Romelu Lukaku s final kick of his first spell at Chelsea came in a Super Cup.
On August 30, 2013, the Belgian – then 20, still young, albeit one with the physical stature of a player much further on in his career – missed the decisive penalty as Chelsea became the first team to lose successive Super Cup fixtures, going down in a shoot-out to Bayern Munich.
Not long after that game, Lukaku headed to Everton, initially on a loan deal before he made a permanent move to Goodison Park a year later. A return to Chelsea, however, has always seemed a possibility for the striker who stormed onto the scene with Anderlecht in his teens.
Whereas a Super Cup marked the end of his first spell in London, Wednesday s meeting with Villarreal showed just why the Blues are se…
Former Villarreal star Robert Pires believes Liverpool are the best team in Europe , but insists the Yellow Submarine can overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit to reach the Champions League final.
After a routine Liverpool win at Anfield last Wednesday, Villarreal will attempt to become just the second team to overturn a two-goal first-leg deficit in a Champions League semi-final (after Liverpool s 4-3 aggregate win over Barcelona in 2019).
Villarreal did not manage a single shot on target in their away reverse, but Pires former club did win their only previous home game against Liverpool in European competition (a 1-0 win in 2015-16 s Europa League semi-finals).
Although Pires said quadruple-chasing Liverpool are the best team on the continent, he does not think …
Slaven Bilic has been sacked as Watford head coach after just six months in charge, with Chris Wilder taking over for the rest of the season.
Wilder will be the Hornets third permanent boss of the season after Rob Edwards was relieved of his duties in September having overseen just 10 league games, with Bilic named his replacement.
But after a 0-0 home draw with Preston North End at the weekend, Bilic now leaves Vicarage Road after a run of just one victory in his last eight Championship fixtures and with the club four points off the play-off spots.
Ben Manga, Watford s technical director, said a change of coach was the only option available to re-energise for the final games ahead .
Wilder, who led Sheffield United from League One to the Premier League d…
Chelsea slipped from first to third in the Premier League over the weekend after a costly defeat at West Ham, which included a bizarre late winner for the hosts.
Divock Origi was told to Be Divock by Jurgen Klopp, so duly went and scored a 94th minute winner for Liverpool at Wolves, while Ralf Rangnick achieved something his fellow German didn t in his first game as interim boss at Manchester United.
Antonio Conte and Steven Gerrard also continued their positive starts to respective gigs at Tottenham and Aston Villa in a sentence that feels like it s straight from your favourite football management simulation game rather than real life.
With all that and more, here are some of the weekend s quirky stats from the Premier League
Chelsea Hamme…
Defending champions Spain will face Ukraine and Slovakia in their qualifying group for the 2016 UEFA European Championships.
Vicente del Bosque s men swept to a 4-0 victory over Italy in the 2012 final held in Kiev, to back up their 2008 success under previous boss Luis Aragones.
Spain are currently enjoying one of the most dominant eras in history, having also collected the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
Ukraine co-hosts of the 2012 tournament with Poland will hope to provide a stern test of the holders credentials, while Luxembourg, the Macedonia and Belarus complete Group C.
Gibraltar are appearing in their first UEFA competition and were originally drawn to appear in Group C.
However, the island nation will instead play in Group D, as a decisio…
Best odds: 12/25
Bookmaker:
Liverpool are set to welcome Ajax to Anfield on Tuesday evening in a match that will be a part of the second round in Group A of this season s Champions League campaign, after the two teams played two very different games in the opening round last week.
Liverpool
The Merseysiders traveled to Naples last week and endured what has been described as the worst 45 minutes of football they ve played since the appointment of Jurgen Klopp as the manager back in October 2015. They were 3-0 down at the break, with Piotr Zielinski, Andre Zambo Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone on target for Napoli as the Serie A side continuously broke through their defensive ranks and threatened Alisson Becker. The Brazilian goalkeeper actually saved his team furt…
Competition: Euro 2016 qualifier
Market: Denmark to win against Serbia
Odds:
Denmark face strugglers Serbia in this weekend‘s Euro 2016 qualifier, and are hoping to pick up all three points to boost their chances of finishing top of Group I. Currently two points adrift of first-place, victory for Denmark tonight may well see them topple Portugal at the summit should the table-toppers falter in their qualifier.
As a result, it’s all to play for in the group, especially with Albania level on points with Denmark. The form of the home side have been inconsistent, however. Three wins and as many defeats from six games makes Denmark a tricky side to predict, but they will be confident of coming out on top against Serbia, given how woeful the visitors have bee…
Ronald Koeman claimed the unsavoury scenes as he left Camp Nou after the defeat against Real Madrid reflect greater social issues.
Barcelona sit ninth in LaLiga after a 2-1 loss to Real Madrid on Sunday, Koeman becoming just the second coach to suffer defeat in his first three Clasico meetings.
The Blaugrana also made it five wins without a LaLiga Clasico victory, their longest winless run against any team in the Spanish top flight since May 2008.
After the game at Camp Nou at the weekend, under-fire Barca boss Koeman had his car mobbed by a crowd of fans as he attempted to depart the stadium.
The Catalan club released a statement to condemn those actions and Koeman suggested the incident reflected wider problems as he prepares to face Rayo Vallecano…
Christian Eriksen has been training in Denmark with former club Odense for the first time since his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.
In concerning scenes, Eriksen collapsed during Denmark s tournament opener against Finland in June and was given CPR before subsequently undergoing successful heart surgery.
The 29-year-old was fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), meaning he is unable to play for Inter in Serie A due to not meeting the requirements of achieving sporting fitness in Italy.
Eriksen would be allowed to play in other domestic leagues across Europe and, according to reports from BT in Denmark, the midfielder has been using his former club OB s training facilities to improve his fitness.
The former Tottenham man has been workin…
Lionel Messi was left annoyed at the state of the pitch at the Estadio Monumental de Maturin as Argentina drew 1-1 in Venezuela on Thursday.
Heavy rain in Maturin had initially caused kick-off to be delayed by half an hour, although when the players eventually took to the field it was clear that the ball was holding up in water and bounced very little.
Argentina, who had eight shots to Venezuela s 16, went ahead in the first half through Nicolas Otamendi before Salomon Rondon equalised in the 65th minute.
And Messi did not hold back in expressing his anger at the playing conditions.
It was very difficult, it makes for very ugly matches, said Messi.
We could not complete two passes in a row. In the second half we did it on the right a little more…