Moscow (AFP) – Zenit St Petersburg hope to bounce back from their midweek Europa League disappointment on Sunday when they travel to arch rivals Spartak Moscow aiming to strengthen their lead at the top of the Russian Premier League. Zenit, who crashed out of the Europe on Thursday with a 5-2 aggregate defeat to the […]

Madrid (AFP) – Zinedine Zidane has promised change at Real Madrid this summer and the last 11 games of the season will give an indication as to who will be part of his new era. Zidane's first match since being reappointed as coach comes against Celta Vigo on Saturday, with Madrid lying in no-man's land […]

Berlin (AFP) – Bayern are back on top of the Bundesliga, but club bosses plan to clean out their ageing squad whose shortcomings were brutally exposed by Liverpool in the Champions League. Jurgen Klopp's Reds dumped Bayern out of Europe on Wednesday with a deserved 3-1 return-leg win, handing Bayern a last-16 aggregate defeat by the […]

Johannesburg (AFP) – Tanzanian club Simba SC boast a perfect CAF Champions League home record this season and can book a quarter-finals place by beating Democratic Republic of Congo visitors V Club Saturday. Record eight-time champions Al Ahly of Egypt and JS Saoura of Algeria are also chasing top-two finishes in Group D on the […]

Rome (AFP) – Mauro Icardi's ongoing contract dispute with Inter Milan shows no sign of abating as the Italian team crashed out of the Europa League in his absence on Thursday before this weekend's key derby showdown against city rival's AC Milan at the San Siro. Both sides are battling for Champions League football next […]

Swansea (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Pep Guardiola remains coy about Manchester City's chances of winning the quadruple, but his side face Swansea in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday standing just 16 games away from a clean sweep of all four major trophies. Guardiola's team moved closer to the unprecedented silverware haul on Tuesday as […]

Wolverhampton (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will look for Manchester United to respond to the first domestic defeat of his reign when they face Wolves in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday as the Norwegian moves closer to landing the job on a permanent basis. United's shock Champions League victory at Paris Saint-Germain […]

Paris (AFP) – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang spearheaded Arsenal's revival by scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Rennes to reach the Europa League quarter-finals 4-3 on aggregate, as Chelsea and Napoli also booked a last-eight spot on Thursday. The Gunners cancelled out their 3-1 deficit from last week's first leg in France inside 15 minutes as […]

Paris (AFP) – Paris Saint-Germain outcast Adrien Rabiot has been suspended until the end of the month for a reported outing to a nightclub after last week's Champions League loss to Manchester United. The French international midfielder is in open dispute with PSG and has not played since mid-December after failing to agree a new […]

London (AFP) – Arsenal completed a clean sweep of six English sides through to European quarter-finals by overturning a 3-1 first-leg deficit to beat Rennes 3-0 and progress to the Europa League last eight at the Emirates on Thursday. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice and also teed up Ainsley Maitland-Niles as Arsenal joined Chelsea in Friday's […]

Paris (AFP) – Olivier Giroud scored a hat-trick as Chelsea cruised into the Europa League quarter-finals with an 8-0 aggregate thrashing of Dynamo Kiev on Thursday, while Napoli also booked a last-eight spot. After a 3-0 victory in last week's last 16, first leg at Stamford Bridge, 2013 winners Chelsea were even more dominant in […]

Gelsenkirchen (Germany) (AFP) – Schalke sacked coach Domenico Tedesco on Thursday in the wake of this week's 7-0 mauling by Manchester City. Tedesco has paid the price for the club's poor recent run with last season's Bundesliga runners-up struggling in 14th, just four points off the relegation zone. His dismissal was announced by Schalke's director […]

London (AFP) – Birmingham and Arsenal have been charged by the Football Association after separate pitch invasions that included the shocking attack on Aston Villa's Jack Grealish. Birmingham were hit with a charge of failing to ensure fans conducted themselves in an orderly fashion during the Championship fixture against bitter rivals Aston Villa on Sunday. […]

London (AFP) – Former Manchester United star Paul Scholes quit as Oldham manager on Thursday after just 31 days in charge of the League Two club. Scholes has walked away from Boundary Park over claims of broken promises from his hometown team. The 44-year-old took charge at Oldham last month and won his first match, […]

Miami (AFP) – FIFA chiefs will decide on Friday whether to back an expansion of the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams but a final decision will only be taken at a meeting in Paris in June, sources said Thursday. The FIFA Council meeting in Miami on Friday will give its verdict on an internal […]