Griezmann, Neymar overlooked for The Best FIFA Men´s Player award as Messi, Ronaldo shortlisted

Argentina can breathe again. Nigeria have blown World Cup Group D wide open in the race for second spot behind Croatia, and set up a tantalising showdown between Gernot Rohr s side and the South Americans on matchday three.

It was fitting that Nigeria, on Russian soil, managed what England could not in France in 2016: namely, beat Iceland. It was fitting because it was Ahmed Musa who inspired them. The forward never settled at Leicester City, never showed enough of his qualities to a Premier League audience, but Volgograd Arena witnessed the real deal, the man who has excelled at CSKA Moscow.

At half-time, it looked as though the entertaining 2018 finals, still without a goalless draw, was about to be hauled down into the doldrums.

Nigeria became the first team…

African superstars Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto o and Michael Essien will discover Friday who they face at the 2010 African Nations Cup in Angola.

A draw ceremony in the capital of the oil-rich south-west Africa state divides the 16 qualifiers into four groups from which the winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

Chelsea striker Drogba is the main source of Ivory Coast goals, Eto o of Inter Milan serves a similar role with Cameroon and Essien, also from English Premiership table-toppers Chelsea, drives the Ghana midfield.

And with the top 10 football nations on the continent among those securing places, the stage is set for an intriguing January 10-31 tournament as Egypt seek a record third consecutive title.

Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and …

They will not admit it publicly, but England will regard a group containing the United States, Algeria and Slovenia as just about as easy as they could have hoped for from the World Cup draw.

The United States won the only previous World Cup meeting between the two countries and their 1-0 win in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1950 still ranks as one of the greatest shocks in the history of the tournament.

But that remains the only time England have lost to their transatlantic allies and, despite the United States beating Spain on their way to the Confederations Cup final last year, it would be regarded as another upset if Bill Bradley s side were to take three points from the group opener in Rustenburg on June 12.

England have recent experience of playing both the Un…

Premier League champions Manchester United will start their bid for a record fourth successive English title at home to newly-promoted Birmingham on August 15.

Sir Alex Ferguson s team discovered their fixtures for the 2009-10 season on Wednesday and the three-time champions follow the Birmingham clash with a trip to Burnley, who were promoted via the Championship play-offs.

Carlo Ancelotti begins his reign at Chelsea at home to Hull, while Liverpool travel to Tottenham on the opening weekend and Arsenal face a trip to Everton.

Championship winners Wolves play West Ham at Molineux and Burnley visit Stoke on their return to the top flight.

Big-spending Manchester City travel to Blackburn on the opening day before hosting Everton at Eastlands on 19 August.…

Premier League big spenders Manchester City striker Valeri Bojinov is close to sealing a spell on loan at Serie A side Parma.

We can confirm that Valeri Bojinov is in talks with Parma over a loan move, said a statement on City s website.

It is expected that over the next day the Bulgarian will complete terms to join the side recently promoted back into Serie A.

The 23-year-old, who moved to City for £5.75m from Fiorentina in August 2007, has been hampered by major injuries with a serious knee ligament injury on his debut against Manchester United that ruled him out for the season.

But the Bulgarian returned to fitness for the 2008/2009 campaign and made a substitute appearance in a Uefa Cup qualifier against Midtjylland.

However, as he…

Italian forward Eder Martins would prefer to remain at Inter Milan despite being linked with a January exit.

The Italy international joined the Nerazzurri from Sampdoria a year ago, but he has since managed just 2 goals in 28 Serie A appearances.

With Inter Milan expected to shake up the squad in January, there is a good chance Eder will be allowed to leave, although the player himself hopes he will remain at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.

“I’ve heard the rumours, these are things that I leave to my agent,” Eder told Mediaset.

“I don’t want to change in January, but we’ll see, you never know in football. Until the end of January anything can happen, but I’m focused on Inter.”

Born in Brazil, Eder came through the youth ranks at Criciuma …

Juventus assistant Giovanni Martusciello said Maurizio Sarri was very happy with Saturday s win over Parma after speaking to the absent head coach before, during and after the Serie A opener.

Sarri was not in the dugout as eight-time reigning Serie A champions Juventus kicked off their title defence with a 1-0 victory at Parma thanks to Giorgio Chiellini.

Martusciello took charge of the match as Sarri recovers from pneumonia – the former Chelsea boss also set to miss the clash against Napoli.

After the match, Martusciello told reporters: We spoke to Sarri many times in the morning.

Clearly for him it s quite difficult to stay away from the team and therefore he wanted to know whatever was happening, the conditions of the lads, how they were living the …

Fabio Capello s England will face old rivals Wales in their Euro 2012 qualification campaign after the draw was made here on Sunday for the tournament to be held in the Ukraine and Poland.

England have drawn John Toshack s Wales side in Group G as well as Montenegro, Bulgaria and Switzerland for a place at Euro 2012 with the qualifiers set to begin this September and finish in November 2011.

Wales is a really good team, very young and a derby is never a normal game, said Capello whose side are ranked 9th in the world according to FIFA with Toshack s Wales team listed as 77th.

The Welsh failed to qualify for this summer s World Cup in South Africa, but the Italian will not be taking the Welsh lightly with plenty of sporting rivallry between the two British natio…

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson hailed the growing influence of Wayne Rooney on his team ahead of Tuesday s crucial Champions League clash against AC Milan at the San Siro here.

Ferguson admitted that his team had felt the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo, the 2008 world player of the year, to Real Madrid last summer but hailed Rooney as his club s new talisman.

I think Manchester United build up heroes very quickly and players like Rooney will be that kind of player, he said.

I know he came to us as a young player from another club (Everton) but fans will always look at Rooney as one of their own.

He was developed in our club and came at 18 years of age. We re a peculiar club in that respect with players who come through the club, they ll alway…

Two goals from Philippe Coutinho saw Liverpool come from behind to beat Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge and pile further pressure on Jose Mourinho.

A Ramires header gave the Premier League champions the lead after just four minutes, but compatriot Coutinho fired Liverpool level in some style just before half-time.

Oscar came close with a long-range chip, but chances were few and far between in the second half until another Coutinho effort clipped John Terry and flew past Asmir Begovic.

Christian Benteke made sure of the points with a composed finish in the closing minutes as Jurgen Klopp secured his first league win since taking charge of Liverpool.

The result leaves Mourinho feeling the heat as Chelsea slumped to a sixth Premier League defeat of the se…