Villa complete Maatsen signing as Netherlands international ends six-year stay at Chelsea

Bayern Munich are considering the possibility of going for Brighton and Hove Albion star Moises Caicedo this summer, according to Sky in Germany.

The Seagulls originally signed Caicedo from Ecuadorian side Independiente in January 2021, and sent him on loan to Beerschot six months later. He returned to the Amex last summer and played a huge role in what can only be described as a historic season for the club from the south coast of England as they secured a place in the Europa League.

The 21-year-old midfielder was of strong interest to Arsenal and Chelsea this January, but Brighton simply refused to sell such an important player in the middle of the season. Chelsea signed Enzo Fernandez from Benfica instead and Arsenal are believed to the favourites for West Ham captai…

Marcus Rashford has been challenged to finish the season with as many as 35 goals by Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag.

Rashford hit the net for the 20th time this term as the Red Devils recovered from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 Premier League draw with Leeds United on Wednesday.

The England forward has scored 12 goals in 14 appearances since returning from the World Cup and has almost three times as many goals as United s next highest scorer Bruno Fernandes, who has seven to his name.

With Rashford on course to comfortably surpass the most prolific campaign of his career to date of 22 goals in 2019-20, Ten Hag urged him to keep aiming high.

[There is] much more to come and we have months to play, important months, Ten Hag told the club s websi…

Prediction: Italy to win 2-1

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Italy and Switzerland will face each other in Euro 2020 this week. The Group A match is slated to kick off at 8pm UK time on Wednesday evening and will be held at Stadio Olympico in Rome. It promises to be an exciting game of football.

Italy

Italy are among the favourites to win the Euro 2020 finals, and they have started the campaign in style. Roberto Mancini’s side got the better of Turkey 3-0 in their opening Group A at Stadium Olympico in Rome. All three goals came in the second half.

The former world champions will head into the match against Switzerland with confidence. Italy will know that maximum points from the game will see him progress to the next round.

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Giova…

Tottenham returned to winning ways with a 3-1 home victory over Crystal Palace after a dazzling spell of three goals in 11 second-half minutes.

Ange Postecoglou’s team were heading for a second straight defeat when fit-again Eberechi Eze curled home for Oliver Glasner’s side with 59 minutes on the clock.

Substitute Brennan Johnson helped turn the match back in Spurs’ favour, though, with a brilliant assist for Timo Werner’s 77th-minute equaliser before Cristian Romero headed in a second soon after.

Captain Son Heung-min wrapped up the scoring two minutes from time after Johnson had sent him away to earn the hosts’ a much-needed win in the battle for Champions League qualification.

Spurs had two weeks to prepare for this fixture but were up again…

Yaya Toure is very positive about having opportunities in management despite seeing Patrick Vieira recently sacked by Crystal Palace.

Toure was disappointed to see his former Manchester City team-mate lose his role as manager of the Eagles, who replaced Vieira with 75-year-old Roy Hodgson until the end of the season.

Speaking at a Football Black List event, the former Barcelona and City midfielder paid tribute to Vieira, whose dismissal meant there are no black managers in the Premier League.

Patrick Vieira is a great person, and a great coach as well. I think it s a sad part of it, Toure said.

It s a concern because if you have 50 per cent of the black players playing Premier League, and maybe one or two per cent of managers or coaches are black, it s …

Massimiliano Allegri revealed Juventus will be without their South American contingent, including Paulo Dybala, and the injured Federico Chiesa as they prepare to face Napoli on Saturday.

Dybala, who has been involved in four goals in his last four league games, heads the absentee list, which also includes Rodrigo Bentancur, Danilo, Juan Cuadrado and Alex Sandro.

Juve have managed just one point from their opening two Serie A games, only once in their history Allegri s first spell in 2015-16 – have they failed to win any of their opening three matches.

And matters have worsened for the Old Lady as Allegri confirmed on Friday that the visitors will be without their South American players after their late returns from international duty.

I decided to lea…

Forest Green enjoyed their first away league win since the opening day of last season as a second-half Matty Stevens goal secured a 1-0 triumph at Harrogate.

Stevens, who netted 27 times as Rovers won promotion in 2021/22 but only managed one goal last term, was credited with the final touch on a goal-bound effort by strike partner Tyrese Omotoye.

His 46th-minute header also sealed only a second win of any kind in 29 contests for the Gloucestershire outfit, following their relegation in spring.

Earlier, Omotoye had been denied by home goalkeeper Mark Oxley after an intelligent through ball by Charlie McCann.

At the other end, meanwhile, Sam Folarin’s firm drive was kept out at the near post by Luke Daniels.

But the visitors forged ahead 55 secon…

Steve Clarke revealed Newcastle midfielder Elliot Anderson had decided against switching allegiance to England following positive discussions with the Scotland manager ahead of his first senior call-up.

Anderson has been called into Clarke’s squad for the Euro 2024 qualifier against Cyprus and a friendly against England.

The 20-year-old has represented Scotland at under-16, under-17 and under-18 level and then played a training-ground friendly for England Under-19s against Arsenal Under-23s in 2021.

The attacking midfielder made a sole Scotland Under-21 appearance against Belgium in June 2022 before turning down further call-ups from Scot Gemmill as he considered his international future.

Congratulations to , who has earned his first senior call-up to …

Luka Jovic has found it hard to kick-start his Real Madrid career and Saturday s LaLiga defeat to Real Mallorca showed how much work the striker still has to do.

The 21-year-old, a reported €50million signing from Eintracht Frankfurt in the transfer window, has struggled to make an impact under Zinedine Zidane thanks largely to the continued good form of Karim Benzema.

Speaking on Friday, Zidane insisted Jovic was not discouraged at having previously started just two LaLiga matches and promised the forward would be given his chance.

He duly was for the visit to Son Moix, where Madrid s unbeaten start to the league season came to an end thanks to a fine first-half goal from Lago Junior seven minutes in.

Jovic started alongside Benzema in attack as Zidan…

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 700th goal of his professional career during Portugal s Euro 2020 qualifier against Ukraine on Monday.

The five-time Ballon d Or winner brought up his septuple century for club and country when he converted a second-half penalty in Kiev, awarded after Taras Stepanenko handled the ball inside the box.

It was his 95th goal for Portugal, with only Iran s Ali Daei (109) ahead of him on the all-time international goals list.

The bulk of Ronaldo s goals came for Real Madrid – 450 over the course of nine seasons at the Santiago Bernabeu between 2009 and 2018.

700 Cristiano Ronaldo has scored his 700th career goal for club and country:

Sporting CP 5
Manchester United 118
Real Madrid 450
Juventus 32
Portugal 95

L…