Iran contest not all about Ronaldo, insists Santos

Prediction: Match to end in 2-2 draw

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Arsenal and Leeds United will face each other in the Premier League this weekend. The match at the Emirates Stadium in North London is slated to kick off at 4:30pm UK time on Sunday and promises to be a cracking game of football.

Arsenal

Arsenal will head into the match against Leeds on the back of a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa away from home at Villa Park in the Premier League. It followed a 2-1 loss at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux Stadium in the league.

The Gunners are 11th in the Premier League table at the moment with 31 points from 23 matches. The former English champions are as many as nine points behind fourth-placed Liverpool and still have a chance of finis…

Manchester United and AS Roma had reached an agreement about a loan move for Alexis Sanchez only for the Chilean to refuse the move, according to BeIN Sports journalist .

In a swap deal involving Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Sanchez arrived to Old Trafford from Arsenal in January 2018 as a player expected to make immediate impact on United s fortunes. However, it can be safely said that he completely failed to live up to those expectations. In a season and a half, he has scored five goals in 45 games an abysmal record for an experienced forward, and United have reportedly been trying to sell him for a while now.

However, his enormous wages have always been the factor that made any such deal impossible, with no suitors willing to match them and him refusing to go for anything les…

Experienced Polish keeper Wojciech Kowalewski has left Greek side Iraklis after they released him from his contract.  The 32 year old joined Iraklis in 2008 from Korona Kielce and made 39 league appearances for the Super League side in his stint at the Kaftanzoglio Stadium.

Kowalewski is now being linked with a return to Legia Warsaw, the club where he began his senior professional career. Apart from Legia, Iraklis and Korona, he has also represented Dyskobolia Grodzisk, Shakhtar Donetsk and Spartak Moscow.

He has been capped 11 times for Poland and even featured for them last year in the qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup.

Legia are currently in the market for a goalkeeper because Slovak stopper Jan Mucha is expected to leave after his contract expire…

Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer feels fans underestimate how difficult it is to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

After their move into the Asian Football Confederation in 2006, Australia had a relatively straightforward path to South Africa in 2010, finishing comfortably on top of their final qualifying group.
Things have not been so easy this time around, with four draws and a loss from their six matches seeing them in third spot in AFC Group B with two games to play on the road to Brazil.
The Socceroos face a clash with Jordan in Melbourne on Tuesday, before finishing their qualification campaign by hosting Iraq in Sydney a week later.
Schwarzer feels people do not give some of the region s lesser lights enough credit for their performances.
I don t think we underestimate…

The text you’re about to read is a mistimed appreciation post for the England defender Harry Maguire who went on to impress the author here with his fantastic World Cup exploits.

England are coming off from a highly successful World Cup.

Gareth Southgate led his Three Lions to the semifinal in Russia and returned home a hero despite losing to Croatia 2-1 and subsequently Belgium 2-0 in the third place play-off.

England have, by all accounts, had a superb tournament as a young and talented squad which is expected to reach its full potential over the next couple of years. Gareth Southgate has been given unanimous backing by both fans and pundits alike to continue with his project and the future looks bright for the Three Lions.

The likes of Marcus Rashford, Del…

According to Tuttosport, Simone Zaza has moved a step closer to finalising a deal to Torino, with talks between the Italian club and Valencia reportedly going well. The 27-year-old has bounced around a series of different clubs around Europe already throughout his short career, with arguably his most notable moment coming at Euro 2016 when he missed a crucial penalty for Italy against Germany.

Alas, it now seems like a move back to his homeland is imminent, despite some initial suggestions that he d remain in Spain after a somewhat successful tenure with Valencia.

Torino are attempting to bolster their squad following a 9th place finish in Serie A last season, whereas Valencia had a very successful year by finishing 4th in La Liga. Zaza will likely view this move as a c…

Manchester United produced a thrilling triumph against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Molineux on Thursday.

Until the 71st minute, United were two goals up, courtesy of Marcus Rashford (5 ) and Rasmus Hojlund (22 ), but Wolves decided they weren t going to be beaten that easily. Pablo Sarabia reduced the score, and even though Scott McTominay restored United s two-goal lead in the 75th minute, Max Kilman cut it in half again with five minutes to go, and Pedro Neto scored what appeared to be a last-gasp equalizer.

However, almost seven minutes into the stoppage time, Kobbie Mainoo turned hero for his team with an extremely late winner.

Speaking to the press after the game, United boss Erik ten Hag was understandably full of praise for the 18-year-old midfielder.<…

The French national football side is going through a difficult period in terms of replacing the older generation with younger players, admitted under-fire coach Raymond Domenech on Monday.

The 58-year-old whose popularity has plummeted since guiding the French to the 2006 World Cup final insisted, though, that he was getting a firmer idea of the makeup of his 23 man squad for the World Cup finals in South Africa, which runs from June 11 to July 11.

There is a changing of the generations taking place, said Domenech, who was capped eight times as fullback from 1973-79.

Apart from Brazil, who have an immense reservoir of talent, which assures them of a natural renewal without the team suffering the consequences, all the other teams function cyclically.

W…

Lionel Messi lived up to the pre-game billing given to him by Pep Guardiola to spoil his former coach s Camp Nou return as Barcelona beat Bayern Munich 3-0 in their UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg.

Wednesday s encounter in Catalonia marked the first time since his departure from Barca in 2012 that Guardiola had met the team he led to 14 major trophies in four years.

Guardiola had branded Messi unstoppable  in the build-up to the game and his words proved prophetic as Messi dismantled Bayern with two spectacular late goals.

Having seen Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer frustrate Barca for much of the encounter, the two sides looked set to head back to the Allianz Arena next week with the tie finely poised at 0-0.

But Messi, playing in his 100…

Zenit secured their first Russian Premier League title since 2012 on Sunday with a 1-1 draw against Ufa.

Andre Villas-Boas sides better head-to-head record with Krasnodar means the point at the Stadion Petrovskij is enough to end their three-year wait to be crowned champions.

Hulk put Zenit ahead with his 15th league goal of the season just after the half hour, but Zenit were denied all three points as Haris Handzic grabbed an equaliser with three minutes to play.

Sunday s achievement is Villas-Boas first Russian Premier League title as Zenit head coach.

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