The FA Cup is too long – Flores

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the UEFA Best Player in Europe award for the third time in four years.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon were beaten to the accolade by Ronaldo.

The Real Madrid star, 32, scooped the honour after helping his side to Champions League glory in 2016-17, scoring 12 goals in the competition.

A magnificent campaign from Ronaldo saw him score a total of 42 goals across all competitions as Madrid added a LaLiga title to the defence of their European crown.

[My goal is] the same every year the same challenge to win everything, if possible, with my club and the national team, Ronaldo said.

As I said before, I m so glad to be here. It is an honour to win this trophy again. I have to say thanks to…

Rudi Voller believes England and Belgium are capable of challenging a Germany team he feels is capable of becoming just the third nation to successfully defend the World Cup.

Germany remain the top-ranked side in the world having lifted the World Cup for the fourth time in 2014.

They are unsurprisingly the favourites to retain the title but Voller expects 2010 winners Spain and Euro 2016 finalists France to be in contention, along with England and Belgium.

England have not reached the quarter-finals of a World Cup since 2006 and were stunningly beaten by Iceland in the knockout stages of Euro 2016.

However, they went through qualifying unbeaten and held Germany to a 0-0 draw at Wembley on Friday.

Belgium, quarter-finalists at the last World Cup an…

Verdict: Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score anytime

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Premier League heavyweights Manchester United travel to Switzerland to finish the job in the group stage and secure their place in the knockouts. Jose Mourinho’s troops only need a point to secure the top-table finish but they will know better than to underestimate the Basel side.

Basel

If anyone knows how to stage an upset against Manchester United than that’s definitely Swiss giants Basel. It was in Switzerland that Basel knocked Manchester United out of the group stage of Europe’s elite competition following the scintillating 3-3 draw, back in the 2011/12 season.

Manchester United have moved past on that disappointing times and changed quite a bit, but so did Basel who …

Everton are interested in signing Folarin Balogun from Premier League rivals Arsenal in the summer transfer window, according to . The report has claimed that although the Gunners do not want to sell the striker at the end of the season, if the youngster does push for a move away from the Emirates Stadium, then Arsenal could ask for around £30 million in transfer fees for him.

Balogun is on loan at Reims at the moment. The 21-year-old striker moved to the French club on a loan deal in the summer of 2022 and is scheduled to return to his parent club Arsenal at the end of the season. The England Under-21 international striker has made 27 starts and three substitute appearances in Ligue 1 for Reims so far this season, scoring 18 goals and providing two assists in the process.

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Thomas Muller insists Germany are not scared of France and dismissed their five-goal haul in the quarter-finals as being partly due to poor Iceland defending.

The world champions take on the Euro 2016 hosts at the semi-final stage in Marseille on Thursday with France looking to demonstrate again the firepower which saw them beat the tournament surprise package 5-2 at the weekend.

And while Muller – who has yet to score at the Euros – has respect for France, and their offensive players in particular, he is confident Joachim Low s men can find a way to combat them.

We are not scared of them. We ve seen the videos and we know that France have got many good individuals, he said.

The goals they ve scored against Iceland were individually very nic…

Verdict: Saudi Arabia +1.5 Asian handicap

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Russia were supposed to have an easy job in the opening fixture of the 2018 World Cup against Saudi Arabia, but they could face a difficult task after a series of disappointing performances. The Green Falcons will be hoping the nerves will get to their opponents, giving them a chance to record a positive result at Stadion Luzhniki.

Russia

Even though they had almost four years to prepare for the World Cup on home soil the 2018 tournament seems to come at a bad time for Russia. Many believe that this is one of the country’s weakest squads in recent history, with many players past their prime and others yet to realise their full potential. It is perfectly clear that head coach Stanislav C…

Marek Hamsik is inching closer to matching Diego Maradona s all-time record. Image via: theScore

A century (plus one) goals in just under ten seasons with his club, Napoli. It is a stat any striker worth his salt would scoff at. But for a midfielder, it is indeed a respectable achievement. Now imagine that same midfielder were 29 years old, had played a vital role in helping his country qualify for their first ever World Cup and European championship. And despite the interest from numerous other clubs around Europe following his performance in France this past summer, he opted to sign a new four-year deal tying him with the club until 2020.

An unconditional loyalty no matter what

Mind you, Marek Hamsik would have made significantly more money elsewhere. And certainly, …

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca knows there are plenty of improvements for his team to make after the Blues were thrashed 4-1 by Celtic.

Fresh from beating Manchester City, Celtic rounded off their tour of the United States in sensational style on Saturday.

Matt O Riley, Kyogo Furuhashi, Luis Palma and Mikey Johnston put the Bhoys 4-0 up before Christopher Nkunku grabbed a consolation from the penalty spot.

And Maresca, whose team had 10 shots on target and also hit the woodwork twice, conceded there is work to do.

Off the ball we need to improve things, Maresca said.

You can see sometimes we confuse when we need to play short and when we need to play a little bit longer but that is part of the process.

We maintained a high line but when the …

Best odds: 4/9

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Liverpool will be welcoming West Ham to Anfield on Wednesday evening as the extremely condensed Premier League schedule goes on, leading, of course, up to the World Cup which starts next month.

The meetings between these two sides have mostly been very interesting in the last couple of years, despite the difference in their respective overall successes, not to mention trophy hauls. But the current point of the season finds them both in unwanted situations.

Liverpool

Having ran Premier League champions Manchester City close last time, to within a point eventually and ending the 2021/22 as runners-up, Liverpool were widely expected to mount a similar challenge again this term. However, a couple of early shocks and an injury crisi…

Crystal Palace are concerned that Manchester City will come for Eberechi Eze after deciding to sell Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid in the summer transfer window, according to . Argentina international forward Alvarez is on his way to La Liga club Atletico, and that Palace are fearful that Premier League champions City will try to sign Eze.

Eze can operate as an attacking midfielder or as a winger and is one of the best players in his position in the Premier League. The England international has been superb for the Eagles in recent years and was part of the Three Lions’ squad at the UEFA Euro 2024 finals in Germany.

The winger has made 112 appearances in the Premier League so far in his career. Eze has scored 26 goals and given 15 assists in those games. The star sc…