Let the #thrills and #excitement start. We have waited long enough!

The Champions League Draws and its resultant excitements and permutations have come and gone, giving way to that of its "junior brother" the EURO League Group Stage Draws which took place yesterday, the 31st August, 2018. The draws threw up some interesting contests as you will find below. The event took place in Monaco. 

It is worth noting that the two debutants Dudelange and Akhisar Belediyespor were handed particularly tricky groups. Dudelange is in Group F while Akhisar were drawn into Group J.

Now, let's take a look at the complete Group Draws.

Group A: Bayer Leverkusen (GER), Ludogorets (BUL), Zürich (SUI), AEK Larnaca (CYP)

Group B: Salzburg (AUT), Celtic (SCO), RB Leipzig (GER), Rosenborg (NOR)

Group C: Zenit (RUS), København (DEN), Bordeaux (FRA), Slavia Praha (CZE)

Group D: Anderlecht (BEL), Fenerbahçe (TUR), Dinamo Zagreb (CRO), Spartak Trnava (SVK)

See the rest here:http://uneekomunikations.com/eufa-europa-league-group-draws-and-news-antoine-griezmann-wins/

This is surely one game that promises to be very exciting. The #WilliamSisters never fail to entertain the fans in this type of game.

For most fans of the US Open Tournament, there is one match they will never get tired of watching. They simply long to see this kind of game and luckily for them all, that is the match on the cards later today - the Venus Williams vs Serena Williams game.

Past matches between the two sisters have never failed to live up to expectations and that is the reason fans love such match-ups. The record of their past meetings shows that the younger Serena holds an advantage over her senior sister, having won 17 games as against 12 victories for Venus.

Today, they face each other in a third round clash of the US Open at the Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows in a match that promises to be as exciting as usual. 

"At least this time it will be fair." laughed Venus, with reference to last year's Australian Open final when Serena was pregnant with daughter Olympia.

Read Further here: http://uneekomunikations.com/2018-us-open-serena-williams-vs-sister-venus-williams-today/

#Ronaldo versus #Manchester United is a mouth-watering game to watch any day any time.

The Champions League group-stage draws have come and gone but the excitements that came with and from it still lingers on as fans are already doing permutations and calculations on who and who are likely to get through the group stages.

In this post we take a look at the most intriguing match-ups that will surely interest a lot of football fans out there.

Probably the most outstanding of them all is the mouth-watering clash between  Juventus F.C. and Manchester United. This fixture is unique in the sense that it affords the fans the opportunity to see Cristiano Ronaldo play against his former club, Manchester United.

It is not just Ronaldo that will be facing his former club as Paul Pogba is also in the same scenario. It will be recalled that Paul Pogba, who left United for Juventus F.C.  as a youngster, before eventually returning to the Premier League four years later in 2016.

More on this at http://uneekomunikations.com/the-best-pairings-from-the-uefa-champions-league-groups/

This is the entrance to the Grimaldi Hall in Monaco where the Champions League draw was done this evening. Yes that is where the all-important draws for the Group Stages of UEFA Champions League was carried out just a few hours ago and we are happy to be among the first to bring you the details of the event.

Here we go friends.

Noticeably absent at the this event is no other person than Cristiano Ronaldo! Well, there probably is a good reason for this and maybe we will know of it later.

However, we have the presence of Beckham who gives thanks and talks about his best moments as a football player. Forlan and Kaka are also present at the gala.

Keylor Navas wins best goalkeeper of the last Champions League award. “More than proud, it is a privilege to be part of this group,” says Navas as he collects the award.

The Best Female Player of the Year for UEFA is Pernille Harder.

Sergio Ramos wins best defender of last season’s edition.

Luka Modric wins best midfielder in last seasons edition.

Cristiano Ronaldo wins best striker in last seasons edition.

And who wins the ultimate prize? LUKA MODRIC !!! The Croatian takes the award beating Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo. Best Player of the Year for UEFA thanks to his Champions League title and his great World Cup.

GROUP A: ATLETICO, BORUSSIA DORTMUND. BRUGGE and MONACO.

Get the rest here now: http://uneekomunikations.com/all-the-details-of-the-uefa-champions-league-draws/

It must have been a very sorrowful night for many fans in Greece. The reason of course is not far-fetched. Their darling team, PAOK let them down at their own backyard by failing to take advantage of 1-1 draw away to Benfica to qualify for the group stage of the Champions' League Competition.

Instead, the team playing at home in front of their own teeming supporters lost scandalously by 1-4 to the visiting side, Benfica Lisbon.

The game had started on a very bright note for the Greek team as Aleksandar Prijovic scored their first goal as early as in the 13th minute of the game sending the home fans into wild jubilation as they started to dream of a comprehensive victory over the visitors.

But then, the whole game turned on its head to the utmost disbelief of everyone who is not Portuguese in the stadium. First to shock the home team and fans was Benfica's captain himself.

Like a good leader, he scored the much needed equaliser for his team with a powerful shot in the 20th minute. Then came the second goal for the visiting team through a penalty converted by Eduardo Salvio in the 26th minute.

To worsen matters for the home team as they were struggling to get an equaliser, a third goal came for the visitors as Pizzi found the net in the 39th minute. The "final nail on the coffin" came in the 49th minute as Eduardo Salvio converted his second penalty kick of the match to send PAOK crashing out of the competition in a scandalous manner.

A similar scenario played itself out in Austria as Salzburg seemed set to join other teams in the competition proper when Munas Dabbur scored their first goal on the stroke of halftime and added a second one just three minutes into the second half through a penalty kick to give them a 2-0 lead on the night and overall against Red Star. The penalty had been awarded after Vujadin Savic fouled Hannes Wolf in the box. But then came a scenario very similar to the one that took place in Greece.

Continued at http://uneekomunikations.com/champions-league-red-star-belgrade-benfica-psv-and-others-qualify/

#OurMumuDonDoNoBeSmall, time for the Nigerian Youth to finally wake up. We must get it right in 2019.

It is really a shame to watch and hear many of the Nigerian leaders continuously and unashamedly disgrace the nation at will, both locally and internationally without blinking their eyes. Thank God for the few responsible ones among them. By their works, we know them.

And yet, it is still a Nigerian adage that says: "The ones the gods want to use for sacrifice, they first make mad".

The way the leaders have bastardized the nation's social economic life and image leaves a very sour taste in the mouth. It is either they do not listen to themselves talk or something is terribly wrong with their sense of morality and education. No wonder the youth are so discouraged to the extent that they are refusing to go for their PVCs.

I am a Nigerian and am forced to sometimes wonder if these people were actually born in the same country and went through the same educational system and moral up-bringing as my humble self. No wonder Nigerians are disrespected all over the world generally. Well, that is a topic for another day.

However in this post, Let's take a look at how to get the elections right in 2019.

My submissions go as follows:

The National Assembly will do well to enact the following laws as soon as possible before the next elections take place.

INEC must not register a candidate who has failed to to present his or her plans for the people in a well attended and televised debate with evidence to prove same. This should apply to all persons vying for the Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senatorial and House of Representative slots. Same goes for the Local Government Chairmen (and women). #OurMumuDonDo. It is time to wake up and demand our rights for once.
Independent Candidates should henceforth be allowed to contest at Councilorship and State House of Representative levels as long as the candidates meet the requirements for contesting such elections.
It should henceforth be mandatory for every elected leader except the President, his vice, the Senate Leader and the leader of the House of Representatives to go back to their constituencies for stewardship reports at least every three months and make video evidence of such to a special committee in the House of Assembly. It is time to deal with the "Abujalised" style of politics. Any politician who is afraid to go home to his or her people cannot represent such a people.
The "re-call" process for politicians who are not performing should be made public, accessible and easier for the ordinary people. It is irresponsible and retrogressive for the people to have to wait for four years in order to correct an anomaly in their representation in the House. Politicians must be re-callable as  soon as cases are proven against them.

Continue reading here please; https://uneekomunikations.com/nigeriavscommonsense/

The Reds are surely not joking this time around.

When a team is serious about its ambitions in a race, it shows that right from the beginning. And that is exactly what Liverpool F.C. did last night as they went to Crystal Palace, worked their asses off and came back home with the sweet three points that were on offer for that game.

Liverpool F.C. have now started the season with two wins from two, thereby making sure that they keep up the pace with reigning champions Manchester City.

This was very important for the Klopp side if they are to keep up their hope of upstaging the reigning champions at the end of the season.

The team had to really fight hard for the win as Crystal Palace is proving to be a side that is improving match by match and getting difficult to handle. The team surely will get better if it continues on this path.

Credit be given to them as they came out smoking right the very beginning of the game taking it to the Reds showing signs of a team full of confidence.

Unfortunately for them, they were up against a Liverpool team that is surely a notch above their level and a team that is very consistent in their performances of recent. Even at that, it took Liverpool until the very end of half time for them to find a break through with James Milner putting the visitors ahead from the penalty spot after Mohamed Salah was adjudged to have been fouled by Mamadou Sakho.

This was definitely a dampener for the home team who had done everything possible to hold their own against the elite visitors until that point.

They definitely had to rue the missed chances that came their way in the course of the game as they had several good attempts on goal but were thwarted every single time, and in the dying minutes of the game, Sadio Mane scored with virtually the last kick of the game to wrap up the points and send Liverpool F.C. joint top of the table.

Crystal Palace will now have another tough game in their next match as they go up against Watford, while Liverpool prepares to host a Brighton & Hove Albion side that has just celebrated a huge victory against a lackadaisical Manchester United.

The line-up for this game was as follows:

Crystal Palace: Hennessey (6.5), Wan-Bissaka (6), Tomkins (6), Sakho (6.5), van Aanholt (6), Townsend (6.5), Milivojevic (6.5), McArthur (6), Schlupp (6.5), Benteke (6), Zaha (6.5)

Liverpool: Alisson (7), Alexander-Arnold (7), Gomez (6.5), van Dijk (7), Robertson (6.5), Milner (7), Wijnaldum (6.5), Keita (6.5), Salah (7), Firmino (6.5), Mane (7.5)

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/liverpool-f-c-bags-vital-away-points-at-crystal-palace-wins-2-0/

Very good news for the Manchester United fans. Bravo!

In what seems to be part of damage control that has arisen as a result of the team’s lack luster performance yesterday in the Premiership where they lost out to Brighton away from home, the Manchester United F.C. has decided to leak some good news to its presently unhappy supporters.

And it is one that will actually excite the fans completely.

Reports reaching our News Desk has it on authority that the ManU number one goalkeeper, David De Gea is set to sign a new £200,000-per-week deal with the Red Devils.

It will be recalled that the goalkeeper was for a long time on the radar of European Champions, Real Madrid but ManU blocked a possible move for their top goalkeeper. He surely is being rewarded now for deciding to stay on at the Old Trafford outfit.

In his place, Real Madrid successfully pried away Thibaut Courtois from Chelsea F.C.

The present valuation of the goalkeeper however has been kept secret by the club for now as it is expected to be raised to conform with the present market prices what with the transfer record for a goalkeeper being broken twice this summer.

De Gea has remained the number one goalkeeper not just at Manchester United but also for his country, Spain as he stood between the sticks for the just concluded 2018 World Cup Competition in Russia.

Source: https://uneekomunikations.com/de-gea-ready-to-sign-a-new-deal-at-manchester-united/

Welcome to the Gareth Bale era of Real Madrid.

Gareth Bale showed he can be relied upon to properly fill the void left by the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo by putting up a very inspiring performance as Real Madrid begun their first LaLiga campaign under Julen Lopetegui with a 2-0 comfortable win over Getafe at the Santiago Bernabeu.

As expected by many of his fans, Bale seized his opportunity to impress the crowd with his brilliant style of football and contributions to the victory over Getafe. He not only set up Dani Carvajal for the opening goal but also went on to score the second himself just after the resumption of the second half of the game.

It was a beautiful way to try and erase their recent loss to Athletico Madrid in the EUFA Super Cup match played a few days back. Life just has to move on.

Bale, starting as usual wide on the right of the pitch, got close to scoring much earlier on in the game when he hit the bar with a diving header. He then had a hand in the making of the first goal as Getafe's goalkeeper spilled a cross from him thereby giving Carvajal the chance to score.

The second goal was almost a gift from the Getafe goalkeeper as he was forced to parry Gareth Bale's scathing shot into his own net six minutes into the second half of the game.

Generally, Real Madrid looked real slick now and then in the game but it was clear that Lopetegui’s fluid system is not yet in full flow. The central midfielders seemed reluctant to move forward and support Karim Benzema and, with Bale and Asensio sticking to their wings, it left the striker very isolated against the Getafe back four at times.

However, the team was able to restrict the visitors to almost no chances whatsoever and surely deserved to take all three points.

Lopetegui will be judged primarily on these early results, especially since Barcelona were allowed to build a lead in the title race from the very start of last season, so any victory will be considered a positive.

As for Gareth Bale, this season is surely going to be a pivotal one in his Real Madrid career, as he finally no longer needs to play in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo and he has got off to an ideal start. He will have to continue to show such impressive performances as often as possible now.

His next opportunity comes up in Real Madrid's next LaLiga match in Catalonia next Sunday to take on Girona, who started their season with a 0-0 draw against Real Valladolid.

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/gareth-bale-shows-up-as-real-madrid-beat-getafe-2-0-in-laliga-opener/

The Manchester United players surely need to seriously apologise to their fans for putting up such a sordid display.

It was so unexpected. So devastating. But also very well deserved. For everyone who watched the game between Brighton and Manchester United this afternoon, it was very clear that the team that had more hunger for success won the game. There is no better way to put it, friends.

The Manchester United players went in to this game as if it was already awarded to them and they were on the field just for formality sake.

The way they played in that first half would have easily earned them dozens of goals if they had better opponents playing against them. Very lackadaisical and lazy. One was not sure what exactly they wanted the Brighton players to do in return. Fall down and give up the match?

Meanwhile in contrast to ManU, the home team were the ones who went into the game plagued by injuries and the rest of negative issues fitness wise.

It was therefore a real surprise to all and sundry who watched that particular first half that the home team were the ones actually doing all the playing.

As if the ManU players were trying to prove a point in the direction of "score first and then we will take you to the cleaners".

Score the home team actually did.

Not just first but twice before ManU scrambled in a goal. And then, Bailly lackadaisically gave away a penalty and the game was suddenly out of United's hands completely. Their second goal late into the second half was as a result of a disputed penalty.

Of course the ManU players had come back from the half time break a more serious team now looking for a remedy to the situation on their hands with Manager Mourinho having made two immediate changes replacing  Andreas Pereira and Huan Mata with Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard.

But the damage was too far done and the team was already too desperate for goals to play a cohesive game.

This was surely not the kind of display ardent Manchester United fans are used to seeing from their darling team and it will take some time for them all to be able to properly absorb what they witnessed in the course of this afternoon's game.

What next for the team shall surely be better understood in the coming days considering the fact that Mourinho is not likely to let this go without serious repercussion on the erring players.

Manchester United's next premier league match will be played at home against Tottenham Hotspurs and they surely dare not not play half as bad as they did today without taking a good hiding at the Old Trafford for sure.

Source: https://uneekomunikations.com/a-bad-day-at-the-office-for-manchester-united-as-brighton-wins-3-2/

What is your prediction for this match?

Manchester United face Brighton in an away match in a few hours time in a Premier League feature which is a must win for the Jose Mourinho side if it really wishes to be counted among the title contenders in England for this season.

The team began its campaign in the new season on a positive note by beating beating Leicester City in their first match of the season last week at Old Trafford but internal squabbles seem to be threatening it more than the strength of the opponents as it stands for now.

The main figures in this matter of course are Manager Mourinho and stand-in captain Pogba.

Their opponents in today’s game, Brighton is a side that needs to sit up fast after suffering a disappointing start to their season as they lost out 2-0 to Watford and will surely hope they can reverse their form in their first home game.

Team News For Both Sides:

Manchester United have no fresh injury worries to report.

The team should be welcoming back Romelu Lukaku & Jessie Lingard after their World Cup break with Lukaku expected to be in line for a start leading the attack in Brighton.

It will be interesting to see if Paul Pogba will be handed the captain’s armband for a second consecutive game, especially after his comments about the harmony in the squad.

Nemanja Matic and Antonio Valencia returned to training on Thursday but are not likely fit to be selected yet.

United’s new summer signing Fred impressed on his Premier League debut against Leicester as he was at his marauding best at times and will be looking to continue his solid start for the Red Devils.

Fred is expected to play at the base of a three-man midfield and will be charged with breaking up the play and kick-starting United attacks on the break.

On the other side of the divide, things are not looking too good for the Brighton side as they will be playing without their without captain Bruno.

He injured his hamstring during the opening-day defeat at Watford and could be replaced by deadline-day signing Martin Montoya, who is now available to make his debut.

Then there is the case of Florin Andone remains out with a groin injury. Colombia winger Jose Izquierdo will likely not be involved as he is just returning to fitness after the World Cup.

Likely Team List For Both Sides:

BRIGHTON SQUAD: Ryan, Button, Steele, Bernardo, Bong, Dunk, Duffy, Balogun, Schelotto, Suttner, Montoya, Bissouma, Stephens, Propper, Kayal, Knockaert, March, Gross, Jahanbakhsh, Locadia, Hemed, Murray.

MANCHESTER UNITED SQUAD: De Gea, Grant, Darmian, Shaw, Young, Lindelof, Smalling, Jones, Bailly, Pogba, McTominay, Fred, Pereira, Fellaini, Mata, Lingard, Martial, Sanchez, Rashford, Lukaku.

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/brighton-vs-manchester-united-match-preview-and-team-list/

This Messi guy willnever stop amazing people with his record breaking runs. Is he from this planet at all?

The truth is that while most people love Lionel Messi for his beautiful way of playing football, his skills, dribbles and the rest, many others love him for all the various records he has broken in the world of soccer generally.

Funny enough and understandably so, some people hate him for that same fact. That stinks of jealousy though.

The player however does not seem to have time to bother himself on such issues as he has said many times over and simply continues to do what he knows how to do best - scoring goals and breaking available records.

This last weekend was not spared of his record-breaking run as Lionel Messi became the very first player to score in 15 consecutive LaLiga seasons with his opening goal in Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Deportivo Alaves at the Camp Nou last night in Barca's first game of the new LaLiga season.

Barcelona's first goal of the game came when Messi sent a free-kick under the wall and into the net to open up the scores sheet after 64 minutes at Camp Nou on Saturday.

For the records, this goal was 6000th in the top flight and came nine years on from their 5000th, which was interestingly also scored by this same Lionel Messi. Add that to the fact that the Barca new club captain has now scored in 15 league campaigns in a row! What more can anyone ask from a player?

In the game itself, the player netted two goals in total on either side of a Philippe Coutinho goal.

He has therefore scored a record 384 goals for Barca at the top flight level so far. If that is not an intimidating record, what is? We are talking about a remarkable 6.4 per cent of the total goals Barcelona have scored in their league history.

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/lionel-messi-breaks-yet-another-record-as-barcelona-nets-6000th-goal/

Kudos to both teams for their display of highly entertaining soccer artistry this evening.

For all those people who thought that Chelsea was going to practically roll over Arsenal in their Premier League clash at the Stamford Bridge earlier this evening, they came, saw and had their mouths agape at what actually happened as the game went virtually in all directions before the home team managed to sneak victory at the tail end.

Just when everyone had thought that Chelsea had blown away Arsenal by their forceful dominating display early in the match which justifiably earned them an early 2-0 lead, Arsenal F.C. came back strongly into the game and not only equalised the two goals comfortably, but were very unlucky not to have scored the third goal immediately after as they missed sitters upon sitters.

At a stage, the game became a tale of two in one as the pendulum swung to the North, then back to the South and so forth. But then at last, Chelsea remembered that they were playing at home and owed their teeming fans a victory. And they just managed to achieve that aim.

In the game proper, Mauricio Sarri’s men got off to the perfect start in their first home game of the season as Pedro scored the first goal in just nine minutes of the game.

The came Alvaro Morata who extended the advantage only ten minutes later before Henrikh Mhkitaryan got one back for the Gunners with a special strike that caught Kepa napping.

Arsenal then completed their comeback through Alex Iwobi’s close range finish. However, the game was not done yet as Marcos Alonso was teed up by Eden Hazard (who came off the bench in the second half of the game) for the decisive goal with just ten minutes left on the clock.

Kudos really to both teams for displaying a very high paced and entertaining piece of soccer artistry that is hard to come by these days.

Match Rating for both teams:
Chelsea: Kepa (7); Azpilicueta (7), Rudiger (6), Luiz (6), Alonso (7); Kanté (, Jorginho (7), Barkley (7) (Kovačić (6), 60′); Willian (6) (Hazard (7), 60′), Morata (7) (Giroud (6), 75′), Pedro (7).

Arsenal: Čech (7); Monreal (6), Sokratis (6), Mustafi (5), Bellerin (5); Guendouzi (6), Xhaka (5) (Torreira (6), 46′); Iwobi (7) (Lacazatte (5), 75′), Mkhitaryan (7), Özil (6) (Ramsey (6), 68′); Aubameyang (6).

Goals: Pedro (9′), Morata (20′), Mkhitaryan (37′), Iwobi (41′), Alonso (81′)

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/chelsea-squeezes-past-arsenal-3-2-at-stamford-bridge/

Arsenal fans will surely accept any "new development" that can make the team better than they had had to endure for some years now.

The way things are presently going on at Arsenal, no one should be too surprised to see a pairing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette together in attack in order to ignite the Arsenal attacking department as quickly as possible.

This much was divulged by the new Gunner's Manager Unai Emery.

The France international Lacazette lost out in the pecking order in the Gunner's attack after the arrival of Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund in January before missing out on a spot in the Les Bleus’ triumphant World Cup squad.

Before all of that, Lacazette had arrived arrived at Emirates Stadium from Lyon for a club-record fee believed to be in the region of £52million last year.

Now seems to be time to experiment with playing both at the same time in order to get the attack going better than the new manager met it.

He actually started with the experiment already as he paired the duo during pre-season with the introduction of Lacazette alongside Aubemeyang which was marked by a noticeable improvement in the Arsenal attack in the game the team lost out 2-0 to Premier League champions, Manchester City.

It remains to be seen however if the coach will want to try such an experiment at Stamford Bridge this afternoon with the stakes set so high.

“The possibility to play Aubameyang and Lacazette is okay because we tried that in pre-season,” the Arsenal Manager told reporters ahead of the keenly anticipated London derby against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

“Each match is different, each match is a different possibility. Against Manchester City, the last 25, 30 minutes they played together.

“For me it’s about finding the good balance for all that we want in attacking moments and defensive moments.

“I want to look at every player together, how to get Aubameyang and Lacazette scoring more goals, whether as one or together.”

So what do the players involved think about this option?

Aubameyang sees this possible link-up with Lacazette as a potential route to success. This is what he had to say on the issue:

“We really get on well,” he said. “There is a spark between us when we are both on the pitch together.

“We look for each other, we saw it against City when he came on. I don’t mind playing on the left if Laca is in the centre.

And so, the stage seems set for a new way of play at least in the Arsenal F.C. attacking department.

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/arsenal-manager-hints-at-aubameyang-lacazette-partnership/

A good example of a coach who knows his onions.

As far as Maurizio Sarri is concened, Eden Hazard is among the best players in Europe but need to add more goals to his game in order to be able rival Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo among the football elites in the world.

Even though he revealed recently that the player has not spoken to him about his future plans, Sarri is confident Hazard will stay at Chelsea. 

And the new Chelsea head coach has the feeling that there is still a lot more to come from Hazard, who has scored at least 12 Premier League goals in four of the past five seasons for the Blues. This is what Sarri had to say about Hazard:

“Hazard, technically, is really one of the best in Europe in this moment, I think,” Sarri told reporters. “He has to work from the physical point of view, of course.

“It depends on his position on the pitch. In the last five years, Cristiano has played like a striker. Messi like a striker, Eden sometimes like a winger. Eden can improve.

“We are talking about one of the most important players in Europe now but, in my opinion, he can improve more. He can be the first. It depends on him. The best for technical skill, the best for scoring, but I think it depends only on him. On his mind.

“Chelsea are one of the most important clubs in Europe. I think one of the most important clubs in Europe cannot sell an important player without the possibility of buying a player on the same level.

“The first time I have spoken to him, I was sure that he would stay. So I was concerned for 20 days, no more.”


As Chelsea take on Arsenal in today's Premier League’s cruncher, Sarri expects the Gunners who are also under new leadership in Unai Emery, to rival his team for a place in the top four. And according to him:

“Arsenal can be, for us, a direct opponent for the target of the club. Of our season. A direct opponent for a place in the Champions League, I think,” Sarri said.

“We can finish above or below them, I don’t know, but I think they will be competitive for a place in the Champions League.

“It’s not easy, of course. But I think this coach has the ability to start a new era. He won three times the Europa League, and won in France, so we’re talking about a very good coach. I think that, in pre-season, they have played well.

“Arsenal, this season, can improve and be competitive, and can fight for a good position.”

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/hazard-among-the-best-footballers-in-the-world-sarri/

All indices point at the likelihood of a debut for Mateo Kovacic at the Stamford Bridge for Chelsea when Arsenal come visiting in the first home match of the current season for the Blues on Saturday.

The new arrival from Real Madrid played no part in last last weekend’s 3-0 win at Huddersfield Town but will likely be fully unveiled on the pitch tomorrow as the fans get the opportunity to see how well he will fit into their team.

It is left to be seen however if Manager Maurizio Sarri will be starting the Croatian midfielder or have him come off the bench as the team will be missing two personnel in their midfield tomorrow.

Tiemoue Bakayoko has left on loan to AC Milan while Cesc Fabregas who also sat out the opening weekend game is expected to miss the Arsenal match with  a knee injury.

Talking about Kovac, Maurizio Sarri had this to say:

“I think Mateo will be very useful for us. He’s a very technical player,” 

“In this moment he has to work. I think he’s not ready now for 90 minutes, but maybe tomorrow for 30 minutes he could be used.

“I think he can play in any of the three positions in midfield. He’s a very good offensive player, but he has improved in the defensive phase in the last two years in Madrid.

“I expect a lot from him because, for me, he’s a very great player. In my opinion, he can improve more.”


The other player the manager spoke about is Alvaro Morata who appears set to keep his place despite a not too impressive display against Huddersfield last weekend.

Luckily for him, he seems to have the coach's backing to find his form back as Sarri said:

“I am not worried about Morata. Morata is a very great player. I think that, in this moment, he needs only to gain confidence."

“He needs to score as all the strikers in the world do. He needs to gain confidence, but he’s improving so I’m not really worried about him."

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/mateo-kovacic-to-debut-for-chelsea-against-arsenal/

A good one for Real Madrid. Luka would have been a very serious loss after the Ronaldo one.

Luka Modric's proposed move to Inter Milan will not see the light of the day after all.

At least, not during this transfer window.

Even though he is rumoured to be very interested in the move to the San Siro, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez continues to clash with his agents in his bid to retain the services of the player.

The matter gets a bit worse than that for the player and Inter Milan as Real Madrid seem ready to make a complaint to FIFA on the issue. The club is very unhappy with the way Inter contacted Modric about a possible move without the La Liga club's permission.

Real Madrid is hinging its complaints on the fact that it is only legal to contact a player without their club's permission if they are in the final six months of their contract, which is not the case for the Croatian.

Club President Perez recently reminded everyone who is interested in the procuring the services of the 32-year-old player that Modric has a contract at the Santiago Bernabeu that runs till 2020. 

In that contract is a €750 million (£671 million) buyout clause that Perez recently said must be met for any deal to made on the issue.

Reports had it that Inter coach Luciano Spalletti said last week that he expected Modric to remain at Real but added that the midfielder showed an interest in a switch to the San Siro which can only be a reality possibly next summer when the player will have only a year remaining on his current contract.

There was surely no way that Real Madrid was going to let go of their midfield engine room of a player so soon after losing their talisman Ronaldo to Juventus F.C.

The Croatian's influence in the team for the last few seasons are only second best to Ronaldo's and so is not a player that can just be allowed to move away so easily.

It is also no news that and his stock has rarely been higher after winning the Golden Ball at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

As it stands right now, it is in the best interest of everyone concerned to allow the status quo remain as it was until further notice, with the player needing to prepare himself for the new La Liga season which commences for his team with their opening fixture against Getafe on Sunday at the Santiago Bernabeu. 

Source: http://uneekomunikations.com/real-madrid-blocks-modrics-proposed-move-to-inter-milan/

Sergio Ramos. That is a real captain for you.