For a memorable few months in 2008, Russia was the talk of the soccer world.
Zenit St. Petersburg captured the Europa League title, defeating Rangers in the final after dismantling Bayern Munich 5-1 on aggregate in the semis.
Just a month later, the national team also achieved unprecedented success, reaching the semifinals of Euro 2008 before bowing out to eventual champion Spain.
Fenerbahçe will sign German midfielder Mesut Özil from Arsenal for three and a half years for an undisclosed fee, Turkey's private Demirören news agency and other Turkish media reported on Wednesday.
While there was no immediate comment on the reports from Fenerbahçe, broadcaster A Spor said Özil and the club had agreed on the transfer in principle and that the 32-year-old would join the former Turkish champions later in January.
With the Premier League season nearly half over, this current lull in matches is the perfect time to look back at the campaign so far.
We've all been following the matches and have a general idea about where each team sits in the league table, so the next logical step is to dive deeper into the analytical side of the Premier League and examine the expected goals league table.
As the year draws to a close, Steven Gerrard's Rangers side is well-placed to end its 10-year run without a Premier League championship.
The Gers sit in first place with a 16-point lead over second-placed Celtic, although the Parkhead side has three games in hand. Rangers' rear guard has deservedly earned plaudits this season, having kept a remarkable 17 clean sheets in 21 games and conceded just five goals.
No one can argue that 2020 has been an awful year that we all want to put behind us. But before we look ahead 2021, we have to take a minute to appreciate how sports have provided something resembling normality in recent months.
Considering the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been incredibly lucky to have soccer leagues playing regularly since June.
Manchester United have been handed a tough draw in the Europa League last 32 knockout stage where they will face current Spanish league leaders Real Sociedad.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær's side finished third in their Champions League group and dropped into the second tier competition after last week's defeat by RB Leipzig. The clash with Sociedad will see United come up against former Manchester City favorite David Silva, now back in his homeland where he has inspired Sociedad to their excellent start to the domestic season.
LONDON — Arsenal's fans had waited nine long months to return to the club's north London stadium but the 2,000 people sprinkled across the red seats had to wait only nine minutes to enjoy the thrill of celebrating a goal in the flesh again on Thursday.
Appropriately, it was Frenchman Alexandre Lacazette who struck the opener in a 4-1 victory over Rapid Vienna — the same player who 272 days earlier had scored the winner against West Ham United, days before the COVID-19 pandemic swept in.
UEFA announced on Thursday that the 2021-22 season will feature a third club competition below the Europa League. This third-tier tournament has been dubbed the Europa Conference League. So, who qualifies for Europa Conference League and what is this all about?
The answer to the question of who qualifies for this less-than prestigious tournament isn’t too straight forward. The most important thing mentioned in UEFA’s announcement of the new tournament is that NO TEAMS will directly qualify for the group stage via domestic competition.
Arsenal cannot figure out how to score in the Premier League. With 10 goals in 10 matches, only the bottom three sides have scored less. Fortunately for the Gunners, things have been a bit different in the lower-quality Europa League, where they average three goals per outing. Thursday was no different, starting with a stunning Alexandre Lacazette goal vs Rapid Vienna.
AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be out of action for at least ten days after picking up a muscle injury in the 3-1 league win against Napoli at the weekend, the Serie A club said on Monday.
The 39-year-old scored twice before suffering the injury as the Serie A leaders recorded their first league win in Naples for more than 10 years. A club spokesperson said it could take between two and three weeks for Ibrahimovic to recover.