Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has confirmed that N’Golo Kante won’t return to action for three weeks at the least after picking up a fresh muscular problem. The France international has endured an injury-plagued campaign this season and he was recently substituted after just 10 minutes into the Premier League clash against Manchester United.
Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos has praised the impact made by Mikel Arteta since taking charge as the club’s head coach. The Gunners recently returned to winning ways in the Premier League with a 2-0 triumph over Manchester United and they were thoroughly in control of the New Year’s Day clash.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is heavily touted for a return to European football with Napoli and AC Milan showing a lot of interest in the player. The 38-year-old’s contract with LA Galaxy comes to a close in the next few months and he has not shown any interest in renewing this deal. Manager Guillermo, who was unable to get the club to success in the play-offs, says that Ibrahimovic is likely to end his career while playing for a European club. At 38 years of age, the Swede does not have a lot of time left in the game.
Robert Lewandowski was able to help Bayern Munich get a crucial victory over Olympiakos after a 3-2 success. This helped Bayern stay top of their group in the Champions League. This was far from a comfortable victory for Bayern and it was a far cry from the 7-2 victory that the club had over Tottenham in the previous round. There was disappointment for manager Niko Kovac with Javi Martinez and Lucas Hernandez going off with injuries. The result was a major disappointment for the Greek club considering that they took the lead through El-Arabi in the 23rd minute.
Former
Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has said that manager Mauricio Pochettino
would be gutted after Tottenham Hotspur threw away a 2-0 lead against
Olympiakos to settle for a share of the spoils. The north London giants scored
through Harry Kane and Lucas Moura during the first half of their Champions
League opener and they looked good value to secure three points.
Nelson Oliveira’s spell in English football appears to be coming to an end after he has signed for Greek outfit AEK Athens. The Portuguese striker spent the second half of last season on loan at Reading, as he was deemed surplus to requirements at Norwich City. Reading manager José Gomez was very keen on bringing Oliveira on a permanent basis to the Madejski Stadium, but the Royals have been unable to come to terms with the player. Oliveira had a long-standing problem with Norwich that even prevented him from getting a squad member for the 2019-20 campaign in the Premier League. He had one year left on his contract with the Canaries.
Portuguese managers have been growing in big numbers over the last few decades. Even as the likes of Jose Mourinho have been receiving the sack, these bosses have been functioning extremely well and their teams are in very good shape. One of those two managers enjoying a bright spell of form is Pedro Martins at Olympiakos. The Greek outfit were able to extend their brilliant form that they have been showing since last season. Apart from winning the Super League campaign and ensuring qualification to the Champions League, Martins is also hoping for a lot of success in Europe this season.
Olympiakos were only able to finish in the second spot of the Greece standings. However, they were able to conclude the campaign with a remarkable set of 10 victories. Even then, PAOK were able to end up as champions after managing to go undefeated throughout the season. The early stages of the new season have suggested that Olympiakos are still in a very strong position. The team were able to get a 6-1 aggregate success over Russian outfit Krasnodar, who had previously conquered FC Porto. Last season, Olympiakos were able to create headlines by knocking AC Milan out of Europe.
Nelson Oliveira’s spell in English football appears to be coming to an end after he has signed for Greek outfit AEK Athens. The Portuguese striker spent the second half of last season on loan at Reading, as he was deemed surplus to requirements at Norwich City. Reading manager José Gomez was very keen on bringing Oliveira on a permanent basis to the Madejski Stadium, but the Royals have been unable to come to terms with the player. Oliveira had a long-standing problem with Norwich that even prevented him from getting a squad member for the 2019-20 campaign in the Premier League. He had one year left on his contract with the Canaries.
The forward has decided to agree a move to Greece with an annual wages of around € 1 million. The 27-year-old will be signing a two-year contract with AEK Athens. The strong Portuguese contingent at the club has been a huge influence in helping seal the move. Miguel Cardoso has been in charge of the team while the likes of Paulinho, Helder Lopes, André Simões, and Francisco Geraldes provide a lot of comfort for Oliveira to settle into the team. The Greek outfit are hoping to have a strong campaign in the 2019-20 season after finishing third in the table last season. The team went behind PAOK and Olympiakos, but they managed to hold off a late challenge fromAtromitos.
Olympiakos were able to gain a huge advantage in the third round of the Champions League qualification after a 1-0 victory over Istanbul Basaksehir. Despite being on the road, the Greek outfit were able to get this narrow victory that places them in a comfortable position ahead of the second leg. Olympiakos came into the game with a mediocre away record, but they were aware about Istanbul Basaksehir’s troubles when it comes to defending. The latter once again reared the ugly head and the Greek outfit were able to get a narrow win despite being bossed on several fronts like corners, shots on target, and possession.
After a goalless first half, GiorgiosMasouras came up with a goal in the 53rd minute. This acted as an impetus for Olympiakos to hold on to the lead. The hosts became increasingly nervous as the time went on. The likelihood of getting an equaliser decreased substantially when midfielder Irfan Kahveci was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 80th minute. Just when it seemed that things could not get worse for the Turkish team, Edin Višća ended up missing a penalty in the second minute of injury time that would have given Istanbul a huge amount of hope about qualification to the next round.
Pedro Martins will be relieved man after Olympiakos have been able to avoid PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League qualification rounds. The draw for the second round of the qualification campaign for Europe’s premier competition took place recently at Nyon. Olympiakos were quite nervous about this, as there was a significant possibility of coming up against Dutch outfit PSV, who have a lot of strength in the ranks. Now, Olympiakos will face Viktoria Plzen. After finishing as the runner-up in the Super League, Olympiakos have been able to graduate from the group stages by beating AC Milan.
The Dutch powerhouse would have been a formidable opponent for Olympiakos, who have not been able to reach the group stages of the Champions League in two out of the last three campaigns. The team did feature in the 2017-18 group stages when they were paired up against powerhouses like Juventus and Barcelona. The second leg of the Champions League qualifiers will be a two legged affair that will start on July 23/24. The first leg will be in Czech Republic and this will be followed by the game in Greece.