England defender Danny Rose told his family not to come to Russia for the World Cup over concerns they may be racially abused.
The Russian Football Association was fined £22,000 by FIFA, after racist chants were directed towards black French players during a friendly between the two nations in March, a seemingly lenient punishment Rose labelled disgusting .
I am not worried about myself, Rose told Standard Sport. But I ve told my family I don t want them going out there because of the racism and anything else that may happen.
Rose, who will be competing at his first World Cup, revealed his family were heartbroken, but believes it is in everybody s best interests for them to stay away.
My dad s really upset. I could hear it in his voice. He said he may…
Arjen Robben has waxed lyrical about life at Bayern Munich and insists he is not considering a move away from the Bavarian giants.
The Netherlands international moved to Bayern from Real Madrid in 2009 and has enjoyed a trophy-laden stint in Germany.
Robben has picked up three Bundesliga titles, as well as winning the UEFA Champions League in 2013, scoring the all-important goal in the 2-1 final victory over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.
There was talk in the close-season that Robben would move to Manchester United to be reunited with Louis van Gaal who he worked under at Bayern and with the national team but the 30-year-old s glowing description of life in Munich means any such move in the future seems unlikely.
I am enjoying it so much over here, he to…
Michael O’Neill has told Shea Charles he must learn from his dismissal after Northern Ireland suffered yet another 1-0 defeat in Euro 2024 qualifying, this time at home to Slovenia.
The 19-year-old Charles has been one of the bright spots for Northern Ireland in a hugely frustrating qualifying campaign, among the young players who have grabbed the chance to establish themselves in the side amid an injury nightmare.
But his international copybook got its first blemish as he collected two yellow cards to be sent off just before the hour mark at Windsor Park, meaning his run of starting every game so far in this campaign will end when Northern Ireland head to Finland next month.
Get the lowdown on tonight s narrow defeat in Belfast
— Northern Ireland (…
Real Madrid bounced back from consecutive defeats by earning their first La Liga points of 2015 with a routine 3-0 home win over Espanyol.
A Liga defeat to Valencia last weekend was followed up by a Copa del Rey loss at bitter rivals Atletico Madrid on Wednesday but, although Fabio Coentrao was sent off early in the second half, Real never looked at risk of losing three games in a row for the first time since 2009.
Karim Benzema provided Espanyol with an early warning as he blasted against the post after just 10 minutes, and the breakthrough followed shortly after as James Rodriguez found the net following Cristiano Ronaldo s assist.
The FIFA Ballon d Or nominee then watched on as Gareth Bale doubled Real s lead with a fine free-kick in the 28th minute.
QPR striker Charlie Austin has been in superb form for his club this season and must be close to an England call-up
As expected on Friday night England made easy work of their Euro 2016 qualifier against Lithuania with a 4-0 victory at Wembley.
Arsenal forward Danny Welbeck was the star of the show on the wing scoring a goal and being a constant threat to the Lithuanian defence.
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However, Welbeck has now been ruled out of the Three Lions friendly international on Tuesday night.
The 24-year-old has joined fellow forwards Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling in returning home through injury.
That means that the England squad is down to just two recognised forwards in captain Wayne Rooney and youngster Harry Kane. That should be eno…
Cristiano Ronaldo saw an extra-time penalty saved by Jan Oblak, but recovered to convert in the shoot-out as Portugal survived a huge scare to beat Slovenia on spot-kicks following a goalless draw in the last 16 at Euro 2024.
Ronaldo had a glorious opportunity to send Portugal through in the first half of extra time, but broke down in tears when his tame kick was repelled by the Atletico Madrid goalkeeper.
He had earlier missed chance after chance in regulation time as Slovenia – chiefly thanks to the efforts of Oblak – kept Roberto Martinez s team at bay to force spot-kicks.
However, he made no mistake with his second attempt from the spot, and Diogo Costa kept out all three Slovenia kicks from Josip Ilicic, Jure Balkovec and Benjamin Verbic.
Diogo C…
Victor Moses is looking to leave Chelsea as soon as possible, and the claim Manchester United are now favorites for his signature.
Chelsea have enjoyed a highly successful start to the season, and the fact that Moses is yet to play a minute of Premier League football says a lot about manager Maurizzio Sarri s plans when it comes to the Nigerian despite him winning the Premier League title in 2016/17 under Antonio Conte. Since joining the club from Wigan in 2012, he had loan spells with Liverpool, Stoke City and West Ham.
The winger worked with United manager Jose Mourinho during his days at Chelsea, and it is to be expected the Portuguese will have no problems in persuading him to move to Old Trafford should his departure become imminent. Apart from the 20-time Englis…
Tottenham will aim to tackle their supposed Wembley curse as the Champions League continues on Wednesday, with Real Madrid seeking to win the tournament for the third year in a row.
No manager has won the Champions League three times in succession so Zinedine Zidane will be out to make history, and has the competition s record goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo available despite serving a domestic ban.
Elsewhere, RB Leipzig will make their Champions League bow against last season s semi-finalists Monaco, the Ligue 1 champions shorn of many of the stars who fired them to glory in France last year.
Premier League sides Liverpool and Manchester City also get up and running with their first group games on Wednesday and here we examine the upcoming schedule with the help…
Championship promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough have signed David Nugent from Leicester City, .
The one time England international moves to the Riverside Stadium for an undisclosed fee after falling further out of favour at Leicester following the arrival of Japan striker Shinji Okazaki while Jamie Vardy, Andrej Kramaric and Leonardo Ulloa are also ahead of him in the pecking order.
Since signing for the Foxes four years ago Nugent racked up one hundred and eighty appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring fifty-nine goals while he was part of the squad that won the Championship in 2014.
Prior to his move to the East Midlands, the thirty year old averaged around a hundred games in spells with Portsmouth, Preston North End and Bury while he also had a…
One-step run up to a penalty is not a thing you’ll get to see very often in a professional football game.
Still, it’s exactly what happened in Spain this weekend as Athletic Bilbao forward Aritz Aduriz tucked it in audaciously against Valladolid.
Aduriz is a sort of a penalty specialist who bagged 21 spot kicks in La Liga since 2012 which is the most for any played in top 5 European leagues since that time.
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