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Monday, September 9, 2013

Madrid fought until the death for Neymar - Rosell

Barcelona club president Sandro Rosell has revealed that rivals Real Madrid tried to convince Neymar to move to Santiago Bernabeu this summer right until the eleventh hour. The Brazilian forward sealed a €57 million switch to Camp Nou after making it clear he favoured a move to the Liga champions, but that did not prevent los Blancos from attempting to disrupt negotiations even when the contract was being signed, according to Rosell.
"When we reached an initial agreement with Neymar's father, the player had already passed a medical with Madrid, so we joked we would not bother with our own check-up," he told television station TV3. "When we were signing the contract, Madrid were sending emails to Santos."

The Blaugrana president was also quashed the notion of their being any possibility of Real Madrid club captain Iker Casillas replacing the out-going Victor Valdes, despite the Spain No.1 having failed to regain his first-team place from Diego Lopez. "Casillas will not sign because he is an icon of Real Madrid and I could not see him with the club badge on his chest, the same way I wouldn’t like to see Xavi in a Real jersey," said Rosell.

Finally, the 49-year-old revealed that tensions have dropped between La Liga's top two since Jose Mourinho's departure for Chelsea, but hinted he would miss the Portuguese's presence in Spain. "Since then the tension has dropped, but his press conferences were entertaining," he added. "In the European Super Cup I was siding with Bayern Munich. Pep Guardiola is the best coach in history."

Jordi Alba will become better than Roberto Carlos, says Capdevila

Espanyol defender Joan Capdevila believes Barcelona defender Jordi Alba has the potential to become even better than Roberto Carlos and develop into the best left-back in the world. The 24-year-old scored in Spain's 2-0 victory over Finland on Friday to make it five goals in 24 games for Spain and Capdevila is impressed with the former Valencia man's fine performances.

"Jordi is an incredible talent," Capdevila was quoted as saying by Marca. "He's on course to fast become the best in the world. He'll be better than Roberto Carlos." Meanwhile, the Brazilian himself has nothing but praise for Alba, too, and feels the Barcelona defender and Real Madrid's Marcelo are arguably the best in the world in their position.

"Along with Marcelo, he's the best left-back out there. "His explosive pace makes him important in both defence and attack. He's a proven goalscorer." Alba has been Spain's first-choice left-back ever since displacing Capdevila during the qualification campaign for Euro 2012.

Zidane: Ribery and Ronaldo should share Ballon d'Or

Zinedine Zidane says he would like to see either Cristiano Ronaldo or fellow countryman Franck Ribery pick up the Ballon d’Or award this year. Ribery was crowned Uefa Best Player last month after inspiring Bayern Munich to the treble last season, pipping fellow nominees Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to the prize. And Zidane believes the 30-year-old deserves global football's top individual honour for 2013 along with Real Madrid star Ronaldo, instead of current holder and four-time winner Messi. "I hope it will be one of those two, both really deserve it,” stated the Madrid sporting director to TV programme Canal Football Club.

"If there were two Ballon d’Or, I would give them one each. As it is, there is only one, but I do not decide!"
Zidane went on to voice his support for striker Karim Benzema, following the criticism levelled at the 25-year-old as a result of his 20-plus-hour goal drought for France. "We know he has not scored for a long time for France," Zidane continued.

"What I hope is to always see Benzema performing at a good level because he is a talented player who can give a lot to France and Real Madrid." The World Cup-winner also talked about his relationship with coach Carlo Ancelotti and insisted that his new role on the backroom team at Santiago Bernabeu has not caused any rifts within the current coaching set-up.
He explained that what interests me and him still have to learn about that. "I had him [Ancelotti] for two years at Juventus. He has evolved professionally, but as a person, he is always the same, devoted and open-minded."

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Ronaldo's absence is disappointing, admits Thiago Silva

Brazil defender Thiago Silva admits he is disappointed that Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo will not be available to face his side on Tuesday, The Paris Saint-Germain stopper, fresh from the Selecao's 6-0 friendly win against Australia on Saturday, had hoped to come up against the 28-year-old following his devastating hat-trick against Northern Ireland on Friday but has been ruled out because of tendinitis.

"I'm not happy that he [Cristiano] is out. It's always a sad thing to see a fellow footballer getting injured. We had that today with Marcelo. A player of Cristiano's calibre should always be fit to play, because that makes any match automatically better."

David Luiz, who partnered Silva at the back on Saturday believes Ronaldo's absence gives Brazil impetus.

Brazil bounced back from the Switzerland defeat with an emphatic victory over the Socceroos, with goals coming from Jo, Neymar, Ramires, Alexandre Pato and Luiz Gustavo. Silva will expect to be tested much more in Tuesday's friendly than he was on Saturday but insisted that credit must be given to the way Luiz Felipe Scolari's men defended as well as attacked.

"We didn't have a difficult life today because of how well our defence worked, it's important to highlight that," he continued. "Let's not say that they didn't make it past our back line because of their lack of quality, but because we did a very good job at keeping them from it. We had a really strong man-marking [system]."

Emmanuel Emenike glad to score after injury lay-off

The new Fenerbahce striker made his return after eight months and scored the opening goal against the Flames Emmanuel Emenike got injured at the semi-final stage of the last Nations Cup and has not featured since that injury but he made his return to the Super Eagles on Saturday.

It was in a Group F final qualifying match against Malawi and he scored in the 45th minute to help his team to a 1-0 half-time lead. “Definitely good to be back to the national team and to come back with a goal was very good,” Emenike said after the match.

“We knew we had to be relaxed as they needed to win and all we needed was a draw.” Emenike also revealed that scoring at the end of the first half actually relaxed the players for the second half. “After we scored we knew that Malawi would come out to try and get the equalizer and then we scored the second goal,” he added.

Luis Suarez in new cheat storm

The Liverpool forward was once again the centre of attention as his controversial performance ensured Uruguay took a step closer to Brazil 2014. Luis Suarez is at the centre of a new diving controversy after Uruguay beat Peru 2-1 in a World Cup 2014 qualifier on Friday. Peru coach Sergio Markarian slammed referee Patricio Loustau for sending off Victor Yotun for a clash with Suarez in the first half at the Estadio Nacional de Lima.

The Uruguay forward theatrically fell to the ground following the clash with Yotun who was shown a straight red card. Marakarian told reporters. "What Yotun did was silly but I've seen worse, like elbows or persistent simulation that goes unpunished." Four minutes earlier Suarez earned his side a penalty - from which he scored - when he went to ground following a challenge from Christian Ramos, though, replays showed there was minimal contact.

Liverpool's striker is currently serving a 10-match ban for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic. Peru are now five points behind Uruguay, who occupy the fifth-place play-off position in the Conmebol qualifying pool.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Full Time: Nigeria 2-0 Malawi

Nigeria earned passage into the final round of Caf qualification for World Cup 2014 with a 2-0 victory over Malawi in Calabar on Saturday. The Super Eagles were helped by goals from returnee striker Emmanuel Emenika and a penalty from attacker Victor Moses.

The game began on a very competitive note with Liverpool loan signing Moses and Ahmed Musa tormenting the James Sangala-anchored Malawian defence. As early as the second minute, Limbikani Mzava was booked for a rough challenge on Moses who was on a goal-bound move. Despite gaining most of the ball possession, Nigeria failed to get the curtain raiser as they failed to create clear cut chances. The attack-minded Eagles did not relent as they challenged Tom Santifiet’s men for every ball.

In the 11th minute, Musa saw his opportunity declared offside after he got a well-tailored cross from John Obi Mikel. Few minutes later, Ogenyi Onazi's shot went just wide as Stephen Keshi's men continued their search of the early goal. Malawi shot-stopper, Simplex Nthara repaid the faith shown in him by Tom Saintfiet to start the game with a brilliant save off the boot of Efe Ambrose followed by another super effort in the 26th minute to deny Moses the opening goal.

A few minutes later, the visitors were reduced to 10 men after Limbikani Mzava was sent off for a second yellow to compound Malawi's misery. Musa's battle with the Malawi goalkeeper continued in the 68th minute as he was unable to score again in a one on one situation. Even with the introduction of Newcastle forward Shola Ameobi for his competitive debut, Nosa Igiebor and Uche Nwofor, Nigeria failed to get the third goal after missing several scoring chances.
With this result, Nigeria are now through to the final play-off round of World Cup 2014 qualification and will know their opponents when the draw is made in a few days.

The Adventures of Akpors - Akpors in I DON PORT (Episode 6)

Sunshine breaks over Calabar as Super Eagles-Malawi clash looms

The Eagles seem ready to quench the Flames of Malawi as the weather brightened on Friday morning following days of incessant rainfall. After about six days of continuous rainfall in Calabar, the sun has surprisingly shot out as the Super Eagles prepare to confirm their Group F ticket against Malawi.

The team had a slight training session on Friday morning as the coaches fined tune their strategies ahead of the game scheduled for the UJ Esuene Stadium on Saturday by 4pm.

From information gathered from those that surround the team, the players are ready to give their all to secure the ticket. The playing pitch looked lush on Friday and did not give way even with the amount of water that the pitch had soaked in. The players were sure-footed and in the shooting drills, all the players were in the most rambunctious manner.

The tickets also went on sale today as match officials have decided that tickets will not be sold near the stadium on match day especially. Now the hours are ticking down to the 4pm kick-off time. Wishing the Super Eagles the best of luck and lots of goals.