Cardiff City can boost their Premier League survival hopes against Stoke City by recording back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
Victory over Southampton last weekend ended a five-game winless run for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer s men, and moved them to within three points of safety.
They host an in-form Stoke side this Saturday, though, with the Midlands outfit having lost just one of their last seven top-flight matches to move them into the comfort of mid-table.
However, five of Cardiff s seven top-flight victories this term have come at home, while Stoke have won just twice away all season.
And Solskjaer, who has overseen three Premier League wins since replacing Malky Mackay, remains confident Cardiff can avoid relegation back to the Championship at the…
Pele leaves a legacy impossible to summarise in words but FIFA president Gianni Infantino believes the Brazil great achieved immortality after his death on Thursday.
Sao Paolo s Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital confirmed multiple organ failure as the cause of death for the three-time World Cup winner, who many consider to be the greatest footballer of all time.
The Santos legend had been battling colon cancer, with his family travelling to join him earlier in December after being moved into palliative care when his body stopped responding to treatment.
The likes of Lionel Messi, Ronaldo Nazario and Cristiano Ronaldo paid tribute to the 82-year-old before Infantino joined a plethora of players, clubs and sporting organisations to offer their kind recollections.<…
Vinicius Junior has criticised LaLiga bosses for failing to effectively tackle racism after the Real Madrid forward was targeted at Real Valladolid.
The Brazilian had items thrown at him from the stands after he was substituted late on, and shocking footage of verbal abuse emerged after Friday s game.
Madrid sealed a 2-0 win in their first league game since the World Cup, with Karim Benzema getting both goals.
Vinicius posted a picture of himself with Benzema soon after the away victory, with the caption: God bless us!
Having considered the unsavoury events of the evening, Vinicius added on social media on Saturday: Racists continue to go to stadiums and watch the biggest club in the world up close and @LaLiga continues to do nothing
I will con…
Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm made his 500th appearance for the club in Saturday s Bundesliga clash with Schalke.
Germany s World Cup-winning captain of 2014, Lahm made his Bundesliga debut for Bayern in November 2005 against Arminia Bielfeld, three years after making his first appearance for the club in the Champions League, the pair of formative appearances bookending a two-season loan at Stuttgart.
He has since gone on to win seven Bundesliga titles, six DFB-Pokals and the 2013 Champions League among other medals in a bulging haul.
And yet another milestone was racked up when he replaced Rafinha in the 77th minute at the Allianz Arena.
A regular since his introduction into the first team by Felix Magath, Lahm has worked with eight head coaches a…
Verdict: Draw
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Having both won their respective 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers earlier last week, France and Spain go head-to-head in one of the most glamorous fixtures in international football, which is expected to bring forward an exciting performance despite the lack of competitive importance.
France
Les Bleus might have recorded a 3-1 win over Luxembourg on Saturday, but the display against the tiny nation was far from a convincing one. Luxembourg even went on to score an equaliser to briefly go 1-1 with the Euro 2016 finalists, before conceding two more and ultimately losing the game. Oliviero Giroud scored a brace and Antoine Griezmann scored one goal as well in a game which allowed France to keep their three-point gap in f…
Xabi Alonso has finalised his move from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich.
The German champions announced on Thursday that, following negotiations with both Real and Alonso, the midfielder would switch to the Allianz Arena subject to a medical
A short statement published on Bayern s official Twitter feed on Friday read: Xabi Alonso has completed his move to Bayern!
Contract between FCB and Real Madrid signed.
The 32-year-old, who announced his retirement from international football on Wednesday after winning 114 caps for Spain, signed a two-year extension to his Real contract back in January.
However, he has seemingly been pushed down the pecking order following the arrivals of Toni Kroos who joined from Bayern and James Rodriguez.
Alonso mov…
According to , Newcastle would be willing to permanently part ways with Aleksandar Mitrović this summer. The price they demand for the striker is £20million.
After spending a year at Partizan Belgrade, Mitrović moved to Anderlecht in 2013. Two years later Newcastle signed him from the Belgian club for a reported fee of £13million. Even though he had hopes of reaching the same heights with the Magpies as Alan Shearer, he fell rather short of the mark by scoring only 17 goals in 72 games for the club. Halfway through the 2017/18 season he was loaned out to Fulham under his compatriot Slaviša Jokanović, and his 12 goals in 20 games there helped them gain promotion to the Premier League.
There have been speculations about his future with a permanent move to Craven C…
Arsenal s Lukas Podolski has taken to Twitter to quash rumours linking him with a move to north London rivals Tottenham.
The Germany international has regularly been linked with leaving the Emirates Stadium after falling down the pecking order behind the likes of Danny Welbeck, Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez.
However, when reports emerged on Monday that Spurs were interested in his signature, the former Bayern Munich and Cologne striker was unequivocal in his response.
In a message on the social media platform, Podolski wrote: Hell will freeze over before this transfer would happen. #Poldi #aha #AlwaysAGunner #NeverCheatYourClub #AFC #Redarmy
Podolski has yet to start a Premier League game for Arsene Wenger s side this term and spoke recently of the …
What the papers say
Jude Bellingham could face a fight for his Real Madrid shirt in the future – from his own brother. According to the Daily Mirror, via Spanish outlet El Nacional, scouts from the Bernabeu were sent to watch Sunderland midfielder Jobe Bellingham, 18, play for England Under-19s in Montenegro.
Chelsea fans are facing a further wait before catching a first glimpse of midfielder Romeo Lavia in action for the Blues. The Daily Mail reports the 19-year-old Belgian, signed from Southampton in the summer, will be out until the end of November after injuring an ankle in training.
And Chelsea face losing another young talent with Barcelona tracking Dutch defender Ian Maatsen. The left-back, 21, turned down a summer move to Burnley but having made just one Premi…
Andrea Pirlo feels qualifying for the Champions League, not winning the Scudetto, is a realistic objective for the new-look AC Milan.
The Rossoneri have made significant outlays in the off-season transfer market, bringing in Andre Silva and Leonardo Bonucci from Porto and Juventus respectively, among a host of other recruits.
That has led some observers to claim Vincenzo Montella s team, who finished sixth last season, are now capable of challenging for their first title since 2010-11.
But Pirlo, a Serie A winner with both Milan and Juventus, considers that assessment optimistic.
Will Milan fight for the Scudetto? I don t think so, he told La Repubblica.
When you re starting from zero and [sign] 10 new players, they can be as good as you wan…