Real Madrid icon Raul has confessed to enjoying the Champions League successes of his former club s arch-rivals Barcelona.
Raul was a three-time winner of Europe s premier club competition during a trophy-laden spell with Madrid from 1994 to 2010, lifting the trophy once more than Barca did in the same time span.
However, the 38-year-old insists he can still take pleasure in seeing some of the continental success go Barca s way because they are representing Spain.
Furthermore, he feels it adds to the intense competition between the Liga pair which he believes helps strengthen them.
When they [Barca] win the Champions League, I am glad. In the end it is a Spanish team and I have no problem saying that publicly, said Raul in an interview with Vanit…
Manchester City must not give Wayne Rooney time to think when they host Everton, according to midfielder Fernandinho.
Ronald Koeman s side head to the Etihad Stadium on Monday, a venue where they rode their luck in a 1-1 draw last term, before dishing out a painful 4-0 thrashing to Pep Guardiola s men at Goodison Park in January.
Koeman has made a number of eye-catching additions to his squad during the transfer window, with Gylifi Sigurdsson completing a club-record move from Swansea City last week.
But it is Rooney s return to his boyhood club that has captured the imagination, and England and Manchester United s all-time top scorer stole the headlines with the only goal against Stoke City as the Toffees won on the opening weekend of the Premier League season…
Jordi Alba and Koke have been left out of Luis Enrique s first Spain squad, while Alvaro Morata and Sergi Roberto have been recalled.
Barcelona full-back Alba has been overlooked by his former club coach in favour of Valencia s Jose Gaya and Chelsea s Marcos Alonso, both of whom missed out on a place at the World Cup.
Alba fell out of favour with Luis Enrique during his final season at Barca, and the defender admitted he felt the coach had little confidence in his ability.
He was a favourite of Julen Lopetegui, though, and played all four of Spain s matches at the World Cup even after Lopetegui was sacked for holding talks with Real Madrid without the Royal Spanish Football Federation s knowledge.
Koke played in both of Atletico Madrid s first two LaLiga …
Nottingham Forest head to second-from-bottom Stoke City on Friday evening, knowing three points will take them top of the Championship.
It’s five years since the Reds last topped the second tier (if you ignore the few hours they spent their on the opening weekend of the 2017/18 campaign), and a positive result would see them extend their unbeaten league run to eight games.
They did suffer somewhat of a hammering in the EFL Cup, with Arsenal thumping them 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium, while the Potters also bowed out but to lower-league opposition Crawley Town beating them on penalties.
Last weekend’s goalless draw at Brentford did end a run of four losses, though they are five points from safety, above only Huddersfield Town who they face on Tuesday.
Juventus and Inter could well wage a title battle this season but Gianluigi Buffon holds no animosity towards former boss Antonio Conte for crossing the Derby d Italia divide.
Conte took charge of Inter in May and guided the Nerazzurri to six straight victories in a blistering start to the new Serie A season.
The winning streak came to an end in a sobering 2-1 defeat to Juve, the team the former Italy boss captained and coached with distinction for a combined period of more than 15 years.
Ahead of the meeting, Conte hit out at the ignorant Juve fans who campaigned for his star on the club s Walk of Fame to be removed as a result of his switch to their bitter rivals.
He was my team-mate and my captain at Juventus and then he was my manager for Juve and It…
Cristiano Ronaldo is Kylian Mbappe s football idol but it is much too soon to be comparing the two, says France coach Didier Deschamps.
Les Bleus host Portugal on Sunday for a Nations League Group A3 clash, with both teams having taken six points from two games thus far.
That means Mbappe is set to come up against Juventus star Ronaldo, who is a five-time Ballon d Or winner and has won league titles in England, Spain and Italy, as well as the Champions League five times.
Like Ronaldo, Mbappe enjoyed a rapid rise to superstardom as a teenager and at the age of 21 is already a World Cup winner.
But Deschamps says the 14-year gap in age makes comparisons between the two tricky.
He [Ronaldo] was his idol. But I think that Cristiano was and is the ido…
Inter Milan made it five wins from their opening five Serie A games with a 1-0 win at Empoli.
Federico Dimarco’s superb strike just after half-time was enough for Simone Inzaghi’s side and while Empoli had chances to equalise, Inter held on to take the points.
The leaders enjoyed the lion’s share of possession in the opening stages and had a couple of half-chances through Matteo Darmian and Davide Frattesi, but Empoli goalkeeper Etrit Berisha dealt with both.
Not bad,
— Inter (@Inter_en)
The visitors thought they had opened the scoring when Hakan Çalhanoglu’s short corner was whipped in to Marcus Thuram and he nudged the ball home from close range, only for the linesman to rule it out for offside.
Inter upped the tempo in s…
Rodrigo de Paul praised Atletico Madrid s attitude and desire after his second-half strike secured a 2-1 win over Cadiz in LaLiga.
Atletico took the lead within two minutes when in-form forward Joao Felix capitalised on a goalkeeping error to score, registering his sixth goal involvement in six league games.
Yet Cadiz drew level when Alvaro Negredo netted a superb header just before half-time.
Despite Diego Simeone s men registering only six shots to Cadiz s 14 throughout the contest, as well as tallying a mere 0.60 expected goals (xG), De Paul swept home his first LaLiga goal after 68 minutes to send last season s champions third in the table.
Javi Serrano received the fastest red card issued to a LaLiga substitute this season, being dismissed four…
Market: Beijing Guoan draw no bet
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Two sides who find themselves battling it out at opposite ends of the Super League table, Beijing Guoan will travel to Henan on Saturday lunchtime.
Starting with the hosts, last seen putting in another downbeat performance as they played out a 0-0 stalemate against Changchun Yatai on May 26th, Henan have continued on a real Super League nightmare since opening up the 2024 campaign. At the heart of a top-flight relegation scrap, the Red Devils marking their return on Saturday lunchtime holding just a one-point buffer from slipping into the drop zone. Facing a real battle to keep hold of their top-flight status this year, Nam Ki-il’s men have collected just a pair of victories from any of their first 14 Super League …
Sergio Busquets is fundamental to Barcelona and head coach Xavi says the club will do what they can to persuade the veteran midfielder to stay at Camp Nou.
The 34-year-old s deal expires at the end of the season, by which point he will have spent a decade-and-a-half with the senior team.
There have been rumours over the past few months that Busquets, who retired from Spain duty following their last-16 exit at the World Cup, will depart the club at the end of the campaign and make a move to MLS in the United States.
Speaking ahead of his side s LaLiga derby with Espanyol, Xavi revealed talks have not been held over an extension so far, but he hopes Busquets will be persuaded to stay.
We haven t talked about this, he said. There are six months of matches l…