Arsenal forward, Bukayo Saka has cited a key advantage the Gunners have over Tottenham Hotspur in their upcoming North London Derby on Sunday afternoon.

Arsenal are set to lock horns with Tottenham at the Emirates in a Premier League derby.

Ahead of the encounter, Saka spoke to Arsenal’s in-house media about the advantage of playing at home in front of the club’s supporters.

The England star reckons the fans and the environment they will create at their stadium could give them an edge in their match against Tottenham.

“I’m really excited, it is a massive advantage [to be at home]. Personally, the feeling I have every time I play at the Emirates is that we are going to win and the people are behind us,” Saka said (per the club’s official website).

“The support that the fans give us, not allowing us to lose, gives us that extra confidence boost.”

“Since last year, all the players and everyone around the club has realised what the fans have been doing at the Emirates and they’ve created a really beautiful atmosphere. I’m forever grateful for the love and support that we receive.”

[DailyPost]

Taiwo Awoniyi has revealed that his move to Liverpool would have worked out if he had gotten a work permit like Kelechi Iheanacho who got the same under the special talent scheme after he joined Manchester City.

Awoniyi joined Liverpool in 2015 but was unable to feature for the Anfield outfit due to a work permit issue which would have made him eligible to play in England.

He had loan spells with Mainz O5, Union Berlin, Royal Excel Mouscron, Gent, FSV Frankfurt and NEC in a bid to buy time and earn the eligibility to play for Liverpool.

The 26-year-old had hoped that if he did well during his loan spells, he would have earned a call-up to the national team which would have made it possible to feature for Liverpool but his wish didn’t come true.

Awoniyi in a recent interview detailed how his time at Anfield panned out and how he had strived to succeed with the Merseyside club.

“We discovered that we needed a work permit and to get a permit I needed to play for Nigeria’s first team,” Awoniyi told The Guardian UK.

“When I signed, my Nigeria teammate Kelechi Iheanacho got the work permit under the special talent scheme [to join Manchester City]. It was after him that they closed the special talent scheme.

“The only option I had was to keep on going on loan, with the hope that if I do well on loan and I play for the national team, I’ll be able to get the work permit and come back [to Liverpool].

“I kept on going on loan. And the national team call-ups still didn’t come, so I didn’t have any other option than to keep on striving.”

The 2013 FIFA U17 World Cup winner returned to England last summer, signing a multi-year contract with two-time European champions Nottingham Forest, and has established himself as one of the best strikers in the Premier League.

[Leadership]

Cristiano Ronaldo has insisted that he is not done with football despite approaching his 39th birthday and has achieved almost everything in the game.

The 38-year-old Portuguese football icon who is currently playing for Al Nassr in the Suadi Pro League had to reaffirm this after scoring two goals against star-studded Al Ahli.

Al Ahli paraded European football icons like Roberto Firmino, Riyad Mahrez, Alex Saint-Maximin, Édouard Mendy, and Franck Kessie.

But it was Al Nassr who had just three major former European stars like Marcelo Brozović, Sadio Mane, and Cristiano Ronaldo that triumphed in the 7 goals thriller.

In the encounter, Ronaldo and little-known Anderson Talisca scored two goals each for Al Nassr as the game ended 4-3 in favour of Al Nassr.

Ronaldo’s two goals in the game means that the 38-year-old Portuguese football icon has scored 29 goals in 33 games for Al Nassr since he joined the club in January.

Recall that when Manchester United terminated Ronaldo’s contract in November 2022, most of his critics urged him to retire especially after he failed to land a top club in Europe.

But the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has proven his critics wrong so far and he can’t stop reminding them that only his legs can force him to retire from the game.

After his man-of-the-match performance against Al Ahli on Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo said: “They say Ronaldo is done… but it’s not true. I will continue to play until my legs say: Cristiano, I’m done”.

“I still have a lot. I still love football and scoring goals. I still love winning. They say I’m done but I’m still proving that it’s not true”.

Folarin Balogun missed two penalties on his first Monaco start before local rivals Nice grabbed a stoppage time winner to go top of Ligue 1 on Friday.

One week after stunning champions PSG at the Parc des Princes 3-2, Nice claimed the three points again when Jeremie Boga slalomed through the Monaco defence to score ans Francesco Farioli’s team continued an undefeated start to the season.

Nice leapfrogged previously unbeaten Monaco to take top spot by one point after a third win in six games.

It was a miserable first start for US international striker Balogun who left Arsenal for Monaco in the summer on a 30-million-euro transfer.

He had penalties saved by Nice goalkeeper Marcin Bulka in the 12th and 54th minutes.

His first effort, awarded when Jordan Lotomba brought down Aleksandr Golovin, was tame.

His second spot-kick, which came after Morgan Sanson was penalised for a foul on Takumi Minamino, was again saved by the Polish goalkeeper.

“We were very lucky. It’s very rare to win after having conceded two penalties that were then saved,” admitted Farioli.

Balogun, who had scored off the bench in last week’s 2-2 draw with Lorient, was eventually replaced by Wissam Ben Yedder, a penalty-taking specialist.

[OpinionNigeria]

Former Belgium head coach Marc Wilmots has likened Nigerian starlet Victor Boniface to Belgian superstar Romelu Lukaku.

Boniface 23, has been in scintillating form for Bayer Leverkusen this season – scoring six goals in six matches across all competitions for the German club.

While Lukaku is considered among the best centre forwards in world football and the bulky player is currently on loan at Italy’s AS Roma from English giants Chelsea FC.

Wilmots, who coached Lukaku during his time as Belgium’s coach, discussed Boniface’s strengths and potential.

“Victor Boniface is Victor Boniface. In terms of type, you can perhaps compare him somewhat with Romelu Lukaku,” Wilmots said on Kicker.

“But Lukaku has even more power. If he starts from midfield, you can’t hold him. And Romelu is more dangerous, a real goalscorer.

“Boniface still has to prove this class. But he is only 22 years old. He can still get a lot better.”

Boniface made his debut for Nigeria against Sao Tome and Principe earlier this month. He produced an instant assist as he set up Samuel Chukwueze

[ThisDay]

Odion Ighalo was among the goal scorers as Al Wehda thrashed Abha 4-0 in their Saudi Arabia Professional Football League clash.

Ighalo was on target in the 88th minute of the encounter.

It was the 34-year-old’s fifth goal in five league appearances for Al Wehda.

The striker netted a hat-trick in his club’s previous game against Damak which they won 4-2.

Al Wehda moved to seventh position on the Saudi League table following the win.

Ighalo was the top scorer in the Saudi top flight in the 2021-22 season with 24 goals.

He scored 19 goals in 27 league appearances for his former club, Al Hilal last season.

[DailyPost]

FORMER Bayern Munich manager Julian Nagelsmann has been appointed as the new head coach of Germany.

The German football federation (DFB) announced the appointment today as Nagelsmann replaces Hansi Flick, incidentally the same man he took over from at Bayern Munich in 2021.

“Julian Nagelsmann is the new head coach of the Germany men’s national team and will be in charge for next summer’s European Championship,” the DFB announced today.

“The 36-year-old put pen to paper on a contract running until 31st July 2024 at the DFB-Campus in Frankfurt today. At a general meeting, the supervisory board of the DFB GmbH & Co. KG unanimously accepted the proposal from DFB president Bernd Neuendorf and sporting director Rudi Völler to select Nagelsmann as the 12th head coach in the association’s history.

“Nagelsmann will be the successor to Hansi Flick, who was relieved of his coaching duties on 10th September. Two days later, Rudi Völler, alongside DFB coaches Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner, oversaw a 2-1 friendly win in Dortmund against World Cup runners-up, France.”

The German federation noted that Wagner will remain as one of Nagelsmann’s assistants, along with Benjamin Glück, who was part of Nagelsmann’s coaching staff at TSG Hoffenheim, RB Leipzig and Bayern.

Germany had a torrid spell under Flick, who had led Bayern to the UEFA Champions League title in 2020, the four-time world champions getting eliminated at the group stages of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

After a string of friendly losses in preparation for Germany hosting the 2024 European Championships, Flick was sacked this month, and Nagelsmann has promised to restored the team’s pride.

“We are hosting the European Championships. This is something special, and only happens every hundred years or so,” the new coach said.

“Having a strong tournament at home is the priority. I’m very much looking forward to taking up this challenge. The game in Dortmund was just the beginning. We will become a tight-knit unit over the next year.”

Bernd Neuendorf, DFB president, added: “Next year’s European Championship is extremely significant for football in Germany. We are convinced that with Julian Nagelsmann as our head coach, the national team will be able to excite the fans and play a successful tournament. Julian Nagelsmann is an exceptional coach, who is extremely motivated for this new challenge. We will now shift our focus to next summer’s tournament and give Julian Nagelsmann our full support.”

Nagelsmann’s first matches in charge will take place during a United States of America tour during the next international break.

Germany will first face the USA on October 14 in Hartford, Connecticut and three days later take on Gold Cup champions Mexico in Philadelphia.

The team’s final match of 2023 will take place on November 21 against Austria in Vienna.

[NaijaTimes]

France national team captain, Kylian Mbappe, helped Paris St. Germain kicked off their Champions League campaign on a brighter note with a 2-0 home win against visiting Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday.

The French Lique 1 giant showed glimpses of what might be under new coach Luis Enrique with Mbappe opening the scoring with a second-half penalty and Moroccan international, Achraf Hakimi, doubled the lead with a fine goal.

It was only the third win in six competitive games for the Ligue 1 champions this season, and it gave them some much-needed relief after their first defeat at the weekend as they dutifully applied Enrique’s possession game.

PSG now top Group F with three points, two ahead of AC Milan and Newcastle, who drew 0-0 earlier on Tuesday.

[Leadership]

Julian Alvarez saved Manchester City’s blushes after Red Star Belgrade took a shock lead at the Etihad as the holders began their Champions League defence with a 3-1 win on Tuesday.

The visitors’ goal had been bombarded before they stunned Pep Guardiola’s men when Osman Bukari opened the scoring in first half stoppage time.

However, Alvarez continued his sparkling early season form by levelling just two minutes after the break.

The Argentine then got some help from Red Star goalkeeper Omri Glazer as he flapped at Alvarez’s free-kick to allow the ball to fly into the far corner.

Rodri rounded off the scoring with a composed finish 17 minutes from time.

Red Star were expected to be lambs to the slaughter after City followed up their treble success last season with a perfect start five games into the new Premier League campaign.

But the English champions made life difficult for themselves with some wayward finishing, while Glazer performed heroics for the Serbian giants before the break.

Rodri and Alvarez stung Glazer’s palms before Erling Haaland headed against the crossbar from point-blank range.

Phil Foden then nodded an even easier headed opportunity straight at the Israeli goalkeeper.

City’s stretched squad due to injuries was shown as they named only eight of a permitted 12 substitutes, two of which were goalkeepers.

Bernardo Silva was replaced just before half-time by Jeremy Doku in what could be another injury problem for Guardiola.

Red Star had barely been out their own half in the opening 45 minutes, but City were stunned when Bukari burst in behind and finished confidently past Ederson.

The Ghanaian’s joy was temporarily quelled by the offside flag.

But a VAR check revealed he had been played onside by Ruben Dias.

City quickly went to work after the break to ensure that was to be the only shock of the night.

Haaland may not have found his range in front of goal, but the Norwegian’s clever pass played in Alvarez to round Glazer for the equaliser.

All of the Red Star goalkeeper’s good work was then forgotten as his miscued punch just helped Alvarez’s free-kick on its way into the top corner.

Rodri was the City hero when they finally conquered Europe for the first time by beating Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul in June and the Spaniard is picking up the healthy habit of scoring vital goals.

The midfielder was afforded far too much room on the edge of the area and picked his spot with a perfectly weighted curling effort into the far corner to secure the three points.

[Guardian]

Erik ten Hag has been urged to recall Harry Maguire for Manchester United’s heavyweight Champions League clash against Bayern Munich.

The England international has endured a torrid start to the new season which began with him being stripped of the club captaincy.

Maguire has since appeared only fleetingly and returned to the substitutes’ bench on Saturday from where he watched his side torn to shreds by a rampant Brighton canter to a 3-1 victory at Old Trafford.

The defeat compounded a wretched start to the new campaign for United who are languishing in mid-table ahead a daunting test against Bayern and the in-form Harry Kane, who has made a prolific start to life with his new club.

Victor Lindelof and Lisandro Martinez both looked way off the pace against the Seagulls and were said to have been involved in a heating dressing room bust-up after the game.

Regardless of the veracity of those reports, former Chelsea star Andy Townsend believes Ten Hag should swallow his pride and recall the struggling Maguire who he believes is perfectly qualified to negate the threat of his England teammate Kane.

Townsend told talkSPORT: ‘At the weekend United were all over the place at the back, were they not? I don’t think that Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof, they’re what I’d call a number two centre-half.

‘I don’t think they are natural leaders, I think they need to be talked through, coaxed through matches. Is this the perfect match for Harry Maguire to come back into the United defence. He knows Harry Kane.

‘He’ll have been up against him in training, he’s played against him here, there and everywhere. Could Harry Maguire come back in and resurrect himself. Is it that outrageous because Harry has been well documented.

‘Don’t forget it’s easy to overlook what he’s done previously because he’s lacking in confidence and he hasn’t looked sharp.

‘Every now and then you have a game where you stick someone in.’

MORE : Manchester United concerned over ‘growing involvement’ of Erik ten Hag’s agent in transfer business

MORE : David De Gea to be offered La Liga return with Real Betis after Manchester United exit

[NewsPot]