New Zealand head coach Danny Hay has urged his players to seize the moment by producing an upset against Costa Rica to claim the last remaining World Cup finals spot.
The two sides face off at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on Tuesday for the right to return to Qatar later this year and join Germany, Japan and Spain in Group E.
A total of 31 countries have qualified for the global showpiece following Australia s penalty shoot-out win against Peru on Monday, leaving one place up for grabs.
New Zealand enter the intercontinental play-off clash as underdogs as they sit 101st in the latest FIFA rankings, 70 places below their Central American opponents.
The All Whites cruised through the extended qualifying process, racking up 5-0 and 7-1 wins along the way, but now f…
Inter boss Simone Inzaghi and CEO Giuseppe Marotta did everything in their power to prevent Romelu Lukaku from rejoining Chelsea, according to the striker s agent.
Lukaku completed his return to Stamford Bridge on Thursday for a reported club-record fee of £97.5million (€115m), seven years after sealing a permanent move from the Blues to Everton.
The Belgium international has spent the previous two seasons with Inter and fired the Nerazzurri to their first title in more than a decade in 2020-21, scoring 24 goals in the Italian top flight.
He has been criticised by Inter fans for moving on, with accusations of chasing a bigger salary, but Federico Pastorello, who represents Lukaku, responded to those claims in a long statement posted via social media on Frida…
West Ham face Fiorentina in the final of the Europa Conference League in Prague on Wednesday night.
Here, the PA news agency shines a spotlight on the Italian outfit.
Pedigree
in 1990, we took a 3-1 UEFA Cup final first leg lead Fiorentina!
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen)
In qualifying for the showpiece in Prague, Fiorentina became the first team to reach all four finals of the major European competitions. They lost in the European Cup final to Real Madrid in 1957 and won the inaugural Cup Winners’ Cup in 1961 by beating Rangers 4-1 on aggregate in the final. Their last appearance in a European final was a defeat by fierce rivals Juventus in the 1990 UEFA Cup final.
Coach
Vincenzo Italiano, 45, spent most of his playing career as a midfiel…
Paris Saint-Germain were no match for Arsenal, so says Luis Enrique, who does not know how long it will take to transform his team into Champions League contenders.
The French champions, who lost their talisman Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid in the summer and look like a side in transition, suffered their first defeat of the season in all competitions.
Goals by Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka put Arsenal in control before half-time and although PSG hit the woodwork twice they only 0.36 expected goals (xG) throughout the contest.
Luis Enrique, who left out forward Ousmane Dembele for disciplinary reasons, accepted his share of responsibility but is unsure if his team can match Europe s best.
Today we were far away from the standards you need in this kind of mat…
London and Munich are among a number of cities submitting bids this week to host the UEFA Euro 2020 final.
The 16th staging of the competition will see fixtures spread across Europe, with around 30 associations expressing an interest in becoming one of the 13 hosts.
Matches are split into two packages standard and finals and the successful bidder for the latter will host both semi-finals and the final.
Football Association general secretary Alex Horne is confident England will be involved in some capacity.
We are bidding for either of the two packages available and, with our recent experience of hosting two UEFA Champions League finals in the last four years, we believe that Wembley Stadium and London represent a strong bid for UEFA to consider, he said in a stat…
Stefano Pioli wanted to share the credit around after signing a contract extension to keep him as Milan coach until the end of the 2024-25 season.
Former Inter coach Pioli took over at Milan in 2019, and has overseen a rejuvenation in the Rossoneri s fortunes.
Having finished second in the 2020-21 campaign, Milan clinched their first Serie A title in 11 years last term.
Milan, who sit third in Serie A 12 games into this season, are also on the verge of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign. They need only to avoid defeat against Salzburg on Wednesday to join Chelsea in progressing from Group E.
When asked about signing his new deal in Tuesday s pre-match press conference, Pioli said: The credit be…
Danny will miss out on the chance to represent Portugal at Euro 2016 as he requires surgery on a knee problem.
Attacking midfielder Danny sustained the injury in the first half of Zenit s 5-2 victory over Spartak Moscow on Saturday and was replaced by Javi Garcia after just 31 minutes.
The club have confirmed that subsequent examinations have revealed a rupture to the anterior cruciate ligament in the right knee that will need to be operated on.
Zenit estimate Danny will be sidelined for eight to nine months as a result, with the captain to miss their Premier League run-in and Portugal s European Championship campaign in France this year.
It is a bitter blow for the Portuguese, who missed out on a place at Euro 2012 with a similar injury to the right knee…
Chris Armas is desperate to claim early-season silverware in the form of the Rocky Mountain Cup as the Colorado Rapids prepare to visit rivals Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
The Rapids are flying high in fourth in the Western Conference standings, four points adrift of top side RSL after 13 matches.
They should approach Saturday s derby in good spirits after their 1-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps in midweek, while they have already beaten RSL once this season – by a 2-1 scoreline on the road in early March.
I wish we were hosting this one, the Rocky Mountain Cup is such an important thing to us and to our fans, Armas said.
It d be nice if we maybe played one at home and one on the road. Two on the road is tricky but it is what it is.
We have…
Carlo Ancelotti defended Vinicius Junior after the Brazil forward was subjected to rough treatment during Real Madrid s defeat at Real Mallorca.
Los Blancos missed the chance to close the five-point gap on LaLiga leaders Barcelona after Nacho s own goal condemned them to a 1-0 loss on Sunday, in which Marco Asensio also saw a penalty saved.
Vinicius, who complained of being targeted during his side s 4-1 victory in the reverse fixture in September, was fouled 10 times – the most by any Madrid player in a Spanish top-flight match since Isco against Real Betis in August 2013.
Having branded Vinicius disrespectful earlier in the season, Mallorca captain Antonio Raillo also turned up the pressure earlier this week by claiming he would never cite the 22-year-old as …
In what will be remembered as an iconic comeback in Catalonia on Saturday evening, Barcelona claimed a dramatic 3-2 victory at home against Celta Vigo.
On the verge of what would have been an infamous collapse on home soil as Jorgen Strand Larsen and Tasos Douvikas found the net on either side of the half-time break, Xavi’s side were 2-0 down heading into the final nine minutes.
However, with attacking talisman Robert Lewandowski bagging a pair of clinical strikes in the space of just four minutes, the reigning Spanish champions completed a stunning comeback here.
Watching Manchester City loanee Joao Cancelo notch a famous last-gasp winner and sending the home support into overdrive, Barcelona now top La Liga thanks to a superior goal difference over Girona, w…