Lasagna marks Italy call with new Udinese deal

Juan Mata has urged his Manchester United team-mates to retain their focus as they prepare to follow a Europa League trip to Saint-Etienne with the EFL Cup final against Southampton.

Jose Mourinho s side are still fighting on four fronts, having advanced their claim for a top-four spot with a 16-game unbeaten run in the Premier League and overcome Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup fifth round at the weekend.

Sunday s EFL Cup showdown with the Saints at Wembley will provide the Portuguese boss with a chance to add to the silverware collected in the season-opening Community Shield win over Leicester City.

First, though, United visit the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard for the second leg of their Europa League round-of-32 tie, holding a commanding 3-0 aggregate lead.

A…

Laurent Blanc has hinted he is on the verge of signing a new Paris Saint-Germain contract and suggested it will be officially announced next week.

Blanc took over at the Parc des Princes ahead of the 2013-14 season following the departure of Carlo Ancelotti to Real Madrid and has overseen a period of domestic dominance in that time, most notably collecting an unprecedented clean sweep in French football last term.

The former France international stated back in December that talks had started on a new deal and it appears as though the 50-year-old is set to put pen to paper.

You will know more [about a renewal] soon. Probably next week, he said ahead of PSG s trip to Saint-Etienne.

Blanc also defended misfiring striker Edinson Cavani, who is withou…

Jurgen Klopp has called on everyone associated with Liverpool, from supporters to the hot dog sellers, to get fully behind their side in Sunday s showdown with Manchester City.

The Premier League leaders welcome City to Anfield knowing that victory will move them nine points clear of the reigning champions with nearly a third of the season played.

Liverpool s only loss in their last 50 league outings came against this weekend s opponents in January as City overturned a seven-point deficit to win the title ahead of the Reds.

The improvement the boys have made is obvious. We have to play our best game on Sunday, Klopp said at Friday s pre-match news conference.

That  

— Liverpool FC (@LFC)

Everyone in the stadium has to be in absolut…

Market: Both teams to score No

Odds: 7/10 @

Knowing that they could potentially punch their CAF Champions League ticket in midweek, Pyramids will travel to Pharco on Tuesday evening.

Starting with the hosts, while Pharco might have felt like they missed out on a golden chance over the weekend, Tarek El Ashry’s men are enjoying what has been a bright end to the 2023 campaign. Despite being last seen a few days ago eventually settling for a 0-0 stalemate away at Ceramica Cleopatra, the Alexandria-based outfit are unbeaten in each of their last six Premier League appearances. Likewise, suffering just a single domestic defeat since way back on February 20th, the former Al-Hilal boss should also be excited by his side’s recent improvements at the back. Along with…

Barcelona are interested in signing Angelino from Manchester City, according to .

The 23-year-old left-back joined City from PSV Eindhoven last summer and was supposed to act as a backup for Benjamin Mendy, which would have allowed for Oleksandr Zinchenko to return to his natural position in the middle of the park. However, halfway through 2019/20 manager Pep Guardiola obviously judged Angelino s progress would be better served elsewhere, somewhere where he would be a regular starter, and he spent the second half of the season on loan with RB Leipzig.

The Spaniard played a total of 18 games in all competitions for the Bundesliga side, scoring once and booking five assists to his name, before returning to the Etihad after Leipzig were knocked out of the Champions League …

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew is calling on Cheick Tiote to take on more responsibility following the departure of Yohan Cabaye.

Cabaye left St James Park for Paris Saint-Germain in the January transfer window, and Newcastle embarked on a dreadful run of form thereafter, losing three straight Premier League games and conceding 10 goals in the process.

Tiote missed the last two of those matches 3-0 and 4-0 defeats to Chelsea and Tottenham respectively with a hamstring injury, but returned to the side for their 1-0 win over Aston Villa last Sunday.

And Pardew has urged the 27-year-old Ivory Coast international, who joined Newcastle from Twente in 2010, to become a leader within the squad.

He is an important player to us, he said.

And the captaincy whe…

Sir Alex Ferguson is preparing to unleash a fit-again Wayne Rooney on the Premier League as Manchester United look to kick-start their title charge at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

Rooney made his first start for United since early October in Wednesday s Champions League trip to Glasgow, scoring from the penalty spot to secure a 1-0 victory over Rangers.

Ferguson admits Rooney is a long way from being the unstoppable force that saw him score 34 times in all competitions last season on his way to scooping the Players Player of the Year award.

Yet the United boss plans to give Rooney as much game time as possible to restore him to full match sharpness.

He needs games, said Ferguson. The way we are going to do that is to keep him on the pitch for 90 minute…

Louis van Gaal has urged Manchester United to dare to play football when they host Chelsea in what could prove a pivotal game in the manager s Old Trafford career.

United slumped to a 2-0 Boxing Day defeat at Stoke City their fourth in a row in all competitions to pile further pressure on the under-fire Van Gaal and increase speculation that Jose Mourinho could replace him.

The Dutchman even suggested after the match that he could consider stepping down should United lose at Old Trafford on Monday, rather than face the sack, although he remains in charge for the time being.

With just two days to recover both physically and mentally after the Stoke loss, Van Gaal has called on his players to be brave against the Premier League champions, who are unbeaten in five a…

Samuel Eto o has pleaded with Antonio Conte to quickly restore Chelsea to their previous heights when he takes charge at Stamford Bridge this year.

Conte was appointed as the permanent successor to Jose Mourinho last week and will take up the role upon the end of his Euro 2016 campaign with Italy.

Chelsea occupy 10th in the Premier League following a dismal campaign and look set to miss out on European football next season.

Eto o spent the 2013-14 season with the club, but failed to claim any silverware and, with the club enduring another barren year, he hopes the new manager can bring about a swift change in fortunes.

I don t think that a great manager as Antonio Conte needs my advice, said Eto o.

I think that he s demonstrated already to b…

Roberto Mancini basked in the emotion of a beautiful evening as Italy began Euro 2020 with a commanding 3-0 win over Turkey, but he is not getting carried away after one match.

Against a sorry Turkey side, Italy were a cut above on Friday in Rome s Stadio Olimpico, where the Azzurri are unbeaten in nine matches at major tournaments.

A frustratingly unambitious Turkey were finally breached early in the second half when Domenico Berardi smashed a cross in off Merih Demiral and, as their opponents cumulative expected goals (xG) value of 0.6 suggests, Italy need not have scored again.

But they did for good measure, Ciro Immobile pouncing on a rebound to net for the third successive game for his country, before then teeing up the excellent Lorenzo Insigne for a love…