Atletico Madrid returned to the top of LaLiga, though only by a point, as they drew 1-1 with Real Betis in a thrilling encounter.

Real Madrid leapfrogged their neighbours into top spot with Saturday s Clasico triumph over Barcelona, and in response Diego Simeone s Atletico made an ideal start against Betis on Sunday.

Yannick Carrasco scored their quickest goal of the season, timed at four minutes and 36 seconds. However, Cristian Tello struck back for European hopefuls Betis 15 minutes later, directing a wonderful volley into the bottom-right corner.

Chasing four home wins in a row for the first time since April 2018, Betis had the better of the second half, though Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak stood firm when called upon and his counterpart Claudio Bravo made a…

Ronald Koeman said it feels very special to be appointed head coach of his dream club Barcelona.

Barca on Wednesday announced Koeman as the successor to Quique Setien, who was let go following the 8-2 hammering at the hands of Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on Friday.

Koeman, who spent six years at Camp Nou as a player under Johan Cruyff and served as an assistant to Louis van Gaal for two, has left his role as head coach of the Netherlands to sign a two-year contract with the Catalan giants.

It was an honour to be the national coach of the Netherlands. Over the past two and a half years, I have done everything I can to achieve success with Oranje, he said in a statement published by the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB).

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Antonio Conte is set to take charge of his first north London derby on Sunday.

We say is set to rather than will because there does appear to be the possibility of the game being postponed due to Arsenal s growing list of absences, with the club reportedly requesting for it to be called off.

The Gunners were without as many as nine first-team players for Thursday s EFL Cup semi-final first-leg draw with Liverpool, and Mikel Arteta intimated they have further issues as a result of that match.

But, for the moment, the game is planned to go ahead as normal and Conte will surely be eager for it to do so, with Arsenal s predicament seemingly giving him the best possible chance to right some previous wrongs…

CONTE S ARSENAL HOODOO

When you consider h…

Cristiano Ronaldo has long made European football his personal playground and now counts a century of international goals among his seemingly endless achievements.

The five-time Ballon d Or winner superbly struck the celebrated number 100 in Portugal s Nations League meeting with Sweden on Tuesday.

It was just his fourth Nations League goal, but across a 17-year Portugal career there are many more mind-bending numbers to be found in a three-figure tally surpassed only by one man, Iran s Ali Daei, in international football.

To mark the milestone, we have mined the Opta data to bring you six of the best stats behind Ronaldo s terrific ton.

Love this feeling  

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano)

6 – Ronaldo has scored multipl…

Gennaro Gattuso will take over as Fiorentina s new head coach next season, their agreement coming just two days after his Napoli exit was confirmed.

Shortly after Sunday s 1-1 draw with Hellas Verona at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona consigned Napoli to finishing fifth in Serie A, Partenopei president Aurelio De Laurentiis confirmed Gattuso s exit. 

Napoli went into the weekend in fourth position but were leapfrogged on the final day by Juventus, who were 4-1 winners at Bologna. 

Gattuso s contract was due to expire at the end of 2020-21 and Napoli s failure to reach the Champions League seemingly cost him an extension.

He won 46 of his 81 games as Napoli boss, giving him a win percentage of 56.8 – better than Rafael Benitez (52.7 per cent) and C…

According to , German club Wolfsburg are interested in signing Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw this summer. However, reports suggest that the full-back has decided to stay at Old Trafford this summer.

The 23-year-old will be a free agent next summer, as his Red Devils contract expires in 2019. That means the England international would be able to sign a pre-contract agreed with foreign clubs next January.

No talks over an extension have been reported, yet he seems happy to stay with the Manchester club and attempt to prove his worth to the club.

Not working out at Manchester United

Luke Shaw arrived at Manchester United from Southampton in the summer of 2014 for a fee reportedly in the region of £30million. At the time, Shaw was one of the brightest youn…

New Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick is keen on signing Joshua Kimmich in the summer transfer window, according to . Flick worked with Kimmich at Bayern Munich, and he thinks that the 29-year-old, who can operate as a right-back or as a midfielder, would be perfect for his Barcelona team.

Bayern value Kimmich at €50 million. It will be interesting to see if Barcelona are willing to or even able to afford to pay that kind of money. Kimmich is one of the best players in the world and has been on the books of Bayern since 2025.

Barcelona finished second in the La Liga table last season. The Blaugrana picked up 85 points from 38 matches and ended up 10 points behind bitter rivals and eventual champions Real Madrid. As for Bayern, the Bavarian giants ended up third in the …

Kalvin Phillips returned from World Cup duty with England overweight and not ready to feature against Liverpool, according to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.

The midfielder has endured a frustrating season hampered by injury issues after moving to the Etihad Stadium from boyhood club Leeds United in the last transfer window.

Phillips was still selected by Gareth Southgate for Qatar 2022 but played just 40 minutes across the tournament before England suffered quarter-final heartbreak against France.

The 27-year-old, who has been restricted to just one substitute appearance in the Premier League for City, missed the EFL Cup fourth-round win over Liverpool on Thursday.

While England team-mates Jack Grealish, John Stones and Phil Foden all featured in …

According to , as relayed by , Tottenham Hotspur remain keen on signing Takehiro Tomiyasu from Bologna despite having two bids for the defender turned down. Spurs have made two offers for the 22-year-old already, but Italian club Bologna have rejected both of them.

Bologna want €25 million (£21.38m) for Tomiyasu, at least a fixed transfer fee of €20 million (£17.10m). The Serie A club have received an offer of €19 million (£16.25m) plus bonuses from Spurs. That has been turned down, but Spurs are planning to come back with another bid for the 22-year-old, who can also play as a right-back.

Tomiyasu scored two goals in 31 Serie A matches for Bologna . During the 2019-20 campaign, the Japan international scored one goal and gave three assists in 29 league games.<…

Paris Saint-Germain defender Alex is confident that he will agree a new deal with the French champions before the end of the season.

The 31-year-old Brazilian is out of contract at the end of the campaign but has been a regular for PSG in the three seasons since he arrived from Chelsea.

With PSG primed to wrap up a second consecutive Ligue 1 title this season, Alex confirmed that he is likely to agree a new deal in the next few weeks.

I am very happy in Paris and almost everything is right to renew, he told GloboEsporte.com.

I believe that in a week or two we will sign an agreement for another year.

While Alex is set to sort his club future out soon, he does not expect any new developments at international level.

The centre-back has not played fo…