Tag: Football

Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen has praised striker Harry Kane by saying that he is starting to develop an astonishing spirit that could be equal to Cristiano Ronaldo’s mindset. Ronaldo is regarded as one of the fiercest competitor in the game right now. His desire to win and score goals has propelled him to the status as the best footballer in the world right now. Kane is just starting to establish himself in the team, but at 21 years old, he clearly has a lot of time left ahead of him. Vertonghen has seen him from close up to suggest that Kane will be a top class centre forward in the future.
The 21-year-old continued his progress by scoring a hat-trick against Asteras Tripolis in the Europa League. Even though manager Mauricio Pochettino has preferred the experienced Emmanuel Adebayor for the league matches, Vertonghen says that he is very much impressed by the quality Kane has been showing in the chances he has had so far. Since Adebayor has not been in great form this season, it may not be long before Kane gets into the team with this kind of scoring form. Kane has had nine appearances this season and scored five goals, but most of those appearances have been as a substitute.
“Harry is an unbelievable player and now the fans are starting to see it, but me, I can see it every day in training. I’m a defender, he’s a striker, I’ve trained against him so many times and he’s a very, very difficult striker to defend against. For me, with his attitude, he can be one of the best centre-forwards in the world one day. He has a spirit you can compare to [Cristiano] Ronaldo and he works every day. He’s a top professional, I love working with him,” said Vertonghen.

Wales manager Chris Coleman says that he does not want to qualify for the Euro 2016 through the play-offs but through the automatic places. After having not qualified for the major competition for several years, Wales are ranked outsiders to reach the Euro 2016. However, they are only helped by the fact that the tournament has been expanded to include more teams. This has meant that there will be at least three possible teams that reach the final from a single group. The first two places will automatically qualify for the Euro 2016 while the third placed team will have to go through a play-off.
A morale boasting 3-1 win over Iceland back in March has just been followed by a 2-0 defeat against Netherlands in June. However, a number of Welsh players are playing at the top of the game right now and this includes Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey. As a result, Wales go into the first qualifying match against Andorra confident of three points. Being an away match, a victory would be a major boost for Wales as they hope to get ahead of Belgium and Cyprus – the toughest opponents in the group. There are two home matches during the month of October which will provide further opportunities to increase their chances of qualification.
“I sense the expectation and two years ago I would have been wary of it. I’m not now and I won’t shy away from it. We have to take it as a compliment and deal with it, and if we do that we’ll do the business. Belgium and Bosnia are the top teams and then it’s the other four, but we have a chance to put pressure on those two. I don’t want to go at it thinking there’s a possibility of a play-off. Let’s go for the top two, that’s what we have to aim for,” said Coleman.

In their penultimate pre-season match of this summer, Barcelona absolutely demolished HJK Helsinki, a club from Finland. They won by 6-0.
A win of that sort of margin and that too in the absence of the most of the star players of the team, it’s clear that the La Liga runners up are ready to enter the upcoming season all guns blazing.

In their penultimate pre-season match of this summer, Barcelona absolutely demolished HJK Helsinki, a club from Finland. They won by 6-0.
A win of that sort of margin and that too in the absence of the most of the star players of the team, it’s clear that the La Liga runners up are ready to enter the upcoming season all guns blazing.
One of the young players whom the Barcelona fans would definitely be very excited about is Munir El Haddadi. The Spanish forward who is just 18 at the moment was one of the heroes for Blaugrana against Helsinki. He found the back of the net twice in that game and showed that he had developed enough to be able to play at the top level.
People noticed El Haddadi for the first time in 2013 when he had taken the Youth League by storm. He has only got better and better since then and many experts reckon that it’s not long before he would be given the chance to make his debut for the senior team of Barcelona.
The other guy who was immensely impressive in that pre-season match was the club’s new recruitment Ivan Rakitic. The playmaker from Croatia showed how good he is at passing. The Helsinki midfielders were finding it almost impossible to put brakes on him. He was being able to run through them on a regular basis.
The 26-year old seems to be a really strong candidate to partner Andres Iniesta in the midfield in the first few matches in the La Liga.
Barcelona has bought Rakitic from Sevilla FC. He has been given no. 4 jersey at the club.
Rakitic represented two countries in junior football i.e. Croatia and Switzerland. At the senior level though, he has played only for Croatia.

Tottenham recently managed to extend the contract of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who had a fantastic World Cup 2014. The French international played a major role in helping his national team reached the quarter-finals of the competition where they were beaten by Germany. Since coming from Lyon in the summer of 2012 for just over £ 10 million, Lloris has been one of the finest goalkeepers in the Premier league. Tottenham have been overjoyed at the fact that they will be able to keep him for five more years.

Tottenham recently managed to extend the contract of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who had a fantastic World Cup 2014. The French international played a major role in helping his national team reached the quarter-finals of the competition where they were beaten by Germany. Since coming from Lyon in the summer of 2012 for just over £ 10 million, Lloris has been one of the finest goalkeepers in the Premier league. Tottenham have been overjoyed at the fact that they will be able to keep him for five more years.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino, who replaced Sherwood this summer, stated that Lloris deciding to stay at White Hart Lane is great news for the club. Lloris has been linked with a move in the last few months with the likes of Paris St Germain showing interest. It was quite possible that Lloris could have had his head turned because of interest from Champions League clubs. Now, he has stated that his ambition is to help Tottenham qualify for the top four once again. Tottenham take Lloris with them for the pre-season tour of the United States. Matches against the likes of Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders are expected to take place in the coming weeks.

There is a lot of positivity around Tottenham once again after they brought in Pochettino, who did extremely well at Southampton. “This is very good news for Tottenham, for us and his teammates. Hugo is a great goalkeeper and it’s very important he’s excited to stay with us. We are excited that he’s going to be here with us. It’s very important for the future,” said the club manager. Meanwhile, Lloris has stated that the presence of Pochettino was a major reason in convincing him to sign the new deal. Tottenham begin the new season with an away match against West Ham.