Ruddy agrees new Norwich deal

Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze will be wearing his sky blue and white heart on his sleeve in Saturday s World Cup quarter-final against Germany, even if his father would have had divided loyalties.

The man who scored Argentina s first goal of the tournament in the win over Nigeria was born to a German father, who passed away in 2004, and an Italian mother.

He also holds German and Italian passports.

But where football is concerned it is the albiceleste who count and now the Marseille central defender is plotting the downfall of the land of his forefathers.

The 32-year-old who started out with Newells Old Boys before spells with the likes of Paris Saint Germain and Manchester United has not always been flavour of the month with the fans.

There …

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…

Kevin Lasagna has marked his first Italy call-up by signing a new contract with Udinese to 2023.

Lasagna was added to the Azzurri squad as a replacement for the injured Simone Zaza on Tuesday, with Italy facing Ukraine and Poland in the coming days.

And the 26-year-old capped a memorable day by putting pen to paper on a fresh deal with his club.

This is definitely a day that will stay with me for a while, Lasagna told Udinese s website. 

The call arrived today in the early afternoon: I was in Mantua and immediately rushed to Udine to get my boots.

Tonight I will really struggle to fall asleep.

After the withdrawal of Simone , Kevin has been called up for the   and   fixtures.

— Italy (@azzurri)

Lasagn…

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…