Diego Simeone praised the development of Marcos Llorente after the midfielder helped Atletico Madrid secure a 2-1 victory over Granada.
Atleti extended their lead at the top of LaLiga to eight points thanks to Angel Correa s deflected winner on Saturday.
Llorente provided the assist for Correa having opened the scoring himself with a neat finish in the 63rd minute, taking his tally of league goals for the season to seven.
The 26-year-old – signed primarily to play as a defensive midfielder in 2019 from rivals Real Madrid – scored his first goal for Atleti in a 2-2 draw with Valencia on February 14 last year.
He has now netted 13 times in all competitions in total for the club, while his tally of 10 league goals since getting o…
Arsenal are interested in signing Vinicius Junior from Real Madrid in the January transfer window, according to . It has been reported that the Premier League club are considering making a loan move for the striker next month.
The report has claimed that Arsenal tried to sign Vinicius when Unai Emery was in charge of the North London club. The Gunners have a good relationship with the agent of the 20-year-old, who is predominately a winger, but is able to play across the attack.
Vinicius has been on the books of Madrid since 2018, but the 20-year-old winger has failed to make a massive impact at the Spanish and European giants. According to , the Brazil international has made eight starts and four substitute appearances in La Liga for Los Blancos so far this season, sco…
Vicente del Bosque has revealed he will step down from his position as Spain coach after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The former Real Madrid boss has led his country to back-to-back tournament wins at the World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012 since his appointment in 2008.
But he says next year s competition in South America will be his last in the Spanish hotseat.
My final responsibility as Spain national coach will be at the World Cup in Brazil next year, Del Bosque told Telam.
Afterwards, maybe I will continue to work with the Spanish federation carrying out representative duties like this, travelling to different places and accepting invitations to public events.
Spain saw their status as world football s leading power threatened in midweek as La Liga duo Barcelona and Real Mad…
Newly-crowned LaLiga champions Real Madrid earned an emphatic 4-0 win over relegated Granada on Saturday, breaking a single-season club record after making it 29 league games unbeaten.
Carlo Ancelotti s side continued their superb form following their Champions League semi-final win over Bayern Munich, reaching 90 points in the league and moving 15 clear of second-placed Girona.
Fran Garcia broke the deadlock with an easy finish after a long series of passes in the 38th minute before he set up Arda Guler to slot home and extend the advantage just before half-time.
Brahim Diaz made it 3-0 in the 49th minute with a shot into the near post, and the former Manchester City attacker scored his second nine minutes later off a Luka Modric pass from the right.
0-…
Ousmane Dembele impresses again / Image via espnfc.com
Bayern Munich welcomed fierce rivals Borussia Dortmund in the DFB Pokal semifinal clash on Wednesday night as two of Germany’s best met for the fourth time this season.
With a chance to fight for the trophy at stake, both sides gave their best to earn a place in the final against Eintracht Frankfurt and here are the five key points we highlighted from Borussia Dortmund s 3-2 victory in this openly-contested match we saw at Allianz Arena:
Youth over experience
One of the main talking points on Wednesday, and during the entire season for that matter, has been a question of Bayern Munich’s ageing squad. The Bavarians have been widely described as a team way past their prime, given the fact that Carlo Ancel…
Manuel Pellegrini will ponder a full array of attacking options as Manchester City seek to get their Premier League title bid back on track against struggling Sunderland on Saturday.
Pellegrini has often bemoaned a steady stream of injury problems to the likes of David Silva and Sergio Aguero as City have struggled for consistency since winning their first five matches of the campaign.
The Spain playmaker and Argentina striker are now back in contention, Aguero having made his return to action from the start of Monday s 2-1 defeat at Arsenal.
This creates issues of a different kind for Pellegrini, who brushed off complaints from Wilfried Bony that he should have been named in the first XI at Emirates Stadium instead of Aguero.
Sergio was ready to play [a…
With the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League and LaLiga all coming to an end this weekend, we are slowly approaching the end of what has been an intriguing 2016-17 campaign.
Chelsea bounced back from last season s 10th-place finish to regain their crown, Real Madrid dethroned Barcelona for their first title since 2012, Monaco ended Paris Saint-Germain s hegemony in France, while Bayern Munich and Juventus continued their domestic dominance.
Although there is still one game to go in Serie A and there are a number of domestic cup finals on the cards in the weeks to come with the Europa League and Champions League finals on the horizon as well most teams are already done for the season and have started preparations for 2017-18.
Below, we take a look at which te…
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger insists the club remain active in the transfer window despite concerns over the huge inflation in the market.
The Gunners have made just two signings since the end of last season, bringing in Alexandre Lacazette for a reported club-record fee of £52.7million and full-back Sead Kolasinac on a free transfer.
Wenger is rumoured to be keen on another raid of Ligue 1 before the market closes, with Arsenal linked with bids for Monaco duo Thomas Lemar and Kylian Mbappe.
The 67-year-old is concerned by the fees some clubs are demanding for their players, with Mbappe reportedly valued at €180m and Barcelona star Neymar said to be nearing a €222m move to Paris Saint-Germain, but he maintains Arsenal are still on the hunt for reinforcement…
Leeds United have signed 19-year-old Ian Poveda from Premier League champions Manchester City.
The England youth international has signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with Marcelo Bielsa s side.
Poveda was part of the Arsenal, Barcelona and Brentford academies before joining City in 2016, but he made only one senior appearance for the club, playing in the 1-0 win over Burton Albion in the second leg of last season s EFL Cup semi-final.
The attacking midfielder, who will wear the number seven shirt, is Leeds second signing of the January transfer window following the arrival of goalkeeper Elia Caprile from Chievo.
Leeds are second in the Championship, a point behind leaders West Brom and three above Fulham in third.
. has joined on a permane…
Forget Argentina, Nigeria are Croatia s toughest opponent in their bid to progress to the round of 16 at the World Cup, according to Andrej Kramaric.
Croatia – who finished third in 1998 – will face Nigeria in their Group D opener in Kaliningrad on Saturday.
Spearheaded by captain and five-time Ballon d Or winner Lionel Messi, Argentina and Croatia are expected to vie for the top two spots.
However, Kramaric views Nigeria – one of the most talked about teams in the build-up, not necessarily for their football, but their stand-out kit – as Croatia s biggest danger at the showpiece tournament.
I think it is Nigeria. Why? Against Nigeria we play the first and, for us, the most important game, Kramaric told FIFA.com. That game will open or close the…