Sports

19, April 2022

Football: Man Utd ‘make life easier’ for Liverpool ⁰

Mohamed Salah conceded playing against Manchester United this season has been “easy” after scoring twice in a 4-0 thrashing of the Red Devils at Anfield on Tuesday which sent Liverpool top of the Premier League.

Salah also scored a hat-trick as Liverpool ran riot to win 5-0 at Old Trafford when the sides last met in October.

“They make our life easier in the midfield and in the back,” said Salah. “They always try to give us the ball in a one-against-one situation so it makes our life much easier.

“When we defend, we had a clean sheet here and a clean sheet there.”

Salah had not scored for Liverpool from open play since February, but clicked back into form with the space offered by United’s disjointed defence to take his tally for the season to 30.

“I scored many goals for this club, it’s going to keep coming,” Salah added. “The most important thing is the team are winning.”

Victory took Liverpool two points ahead of Manchester City, but the English champions can regain top spot when they host Brighton on Wednesday.

Source: AFP

19, April 2022

CPDM Crime Syndicate: 89 Africa Cup of Nations Buses Reportedly Missing ⁰

Two months after the closing ceremony of the 33rd edition of the African Cup of Nations Football played in Cameroon, the buses purchased for the transport of the National teams and delegations that took part in AFCON 2021 remain untraceable according to the Cameroonian daily L’Anecdote.

Of the 90 buses put into circulation for the occasion, only that of the Indomitable Lions remains which the team is using for their home games is identified.

This won’t be the first bad report coming from Cameroon after hosting the 2021 AFCON which saw Senegal winning their first AFCON trophy beating Egypt in the finals.

Reports earlier claimed the Cameroon government is yet to pay some workers of the 2021 AFCON before the mysterious disappearance of 89 buses used for the tournament.

One would have thought that each delegation returned to its country with the bus made available to them.

Source: The World News

19, April 2022

Eto’o rejects salary as FECAFOOT President ⁰

Cameroon legend Samuel Eto has rejected salary accorded to him as President of Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) and instead increased remuneration package for the players.

Samuel Eto’o Fils is a former Cameroon football player who currently presides over the Cameroonian Football Federation having taken over from 11 December 2021

Four-time African Footballer of the Year who lifted the UEFA Champions League with Barcelona and Inter Milan was elected President FECAFOOT after garnering 43 votes, ahead of the incumbent president Seidou Mbombo Njoya who received 31 votes.

“We have to bring footballers to the centre of our policies, ” he said afterwards. “It is our role to ensure that those who play this discipline makes a decent living out of it”

According to a report from Africa Awake,the legend promised not to receive salaries as President rather he decided to invest towards players’ wellbeing.

As part of his policies to ensure players earn the right amount for the work,Eto has advocated for high wages for players in Cameroon including the country’s women football league.

He further warned club presidents to pay salaries of local football players promptly, else he will pay them and deduct from clubs if there is any delays.

“The salaries of home-based players are already known. Any club president that does not pay players will no longer receive subsidies.

I’m giving the players the right to press charges against clubs that don’t pay them and FECAFOOT will pay them directly from the subsidies that the clubs in question had to benefit from.

I’ve come to put things in order. I don’t speak; I act. The money I invest in Cameroon football during my tenure must have a convincing outcome.”added former Chelsea striker.

Source: KBC

18, April 2022

African players in Europe: Red-letter day for two-goal Mane ⁰

Senegal talisman Sadio Mane scored two goals — one soft and one superb — at the weekend to take Liverpool into the FA Cup final with a 3-2 victory over Manchester City at Wembley.

The Reds will face Chelsea in the May 14 showpiece final — a repeat of the League Cup final won by Liverpool on penalties after a goalless final.

Apart from his Liverpool heroics, Mane helped Senegal win the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in February and qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar one month later.

Here, AFP Sport highlights Africans who starred in European leagues and cup competitions:

ENGLAND

SADIO MANE (Liverpool)

Mane was the difference between Liverpool and Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final as he struck twice in a thrilling win for the Reds. His persistence earned his first and Liverpool’s second goal of the day as he caught City stand-in goalkeeper Zack Steffen in possession to tackle the ball into the net. His second was as sweet as the first was scrappy as Mane volleyed in Thiago Alcantara’s pass to round off a stunning move from Jurgen Klopp’s men.

EMMANUEL DENNIS (Watford)

A 10th Premier League goal of the season for Dennis could not prevent Watford slipping closer to relegation after a 2-1 defeat by Brentford. The Nigerian’s fierce strike that flew in at the near post was controversially allowed to stand despite Senegal’s Ismaila Sarr appearing to be offside in the build-up. A 10th consecutive home defeat leaves the Hornets still six points adrift of safety with just six games to play.

GERMANY

KEVIN-PRINCE BOATENG (Hertha Berlin)

The 35-year-old made his first start since October and bossed midfield as Hertha climbed out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 win at Augsburg. “We needed a figure like Prince. He has shown how important he is for us,” said Hertha coach Felix Magath as the Ghana midfielder threw himself into tackles.

TAIWO AWONIYI (Union Berlin)

Awoniyi shrugged off his marker and banged in his 18th goal for Union this season to open the scoring in a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt. The Nigeria striker is a fans’ favourite at Union and threw his playing shirt into the home crowd after being substituted with 10 minutes remaining.

FRANCE

KARL TOKO-EKAMBI (Lyon)

The Cameroon forward, who starred in his country’s run to the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals on home soil this year, scored twice in Lyon’s 6-1 mauling of Bordeaux. His first goal was a gift after a farcical miskick by the Bordeaux goalkeeper, while his second goal was a delightful chipped finish. Toko-Ekambi has 16 goals this season, including 10 in Ligue 1. Lyon are eighth, four points outside the European qualifying spots.

JODEL DOSSOU (Clermont)

The Benin international equalised in a 1-1 draw at fellow strugglers Metz. It was his second goal in as many games, after Dossou netted in last week’s 6-1 home hammering by Paris Saint-Germain. Clermont are in the relegation play-off place, five points above bottom side Metz and one point from outright safety.

ITALY

M’BALA NZOLA (Spezia)

The Angolan international featured in probably the strangest moment in the weekend’s Serie A action. He was subbed on and then off again just 10 minutes later in Spezia’s 3-1 defeat to Inter Milan because he couldn’t take off his earring. Brought on in the 60th minute with his team a goal down, the 25-year-old was almost immediately stopped by match officials and ordered to remove the jewellery, a task which was beyond both Nzola and the Spezia coaching staff. Eventually he had to admit defeat and coach Thiago Motta was forced to bring on Janis Antiste in his place.

Source: AFP

16, April 2022

CAF Confederation Cup quarter-finals: Five things to know ⁰

Ghanaians Bernard Morrison and Richard Ofori could play pivotal roles when Simba of Tanzania host Orlando Pirates of South Africa on Sunday in a CAF Confederation Cup quarter-final first leg.

A former Pirate, speedy Morrison is the leading Simba scorer this season in the African equivalent of the UEFA Europa League with three goals.

Pirates goalkeeper Ofori boasts three consecutive Confederation Cup clean sheets after replacing off-form Siyabonga Mpontshane and hopes to prevent his compatriot adding to his goal tally.

Here, AFP Sport highlights five things to know ahead of the first legs on Sunday, with the return matches to be played seven days later.

Opposing Simba

A 60,000 crowd will fill the Benjamin Mkapa national stadium in commercial capital Dar es Salaam to see Simba confront Pirates, but not all the Tanzanians there will be backing the home team.

Supporters of arch domestic rivals Young Africans plan to continue a tradition of cheering for the visiting club because they do not want Simba to succeed.

This strange practice is not confined to Tanzania — when V Club play at home in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fans of fierce Kinshasa rivals Daring Club Motema Pembe always back the visiting side.

Home perils

Losing a first leg at home potentially spells elimination in the last-eight phase of Confederation Cup with none of the six sides who have done so escaping overall defeat.

Only Zanaco of Zambia among the sextet won the return match, but the 1-0 victory over Pyramids in Egypt in 2020 was hollow following a 3-0 drubbing in Lusaka.

Al Nasr of Libya suffered the most humiliating home loss — 5-0 to Hassania Agadir of Morocco two seasons ago — in a match staged in Egypt because of violence in the oil-rich north African nation.

Wary Pirates

Pirates hope a second successive appearance in the Confederation Cup quarter-finals will turn out much better than the first last season.

After taking the lead through Vincent Pule at home to eventual title winners Raja Casablanca of Morocco, they were held 1-1 in Soweto.

If the first-leg outcome was disappointing, the return match proved disastrous for the Buccaneers, who crumbled 4-0 with all the goals coming within 36 minutes of the kick-off.

Libyan showdown

Two Libyan clubs have reached the Confederation Cup quarter-finals for the first time and the luck of the draw saw Al Ittihad and Al Ahly Tripoli paired, sparing both potentially long, costly flights.

Although both teams are based in the capital, Tripoli, no stadium there meets international standards so the matches will be played in the second largest city, Benghazi, 650 kilometres (405 miles) to the east.

Libya is the only north African country not to have won a CAF club competition. Ahly reached the 1984 Cup Winners Cup final against their Egyptian namesakes, but strained political relations between the nations forced the Tripoli outfit to withdraw.

Resurgent Mazembe

TP Mazembe of DR Congo, who face Pyramids with the first leg in Cairo, are chasing trophies again after several barren seasons as some stars grew old while others moved abroad to bolster monthly salaries.

The Ravens from southern mining city Lubumbashi, who won eight CAF titles between 2009 and 2017, are guided by French coach Franck Dumas and topped Group C after a 2-0 win over Egyptian visitors Al Masry.

If Dumas has a major concern it is the lack of a consistent scorer — Adam Nazli scored both goals against Masry and is the only squad member to net more than once in the eight matches of this campaign.

Source: AFP

14, April 2022

Football: Man City, Liverpool advance to Champions League semi-finals on aggregate wins ⁰

Manchester City produced a disciplined performance to secure a fractious 0-0 draw at Atletico Madrid on Wednesday and reach the Champions League semi-finals 1-0 on aggregate.

Tensions boiled over in the closing stages and Atletico defender Felipe was sent off after receiving a second yellow card before the teams played out 12 minutes of added time.

The English champions dominated the first half and Ilkay Gundogan struck the post with their best chance after a flowing move down the right.

Atletico enjoyed more possession after the interval and threatened to score the goal that would have taken the game into extra time but were unable to break down the visitors’ defence.

City, bidding to win European club football’s most prestigious trophy for the first time, will play record 13-times champions Real Madrid in the semi-finals.

Liverpool beat Benfica

Liverpool booked a semi-final showdown against Villarreal as the quadruple chasers survived a late collapse in Wednesday’s 3-3 draw against Benfica.

Jurgen Klopp’s side already had one foot in the last four after winning 3-1 in the quarter-final first leg in Lisbon.

Despite two late goals from Benfica at Anfield in the second leg, Liverpool advanced 6-4 on aggregate thanks to Roberto Firmino’s double and Ibrahima Konate’s opener.

Source: REUTERS

13, April 2022

Champions League: Villarreal fuelled to Bayern win by Nagelsmann remark ⁰

Villarreal forward Gerard Moreno said comments by Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann inspired the Spaniards to their shock 2-1 aggregate win over the German giants in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday.

Leading 1-0 from the first leg, Villarreal snatched a 1-1 draw on the night and a semi-final place through Samuel Chukwueze’s 88th-minute goal.

“Tonight they (Bayern) made the mistake of not killing us off and we took advantage of that,” Moreno said.

On Monday, Nagelsmann said Villarreal had made a mistake by winning the first leg by a slender 1-0 margin “which allowed us to survive”.

“In the first leg we made the mistake of not finishing them off. All the comments about that served as motivation,” said Moreno, whose cross set up Chukwueze’s tie-winning strike.

“What this team has done is great.”

Robert Lewandowski had put Bayern ahead on the night to level the tie.

Unai Emery’s Villarreal had already knocked out Juventus in the last 16 following a stunning 3-0 win in Turin.

“It’s an extraordinary feeling, it was not easy for us. We are a small club, from a village, like that of Asterix and Obelix,” said Emery.

“We are moving forward step by step, we had a very difficult quarter-final.”

The Spaniards face either Benfica or Liverpool in the semi-finals. Jurgen Klopp’s Reds take a 3-1 lead into Wednesday’s second leg at Anfield.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s taken a lot of hard work,” said Villarreal captain Raul Albiol, the man of the match in Munich, who at 36 is two years older than Nagelsmann.

“Our victories are as a team. We have suffered a lot in both games, but to be in the semi-finals is great for Villarreal.

“We knew it was going to be a long 90 minutes and we were going to suffer a lot.

“We want more. We see ourselves as causing problems to all our opponents.”

Emery basked in the glory of a historic result for Villarreal in his 50th Champions League match as a coach.

“We took a lot of confidence from the first leg result, but we had to defend well and we tried to create our own chances — we created five and took the final one,” he said.

Source: AFP

12, April 2022

Irish Football: Bohemians Nickson Okosun still maturing in Osam’s dragnet ⁰

The young Boys in Green take on hosts Serbia tomorrow (Tuesday, April 12) in the semi-final of the Miljan Miljanić Tournament and will face either Montenegro or North Macedonia on Thursday in the final or a 3rd/4th place play-off.

Osam has called-up eight players to their first Ireland international squad: Romeo Akachukwu (Waterford), Stan Ashbee (Hull City), Rhys Bartley (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Jamie Gamble (Shelbourne), Jake Grante (Crystal Palace), Gabriel Kelly (Manchester City), Luke Nolan (Bray Wanderers) and Shaun Wade (Chelsea).

The games are another chance for Osam to monitor the progression of his squad in what is a first international season for the MU16s side.

Republic of Ireland Men’s Under-16s Squad

Goalkeepers: Jamie Gamble (Shelbourne), Jason Healy (Waterford)

Defenders: Stan Ashbee (Hull City), Jake Grante (Crystal Palace), Sean Hayden (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Sean Mackey (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Adam O’Halloran (Galway United), Cory O’Sullivan (Shamrock Rovers)

Midfielders: Rhys Bartley (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Anthony Dodd (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Luke Kehir (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Gabriel Kelly (Manchester City), Daniel Negry-McGrath (Bohemians), Luke Nolan (Bray Wanderers)

Forwards: Romeo Akachukwu (Waterford), Trent Kone-Doherty (Derry City), Taylor Mooney (St. Patrick’s Athletic) Nickson Okosun (Bohemians), Najemedine Razi (Shamrock Rovers), Shaun Wade (Chelsea)

International fixtures (kick-offs are Irish time

Tuesday, April 12 | Serbia MU16 v Republic of Ireland MU16, Sports Centre FA of Serbia, Stara Pazova, Serbia, KO 2.30pm

Thursday, April 14 | Republic of Ireland MU16 v Montenegro/North Macedonia, Sports Centre FA of Serbia, Stara Pazova, Serbia, KO 12pm (3rd/4th place play-off) / KO 3pm (final)

Source: Fai.ie

11, April 2022

Football: Netherlands coach Van Gaal says cancer treatment behind him ⁰

Netherlands football coach Louis van Gaal insisted Monday that he was fit enough to lead his nation to the World Cup finals saying his prostate cancer treatment has been successful.

Van Gaal, 70, said ten days ago he had been receiving treatment since being diagnosed in 2020, but still plans to lead his team at the World Cup in Qatar in seven months’ time.

“I had 25 sessions of chemotherapy. Then I had to wait five or six months to see if that had worked. It has,” he told the ANP press agency.

The former Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munch and Manchester United coach also underwent surgery.

The no-nonsense Van Gaal managed the Oranje between 2000-2002 and 2012-2014, when they finished third at the World Cup in Brazil.

He then returned to the Dutch national team after the resignation of Frank de Boer in the aftermath of the country’s last-16 exit from Euro 2020.

The Netherlands were placed in Group A with hosts Qatar, Ecuador and Senegal in Friday’s draw.

Source: AFP

7, April 2022

Football: Maradona’s daughter claims wrong jersey is up for auction ⁰

Diego Maradona’s eldest daughter claims that the Argentina shirt being auctioned is not the one her late father wore when he scored the infamous “Hand of God” goal against England.

Dalma Maradona said the shirt was actually worn by her father during the goalless first half of the 1986 World Cup quarter-final.

Steve Hodge, the former England player who says Maradona swapped shirts with him at the end of the game in Mexico City, is selling the shirt, which is set to fetch more than £4 million ($5.2 million).

Auctioneers Sotheby’s said they hired an external company that had provided a “conclusive photomatch” that proved it was authentic.

Dalma Maradona claimed the jersey her father wore in the second half, when he also scored one of the greatest goals in World Cup history, was in the hands of another owner, but she declined to name them.

“It’s not that one. I don’t want to say who has it because it’s crazy. He (Diego Maradona) said it. He said, ‘How am I going to give him the shirt of my life?'” she told reporters.

“This former player thinks he has my dad’s second-half jersey, but it’s a mix-up, he has the one from the first half.

“We wanted to clarify that so that people who want to buy it know the truth,” Dalma said in separate comments to Channel 13 television.

A Sotheby’s spokeswoman told AFP: “There was indeed a different shirt worn by Maradona in the first half, but there are clear differences between that and what was worn during the goals.

“And so, prior to putting this shirt for sale, we did extensive diligence and scientific research on the item to make sure it was the shirt worn by Maradona in the second half for the two goals.”

The photomatching process had involved matching the shirt “to both goals examining unique details on various elements of the item, including the patch, stripes, and numbering”.

It added that Maradona himself had acknowledged the provenance of the shirt himself, in his book “Touched by God”, and he recalls giving it to Hodge at the end of the match.

The online auction is scheduled for April 20 to May 4.

Source: AFP