Competition: Portuguese Super Liga
Market: Benfica to win the title
Odds:
After spending so long being the nearly-team of the Portuguese Liga, Benfica finally went all the way and won the title last season.
Jorge Jesus’ men ironically amassed three points less than their runners-up up campaign of 2012/13 to finish seven points clear of second-placed Sporting Lisbon. FC Porto were third.
Benfica also made back-to-back Europa League finals, unfortunately losing both. Despite the bittersweet season, their performance in the league gives reason to believe they can do it all over again in 2014/15.
Conceding just 18 league goals from 30 games, the Reds have a watertight defence that could be attributed to the influence of Ezequiel Garay at the h…
Werder Bremen striker Claudio Pizarro is keen to remain in Germany also after the end of Bundesliga 2008/09. “Claudio has told us that he could imagine staying here beyond the end of the season,†Werder manager Klaus Allofs told Kicker.
The Peruvian forward, who is on loan with the Green and Whites until the end of the season and under contract with Chelsea until 2011, added: I am interested in playing for Werder for longer .
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Ian Watmore, a senior civil servant in the British government, was announced Wednesday as the new chief executive of England s Football Association.
Watmore, currently the permanent secretary of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills where FA chairman Lord David Triesman was once a minister, will take up his role in June.
I am delighted to be joining The Football Association as chief executive, said Watmore. It is a great challenge and one I am really looking forward to.
With Lord Triesman and the (FA) Board, Fabio Capello and the FA s staff, I want to ensure we are achieving success on and off the pitch across all levels of the game.
Former Arsenal managing director Keith Edelman was also reported to be in contention for the post.
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Tottenham s Dejan Kulusevski has revealed head coach Antonio Conte wants him to kill the opponent in a sporting way in order to become more ruthless.
Spurs sit fourth in the Premier League having won two and drawn one of their opening three games as they look to follow up last season s fourth-place finish, where a strong run at the end meant they pipped fierce rivals Arsenal to the final Champions League qualification spot.
Kulusevski has impressed since arriving from Juventus at the beginning of the year and has started this campaign well, scoring and assisting in the opening day 4-1 victory over Southampton.
But the 22-year-old says Conte is demanding even more from him, despite the versatile winger having 15 Premier League goal involvements in 21 appeara…
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Barcelona goalkeeper jasper Cillessen has emerged as a transfer target for the host of Europe’s top clubs.
Former Ajax custodian was forced to play second fiddle to Marc-Andre ter Stegen this season, with his playing time severely limited under Ernesto Valverde.
The 29-year-old only made 10 appearances for the Catalans, most of which came in Barcelona’s Copa del Rey winning campaign. Cillessen was in goal when Blaugrana thrashed Sevilla 5-0 in the final last Sunday but has been widely tipped to leave the club at the end of the season.
Having only made 20 appearances in total since his arrival from Ajax in 2016 the player himself had been expected that he would want to leave Camp Nou.
The list of clubs harbouring interest in Cillessen includes the lik…
Inter Milan flop Geoffrey Kondogbia could end up staying at Valencia on a permanent contract after his loan deal expires this summer.
The French midfielder joined Los Che at the end of the 2017/18 season after failing to impress at Nerazzurri. He ended up making 29 La Liga appearances for Valencia during which time he emerged as an important first team player.
Valencia have an option to make the loan deal for the 25-year-old holding midfielder permanent before May 31 and, according to Cadena Ser, they plan to exercise that right.
The Spaniards have already informed Inter Milan about their intentions and a deal worth €25 million is set to be completed at the end of the running season.
It is understood that Inter Milan are keen to include Joao Cancelo as…
David Moyes has been confirmed as the new Sunderland manager, succeeding England boss Sam Allardyce.
The former Manchester United manager, who has been out of the game since being sacked by Real Socieded in November 2015, only a year after his appointment, has signed a four-year deal.
Moyes oversaw a series of top-half campaigns during his 11 years in charge of Everton and will be looking to improve on Sunderland s 17th-place finish in last season s Premier League.
Allardyce took over at the Stadium of Light in October and led the club to survival before being handed the change to manage England following Roy Hodgson s departure after a poor Euro 2016.
Moyes has been away from the Premier League since being sacked by United in April 2014, nine months aft…
David Moyes believes he was harshly treated by former club Manchester United as he looks ahead to his tenure with Sunderland.
Fronting the media as Sunderland manager, Moyes opened up on his time at Old Trafford, where he was sacked less than a season into a six-year deal with the Premier League giants.
Louis van Gaal eventually replaced Moyes in time for the 2014-15 campaign, though his struggles over the last two seasons proved to the Sunderland boss that he was unfairly treated at Old Trafford.
I ve said all along that I was. When you sign a six-year contract and you end up there ten months, yeah, I believe I was, said the Scot.
But that is life in football. Ultimately the key is to win football matches. I didn t win enough football matches.
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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho remains calm about the prospect of signing Wayne Rooney and insists he is happy with his attacking options.
Mourinho s men completed their three-game Asian tour with a third win, thrashing an Indonesia All-Stars side 8-1 in Jakarta on Thursday.
But the focus has stayed on Chelsea s bid to sign Rooney, with their initial offer rejected by Manchester United on July 17.
Mourinho said there had been no progress made, but the Portuguese tactician refuses to panic about the situation.
No, at this moment we have made (in terms of offers) what you know. That bid which was public and official and after that nothing else, he said.
But we are calm as we told you that, we are calm because we are happy with what we have.
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