Bonucci facing corruption ban

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…

Mikel Arteta did not hide his frustration with Arsenal s performance in Thursday s 2-2 draw with Sporting CP, but Fabio Vieira s display brought him a degree of pleasure.

The Gunners took the lead in the first half when William Saliba headed in from Vieira s corner, only for their hosts to level in similar circumstances just past the half-hour mark at the Jose Alvalade.

Paulinho put Sporting in front after the break with a tap-in, but Hidemasa Morita s own goal seven minutes later ultimately secured Arsenal a draw to take back to Emirates Stadium for the return leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.

The draw puts Arsenal – who have only lost at home twice all season – in a decent position ahead of the second leg, but Arteta feels they can do better, even con…

Competition: Premier League

Market: Burnley to beat Newcastle

Odds:

The Premier League continues this week with another round of games to come, with the midweek action allowing footballing fans to indulge on even more action. Every side will be desperate to pick up three points following a weekend of FA Cup duty, and with this in mind, Newcastle hos Burnley on Wednesday.

Newcastle have been struggling this season and they need to embark upon a run of wins to relieve some of the pressure that has been building on them. After 24 matches they have won six, drawn five and lost 13 games, while they have scored 22 goals and conceded 34 times. In their last five they have managed to win just once, while they have drawn twice and lost twice. This recor…

Nacional have apologised to Chapecoense after supporters appeared to make mocking gestures during their Copa Libertadores match about the Brazilian club s tragic plane crash.

During their second-stage clash – which Nacional won 1-0 in Chapeco – some visiting supporters were shown taunting their hosts about the accident that killed 19 of Chapecoense s players in 2016.

In a letter to their opponents, Nacional described the behaviour as sick and horrific and asked for forgiveness from Chapecoense.

On behalf of Nacional Football Club, we ask the president our deepest sympathy and deep sense of shame. We urge you to accept our deepest apologies to the horrific gesture, a statement read.

Unfortunately, many sick minds channel their irrationality to sporti…

Ukraine captain Andriy Shevchenko has announced his retirement from international football, except for one goodbye game .

The 35-year-old has decided that now is the right time following his country s early exit from Euro 2012.

After being asked whether the defeat by England was his last international game, he told ITV: Probably. I will play one more game just as a friendly a goodbye game.

Shevchenko was disappointed that his co-hosts could not progress any further than the group stages, but he understood how difficult it was to qualify for the quarter-finals after being drawn in a group with three of the top 20 teams in the world.

Of course we are sad because we (host) the competition and after the first game we were magnificent, very good and we won …

England s senior players, including David Beckham and John Terry, are attempting to quash any talk of revenge as they prepare for a World Cup qualifier against Croatia in Zagreb on Wednesday that could begin to define the new Fabio Capello era.

It was Croatia who dramatically ended England s hopes of qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals when they won 3-2 at Wembley last November, a result that ultimately led to the sacking of Head Coach Steve McClaren.

Slaven Bilic s side also beat McClaren s team 2-0 at home during the same campaign and the wounds from both those defeats still fester for many players in the England camp.

Their return to Zagreb, so early in the World Cup qualifying campaign, is certain to bring calls for both revenge and redemption but Beckham…