Diego Simeone hopes to see a renewed confidence in Fernando Torres after his goal secured a 1-0 victory for Atletico Madrid at Getafe.
The former Chelsea striker scored for the 100th time for Atleti against Eibar last week after going five months without getting on the scoresheet and he struck with just two minutes on the clock to seal three points on Sunday.
It is the first time since October 2013 that Torres has scored in consecutive matches for his club and Simeone expects the 31-year-old to go from strength to strength in the coming weeks.
He started very well, it was a very quick play in front of the area, with a good finish, said the Atletico coach.
Goals always strengthen the forwards and hopefully that s the case with Fernando.
Atle…
Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci says he has settled his dispute with Massimiliano Allegri and would like to emulate his head coach by taking charge of Juventus in future.
The 31-year-old incurred the wrath of Juventus supporters when he moved to AC Milan in July 2017 after falling out with Allegri during the previous season.
After a year at San Siro, Bonucci returned to the club where he won eight Serie A titles and he is compiling notes on Allegri and other coaches in his career, with a view to moving into the dugout at the end of his playing days.
My dream is to become an important coach of a great team, possibly Juventus, Bonucci told Corriere dello Sport.
So, I m observing and putting aside all the secrets of the various coaches that I have had t…
With Sunday s 3-0 win over Crotone, Juventus were crowned champions for the sixth time in succession, an unprecedented feat in Italian football history.
Some will have hoped for Roma and Napoli to be able to genuinely cause Juve trouble in the race for the Scudetto, particularly with the Turin giants having lost Paul Pogba and Alvaro Morata.
There was no stopping Massimiliano Allegri s men in the end, though, as they held off their biggest rivals without any major problems, despite a few surprise defeats.
They stepped up to the plate when it mattered most and comfortably cruised to more domestic glory. These are the games that made the difference for the Old Lady.
La è Campione d Italia 2016-2017!
— Serie A TIM (@SerieA_TIM)
Paris St Germain boss Luis Enrique has offered Kylian Mbappe no guarantees about his playing time in the Champions League.
The reported wantaway striker was taken off at half-time during PSG’s goalless draw with Monaco on Friday, having been substituted just over an hour into the draw against Rennes a week earlier.
Asked what he expected from Mbappe in their second leg at Real Sociedad on Tuesday night, Enrique told a press conference: “I expect my team to be up to the level of the game and to approach it in the way we have throughout the season.
“I can see that the team is full of confidence and we have a clear target, which is to try to win the game.
“We want to beat Real Sociedad away from home, but it will certainly be very tough.”
P…
Arsenal are interested in signing Marcos Leonardo from Benfica in the January transfer window, according to . The report has claimed that Arsenal are ready to pay as much as €30 million in transfer fees for Leonardo and want to get a deal done before other clubs march in.
Leonardo has been on the books of Benfica since the January transfer window when he joined from Brazilian club Santos. The 20-year-old striker scored 13 goals and gave two assists in 30 starts and one substitute appearance in the Brazilian domestic league this season before his move to Benfica. He has scored four goals in seven substitute appearances in Liga Portugal.
Arsenal are third in the Premier League table at the moment with 61 points from 27 matches, two points behind leaders Liverpool and a …
League Two strugglers Portsmouth are planning a last gasp bid to re-sign midfielder Jamie O’Hara from Wolverhampton Wanderers, .
The former Tottenham Hotspur man had an impressive loan spell with the south-coast club before moving to Wolves in 2011, though he has made just forty-one appearances since arriving in the West Midlands.
Only two of those games have come this season, both back in November, and the 27 year old is expected to leave the club permanently at the end of the season.
O’Hara received an FA Cup runners-up medal with Pompey in 2010 and was named the clubs Player of the Season, two years after the club lifted the trophy after their 1-0 victory over Cardiff City in the final at Wembley.
However, they now sit two points above the Lea…
League Two leaders Scunthorpe United can all but seal promotion on Friday should they extend their remarkable unbeaten run.
Russ Wilcox s side have assumed control of the division heading into the run-in and they travel to Morecambe knowing that a win could virtually book their place in the third tier for next season.
They climbed to the summit with a 2-2 draw against Bury last weekend in the process earning new manager Wilcox another significant European milestone as he oversaw a 26th game unbeaten since taking over in late November.
Having already passed the Football League landmark for a new coach, he has now gone one better than former Tottenham boss Andre-Villas Boas, who strung together a 25-game sequence when taking over at Porto in 2010.
Wilcox s side hav…
There was only one match on the Confederations Cup s first Monday but that hasn t stopped our intrepid team from finding items of intrigue from all four host cities.
Day three of the finals included getting to grips with the Moscow s palatial metro, spotting Lionel Messi in St Petersburg and taking in the sights of a Kazan city tour.
Of course, there was the important matter of Germany against Australia in Sochi – a genuinely thrilling five-goal game witnessed by a crowd that had Leon Goretzka feeling a little lifeless.
Here are some of the latest best bits you might have missed from Russia
MOSCOW S A-MAZE-ING METRO
Most underground systems around the world are simply a functional way of getting from A to B as quickly as possible.
Wilfried Bony is determined to prove his worth to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, but concedes his future at the Etihad Stadium is out of his hands.
The Ivory Coast striker joined City in a deal reported to be worth £28million from Swansea City in January 2015.
However, Bony struggled to assert himself in the starting XI in Manchester and scored just six Premier League goals for the club before being shipped out on loan to Stoke City last term.
It proved an unhappy spell for the 28-year-old, though, and he scored just twice in 10 league outings for the Potters.
With Gabriel Jesus having arrived in January and Alexis Sanchez an apparent target, it appears unlikely that City boss Guardiola will include him in his plans, but Bony is focused on knuckling d…
Newcastle United are interested in signing Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele in the summer of 2022, according to . Dembele is out of contract at Spanish and European giants Barcelona at the end of the season, and Premier League club Newcastle are keen on securing the services of the 24-year-old on a free transfer.
Dembele wants a £12.7m signing-on fee because he will not cost anything in transfer fee next summer. Newcastle are reportedly offering the former Borussia Dortmund forward a weekly salary of £244,000. The Frenchman is keen on a move to Newcastle next summer, as long as the Magpies stay in the Premier League.
Newcastle are without a manager at the moment following the departure of Steve Bruce. The Magpies are second from bottom in the Premier League table at …