Italy will be hoping to book a place in the Confederations Cup semi-final with victory over Japan on Wednesday at Arena Pernambuco, with Cesare Prandelli expected to keep faith with the same XI that beat Mexico 2-1 on Sunday.
Gianluigi Buffon is the only player from both sides that survives from the two nations last meeting in an international friendly in 2001, though Prandelli could yet drop Emanuele Giaccherini for Stephan El-Shaarawy.
Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni, meanwhile, will be buoyed with Keisuke Honda s outing against Brazil on Saturday, with the CSKA Moscow player coming through unscathed despite previous injury worries.
With the Samurai Blue side needing a positive result to remain in the competition, Zaccheroni could well deploy Ryoichi Maeda up …
Former Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers would be welcomed back to the Liberty Stadium with open arms, according to full-back Neil Taylor.
Rodgers has been linked with a return to Swansea after he was sacked by Liverpool in October last year.
The 43-year-old spent two years in the Welsh city, guiding Swansea to the Premier League in 2011, before moving to Anfield the following year.
Francesco Guidolin is in charge of Swansea at the moment but Wales international Taylor talked up Rodgers potential return.
He did great things for this football club, so there is no reason why we wouldn t want him back, said Taylor.
We know he is a fantastic manager but we have to do a job.
We can think about that at the end of the season.
Under…
Liverpool claimed a 2-0 advantage over rivals Manchester United in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie, with Louis van Gaal s visitors indebted to goalkeeper David de Gea for preventing a heavier loss at Anfield.
Daniel Sturridge converted a 20th-minute penalty after Memphis Depay was adjudged to have fouled Nathaniel Clyne and the industrious Roberto Firmino added a second 17 minutes from time.
Jurgen Klopp s maiden managerial victory in a fixture he referred to as the mother of all games and Liverpool s first win over United in five attempts would have been by a greater margin but for De Gea, who came out on top as Philippe Coutinho and Sturridge lacked conviction from close range.
Coutinho then prompted further acrobatics from De Gea, alth…
England captain Harry Kane insists he will use the World Cup as a platform to prove his quality as he aims to reach the levels of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Kane proved the hero for England on Monday, heading in a late winner his second of the game to secure a 2-1 victory in the Three Lions World Cup opener against Tunisia.
The 24-year-old missed out to Mohamed Salah in the race for the Premier League s Golden Boot, but still netted 41 goals across all competitions for Tottenham last term.
And, having carried that form into the World Cup, Kane who failed to find the net at Euro 2016 claims to have put no limits on what he can achieve.
I had to prove people wrong throughout my career and I love proving to myself I can do it, he said.
Juventus president Andrea Agnelli feels Andrea Barzagli is at the same level as defenders such as Thiago Silva, Gerard Pique and John Terry and deserves more credit for his fine performances.
Barzagli joined Juventus from Wolfsburg in 2011 and has since developed into a key figure at the Turin giants, making close to 200 appearances in all competitions.
I ve often joked with Andrea that he s been the best signing we ve made. I can only emphasise that once again, Agnelli said at a news conference after the Italy international signed a new contract with the Serie A champions until June 2018.
Andrea is another great professional and a reserved character who deserves way more credit than he gets, partly because of his position and partly due to his character.
…
Southampton striker Danny Ings is a guy who I have admired since his days with Burnley when he inspired the Clarets to promotion to the Premier League.
In his debut Premier League campaign, he scored a respectable 11 goals in a team that was simply out of its depth. The Clarets suffered relegation, but Ings’ individual performances impressed enough for Liverpool to snap him up as a free agent.
Injuries fatal to his time on Merseyside
Ings spent a frustrating three seasons with the Reds, making just 14 top-flight appearances, and scoring just three goals in the process. In truth, he was always going to struggle for first-team football simply due to the quality of strikers in the Reds squad.
However, the quality of his competitors for a starting place was not t…
Ilkay Gundogan has allayed fears over another injury blow after revealing he was suffering from cramp during the closing stages of Manchester City s EFL Cup clash with Wolves.
Pep Guardiola s free-scoring Premier League leaders drew a blank across 120 minutes against the Championship table-toppers but prevailed 4-1 on penalties, with goalkeeper Claudio Bravo their shoot-out hero.
Gundogan joined City from Borussia Dortmund in 2016 but his maiden season in England was curtailed by cruciate knee ligament damage last December.
The Germany international suffered a minor setback during a 2-1 win at West Brom in the EFL Cup third round this term and has been limited to substitute cameos in the Premier League and Champions League.
After booking a quarter-fin…
Shane Duffy said he has fulfilled a childhood dream after completing a season-long loan move to Celtic from Brighton and Hove Albion.
The centre-back will link up with the Scottish champions for the 2020-21 campaign after international duty, where he is preparing for Nations League fixtures against Bulgaria and Finland with the Republic of Ireland.
I m delighted, it s something that I ve always dreamed of doing and I m just excited to get up there now and get going. Hopefully I can do my best for the club. I m over the moon, it s been a long time coming! Duffy told Celtic s official website.
People will know the connection with Derry in Ireland and Celtic, and it s all we knew, really.
Growing up, I was lucky enough to get over to a few games and exp…
Diego Simeone believes Atletico Madrid s 2-0 win against Roma on Wednesday has improved the mood throughout the club.
Atleti remain unbeaten in LaLiga, but they trail leaders Barcelona by 10 points and their Champions League campaign looked to have been derailed by consecutive draws against Qarabag.
However, Simeone s men saw off Roma at the Wanda Metropolitano to move within two points of their opponents in Group C and the head coach feels the result has lifted the club.
The goals make you see the improvement, Simeone told a news conference ahead of Saturday s league trip to Levante. If, the other day, we had not scored two goals, all these things would be meaningless.
Everything seems much better when you win. In football, the only things that count a…
FIFA has hit back at reports claiming its president Gianni Infantino worked to weaken the code of ethics, accusing the media of trying to undermine the governing body s leadership.
German publication Der Spiegel alleged Infantino was in August personally involved in amendments to the FIFA regulations, based on documents it claims to have attained from whistleblowers Football Leaks . Infantino did not address the accusations directly in a statement issued on Friday.
FIFA was criticised for removing the word corruption from its code of ethics, while also introducing a statute of limitation and defamation clause.
The defence for replacing bribery and corruption with just bribery in Article 27 was for reasons of language clarity in the English, Spanish and German ver…