Steve Clarke revealed his Scotland players have been going all out to secure a squad place for this summer’s Euros.
The Scots are in Amsterdam for a friendly against the Netherlands on Friday before they host Northern Ireland in a challenge match at Hampden Park next Tuesday night.
The games are part of the preparations for the European Championship in Germany and the Scotland boss has noticed a certain determination in training.
Setting the tone
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT)
“The training has been really intense but to be honest and fair to the players the training is normally intense when we come together,” said Clarke, who will decide after the Dutch game whether to bring in a replacement centre-back after losing Grant Hanle…
Ryan Christie admits Scotland have to take heed of a “good lesson” from Friday’s 4-0 defeat to the Netherlands or their Euro 2024 stay could be short.
Steve Clarke’s side are recovering from a heavy loss in Amsterdam which did not look like coming for the majority of the friendly encounter.
Amid a fine first-half display by the Scots, Bournemouth midfielder Christie had a header tipped onto the crossbar by Dutch goalkeeper Mark Flekken but the home side took the lead five minutes before the break with a stunning Tijjani Reijnders drive from distance.
Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland missed a glorious chance in the 62nd minute when he hit the bar with only the keeper to beat and 10 minutes later Georginio Wijnaldum headed in a second from eight yards to…
Former Italy international Mauro Camoranesi has taken aim at Mario Balotelli and claimed the striker is overrated .
Balotelli has come in for criticism in the wake of Italy s exit at the FIFA World Cup, with their failure to advance from Group D resulting in the resignation of coach Cesare Prandelli.
Italy team-mate Daniele De Rossi appeared to criticise Balotelli following the nation s 1-0 defeat to Uruguay on Tuesday.
And Camoranesi – a World Cup winner in 2006 – has joined the list of disgruntled Italians voicing their displeasure with the 23-year-old striker.
I firmly believe Balotelli is a very overrated player, both by the media and those who train him, said Camoranesi, who earned 55 caps for Italy between 2003 and 2010.
It really infu…
Uruguay president Jose Mujica has lambasted FIFA as sons of b*****s for handing out a fascist punishment to Luis Suarez.
Suarez was hit with a four-month ban from all football activity and a nine-match international suspension for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the FIFA World Cup last week.
The Liverpool forward subsequently protested his innocence and the Uruguay FA have lodged an appeal, although the 27-year-old on Monday apologised to Chiellini.
Prior to Suarez s admission of guilt, Mujica left FIFA in no doubt as to his personal feelings on the issue.
At FIFA, they are a bunch of old sons of b*****s, said Mujica when Uruguay landed back home following their World Cup exit at the hands of Colombia on Saturday.
They could have pun…
Borussia Dortmund have confirmed the return of midfielder Mario Gotze from Bayern Munich.
Gotze has endured an indifferent three seasons at Bayern after moving from Dortmund in 2013.
The Germany international who scored the winner in the 2014 World Cup final defeat of Argentina won back-to-back league triumphs with Dortmund before departing for Munich a year later and returns with three more league titles under his belt as well as two DFB-Pokal medals.
Despite the team s success, Gotze became a peripheral figure at the Allianz Arena under former coach Pep Guardiola last season, making just 14 league appearances.
Borussia Dortmund verpflichtet . Mehr Infos folgen.
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB)
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Juventus and Barcelona target Gabriel Barbosa expects a transfer away from Santos to be confirmed shortly.
The Brazilian club said this week they had accepted a €20million bid from the Serie A champions for the 19-year-old forward, though Barca retain first refusal on any transfer.
Reports in Spain on Thursday claimed that Barca technical director Robert Fernandez was due to fly out to South America in order to negotiate a deal for the highly-rated forward, who is currently with the Brazil squad ahead of the start of the Olympic Games.
Gabriel himself says he is now very close to finalising a move away from the Campeonato Brasileiro, though he would not confirm his destination.
I am not signed yet, I am a Santos and Brazil player, he said at a media …
Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti has suffered a blow to his plans for the return of the Premier League after former Barcelona defender Yerry Mina suffered a quad muscle injury.
Mina has been a regular at centre-back this season, appearing in 25 of Everton s 29 top-flight games and scoring twice.
However, there appears little prospect of him being available when the league resumes later this month.
His club stated on their website: Everton Football Club can confirm Yerry Mina is set to be sidelined for several weeks after sustaining a muscle injury.
A scan confirmed the Colombia international suffered a partial tear in his left quad muscle during training last week.
The 25-year-old is now in the early stages of his rehabilitation under the care of t…
Colombia international Jose Izquierdo joined newly-promoted Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion in a club-record transfer.
Izquierdo arrives at Brighton from Club Brugge, signing a contract until June 2021, it was announced on Sunday.
The 25-year-old winger – who helped Brugge to the Belgian Cup in 2014-15 while he was crowned Belgium s Player of the Year the following season – could make his debut against Barnet in the EFL Cup on Tuesday.
The club believed in me. They took the time to follow my football, showed me the project for Brighton and the new challenge to be in the Premier League. I liked it and made the decision to join, Izquierdo said.
The record fee is a motivation; we feel pressure in other ways, so you can t think of the fee l…
It s nice for some commentators to have a little go, said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as another news conference turned into a discussion about a player not in his recent plans.
The commentator in question was probably Marco van Basten, the Netherlands and Ajax great who is perhaps the most authoritative voice wondering aloud why Donny van de Beek can t get a game for Manchester United.
Since signing from Ajax for an initial £34.7million in September, Van de Beek has played 61 minutes in England s top flight, all of them as a substitute. Even with Paul Pogba restricted largely to the role of impact-sub, with post-COVID-19 fitness concerns still a problem, Van de Beek appears below Bruno Fernandes, Juan Mata, Scott McTominay and Fred in the midfield pecking order, and that s…
Gerard Pique acknowledged Barcelona have been regressing season on season but is convinced that will slowly change following some big boardroom changes.
The Catalan giants are gearing up for a presidential election after Josep Maria Bartomeu and the entire board stepped down from the position ahead of an expected vote of no confidence.
Barca finished 2019-20 trophyless and have this season made their joint-worst start to a LaLiga campaign since the competition shifted to three points for a win.
However, Pique is looking forward to a brighter future at Camp Nou once a new board of directors is in place.
The club is as it is right now, he told Movistar following Wednesday s 2-1 Champions League win over Dynamo Kiev. We are in a process of many changes.