Julien Laurens joins the FC panel to discuss the massive challenge Thierry Henry has ahead of himself as manager of AS Monaco.
Thierry Henry’s return to Monaco has made a lot of headlines around the world, but in recent weeks there was another emotional comeback by a great former striker in France, which — while lacking in global attention — could turn out to be more significant.
While former Arsenal superstar Henry is still winless in five matches as a manager, suffering an especially humiliating 4-0 home thrashing at the hands of Club Brugge in the Champions League on Tuesday, Vahid Halilhodzic is flourishing at Nantes….
Gastón Pereiro and captain Luuk de Jong both scored braces in PSV’s 6-goal demolition of visitors FC Emmen VV.
Hirving Lozano netted a brace, while Érick Gutiérrez scored one in PSV’s comfortable 4-0 win over VVV Venlo, sealing the club’s eighth-straight league win.
Hirving “Chucky” Lozano was back on the score-sheet for PSV as they rebounded from their UCL defeat at Barcelona in a 3-0 win over rivals Ajax.
Anyone lucky enough to have been at Philips Stadium when PSV Eindhoven hosted Groningen in April 2013 is extremely unlikely to have forgotten the experience. Very rarely, if ever, was a footballer treated in such a stunning and touching way.
Rumours that Mark van Bommel was considering retirement prompted PSV fans to show their love in order to convince their idol to continue playing. They sung his name for the entire 90 minutes — loud, louder and then louder still. At first, it seemed that it…
ESPN FC’s Paul Mariner believes the ball is in Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s court when it comes to the rumours linking him with a loan move to Milan.
To honour Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 500th career goal, the LA Galaxy decided to distribute a commemorative #Zlatan500 poster to the first 10,000 fans who arrive at their match against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Jose Mourinho once had Zlatan Ibrahimovic to help him out at Manchester United. Nowadays, his attention has reportedly switched to another Swedish veteran, Andreas Granqvist, who is rumoured to be a target ahead of the January transfer window.
“I am not closing any doors, and flattered to even be linked with such a big team,” the 33-year-old defender told Expressen from Helsingborg where he plays in the second division.
Second division? Yes, you have read that right. Back in January, Granqvist…
Gab Marcotti sat down with Rio Ferdinand to discuss Paul Pogba’s recent form at the World Cup and at Manchester United and how he wants to be the best.
Veteran Manchester United fans will remember the feeling of winning a title after a long drought. When Sir Alex Ferguson’s men secured the Premier League trophy in 1993, it had been 26 years since the club’s previous success in 1967.
But United’s opponents in the Champions League on Wednesday, Swiss side Young Boys, can top that. Their fans waited 32 years before claiming their first title since 1986 (when Fergie was still in charge at Aberdeen) last season.
A club with a storied past — winning…
Week 2 of the Serie A season produced several stunning goals, but which one was most worthy of being No. 1?
Five different goalscorers got in on the action for Fiorentina as they dismantled the Chievo defense in their home opener.
Italian Serie A: Nikola Milenkovic (8′) Fiorentina 1-0 Chievo Verona
The new Serie A season had only just started, but one of its greatest goals has already been scored. On Sunday, centre-back Nikola Milenkovic sent an unstoppable long-range effort into the top corner to open the scoring as Fiorentina thrashed Chievo 6-1 – his first ever goal from outside the area.
For many defenders that would have been a career highlight, but for the 20-year-old Serbia international it is likely to be a mere footnote in the tale of his meteoric rise to greatness.
A couple…
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is one of the best Manchester United signings ever. Acquired as a little known youngster from Molde for just £1.5 million in the summer of 1996, he went on to become a hugely influential forward — especially when c…
Watch Cristiano Ronaldo and the stars of Serie A all season long, with every match from the Italian top flight available on ESPN and ESPN+.
Stewart Robson reveals his projected Juventus XI as Cristiano Ronaldo gets set to make his Serie A debut against Chievo.
The journey has been longer than predicted, but the real adventure for Mattia Perin is about to start. More than seven years after making his Serie A debut, Perin finally has an opportunity to become the true heir to one of the league’s greatest, in Gianluigi Buffon. Signed by Juventus from Genoa for €12 million in the summer, the 25-year-old has a chance to live up to the “next Buffon” hype for club and country which has followed him his entire life.
Perin’s talent was easy to spot early…
Russia’s captain Igor Akinfeev feels the fans are united and creating a festival atmosphere which wasn’t felt in Brazil in 2014.
On June 20, 2016, Igor Akinfeev did everything in his power to save Russia from total humiliation. Not only was the team’s performance disastrous during a 3-0 defeat to Wales in the last game of the Euro 2016 group stage, their attitude was inexcusable as well. For a moment in the second half, circumstances got so bad that the captain’s armband was suddenly abandoned.
Vice-captain Vasily Berezutsky had already been removed due to injury when captain Roman Shirokov was substituted. Someone else had…
Emil Forsberg finally broke through in the 2nd half and Sweden held on to defeat Switzerland 1-0 and earn their way into the quarterfinals.
Daniel Amokachi breaks down how Sweden were able to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals, despite Switzerland’s late surge,
Switzerland showed a lot of spirit and quality when coming from behind to draw against Brazil and beat Serbia in the group stage, but none of those qualities were evident as they succumbed 1-0 to an average Sweden side almost without a fight in St Petersburg.
Positives
Hardly any. None of the Swiss stars, apart from the goalkeeper Yann Sommer, put in a decent performance on the night, and fans will be extremely disappointed as the team missed a golden opportunity to reach the quarterfinals.
Negatives
The…
With Uruguay and Russia already through to the round of 16, Shaka Hislop believes the final group stage game could be the first real test for both sides.
Could it really be true?! Charlie Gibson heads out to investigate…
ESPN FC’s Kasey Keller praises Russia’s direct play and how well they used their strengths in a convincing 5-0 win against Saudi Arabia.
MOSCOW — Russian fans are unlikely to ever forget Artem Dzyuba’s words in November 2012. Asked by the reporters to explain Spartak Moscow’s 5-1 home defeat at the hands of city rivals Dynamo, the striker replied: “Ask our trenerishka.” It is not an easy term to translate but the closest try would probably be “a little coach” in a very derogatory sense.
The man in question was Unai Emery, who was fired that day after fewer than six months in charge of Spartak. Dzyuba, meanwhile, was fiercely criticized…