Tag: highlights

CHELSEA BACK ON KOULIBALY’S CASE

Premier League champions Chelsea are back on the case of Napoli defender KalidouKoulibaly, according to reports in Italy.


The Blues are already considering a deal of €60 million for the player. He joined from Genk back in 2014 but he quickly established himself at the Partenopei.

Past Chelsea bosses were keen on the player. Current manager Antonio Conte, who is knowledgeable about Italian football, agrees that he is worthy of chasing. Stamford Bridge were linked with the player last season and they launched a bid of €55 million. However, the move failed and Koulibaly remained with the Serie A side.

There are reports that Conte is looking at getting the player this summer after all the speculations have died down. Conte is believed to be a fan of the player and he hopes Napoli take the €60 million he values the 25-year old. In his three year stay, Koulibaly had played 119 games, scoring three times. Continue reading CHELSEA BACK ON KOULIBALY’S CASE

MARIO SET TO JOIN PLAY ITALIAN FOOTBALL IN FORTHCOMING SEASON

Portuguese No. 10 player at the recently concluded Euro 2016, Joao Mario is set o have a taste of Italian football as reports say he has snubbed the Blues to move to Italy.


EuroSport claims the player is set to sign the deal that will ensure he plays Italian football in the forthcoming season with Inter Milan. The Sun earlier reported that the player would snub Chelsea for a move to Italy. The reports say the 23-year old player, who displayed decent performance at the Euro 2016, will head to the Serie A to play for Inter.

Mario is believed to have agreed to a five year deal with the club as his club Sporting Lisbon agreed to Inter’s 29 million Pounds offer. The deal is expected to be finalised and the player unveiled anytime soon, after personal terms of 29,000 Pounds weekly wages was agreed. Chelsea would have to get another as they are reported to be in talks with the Premier League champions Leicester city over the possibility of signing Frenchman N’Golo Kante this summer.
Continue reading MARIO SET TO JOIN PLAY ITALIAN FOOTBALL IN FORTHCOMING SEASON

FORMER AC MILAN GOAL KEEPER BLAST THE ATTITUDE OF THE PLAYERS

Retired AC Milan goal keeper, Christian Abbiati has blasted the poor attitude of some AC Milan players.


The player retired from active football at the ripe age of 38. The goal stopper started his career at Italian club Corsico before the move to Calcio Monza. He had a loan spree before eventually joining Milan.

Abbiati joined Milan from Monza in 1998, and ended his 18-year association with the club when he decided to retire at the conclusion of this season. Milan endured another inconsistent campaign, as Cristian Brocchi guided the club to a seventh place finish following the sacking of Sinisa Mihajlovic in April.

The Coppa Italia failed to save their season as they lost to Juventus 1-0 after extra-time in Saturday’s final, and Abbiati has subsequently been scathing of some of his colleagues for their conduct throughout the 2015/2016 season. Though the goal keeper handled most of the games at the Coppa Italia, the first choice handled the Serie A games. Abbiati told Gazzette dello Sport:

“There are four or five players that didn’t do what was asked of them, and I’m not talking about making mistakes on the field. Continue reading FORMER AC MILAN GOAL KEEPER BLAST THE ATTITUDE OF THE PLAYERS

Italian football shocked by defeat

Italian football has reached a new low with the 4-1 defeat against Germany on Tuesday. This was the first time in almost 21 years that Germany manages to beat Italy.

Germany, who was beaten by England in their last match, wanted to reassure their fans as well as themselves by producing an exceptional performance. Unfortunately, it was the Italians that were on the receiving end of a well-deserved victory from the World Champions.

The Italian side will have to conduct a thorough analysis of their performance in order to improve themselves. If they have any ambition to win the Euro 2016, they should not be playing the way they did against Germany. In fairness, this has been coming for quite some time now. This can be evidenced by the decline of Italian football in the European club competition with only Juventus managing to perform in the Champions League.

Toni Kroos opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a shot just from outside the box which gave no chance to Italian keeper, Gianluigi Buffon. Germany doubled the lead just before the stroke of half-time thanks to a Mario Gotze header. The opportunity came thanks to a cross from Thomas Muller.

After the break, Italy managed to improve their game and had some opportunities to reduce the deficit. However due to poor decision making, they could not have a clear chance on goal. To the contrary, it is Germany who extended the lead with a goal from Jonas Hector. Julian Draxler raided the Italian defence and passed the ball to Hector, who could not miss from inside the box. Continue reading Italian football shocked by defeat

Roberto Mancini has downplayed suggestions

Roberto Mancini has downplayed suggestions that winning the title is his number one priority this season.

The Italian was appointed as the manager of Inter Milan last season. The club has been hit hard by a number of poor seasons and it has seen the club drop out of the Champions League. This is an astonishing element considering that Inter Milan won the Champions League not too long ago – in 2010. Mancini has reiterated that the primary objective of the team this season is to finish in the top three. For much of the first half, Inter have been among the leaders.

However, their form towards the end of 2015 has reduced and the club will find it difficult to maintain their place amidst competition from the likes of Roma and Fiorentina. Juventus have steadily climbed up the table and are now in pole position to retain the trophy that they have won for the last four seasons. Inter will be preparing for the second half of the campaign with some key friendly matches. After recently suffering a 1-0 defeat against Paris St Germain in a friendly, Mancini stated that he was looking to bring some players in January. However, they are merely aimed at strengthening the squad rather than an aim at the title. Continue reading Roberto Mancini has downplayed suggestions

Southampton is racing to reach a Europa League spot but is faced with tough obstacles

Southampton’s Ronald Koeman has set his eyes in securing a top spot in the Premier League that would allow the English club of competing in the Europa League for the upcoming season but things have started to become difficult for Ronald Koeman and his players.

On May 2, Sunderland received Southampton at the Stadium of Light and Ronald Koeman’s team were the favorites of claiming a victory as Sunderland is struggling just to stay out of the bottom relegation zone but in football anything can happen and indeed this match emerged with a surprising victory as it was Sunderland who came out on top with the victory.

Jordi Gomez scored twice as he helped Sunderland claiming a surprising but at the same time crucial triumph for his team as they overcame Southampton with a final scoreboard of 2-1.

Even with this defeat, Southampton still has a very good chance of snatching a Europa League position but they will have to get back to their winning ways and pick up triumphs in at least 2 of their 3 remaining matches.

Leicester City, Aston Villa and Manchester City are the last obstacles that Southampton have to face in this season and 2 triumphs from these games might just be enough for Ronald Koeman to position Southampton in a European spot. Continue reading Southampton is racing to reach a Europa League spot but is faced with tough obstacles

Juventus won their second major trophy of the season after a 2-1 win over Lazio

Juventus won their second major trophy of the season after a 2-1 win over Lazio in the Coppa Italia final.

They had already won the Italian Serie A for yet another successive season. The club have been immensely successful under the regime of Massimiliano Allegri, but it looked like everything was going wrong at the start of the season when Antonio Conte left the club just a few days before the season began. Allegri was not given much of a hope given that he was seen as an AC Milan reject. However, he has now guided the team to two titles with the possibility of a third as well.

Juventus will be taking on Barcelona in a Champions League final at Berlin. The club have not been seen at this stage of the competition for more than a decade and it will mean a lot for them to win their first European cup title since 1996. Juventus have had a hat-trick of defeats in the final since then. After the success in 96, the Italian outfit were runners up during the 97 and 98 season. They were runners-up once more during the 2003 campaign. Lazio coach Stefano Pioli, though, claimed that Juventus were lucky to win the Coppa Italia by beating them in extra time. Continue reading Juventus won their second major trophy of the season after a 2-1 win over Lazio

Antonio Conte was not too displeased about his Italian national team

Former Juventus manager Antonio Conte was not too displeased about his Italian national team only managing a 1-1 draw with England in a recent friendly match.

This was seen as highly competitive encounter for both teams given that they needed to win in order to banish the painful memories of the World Cup. Despite being one of the top teams in the world, both England and Italy failed to progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup in Brazil. This led to the appointment of Conte, while England continue to be spearheaded by Roy Hodgson.

The former Liverpool boss did not have a number of his first-team regulars like Raheem Sterling in the team. However, he was giving starts to the likes of Harry Kane, who have been mightily impressive this season. Just ahead of the game, Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon said that he was studying every aspect of Kane very cleanly and that he may have found a way to stop the Tottenham forward. Kane failed to score in the match, but it was another Tottenham player who scored the important goal for the English – Andros Townsend. Since taking over from Cesare Prandelli, Conte continues to be unbeaten as the Italy manager. Continue reading Antonio Conte was not too displeased about his Italian national team