Real Madrid refuse to say whether Carlo Ancelotti will stay on as coach

 
Real Madrid have refused to say whether Carlo Ancelloti will stay on next season although the coach has said he would like another tilt at the Champions League with the Spanish giants.

Asked whether the Italian will remain at the club after five days in which Real lost out on the Spanish title to Barcelona and were eliminated from the Champions League by Juventus, the club’s institutional director, Emilio Butragueño, said: “It’s not the time to say. And nor is it the place. There’s a game left to play and we need to prepare for what’s coming.”

Real beat Espanyol 4-1 on Sunday in their penultimate game of the season but that was not enough to deny Barcelona, Lionel Messi’s goal seeing off Atlético Madrid to win La Liga in Luis Enrique’s first season as coach. Real hold on to second place with just the dead rubber at home to Getafe on Saturday to come


Ancelotti, who took over as coach from José Mourinho in 2013, winning the Champions League in his first season but losing out on the title to Atlético, said after the Espanyol game that he wanted another term at the helm. “As always, I’d like to win the most important competition which is the Champions League – and the league too,” he told AS. “This season we were close at one point and we are going to try again next season.”
The Italian offered his congratulations to Luis Enrique and suggested Real had lost out to Barça after injuries disrupted the closing stages of the campaign. “The overall balance of our season isn’t positive,” he said. “At Madrid, we always play to win and we haven’t been able to this time. We had a great first half of the campaign but the second half of the season was complicated and it wasn’t enough to be champions.”
Butragueño’s comments echoed his response to Real’s aggregate defeat in the semi-finals of the Champions League after they could only draw at home to Juventus on Wednesday and he similarly refused to endorse another season for Ancelotti. Asked whether the coach would continue, he deflected the question by saying: “Today we have been knocked out, that’s what matters. We’re all sad. Everything else is secondary.”

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Keshi allows NPFL players to play midweek games in order to avoid distractions

 
Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has allowed players invited to the Super Eagles for next month’s 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Chad to feature for their clubs in Wednesday’s Nigeria Professional Football League Week 10 matches.

Camp was scheduled to open on Tuesday with 26 players from the domestic scene. However, they can now go back to play for their clubs in tomorrow's matches.

“We want to allow the players to feature for their clubs in the midweek games, so that they will know that once they report to camp, they will not be going anywhere again," Keshi was quoted by the NFF website.
“It is important that they come to camp and concentrate. We don’t want distractions, especially with the team scheduled to play a number of friendly matches in the weeks to come before the qualifier against Chad."

All the 26 players were expected to report to camp on Tuesday, but the grace of 48 hours will now ensure they help their clubs’ fortunes in the Week 10 matches.

The 53-year-old former defender has invited three goalkeepers, nine defenders, six midfielders and eight strikers from the domestic league for the match, with the list of overseas-based professionals due to be released this weekend.

Nigeria have been drawn in an Afcon qualifying group that includes Egypt, Chad and Tanzania and will play their first game against Chad in Kaduna on June 13.

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Flying Eagles wrap up tour of Germany with win against Freiburg U23

 

Coach Manu Garba’s team made it three wins from three games as they spanked the German Bundesliga youth outfit in a test game played on Tuesday afternoon

Nigeria U20 side spanked FC Freiburg U23 4-1 in a friendly game played at the SudwestPark training ground on Tuesday afternoon.

Goals from Ibrahim Al Hassan, Godwin Saviour, Ifeanyi Mathew and Usman Saleh were all the reigning African youth champions to get their third win in their foreign training tour to the European nation.

Al Hassan who did not make the final squad for the Fifa U20 World Cup gave the Nigeria U20 team the curtain raiser in the 36th minute – a goal which gave them the lead heading into the half time break.

On resumption of the second half, the trio of Saviour, Mathew and Usman completed the rout with the hosts finding the back of the net once.

With this win, Manu Garba’s side have now scored 14 goals in three games and are expected to leave for the Fifa U20 World Cup billed for New Zealand next week.

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Sharapova prevails

Russian third seed Maria Sharapova came from a set down to beat Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 4-6 7-5 6-1 and win third italian open title.
Suarez Navarro, the world number 10, battled hard in the first two sets but ran out of energy in the decider.

Her best chance came at 5-5 in the second set but Sharapova finished the set with eight straight points.
The Russian capitalised on her opponent's weakness in the third set as she swept to a 35th career crown.

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Messi seals title for Barcelona

 

Lionel Messi struck a second-half winner against Atletico Madrid as Barcelona beat Real Madrid to the Primera Division title.

The Catalan side dominated for the majority of the first half but took until the 65th minute to open the scoring and clinch the three points needed to seal their 23rd Spanish crown with a game to go.

Barca had goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to thank for holding the hosts at bay as they held on in the second half, when efforts from Messi and Neymar could have instead doubled their margin of victory.

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Okagbare wins 100m in Shanghai Diamond League

            

Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare easily outpaced a star-studded field, including highly-decorated Jamaican sprinters Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown in the Shanghai Diamond League 100 metres race today, producing a season’s best 10.98 seconds.

Campbell-Brown came in fourth and Olympic champion Fraser-Pryce fifth.

The result is a blow for Fraser-Pryce in her first 100m of the season, only weeks before she defends her 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay titles in the Chinese capital.

“The feeling is OK,” the 28-year-old said after the race. “I am looking forward to my next race. What comes, comes.”

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