Manchester City won the UEFA Super Cup for the first time on Wednesday but needed penalties to beat Sevilla after a 1-1 draw in Athens.

Youssef En-Nesyri’s towering first-half header gave the Spaniards the lead.

European champions City were far from their slick best, but hit back to force the game to penalties through Cole Palmer’s header.

City were then perfect from the spot and prevailed 5-4 in the shootout after Sevilla defender Nemanja Gudelj smashed against the bar.

Pep Guardiola has bemoaned his side’s lack of preparation for the new season and it showed under the baking heat in the Greek capital.

City badly missed the creative presence of Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva through a combination of injury and illness.

A four-month absence for De Bruyne due to a serious hamstring injury has exacerbated the loss of firepower offered by Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez since last season.

West Ham’s Brazilian international Lucas Paqueta has been linked with a move to the Etihad and this performance may serve as further proof City need to strengthen before the end of the transfer market.

Sevilla began their La Liga season with a disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Valencia.

But just as they did last season in lifting a seventh Europa League despite a 12th-placed league finish, they rose to the big occasion.

Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bounou was playing what is expected to be his final game for the club before a move to Saudi side Al Hilal.

The Moroccan international denied City a perfect start when he clawed away Nathan Ake’s powerful header that was destined for the bottom corner.

But Guardiola’s men soon became ponderous in possession and were punished on 25 minutes.

Gvardiol start

Josko Gvardiol was making his first start for City since a 90 million euro ($99 million) move from RB Leipzig.

The Croatian international was beaten to Marcos Acuna’s cross by En-Nesyri, who bulleted a header in off the post.

City’s sluggishness was in evidence again at the start of the second-half when Lucas Ocampos skipped past Kyle Walker’s desperate lunge to set up En-Nesyri with a golden chance to double Sevilla’s lead.

The Moroccan striker was one-on-one with Ederson but fired straight into the Brazilian goalkeeper’s legs.

Sevilla were left to rue that miss as City hit back against the run of play on 63 minutes.

Mahrez’s departure has opened the door to City academy graduate Palmer to the first-team and the England under-21 international, who also scored against Arsenal in the Community Shield, is taking his chance.

Rodri was City’s hero with the only goal in the Champions League final against Inter Milan and the Spaniard this time provided the assist with a perfectly measured cross for Palmer to cushion a header past Bounou.

En-Nesyri was guilty of another wasted one-on-one moments later as Ederson flew off his line to make a block.

Erling Haaland had scored twice in all of his previous three appearances against Sevilla, but the Norwegian barely got a sight of goal before the spot-kicks.

Instead, City’s best chance to win the game in normal time fell to Ake as the Dutchman’s downward header was tipped over.

However, there was no perfect ending for Bounou as Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Mateo Kovacic, Jack Grealish and Walker all held their nerve to score in the shootout.

Source: AFP

French superstar Kylian Mbappe has been left out of Paris Saint-Germain’s season opener on Saturday deepening the stand-off between the France captain and the Ligue 1 champions.

As Mbappe’s contract dispute with the Qatari-backed club rumbles on PSG announced a new signing – Ousmane Dembele on a five-year-deal from Barcelona.

He is the ninth summer arrival at a side which has lost Lionel Messi to Inter Miami, and may soon be facing up to life without Mbappe.

In an affair that has dominated transfer market headlines Mbappe has refused to sign an extension to his PSG deal, meaning he can leave for free next year, with Real Madrid long seen as his preferred destination.

PSG want to sell him now and bring in a significant transfer fee for a player who cost 180 million euros ($198m) from Monaco in 2017.

“The position is very clear. If Kylian wants to stay, he must sign a new contract. We can’t let the best player in the world today leave for free. It’s impossible,” PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi said last month.

Mbappe has not been allowed train with the first team and played only one of PSG’s five warm-up games and was not invited to the pre-season tour in Japan and South Korea.

Despite his sidelining Mbappe was one of the first to welcome Dembele to the Parc des Princes.

“Welcome home my brother, so happy to see you here, the adventure begins,” Mbappe posted on social media to greet Dembele with whom he won the World Cup in 2018.

The 26-year-old Dembele joined Barcelona in 2017 from Borussia Dortmund and had extended his contract last year until 2024.

PSG took advantage of the player’s 50 million euros ($54 million) release clause to sign the former Rennes forward.

“I’m very happy to join Paris Saint-Germain and can’t wait to play in my new colours,” Dembele said in a PSG statement.

“I hope to continue to grow here and make all who love the club proud.”

Ninth signing

Dembele, who has 37 caps for France and scored four goals, joins three other World Cup winners at PSG — Mbappe, Presnel Kimpembe and Lucas Hernandez.

He is the club’s ninth summer signing after defenders Milan Skriniar and Lucas Hernandez, midfielders Manuel Ugarte and Cher Ndour, forwards Marco Asensio, Lee Kang-in and Goncalo Ramos and goalkeeper Arnau Tenas.

At Barcelona, despite early problems adjusting to the Catalan side and injuries, Dembele scored 40 goals in 185 matches, winning three league titles in 2018, 2019 and 2023 and two Spanish Cups 2018 and 2021.

PSG are bolstering their attacking options with the futures of Mbappe and also Neymar uncertain.

“The passion and determination shown by Ousmane when he joined PSG is fantastic and is the attitude required for all our players,” said Khelaifi.

“We are proud to have another French World Cup winner in Paris Saint-Germain at the moment to enter a new great era for our club.”

New PSG coach Luis Enrique also left out Brazilian Neymar from Saturday evening’s game with the forward suffering a “viral syndrome”.

The club are reported to be open to selling the former Barcelona star and Italian midfielder Marco Verratti, who has also not been called up against Lorient.

Enrique is expected to start three newcomers in attack – Lee, Portuguese Ramos and Spaniard Asensio.

Source: AFP

Gianluigi Buffon announced his retirement from football on Wednesday, bringing down the curtain on a glorious career as one of the world’s greatest ever goalkeepers.

“That’s all folks! You gave me everything. I gave you everything. We did it together,” he posted in English on social media.

Buffon, 45, hangs up his gloves after two final years at Parma, the club where it all began nearly three decades ago when Italian football was Europe’s gold standard.

He had a contract which ran until next summer with Parma but he will no longer be a part of the Serie B club’s bid to return to the top flight after two years away.

Buffon is a symbol of a halcyon age when the best footballers went to play in Serie A and Italy developed dozens of world class players.

The former Italy captain has a record 176 caps for his country while also holding the record for Serie A matches played – 657, stretching back to 1995.

After bursting onto the scene as a 17-year-old, keeping out the likes of George Weah and Roberto Baggio in his Parma debut against AC Milan, Buffon won 27 major trophies.

The majority came over 19 seasons at Juventus, where he won 10 Serie A titles, five Italian Cups, while he also won the UEFA Cup in 1999 for Parma as part of possibly the best team in the club’s history.

He also won Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain in 2019 before returning to Juve, but he will be most fondly remembered for Italy’s victory at the 2006 World Cup.

Buffon was one of the stars as an Azzurri team battered by the ‘Calciopoli’ match-fixing scandal – which would cost him as Juve keeper two league titles – beat France on penalties after knocking out hosts Germany in the semi-finals.

That was the last hurrah for a generation which had made Italy one of the world’s dominant football nations, and as their fortunes slowly declined he suffered the ignominy of two straight group stage exits before bowing out not long after failure to qualify for the 2018 tournament.

Buffon won his last trophy in his final season with Juve two years ago, lifting the Italian Cup alongside Federico Chiesa, 22 years after he triumphed with Parma alongside his teammate’s father Enrico.

‘I shouldn’t have apologised’

However Buffon’s career has also been plagued by scandal, not least consistent rumours that is, or at least once was, a sympathiser of the far-right.

He drew fierce criticism for choosing the number 88, a neo-Nazi code for ‘Heil Hitler’, on his jersey for the 2000-01 season.

Two years before he wore a t-shirt with the neo-fascist slogan ‘Boia chi molla’, which loosely translated means death before surrender, under his kit for a match against Lazio, who have some of Europe’s most hard-right supporters.

He publicly apologised for the t-shirt, claiming he had no idea of the source of the phrase, but in his 2010 book ‘Number One’ he said that he was still shocked at how he was “crucified”.

Buffon also claimed he chose the number 88 because he wasn’t allowed 00, which he wanted to represent “balls”, as a symbol of his comeback from a period out injured, and that 88 was simply four balls.

He changed his number to 77 but in his book he expressed outrage at the criticism he received from Rome’s Jewish Community, saying his only mistake was “being weak”.

“I shouldn’t have apologised and I should have pushed to keep the number I had already chosen,” he said.

Not long after winning the World Cup he was cleared of illegally betting on Serie A matches, allegations which reared their head at the height of the ‘Calciopoli’ scandal.

Source: AFP

Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe has refused to meet officials from Al Hilal, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the Saudis’ ambitious hopes of completing a world record 300-million-euro ($333 million) swoop.

The French star has refused “any discussion with the representatives of the Al-Hilal club, present in Paris this Wednesday,” reported L’Equipe sports daily.

According to the report, a delegation from the Saudi club came to Paris to finalise the transfer of Brazilian Malcom from Zenit Saint Petersburg.

They also wanted to present their project to Mbappe while in the French capital.

“This approach will not succeed,” added L’Equipe because the entourage of the 24-year-old player “refused any discussions with the representatives of the Saudi club”.

“The captain of Les Bleus has never considered this option,” the report added.

Riyadh-based Al Hilal had been given permission to open talks with Mbappe despite him never having expressed an interest in moving to the fast-growing Saudi league.

Mbappe has one year left on his contract with PSG, who want him to leave now rather than for nothing next summer.

But Mbappe is refusing to sign a new contract and the French champions believe he has already struck a deal to move to Real Madrid next year.

Source: AFP

Manchester United have reached agreement with Inter Milan to sign goalkeeper Andre Onana.

Onana has also agreed personal terms and is expected to sign a five-year contract at Old Trafford with the option for another year.

Inter believe the fee for the Cameroonian goalkeeper will be around £43m including add-ons.

United are set to announce the deal on Monday and are trying to process Onana’s visa so he can travel with the rest of the squad on tour to the US on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old could make his debut against Arsenal in New Jersey on Saturday with United also facing Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund on the trip.

United have been looking for a new No.1 since deciding not to extend David de Gea’s 12-year career at Old Trafford.

De Gea left as a free agent at the end of June after manager Eric ten Hag insisted he wanted a goalkeeper who is better with the ball at his feet.

That is one of the strongest areas in Onana’s game having played under Ten Hag at Ajax before joining Inter last summer.

Onana made 41 appearances in all competitions during his solitary season at the San Siro as Simone Inzhagi’s side captured the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana while reaching the final of the Champions League.

The Onana deal will take United’s spending this summer past the £100m mark after Mason Mount moved from Chelsea for £60m.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Former Manchester City and France footballer Benjamin Mendy broke down in tears on Friday, as a UK jury cleared him of sex offences.

Mendy, 28, put his head on his knees and wiped away tears on hearing the verdict at the end of the three-week trial at Chester Crown Court in northwest England.

He had previously being cleared in January of six counts of rape and one of sexual assault following a six-month trial.

Jurors in that trial had been unable to reach a verdict on one count of rape and another of attempted rape, resulting in a retrial.

Mendy, whose contract with Manchester City expired at the end of June, had denied all the charges filed against him.

He was accused alongside Louis Saha Matturie, 41, an alleged “fixer”, who was found not guilty by the jury at the earlier trial of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers.

Jurors also failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault against Matturie by five other women.

He faces a separate retrial later this year.

The prosecution had alleged that Mendy was a sexual “predator” who raped or sexually assaulted young women procured by Matturie at parties at his luxury home south of Manchester.

But Mendy denied ever forcing any woman into sex and both said any sexual activity they had with women was consensual.

Mendy a record signing for a defender when he moved to Manchester City from French club Monaco in 2017, played 75 times for City.

But his playing time was limited by injuries and a loss of form.

The last of his 10 caps for France came in November 2019, after the defender won the World Cup in 2018.

The trials meant that he missed Manchester City’s treble last season of the English Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.

The footballer’s lawyers said in a statement after the verdict that he was “delighted” to have been acquitted in both trials.

“Benjamin Mendy would like to thank the members of the jury for focusing on the evidence in this trial rather than the rumour and innuendo that has followed this case from the outset,” they added.

They said he had “tried to remain strong” throughout but the court process had had a “serious impact” on him.

Source: AFP

Bournemouth have sacked Gary O’Neil as manager even though he kept the club in the Premier League last season.

O’Neil replaced Scott Parker at the end of August and led the team to a 15th place finish in the English top-flight.

Bournemouth owner Bill Foley said in a statement: “Gary’s achievement last season is one I will always be grateful for.

“This has been a difficult decision, but it has been made with great consideration to best position ourselves ahead of the coming season.”

The statement said the appointment of a new head coach will be announced imminently.

O’Neil initially replaced Parker on an interim basis following a 9-0 hammering at Liverpool before being appointed permanently in November.

The 40-year-old took 36 points from his 34 top-flight games in charge.

“We have also identified a number of significant targets in the transfer market this summer and believe this change in direction will provide us with the best platform from which to build,” Foley said.

“Gary will go on to have a long career as a head coach or manager, but we feel that, at this moment in time, a change is in the best interests of this football club.”

Source: AFP

Kylian Mbappe netted from a penalty as France eased to a 3-0 win over minnows Gibraltar on Friday to maintain their 100 percent record in Euro 2024 qualifying.

Olivier Giroud gave last year’s World Cup runners-up an early lead in Faro, in Portugal’s Algarve, and Mbappe made it 2-0 from the spot in first-half stoppage time.

The France captain then forced an own-goal from Aymen Mouelhi to complete the scoring after the break, although Les Bleus also hit the woodwork four times.

The result follows wins over the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland in March and leaves France on a maximum nine points from three games in qualifying Group B.

They are three points better off than Greece, who beat Ireland 2-1 in Athens on Friday and have a game in hand.

France host Greece on Monday, while the Netherlands — currently involved in the Nations League finals — have three points from two games.

Mbappe had dominated the headlines in the build-up to this game after confirming he would not extend his contract at Paris Saint-Germain, which expires next year.

That has raised the prospect of PSG selling their superstar in this transfer window, even if the 24-year-old has said he intends to stay with the French champions next season.

He led Didier Deschamps’ team out at the Estadio do Algarve, where Gibraltar are hosting games because they do not boast a stadium of their own up to international standards.

France needed just three minutes to open the scoring in front of a sparse crowd as Giroud headed in from Kingsley Coman’s cross, and Aurelien Tchouameni then became the first visiting player to hit the bar.

Gibraltar, ranked 201st in the world and second-last in Europe ahead of just San Marino, almost drew level in remarkable fashion in the 34th minute when Ayoub El Hmidi tried to lob goalkeeper Brice Samba from just inside the France half.

Samba, making his France debut, was spared embarrassment as the shot landed on the roof of the net.

France got a penalty following a VAR review for a handball by Gibraltar captain Roy Chipolina, and the harsh award was converted by Mbappe.

It was Mbappe’s 12th goal in 12 appearances for France since the start of this season.

Antoine Griezmann hit the post early in the second half before Mouelhi’s own goal arrived in the 78th minute.

Tchouameni and substitute Axel Disasi then both struck the woodwork late on.

Source: AFP

AC Milan, the football club which won a host of domestic and European titles under Silvio Berlusconi’s ownership, called him “unforgettable” in a tribute after his death aged 86 Monday.

“Thank you, Mr President. Always with us,” the club said in a statement, adding it was “grieving the passing of the unforgettable Silvio Berlusconi”.

“Tomorrow, we will dream of new ambitions, create new challenges, and seek new victories. Which will represent the good, the strong, and the true that lies inside us, in all of us who shared this adventure of binding our lives to a dream called Milan,” the statement continued.

Berlusconi reigned supreme at Milan from 1986 until 2017, during which time the club won 29 trophies, including five Champions League and eight Italian league titles.

Carlo Ancelotti, who won two Champions League titles as a player for AC Milan in 1989 and 1990 before then coaching the club to two more European successes in 2003 and 2007, led the tributes to the former club president.

“Today’s sadness doesn’t erase the happy moments spent together,” Ancelotti, the current Real Madrid manager, tweeted along with a photo of him standing beside Berlusconi.

“There remains infinite gratitude to the president, but above all to an ironic, loyal, intelligent, sincere man, fundamental in my adventure as a football player first, and then as a coach. Thanks President.”

AC Monza, the club Berlusconi and his long-standing business partner Adriano Galliani bought in 2018 after he sold AC Milan, said the former Italian prime minister’s death left an unfillable hole.

“Adriano Galliani and AC Monza mourn the passing of president Silvio Berlusconi,” the club said in a statement.

“A gap that will never be filled, forever with us. Thank you for everything presidente.”

When Berlusconi purchased Monza in 2018, the club was in the third tier of Italian football.

Berlusconi vowed to take Monza to Serie A and with the help of Galliani the team based near Milan reached the top flight for the first time in their history last season.

Monza will play in the Italian top flight again next season after finishing the just-completed campaign in 11th place.

A second former legendary coach of AC Milan, Arrigo Sacchi, hailed the memory of “a fabulous friend to whom I owe everything”, cited by the Ansa news agency.

Several other clubs also joined in tributes, including Aurelio De Laurentiis, the president of Italian champions Napoli expressing his “condolences”.

“Silvio Berlusconi changed the history of Italian football,” said Gabriele Gravina, president of the Italian football federation.

“His contribution in terms of passion, innovation and investments, always with particular attention to the beautiful game, has been fundamental for the affirmation of our football at international level.”

Serie A president Lorenzo Casini added: “He made history… by taking Italian football to the roof of Europe and the world.”

France: AFP

Zlatan Ibrahimovic brought the curtain down on a long, trophy-packed career on Sunday when he unexpectedly announced his retirement from football.

Veteran striker Ibrahimovic revealed his decision to quit the game during an on-pitch ceremony following AC Milan’s 3-1 win over Verona.

“It’s the moment to say goodbye to football, not just to you,” said Ibrahimovic on the San Siro pitch.

“There are too many emotions for me right now. Forza Milan and goodbye.”

The 41-year-old had been expected to simply bid farewell to Milan fans after his departure from the seven-time European champions was announced on Saturday.

He returned to Milan in late 2019 for a second spell after a previous two-year period in which he won the Serie A title in 2011.

Ibrahimovic was a key figure in Milan’s resurgence to the top of Italian football after his return to the club, helping to bring them back from the doldrums and eventually win the Scudetto last season.

“The first time I came here you gave me happiness, the second time you gave me love,” said Ibrahimovic.

“You welcomed me with open arms, you made me feel at home, I will be a Milanista for the rest of my life.”

Over the course of his career Ibrahimovic won league titles in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and France, although his only major European trophy was the 2017 Europa League with Manchester United.

He has hardly featured for Stefano Pioli’s side this term after being plagued with injuries, returning in February following surgery on his left knee in May.

In July he signed a deal which netted him around one million euros ($1.02 million) in fixed salary, with large bonuses linked to appearances and achievements.

But the 41-year-old only started one match and netted once for Milan this season, a 3-1 win at Udinese in March in which he became the oldest goal scorer in Serie A history.

He then picked up a calf injury in a pre-match warm up in April and ended his career sidelined before scotching rumours that he was set to move to Monza and targeting Euro 2024 with Sweden.

Source: AFP