Market: Both teams to score
Odds: 8/11 @
In what could prove to be an enjoyable affair from the Jinan Olympic Sports Center on Thursday lunchtime, Shandong Taishan will welcome Changchun Yatai to town.
Starting with the hosts, marking their return from the international break with another thumping display, Shandong Taishan are enjoying what has been a real purple patch. Extending on their FA Cup adventure last week and punching their Round of 16 ticket thanks to a 6-1 romp away at Dongguan Guanlian, Choi Kang-hee’s side are unbeaten in each of their last eight domestic appearances across all formats a run that stems all the way back to a 2-1 loss against Meizhou Hakka on May 6th. With their stellar run of form highlighted by a 3-0 victory against Shenzhen on M…
Nicolo Barella maintained his impressive goalscoring form as Inter eased to a 3-0 victory over Sampdoria on Saturday to make it four Serie A wins in a row.
Simone Inzaghi s side have put their early-season struggles behind them with this their seventh match without defeat in all competitions, six of those ending in victory.
Midfielder Barella rounded off a route-one move to double Inter s advantage at San Siro before half-time after Stefan de Vrij had opened the scoring with a header.
Inter, who brought on Romelu Lukaku for his first league appearance since August, added another goal through a superb Joaquin Correa solo effort to seal an emphatic victory.
A stunning hit
— Inter (@Inter_en)
De Vrij sent a bullet header past Emil Auder…
Irish Premier League outfit Shamrock Rovers have been handed a dream draw in the group stages of the Europa League.
The Rovers will make history as the first side from Ireland to ever reach the group stages of a European competition and they will be ecstatic with their draw, which will see them play home and away matches against English Premier League outfit Tottenham.
Joining the Rovers and Spurs in Group A are Greek outfit PAOK and Russian side Rubin Kazan.
The news will boost the mood of Rovers fans even further, after they qualified with a brilliant 2-1 win in extra time against Partizan Belgrade on Wednesday, which saw them progress 3-2 on aggregate.
Stoke City’s first appearance in European competition for 37 years was a successful one as they ne…
Roman Pavlyuchenko says he wants to leave Tottenham in January to find first team football, with a return to Russia the likeliest option.
Russian striker Pavlyuchenko moved to White Hart Lane in 2008 but has never managed to hold down a regular starting spot, and now finds himself behind Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe in the pecking order.
With Euro 2012 on the horizon, the 29-year-old is keen to play as much football as possible to ensure he is selected for the tournament, and has concluded the only way to achieve his aim is to actively seek a transfer in the next window.
Will I ask the club to sell me in December? Yes, it s 100 percent, Pavlyuchenko told football-express.com.
I have to do something in the transfer period. We re ahead of the Euro…
New England Revolution will be out to end an unwanted record when they visit Los Angeles Galaxy in Sunday s MLS Cup Final.
New England have reached four finals but never won, with defeats in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007 preventing them from lifting the biggest prize in the American game.
Of those defeats, two in 2002 and 2005 came against four-time winners Galaxy.
LA can become the most successful team in the competition s history with victory DC United have also won four titles while the Revolution will be desperate to break their MLS Cup hoodoo.
We re not looking at history right now. We re looking at this as one game, New England coach Jay Heaps said.
We want to stay focused because it s been our model all year. Every roll of the ball matters …
Leicester City ended their three-month wait for a Premier League win as Riyad Mahrez fired them to a 1-0 victory over Hull City on Sunday.
Mahrez collected a pass 20 yards from goal just after the half-hour at the KC Stadium and netted his second league goal of the season past Allan McGregor.
Hull had started well but wasted the few openings they were able to create, and Mahrez punished them in a scrappy first half.
Steve Bruce made three attacking changes in the second half to try and get his side back into the game, however they were unable to turn possession into goals despite Paul Konchesky s late red card.
Leicester, who were twice saved by the post, absorbed all Hull could throw at them pressure, with Stephen Quinn also given his marching orders for…
According to a recent report from Sky Sports sources, Liverpool are set to lose Rafael Camacho during the summer transfer window. The teenage sensation has recently been in contract talks with the club, however, the talks are said to have stalled. It’s now believed that he will go in search of pastures new, after a season in which he hasn’t really been given all too many first team opportunities. He first made his debut for the senior squad during Liverpool’s loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup earlier on in the campaign, with his first Premier League appearance taking place against Crystal Palace. Ironically enough, Wolves themselves are believed to be interested in bringing him over to Molineux after being impressed by him throughout the course of the aforementioned F…
Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka has admitted there is a dearth of Premier League experience in his new-look squad and picked out Alvaro Negredo as a key player to help address the problem.
Negredo joined the club on a season-long loan from Valencia and, along with Victor Valdes, is one of the most high profile players to arrive at the Riverside Stadium during the transfer window.
Karanka has bolstered his defence by signing full-back Antonio Barragan and centre-back Bernardo Espinosa, while attacking midfielder Viktor Fischer gives the Spaniard added dynamism going forward.
The 42-year-old manager, who is embarking on his third full season in charge of Boro, said of his new additions: For me it is not about the names, it is about the performances and the at…
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Pep Guardiola knows it does not take a genius to know Manchester City must improve if they are to knock Real Madrid out of the Champions League.
City began this week with a significant victory off the field as the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned their two-year ban from UEFA competitions, finding allegations of Financial Fair Play violations to be either not established or time-barred under regulations set out by European football s governing body.
On the field, it has been a different story, with Guardiola critical of his players performance in Saturday s 2-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal.
Despite winning the EFL Cup in March, City s meek Premier League title defence in 2019-20 means their campaign will ultimately be judged on how the refor…
Hugo Lloris kept out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang s stoppage-time penalty as Tottenham rescued a 1-1 draw with Arsenal in a dramatic north London derby on Saturday.
The Gunners had led through Aaron Ramsey s early goal and may have felt aggrieved to have been pegged back 16 minutes from the end via Harry Kane s penalty, the England forward becoming the all-time leading scorer in Premier League matches between these two sides.
Kane appeared to be offside from Christian Eriksen s free-kick before he was bundled over by Shkodran Mustafi, but the Gunners had a golden chance to restore their advantage in the first minute of time added on after Aubameyang went down easily under contact from Davinson Sanchez.
Yet Lloris, who was involved in a bizarre Kieran Trippier own g…