Aarde Cini Stuff

Atletico Madrid snatched a decisive 2-0 win against hosts Valencia, and thus, managed to take the lead of La Liga football league for the time being on Sunday. Currently, the Rojiblancos are leading the table with 15 points, and will be waiting for the results of the matches between Real Madrid and Eibar, and Barcelona against Celta Vigo on Sunday evening, reports Efe. The match, held in the seventh week of La Liga, ended 2-0, and the two goals were scored by the French Antoine Griezmann in 63 minutes after a pass by his countryman Kevin Gameiro, who scored the second goal in 90+3 minutes. Valencia's Brazilian goalkeeper Diego Alves inspired when he stopped two penalties executed by Griezmann and Gabi Fernandez. This is the first defeat for Valencia under caretaker coach Salvador Gonzalez Marco, who assumed the helm after Pako Ayestaran was fired after a series of defeats, including La Liga's first four rounds. Valencia are currently holding the 16th position with five points, ...

Ronaldo looked unhappy after being taken off 18 minutes from the end of Real's 2-2 La Liga draw at Las Palmas on Saturday. "I know he always wants to play and always wants to stay on the field," said Real coach Zidane. "But I also have to think about the players and for me it was best to rest and think about Tuesday." On Tuesday, Champions League holders Real Madrid are away to Borussia Dortmund, who also won their opening Group F match in this season's competition. Ronaldo missed a couple of chances against Las Palmas as the La Liga leaders dropped points for the second successive game after conceding an 84th-minute equaliser. The 31-year-old has scored twice in four appearances for Real this season, having missed their opening two La Liga games as he recovered from a knee injury sustained during Portugal's Euro 2016 final win over France. Ronaldo, the three-time world player of the year, has rarely been replaced during games in his seven years at Real....

In only three Premier League games against Arsenal, Costa has already scored two goals and Wenger also felt that the outcome of his team’s two defeats last season were ultimately decided by how Gabriel and Per Mertesacker were sent off after first-half clashes with the 27-year-old. Gabriel’s red card was later overturned and Costa was himself banned but the damage was already done before Arsenal also went down to 10 men at the Emirates when the striker went down under a challenge from Mertesacker. There is a theory that Costa’s influence would be diluted without his on-field aggression but Wenger claimed on Friday night that his threat has increased this season with a calmer approach. “He looks since the start of the season to have cleaned up his act, that he behaves more focused on the game and that makes him more dangerous,” said Wenger, who rejected the notion that Costa risked losing an edge from his game. “I don’t think so,” he added. “You want full commitment. Commitment is diffe...

They changed the format of the press conferences at Manchester United some time ago. For the past 10 years or so, everything has been in front of the cameras and the managers, as such, always tend to put on their face for television, remember to mind their language and often disguise, or water down, what they really feel. It is a PR world more than ever before, but it used to be much better fun in the old days when Sir Alex Ferguson held separate briefings, the cameras turned off, where he could go off-record, show a bit more of his real personality and occasionally fly into the kind of rages that had to be seen to be believed. He certainly didn’t pussyfoot around the subject when it came to Wayne Rooney and the questions that occasionally came up about the striker’s febrile temper (nobody questioned Rooney’s performances back then, just the occasional controversies). The time, for example, when Rooney was being investigated by the Football Association for pushing his hand into the fac...

The Leganes record books will record that Lionel Messi was the first player to ever score at their tiny Butarque Stadium when they finally reached the top flight after 88 years. It will also say that Luis Suarez was the second and Neymar the third. The club on the southern outskirts of Madrid have waited a long time for a shot at the big time and they don't come any bigger than that front three who were the difference in a 5-1 win for Barca. But history should also record that Leganes did not deserve to be three-down at half time, never let their heads drop, and that Gabriel Pires' spectacular late free-kick would have raised the roof at Butarque, had their been one on the club's modest open-air stadium. That goal was cheered as if it were the winner, not a late consolation. There were 10 minutes left when Neymar conceded the foul and the Brazilian Gabriel, on loan from Juventus, made it 5-1. Long before Messi, Neymar and especially Suarez had made their mark.Much had been ...

Mina Raiola has criticised UEFA and called on European football's major clubs to break away from their governing body who he says have become "monopolist" and are driving competition out of football. The agent, who represents Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Mario Balotelli among others, made the comments the day after UEFA appointed Aleksander Ceferin as its new president. He accused the Champions League of becoming boring because of the same sides progressing to the final stages, and said "football needs a revolution," to overhaul the current system. "In football the result should always be a surprise, otherwise Leicester never would have won the [Premier] League," Raiola said during an interview with Radio CRC. "The Champions League, though, is killing the leagues and the federations are allowing UEFA to do it: the FIGC [Italian Football Federation] has let it become the biggest competitor to Serie A. "Everyone talks about the Champions ...

 Cristiano Ronaldo was stretchered off in tears but an extra-time goal by Eder saw Portugal beat hosts France 1-0 in Sunday's Euro 2016 final to win their first major tournament. The victim of a heavy challenge by Dimitri Payet, Ronaldo went off in the first half, but returned to the touchline to see Lille striker Eder settle the game with a low 25-yard strike at Stade de France. Twelve years after losing 1-0 to Greece as hosts of Euro 2004, Portugal inflicted the same fate on France, who were seeking a cathartic victory eight months on from the Paris attacks that left 130 people dead. France coach Didier Deschamps had hoped to lead his side to a fourth major tournament win, and third on home soil after Euro 1984 and the 1998 World Cup, when he was captain. But it was Ronaldo's Portugal who prevailed. The victory ended Portugal's run of 10 straight defeats against France, who had eliminated them in the semi-finals at Euro 1984, Euro 2000 and the 2006 World Cup. They took th...

FIFA on Friday (May 13) lifted Indonesia's year-long ban from international competitions but confirmed the suspensions of Kuwait and Benin over government interference in the sport. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said at a congress in Mexico City that Indonesia was reinstated after the government sent a letter notifying that it had lifted sanctions on its national football body. Indonesia's sports ministry had frozen the national football association and the Southeast Asian nation's football competition following a row over which teams could play in the top league. But the FIFA congress voted to confirm the suspensions of Kuwait and Benin. "We must protect our associations from government interference," Infantino said. FIFA suspended the Kuwait Football Association (KFA) last October after finding the government had interfered in the group's affairs, leading to three World Cup qualifying match forfeits. The International Olympic Committee also banned the coun...

Dani Osvaldo to be sacked by Boca after reportedly smoking in dressing room!he controversial forward played just five minutes of the Copa Libertadores quarter-final match and was released for reportedly lighting up in the dressing room at full timeThe roller-coaster career of Dani Osvaldo has taken another plunge as Boca Juniors decided to terminate his contract, after a bizarre clash with club coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Osvaldo, who has played just over 300 minutes this year following a string of injuries, was included on the bench for Boca's Copa Libertadores game against Nacional on Thursday.   The former Juventus and Roma forward, however, was brought on for the final minutes of the clash in Montevideo, and went straight for the dressing room after the final whistle while his team-mates applauded fans on the pitch.   There, according to widespread reports in Argentine media, he was caught by Barros Schelotto and his brother, assistant Gustavo, smoking a cigarette in the ...