Guangzhou Evergrande will have to be wary of Gamba Osaka until the final minute of Wednesday s AFC Champions League (ACL) semi-final first leg.
Gamba have become the ACL s late-show specialists, with the J.League club having reached the final four in Asia s premier club competition thanks to Koki Yonekura s 93rd-minute strike in the quarter-finals against Jeonbuk Motors.
Jeonbuk had looked set to advance on away goals in Japan on September 16 after Urko Vera scored in the 88th minute to level the match and the tie at 2-2, but Yonekura dribbled his way through the visitors defence soon after before poking the ball into the net to secure a last-gasp victory.
In the ACL group stage, Gamba also scored late goals to defeat Seongnam and Buriram United.
Those po…
Axel Witsel says Belgium must prove they belong at the top of the FIFA rankings against Italy in Brussels on Friday.
Marc Wilmots side moved above world champions Germany and 2015 Copa America runners-up Argentina to lead the table of international teams for the first time in their history last month.
Belgium topped their qualifying group for Euro 2016, and have lost just once since their World Cup quarter-final defeat to Argentina last year.
But midfielder Witsel believes the clash with Italy which is followed by a friendly with Spain on Tuesday will act as a barometer for how far they have progressed.
We will approach these matches like any other. We want to prove we deserve our place in the FIFA rankings, he said.
Nobody doubts that we ha…
Fulham head coach Marco Silva praised the desire and belief of his team to snatch a late 1-0 win at Brighton and Hove Albion.
Manor Solomon s 88th-minute goal sent Fulham up to sixth in the Premier League, leapfrogging Brighton in the process.
The hosts had the majority of the chances, recording 21 shots to five, with the Cottagers not having any in a one-sided first half.
However, Solomon struck in the dying minutes after racing onto a throughball from Carlos Vinicius, hitting a shot low and hard across Robert Sanchez to win it.
Speaking to BBC Sport after the game, Silva said: It was a tough game against a very good side, the way they play and the way they are dominant. They did against us what they have been doing against all the teams in this league.<…
Italy legend Andrea Pirlo has defended the Azzurri s poor form and rejected claims the state of football in his homeland is in poor health.
Gian Piero Ventura s side limped to a 1-1 home draw with Macedonia on Friday, meaning they must navigate the play-offs in order to qualify for the World Cup.
If they do reach Russia 2018, Italy will be attempting to avoid a third successive group-stage exit following disappointing displays in 2010 and 2014.
But Germany 2006 champion Pirlo, who on Sunday announced his impending retirement from a decorated 22-year playing career, is confident results will soon improve.
Italian football is not sick, the 38-year-old told Gazzetta dello Sport.
It s true that we have had two bad exits from the World Cup, but i…
Premier League newcomers are closing in on a deal for former Everton centre-back Sylvain Distin, .
The defender is a free agent after leaving Goodison Park at the end of last season, after six seasons on the Blue half of Merseyside.
The thirty-seven moved England in July 2001, when he joined Newcastle United on a year-long loan from Paris Saint Germain, while he signed for Manchester City twelve months later.
After five seasons with in Manchester, the Frenchman moved to Portsmouth for three years before eventually signing for Everton in 2009.
In total Distin has racked up four hundred and thirty-eight Premier League appearances, by far and away the most amount by any overseas outfield player in the division’s history.
Bournemouth have been…
Adem Ljajic knows Saturday s Serie A clash at in-form Roma is critical for Inter s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League, which the club have repeatedly stated is their main aim for the campaign.
The playmaker takes on his former club when Roberto Mancini s men travel to Stadio Olimpico and face the team who sit third in the standings, five points clear of them in the race to reach Europe s elite club competition with nine games to go.
Ljajic never expected to be meeting Roma in such a pivotal clash because he felt they would be Scudetto candidates this season, but is now aware that they need to be beaten.
Before the beginning of the season I would never have said this match would be decisive for the Champions League, he told Premium Sport.
I tho…
Paris Saint-Germain boss Unai Emery is upbeat over his side s chances of getting past Real Madrid and advancing to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Despite topping Group B, the runaway Ligue 1 leaders were dealt perhaps the toughest possible hand in drawing the reigning champions.
PSG were dumped out in the round of 16 by Barcelona last term as their 4-0 first leg advantage was spectacularly overturned in a 6-5 aggregate defeat.
Emery is undaunted by a similar challenge this time around.
I think it is a good draw. I believe we can compete with Real Madrid, Emery told UEFA.com.
To make something great in the UEFA Champions League, you need to beat the best teams. The last 16 is a good moment to play such teams.
We will need to show…
Manchester City are interested in signing Mycael in the summer transfer window, according to . The report has claimed that City, who won the Premier League title last season are looking at Mycael as a potential replacement for Ederson.
Ederson is the number one goalkeeper at City at the moment. The Brazil international is one of the best goalkeepers in the world and has been superb for the Citizens over the years. However, there is a chance that Ederson could be off to Saudi Arabia this summer.
So, City are on the hunt for a new goalkeeper. If Ederson leaves, then City manager Pep Guardiola will promote Stefan Ortega to number one. City want to bring a potential number two, and they are showing interest in Mycael, who has only played twice for Athletico Paranaense’s f…
Youri Tielemans, who has confirmed his wish to leave AS Monaco this summer, is scheduled to undergo a medical today (Saturday) ahead of a proposed move to Leicester City, according to .
The midfielder spent the second half of the 2018/19 season on loan at the King Power Stadium, and it seems he s very close to making the move permanent, despite the reported interest from the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Tielemans arrived to England on Friday evening in order to complete the move before the Foxes travel to France to begin their pre-season training camp. The fee Monaco are to receive is apparently agreed at around £40 million, which would be a club record for Leicester. The signing would be the third of the summer for the 2015/16 Premier League cham…
Austria midfielder Stefan Ilsanker is baffled by criticism of David Alaba ahead of his country’s concluding Euro 2016 Group F match against Iceland.
The Bayern Munich defender, whose versatility sees him deployed in a central midfield role at international level, was a star performer as Austria completed a successful qualifying campaign.
His influence has been somewhat becalmed in France, since hitting the post during the opening minute against Hungary. Austria s neighbours would run out surprise 2-0 winners.
Injury problems persuaded coach Marcel Koller to push Alaba forward into the more advanced number 10 role for Saturday s 0-0 draw against Portugal, with the results mixed at best before the 23-year-old was substituted midway through the second half.
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