Joe Allen has urged Wales fringe players to stake their claim for a spot at Euro 2016 when they take on Northern Ireland at Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday.
Wales are without star man Gareth Bale for the friendly matches against Northern Ireland and Ukraine following talks with Real Madrid, with the forward having suffered with a calf injury lately.
Manager Chris Coleman, who led Wales to a major tournament for the first time since 1958 and their first European Championship, is also without several other first-team regulars.
Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey and West Ham defender James Collins are the most notable absentees, but Hal Robson-Kanu, Andy King, Paul Dummett and Dave Edwards are also unavailable.
Liverpool midfielder Allen is expecting a tough…
Former Leicester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson believes the club can stay top and win the Premier League this season.
After miraculously beating the drop last term, Leicester have defied the odds to sit atop the league by two points with 12 matches remaining.
Tottenham and Arsenal are within touching distance of Leicester, who suffered a cruel 2-1 defeat to Arsene Wenger s men last time out on February 14.
But former England manager Eriksson, who led Leicester during their 2010-11 campaign in the Championship and now coaches Shanghai SIPG in the cashed-up Chinese Super League, backed Claudio Ranieri and Co. to go all the way.
Leicester can win the Premier League. They are in a very good position, Eriksson said in an interview with Omnisport.
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Croatia claimed pole position in Group D with a hard-fought 2-0 win against Nigeria thanks to an own goal from Oghenekaro Etebo and a Luka Modric penalty.
Midfielder Etebo, who joined Stoke City for €7.2million on Monday, turned a Modric corner into his own net after Ivan Perisic and Mario Mandzukic both flicked the delivery on.
Nigeria s previous goal conceded at the World Cup in 2014 was also an own goal, defender Joseph Yobo the unfortunate player to put through his own net in a last-16 defeat to France.
And when William Troost-Ekong needlessly dragged Mandzukic down in the box, captain Modric coolly converted the 71st-minute penalty to give Croatia a winning start on their fifth appearance at the finals.
Croatia had the better of a close contest li…
Chelsea-bound Alvaro Morata bid farewell to Spanish and European champions Real Madrid in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Morata is set to join Premier League champions Chelsea after a fee – reportedly in the region of £70million – was agreed with Madrid.
The 24-year-old Spain international forward appeared poised to swap Madrid for Manchester United but Jose Mourinho signed Romelu Lukaku instead.
Now, Morata is preparing for life at Stamford Bridge as he was pictured saying goodbye to head coach Zinedine Zidane and Madrid s coaching staff, and team-mates Gareth Bale, Dani Carvajal, Isco and Nacho before being applauded off the training pitch at UCLA – where the Spaniards are based for pre-season.
Comunicado Oficial: Morata
— Real M…
Verdict: Both teams to score
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A nation that is desperately looking to rebuild, Italy will be hoping to kick off their inaugural UEFA Nations League campaign with a win when they host Poland at the Stadio Renato Dell Ara on Friday night.
Italy
Starting with the hosts, after missing out on their spot in Russia at the hands of Sweden at the playoff stage, Italy have turned to former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini in the hope to bring them back to the side that lifted the World Cup back in 2006. While many believe that the four-time world champions have shown some signs of improvement, The Blues are still struggling to grind out a result. Coming off the back of a 1-1 draw with Holland back in June, Italy have now only manage…
Verdict: Bayern Munich and over 3.5 goals
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For matchday three, the 2013 Champions League winners will be playing host to the reigning Scottish champions Celtic, in a match that will be Bayern Munich s new coach Jupp Heynckes first Champions League game in charge of the Bavarians.
Bayern Munich
Could one of Europe s most feared teams be beginning to show some cracks? Well, for Bayern Munich, this season really hasn t gone quite to plan. After sacking veteran manager Carlo Ancelotti last month, the nine-time Bundesliga champions find themselves in a very unusual situation, they currently sit two points behind rivals Borussia Dortmund and more worryingly, they have already dropped points on three separate occasions so far this se…
Chelsea duo Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori have won call-ups to the England squad to face the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
Abraham has emphatically grasped his elevation to Frank Lampard s first XI at Stamford Bridge, scoring seven goals in as many Premier League appearances this season.
The 22-year-old striker will now hope to add to his two previous senior caps won in 2017 friendlies, which means he is still eligible to represent Nigeria during the forthcoming away Euro 2020 qualifiers.
Centre-back Tomori is another of the Chelsea youngsters to have taken the opportunities afforded by his club s transfer ban. He is one of three uncapped players in Gareth Southgate s squad, alongside fellow centre-back Tyrone Mings and Leicester City playmaker James Maddi…
Neymar described Brazil s World Cup exit at the quarter-final stage as the saddest moment of his career.
The Paris Saint-Germain star left Russia having scored two goals in five games as Brazil failed to play their best football, despite topping Group E without losing a match and then beating Mexico 2-0 in the round of 16.
Headlines in the aftermath of the victory over Mexico focused on Neymar s theatrical reaction to challenges made on him rather than his performance, and he was powerless to stop Brazil losing 2-1 to Belgium in the last eight.
In his first social media comments following the defeat, Neymar posted a message on his Instagram account, saying: I can say that it is the saddest moment of my career.
The pain is very great because we knew…
Jurgen Klopp feels Liverpool s seven nominees for the Ballon d Or are fully deserving of the accolade, though he does not feel any personal pride for the players individual achievements.
Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Roberto Firmino and Georginio Wijnaldum were all named on a 30-man shortlist for the annual award on Monday.
The nominations follow on from an incredible 2018-19 campaign for the Champions League winners, with Klopp s side also finishing second to Manchester City in a thrilling Premier League title race.
Speaking ahead of his team s European game against Genk on Wednesday, Klopp has no doubt Liverpool s stars are worthy contenders for the honour.
It s nice. I don t understand or know too m…
When you give it a more serious thought, that’s just what Zlatan Ibrahimovic does. It’s just the way he is and this tweet was just another perfect example of his power to affect people.
And without even the slightest of hints that he could be returning to the national team and coming out of retirement to re-join Sweden on their Russian adventure, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the talk of the town.
The 36-year-old Manchester United striker has not played a single minute since April due to a knee injury and has yet to return to action for his club, but that did not prevent a good part of the public to speculate with his potential return to Sweden, claiming that with Ibra the Swedes would have bigger chances of producing a notable result at the World Cup.
Would th…