Louis van Gaal insisted it will only get better for the Netherlands after turning on the style in Tuesday s 6-1 World Cup qualifying win over Turkey in Amsterdam.
Memphis Depay scored his first international hat-trick and was joined on the scoresheet by Davy Klaassen, Guus Til and Donyell Malen in a dominant display from the Dutch.
The Netherlands opened the scoring inside 54 seconds and were three up with 38 minutes played, the fastest they have led 3-0 in a competitive match in a decade.
Turkey lost Caglar Soyuncu to a red card before half-time but profited from a mix-up at the back to add a late consolation through Cengiz Under, though it was still their heaviest defeat since losing 8-0 to England in 1984.
Oranje have won two and drawn one of their t…
Sean Dyche has conceded Everton are in a tough situation when it comes to Dominic Calvert-Lewin s future.
The striker, who joined Everton from Sheffield United in 2016, has less than a year remaining on his contract.
While a new deal is on the table, Calvert-Lewin – who played in Everton s 3-0 defeat to Brighton last week – is yet to put pen to paper.
And with just a week remaining in the transfer window and the club s finances tight, Dyche acknowledged Everton may have to cash in should an offer present itself.
Any offer of a certain level would have to be looked at by the club, said Dyche, who hinted the budget for any more incoming players was tight.
We are in a better position because of player trading and how much we have lowered the wa…
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored an emphatic free-kick for his 400th career league goal as Milan beat Jose Mourinho s Roma 2-1 to keep pace with Napoli at the top of Serie A.
It means Mourinho has lost a home game in Italy for the first time, while the visiting Rossoneri made it seven league wins in a row.
Roma made a bright start but Stefano Pioli s Milan soon took a stranglehold on the game, with Ibrahimovic at the centre of most of their good work and opening the scoring after 25 minutes.
Milan were too strong for their hosts, and a second-half penalty from Franck Kessie secured the points for the visitors, despite them going down to 10 men when Theo Hernandez was sent off. A late reply from Stephan El Shaarawy mattered for very little.
Ibrahimovic gave the…
It s a funny old game, but it might take gallows humour to raise much of a smile around north London this season.
Tottenham s season-opening streak of three straight 1-0 wins bought Nuno Espirito Santo substantial early goodwill as the Portuguese began his reign as head coach, yet there was plenty that did not sit right.
Spurs were riding their luck, out-shot 25-8 by Wolves at Molineux and beaten on the expected goals count there too. Similar applied to the fantasy start to the season when they edged out champions Manchester City.
But Wilfried Zaha and Crystal Palace were ruthless interlopers to Nuno s honeymoon in early September with their 3-0 Selhurst Park demolition, and now Chelsea have repeated the trick, scoring freely in the second half at the Tott…
Tottenham Hotspur are interested in signing Alessandro Bastoni from Inter Milan in the summer of 2023, . The report has claimed that talks between Inter and Bastoni over a new contract are not going so well, and Premier League club Spurs are ready to bring the Italy international central defender to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the end of the season.
Bastoni has been on the books of Inter since 2017 and worked with current Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte at San Siro. They won the Serie A title together in 2020-21. The 23-year-old has made 15 starts and two substitute appearances in Serie A for the Nerazzurri so far this season, providing two assists in the process. Bastoni has also given two assists in five UEFA Champions League matches for Inter so far this campaign.
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Tuchel focusing on a Premier League return
Now needing a miracle in their bid to stop Bayer Leverkusen and claim a history-making 12th consecutive Bundesliga crown, many were expecting to be hit with the Bayern Munich sack.
Although the former Chelsea boss might have only replaced Julian Nagelsmann at the Allianz 11 months ago, the German giants confirmed earlier in the week that Tuchel will be stepping down at the end of the season.
However, although Bayern might have made it clear that they want Xabi Alonso to take charge this summer, Tuchel himself is reportedly keen on securing an immediate Premier League return ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.
Leading Munich to more domestic success last season, the German tactician also still has plenty of admirers among E…
Werder Bremen have sacked coach Florian Kohfeldt and appointed Thomas Schaaf as they bid to avoid the Bundesliga relegation play-off for a second straight season.
Kohfeldt was relieved of his duties following Saturday s 2-0 defeat to Augsburg, Werder s eighth in nine league games.
Having taken one point from a possible 27, Werder are in the relegation play-off spot, a point adrift of Arminia Bielefeld and one ahead of Cologne, meaning they can still be automatically relegated to the 2. Bundesliga.
Kohfeldt helped Werder avoid the drop last season as they narrowly came through a play-off with Heidenheim.
But he will not have the chance to secure safety this time around, with Werder installing legendary coach Schaaf for the final game of the season against …
Manchester City ended their wait for a first Champions League final appearance as two more Riyad Mahrez goals saw off 10-man Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 on Tuesday.
Mahrez hit the decisive free-kick in a 2-1 semi-final first-leg victory in Paris and strikes in either half in the return fixture added to that advantage.
Those goals and a dogged defensive effort – after a pre-match hail storm that left a sodden, awkward pitch – were enough to finally take Pep Guardiola s men through to Europe s showpiece match with a 4-1 aggregate triumph.
PSG played their part in another gripping affair, but Kylian Mbappe was only fit enough to make the bench and their frustration resulted in a red card for Angel Di Maria when he kicked out at Fernandinho.
3 PSG are the th…
Prediction: The New Saints to win 2-1
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The New Saints and Linfield will face each other at Park Hall in Oswestry in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round. It is the first leg of the tie and is scheduled to pick off at 7:45pm UK time.
The New Saints
The New Saints have entered the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds courtesy of their triumph in Cymru Premier last season. The Saints are one of the seeded teams in the first qualifying round and will head into the first leg of the tie against Linfield with confidence.
The Welsh club have never made it through to the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, but they did end up in the third qualifying round in 2010-11. That is their best ever finish in Europe’…
Ronaldo signing was a mistake – the sooner he leaves the better for Juventus, says ex-president Gigl
Cristiano Ronaldo hinders Juventus attack and needs to be sold by the Italian giants before the transfer window closes, according to former president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli.
Portugal international Ronaldo joined Juve from Real Madrid in a high-profile €100million transfer ahead of the 2018-19 campaign on a lucrative four-year contract.
He is now into the final year of that deal and has been linked with a move away from Turin after requesting to be named among the substitutes against Udinese on Sunday.
Gigli previously questioned why incumbent president Andrea Agnelli sanctioned the signing of Ronaldo and has once again claimed Juve made a big error when bringing in the superstar forward.
I ve always been honest: signing Ronaldo was a mistake, Gigli, wh…