Soccer Fun Zone

N’Golo Kante Ready to Repeat Heroics of Last Season

Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante says that he is very keen on winning the league title this season, and he is prepared to dive into the experiences of last campaign in order to repeat the success.


The French midfielder came to the Premier league only last season, but he managed to become the unsung hero in Leicester City’s incredible triumph of the league title. This persuaded Chelsea to pay an incredible £30 million, which now looks like a bargain, for the midfielder in the summer. Despite possessing defensive midfielders like Nemanja Matic, the club felt the urge to sign the Frenchman.

He has once again been an integral part in the success of the Chelsea’s campaign, especially in Antonio Conte’s first season in England. He has helped the club to top the table with four matches left. Chelsea are looking odds-on favourite to win the league title, but there have been signs of slipping down from the great heights.

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CARDIFF FORCE BARNSLEY TO A DRAW

Barnsley had defeated their visitors 4-3 at Cardiff City stadium in the first leg of the clash earlier in the season but they could not replicate such on home soil as Cardiff forced them to a barren draw in the English Championship.


The scrappy game at Oakwell saw Barnsley threaten more as they enjoyed 58 percent of the ball possession. The result leaves Barnsley ahead of Cardiff as they have a point more. Cardiff is in 14th place in the Championship standings with 52 points. The Bluebirds are yet to win an away game since Valentine’s Day. In their last seven games, they have seen just one win.

From the start of the duel, Barnsley showed more prospects. Adam Hammillhad his attempt deflected and the resulting corner caused Cardiff an early scare.

Cardiff had another scare when Allan McGregor collided with Marley Watkins but the on-loan goalkeeper was able to continue. His opposite at the other end was barely disturbed as Cardiff struggled to make clear attempts at goal. Kenneth Zohore came close but sent his effort from 25 yards out over the bar.

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Craig Shakespeare Ready to Focus on Premier League Rather Than Europe

Leicester City caretaker manager Craig Shakespeare says that the club are only focused on avoiding relegation this season.


After the club recently parted company with legendary manager Claudio Ranieri, Shakespeare has been appointed as the manager in charge of the team until the end of the campaign. He was given this job after managing to impress in his first two games as the interim boss. After struggling for any kind of form, Leicester City have been able to hit a sweet spot in the last couple of weeks. They have managed back-to-back wins against Liverpool and Hull City in order to move up to 15th in the table.

However, the Champions League once again comes in as a distraction for the club just as it did in the first half of the campaign. The club are trailing Spanish outfit Sevilla 2-1 from the first leg. The only goal scored by Jamie Vardy gives Leicester a great opportunity to think about a place in the quarter-finals of the competition.

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Ahmed Elmohamady Criticizes Hull City

Ahmed Elmohamady can’t find any similarity between the Hull City he had left one and half months back and the Hull City he has come back to


The 29-year old reckons that the team seems to have been completely transformed, not only in terms of the new faces being roped in, but, also in terms of the mood inside the locker room. It’s much more positive now.

As per Elmohamady, after re-joining, he has felt that there is a spring in the step of the players and their confidence level has gone one notch up and the new coach will have to take the credit for that because he has inserted fresh energy into the group.

It was still Mike Phelan at helm when Elmohamady took the flight from UK to serve his nation in the inter-continental tournament in Arica, but, as he flew, the complexion changed at the Yorkshire club and Phelan was sent on his way out.

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Gary McAllister Backs Jurgen Klopp to Turn around Liverpool’s Poor Form

Liverpool ambassador Gary McAllister says that manager Jurgen Klopp will find a way to turn around the results at the club.


He also says that the club have no doubts about the manager, as he is proven at the top level. Klopp replaced Brendan Rodgers midway through last season and immediately lead the club to 2 finals. Even though they lost in the EFL Cup and Europa League finals to Manchester City and Sevilla respectively, it was seen as a positive into the season. They picked up where they left off in the 2016-17 campaign after remaining in contention for the title with Chelsea up until January.

Since the turn of the year, though, results have dropped drastically with the club still waiting for their first league win in 2017. More importantly, a string of losses including defeats against relegation threatened Hull City and Swansea have left the club an incredible 14 points behind Chelsea.

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KLINSMANN PROUD OF US ACHIEVEMENTS

German coach Jurgen Klinsmann has revealed that he remains very proud of his achievements in American soccer.


The German coach spoke at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in Los Angeles recently despite agreeing to it before he was sacked from his job as manager of the men’s senior team.

Klinsmann supervised the losses in the first two World Cup qualifiers hence his sack but insists that he is happy to have developed American football.

“The results will tell in the future if it helped Bruce [current US team coach] to achieve the goals that are set. But I think whenever you have the chance to put your stamp on a programme, you do it with everything you have, and that’s what I tried to do,” he said.

He claimed that he and his team “achieved a lot within the system of US soccer, connecting a lot of dots – even though there are so many out there that are disconnected.”

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Tony Pulis Confirms West Brom’s Offer for Morgan Schneiderlin

West Brom manager Tony Pulis has confirmed that the club has made an offer for Manchester United midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, who has featured in only 11 minutes of league football this season.


Schneiderlin was a £ 25 million acquisition for United in the summer of 2015. He was seen as one of the players who would be able to transform Louis van Gaal’s tactics. After featuring in most of the games under Van Gaal, Schneiderlin was suddenly relegated to the fringes of first-team upon the arrival of Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese did not see Schneiderlin as an integral part of the team.

From the first week after Mourinho’s arrival, Schneiderlin has been linked with a move away from the club. Of late, there has been tremendous interest from Premier League clubs, as they would be getting a player who has a lot of knowledge about English football.

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MAN UNITED SET TO END THE YEAR WELL

Manchester United admittedly has not been as impressive but they have a reason to cheer up as the year ends.


Of recent, Jose Mourinho’s men have started playing attacking football that is interesting to watch. Watching game at Old Trafford is a delight after a few bumps on the way.

With expensive additions like former Real Madrid winger Angel Di Maria flopping at Old Trafford and ex La Liga and Ligue 1 star Radamel Falcao not getting the goals, additions by the Portuguese manager have been decent. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been getting the goals, Paul Pogba has been decent, Armenian forward Henrikl Mkhitaryan seem to be finding his rhythm and Eric Baily has been trying for the team.

Marounane Felliani was the top choice over veteran Michael Carrick but Carrick seem to combine well now with Pogba. Ander Herrara has been impressive thus far. The Spain international started the first game but had to wait six games before getting called into action again. His display have been satisfying by many standards under Mourinho.

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