Lukasz Piszczek scored an impressive late winner as Borussia Dortmund earned a thrilling 2-1 win at Mainz to extend their lead at the top of the Bundesliga.
The win stretched Dortmund s advantage at the summit to seven points, with closest challengers Borussia Monchengladbach not in action until Sunday when they face Hannover.
Dortmund dominated the first-half possession and made the brighter start, Dan-Axel Zagadou s header saved by Robin Zentner shortly before Marco Reus was narrowly wide with another aerial effort.
Axel Witsel had a strike well tipped over for the visitors, before Jean-Philippe Mateta s chip was kept out by an onrushing Roman Burki at the other end.
Mainz started brightly after the break with Mateta s blocked shot drifting just wide b…
Jose Mourinho accused his midfielders of overcomplicated play in the draw with Southampton and lamented a lack of mad dogs in his Manchester United side.
The Red Devils were 2-0 down after 20 minutes at St Mary s Stadium thanks to goals from Stuart Armstrong and Cedric Soares, but fought back before half-time thanks to goals from Romelu Lukaku and Ander Herrera.
United were forced into a makeshift 3-5-2 line-up, with Scott McTominay and Nemanja Matic in defence, with Paul Pogba and Herrera in central midfield alongside Marouane Fellaini.
Barring an impressive final 20 minutes in the first half, it was another lethargic display from Mourinho s men, with Pogba struggling in particular to make an impact as he lost the ball 25 times in the 90 minutes.
Mourinh…
Jonas Eidevall revealed referee Rebecca Welch delayed Chelsea’s Women’s Super League clash with Arsenal when both teams were lined up in the tunnel.
Kick-off for Chelsea’s 3-1 victory was delayed by 30 minutes while Arsenal staff collected black socks from their opponents’ megastore, using blue tape to cover the Chelsea and Nike logos.
Arsenal had arrived to Stamford Bridge with the same colour white socks as the hosts and were forced to make a change.
“It was a clash of colour with the kits which came to mine, the players and the other team’s attention very late,” he said.
“We got told that we can’t go out and play with the kit we had so we had to adapt and that was definitely a first.
“I was not involved in the process in how…
England Under-21s’ Tommy Doyle admits Manchester City’s treble winners have given him inspiration for Euro glory.
The midfielder watched as his parent club won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League while on loan at Sheffield United.
Doyle also won promotion with the Blades after finishing second in the Championship.
Euro’s 2023
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Sir Alex Ferguson insists Manchester United have no special plan to negate the threat of Lionel Messi in the Champions League final.
United and Barcelona are both vying for their fourth European Cup and will contest the final on Saturday at Wembley on, the scene of United s first triumph in 1968 and Barcelona s in 1992.
Ferguson has faced Messi, who has scored 53 goals this season, three times while in charge of Manchester United and on two of those occasions, the reigning World Player of the Year failed to score.
We showed fantastic concentration in those two ties, said Ferguson. That is the key for us. It is an important issue in terms of Saturday.
We have played against Barcelona three times with Messi in the team. But there is always a solution to…
No comparison with Henderson
Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has described Chelsea s £22 million bid for midfielder Luka Modric as ridiculous .
Speaking to the BBC, Redknapp said,
Luka is not for sale. But if there has been a bid of £22m that is ridiculous. There are people being sold for £20m who are not fit to lace Luka s boots.
Assume
I assume the people being sold refers to Liverpool s Jordan Henderson who was signed from Sunderland for a fee believed to be around £20 million.
It has to be said that Redknapp has got a point doesn t it? Luka Modric is a player admired around the world who has the ability to unlock a defence with flair, a little bit of magic or a clever pass. Henderson is a tireless worker who chases everything. He is…