Rumored Real Madrid transfer target insists his kids are settled in London

Rumored Real Madrid transfer target this summer Eden Hazard insists that he is happy in London.

Hazard has had a brilliant 2016/17 season with Chelsea under Antonio Conte as the blues are the current table toppers in Premier League and are in the semifinals of the FA Cup.

Eden Hazard regained his excellent form back this season after a disappointing last season under Jose Mourinho and has therefore attracted the attention of Los Blancos.

Hazard is reportedly valued at £100m and even Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has echoed his praise for the Belgian International at times.

Despite all the link-up rumours Hazard has told in an interview to Chelsea website that he is happy in London.

Excerpts here -

"Maybe I will in Belgium, to be close to the family or else I could go somewhere with nice weather," he told the Chelsea website when asked where he will be after retirement.

"My kids are very settled in London so it could be here - that's a long way off yet, so we will see."

Eden Hazard has been in sublime form this season as he has netted 11 times in 26 league appearances.

Chelsea are currently 10 points clear of second placed Tottenham Hotspur.

Mourinho 'desperate' to win the title

Jose Mourinho has had a pretty satisfactory first season at Manchester United.
He has already won two titles with the Red Devils and is in contention of the top four finish in the Premier League and also in the quarters of Europa League.

Ex-United midfielder and an 11-time Premier League champion Paul Scholes feels Mourinho will be desperate to win the Premier League title with Manchester United after a pretty good campaign in his first season at United.

Mourinho ended United's turbulent period after Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.
He rectified the errors and brought the team together with the help of some good signings and his tactical ability.

In an interview with Omnisport, Paul Scholes said what Mourinho will be looking for in his upcoming seasons.

"He will be given loads of time," Scholes said to Omnisport.

"He has had to consolidate after the difficult couple of years. He has managed to do that, and he will want to kick on now.

"He won't be happy with finishing fourth or fifth in the league. He will want to be up there trying to win the league. I believe in the next couple of years he will be desperate to do that."

Manchester United return to Premier League action this Saturday after the International break.

©sportskafun.blogspot.com

Ian Chappell praises Ajinkya Rahane for his captaincy skills

Ajinkya Rahane earned lots of accolades from cricketing fraternity around the world as he guided India to a victory over Australia at Dharamsala in the last test match, thus completing a series win and helping India regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

©BCCI

India were without Virat Kohli who suffered a shoulder injury in the previous test at Ranchi and was not fully fit for the last test. 

So, Rahane was given the opportunity and he displayed remarkable trait of captaincy with his cool yet aggressive instinct.

He took India across the finishing line.

Former Australian skipper, Ian Chappell was pretty impressed  and full of praises for the stand-in captain of Indian Cricket Team.

In an interview with ESPNcricinfo the legend shared his views.

India are very very lucky to have a stand in captain like Rahane. I thought he did a fantastic job," the former Australian captain told ESPNcricinfo.

"It is not easy to do the job of a fill in because you know the actual captain has a got a certain style. So (in that situation), you think 'what do I do? Do I try to copy that style or do I just be myself', and Rahane did the right thing. He captained in his own way," said Chappell.

Rahane performed the duties in his own quiet way, a contrast to the usually animated Kohli on the field.

"I would say Rahane is aggressive in his own quiet way.

You know you don't have to be a gung ho captain to have the whole team behind you. You just need to do a good job and have the guys have faith in what you are doing.

"And if you are making the right moves, the aggressive field placing moves that Rahane was making, that sort of ting brings the right behind the captain.

"They (Kohli and Rahane) do it totally different. But I thought Rahane did a good job and had the team right behind him because of the way he captained," added Chappell.

Rahane surely has shown the character and maturity needed for the job of captaincy. Hopefully he can captain Team India in future.

©sportskafun.blogsot.com

World Cup Qualification CONMEBOL Results

Yet another dramatic day in the World Cup Qualification CONMEBOL.

While Argentina presented a woeful display without their talisman Leo Messi, Brazil cemented their position at top of the group and also are the first to qualify for the World Cup in Russia in 2018.
Colombia leapfrogged Uruguay to become 2nd in the group.

Detailed result follows:-

1- Bolivia 2-0 Argentina

Just when Argentina were suffering from the news of Leo Messi's suspension for 4 games, their World Cup hopes took another major hit as they suffered a shock loss at the hands of Bolivia.

The visitor team never showed any spark as the Bolivian team cruised to a comfortable 2 goal win with goals from Juan Carlos Arce and Marcelo Moreno on either side of the half.

With this loss Argentina are 5th in the group with 22 points from 14 games.

2- Ecuador 0-2 Colombia

Colombia won in Quito with goals from James Rodriguez and Juan Cuadrado and boosted their World Cup hopes as they leapfrogged​Argentina and Uruguay to reach 2nd in the group.

Jose Pekerman's side were playing on a difficult away ground and they produced a remarkable performance.
Ecuador were reduced to 10 man later in the second half as they lost a place of playoffs to Chile.

3- Chile 3-1 Venezuela

Chile eased past bottom placed Venezuela as Alexis Sanchez became country's joint top goalscorer.

Sanchez opened the scoring in 4th minute with a brilliantly​ taken free kick as he took his tally to 37 goals and move alongside Marcelo Salas as country's joint top goalscorer.

Minutes later Esteban Paredes got onto the score sheet as he scored a brace on the night.
Venezuela managed to pull one goal back with the help of Salomon Rondon just past the hour mark but any kind of turnaround looked almost impossible.

Colombia were given a boost with the return of Arturo Vidal who missed last game 1-0 loss against Argentina.

4- Brazil 3-0 Paraguay

Brazil continued their excellent form and winning streak as they become the first team to qualify for the World Cup thanks to Peru's 2-1 win against Uruguay.

Neymar bagged his 52nd goal for his country as goals from Phillipe Coutinho and Marcelo too, helped Brazil secure a 3-0 win on the night.

Tite's men are in sublime form as they won their 9th game in a row since last year's Copa America Centenario. 

With this win Brazil are assured of at least a top 4 finish and have officially qualified for the next year's World Cup in Russia.

Brazil are currently 9 points clear of second placed Colombia who won against Venezuela while 11 points adrift Argentina who currently occupy play-offs 5th place.

5- Peru 2-1 Uruguay

Uruguay suffered a third consecutive defeat in qualifying round as Peru came from behind to down struggling visitors in Lima.

Goals from Paolo Guerrero and Edison Flores staged a much needed win as the return of Luis Suarez could not help Uruguay.

Uruguay drew first blood as they scored in the 30th minute through Carlos Sanchez but it lasted for just 4 minutes as Paolo Guerrero stored parity and Edison Flores completed the comeback just passed the hour mark.

With this win Peru kept their World Cup hopes alive.

Only 2 points separate 2nd placed Colombia and 5th placed Argentina as the fight for a place in next year's World Cup intensifies.
World Cup Qualification CONMEBOL will return in action later this year in September.

Pic Credits - FIFA World Cup 2018 

©sportskafun.blogspot.com

Messi suspended for 4 games

FIFA has handed a four match ban to Lionel Messi after the star player was found guilty of abusing the linesman in Argentina's match against Chile.

Messi scored the only goal of the match against Chile

Lionel Messi, who scored the winner against Chile in a must win match was not so good with his mouth as the player was found speaking cuss words to the linesman.
The incident reportedly came to light after the video did rounds and FIFA was considered to take a strict action against this.

The news came today that the Argentine has been handed a 4 match ban means he won't be available for the matches against Bolivia, Uruguay, Venezuela and Peru.

Messi has proved to be the Talisman for his team in CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifier as stats clearly show how poor his team has fared in his absence.

With the absence of Messi, Argentina will face a difficult task in the upcoming matches as their World Cup dream looks bleak at the moment.

Nevertheless, the AFA will appeal to FIFA to reconsider the punishment as the nation's World Cup qualifications dream is hugely dependent on him.

©sportskafun.blogspot.com

Football fan writes a beautiful letter to the injured Coleman

The curse of International break didn't go away without striking this time too.
In the game between Wales and Republic of Ireland, Seamus Coleman, the Irish captain suffered a horror leg injury which has ruled him out for the rest of the season.

The injury which many people would find disturbing happened on the night when Republic of Ireland took on Wales in the 1st round of Group D of the FIFA World Cup Qualifier at Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Seamus Coleman stretched out after the horrendous leg injury

Neil Taylor was the guilty of the tackle who was shown a straight red after the shocking tackle.

Football fans from around the world showered their prayers and hoped for a speedy recovery of the Everton man.

One such fan is a five year old who wrote a heartfelt letter to Coleman.

Reece Kenny from Offaly and his seven-year-old brother Cody, met the Everton full back before the game against Wales and were at the game when Neil Taylor's horror tackle de-railed Coleman's career till at least 2018.

The letter which the fan wrote to Coleman

The young fan writes:

'To Seamus, I love you, you are the best soccer player. My brother and I met you last Thursday before the Wales match. You were so kind and friendly to us. You are our hero. We were at the match and we were so sad for you that your bones are broken, we hope you get better really soon. Love from Reece Kenny (5) and my brother Cody (7) from Offaly.'

Meanwhile, FIFA agreed to pay the wages of the Everton man during the period of his recovery.

Well, we too wish a speedy recovery to the player as he is an important asset to both his club and country.

©sportskafun.blogspot.com

India level the series with the help of magical Ashwin

Series back to level pegging as India pulled off a memorable victory in Bengaluru test.

India gave a target of 188 runs to Australia, which the visitors knew won't be an easy task. Indian bowlers put up a fine performance with the ball to bring India back into the series.

When India were reduced to 246-8 from 238-4 in the space of 3 overs, Australia thought they had done enough to sense a victory in this test. But Saha and Ishant Sharma added some valuable runs for the last wicket to build some confidence in the team and make them believe that Aussies will not reach the total easily.

When Australia came out to bat, every member in Team India kept the belief in themselves. Captain, Kohli knew how the pitch would behave so he used his bowlers sensibly. Australia needed a good start to back themselves up but Indian bowlers had different ideas.

Every bowler stepped up to the task but the pick of the bowler was R. Ashwin. Ashwin completed his 25th five wicket haul and also completed 200 test wickets on Indian soil. He also surpassed Bishan Sing Bedi's 266 test wickets in the process.

Team India looked like a team on the mission as they were desperate to get this vital win and come back in the series.

The four match series is now tied at 1-1 and the next test will be played in Ranchi from 16th March. 

 

©sportskafun.blogspot.com

Lethal Australia do the damage with the second new ball

The Bengaluru pitch played it's part quite remarkably in the 1st session of the 4th day.

Credits : The Indian Express

India, who ended the 3rd day on a high without losing any wickets in the final session of the play, began the 4th day comfortably with Pujara and Rahane on the crease.

Rahane completed his half-century, while Pujara was sensing another century after spending more than 5 hours in the middle.

From 238-4 to 246-8

Australia needed something to put the pressure back on the Indians and the second new ball did exactly that.

Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood ran through the Indian middle order after knocking down 4 wickets in the 3 overs.

Starc started the destruction by first picking Rahane leg before wicket (with the help of DRS) and then on the very next ball Karun Nair on a duck. It looked almost inevitable to fend off Starc with the new ball. He was absolutely lethal.

In the next over, Hazlewood completed his 5-wicket haul by dismissing the set batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and then R. Ashwin. Hazlewood later got Umesh Yadav out on the edge of the circle.

This bowling performance by Aussie seamers shows how India needs to put their foot ahead when they come out to defend the target, whichever they set.

Wriddhiman Saha is showing some resilience after the stumble.

He, with Ishant Sharma, is the last pair on the crease as India still look to add some valuable runs to defend.

India trail by 1-0 in the series.

©sportskafun.blogspot.com