Monday, November 26, 2018
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Ronaldo responds to award reports by leading Juventus to win
That was evident when Ronaldo skipped the UEFA player of the year award ceremony in August when he learned that former Real Madrid teammate Luka Modric gained the honor.
Now, amid reports that he’s been left off the podium for the Ballon d’Or prize to be presented next month, teammates say Ronaldo trained harder than ever this week.
The training paid off, as Ronaldo scored the opening goal and helped set up the second as Juventus extended its unbeaten start in Serie A with a 2-0 win over promoted Spal on Saturday.
Croatia international Modric and France teammates Kylian Mbappe Raphael Varane are reportedly the finalists for the Ballon d’Or — which would mean that panelists relied heavily on the World Cup, where France beat Croatia for the title.
Before transferring to Juventus, Ronaldo helped Real Madrid to its third straight Champions League title last season, and led the competition with 15 goals — five more than anyone else.
Ronaldo’s latest score gave him nine in Serie A, matching Genoa’s Krzysztof Piatek for tops in the league.
Near the half-hour mark, Ronaldo beat everyone to redirect in a free kick from Miralem Pjanic.
In the 60th, Ronaldo’s pull back on a counterattack set up a shot for Douglas Costa, whose effort was swatted into the path of Mario Mandzukic, who scored from the rebound.
All players, coaches and referees had red marks painted on their faces as part of a Serie A campaign to combat violence against women.
Kathryn Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit in September in Nevada claiming Ronaldo raped her in his Las Vegas hotel room in 2009. Police reopened an investigation into the allegation at her request. Ronaldo has denied any wrongdoing.
Juventus moved nine points ahead of second-place Napoli, which hosts Chievo Verona on Sunday.
INCONSISTENT ROMA
Roma’s lack of consistency was highlighted in a 1-0 loss at relegation-threatened Udinese.
It was the third time this season that Roma had been beaten by a team near the bottom of the standings, along with defeats against Bologna and Spal.
It wasn’t the buildup that Roma wanted ahead of a visit by Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday. However, Madrid struggled even more on Saturday, losing at Eibar 3-0 in the Spanish league.
In Udine, Rodrigo De Paul collected a backheel pass from Ignacio Pussetto and chipped over onrushing Roma goalkeeper Antonio Mirante early in the second half.
Udinese almost had a second but the VAR disallowed a goal from Pussetto, ruling he controlled De Paul’s pass with his arm.
Roma controlled 77 percent of the possession in the first half.
“A team that dominated for an hour has to score a goal. It has to,” Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco said. “A team that wants to become big and strong has to make that level of possession and pressure count. That’s what makes me angry. Evidently we haven’t matured enough yet.”
Roma had beaten Udinese in all 10 of their previous meetings. What’s more, Udinese hadn’t won in more than two months and was playing its first match since Davide Nicola was hired to replace fired coach Julio Velazquez. Roma is seventh overall.
Making matters worse is that playmaker Lorenzo Pellegrini, one of Roma’s most dangerous players against Udinese, exited the match late with an apparent muscular problem.
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Rampant Tottenham inflicts first loss of EPL on Chelsea
Dele Alli, Harry Kane, and Son Heung-min scored for Tottenham, which jumped above its London rival in the standings into third place.
The sight of Chelsea holding midfielder Jorginho clutching at thin air as Son outpaced him to score Spurs’ third goal in the 54th minute — and his 50th goal for the club — was a fitting image, with Tottenham quicker to everything in an unexpectedly one-sided derby.
Chelsea, which scored a late consolation through substitute Olivier Giroud, came into the game as one of three undefeated teams in the top flight, along with Manchester City and Liverpool.
On a day when the top two enjoyed big away wins, Chelsea dropped seven points behind first-place City as frailties in Maurizio Sarri’s side were exposed, especially in defense.
“The scoreline should have been a lot more with the chances we had,” said Alli, who was probably referring to Kane lifting a shot over the crossbar from close range when the score was 3-0.
Tottenham has been scraping wins of late, mostly by a one-goal margin, but Mauricio Pochettino’s team looked a different side with the attacking-midfield trio of Christian Eriksen, Alli and Son positioned behind Kane.
Eriksen swung in the free kick that was headed in by Alli in the eighth minute and Kane doubled the lead in the 16th from outside the area, with Chelsea defender David Luiz turning his back as the England striker took aim.
Son’s goal came when he was set free down the right by Alli’s curling pass. The South Korea forward cut inside past Jorginho and drove a low shot into the corner.
It was a 10th win in 13 games for Tottenham, which is five points off City.
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Mou reveals Lukaku mission amid striker's struggles
Jose Mourinho has revealed he travelled to Belgium last week to try and get to the bottom of Romelu Lukaku's dramatic loss of form for Manchester United.
The United manager attended Belgium's international victory over Iceland in Brussels even though neither of his players, Lukaku or Marouane Fellaini, were in action for Roberto Martinez's side in the Nations League game.
But Mourinho has explained that his visit was for the express purpose of supporting Lukaku after the striker's recent alarming dip in form for his club side.
"I went (to) fundamentally be with Lukaku ... to see his situation, his injury," said the 55-year-old.
Lukaku, 25, has failed to score for United since September 15 – 10 matches in all competitions – and lost his place in the starting line-up for United's past four matches.
"Roberto invited me to meet him which I decided not to because I don't like to disturb people before matches," added Mourinho.
"But I was with Roberto on the phone ... trying to understand the problem and evolution of the problem."
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Paul Merson's Premier League predictions: Wins for Manchester Utd, Manchester City and Arsenal
There are two intriguing Super Sunday fixtures as first high-flying Bournemouth host in-form Arsenal, before Wolves entertain struggling Huddersfield Town, with both games live on Sky Sports Premier League.
Read full article here
Friday, November 23, 2018
Mourinho reveals who will finish inside EPL’s top four before the end of the year
United face Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Saturday with Mourinho having an almost full-strength squad to pick from.
“I know it’s a big gap but I also know until the end of December if I’m not wrong we have eight Premier League matches to play, and with eight Premier League matches we are speaking about 24 points.
“24 points for us to fight for, the other ones in the top four to fight too, but I believe we are going to be there,” said the United boss.
Mourinho’s side face some tough tests before the end of the year, however, with Arsenal visiting Old Trafford on Dec. 5 and United travelling to Anfield to take on Liverpool on Dec. 16.
United’s last outing, before the international break, was the 3-1 defeat to Manchester City and since then Mourinho says some of the injuries in his squad have healed. Click Here To Read Full Article.
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
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Manchester City 3 Bournemouth 1: Sterling picks off Cherries again
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Man City moved five points clear as Raheem Sterling struck versus Bournemouth and Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan made scoring return... -
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