Pep Guardiola was braced for an inquest when he addressed the media on Tuesday, but there was one name the Manchester City coach clearly was not expecting to hear amid the chorus of critics taking aim at his approach.
City lost 4-2 away to champions Leicester City on Saturday, having gone down 3-1 at home to title rivals Chelsea in their previous Premier League outing.
Guardiola s insistence on a possession-based approach and high defensive line have come in for severe criticism, as the 2013-14 title-winners find themselves six points off top spot in the table.
The performances of goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and defender John Stones in particular have been the subject of considerable scrutiny.
And, while Guardiola issued a staunch defence of the merits of h…
England coach Roy Hodgson said his players have practiced penalties, preparing for a potential shootout against Italy in Kiev on Sunday.
The Three Lions have lost a staggering five tournament matches out of six from the dreaded penalty spot, with their latest win by the sudden-death method coming against Spain at Wembley at Euro 1996.
With the curse of penalties looming once again as the knockout stage gets underway, the pragmatic Hodgson is confident his players can exorcise the ghosts of demons past.
We ve lost so many important matches on penalties that we know it s a national phobia, Hodgson told reporters.
When you are working with the England national team, the past is always going to weigh heavily everything we do today is being compared with so…
Harry Kane put the uncertainty over his future to one side to score four times in Tottenham’s 5-1 pre-season friendly win over Shakhtar Donetsk.
Kane has been the subject of interest from Bayern Munich all summer and the German club are reported to have lodged their latest bid for the forward on Friday.
An apparent self-imposed deadline of midnight was also set by Bayern, but there has been no further news on the outcome of that bid and Kane showed no signs that he was distracted by grabbing a hat-trick in 55 minutes against Shakhtar while being continuously serenaded by the home crowd.
Sunday’s fixture was new boss Ange Postecoglou’s first match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and he was introduced before kick-off to strong applause.
On hand from clos…
AC Milan appear set to reject Paris Saint-Germain s offers for Thiago Silva, with club president Silvio Berlusconi eager to keep the defender.
The Brazil international seemed to be on his way to the Parc des Princes after Galliani flew to the French capital on Tuesday to meet with the Ligue 1 outfit s sporting director, Leonardo.
However, the two parties failed to settle on a fee and Galliani, having returned to Milan, admitted Berlusconi is having second thoughts about the deal.
President Berlusconi seems intent on resisting PSG s offers and he would like to hold on to Thiago Silva, the 67-year-old told Sky Sport 24.
The Milan owner said on Wednesday he would have to sanction the sale of the defender because of the club s financial problems, revealing …
Turkish Super League giants Galatasaray S.K. have rubbished reports linking Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov with a £5 million move to the Türk Telekom Arena, .
There have been some reports in the media that Dimitar Berbatov will be transferred to our club, read the club s official statement.
The club would like to declare that there is no transfer and no attempt has been made in that regard.
After finishing as the joint top goal scorer in the English Premier League in 2010-11, Berbatov made just five league starts for the Red Devils last term. To state the obvious, the 31-year-old wantaway forward was, as they say, out-of-favour .
To this day, Berbatov is Manchester United s record signing after joining the Red Devils for �…
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola sympathised with one of the best in Lucien Favre after the Swiss resignation from Borussia Monchengladbach.
Favre guided Gladbach to third place in the Bundesliga last season, but he resigned on Sunday after five consecutive league losses to start the campaign.
Guardiola said it was a sign of how quickly things could change as he lauded the 57-year-old Favre, who took charge of Monchengladbach in early 2011.
I have big respect for Lucien. He is one of the best trainers I have ever met, Guardiola said ahead of his team s clash against Wolfsburg on Tuesday.
His case shows how complicated and difficult football really is.
Yesterday you and your team are great and the day after, although not much has changed, excep…
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) were forced to reprint 18,000 matchday programmes for the Republic of Ireland s Euro 2016 qualifier with Scotland after deciding to remove comments made by chief executive John Delaney.
Delaney s article in the programme for Saturday s clash in Dublin had reportedly included criticism of FIFA in the wake of the ongoing corruption scandal that has engulfed world football s governing body.
However, the remarks were subsequently scrapped, forcing the FAI to reprint thousands of copies.
John Delaney was entirely unaware of this change to the programme, the FAI said in a statement widely reported by the Irish media.
He had already signed off on it and it was approved for printing. The decision to delete hi…
Proud Barca run hangs in the balance, Aubameyang keen to break knockout duck – Champions League in O
Barcelona face an almighty rescue mission to protect an unprecedented Champions League last-16 run when they host Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg, while Borussia Dortmund have it all to do against Benfica.
Ligue 1 champions PSG sent shockwaves through world football when they ran roughshod against Barca to earn a commanding 4-0 lead at Parc des Princes.
Barca, whose head coach Luis Enrique is to leave the club at the end of the season, must do something that no other club has done to reach the quarter-finals but they have scored 11 goals in their past two LaLiga matches to perhaps offer a glimmer of hope.
Meanwhile, Dortmund take on Benfica at Signal Iduna Park looking to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit against the Portuguese side and Pierre-Emerick Aubam…
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has voiced his admiration for charismatic Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp ahead of their Premier League encounter at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Guardiola and Klopp were rivals during their respective stints in charge of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, an era the Spaniard s side dominated.
But the City boss has not forgotten the warm welcome his counterpart gave him when he first arrived at Bayern in 2013 and suffered a 4-2 defeat to Dortmund in the DFL-Supercup.
He is a charismatic trainer. I admire him a lot. He is a top trainer, Guardiola told Sky Sports.
As a foreign trainer going to Germany, when he had a lot of success, how he took care of me. The first day when I lost the Supercup, how gentle he was, and…
David Trezeguet has praised Napoli for their extraordinary season in Serie A – but still expects former club Juventus to be crowned champions again.
Despite being held to a 0-0 draw by SPAL prior to the international break, Juve have a two-point advantage over their nearest rivals in the table with nine games to play.
There could be a further twist in the tale when they go head-to-head in Turin on April 22, a game Trezeguet – a two-time champion during his time in Italy – believes will be pivotal in deciding the outcome of the title race.
Juventus are a team with much more experience, as the many titles they ve won in the last few years prove, Trezeguet, speaking courtesy of Hublot, told Omnisport.
I think the job Napoli are doing is very in…