Barcelona (AFP) – A world record crowd for a women's football match of 91,553 saw Barcelona cruise into the Champions League semi-finals by thrashing Real Madrid 5-2 at Camp Nou on Wednesday to seal an 8-3 win on aggregate. The crowd figure surpassed the previous record for a women's game when 90,185 watched the 1999 […]

Doha (AFP) – Qatar on Wednesday opened one of the world's biggest sports museums with artefacts from some of the most famous Olympic heroes but also gives prominence to local athletes hoping to boost efforts to attract a new generation into sports. The 19,000 square metre 3-2-1 Museum Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, next to […]

Doha (AFP) – Traffic police nervously watched a World Cup crowd make a mark in Qatar's capital Wednesday as FIFA set the scene for even bigger gatherings at the event by announcing that 800,000 tickets have already been sold. Security conscious Qatar authorities had wanted to keep big groups from nine newly-qualified countries — Cameroon, […]

Johannesburg (AFP) – Factfiles for Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, the five African nations who qualified this week for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. They will discover which three group opponents they are each going to face when the draw for the 32-team tournament is made in Doha on Friday. The first World […]

London (AFP) – England manager Gareth Southgate insists nobody can take their place in his World Cup squad for granted. Southgate's side stepped up their preparations for the World Cup with a 3-0 win against Ivory Coast in Tuesday's friendly at Wembley. He made 10 changes from Saturday's friendly victory over Switzerland to take a […]

Madrid (AFP) – Carlo Ancelotti has tested positive for Covid-19, Real Madrid announced on Wednesday, with the Italian likely to miss his team's La Liga game against Celta Vigo on Saturday. The 62-year-old's symptoms are "very light", a Real Madrid source confirmed, with the club confident Ancelotti will be able to return in time for […]

Stockholm (AFP) – Zlatan Ibrahimovic has said he will continue playing international football for "as long as possible" despite Sweden's failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. The 40-year-old came on as a substitute for the final 10 minutes in Sweden's 2-0 play-off loss to Poland in Chorzow on Tuesday. Ibrahimovic has endured an […]

Montevideo (AFP) – Peru booked a World Cup play-off spot against either Australia or the United Arab Emirates with a 2-0 victory over Paraguay on Tuesday, thus dashing the hopes of Colombia and Chile to reach the Qatar extravaganza. With Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay already qualified, all that was to play for in the […]

London (AFP) – England manager Gareth Southgate described Wembley boos for defender Harry Maguire as an "absolute joke" after his side eased to a 3-0 win against Ivory Coast in a friendly on Tuesday. Some sections of the crowd booed the Manchester United defender as he made his first international appearance of the year, days […]

Diamniadio (Senegal) (AFP) – Liverpool star Sadio Mane converted a shoot-out penalty on Tuesday to take African champions Senegal to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at the expense of Egypt. Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia also booked their places in the finals on a frantic night of play-off action. Senegal won the second leg of […]

The U.S. felt good about its qualifying chances heading into the final game of qualifying in 2017. Bruce Arena and co. beat Panama by four goals in Orlando and traveled to Trinidad & Tobago. All the USMNT really had to do was show up, and they held a spot in Russia. Of the 27 potential […]

Paris (AFP) – Portugal beat North Macedonia 2-0 and Poland saw off Sweden by the same score in play-off finals on Tuesday to book their places in the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar. Bruno Fernandes scored both goals for Portugal to overcome the Balkan nation that had knocked out European champions Italy in a […]

Amsterdam (AFP) – Tottenham forward Steven Bergwijn came off the bench to equalise for the Netherlands in a 1-1 friendly draw against Germany in Amsterdam on Tuesday. After Thomas Mueller had put the Germans ahead just before the break, Bergwijn crashed in the equaliser as the Dutch dominated the second-half. Eight months before the World […]

Chorzow (Poland) (AFP) – Robert Lewandowski slotted home a second-half penalty as Poland booked their berth at the World Cup finals with a 2-0 win over Sweden in Tuesday's play-off. After the Poland captain converted a spot kick, Piotr Zielinski put the game beyond doubt with a superb second goal for the hosts in Chorzow. […]

Porto (Portugal) (AFP) – Bruno Fernandes fired Portugal to the 2022 World Cup by scoring twice in a 2-0 victory over Italy’s conquerors North Macedonia on Tuesday. Italy’s shock exit had North Macedonia dreaming of their first ever appearance at a World Cup finals but Portugal and Fernandes proved a step too far in Porto. […]