimaiHoda Finisher kenek gannama wenawa window 1ka close wenna kalin​

 

[Banks PLK]

Muller wa chase karana 1kanam wadak wei kiyala hithanna amarui.Mokada Bayern la sell karai kiyala hithanna amarui

Habai Higuain wa try kalanam ganna bari wena 1kak naha​

HIguain ta wada benzema hondai neda