UCL Road To Kiev Final: Liverpool vs Roma

Key Stats

• Sixth European meeting between Liverpool and Roma and the first since March 2002. Liverpool (W2, D2, L2) & Roma (W1, D2, L2)

• Liverpool's 10th appearance in the semi-final of the European Cup/Champions League. They've progressed to the final seven times in nine trials, losing only in 1964-65 against Inter Milan and in 2007-08 against Chelsea.

• Roma are appearing in their first European semi-final for 27 years when they faced Brondby in the Uefa Cup in 1990-91. The last match was against Dundee United in 1983-84 whom they beat to set up a Liverpool final

• Roma have won just one of their past 14 away Champions League games (D5 L8), a 2-1 win at Qarabag earlier this season.

• Liverpool have not won the first leg of a European semi-final in any of their past seven attempts (D3 L4), since a 4-0 win over Panathinaikos in the European Cup in 1984-85.

The first of the final stop before the UEFA Champions League final will be a tantalizing encounter between Liverpool and Roma. Both teams are full of belief after they kicked out Barcelona and Manchester City who have dominated their respective leagues and are inevitable winners of the double domestic trophies. Mohamed Salah is expected to be the center of attention because of his outstanding season and more so as he welcomes his former teammates to Anfield. The coaches believe that it is more than the tactics or star players that will see them through.

Liverpool boss has urged the Merseyside fans to come in full voice and try to create a special atmosphere around the Anfield, specifically to try and beat the outstanding support they gave in the quarter-finals against Manchester City. In as much as Klopp once the 12th player behind them, he does not want to witness a repeat episode of the violent bus incident instigated by the Liverpool fans against Manchester City. He has urged the fans to respect Roma. Roma’s Eusebio Di Francesco has admitted that English clubs create memorable atmospheres when they get behind their teams but has since affirmed that their fans are also behind them. Liverpool is expected to field stick to the line-up which beat the English Champions, Manchester City, with Oxlade Chamberlain, Trent Alexander Arnold, Firmino, Lovren, and Robertson expected to return after being rested over the weekend. Roma’s Diego Perotti could return after being sidelined for three weeks while Rick Karsdrop and Gregoire Defrel are set to miss out with an injury. Aleksander Kolarov, Edin Dzeko, Daniele De Rossi and Alessandro Florenzi who sat out in Roma’s 3-0 win over the weekend are also expected to be in for the Giallorossi.

Managers’ Remarks

"Against Barcelona, we played as a team, we did not focus on Lionel Messi, and by playing in this way we can achieve great things. It is not about stopping one player. Liverpool are not only Salah, they have a number of good players." - Eusebio Di Francesco

"They have a full squad available. They have different options offensively, a strong defense, the wingers or wing-backs are strong, it all looks settled, fit and experienced.

"It's a semi-final which is a big thing for them like us. You will see two excited teams and that's good for football." - Jurgen Klopp

Who will gain the advantage in the first leg?

Arsenal Ladies in shock goalless draw with Yeovil Town

The Arsenal Ladies team crumbled when it mattered the most. Just like their male counterparts, Arsenal have had difficulties to perform whenever the pressure is on them. The Arsenal Ladies who currently sit in 4th on the table had the opportunity to close the gap between them and Manchester City Women who are four points ahead. Instead, they drew their match against a Yeovil Town side that has been struggling and had lost all their last four matches in the league. The club were looking to get one over the 10th placed team who had enough wind in their sails had to stop Arsenal. This does not mean that they did not try though as they dominated the match with 55%. Their shots on goal were astonishingly high (34) compared to Yeovil’s 3 shots, but they still could not score. Arsenal Ladies are finalists in the Women’s FA Cup and should trade carefully if they want to qualify for next season’s champions league.

Mourinho reveals summer transfer plans

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho finally learns how it feels to be edged by competitors on the transfer market. The Portuguese coach enjoyed torturing Arsene Wenger for failing to win the Premier League in over 13 years and now the manager is on his way out. Mourinho joined cash rich Chelsea and managed to win a couple of trophies before leaving for Madrid. He later came back to the club and won the Premier League one more time before being announced as the new boss at Old Trafford. His local rivals invested a lot more than United and Mourinho now feels the impact. He acknowledges defeat in the league this season and claims that his side does not have enough players. Manchester City are spending a lot more than United while Mourinho is just going to have to be replacing players.

Michael Carrick recently announced that he will be retiring from football at the end of the season and Marouane Fellaini could also possibly leave the red-half of Manchester this summer. This means that the club will be looking for midfield replacements first before attempting to look for reinforcements in other positions. The team lacks a commanding defender who can bring out the best in Eric Bailly who looks like a different player from the one that was leading the defense before getting injured in December last year. Manchester United will have to spend big bucks if they are to push for the title next season but the chances of that happening are very slim. Will the Glazers come around and provide Mourinho with a war chest in the summer?

Mohamed Salah wins PFA Player of the Year Award

There were only two contenders for this season’s PFA Player of the Year award. The newly crowned champions’ Kevin De Bruyne and the current top goal scorer and record breaking Liverpool forward, Mohamed Salah. The two players have been outstanding for the greatest parts of this season. De Bruyne received praise from the likes of Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Thierry Henry, and Jamie Redknapp for his brilliant passing ability and work rate. The pundits have since drawn comparison of him to the greatest midfielders to have ever played in the Premier League. They call him a hybrid of Paul Scholes and David Beckham in one player who has been crucial to Manchester City’s success this season as they won the Premier League and the League Cup. The Citizens were rooting for him to win the award of the best player this season but they were disappointed to hear that their midfield general could not walk away with the award. Mo Salah, of Liverpool arguably deserved it more after coming into a different league and hitting everyone by surprise with 31 league goals already, equalling the record set Suarez, Shearer and Henry in a 38 game season. The Egyptian player has enjoyed a dream start to his life in England also helping his club reach the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League.

Leroy Sane also won the PFA Young Player of the Year award for his outstanding contribution this season. It was quite a shock not to see him in the team of the year for this season because he was arguably the best creator on the wings in the 2017/18 season. Guardiola really has a talent in the 22-year-old German and will hope to build on this season to push for more titles.

Barcelona win 5-0 in the Copa del Rey final

Sevilla, who have been a strong team this season, succumbed to a 5-0 defeat against Barcelona when it mattered the most. Sevilla had enjoyed a great campaign that saw them defeat Manchester United in the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League before being eliminated by Bayern Munich by one away goal. The club also made their way into this year’s Copa del Rey final which is equivalent to the FA Cup in England or the Nedbank Cup in South Africa.

Barcelona looked like they were playing with a different team as they went into the break with a 3-0 advantage. New signing Philippe Coutinho made a sprint into the box on the counter from a brilliant pass by Ter Stegen and drew the keeper to his feet before chipping a pass to his former Liverpool teammate, Luis Suarez to score on the 13th minute. Iniesta then played a delightful one-two with Jordi Alba before he made a brilliant back-heel pass to Messi who shot into the roof of the net for the second goal of the game. Suarez again made it on the score sheet after playing another one-two with Messi but this time from outside the box before sprinting for a short distance before meeting Messi’s pass which he calmly converted into the net. The second half was not disappointing either. Barcelona was out to prove that they are the best and they can beat Sevilla effortlessly. It is like they agreed that all the goals of the night have to come through their tiki-taka passes as this time Iniesta played with Messi before making a fake shot that got everyone on their feet. Iniesta then smashed the ball into the empty net having already dealt with the keeper with his trickery. The Spaniard played a crucial role in this match which some are saying it could be his last final before leaving Barcelona. Philippe Coutinho was handed the penalty to score on the 69th minute which completed the scores for the match. Barcelona ran out 5-0 victors and lifted the Copa del Rey for the 30th time.

Giroud and Morata goals send Chelsea to the final of the FA Cup

Antonio Conte’s men are on a mission to salvage their season after failing to defend the English Premier League title which they won comfortably last season. They were looking to get one over the Saints and book a place in the final with Manchester United. Southampton also went into the game with an added motivation to defeat Chelsea who defeated them 2-3 at home on the 14th of April. The wounds were still fresh after letting a 2-0 advantage turn into a loss.

Willian set him himself up and fired a shot on the crossbar while Hazard had a couple of chances blocked before Olivier Giroud, who was preferred to Morata in the lineup, missed a couple of volleys in the first half. However, this did not stop him from turning up with a fantastic goal just a minute into the second half. Those that know Giroud from his days at Arsenal are aware of the fact that the forward might not be a 30 goal-a-season striker but he has a neck for memorable goals. Giroud received a pass from Eden Hazard before going for a Messi-like dribble as he wiggled past four defenders and beat the goalkeeper before finishing with his weak foot into the net. Surprised? Well, you shouldn’t. There is a reason why the striker is always called up to the French national team even when he is not in the best of form because he delivers when everyone least expects him to.

Southampton created a couple of chances themselves, and Shane Long found himself in acres of space with only the goalkeeper to beat but could not finish past the keeper. He tried to round the keeper who had read his thoughts and ended up over kicking the ball out for a goal kick. Southampton we denied a penalty on the 67th minute when Austin headed the ball onto Giroud’s hand, but the referee waved play on. Redmond had a rocket shot from outside the box miraculously saved by Caballero. Morata came from the bench to score the second of the night from an Azpilicueta cross. That was it, and Southampton were knocked out of the semifinals. Chelsea will then be facing Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in the final of the FA Cup. Who do you think will win?

Aubameyang makes Arsenal good as they win 4-1 against West Ham

The game against West Ham saw Wenger make changes to his team ahead of the semifinal clash against Atletico Madrid in the coming week. Ozil, Wilshere and Cech were not in the team while Aubameyang was dropped to the bench despite his red-hot form since joining Arsenal in the winter transfer window. Wenger planned to boost the confidence of Lacazette who will be the striker in the UEFA Europa League since Aubameyang is cup-tied. The match had nothing to appease the many Arsenal fans who returned to their seats in the stadium after having protested against the performances in recent games.

On this day, the fans were there and backed their manager who is set to leave in the summer. They did not stop cheering their team even when they went into the break without a goal. Nacho Monreal who has arguably been Arsenal’s best player this season opened the scoring from Xhaka’s corner on the 51st minute with a half-volley. His finish was something that even strikers can look back to and learn a few things. West Ham boss, David Moyes responded by introducing Lanzini and Javier Hernandez to support the striker Arnautovic. It was not long before these changes paid dividends as Arnautovic control the ball with his left leg and fired a shot across goal and into the net after Arsenal had failed to clear the ball out. 1-1 was the scoreline when Aubameyang was called onto the pitch.

The team started to believe with their star man on the pitch as they began to create spaces for forwards to capitalise on. It was not long before Aubameyang caused confusion in West Ham’s box just by his presence as Aaron Ramsey’s cross flew straight into the net. The Gabon international then turned provider to Lacazette’s goal in the 85th minute after some slick passes by Arsenal. Lacazette scored his second of the night 4 minutes after from a pass by Ramsey, and he celebrated with his strike partner Aubameyang. The pair already calls themselves The Bad Boys which draws a comparison to the relationship between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in their classic movies from the 1990s and early 2000s. Will this relationship help bring Arsenal more success after Wenger leaves?    

West Brom hold on to a 2-2 draw against Liverpool

West Brom are trying to pull another Sunderland, at least the one that survived in the Premier League for so many years but only just. This can be seen by their recent results as they fight to keep themselves in the English Premier League. The club recently defeated Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in a match that was tightly contested. They had the grit to see the result through and they were looking to do the same against Liverpool. But they had little in a match that was dominated by Liverpool in the early periods. Danny Ings who replaced the rested Roberto Firmino opened the scoring for Jurgen Klopp’s team. This ended his goal drought which had lasted for 930 days and dates back to game against Everton which was the last time he had scored. The English forward almost scored a second before the break but his effort was brilliantly saved by Ben Forster. The free-scoring Egyptian, Mo Salah, scored again for Liverpool today to make it 31 Premier League goals. The forward received a pass from Chamberlain before a calm dinked finish over the on-rushing Forster with 18 minutes left in the match. Liverpool probably they had sealed the job before Jack Livermore punished Liverpool for a poor job at defending a corner from the right wing on the 79th minute. Salomon Rondon scored the leveler for The Baggies on the 88th minute from a Chris Brunt free-kick. The game ended 2-2 and means that caretaker boss Darren Moore is still unbeaten after taking over at West Brom. Their survival is hanging on a thread as they are hoping that Crystal Palace lose their next game against Watford. What a sad situation to be in. Do you think they will survive?  

Sunderland have been relegated to League One

You must be shocked to see this headline again for the second year running. Yes, they have been relegated again. The club had been in the Premier League for a couple of years and survived countless times from the relegation battle. The last time they survived was when they brought in the expertise of Big Sam Allardyce and they had the striker Jermain Defoe scoring goals for them. It did not even make sense why there were in that situation again with the players they had on paper but soon changed. The following year (2016/17) they could not escape the drop. This meant that they had been demoted to the Championship and most of their players decided to leave the club including Defoe. However, this did not stop us from thinking that they would soon return because of the way they had been fighting to survive in the league for a length of time. Today, we receive some shocking news that the club has failed to make the cut in the second division in England and have been relegated again but this time to League One. What an embarrassment to a club that looked to be on a good path when they started recruiting and developing talent from England. The likes of Duncan Watmore typified this talent and was even rumored to be on Manchester United’s radar to be their young prodigy because of his potential. Their local rivals Newcastle were promoted to the Premier League last season and have already secured their safety from the drop as they currently sit on 41 points. It must be a difficult pill to swallow but their 2-1 loss to fellow relegation threatened Barton all but confirmed their downgrade. Will they recover or they have become the new Portsmouth?

Manchester United through to the final after beating Tottenham 2-1

Manchester United have done it again and are on the right path to prove that they are becoming a competitive team in England. The club have been struggling since Alex Ferguson left but Jose Mourinho has achieved instant success after taking over from Louis Van Gaal. The Portuguese manager won what he calls a treble in his first season i.e. FA Community Shield, Carabao Cup and the UEFA Europa League which gave them qualification to the UEFA Champions League. This season, he tried to catch up with the cash rich City side who invested a lot but could not push for a title challenge as everyone anticipated. The club also crashed out of the Carabao Cup this season before being knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Sevilla in the quarterfinals. Mourinho’s man now only had their eyes on the FA Cup for a last chance to salvage some silverware to the club. They had enough to defeat their opponents today to make it to the final of the tournament but it was not easy.

Dele Alli opened the scoring for Tottenham on the 11th minute from a Christian Eriksen cross and it looked like it was going to be a defeat for the Red Devils but they had other thoughts. The winter signing scored the equalizer for United to make it 1-1 on 24 minutes after Paul Pogba outmuscled Dembele on the left before delivering a perfect cross for the Chilean forward to score. Jese Lingard wasted an opportunity to give United the lead three minutes later when he blazed over the goal from a cross by Lukaku only 3 minutes after Sanchez had scored. Dier also had an opportunity when he shot from distance and saw his effort hit the post. Lukaku then combined with Sanchez in a counter attack that saw the Spanish midfielder, Ander Herrera scoring the winning goal. This is such a disappointment for the Tottenham team who have been improving year on year. They really need to start winning trophies soon if they are to keep their top talent because they have come short on so many occasions. Kudos Mourinho and his team. On to the next one now.

Nedbank Semi-Final Preview: Maritzburg United vs Mamelodi Sundowns

The other finalist of this season’s Nedbank cup will be revealed on Sunday after the Team of Choice and the Brazilians go out at each other at the Harry Gwala Stadium. It’s literally the battle of the heavyweights as the two make up the top four of the 2017/18 campaign with the visitors, Sundowns, on the verge of capturing the PSL title. All they need is four points from a possible nine. Maritzburg United would be pleased with their campaign, sitting in third place and definitely have some momentum heading into this match having lost none of their last 10 matches in all competitions.

“It’s not an easy one, you play Maritzburg, I have never seen a team which has an effort like that. They have got lefts and they are awkward, you must analyze the way they play. Swear to god I have never seen a formation like this in my whole life, never, never. They play with two strikers outright. Everybody has their own software of playing. It’s very difficult.”

— Pitso Mosimane, Mamelodi Sundowns Head Coach

Who will be reminded of the taste of losing? Kick-off is at 1pm GMT.

Nedbank Semi-final Preview: Kaizer Chiefs vs Free State Stars

All roads lead to Moses Mabhidha stadium on Saturday night. As the season draws to a close and becoming increasingly imminent that the Mamelodi boys would bag this campaign’s PSL title; everyone else is looking to put their hands on the next best thing. The Nedbank Cup is South Africa’s equivalent of the English FA Cup and the journey to the final resumes this weekend with Chief and FS Stars taking it onto the turf of Durban.

Amakhosi (Chiefs) are sitting on fourth place in the league, three points above the Ea Lla Koto (Stars) who are fifth. Chiefs fell out of the title race early on after a slow start and are desperately looking out to end the season with some silverware to console the Soweto fans. On the other hand, FS Stars are in the hunt for their first trophy since Coca-Cola Cup (now Telkom Knockout) success back in 1994. They have however enjoyed a stellar campaign, bound to wind up the league, nine places above their last season’s 14th place finish. It’s just that they have not been able to beat Chiefs in their last 10 league matches.

With the current FS Stars boss, Luc Eymael tipped to replace Steve Komphela at Chiefs - there could be much more at stake here. Kick-off time is 6:15 GMT.

Laos: FIFA fines the country’s football federation for sanctioning “player-trafficking”

The South East Asian country’s Football Federation has been slapped with a (USD) $700 000 fine for illegally acquiring African talent to abode in their shores. The 2015 BBC story on the illegal transfer of minors could have played a huge role in this development as it revealed some shocking scenarios of fourteen-year-olds playing football with no pay and forced to sleep on the floor of the club’s stadium.

Laos’ top club, Champasak United is reported to have illegally acquired 23 under-age players ( fourteen and fifteen-year-olds) from West Africa and putting them in an unregistered football academy in 2015. It is also understood that the club deployed some fourteen and fifteen-year-olds for official club matches.

In accordance with their regulation of forbidding players under the age of 18 to be transferred internationally without meeting established criteria, Fifa ruled that Laos had breached the rules.

DR Congo: Omari released from detention amid ongoing investigations

The president of the DR Congo Football Federation (Fecofa) who is also a member of the FIFA Council and second vice-president of the Confederation of African Football, Constant Omari Selemani has been released from custody. This follows after he was detained on Tuesday together with sports ministry secretary-general Barthelemy Okito and two Fecofa vice-presidents, Roger Bondembe and Theobad Binamungu over an inquiry into misuse of public funds in organizing Africa’s club and international matches.

The amount in question is up to (USD) $1m for four matches. Reacting to his release, Omari posted the following on his Twitter account:

"My sincere thanks to the real justice authorities who have finally realized that you cannot simply accuse officials based on lies, hatred, and jealousy."

Fifa have however highlighted that the case is not yet water under the bridge.

"Fifa is closely following the matter and gathering additional information but has no further statement to make at this stage.” - FIFA

Collette Roche to be appointed as the first female CEO at Manchester United

Current Executive Director at Manchester Airports Group, Collete Roche, is set to become the next chief executive officer at Manchester United. The lady will become only the 9th female in the English Premier League to be taking up a role in the boardroom. Darcie Glazer is the only female director right now at the club but she does not work in executive capacity. This is the first time that the club will be appointing a female for the position and we could not be more excited. We also looked elsewhere to see who’s where and we found out that Karren Brady is in the board as the Vice-Chairman at West Ham. She has also seen some smart investments in quality players this season even though the club is struggling to meet expectations. Marina Granovskaia is a director as well under Roman Abramovic at Chelsea. Leicester City are also with a female CEO in Susan Whelan who was appointed in 2011. The list goes on for the women in the EPL but there are only two female directors in the FA in England. These directors include Kate Tinsley and Rupinder Bains. The club applied in March to join the Women’s League and it would be interesting to see how their team would fare.  

No going back as the VAR will be showing replays at the World Cup in 2018

Former President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter recently shared his thoughts on the introduction of the VAR at this year’s World Cup. He was not in favor of the implementation of VAR and feels that it came too soon especially considering the results of how it has worked so far in domestic competitions in Italy, England, and Germany. “Comical” and “embarrassing” are some of the words used to describe it after some controversial decisions were made in the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Rochdale. VAR disallowed a goal and also overturned a converted penalty. On Monday, Mainz were facing Freiburg in the German Bundesliga before VAR awarded a penalty after the players had already left the field for half-time. The decisions seem to be taking too long which slows the tempo and atmosphere in the stadium. FIFA have now come out with a proposed solution to all these problems and be a little bit transparent on how the decisions are made. They announced that replays will be shown on the screen for everyone to see incidents which keeps everyone engaged while the analyses of the incident and the decision is eventually made.

FIFA’s referee chief, Pierluigi Collina said, “the system is about avoiding clear and obvious major errors.”

This means that every decision will not be heavily reliant on the technology because the referees will continue to check over the minor errors. The former World Cup final referee assures us that it would not be a problem if VAR were to be implemented in this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia. Do you think this system has been tested enough and is ready to be tried out at the biggest individual sporting event in the world?

Arsenal boss unsure of Wilshere’s plans

Another week passes by and England midfielder, Jack Wilshere has not yet signed the contract extension with Arsenal which is believed to be on his table for quite some time. The player says he is focusing on his performances and trying to be fit for the World Cup before thinking about extending his contract. This has left his boss a little bit in the dark about whether the player really wants to be at Arsenal. Arsene Wenger has, however, is confident that the player will eventually sign. Quite confused by those two statement? Us too.

Wenger said, “He has an offer for a long-term contract and I hope at some stage he will sign it. As a club we want the players to stay and to be paid well and I believe that everybody would agree that we pay our players very well.”

There probably is something that is holding the player from putting pen to paper but we cannot help but wonder what that is. The Arsenal boss says he did not set a deadline for the player to sign the contract but expects that the player would get back to them before the World Cup. This is an interesting story because both the club, and the player, claim to be in love with each other which is what makes us wonder why the player has not signed on the dotted line. Could it be that the terms in the contract do not meet his financial expectations? But Wenger claims they pay their players well? There are rumors that newly promoted Wigan want to submit an audacious bid to the player and take him away from the gunners for good. Do you have a theory of why the player has not signed yet and where it could possibly end? FirstTouch is here to listen.

Marcos Alonso receives a 3 match ban

Chelsea met Southampton last Saturday and the London team came out the victors with 3-2 score line. Southampton failed to build up on their win against Arsenal in the previous week. An issue was raised to the Independent Regulatory Commission board concerning the clash between Marcos Alonso and Shane Long on the 44th minute in the match that was played during the weekend. Initially, the referee gave no card to the Chelsea defender because he did not have a clear view of how Alonso caught the English forward but a lot was expected from the fourth official, Roger East, who was directly in front of the pair when the incident happened. The Spanish left-back has been charged with violent conduct which can be seen in video replays as he stepped on Long’s calf when he could retain the ball from the striker. The ban is set at 3 matches and the player still denies the charge. This means that Alonso will not be available for selection against Southampton again in the FA Cup semifinal as well as Premier League matches against Burnley and Swansea City. This could be the chance that new signing Palmieri would take as he is expected to replace the Spaniard in defense and make a claim for a starting spot for next season.