Unai Emery masterminded the downfall of his former side Valencia as Sevilla won their UEFA Europa League semi-final first leg 2-0.
The Sevilla head coach spent four years at Valencia before he departed in June 2012, but there was little room for sentiment on Thursday as his current side showed no mercy at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan and now stand on the brink of reaching next month s final in Turin.
Stephane M Bia and Carlos Bacca struck within three first-half minutes to maintain Sevilla s standing as the top scorers in this season s competition.
Valencia slowly came into the game, but lacked a focal point in attack that enabled their La Liga rivals to record a valuable clean sheet, although only after Eduardo Vargas rattled the crossbar late on.
The victo…
England manager Roy Hodgson is pretty much sure of the team he plans to select at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Hodgson s side get their campaign under way against Italy in Manaus on June 14, after scheduled friendlies against Peru, Ecuador and Honduras.
While the likes of Theo Walcott and Jay Rodriguez have been ruled out with long-term injuries, other hopefuls such as Andros Townsend, Jack Wilshere and Phil Jagielka could all return to the reckoning from lay-offs.
However, Hodgson, who will lead England into a major tournament for the second time, says he has all but finalised his line-up for the Group D opener.
Certainly over the last couple of weeks I m pretty much sure of what I want to do when it comes to the team, he told FIFA.com.
Nothing that happ…
Blackburn manager Steve Kean remains defiant that he is the right man for the job after his side was relegated from the Premier League.
Kean was given a hostile reception at Ewood Park on Monday after Blackburn s 11-year reign in the top flight came to an end with a 1-0 loss to Wigan.
But the beleaguered manager believes Blackburn can bounce back into the top flight at the first opportunity if he can keep the majority of his squad together.
I ll sit down with the owners and discuss a plan on how to assemble a squad that can help us bounce back up straight away, Kean said.
Certainly, we ve lost a lot of confidence over the last six months in particular.
I think we need to, as best as we can, keep the squad together, and if we can add one or t…
Beleaguered Serie A club Parma have been deducted one point due to their dire financial problems.
The Stadio Ennio Tardini outfit have endured a miserable season both on and off the pitch, and it had been widely expected they would incur a points penalty for missing tax payments and failing to pay the wages of players and staff.
And the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) confirmed on Tuesday that Parma have been deducted one point from their measly tally of six from 14 Serie A games this term, and also fined €5,000 for their issues.
President Tommaso Ghirardi and CEO Pietro Leonardi have also been banned from club-related activity for two months and fined €5,000 each.
A statement from the FIGC read: One point will be deducted from Parma in the curre…
Raheem Sterling had full confidence in Kai Havertz s ability to convert a penalty at the second time of asking, even if Chelsea boss Graham Potter could not bring himself to watch.
Havertz needed two stabs at a second-half penalty against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday but kept his nerve on the retake to send the Blues into the Champions League quarter-finals with a 2-1 aggregate win.
The Germany international hit the post with his first attempt, but referee Danny Makkelie ordered the spot-kick to be retaken after the VAR adjudged Salih Ozcan to have encroached before Havertz struck the ball.
On his second attempt, Havertz sent the ball the same way as on his first, though this time found the bottom-right corner.
Havertz conceded he was nervous stepping u…