Berlin (AFP) – Thiago Alcantara's second-half equaliser rescued Bayern Munich in Saturday's 2-2 draw at home to Mainz as the runaway Bundesliga leaders twice came from behind. Having bowed out of the Champions League quarter-finals at Real Madrid in midweek, the draw caps a week to forget for Bayern, who are winless in their last […]

London (AFP) – Eden Hazard fired Chelsea into the FA Cup final as the Belgian's blistering strike ensured Antonio Conte's selection gamble paid off in his side's dramatic 4-2 win over Tottenham on Saturday. Blues boss Conte sprang a major surprise by starting with Hazard and Diego Costa on the bench in the Wembley semi-final […]

Berlin (AFP) – Carlo Ancelotti says Bayern Munich are holding their breath over David Alaba for Wednesday's German Cup semi-final against Borussia Dortmund after the Austria international injured his knee. Alaba switched from left-back to central defence, but limped off after just 16 minutes of Bayern's 2-2 draw at home to Mainz on Saturday and […]

London (AFP) – Zlatan Ibrahimovic's magical season with Manchester United appears over after the club announced he had suffered a serious knee injury in Thursday's Europa League clash with Anderlecht. The club revealed that both the 35-year-old Swedish striker and Argentinian defender Marco Rojo had suffered knee injuries in the same match. "Detailed investigations on […]

Paris (AFP) – A goal apiece from Edinson Cavani and Angel di Maria gave Paris Saint-Germain a 2-0 win over Montpellier to send the champions top of Ligue 1 for the first time this season on Saturday. PSG now have 80 points from 34 games to top Ligue 1 provisionally while second placed Monaco, the […]

London (AFP) – Gaston Ramirez's sending off cost struggling Middlesbrough dear on Saturday as a 4-0 whipping by Bournemouth left them nine points shy of safety in the Premier League. While they look set to be joined by north-east neighbours, and rock-bottom Sunderland, in the second tier next term both Hull and Swansea enjoyed victories […]

Bournemouth (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Middlesbrough look destined for the Championship next season after falling 4-0 in Saturday's Premier League clash at Bournemouth in which they played 70 minutes with ten men. Tributes were paid at the Vitality Stadium to former Middlesbrough favourite Ugo Ehiogu who died Friday aged just 44 years after suffering a […]

London (AFP) – Historic London club Leyton Orient's 112-year stay in the English football league ended on Saturday with Crewe Alexandra's 3-0 win confirming their relegation from League Two. It reflects a dramatic fall from grace as two years ago they came within a penalty shootout success of gaining promotion to the Championship, losing in […]

London (AFP) – West Ham moved one step closer to safety and Everton moved above Arsenal into sixth place after the two sides played out a 0-0 stalemate at the London Stadium. Neither side was able to find a way to break the deadlock with Everton striker Romelu Lukaku failing to extend his run of […]

London (AFP) – Antonio Conte made an FA Cup selection gamble as the Chelsea manager left Diego Costa and Eden Hazard out of the starting line-up for Saturday's semi-final against Tottenham. With Premier League leaders Chelsea playing a crucial fixture against Southampton on Tuesday, Conte opted to rest star striker Costa and influential playmaker Hazard. […]

Swansea (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Jack Butland's return to Stoke's first team after an absence of over a year didn't end in a fairytale for the England international goalkeeper as strugglers Swansea emerged 2-0 winners in Saturday's Premier League clash. Goals by leading scorer Fernando Llorente and a deflected effort by Tom Carroll delivered the […]

Madrid (AFP) – Luis Enrique says his last Clasico in charge of Barcelona at Real Madrid on Sunday is a must-win for the reigning La Liga champions. Anything other than a Barca victory at the Santigao Bernabeu would more or less hand Madrid their first Spanish league title in five years. Zinedine Zidane's men hold […]

London (AFP) – Everton star Ross Barkley received an apology from The Sun tabloid newspaper on Saturday over a column that made "unfavourable comparisons" to a gorilla. The newspaper printed the apology and said it had not been aware that the England midfielder's grandfather was from Nigeria. Columnist Kelvin MacKenzie, a former editor of The […]

Washington (AFP) – Sebastian Giovinco's two goals included an 82nd-minute stunner as Toronto FC notched their first home win of the Major League Soccer season, 3-1 over the Chicago Fire. Eriq Zavaleta also scored for Toronto, while David Accam delivered Chicago's lone goal in the 88th minute. The victory was Toronto's second of the 2017 […]

Moscow (AFP) – When he took over as Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov was handed the mammoth task of transforming a failing and ageing squad into challengers for the country's first home World Cup in 2018. But just two months ahead of the Confederations Cup, a World Cup dress rehearsal in Russia, he is struggling to […]