Oba Martins Joins US major league soccer

Obafemi Martins has announced his plans to join Seattle in the US major league soccer. His current clubside in spanish liga, Levante had reiterated their intention to keep him till the end of the season but it's likely that the move will take immediate effect.

Ameobi Out Against Chelsea

Sammy Amoebi who is a teammate, younger brother of Shola and Newcastle player has been signed by Middlesbrough, an English championship side on loan until the end of season.

Sammy is expected to help Boro which is currently occupying the 7th position on the Championship league table gain promotion to the premiership.

During Sammy 14 appearances this season in Newcastle united, he did not score any goal but Tony Mowbray who is Middlesbrough’s coach, believes the winger has potential and will be useful during the season.

Ameobi is ineligible tonight as Middlesbough meet Chelsea in the 1/8 finals at Riverside. His teammates, Josh McEachran, Kieron Dyer (both ineligible), Lukas Jutkiewicz (ankle) and Jonathan Woodgate(calf) are also out of the game.

On the other side, Chelsea will be relying on the nigerian duo of Victor Moses and Mikel Obi to seek a qualification into the quater-finals. No doubt Frank Lampard will likely be on parade to fight for his 26th FA goal and 200 in all for Chelsea. 

Real Madrid beat Barcellona 3-1

Real Madrid defeated Barcellona fc 3-1 at Camp Nou stadium in Barcellona to qualify for the finals of this year’s copa del rey where they will meet tonight’s winner in the other semi-final match between Athlelic Madrid and Betis Sevilla. Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals (13^th and 57^th min) while Varane got Real Madrid’s third goal (68^th min). Barcellona reduced the tally to 3-1 when Jordy Alba scored in the 89^th minute of the match.

Michael Essien came in as a substitute for Real Madrid when he replaced Alonso (84^th min). Real Madrid qualifies on a 4-2 aggregate(first leg ended 1-1 in Madrid).

Manchester City: $78 million for Yaya Toure

According to reports published in today’s edition of daily star, Manchester City has offered their midfielder, Yaya Toure a new 5 year contract of $78 million. The 29 yr old Ivorian star has not yet accepted the deal but both sides are set to seal the deal very soon.  The former Barcellona player scored Manchester’s first goal in their 2-0 win over Chelsea

Osaze Odemwingie booed by fans

Nigeria international, Osaze Odemwingie came in as a late substitute (88th min) and was booed by his fans following his attempt to force a move to QPR on transfer deadline day. However, his clubside, WBA defeated Sunderland 2-1 in a premiership encounter played saturday to record their first win of 2013. Belgian Romelu Lukaku scored West Bromwich's both goals (35th and 75th mins)

John Paintsil bailed

Ghana international John Paintsil has been bailed and had returned home after spending some hours inside Legon police cell in Accra for stabbing his wife.
Accra police spokesman, Freeman Tettey, however assured that investigation into the matter is intensively going on. He also informed journalists that Paintsil's wife has been discharged from the hospital.

Balotelli's girlfriend to cheer AC Milan

This afternoon as Milan city's football derby kicks off, AC Milan's new signed player, Mario Balotelli will be in action as they plot to beat their city rivals InterMilan and move to occupy the third position on the serie A league table. Among fans to chant AC Milan to victory are Balotelli's girlfriend, Fanny and Boateng's fiancèe Melissa.

Fanny(left) and Melissa

The two clubs continue their derby outside the pitch as they both fight to sign a Cameroonian 19 years old player, Samuel Umtiti who currently is a player of Lyon in French ligue 1.

Al Ahly wins super cup

Two goals scored by Ramy Moustafa and Mohamed Barakat catapulted Al Ahly of Egypt to a 2-1 victory over AC Leopards of Congo.

There was no clear supremacy of play between the two teams, until 10 minutes into the second half when the egyptians took advantage of playing in front of their home crowd and Moustafa found the net with a fierce shot from outside the box.
They consolidated their lead as Barakat volleyed in the ball past the congolese goalkeeper, Gildas Kihavoko after receiving a pass from El Said Bekhit.
AC Leopards reduced the tally to 2-1 with 12 minutes left into the game. Ndey scored for them.

CAF super cup: Leopards take battle to Al Ahly

The annual event, CAF super cup match is a one-off game where holders of CAF champions league take on winners of confederation cup and the victor is crowned with a trophy including a prize money of $75,000 while the vanquished receives a consolation prize of $50,000.

This year’s edition comes this afternoon in the military owned 85,000 capacity stadium in the Egyptian resort of Borg El Arab, 50 kilometers west of Alexandria, between the CAF champion league winners Al Ahly of Egypt and AC Leopards of Congo Brazzaville who won the last year’s confederation cup.

Al Ahly

The Egyptians, playing in front of their home fans are favored to lift the trophy considering their current top form and being the most successful club in CAF competitions with 15 titles – 7 champions league, 4 super cup and 4 African cup winners.
On the other hand, the Congolese will rely on a handful friendlies played to acquire competitiveness because their domestic league season has not kicked off, though their coach, Cameroon-born Joseph Omog vows to plot strategies that will give them victory.
However, coach of Al Ahly, Hossam El Badry is poised to lift the trophy despite having injured defender Sayed Moawad and midfielders Hossam Ghaly, Ahmed Seddik out of team.

Ghana international Paintsil in cell for stabbing wife

As at press time, John Paintsil’s wife is reportedly in critical conditions after being stabbed by her husband. Police in Ghana confirmed that the former West Ham, Fulham and now Hapoel Tel Aviv player was locked inside the cell at the Legon police station in Accra and that he may be bailed and charged to court on Monday.

Mr. Freeman Tettey, spokesman of Accra police said that “the information available to us is that he stabbed his wife in the upper eyelid, we had to quickly rescue the wife and send her to the hospital. For now, he is in our custody and we are in the investigation process. We are holding him in lock for causing harm to his wife and assaulting his neighbor” Mr. Tettey said on Friday.

He narrated further that “the wife scaled a wall to a neighbour’s house for protection and immediately, John Paintsil also pursued her, came to the neighbour’s house, gave him some slaps and threatened to shoot him. That scared the gentleman who rushed to the police to lodge a complaint”.

On Paintsil’s wife condition, Mr. Tettey added that “ she collapsed, which suggests she is in a critical condition, but for now we don’t know her current state, when she is stable, we can start taking statements from her.”

John Paintsil is a member of the Ghana’s Black Stars team that finished fourth at the 2013 Africa Cup Of Nations staged in South Africa where the Super Eagles of Nigeria emerged winners.

John Paintsil in cheerful moment with Adebayor

Ebagua aims serie A

Three best teams will earn promotion at the end of the Italian elite league. Varese which has Osariemen Ebagua as one of its players is currently 4^th position on the Italian Serie B league table where they have won 12games, drew 8matches and been defeated 6times.

Ebagua is keeping hopes alive for the team’s ambition for a promotion into Seria A, so far the Benin born player who tested his ability in the Seria A last season during his 6 months stay on loan has expressed his desire to return to the top division with Varese.

He has scored 11goals which makes him the best scorer for the club. From his record, he is only one goal away from the 12 goals he scored in 2010/2011 season and has 14more games to play to improve the record before the season ends.

UEFA Europa league: final sixteen teams emerge

 

•  

Sixteen teams have emerged at the end of the Uefa Europa league that was played in Europe last night. Levante of Spain had Oba martin score just 9minutes from the start of the match thus defeating Olympiakos with a 1-0. Newcastle needed to at least draw to advance in the league and they snatched a 1-0 win against Metalist in Ukraine.

Mousa Dembele equalised with a last gasp strike in the 90^th for Tottenham thus making them qualify on a 3-2 aggregate for the next round where Intermilan of Italy awaits them. In turkey, despite Fenerbace’s poor performance, Bate was defeated 1-0 and the goal was scored by Christian Baroni during a penalty kick.

Bordeaux defeated Dynamo Kiev 1-0 in France after their 1-1 draw last week in Kiev. Nigeria’s Onazi helped Lazio secure a 2-0 win over Borussia Mon’gladbach 21 minutes left in the game. Chelsea and Sparta Prague ended 1-1 giving them 2-1 aggregate thus qualifying them in round 16.

 

In Germany, the match between Hannover and Anzhi at first seemed like a formality considering the fact that the first leg ended 3-1 for the Russians, the Germans scored 70minutes of the game to help them qualify for the next round. Traore struck for Anzhi when he scored at the left corner of the net after a counter attack ending the game 1-1.

German side file case against Drogba

Schalke 04has questioned Didier Drogba‘s inclusion in the first leg of the match they played on Wednesday night in Istanbul with Turkey Galatasaray which ended as a draw1-1 and has taken the case to European football governing body-UEFA which has promised to look into the matter.

Didier Drogba joined Galatasaray in January after signing a two and a half years contract last summer with a Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua with allegations that his salary is being owed, his transfer to the Turkish side was however cleared by FIFA.

Chelsea FC which won the champions league last season had Didier Drogba as one of its key players. He was also a member of the Ivory Coast national team that as defeated by Nigeria in the quarter finals of the African cup of Nations.

Uefa Europa League:Lazio invites Onazi

   

Ciani, Floccari and Onazi

•  

The round 32 UEFA league matches will be played across Europe this night. The Romans look forward to secure a positive result that will qualify them to round 16 as SS Lazio will host Borussia Mon’gladbach in a match in Rome. Twenty players have been invited for the match including Nigeria’s Ogenyi Onazi by the coach Vladimir Petkovic as the first game ended 1-1.

Anzhi defeated Hannover 2-0 in the first encounter and they are likely to rely on the result for a place in the next round of the tournament, Samuel Eto’o scored one of the goals. In Czech Republic, Sparta Prague was defeated by Chelsea 0-1, they are playing at the Stamford Bridge tonight as Rafa Benitez relies on Victor Moses runs and incursions to create straight paths to the goal for his prolific strikers. Tonight’s match will give Mikel Obi an opportunity to get back to his regular team since he has not played for Chelsea after returning from the AFCON 2013.

Joel Obi will not be joining Intermilan as they travel to Romania to consolidate their 2-0 win in Milan last week against Cluj as he is recovering from injuries. During the Levante game, Oba Martins role has propelled the Spanish side to write history on their tournament debut as his goal completed the 3-0 rout of Olympiakos.

Dynamo Kiev will face Bordeaux and it will be a difficult task for Taiwo and his teammates as they failed to take advantage of the home game where the best they could was 1-1 draw. Newcastle players will play Metalist in Ukraine tonight but they are not shaken as the clean sheet score line in the first match played at their home ground will compel them to seek an away win or at least a draw.

 

 Other Fixtures:
Kazan vs Atl. Madrid (2-0)
Dnipro vs Basel (0-2)
Genk vs Sttutgart (1-1)
Lyon vs Tottenham (1-2)
Benfica vs Leverkusen (1-0)
Fenerbahce vs Bate (0-0)
Liverpool vs Zenit (0-2)
Plzen vs Napoli (3-0)
Steaua B. vs Ajax (0-2)

");

Kenya appoints new coach

Abel Amrouche(middle) during his presentation

Coach Frenchman Michel Henri of Harambee stars has been replaced by Abel Amrouche who was the former Head Coach of Burundi National team. During the presentation which took place in Kenya on Monday, Amrouche while speaking to journalists said his objective is to build a team that can compete in any level and with hard work he believes that Kenya football will definitely grow to a higher level. He further assured the players that language was not going to be a barrier as football does not require a person to talk much.

Harambee stars of Kenya will be playing against the Super Eagles of Nigeria in continuation of the African qualifiers for the 2014 world cup on the 22nd of March and when asked how prepared they were to face the African champions, he said that he believes that with hard work Nigeria will be given a good challenge but if not, they have other games to prepare for and play since the world does not end after the match with Nigeria.
So far, Nigeria is at the lead of their group table with four points in two games while Kenya is placed last with 1 point in 2 games behind Namibia and Malawi.

"Falling On Ghana's Feet"... AC Milan beat Barcellona

The "extra-terrestrials" from Barcellona led by Leo Messi in the attack were stunned with a 2-0 defeat at the hands of AC Milan. At the end of the first half, the supremacy over ball-possession was unquestionable as it finished 65% for Barcellona.
The second half began with a different song when the boys tutored by Massimo Allegri returned with the determination of scoring atleast one goal. And 12 minutes into the half, Montolivo's deviated free kick was corrected into the net by Kevin Prince Boateng's shot.
The 1-0 lead boasted the AC Milan lads and spurred them to contro-attack runs in search of more goals.

Muntari and Boateng after the two goals

Just 9 minutes left into the game, the frenchboy, Niang who came in as a substitute for Pazzini, dribbled a Barcellona's defender on the right flank and put in a smooth pass to the egyptian origin, El Shaarawy who layed a fine pass to Ghana's Sulley Muntari to beat Arsenal-bound goalkeeper, Victor Valdes.
Barcellona's efforts to reduce the tally were futile, despite the fact that the Scottish referee, Mr. Thompson allowed 5 minutes extra time.
The scoreline was 2-0 for AC Milan at the end of the game with both goals scored by two ghanaian players who were absent at the just concluded Afcon 2013 where Ghana finished at the 4th position. Sulley Muntari was not invited by Ghana, because he was recovering for injuries while Boateng had since renounced national calls.
In the other Uefa champions' league match between Galatasaray and Schalke 04, the much expected Drogba's impact was not seen and felt as it ended 1-1.
The return leg of both matches will be staged in a forthnight.

Drogba back to Uefa league action

The 34 year old ivorian star, Didier Drogba is set to help his new side, Galatasaray of Turkey reach the next round of Uefa champions league when they take on Schalke 04 of Germany in this evening's encounter.
Galatasaray's coach, Terim told journalist that both Drogba and Sneidjer "have quickly merged and integrated with the team". He reminded that both players have won the champions league with their previous clubs(Drogba won it last year with Chelsea while Sneidjer won the trophy with InterMilan of Italy in 2010).
Drogba who moved at the end of the last season to join Shanghai Shenhua in the chinese league for a $350 000 weekly pay has rescinded the contract and signed for a  $8 million annual pay with Galatasaray.

Elsewhere, Barcellona fc of Spain will lock horns with AC Milan of Italy at San Siro stadium in Milan city. No doubt, Allegri (coach of AC Milan) must have been having sleepless nights on how to render Leo Messi useless to his team. And tonight, he has called the Ghanaian duo of Sulley Muntari and Kevin Prince Boateng to help check Messi and team-mates.

line-ups  AC Milan - Abbiati, Abate, Mexes, Zapata,Constant,Montolivo,Ambrosini,Muntari,Boateng,Pazzini,El Shaarawy(coach Allegi)

Barcellona - Valdes,Dani Alves,Pique,Puyol,Jordi Alba,Xavi,Busquets,Fabregas,Pedro,Messi,Iniesta,(coach Roura)

Emeghara stuns seria A



Innocent Emeghara in action for siena

Emeghara Innocent is a Lagos born striker who has played for both Swiss U-20 and Swiss London Olympic team. He arrived Italy in January to join Siena in Seria A, before his arrival from Lorient, a French ligue 1 side, Siena was occupying the last position of the 20 team seria A league table.Due to his determination, he has been making headlines and scoring at every appearance to help his team.
Emeghara has been exceptional since his arrival and has seen him scoring four goals in the four games he has appeared so far. Siena fans call him the "atomic bomb" with the assurance that he will work harder to see his club side avoid relegation. This weekend, Emeghara is amongst the players that will meet the league leaders Juventus in a match the Bianconeri's of Turin are determined to win to continue their match towards the trophy.

Efe Ambrose scores twice

On saturday Efe opened scoring after 11 minutes of the game in their 6-2 rout of the visiting Dundee utd.
Last night in Perth, Celtic's run of six consecutive league wins came to an end but coach Neil Lennon's boys still had cause to be pleased for their 1-1 draw with St.Johnstone. They extended their league lead to 19 points ahead of second placed Motherwell.
Efe Ambrose got their goal with 8 minutes left in the first half. He beat Saints defenders in the air when he received a cross from Izaguirre to nod past Alan Mannus from 8 yards.
For Efe, it was two goals in two games after his disastrous outing against Juventus in Uefa champions league.



Efe rejoicing his goal

Super Eagles to play with goal-line technology

Preparations for the venues of this summer's confederation cup are underway. And Fifa has confirmed that goal-line technology will be used in the competition as well as at the world cup 2014 in Brazil.
It will be recalled that both Goalref and Hawkeye were used at the club world cup staged in Japan and have Fifa approval.
Goalref is a system which works by introducing magnetic sensors into the balls to determine whether the ball crossed the line while Hawkeye uses a number of cameras like in the basket ball games.

With this development, the African representative at the confederation cup 2013 in brazil,Super Eagles of Nigeria will see their goal line monitored by the eagle eyes of sophisticated cameras.

Nigeria champions begin title defence

Fixtures for the week - one encounters of the new nigerian football season have been released.The

defending champions, Kano Pillars will begin their quest for the title defence when they visit Wikki

 tourists in Bauchi while last season's runners up and nigeria's most glorious side,Rangers  international of Enugu will host 6 times title holders, Enyimba FC of Aba in a titanic battle which decides who wins the oriental derby.

Kano Pillars



During draws held at Abuja, Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) was adopted as the new name for the championship. It was formerly called Nigeria Premier

League (NPL). The organisers are also planning to shorten the league's calendar due to late commencement but a stiff opposition has been mounted by club proprietors who demand full calendar season.

Charles Kabore: a step away from Rubin Kazan

Fresh returnee from Afcon 2013 where he helped Burkina Faso to reach the finals of the competition lost 1-0 against Nigeria, Charles Kabore will join the likes of Samuel Eto'o and Traore in the russian football league. According to reports by the french newspaper, la provence, Olmpique Marseille, where Charles plays his club football, has reached agreement with Rubin Kazan for his transfer to the russian side.
The 25 year old midfielder is to earn $1.8 million every year. The contract expires in July 2015. He is likely to sign the new contract within hours.

Balotelli's sister pregnant for Oba Martins:is marriage imminent?

It's no more news that Abigail Baruwah, sister to Mario Balotelli of the Italian national team and former Manchester City and now AC Milan striker (Baruwah is the biological surname of Mario Balotelli) is pregnant for nigeria's Obafemi Martins. What is not yet clear is where, when and how their marriage will be staged.
 Some family sources say they will be marrying in Nigeria while others claim they have evidences that Martins will wed Abigail in Brescia - Italy. Abigail has however, since admitted being pregnant for the nigerian striker.

The baby is expected to be born around May/June this year, our source confirmed. Here is picture of the couple shopping in Milan, Italy for the baby.

Liverpool chase Emenike

The premiership side Liverpool is making moves to sign Nigeria's and Spartak Moscow's striker, Emmanuel Emenike. According to reports by russian newspaper, Izvestia, Emenike will take Luiz Suarez's place if the uruguayan star departs in June. Suarez is being chased by many european clubs including Juventus, Manchester City and Real Madrid.
The Otuocha (Aguleri-Nigeria) born star, Emenike is fresh from African cup of nations victory in South Africa.

Asamoah returns to action

Juventus face As Roma in week 25 of the serie A league tie at the olympic stadium in Rome this evening, a match that follows on the heels of their Uefa champions league match at Celtic park in Glasgow where they mauled Celtic 3 - 0.
Juve won last season's italian seria A league and are currently 5 points clear at the top of the league table having won 17 games, drawing 4 and losing 3 in 24 games disputed so far.Their last defeat was on 6th January when they lost 2 - 1 at their home ground to a less favoured Sampdoria.

Roma, by contrast, are a massive 21 points adrift of seria A league leaders Juventus and their defence continues to look vulnerable.They lost their last two league encounters, 2-4 at home to cagliari and 3-1 to sampdoria, conceding 7 goals in just 2 games. Since firing their former coach, Zeman two weeks ago after that 2-4 loss to Cagliari, they are yet to prove that most of their lacklustre performances were to be blamed on the coach.
However, Kwadwo Asamoah will return to Juventus duty following the Ghanaian midfield maestro's time at the Africa Cup of nations. Before departing for that tournament in South Africa, Asamoah had capped 18 league appearances (almost all in the starting XI) in 1363 minutes and scored two goals. He had also appeared in 5 Uefa champions league games. His goal was crucial when they lifted the italian "superoppa" triumphing over Napoli at the beginning of the season.
Asamoah returns to man the outside left defence of juventus from where his attacking runs have always pierced their opponents's defence and this evening at 20.45 local time in Rome, fans will be thrilled to a spectacular soccer artistry when Kwadwo and colleagues engage Totti's Roma.

Tunisia names new coach

Following the resignation of their former coach Sami Trabelshi, after Tunisia' poor performance in the just concluded afcon in South Africa, the country's FA has announced the appointment of the 50 year old Nabil Maàlloul as his successor. Maàloul was a former player with Esperance of tunis, club Africain and Hannover in bundesliga. He was preferred to Khaled Ben Yahia.
Maàloul was tasked to qualify the country to the next world cup in Brazil as well as afcon 2015 in Morocco.

Elsewhere,the Democratic Republic of Congo has put forward its candidacy to stage the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, the country's sports minister Baudouin Banza Mukalay Nsungu announced few days ago.

"The DR Congo is an applicant for the candidates (to host) the 2019 AFCON tournament," Banza Mukalay said. "I put the dossier into the hands of the FECOFA (Congolese football federation), which has already passed it onto CAF (the Confederation of African Football). We await the specifications, which we will fill calmly," added the sports minister.

The competition would effectively be held at two venues, in the Congolese capital Kinshasa and the southeastern city of Lumbumbashi. However, Banza Mukalay also said that a stadium in the western city of Matadi would also be ready for the 2019 showpiece, while Kisangani could also stage matches.

Nigeria postpones Premier league kick-off

The 2012/2013 Nigeria Premier League season kick- off date which was supposed to have started last year has been changed again from 16^th February 2013 to March 9,2013 by the Interim Management Committee during their meeting in Abuja on Tuesday 12^thFebruary 2013. The reason for the change is due to inability of Total Promotions Limited and Globacom to conclude the mutual agreement they had earlier reached on the issue of title sponsorship. The Committee hopes to explore other funding options for the season to kick off on the fixed date.

 As a result of this change, Managers of the 20 Premier League clubs held a meeting yesterday 14^th February 2013 to ascertain the way forward and among issues deliberated on was the 50million naira the IMC asked the clubs to pay.

 Nigeria Premier League draws will however hold on Sunday 17^thFebruary, 2013 at the FIFA goal project of the Abuja National Stadium.

 

 JOY CHARLIE

Fifa ranking: Nigeria and afcon finalists gain positions

With four victories and two draws in 6 games played in the just concluded african cup of nations' tournament in South Africa where they lifted the trophy to end a 19-year drought since they last won it, the Super Eagles have moved 22 positions from their previous FIFA/Coca-cola ranking to occupy 30th. Burkina Faso moved from 92nd placement to 55th while Ivory coast climbed to the 12th position from previous 14th. Ghana moved 7 spots to rank 19th in the world and Spain maintains lead at no. 1 position followed by Germany(2nd) and Argentina(3rd).Here is the top 50 table. Watch out for other standings.

Table -Top 50
1.Spain                       
2.Germany                
3.Argentina                
4.England                   
5.Italy                         
6.Columbia                
7.Portugal                
8.Netherlands            
9.Croatia                   
10.Russia                  
11.Greece                 
12.Ivory Coast
12.Ecuador
14.Switzerland

15.Mexico
16.Uruguay
17.France
18.Brazil
19.Ghana
20.Belgium
21.Sweden
22.Denmark
23.Chile
24.Bosnia-Herzegovina
25.Mali
26.Czech Republic
27.Norway
28.Japan
29.Montenegro
30.Nigeria
31.Romania
32.USA
33.Hungary
34.Algeria
35.Paraguay
36.Serbia
37.Australia
38.Korea Republic
39.Peru
39.Republic of Ireland
41.Turkey
42.Tunisia
42.Panama
44.Bolivia
45.Venezuela
46.Ukraine
47.Zambia
48.Bulgaria
49.Slovakia
50Haiti

Oba Martins spurs Levante to a 3 - 0 victory

Obafemi Martins scored in 58th minute to complete Levante's 3 - 0 rout of Olympiakos of Greece in their Uefa europa league match. They were already 2 - 0 ahead with goals netted in by Barkero(10th, 40th mins) when he received a smooth pass from Barkero and raced ahead to place the ball behind the keeper right into the net.
Elsewhere, Taiwo's cross from the left flank provided Haruna a super assist to beat the Bordeaux's keeper and go ahead 1 - 0. But their lead was shortlived as the french side got the equaliser three minutes later when Obraniak fired in a shot from outside Dynamo's 18 yard.
In another Uefa europa league encounter, Chelsea without Victor Moses and Mikel Obi ran away with a precious 1 - 0 away victory against Czech republic's Sparta Prague. The brazialian international, Oscar combining nicely with Hazard, placed the place in the bottom corner of the net within 45 seconds of coming off the bench. He came in as a substitute in 81st minute replacing Juan Mata.
Emmanuel Adebayor is still to find his scoring prowess since returning from Afcon but he contributed in Tottenham's 2 - 1 victory against Lyon.Bale got both goals from two spectacular free-kicks(45th and 92nd minutes).
Despite his sour relationship with cameroun's football federation, Eto'o scored to equalize for Anzhi.They went ahead to win 3 - 1.

Other results
Zenit 2 - Liverpool 0
Ajax  2 - Steaua B. 0                                                                                                           
Bate  0 - Fenerbahce 0
Leverkusen 0 - Benfica 1
Napoli 0 - Plzen 3
Atl.Madrid 0 - Rubin Kazan 2
Newcastle 0 - Metalist 0
Basel 2 - Dnipro 0
InterMilan 2 - Cluj 0
Stuttgart 1 -Genk 1
M'gladbach 3 -Lazio3

Mega contract for Burkina faso's Pitroipa

His mvp status at the just concluded African cup of nations in South Africa has earned him the eagle eyes of many european clubsides. Afrofootball360 learnt that Jonathan Pitroipa currently playing his club football with Rennes in french ligue 1 will definitely move at the end of the season for a multi million contract. And we can authoritatively reveal that talks have reached a conclusive stage between Rennes and Rubin kazan of Russia for his move to the russian league in summer. The clauses of the contract is still "a work-in-progress".

Obiora Nwankwo joins Cluj in Romania

Cluj fc of Romania announced that the club has loaned nigeria's super eagles' player, Obiora Nwankwo from Parma and InterMilan (he is jointly owned by both clubs) till the end of this season. Obiora was also on loan to Padova in serie B in Italy where Keshi spotted him and took him to Afcon 2013.

Fresh from Afcon victory in South Africa, the player is not expected to play in tonight's Uefa europa league match between Cluj and Joel Obi's InterMilan at San Siro stadium in Milan Italy.

"I still fear for my life" - Eto'o

Barely 4 hours to kick - off of Anzhi-Hannover match, first leg of the europa league encounter that decides which of the two teams will qualify for the final of 16 of the competition, attention is on Samuel Eto'o, the camerounian international that earns over €20 million to wear the Anzhi colours. Though his football ability is not in doubt, but his recent revelation that he receives death threats from his country's football federation officials may likely be affecting his performances on the pitch.
Infact, Eto'o continues to attack the cameroun football federation warning that "someone in there wants to kill me".The ex- InterMilan striker said that he lives under fear and to protect himself and his family that he has hired special bodyguards.

In the national team, "I don't wear jerseys they give me but I order them directly from the manufacturers and I don't eat with my team mates to avoid being poisoned", the Anzhi's goal getter had earlier exposed. And officials of the football federation have reiterated that they have no interest in Eto'o's personal life.

Nigerian star leaves Italian league

Ex super eagles' star, Christian Obodo joins Dynamo Minsk in Belarus for a 18- month contract which expires june 2014. He had previously played with Perugia, Udinese, Torino and Lecce, all in the italian seria A league. It will be recalled that Obodo was kidnapped last year by armed men in Warri during his summer vacation in Nigeria.

Elsewhere, Mohammed Sissoko of the Malian national team will be officially presented by his new club Fiorentina of Italy today at 13.15 local time at the press room of " Franchi" stadium in Florence -Italy. Yesterday after successfully undergoing the medical test, he trained with his new colleagues and is likely to be in the starting eleven when Fiorentina plays InterMilan on sunday in an italian seria A league encounter. Sissoko had played with Psg, Juventus, Liverpool and Valencia. When accosted, Momo as he is popularly called said that he is very happy to join Fiorentina and that he will work hard to be a regular and win trophies for his new clubside.

Efe Ambrose paves Juve's way into Uefa champions' league quarter finals

Four hours before that encounter, reports were clear that Efe Ambrose,still gasping in euphoria for his recent exploits at the just concluded afcon 2013 where he helped Nigeria to lay hands on the much sought-and-fought for trophy, was to sit as a possible substitute in the Celtic bench. And while in Abuja, Nigeria, his super eagles team mates were meted with heroic welcome, Efe Ambrose was communicated at about 1600 pm that coach Neil Lennon has included him in the starting XI  due to Georgios Samaras's inability to recover from a hamstring injury.
He was quick to let leave hold of him the fatique that has accompanied him in the past 20 days during the battle for his fatherland.
Celtic began the match with aggressive incursions and shots at Juve's goal post spear-headed by Commons and Victor Wanyama (brother to Mariga - former Intermilan midfielder, now at Parma) and Buffon, Juventus's captain and goalkeeper curtailed their attempts with superlative dives and saves. It was just about three minutes from when the spanish referee,Undiano Mallenco allowed the beginning of hostilities that Peluso (substituting Kwadwo Asamoah, Ghana's representative in afcon tournament) looped a long high pass and Alessandro Matri was able to nudge Efe Ambrose aside to sneak in the ball through keeper Fraser Forter's legs and over the line for Juve's first goal.
The first ended 1 - 0 for the Italian champions.
The second half began with the 57,000 celtic fans proppelling their home side to pursue an earlier equalizer but Juventus defence and midfield ochestrated by Andrea Pirlo held water and resorted to counter attacks which yieded a goal in the 77th minute when Matri put through a quick pass to Marchisio who twisted in from the left of the penalty area to beat Forter and blow the net.
The third goal was as a result of Efe Ambrose's plunder in the defence when he tried to dribble pass through Juventus players, and Marchisio gained the ball from him, passed to sleaky Vucinic who completed the 3-0 rout.
In the 85th minute, Juve's coach substituted Vucinic with Anelka who made his debut in this year's Uefa champion's league to equal Ibrahimovic fit of playing in the champions' league with six different clubsides.
The game ended 3 - 0 in favour of the Italians who return to win here in Celtic park after losing the previous encounters disputed so far in Glasgow.

Lazio extends contract for Onazi

The champion of the just concluded Afcon tournament in Johnanesburg, South Africa with his super eagles of nigeria, Ogenyi Eddy Onazi has another reason to continue smiling. His italian serie A clubside S.S Lazio announced this morning in Rome that the super eagles youngster's contract has been further extended for another two years till 2016.

Speaking to the microphones of lazio style radio in the italian capital, Rome, the sports director of the clubside, Mr. Igil Tare said that the club and it's president Lotito are very happy for Onazi's contribution to the eagles' fit in South Africa. He indicated that the nigerian star has proved them right when they believed in him and gave him a serie A and europa league debuts. He assured that Onazi is expected back this week to join his team mates to continue fight for the scudetto. Next season, Lazio's priority is to play in the european champions' league, Tare added.

And talking about champions' league, this evening in Glasgow Scotland, nigeria's Efe Ambrose will start from the bench when his Celtics meet Juventus of Italy in the first leg of the final of 16 of the Champions' league. In the Juventus line-up, Kwadwo Asamoah will also be seating in the bench for the Turin based side. Conte, coach of Juventus said "it will be demanding too much from the player if we field him for the encounter. After playing 6 games in less than 20 days in a crucial tournament like Afcon and under hot climate, the player should be allowed enough time ro recuperate" Antonio Conte conluded.

Italian serie A side eyes nigeria's Mba

His exploits at the just concluded African cup of nations in Souh Africa, where Nigeria beat Burkina Faso 1 - 0 in the last sunday's finals to lift the 19 year elusive trophy has earned him the eagle eyes of many european football scouts. No doubt, Sunday Mba, the 24-year-old nigerian mesmerizing midfielder had wished to showcase his football skills to the world through the AFCON windows, but little did he expect of the on going moves to scramble for his signature by top european sides.
From hints circulating among top agents in europe, the likes of Manchester city, Tottenham, Chelsea in premiership, PSG in ligue 1 and Bayer Munich in Bundesliga have activated their scouts to enquire about the the Enugu Rangers player.
But elsewhere in Italy, a top serie A side, Fiorentina FC has over gone the enquiry stage, and are already poised to grab Mba's signature come next transfer section in June this year. The clubside after signing Mali's Momo Sissoko from Psg this January, has expressed interest through their president Diego Della Valle to fortify the team for next season when their minimum objective will be a qualification for uefa champions' league.

It will be recalled that apart from playing major role in the super eagles' superlative midfield performance throughout the tournament, Sunday Mba got the winner that gave nigeria a 2 - 1 win over Ivory Coast in the quarter finals. His 40th minute goal also decided the final encounter against the Burkinabes. It ended Nigeria 1 - Burkina Faso 0.