Beckham to captain Galaxy

Atletico Madrid applied pressure on Barcelona ahead of El Clasico as a 5-1 victory over Real Betis saw them move to within six points of the Liga leaders.

With Luis Enrique s men playing Real Madrid later on Saturday, Atletico took their opportunity to cut Barca s lead with a comfortable victory inspired by Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres.

The pair struck late in the first half to put Atleti ahead at Vicente Calderon, Torres netting with a smart finish before Griezmann enjoyed a stroke of good luck as Betis goalkeeper Adan allowed his throughball to go all the way in.

After Jan Oblak had made a fine double save to deny Heiko Westermann, Atleti resumed their control and saw Griezmann denied again before Juanfran added the third just after the hour.

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that Tottenham Hotspur could be lining up a bid to bring Bournemouth’s Adam Smith back to White Hart Lane.

With Kyle Walker strongly linked with a move away from the North London club manager Mauricio Pochettino is on the lookout for reinforcements and Smith could fit the bill.

The twenty-six year old began his career with Spurs, but made just two appearances for the club spending much of his early years out on loan with the likes of Leeds United, Derby County and Bournemouth – who he signed for permanently in January 2014.

Since then, Smith has played seventy times in all competitions helping them win promotion to the top flight two years ago.

Internationally, he has been capped eleven times for England U21s but is yet to represent his country…

Aston Villa have sacked Steven Gerrard after just under a year in charge following Thursday s 3-0 Premier League loss to Fulham.

The former Liverpool midfielder arrived last November to succeed Dean Smith, having previously guided Rangers to Scottish Premiership success the season before.

But a dismal start to the 2022-23 campaign that has seen just two top-flight wins in 11 games means he has been shown the door, with Villa perched just above the relegation zone on goals scored.

Gerrard s position was already uncertain heading into the encounter with Marco Silva s Cottagers.

But a horror-show performance – one that saw them concede a penalty, score an own goal and have a player sent off – meant there was little chance for a late reprieve.

We…

Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre is adamant the club has a bright financial future despite posting a 20m pound loss last year.

The club s published accounts for July 2009 to June were the makings of previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, widely despised by the Anfield faithful.

The report showed that rising revenues were undermined by an increase in debt, but Fenway Sports Group, who took over the club for 300m pounds in October, have injected 200m pounds of debt repayments into the club so far.

And Ayres is confident the club is now in good hands.

As much as we are all aware of the difficult circumstances surrounding these accounts and that period in the Club s history, everyone in the world can now see just how much has since been achieved…

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Ilkay Gundogan believes coach Thomas Tuchel has the squad strength to cope with their current injury woes ahead of Wednesday s visit to Darmstadt.

Tuchel saw his side struggle to break down 10-man Hoffenheim in their 3-1 win at Signal Iduna Park on Sunday, with Dortmund missing centre-backs Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Mats Hummels, while Gundogan was only fit for the second half after illness.

The likes of Marco Reus, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Lukasz Piszczek all shook off injury or illness to feature as an initially lacklustre Dortmund eventually prevailed with three late goals after Sebastian Rudy had seen red for Hoffenheim.

It keeps Dortmund within eight points of leaders Bayern Munich amid a hectic fixture schedule t…

Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah is eager to avoid injuries in their final friendly before the FIFA World Cup against South Korea on Monday.

Appiah s men face South Korea at Sun Life Stadium in Miami as they finish their preparations for Ghana s tournament opener against the United States next Monday.

Ghana reached the World Cup quarter-finals in South Africa in 2010, but face a tough task if they are to replicate that feat in Brazil, having also been drawn in Group G alongside Germany and Portugal.

A number of teams have suffered high-profile injuries in the lead up to the competition, with group rivals Germany seeing Marco Reus ruled out due to an ankle problem suffered in last Friday s 6-1 win over Armenia.

And Appiah is keen to ensure that he has a full squad of pla…

Germany head coach Joachim Low has called for clarity in the controversy over doping allegations levelled at Russia s 2014 World Cup squad.

A report in the Mail on Sunday claimed that Russia s 23-man squad at the finals in Brazil, along with another 11 footballers, are people of interest to officials at the heart of the probe into state-sponsored doping in Russia.

FIFA is still investigating the claims, which relate to players mentioned in the McLaren Report, which last year claimed more than 1,000 Russian sportspeople benefitted from a highly organised state-doping scheme, described as corruption on an unprecedented scale that led to a ban on Russian athletes competing at the Rio Olympics.

Both FIFA and Russian officials have pointed out none of their players ha…

Jeremy Toulalan is set to move to Bordeaux after his request to be released by Monaco was accepted.

Former France international Toulalan joined Monaco from Malaga in 2013 and had one more season remaining on his contract.

However, the club from the principality agreed to the captain s request for a move to Bordeaux, with the Nantes-born player citing a desire to move closer to his hometown.

The 32-year-old will arrive in the south west next week for a medical and to sign a deal with Jocelyn Gourvennec s team.

I spent three wonderful seasons with Monaco and I am proud to have contributed to the club s return to the forefront of the French and European stage, he said in a statement.

It is time for me to take on a different challenge that will also…

On the last day of transfer window, there was a lot of activity from Brighton and Hove Albion, but one of their moves was particularly interesting. The Seagulls had signed Jurgen Locadia in January 2018 from PSV Eindhoven in a deal that was worth just under 15 million pounds. But since then, the Dutch forward has not done very well for the Premier League side and he was loaned to Hoffenheim last summer.

But now Brighton recalled him from a loan and not for them to give him a new chance, but rather to sell him elsewhere. It was reported a few days ago that FC Cincinnati are interested in Locadia ahead of the start of the new Major League Soccer season.

Cincinnati want to make him one of their star players and offer him a Designated Player deal, whilst Brighton see this a…

Douglas Costa, Emre Can and Daniele Rugani all scored their first goals of the season as Juventus eased to a 3-0 Serie A win over struggling Chievo on Monday, despite Cristiano Ronaldo having a penalty saved.

Massimiliano Allegri s men were comfortable throughout in Turin and kept their healthy nine-point lead at the Serie A summit following Napoli s win over Lazio, though things would have been even more comprehensive had Ronaldo been accurate from the spot.

Although the visitors started positively, Juve still managed to take an early lead in style through Costa, before Can made it 2-0 late in the half – the Germany international scoring for the first time since joining from Liverpool.

Ronaldo wasted the chance to extend the advantage in the 52nd minute, thou…