Sports

Spain Beat Portugal To Reach Nations League Semi-finals

Published

3 years ago

September 27, 2022

Alvaro Morata’s late strike snatched Spain a 1-0 Nations League victory over Portugal in Braga on Tuesday and sent them into the semi-finals.

La Roja needed to win to finish top of League A Group 2, but struggled on another difficult night for the Euro 2020 semi-finalists, until Morata’s 88th-minute breakthrough.

Spain have not been able to hit top form in the internationals leading up to the Qatar 2022 World Cup, but this hard-fought victory provides a welcome morale boost.

Portugal had the better of the game but Spain brightened in the final stages, with the introduction of several substitutes, including Nico Williams, who headed across goal for Morata to gleefully turn in at the back post.

“When we had to stand up, we did,” Morata told TVE. “If we had lost, it had to be giving everything we had on the pitch, and that’s what we did.

“I’ll remember the attitude of the team, we fought until the end. And Nico Williams, in his second game for the national team, was key and I put it over the line.”

Spain will join Italy, Croatia and the Netherlands in the semis in June 2023, although attention now switches to the fast-approaching World Cup.

Luis Enrique made wholesale changes to the side that suffered Spain’s first home defeat since 2018 against Switzerland on Saturday, retaining only four starters.

Morata was brought in to lead the line, while the Asturian coach rotated his entire midfield trio.

Spain still dominated possession, as their gameplan demands, but to little effect as Portugal created the more dangerous openings in the first half.

Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simon made a solid save to deny Ruben Neves and then a brilliant one to keep Liverpool striker Diogo Jota at bay.

Cristiano Ronaldo appealed for a penalty in a race for the ball with Simon but the referee spotted he went to ground without any contact and waved play on.

With Portuguese confidence increasing, Bruno Fernandes lashed an effort narrowly off-target, celebrated prematurely by swathes of the stadium as the ball appeared to settle in the net.

– Changes pay off for Spain –
Just as they did against Switzerland, Spain failed to get a single shot on target in the first half, and after Simon made another good save from Ronaldo early in the second half, Luis Enrique took action.

The coach sent on Pedri, Gavi and Yeremy Pino to try and give La Roja more inspiration going forward, although it was the hosts who almost broke the deadlock when Dani Carvajal deflected a strike narrowly over his own crossbar.

At the other end Morata replied with a tame effort which was easily collected by Diogo Costa, who also thwarted Spain substitute Williams.

The changes livened Luis Enrique’s team up and Costa was required again to shovel away a far more emphatic strike from Atletico Madrid striker Morata, before the breakthrough ultimately arrived.

Carvajal launched a crossfield ball into the area, with Williams’ header leaving Morata with the simple task of firing into the empty net to put the runners-up of the last edition of the Nations League back into the final four.

Ronaldo was denied by Simon at the death and Fernando Santos’s Portugal left ruing their missed chances and wishing they had killed off Spain when they had the chance.

“This is a wonderful sport in which winning is the best antidote to any depression or sadness,” said Luis Enrique.

“Portugal are a top, top, top team. In the first half I insisted, maybe too much, on having the ball, and we did. It’s evident we’d prefer to play the passes in their half.

“(But) the first half was necessary to show that the ball was ours, and in the second we had the sensation that the goal would come. We’re in the final four again and it’s a great joy.”
AFP

Sports

Court Fixes Date To Hear Sala Compensation Dispute

Published

3 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

A commercial court examining the long-running dispute between Cardiff City and French club Nantes over compensation for the death of Emiliano Sala in a plane crash said Monday it would give its decision on March 30 next year.

Sala, a 28-year-old Argentine striker, died when the light aircraft taking him to the Welsh capital came down in the English Channel on January 21, 2019, two days after he had signed for the then-Premier League side. He and pilot David Ibbotson were killed.

The Welsh club took the case to the Nantes commercial court in 2023 to claim compensation for loss of income and other damages suffered by the club as a result of the player’s death.

Following an analysis conducted by an expert appointed by Cardiff City, the club estimated their losses at over 120 million euros ($139.5 million). Lawyers for both clubs made their cases at Monday’s hearing.

The Welsh club argue that Nantes, through their intermediary, agent Willie McKay, were the organisers of the private flight on which the footballer was travelling and that, if the transfer was effective at the time of the accident according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), it is the organisation of this flight that is at issue.

Cardiff City’s lawyer, Olivier Loizon, told the court Monday, Willie McKay “could not have been unaware of the illegality of the flight”, and argued that the agent had acted with “negligence”.

“Whatever the ultimate cause of the accident, (Sala) should not have been on the flight,” he added.

Nantes’ lawyer, Jerome Marsaudon, insisted Monday the only agent authorised by the club in connection with the transfer was Mark McKay, the son of Willie McKay.

The elder McKay “was simply helping his son, given his extensive experience”, the lawyer said.

“It is sad to see that Cardiff have exploited this tragedy and turned it into a genuine legal farce,” he added. “Nothing in this case justifies holding FC Nantes liable.”

Prior to the start of the hearing, a Nantes representative said the club “have no doubt that Cardiff’s claims will be rejected outright, just like all the others”.

In another case related to the dispute between the two clubs, CAS ruled in 2022 that Sala’s transfer had definitely been finalised at the time of his death.

In 2023, world football’s governing body FIFA ordered Cardiff to pay Nantes the balance of Sala’s transfer fee, which at the time amounted to just over 11 million euros out of a total of 17 million euros.

Sports

Salah A ‘Disgrace’ For Liverpool Outburst – Carragher

Published

3 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher labelled Mohamed Salah “a disgrace” on Monday after the Egypt star’s stunning outburst at Reds boss Arne Slot.

Salah said he had been “thrown under a bus” and had no relationship with Slot after he was left on the bench for last Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Leeds.

It was the third successive game that Salah had been kept out of the starting line-up by Slot amid the forward’s loss of form this season.

In response to Salah’s astonishing rant to reporters, Liverpool axed the 33-year-old from the squad for Tuesday’s Champions League clash at Inter Milan.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Carragher, a 2005 Champions League winner with Liverpool, said: “I thought it was a disgrace what he did after the game.

“Some people have painted it as an emotional outburst. I don’t think it was. I think whenever Mo Salah stops in a mixed zone, which he has done four times in eight years at Liverpool, it’s choreographed with his agent to cause maximum damage and strengthen his own position.

“He’s chosen this weekend to do this now, and he’s waited I think for a bad result… everyone involved with the club (feeling) like they’re in the gutter, and he’s chosen that time to go for the manager and maybe try to get him sacked.”

Salah is a two-time Premier League champion with Liverpool and has also won the Champions League during his iconic eight-year spell at Anfield.

But, although he only signed a new contract in April, Salah hinted he might have played his last game for Liverpool as he prepares to jet off to the African Cup of Nations after their Premier League clash with Brighton at Anfield on Saturday.

Salah has been linked with a lucrative move to the Saudi Pro League and and Carragher added: “What he’s done off the pitch, I think the club have made the right decision in terms of him not going abroad. Whether he will play for Liverpool again, I don’t know.

“I hope he does, because he’s one of the greatest players we’ve ever had, but if you continue like that, and statements like that, if he doesn’t play, who knows.”

Sports

JUST IN: Full Draw For 2026 World Cup Group Stages Confirmed

Published

6 days ago

December 5, 2025

Editor

The draw for the group stage of the 2026 World Cup has been conducted.

It took place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with US President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino in charge.

There will be 48 teams at next year’s tournament, to be played across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

All the participating countries were grouped into 12 groups of four.

Here is the full draw:

Group A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Winner Play-off D
Group B: Canada, Winner Play-off A, Qatar, Switzerland
Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland
Group D: United States, Paraguay, Australia, Winner Play-off C
Group E: Germany, Curaçao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador
Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Winner Play-off B, Tunisia
Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
Group H: Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
Group I: France, Senegal, Winner Play-off 2, Norway
Group J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan
Group K: Portugal, Winner Play-off 1, Colombia, Uzbekistan
Group L: England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana