Wolves were left ruing their luck after an own goal and a deflected strike consigned them to 2-0 defeat at Leicester City, who had Jamie Vardy sent off.

The Premier League new boys looked in good shape to claim their first win of the season as they controlled the first half, hitting the post twice through Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez.

But Matt Doherty headed into his own net to undo Wolves early promise, before James Maddison s strike from the edge of the box found a way beyond Rui Patricio with a touch from Conor Coady.

Vardy was shown the red card for a dangerous challenge on Doherty after 66 minutes, but Wolves were unable to make up ground in a second half of fewer clear-cut opportunities.

Wolves made a bright start and had two chances to go in fro…

Ajax captain Joel Veltman has signed a three-year contract extension with the Eredivisie giants.

The 25-year-old defender’s previous deal in Amsterdam was due to expire next year but he is now set to remain with his boyhood club until June 2020.

Netherlands international Veltman has made 166 appearances for Ajax and won the Eredivisie title in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

His performances during Ajax’s run to the final of the Europa League last season were reported to have attracted the attentions of Tottenham.

Being chosen as the captain is an honor, I will proudly wear the armband the full season. Tomorrow night again, let s go !

— Joël Veltman (@joel_veltman)

Ajax have also signed former Feyenoord and Willem II goalkeeper Kostas Lampr…

Aston Villa are interested in signing Max Aarons from Norwich City in the summer transfer window, according to . Norwich have been relegated to the Championship, and the Canaries are likely to sell some of their best players.

Aarons has been on the books of Norwich since 2016 and has established himself as an important player in the team. According to , the England Under-21 international provided one assist in 36 Premier League games for the Canaries this past season, and scored two goals and provided six assists in 41 Championship matches during the 2018-19 campaign.

Villa narrowly avoided the dreaded drop from the Premier League and need to reinforce their squad this summer in order to be more competitive next season. Aarons is a very talented and promising young righ…

Verdict: Home win

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Spain were quite fortunate to finish top of Group B after avoiding defeat to Morocco with a last-gasp goal, but they are still favourites to beat the 2018 World Cup hosts and qualify for the quarter-finals. Russia, on the other hand, started strongly before they were hammered by Uruguay, and they, too, will be looking to show some improvement.

Spain

Spain’s run of three successive major titles came to an abrupt end as they crashed out of the 2014 World Cup in group stage, while they also failed to impress at the Euro 2016, losing to Italy in the first knockout stage. With Julen Lopetegui leaving the squad just as the 2018 World Cup was about to start, Spain found themselves in all sorts of problems, and their …

Franck Ribery believes Bayern Munich have no need to try to prise Jadon Sancho away from Borussia Dortmund.

Sancho, who joined Dortmund from Manchester City as a 17-year-old in 2017, enjoyed a stunning breakout campaign in the Bundesliga last season.

The winger broke into the England set-up and has been touted as a transfer target for Manchester United, while Bayern have rarely been shy when it comes to pursuing Dortmund s most valuable assets.

Ribery ended a 12-year association with Bayern before joining Fiorentina on a free transfer for 2019-20.

Nevertheless, the veteran former France attacker believes new recruits such as Ivan Perisic and Philippe Coutinho, along with the likes of Serge Gnabry, Kingsley Coman, Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski, leav…

For a dominant midfielder aiming to make their mark in the latter stages of an international tournament, Zinedine Zidane indisputably remains the benchmark in the modern era.

France are two wins away from emulating their celebrated class of 1998, who prevailed 3-0 in the World Cup final against Brazil on home soil thanks largely to a first-half brace from Zidane.

The ex-Juventus and Real Madrid great was only just getting started.

At Euro 2000, he strode regally across a quarter-final against Spain – dispatching a precision free-kick to kick-off a 2-1 win. It was the era of golden goal extra time and Zidane displayed nerves of steel to down Portugal from the penalty spot in the semi-final. David Trezeguet brought a similarly abrupt conclusion versus Italy in th…

Former Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has visited King Power Stadium to pay his respects to the club s late chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

Srivaddhanaprabha, 60, and four other people were killed when his helicopter crashed outside the stadium shortly after last weekend s draw against West Ham.

Tributes have been sent in from across the football world over recent days and Ranieri joined the mourners at the club s home ground on Thursday, laying a wreath among the many tributes to the person he described as a man of gold in an interview with Sky Sport Italia earlier this week.

He was accompanied by his wife Rosanna, Srivaddhanaprabha s son Aiyawatt, and Srivaddhanaprabha s wife Aimon.

The Thai businessman was extremely popular among F…

Federico Bernardeschi scored the winner for Juventus as the Serie A champions escaped with a 1-0 victory from an enthralling Serie A clash with Cagliari, while Paulo Dybala left the field in tears with a hamstring injury.

Bernardeschi touched home a squared Douglas Costa pass to claim the three points with 16 minutes remaining, despite the protestations of Cagliari who felt a free-kick should have been given for a Medhi Benatia elbow on Leonardo Pavoletti.

An action-packed first half saw Dybala strike the crossbar and Bernardeschi hit the post, before Benatia was ruled offside having appeared to put the visitors in front.

Pavoletti was a thorn in Juve s side throughout and brought the best out of Wojciech Szczesny on two separate occasions.

Dybala s matc…

Miguel Almiron holds no grudges towards Jack Grealish and would shake his hand despite the Manchester City man s disparaging jibe.

Grealish suggested team-mate Riyad Mahrez had played like Almiron after being substituted in City s victory over Aston Villa to secure the Premier League title on the final day of last season.

The England international has since acknowledged he regrets the comments in a clip that went viral on social media – referencing Almiron s previously underwhelming performances for Newcastle United.

Almiron s form has since upturned, with the Paraguay international scoring seven goals in eight games for Newcastle before the World Cup break, and he insists he has no issues with Grealish.

I didn t pay a lot of attention, I was on holida…

Another night of Champions League action has been and gone with Bayern Munich being the ones who came out on top in their time with RB Salzburg. Of course, saying that they came out on top is probably the biggest understatement of the year, given that they put a real beating on the Austrian side 7-1, to be exact.

It ensured they went through 8-2 on aggregate, booking their place in the quarter-finals of the competition in the process.

Lewandowski masterclass

Robert Lewandowski was, unsurprisingly, on fire once again last night as he scored a hat-trick to go nicely alongside an assist late in the game. The Polish forward continues to prove that, like a fine wine, he seems to only get better with age. It s nights like this that prove why he s such a commodity and prove w…