Market: Both teams to score
Odds: 7/10 @
Two sides who will be looking to extend on their respective EFL Cup adventures on Tuesday night, Bolton will welcome Mansfield to the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Starting with the hosts, suffering major play-off heartbreak at Wembley back on May 18th as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Oxford United in north London, Ian Evatt’s side are desperate to go one-step further this time around. Signing off their pre-season preparations with a routine 3-0 romp away at Port Vale, the Trotters are certainly pencilled in as a standout promotion contender this year. Getting the new League One campaign underway last weekend with a 2-1 win away at Leyton Orient, the former Barrow boss will be looking to lay down another early ma…
Prediction: Match to end in 2-2 draw
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Olympique de Marseille and AS Monaco will face each other in Ligue 1 this weekend. The match between Les Phocéens and Les Rouge et Blanc will be held at Stade Vélodrome and is scheduled to kick off at 8pm UK time on Saturday.
Olympique de Marseille
Olympique de Marseille are one of the biggest and most historic clubs in the world. They have won the Ligue 1 title as many as nine times in their history, but their last success came in 2009-10 before bitter rivals Paris Saint-Germain began their domination of French club. Marseille finished second in in the league table in 2021-22 and in 2019-20.
Marseille are third in the Ligue 1 table at the moment at the moment with 42 points from 19…
Juventus have completed the signing of Teun Koopmeiners from Atalanta for €54.7million.
The 26-year-old midfielder has signed a five-year deal with the Bianconeri.
Koopmeiners was a key member of the Atalanta side that ended Bayer Leverkusen’s long unbeaten run in last season s Europa League final, and had been at the club for three years after joining from AZ in 2021.
He missed out on a place in the Netherlands Euro 2024 squad after suffering an injury in a warm-up match and has represented his national side 21 times, scoring twice.
This is it, this is happening
The great wait is over
— JuventusFC
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Mansfield closed in on top spot in League Two as they equalled the club’s all-time record league win from 1932 by destroying in-form Harrogate by an astonishing 9-2 scoreline.
The visitors had won four and drawn two of their last six but were simply blown away, Hiram Boateng scoring a hat-trick in the highest-scoring Football League game since 2011.
From the 13th minute when Lucas Akins buried a home penalty after Derrick Abu had hauled down Baily Cargill, the Stags never looked back in a one-sided first half.
It was 2-0 on 20 minutes as Boateng won a tackle 25 yards out, ran to the edge of the box and slammed home a powerful finish.
On the half-hour Davis Keillor-Dunn’s square pass 18 yards out set up Boateng for his second and four minutes later Ste…
Jay Stansfield was on target against former club Birmingham City as Fulham swept aside their League One hosts with a comprehensive 2-0 victory in the EFL Cup second round.
Marco Silva s side fell short against Liverpool in the semi-finals of this competition last season, but made another good start to the new cup campaign on Tuesday after easing to victory at St. Andrew s.
Raul Jimenez opened the scoring with a 10th-minute penalty, awarded for handball against Alex Cochrane, before Birmingham were undone by a familiar face just four minutes later.
Striker Stansfield spent last season on loan with the Blues and, owing to that spell, refused to celebrate after profiting from Joachim Andersen s long pass before finishing with a clinical edge.
Birmingham coul…
Mats Hummels sees no reason why Borussia Dortmund cannot go on and win the Champions League following their hard-earned semi-final victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
The Black and Yellow are through to the final of Europe s premier club competition for only the third time after sealing a 2-0 aggregate over the reigning Ligue 1 champions, who struck the woodwork six times across both legs.
After Niclas Fullkrug settled last week s first leg at Signal Iduna Park, Hummels second-half header was the difference in the return at Parc des Princes, where Edin Terzic s side produced another defensive masterclass as they claimed their sixth clean sheet in this season s competition.
Dortmund, who lifted the trophy 27 years ago, will face either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich …
Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera is expecting Alexis Sanchez to produce his best once again in 2019 after a difficult first year at Old Trafford.
Sanchez joined United almost exactly a year ago, as he departed Arsenal on January 22, 2018, in a deal which saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan go the other way.
The swap was arguably the biggest deal of the previous January transfer window, leading to much debate about which club had the better end of the bargain.
However, neither player has impressed in the last 12 months – Sanchez scoring just three times in 23 Premier League appearances for United while also suffering a series of injury issues.
But with United playing with much more creative freedom and attacking intent under interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskja…
De Zerbi said: “He is the best player on the pitch, I think. He played another incredible game.
“I am really pleased for his improvement on mentality, on attitude. In defensive phase, incredible because he defended 90 minutes like a centre-back in terms of mentality.
“He is becoming, I think, a top player. I hope in the next year to work with him but I think it will be very tough.”
While Pedro tormented Tottenham all night long, it was a superb team display by Brighton, especially for the first hour on the south coast.
To top off an excellent end to 2023, Pervis Estupinan marked his first Premier League appearance since September with a superb 25-yard strike.
“It’s an incredible goal but the most important thing about Estupinan is we r…
Russia can book their spot in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals with victory against co-hosts Poland in Warsaw on Tuesday.
Dick Advocaat s side made an excellent start to the tournament, with a 4-1 Group A win against the Czech Republic in Wroclaw on Friday.
They are unbeaten in 15 games, defeated Italy 3-0 in their last friendly prior to Euro 2012 and dominated the Czechs in a sublime display of attacking football.
But despite all that, Advocaat says there is no chance of complacency creeping into the Russian camp.
Not once have I seen the players thinking this will be an easy game, as there are no easy games, Advocaat said.
Against Poland it will be a different game, a different opponent, and I think it will be a tougher match than the first one.<…
Massimiliano Allegri says Juventus will look to bring more experienced players into the squad ahead of the 2022-23 campaign.
Juve s disappointing season ended with a whimper on Saturday as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Fiorentina at the Artemio Franchi.
Alfred Duncan opening the scoring for a Fiorentina side who were far and away the superior team, before a late penalty from Nicolas Gonzalez finished the Bianconeri off.
It was the first time Fiorentina have won a Serie A home clash against Juventus since January 2017.
The game marked the end of Giorgio Chiellini, Paulo Dybala and Federico Bernardeschi s Juve careers, and Allegri acknowledged that the club, who have been linked with free transfer moves for Paul Pogba and Angel Di Maria, will need t…