AAO KHELEIN

Madrid: Tottenham's Danish international midfielder Christian Eriksen believes luck has been on his team's side during their Champions League campaign. Speaking on the eve of the final against Liverpool in the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, Eriksen reflected on how close Tottenham have been to being knocked out on numerous occasions this campaign. The side from north London has been within 10 minutes of crashing out of the tournament on five different occasions, scraping through after a poor start in the group stage, scoring a 95th minute goal against Ajax and seeing how a close VAR decision on Raheem Sterling's injury time goal that would have put Manchester City into the semi-finals, being ruled out for offside, reports Xinhua news agency. "I don't know if it's destiny. I think at the moment we've just been lucky," admitted Eriksen. "First of all, with the City game, with Sterling, I thought we were out. Gone. Then Ajax was a bit di...

Belgian footballer Eden Hazard scored twice to help Chelsea thrash Arsenal 4-1 in the Europa Cup finals on Wednesday in Baku. In what appeared to be his final appearance for Chelsea, Hazard struck two second-half goals to confirm the team's second win in six seasons in this competition. Olivier Giroud opened the scoring for Chelsea as he registered a goal in the 49th minute and the second goal came soon after. Pedro put a second goal past the Gunners goalkeeper Petr Cech, allowing Chelsea to gain a 2-0 lead in the 60th minute. Next, Hazard scored a goal in the 65th minute through a penalty and Chelsea gained a 3-0 lead, pretty much closing the door on Arsenal's comeback. Alex Iwobi scored for Arsenal in the 69th minute bringing the scoreline to 3-1, but Hazard's second goal in the 72nd minute sealed the deal for Chelsea and they ended up as the winners of the Europa Cup. After having finished fifth in the Premier League and as a result of this loss, Arsenal are consi...

FIFA has shrugged off any possibility of expansion from 32 to 48 teams at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. On January 10, 2017, FIFA Council unanimously decided in favour of expanding the FIFA World Cup to a 48-team competition as of the 2026 edition, which will be co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, the Xinhau news agency reported. After being presented with a thorough feasibility study on the increase of the number of teams from 32 to 48 at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the FIFA Council acknowledged the study's conclusion that expanding the tournament to 48 teams was feasible during a meeting in Miami this March, provided that neighbouring countries hosted some matches with Qatar as the main host country. "In line with the conclusions of the feasibility study approved by the FIFA Council at its last meeting, FIFA and Qatar have jointly explored all possibilities to increase the number of participant teams from 32 to 48 teams by involving neighbouring countries at the ...

New Delhi: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday announced the appointment of former Croatia international Igor Stimac as the head coach of the Indian men's national team after AIFF's Executive Committee ratified the recommendation by the Technical Committee. Stimac will now succeed Stephen Constantine and has been signed on a two-year contract. As coach, Stimac's major achievement was guiding Croatia to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014. His last assignment was with Al-Shahania Club in Qatar. As a player, he was part the of the Croatia national squad which finished third in the FIFA World Cup in France in 1998 and a member of the Croatia national squad which qualified for the quarterfinals of the UEFA European Championship 1996 (Euro) in England. Besides, he was also a part of the Yugoslavia U-19 national team which won the FIFA U-20 World Cup held in Chile in 1987. Welcoming Stimac to Indian football, AIFF President Praful Patel said: ...

Manchester City beat Brighton and Hove Albion 4-1 to retain the Premier League title, which meant a heartbreak for Liverpool. City became the first team in 10 years to defend the EPL title. The last team to do so was its neighbour Manchester United in the 2008-09 season. In Anfield, Sadio Mane scored twice for Liverpool as they defeated Wolves 2-0 but that still left them one point behind Manchester City. Man City's exit from the Champions League quarter-finals at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur was a shock and manager Pep Guardiola had already said that if City fail to win the Premier League title, critics will be ready with their knives. However, none of that will now be needed as City emphatically lift the title. The pressure was on City as they visited Brighton and in fact it was the home side that scored the first goal through Glenn Murray early on but as soon as Brighton went ahead, City turned the screws. From that moment till the full time whistle, there was not a mom...

Liverpool on Tuesday staged a remarkable comeback to beat Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield here to reach the final of the UEFA Champions League. Trailing 3-0 from the first leg, Liverpool bounced back in their semi-final clash to win 4-3 in terms of aggregate to storm into their second consecutive final of Champions League. Liverpool started playing with an aggressive mindset right from the beginning of the game. Their efforts paid rich dividends as Divock Origi netted the first goal for the Reds in the seventh minute. Stunned by the early onslaught, Barcelona then changed gears and played aggressive football to keep Liverpool in check. Their defensive tactics ensured that the match went into half time with 1-0 scoreline. With this, Barca still held the upper hand. Liverpool's unlikely and remarkable comeback began in the second half when Georginio Wijnaldum scored the Red's second goal via a low cross by Trent Alexander-Arnold in the 54th minute. Two minutes later, Liverpool sco...

Barcelona vanquished Liverpool to register a 3-0 win in the first leg of the Champions League's semi-finals at Camp Nou on Thursday. In this much-anticipated battle, Luis Suarez scored the opening goal of the match in the first half of the match, giving Barcelona a one-goal lead over Liverpool. However, Barcelona did not stop there as their bigwig Lionel Messi added two more goals which brought the game to 3-0. Messi added these two goals in just a span of seven minutes as he scored the goals at 75' and 82'. Liverpool was unable to add any goal to their side which resulted in the game to conclude on the same. Hence, Jurgen Klopp's side faced a humiliating defeat from Barcelona. Messi had 598 goals under his belt when he had entered on the field, hence, with these two goals he touched the 600 goals milestone. It took 683 matches for the 31-year old to achieve this feat. Moreover, Messi, who has 12 goals in this Champions League, is the highest goal scorer and is fo...

If reports are to be believed, Cristiano Ronaldo has laid his hands on the one-off Bugatti La Voiture Noire - reportedly the most expensive car ever built. Although Bugatti refused to officially identify the owner, Spanish sports daily Marca reported that the new owner is the Portuguese footballer who plays his club football for Italian Serie A giants Juventus. There were previous reports that it was owned by Ferdinand Piech, former Chairman of the Volkswagen Group. According to a Daily Mail report, Ronaldo has spent 11 million euro (9.49 million pound) on the Bugatti which was first presented to the world at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. Ronaldo, though, won't be able to drive the car until 2021 as the company still needs to finalise a few details on the prototype, according to reports. The car is a modern interpretation of the mythical and legendary Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic, four of which were built between 1936 and 1938. Ronaldo has an array of luxury cars which include ...