Juventus v Roma: Salah bullish for trip to face champions

Winger Mohamed Salah has confidently predicted Roma will kick-start Luciano Spalletti s second spell in charge of the club with a victory over Serie A champions Juventus.

Roma have finished runners-up to Juve in each of the past two season, but have fallen considerably short of those levels this time around, leading to Rudi Garcia s dismissal as head coach.

Spalletti oversaw a 1-1 draw against winless basement boys Verona on his return – a result that was received frostily at the Stadio Olimpico.

But Salah, who impressed when Roma beat Juve 2-1 back in August, believes a Serie A double can be secured over a side who have won 12 of their previous 13 matches in all competitions.

I think we re going to win 2-1,  the Egypt international told La Stampa…

Walker-Peters signs new Tottenham contract after impressive debut

Kyle Walker-Peters has signed a new contract that will keep him at Tottenham until 2020.

The England youth international, an Under-20 World Cup-winner with England this year, progressed through the Spurs academy after joining in 2013.

The 20-year-old made his full Premier League debut in the 2-0 win over Newcastle United on August 13, in the absence of the injured Kieran Trippier.

Walker-Peters has been tipped as a long-term successor to Kyle Walker, who joined Manchester City in a reported £50million deal in July.

Buzzing to sign a new contract with Spurs. Can t wait to see what the future holds! he said via Twitter following the announcement of the deal.

A message from after he put pen to paper on a new contract!  

— Tottenham Hot…

Prediction: Argentina vs Croatia

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The Iceland slip-up leaves Argentina in a desperate hunt for points ahead of a Group D clash against tricky Croatia.

Having made a comfortable start to their World Cup campaign with a 2-0 win over Nigeria, the Vatreni are in a confident mood ahead of the clash that could help them take a huge step towards the Round of 16.

Argentina

World Cup debutants Iceland proved to be too big of a hurdle for lethargic Argentina at the beginning of their Russian campaign. La Albiceleste were involved in a series of trial and error against the resilient Vikings who even survived a penalty scare as Leo Messi suffered a fluff at the white spot.

The Barcelona star’s spot-kick was saved by Hann…

Brisbane Roar 1-1 Sydney FC: Premiers held as winless run spans to four matches

Luke Ivanovic s first goal of the A-League season was not enough to prevent Sydney FC s winless run stretching to a fourth match, as they were held 1-1 by Brisbane Roar. 

Sydney have struggled for momentum since being crowned premiers for a record fourth time on July 25 and were behind early on in Monday s clash at McDonald Jones Stadium. 

Dylan Wenzel-Halls latched on to Jay O Shea s throughball  possibly intended for Scott McDonald and coolly lifted over Andrew Redmayne with 11 minutes on the clock. 

However, three minutes after hitting the post, young winger Ivanovic got off the mark for the season with an impressive curled finish into the top-right corner. 

The visitors came closest to winning the game in a goalless second half, Jamie Yo…

PSG star Neymar expected to miss four weeks with hamstring injury

Neymar is expected to be out for four weeks after the Paris Saint-Germain star suffered a hamstring injury on international duty.

The Brazil forward was withdrawn in the 12th minute of the Selecao s 1-1 friendly draw with Nigeria on Sunday.

PSG announced Neymar had an MRI scan on Monday that confirmed the injury, which will be re-evaluated in eight days.

Neymar has played just five games for PSG this season owing to an ankle injury picked up in June.

The ex-Barcelona forward did not make his first appearance until September, having attempted to force a move away from the club he joined for a world-record €222million fee in 2017.

PSG star Neymar is expected to miss four weeks with a hamstring injury suffered on international duty with Brazil

Porto 4 Lokomotiv Moscow 1: Conceicao´s men dump Russians out

Hector Herrera scored inside 90 seconds of Porto s 4-1 win over Lokomotiv Moscow as Sergio Conceicao s men dumped their opponents out of the Champions League and strengthened their grip on Group D.

The Mexico international turned provider for Moussa Marega to double Porto s lead before half-time as Lokomotiv failed to deal with two players who had scored against them in a 3-1 defeat just two weeks earlier.

The result, combined with Schalke s victory over Galatasaray in the group s other game, condemned Yuri Semin s Lokomotiv side to a Champions League exit after failing to earn a single point from their four games so far.

Porto dealt with a potentially tricky final half-hour after Jefferson Farfan pulled one back, Jesus Corona and Otavio scoring to wrap up a thi…

Ollie Watkins winner sees Aston Villa down 10-man Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea went down to a third Premier League defeat of the season as Aston Villa won 1-0 at Stamford Bridge after Malo Gusto was shown a second-half red card.

Villa broke away and scored through Ollie Watkins 17 minutes from the end, and though the 10 men laboured gainfully to get back into the game their goalless run in the league under Mauricio Pochettino stretched to three matches as they remained 14th.

Chelsea were on top and looking far the likelier to score when a pitchside VAR decision just before the hour mark turned proceedings against them. Gusto had slid in on Lucas Digne and caught the defender on the ankle, and a yellow card was quickly upgraded to red for dangerous play.

Pochettino’s side continued to attack in numbers and it would prove their undo…

Eriksen returns to Denmark squad for first time since suffering cardiac arrest

Christian Eriksen has been named in Denmark s squad for their upcoming friendlies, capping a remarkable return for the playmaker after suffering a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.

The 30-year-old s career looked to be over just nine months ago when collapsing on the pitch in Denmark s group-stage clash with Finland in Copenhagen.

He subsequently underwent an operation to have an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) fitted, which left him unable to feature for former club Inter due to Serie A rulings.

However, after spending time building up his fitness with boyhood club Odense and Ajax s reserve side, Eriksen was handed a six-month contract with Brentford in January. 

And having featured three times for his new club in what is his second spell in the…

New York Red Bulls v Nashville SC: Nealis pledges hosts will improve

New York Red Bulls captain Sean Nealis has vowed the team will learn from last week s defeat to the New England Revolution, when they were hamstrung by several absences.

The Red Bulls were beaten 1-0 in Foxborough following a run of four wins in five matches, with Lewis Morgan and Emil Forsberg among the big names missing due to international duty.

The result left them fourth in the Eastern Conference standings, six points adrift of Supporters Shield frontrunners Inter Miami.

We separated ourselves from the bottom half of the group and now we re kind of just lying there in the middle, centre-back Nealis said as he reflected on New York s last result.

We ll learn from this. We ll get better from it. This is a young group out there.

A lot got th…

Arteta asks for consistency from Arsenal trio after Jesus blow

Mikel Arteta wants Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah to put together a consistent run to help Premier League leaders Arsenal cope with Gabriel Jesus absence.

The trio all scored in Arsenal s 3-1 win over West Ham on Boxing Day, and the Gunners are now certain to end 2022 at the top of the table after building a five-point lead over Manchester City.

Jesus was ruled out for three months after suffering a knee injury during the World Cup, in what could prove a blow to their title hopes.

Ahead of Saturday s trip to Brighton and Hove Albion, Arteta demanded that Martinelli, Saka and Nketiah keep the standards high.

It s just one game. They have to show the consistency and the capacity to do that every three days, Arteta said in a press confere…