February 2019
SheBelieves Cup: England women’s squad information, fixture dates, TV channels, kick-off times and odds
England women’s football team will take on Brazil on Wednesday night in Philadelphia for the opening fixture of the SheBelieves Cup, an annual four-team tournament involving the Lionesses, the hosts the United States, Brazil and Japan.
Last year, England finished second in the competition after recording a 4-1 win over France in head coach Phil Neville‘s opening match in the position. They went on to draw 2-2 with Germany and lose 1-0 to the USA in the trophy-deciding match.
Read more: England full of confidence for SheBelieves Cup and the Women’s World Cup in June
All three matches of the competition will be broadcast on the BBC in the coming days, ahead of the Summer World Cup.
Here’s everything you need to know about the tournament.
Fixtures and TV details
Brazil, Wednesday 27 February
Kick off time: 8.45pm GMT
Location: Talen Energy Stadium, Chester, Pennsylvania
TV channel: BBC Four
Odds: Brazil 16-5, Draw 13-5, England 8-11
USA, Saturday 2 March
Kick off time: 9.45pm GMT
Location: Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee
TV channel: BBC Two
Odds: USA 1-2, Draw 11-4, England
Japan, Tuesday 5 March
Kick off time: 10pm GMT
Location: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida
TV channel: BBC Four
England Squad for SheBelieves Cup
Phil Neville announced the England Women’s squad for the annual SheBelieves Cup in the United States on 19 February.
The 23-player squad is as follows:
Goalkeepers
- Karen Bardsley (Manchester City)
- Mary Earps (Wolfsburg)
- Carly Telford (Chelsea)
Defenders
- Gemma Bonner (Manchester City)
- Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
- Rachel Daly (Houston Dash)
- Alex Greenwood (Manchester United)
- Steph Houghton (Manchester City)
- Abbie McManus (Manchester City)
- Demi Stokes (Manchester City)
- Leah Williamson (Arsenal)
Midfielders
- Karen Carney (Chelsea)
- Isobel Christiansen (Lyon)
- Fran Kirby (Chelsea)
- Jill Scott (Manchester City)
- Lucy Staniforth (Birmingham City)
- Georgia Stanway (Manchester City)
- Keira Walsh (Manchester City)
Forwards
Follow us on Facebook: @iPaperSport
- Toni Duggan (Barcelona)
- Beth Mead (Arsenal)
- Nikita Parris (Manchester City)
- Jodie Taylor (Seattle Reign)
- Ellen White (Birmingham City)
More Football:
The post SheBelieves Cup: England women’s squad information, fixture dates, TV channels, kick-off times and odds appeared first on inews.co.uk.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2IEmgPF
Real Madrid team news: Isco left out of Copa Del Rey Clasico squad vs Barcelona
Real Madrid and Spain midfielder Isco has been excluded from Santiago Solari’s Copa del Rey matchday squad to face Barcelona.
The creative midfielder returned to training this week, but will not feature for Los Blancos in the second leg of the semi-final in what is the third El Clasico of the year.
Read more: Real Madrid vs Barcelona: How to watch, team news and odds
Isco, 26, was not expected to disrupt Solari’s favoured midfield trio of Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, given Solari’s clear disaffection with the playmaker, but it has certainly raised a few eyebrows that the midfielder has not even been included in the squad.
Madrid are hoping to secure a place in the final, having drawn 1-1 with their rivals at the Camp Nou in the first leg, which took place on 6 February.
Isco, who has been out with a back injury for the past three matches in La Liga, has regularly featured on the bench for Real Madrid this campaign and has only started five league matches this season.
Deepening conflict
Solari has repeatedly faced questions from Spanish media in press conference about his relationship with the playmaker, given he has only used Isco as a starter in three matches, against UD Mellila in the Copa Del Rey in which he scored twice, against CSKA Moscow in a 3-0 Champions League defeat, and in a comfortable 3-0 Copa Del Rey win against Leganés.
Solari has questioned Isco’s work rate in training previously, saying: “In football, you have to work and put 100 per cent of your talent into everything. You have to do that in training so you are available to play.”
Follow us on Facebook: @iPaperSport
Isco has been rumoured to be looking for a move away from the club in the summer as a result of his playing time, with moves to Chelsea in a swap and cash deal for Eden Hazard mooted, with rivals Barcelona also reportedly interested.
Pep Guardiola has also previously been recorded as an admirer of the midfielder and as a result Isco has been linked in the press with Manchester City.
More Football:
The post Real Madrid team news: Isco left out of Copa Del Rey Clasico squad vs Barcelona appeared first on inews.co.uk.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2Sw2F3E
Brendan Rodgers to be named Leicester City manager as Celtic allow him to speak with club
Brendan Rodgers is set to be named as Leicester City’s new manager after Celtic agreed to let him speak to the Premier League club.
It will be Rodgers’s first return to the Premier League since being sacked by Liverpool three-and-a-half years ago. The 46-year-old is expected to bring Celtic technical assistant Kolo Touré, the former Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal defender, and assistant Chris Davies with him to form his backroom team of staff.
Read more: Why Brendan Rodgers makes perfect sense as Leicester’s next manager
Celtic, who are due around £6 million in compensation, said in a statement on Tuesday: “Celtic Football Club today confirmed that it has been approached by Leicester City FC to speak to Brendan Rodgers with regards to their current managerial vacancy.
“Brendan has indicated to the club that this is an opportunity he wishes to investigate further and therefore, very reluctantly, the club has granted him permission to speak to Leicester City.”
Scottish success
The timing of the move has surprised many, with Rodgers on the verge of a historic treble-treble, but the Northern Irishman has always sought a return to the Premier League.
Rodgers has rebuilt his reputation in Scotland, having grown it during successful spells at Watford, Reading and Swansea but then failing at Liverpool. In almost three years at Celtic, Rodgers won the Scottish Premiership twice, Scottish Cup twice and Scottish League Cup three times, and was on course to add the three again.
Leicester have acted quickly to replace Claude Puel, who was sacked after 16 months in charge of the club following a 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday. Leicester had lost five of their last six Premier League matches under the Frenchman and also went out of the FA Cup against League Two Newport County.
Former England and Everton manager Sam Allardyce and former Manchester United manager David Moyes publicly expressed their interest in taking over at the Midlands club, but Rodgers was their No 1 target.
Neil Lennon is expected to replace Rodgers at Celtic.
Follow us on Facebook: @iPaperSport
Rangers manager Steven Gerrard, who played for Rodgers at Liverpool, said: “I have worked with Brendan so I know he is a very good coach. It seems (the lure of Premier League has been a big factor) otherwise he’d have declined the opportunity to talk to Leicester.
“I’m not really surprised by the timing because these things happen. Brendan has done ever so well at Celtic over the years so it’s no surprise that other clubs are watching him and wanting to acquire his services.”
More Premier League:
The post Brendan Rodgers to be named Leicester City manager as Celtic allow him to speak with club appeared first on inews.co.uk.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2Nv3GZ1
Manchester United vs Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp’s men have chance to prove their mettle
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has already been appointed the permanent manager of Manchester United, at least by Jurgen Klopp. It’s clear he will be there next year, said Liverpool’s coach, winking furiously. Pre-match propaganda of the most obvious kind designed to disrupt and disturb ahead of English football’s lodestar fixture or the wisdom of a man who knows?
It is unlikely to trouble Solskjaer either way since he avoids all pre-match logorrhea and expects rival managers to give his musings the same wide berth. That said, and though the sample remains small, with each passing fixture Solskjaer makes it harder for the United board to look elsewhere. And should he make it 11 wins in 13 matches against Liverpool of all teams you would have to say the post is Solskjaer’s to lose.
Shortcomings
The one blob on his card is the home defeat to PSG in the Champions League. There was little in it for half an hour but by increments PSG began to set the agenda via the feet of world class footballers in pivotal positions.
Read more: The Manchester United weak links exposed in defeat to PSG
What the defeat exposed was not only the shortcomings in United’s squad when faced with the likes of Thiago Silva in defence, Marquinhos and Verratti in midfield and Kylian Mbappe everywhere, but also the lack of big match nouse. United tried just a bit too hard to be the big dog in the fight, to lay out their legacy credentials. PSG just laughed, absorbed United’s schoolboy enthusiasms, locked down their top man then pulled away.
United’s response in the FA Cup fifth round at Chelsea, like the performance in the previous round at Arsenal was hugely encouraging. The challenge now is to take that forward into a contest that constitutes the higher ground towards which Solskjaer is pointing United. Liverpool, who dispatched a full strength PSG at Anfield in the group stages of the Champions League and dominated possession in the return match in Paris, represent the next level, a club side fully evolved and stacked with big-match talent.
Critical juncture
Germany’s signature club and serial Champions League semi-finalists Bayern Munich celebrated Tuesday’s goalless draw at Anfield as if it were a triumph. To stop Liverpool scoring, to take the heat out of the game was straight out of the underdog’s playbook. That is how far Liverpool have come. They arrive at Old Trafford at a critical juncture, seeking the victory that would re-establish a three-point cushion to Manchester City in the race for the title.
Since the turn of the year we have seen a shift in dynamic at the top of the league, which adds still further to the significance of the United fixture. The Anfield goal rush has slowed to a trickle. Since the 5-1 evisceration of Arsenal in the last game of 2018, Liverpool have scored one or fewer in six of their eight games, winning only three. City, by comparison, have never been more fecund. In 13 matches this year in all competitions City have plundered 49 goals, including a 9, 7, 6, 5, 4 and four 3s, the latest coming in the comeback win against Schalke.
Pressure moments
We can see the direction of travel. With City otherwise engaged this weekend aiming to notch the first pot of the notional quadruple, this is Liverpool’s opportunity to strike, and to demonstrate that they have the mettle to handle pressure moments. Back in December when the winning was easy Liverpool ended Jose Mourinho’s reign of torpor at United with a coruscating victory at Anfield. None thought then that the return fixture two months hence would have any consequence for United other than the opportunity to kibosh Liverpool’s title dream. Yet here they are chasing three points to tighten their hold on fourth place.
That England’s power couple come together with so much at stake renders the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, well, the Carabao Cup final, a match noteworthy only for City’s involvement as they chase down that unprecedented quad.
More on the Premier League:
The post Manchester United vs Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp’s men have chance to prove their mettle appeared first on inews.co.uk.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2EqpqT6
Europa League last 16 draw: Fixtures and dates in full as Arsenal and Chelsea discover opponents
Arsenal and Chelsea have discovered their opponents in the last 16 of the Europa League (see draw in full below).
Chelsea (4-1) began the day as favourites for the Europa League with Napoli (5-1), Arsenal (6-1), Sevilla (9-1) and Inter (10-1) following behind.
Triumph in this competition would seal automatic qualification for next year’s Champions League – a tantalising prospect, particularly for Chelsea and Arsenal with Manchester United tightening their grip on fourth place in the Premier League.
Europa League draw – in full
Chelsea vs Dynamo Kiev
Please refresh the page to see the draw in full
When are the fixtures?
Last 16 fixtures in the Europa League will be played on Thursdays 7 and 14 March.
The final of this year’s competition will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan on 29 May.
More football:
The post Europa League last 16 draw: Fixtures and dates in full as Arsenal and Chelsea discover opponents appeared first on inews.co.uk.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2GE1YUw
Chelsea transfer ban: Why club can’t sign any players in next two transfer windows
Chelsea have been banned from signing players in the next two transfer windows by football’s world governing body Fifa.
The west London club have also been fined 600,000 Swiss francs (over £460,000) for breaching rules on the international transfer and registration of players under the age of 18.
The Football Association has also been fined 510,000 Swiss francs after being found to have breached the rules in connection with minors, the Fifa statement added.
More follows…
The post Chelsea transfer ban: Why club can’t sign any players in next two transfer windows appeared first on inews.co.uk.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2GFsc91
Arsenal news: Why win over BATE Borisov felt so important for Unai Emery
EMIRATES STADIUM, LONDON — Cancel the banners. Call off the planes. The embryonic #EmeryOut campaign will have to be aborted, temporarily at least, with Arsenal’s Europa League specialist manager guiding his side to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Bate Borisov.
Unlike the agricultural surface and sub-zero temperatures faced in Belarus in that surprise defeat last week Arsenal had no excuses here with the lush Emirates turf glistening on a warm evening that felt suspiciously like the start of spring in north London.
The home side made the most of those favourable conditions, beginning brightly and breaking the deadlock after just four minutes with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gliding past full-back Aleksandr Filipovic, curling the ball into that horrible area between the last line of defence and goalkeeper and forcing centre-half Zakhar Volkov to shin it into his own net.
Messy rhythm
Chances continued to come thick and fast for Arsenal in the opening stages, with Alex Iwobi curling one inches wide of the far post before Henrikh Mkhitaryan then fired over from the edge of the box with less than 10 minutes gone.
Arsenal, like they have for most of the past decade, looked far more comfortable in their opponents’ final third than their own and soon gifted Bate two opportunities which a higher calibre of player than Maksim Skavysh and Stanislav Dragun may well have buried.
After that early panic the game settled into a messy sort of rhythm, Arsenal dominating possession but lacking any real fluency going forward, with a misplaced pass here and a skewed shot there.
Relief
While there is a sense that Emery will be afforded more patience at Arsenal than his counterpart across town at Chelsea, this victory nevertheless felt important with the half-dozen double fist-pumps and screams of delight as Shkodran Mustafi powered in the second from a corner and substitute Sokratis Papastathopoulos replicated for the third midway through the second-half revealing the manager’s relief from the weight of growing tension lifted.
Arsenal’s season started brightly and, until Christmas, the transition from the Wenger-era into this new age of Emery had been running smoother than expected.
Victory over Qarabag in the final group game of this competition in December extended an unbeaten run to 22 matches but since then their form has been horribly patchy. Defeat in Borisov last week was Arsenal’s seventh in 14 matches, a run which has seen them exit both domestic cup competitions and slip behind a resurgent Manchester United in the league.
The exit from a third cup, especially at the hands of lowly Bate Borisov, would have been near unthinkable.
‘Bigger fight’
“It was a good test today, a good challenge,” Emery said after the final whistle. “After the first match, it was very important we came here and continued in this competition.
“We needed to show a bigger fight, we needed to continue [to push] when we scored one, two, three because if they score one goal it can be dangerous.
“We showed responsibility and a good performance for 90 minutes. Now our focus is back on the Premier League.”
The road ahead
Up next are two winnable home fixtures against Southampton and Bournemouth in quick succession followed by pivotal games against Big Six rivals Tottenham and Manchester United.
Should Arsenal fail to pick up a decent total of points from those games then the race for fourth place will begin to look like one they cannot win.
Nevertheless, there are few teams in the last 16 of the Europa League Arsenal should truly fear, particularly if they can hit some of that early season form and Emery rediscovers the touch which saw him win this competition three times in a row.
It could, therefore, be Arsenal’s most viable route back into the Champions League.
More on Arsenal:
The post Arsenal news: Why win over BATE Borisov felt so important for Unai Emery appeared first on inews.co.uk.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2GJhXkr