Ilkay Gundogan believes Barcelona face a “harder” test against Napoli following the Italian club’s change of manager.
The Serie A champions sacked Walter Mazzarri on Monday and immediately brought in former coach Francesco Calzona until the end of the season.
His debut in the dugout comes at home to Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash on Wednesday night.
Francesco Calzona is the new head coach of Napoli. Welcome, Francesco!
— Official SSC Napoli (@en_sscnapoli)
Speaking to La Vanguardia, Gundogan said: “This is what the Champions League is all about, making big demands.
“I love this kind of pressure. Every game starts from zero. The fact they have just changed managers won’t make it …
UEFA is unlikely to change its stance in opposing the Premier League s reported plans to play some matches overseas.
The Premier League previously shelved plans for a 39th round of fixtures in 2008 to be played abroad as the Football Association, FIFA and UEFA all rejected the notion.
Reports surfaced this week that the plans were being discussed once again, but UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino would be surprised if European football s governing body changed their attitude towards the idea.
Whenever these kind of things are discussed, we have to act in a responsible way within the rules that we ve all agreed together, he said.
These kinds of ideas and proposals are on the table every now and then and have to be discussed every now and then.
…
Austria and Switzerland are ready to host the European football championship on June 7-29, having completed their preparations on schedule, one month before the kick-off.
The host cities have never been ready so early, said the president of the Euro 2008 organising committee, Martin Kallen, who already led the committee that organised the European championship in Portugal in 2004.
The last major construction projects have now been completed in Vienna.
The Ernst Happel stadium, which will host the final, has been entirely modernised and refitted to seat 51,000 people, and builders finished putting up the 460-seat media centre last month.
The city s U2 underground line has meanwhile been extended to the stadium, facilitating access by public transporta…
Sunday Night Football for Week 7 features a non-conference clash between a couple of two-win teams with the Indianapolis Colts visiting the San Francisco 49ers.
San Francisco is still dealing with injury issues coming off a bye but was on the board as a 4.5-point NFL betting favorite for this primetime game. Indianapolis kind of enjoyed a bye of its own, thrashing lowly Houston 31-3 last Sunday for its third straight ATS win and fourth payday in the past five games.
Check out our NFL free picks and predictions for Colts vs. 49ers on Sunday, October 24.
…
There was a weird moment during last night’s game between the Saints and Falcons, when Saints head coach Sean Payton did some premature gloating. With his team up 17-10 and 12:30 left to play, Payton gave the “Choke!” sign to Falcons running back Devonta Freeman after Freeman had run for no gain near the Saints’ sideline: It was an odd gesture—I suppose maybe it was a reference to last year’s Super Bowl—done at an odd time, because the Falcons went on to score on that very same drive. They’d eventually win the game 20-17. Freeman was asked about the incident after the game, and he admitted that he noticed Payton’s gesture but that he didn’t let it get in his head, noting that Payton “ain’t from where I’m from”: Payton, on the other hand, tried to play dumb …