Zidane: No added pressure as Madrid defend Champions League

Relegated Premier League trio Hull City, QPR and Burnley will all hit the road in the first round of the League Cup, while Yorkshire rivals Doncaster Rovers and Leeds United will face off at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Steve Bruce s Hull face a potential banana skin tie at League Two side Accrington Stanley, and they enter at the first stage having not had to play until round three in 2014-15 due to their UEFA Europa League commitments.

QPR finished bottom of the top flight in a poor campaign and Chris Ramsey s men travel to Huish Park to face League Two Yeovil Town in a match that was a Championship fixture as recently as the 2013-14 season.

Burnley were knocked out in round two by Sheffield Wednesday last term and Sean Dyche s side will hope to avoid another hasty …

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker believes the club can challenge for major honours next term if they improve their consistency.

Arsene Wenger s side have not lifted a trophy since winning the FA Cup in 2005, despite being ever-present among the Premier League s top four throughout that period.

And Mertesacker, who has made 71 appearances for the Gunners since arriving from Werder Bremen in 2011, is keen to end that drought next term.

I would say that consistency is the most important thing. If we can do that then we should be challenging for trophies and titles, he said.

We haven t sold any players yet so we are coming from a good base at the moment, we re at a good level and no-one is leaving at the moment.

Maybe someone will come and strengthen our squad …

Chelsea coasted into the final of the FIFA Club World Cup with a 3-1 victory over Monterrey at the International Stadium in Yokohama.

The attacking midfield triumvirate of Eden Hazard, Oscar and Juan Mata sparkled as the Champions League holders eased to the win in the semi-final clash.

A well-taken first-half finish from Mata gave the Blues the lead, before a deflected Fernando Torres strike and an own goal from Darvin Chavez promptly after half-time helped see off the challenge of the CONCACAF champions, although Aldo De Nigris did score a superb consolation late on for the Mexican side.

A bright start from the west London side was rewarded in the 17th minute when Mata opened the scoring in style with a sweeping finish after an intricate passing move involvin…

Market: PSG win Both teams to score

Odds: 13/8 @

With the French Super Cup up for grabs on Wednesday night, PSG will welcome Toulouse to the Parc des Princes.

Starting with the hosts, while Nice might have caused PSG some mild headaches this season, it is no surprise that the French icons are tipped as a landslide contender to defend their Ligue 1 crown in 2024. Last seen heading into the festive interval with a 3-1 victory at home against Metz, Luis Enrique’s side are already holding a five-point buffer over the chasing pack. Eventually punching a Champions League knockout stage ticket last month and avoiding what would have been major European scrutiny, the former Barcelona boss will be confident of claiming a first piece of silverware of the season here. Lo…

Liverpool have reached an out of court settlement regarding disputes over the sale of the club in October 2010.

Former owners Thomas Hicks and George Gillett were upset about the sale of the club by then directors Sir Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow, along with current director Ian Ayre to Fenway Sports (then New England Sports Ventures).

As a result, a number of allegations were made by the former owners against the three directors which resulted in legal proceedings as the allegations were denied.

Now though, Liverpool have released a statement stating a settlement has been reached and the claims have been withdrawn.

The statement reads: The parties have now agreed a settlement (the terms of which are confidential).

All claims and alle…

Arsenal v West Ham United
English Premier League
Emirates Stadium, London
Wednesday 23 January, 2013
19:45 GMT

Arsenal have a great chance to close the gap on Everton to just one point in the race for the Champions League places. However, a win for West Ham will take them back into the top half of the table ahead of the second half of the season.

Arsenal Preview

Arsenal have not been as strong at home as they would have liked this season with five wins, two draws and three defeats. They have suffered recent defeats to Manchester City and away at Chelsea which will make them determined to improve. They are the odds on favourites to win with better value available via .

Injuries and Suspensions

Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky will both miss the match w…

Taking to the stage after The Beatles would have been an unenviable task for any band, yet, strangely, Julen Lopetegui should be able to understand that phenomenon after the announcement of his impending Real Madrid adventure.

Sure, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but can he realistically live up to the success and sheer adoration that has gone before?

Zinedine Zidane is The Beatles. The Frenchman enjoyed a quite remarkable tenure at the club – one that defies belief.

Within six months of his January 2016 appointment, Zidane led Madrid to Champions League success, defeating pretenders and city rivals Atletico Madrid in a penalty shoot-out.

Suggestions of being lucky were never far away – after all, Roberto Di Matteo won the Champions League…

Jonny Evans has completed his transfer from relegated West Brom to Leicester City on a three-year deal.

The former Manchester United centre-back often impressed during his three years at The Hawthorns and had been heavily linked with Arsenal and Manchester City last year.

But the 2017-18 season was a disaster for West Brom, as they were relegated from the Premier League despite a late push for survival under Darren Moore following the sacking of Alan Pardew.

Although his form on the pitch was steady, Evans played his part in disrupting the club s campaign, as he was one of four members of the squad involved in an incident during a team break to Barcelona in February.

Evans, Gareth Barry, Boaz Myhill and Jake Livermore were forced to apologise after they b…

Marcus Rashford and three other Manchester United first-team players returned to training on Wednesday in a major boost for their Europa League quarter-final second-leg trip to Sevilla.

Rashford suffered a groin injury in United s 2-0 win over Everton on April 8 and was subsequently ruled out for a few games .

Although not deemed a serious injury, Rashford s form this season has seen his importance to United increase exponentially, with his 28 goals across all competitions already comfortably his best season.

Therefore his absence was a frustrating blow to United and manager Erik ten Hag, but there appears to be a chance he could feature at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan on Thursday.

There s big news coming out of Carrington ||

— Manchester United…

The talks between Inter Milan and AS Roma about a proposed swap deal involving forwards Edin Dzeko and Alexis Sanchez have broken down, according to Sky in Italy.

Roma have decided to pull out of the negotiations until Inter call them back with a more favourable proposal, and CEO Tiago Pinto, representing Roma in the talks, has gone back to the Italian capital. Apparently, there was strong disagreement about the wages of the two players.

The 34-year-old striker is now set to remain at the Stadio Olimpico for the remaining part of the 2020-21 season, despite his situation at the club being unstable following a reported fallout with head coach Paolo Fonseca. Dzeko has so far scored eight goals in 20 appearances in all competitions this season, and his contract runs until …