Liege set to travel to Merseyside again

Transfer news and rumours

UEFA cup winners Zenit St Petersburg looked sharper and fitter than the Premier league champion’s Manchester United as they claimed the Super Cup with a 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Pogrebnyak and new signing Danny. The lover of Manchester rain, Nemanja Vidic, pulled one back but United couldn’t find the equaliser.

Midfielder Paul Scholes was sent off in the last minute for punching a cross into the net, it was a moment of madness from the flame haired Scholes who will now be suspended from one of United’s Champions League games.

Earlier in the day the draw for the UEFA cup was made and Standard Liege will again travel to Merseyside this time to face Everton after being knocked out of the Champions League by Liverpool.

Portsmouth play Portuguese outfit Guimaraes, officially known as Vitoria SC, while Manchester City take on Cypriot side Omonia and Aston Villa face Litex Lovech of Bulgaria.

Tottenham play Wisla Krakow of Poland and Motherwell take on Nancy.

Irish side St Patrick’s Athletic face a very difficult tie against German side Hertha Berlin.

The final takes place on 20 May at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium, the home ground of Turkish club Fenerbahce.

With the transfer window closing at midnight on Monday (1st September) they’ll be plenty of moves and rumours of the next couple of days.

Aston Villa have completed the signing of winger James Milner from Newcastle for a fee of £12m. Milner, 22, who spent the 2005-6 season on loan at Villa Park, has signed a four-year deal.

Manchester United striker Louis Saha will join Everton for an undisclosed fee, subject to passing a medical.

Fulham have signed midfielder Dickson Etuhu from Sunderland on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee. The 26-year-old Nigerian international made 20 appearances for the Black Cats last term.

West Bromwich Albion are set to sign Swedish centre-half Jonas Olsson from Dutch Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen. An offer of £800,000 has been accepted and personal terms agreed for the 6ft 4in former Swedish U-21, he just has to complete his medical now.

Bolton have signed Polish striker Ebi Smolarek on a season-long loan from Spanish club Racing Santander.

Reading defender Ibrahima Sonko has joined Premier League new boys Stoke City on a three-year deal for £2m.

Hull City have made a ’substantial’ offer for Manchester United’s young striker Frazier Campbell according to BBC Radio Humberside. The 20-year-old spent seven months on loan at Hull last season and scored 15 league goals as they gained promotion to the Premier League. Sunderland defender Paul McShane is also reportedly set to join on loan.

Southampton have completed the signing of midfielder Anthony Pulis from Stoke City on a free transfer. The 24-year-old son of Potters boss Tony Pulis has signed a two-year deal at St Mary’s.

Torres will go home to Madrid in tough group

Own goal leads to City scrapping through in UEFA cup

Former hero returns to City

Robinho could play in London derby on Sunday

United set to field strong team for Super Cup

Celtic and Rangers almost entered Football League

Republic clash moved again

England great Channon injured in fatal car crash

English clubs had four of the top five seeds for today’s Champion’s League draw, Last year’s finalists Manchester United and Chelsea held the top two positions while Liverpool and Arsenal were seperated by Barcelona, also in the top seeds were Olympique Lyon, Inter Milan and the other Spanish giants Real Madrid.

As normal the draw was a long drawn out affair, Manchester United were pitted with Celtic as well as Villarreal and AaB Aalborg in Group E.

Chelsea will face Roma, Bordeaux and first time Romanians CFR Cluj in Group A.

In Group D, Fernando Torres will face his former club Atletico Madrid. Liverpool will also face PSV and Marseille in a tough draw.

Arsenal also face a tough draw and will face Porto, Fenerbache and Dynamo Kyiv.

Group H could well be dubbed the ‘Group of Death’, with Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit and BATE.

Cyprus’ first ever team in the Champions League, Anorthosis, will face Inter Milan, Bremen and Panathinaikos.

Matchday 1 will be on 16/17 September.

Manchester City scrapped through to the first round after a penalty shoot out in the UEFA cup against Danish team FC Midtjylland, after Danny Califf scored an own goal in the 90th minute to take the game to extra-time. Michael Johnson saw City’s third penalty saved by Heinze, but Joe Hart also saved the next penalty by new Danish international Borring. Hart was City’s hero after saving the fourth spot kick as well after guessing right to save from Afriyie. Corluka scored the winning penalty.

Meanwhile a day after saying he wasn’t interested in a move back to his former club, Shaun Wright-Phillips has rejoined Manchester City on a four-year deal for an undisclosed amount. The stepson of former goalscoring legend Ian Wright joined Chelsea for £21m in July 2005 but failed to become a regular in the team and also has seen his appearances for England limited in recent times.

Real Madrid forward Robinho should complete his €36m (£28.7m) transfer to Chelsea in time to make his debut in the home derby with Tottenham Hotspur, according to his agent Wagner Ribeiro. Ribeiro said on Wednesday night that he expects his client to be a Chelsea player ‘by either tomorrow or Friday,’ adding in the The Daily Telegraph, ‘he should be available to Scolari for this weekend’.

Manchester United are expected to field a ’strong’ side for their Super Cup clash with UEFA cup winners Zenit on Friday night in Monaco. The Manchester club will be looking to double their wins in the competition after beating Red Star back in 1991. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson is looking for his third win in the competition.

Meanwhile Zenit manager Dick Advocaat claims Celtic and Rangers tried to join the English League’s bottom tier at the start of the decade. The Dutchman, who was manager of Rangers between 1998 and 2001, revealed that he had talks with then Celtic manager Martin O’Neill and the boards from both teams about joining the English League in the third division.

After saying that the Republic of Ireland’s clash with Georgia would be played in Karsruhle it has now been confirmed it will be played in Mainz, Germany instead.

Ex-England footballer turned racehorse trainer Mick Channon has been seriously injured in a fatal motorway accident. The 59-year-old was travelling from Doncaster Sales to his Berkshire stables when the accident happened on Wednesday on the M1 in Leicestershire. Bloodstock agent Tim Corby, 63, was killed in the single-vehicle crash.

Easy win for Gunners against McClaren’s Twente

Athletico go through as do three first timers

Healy secures Keane’s first cup win as boss

West Ham need extra time to see off Macclesfield

Robinho set to sign on dotted line for Chelsea

Castillo set to sign for Toffeemen

Liverpool continued their lacklustre start to the season in the Champions League qualifier at Anfield tonight but once again they managed to conjure up a win when Dirk Kuyt struck deep in extra-time to give them a 1-0 win in the match and on aggregate.

As with the first leg Liverpool had ‘keeper Reina to thank for keeping them in the tie especially with a great save from Mbokani’s long range effort in the first half. They will now go into the draw for the group stages alongside the other three English teams tomorrow (Thursday 28th).

Arsenal will join Liverpool in the draw as their easily brushed aside Steve McClaren’s FC Twente 4-0 to win 6-0 on aggregate.

Atletico Madrid crushed German side Schalke 04 4-1 on aggregate to reach the Champions League proper after beating them 4-0 at home in their third qualifying round second leg on Wednesday.

Danish champions Aalborg, Cypriots Anorthosis Famagusta and Belarus side BATE Borisov all moved into the group stages for the first time.

David Healy scored in extra-time to secure Roy Keane his first cup win as a manager against his former club Nottingham Forest. Robert Earnshaw’s goal on the hour looked like it would be enough to give Forest a shock win, but Phil Bardsley scored with four minutes to go to take the tie into extra-time.

West Ham also needed extra-time to see of Macclesfield, the Hammers scoring three times in the extra half an hour to win 4-1 after Macclesfield had taken the lead early in the game.

Brazilian winger Robinho is likely to join Chelsea from Real Madrid before the transfer window closes for around £25m.

Everton have agreed a deal to sign Ecuador midfielder Segundo Castillo from Red Star Belgrade. The 26-year-old will link up with David Moyes’ squad and undergo a medical in the next 24 hours. His signing by the Toffees is also subject to a work permit application which has been lodged with the Home Office. Castillo has 33 caps for the South American country and played for them in the 2006 World Cup

Pavlyuchenko set to swap Moscow for London

Not to so Green at the Valley for Primus

Stelling’s goal celebrations could be halted

German venue for Republic of Ireland

Two goals in the last five minutes from Nordjaelland in Denmark sent brave Queen of the South out of the Uefa Cup on their European debut. A superb 30-yard free-kick from Bob Harris in the second minute had put them back level in the tie but two late goals from Martin Bernburg sent them crashing out of the competition, 4-2 on aggregate.

Spartak Moscow striker Roman Pavlyuchenko is poised to join Premier League side Tottenham.

“A deal has been agreed between the clubs and the transfer may be concluded by Thursday,” a club spokesman told the BBC.

Portsmouth have called off Linvoy Primus’s proposed loan to Charlton after refusing to let him go to The Valley for more than six months.

Sky’s Soccer Saturday could be deprived of one of their regular features if news in today’s Daily Record is true. It is rumoured that Hartlepool’s James Brown is set to join Glasgow giants Celtic in a £3m deal, thus seeing an end to Jeff Stelling’s celebrations every time the striker scores for his beloved ‘pool.

The Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier against Georgia on 6 September appears likely to be played in the German city of Karlsruhe.

The Premier league table is starting to take shape, the boys from Stamford Bridge sit on top of the table after their second win of the season. New boy Deco once again stealing the show with a brilliant free-kick as they beat Wigan 1-0. Mike Pollitt who replaced Chris Kirkland between the sticks after the injury prone former England ‘keeper injured his back in the warm-up could do nothing as the diminutive portuguese midfielder curled the ball majestically into the back of the net.

Liverpool once again played badly but once again used their get of jail card, in the guise of Steven Gerrard, to pick up all three points from their home game against Middlesbrough. Mido had given ‘boro the lead with his second goal in as many games, before a Jamie Carragher blast was deflected in by Potagetz. (Come on dubious goals committee give it to Jamie!), then deep in injury time Gerrard once again conjured up another Liverpool victory which see’s them sitting pretty in second despite playing badly.

Hull City’s first foray into the top level continues to give the Tiger’s fans plenty to smile about as they drew 1-1 with Blackburn Rovers, thanks to a looping header by Richard Garcia which sailed over the head of the bemused former England ‘keeper Paul Robinson. The sides occupy third and fourth in the table.

Darren Fletcher grabbed his second in two games to secure all three points for Manchester United at Fratton Park and move the defending champions to fifth in the table, while Pompey remain goalless and routed to the bottom. There’s no game for United in the league this week as they play Zenit in Monaco for the Super Cup on Friday night.

Michael Owen stepped off the bench to give Newcastle a 1-0 win over Bolton and sixth place in the table.

If you want goals go and watch Aston Villa, after winning 4-2 last week this week they went down 3-2 to Premier new boys Stoke City, to give Tony Pulis’ men their first win of the season.

Despite winning their first game, Arsenal slumped to 14th in the league after going down 1-0 at Fulham, who are in 12th, Hangeland scoring the only goal of the game. Also down near the bottom are Arsenal’s bitter rivals Tottenham who went down 2-1 at home to Roy Keane’s Sunderland, Djrbil Cisse scoring on his debut for the Black Cats.

West Ham are also down their with the other W’s in the league West Brom and Wigan. West Brom went down 2-1 at home to Everton, while the Hammers lost 3-0 to Manchester City and saw their midfielder Mark Noble claim the first red card of the Premier season after two yellow card offences. City climb to 8th in the early season table.

Away from the Premiership Birmingham are the only team with a 100% record in the Championship, with three wins from three, after they beat bottom side Barnsley, who are still looking for their first point, 2-0 at St Andrews, local rivals Wolverhampton are in second.

Crystal Palace managed to hold on for a 0-0 draw with Burnley despite having two men sent off while Charlton beat Reading in a thriller 4-2.

Oldham kept their 100% record intact in League One with a hat-trick from Hughes as they beat Cheltenham 4-0. Bristol Rovers hit Hereford for six to keep Hereford rooted to the bottom of the table.

In League Two, Shrewsbury, Bradford and Bury maintained their 100% records and occipy the top three spots. Rotherham also have a 100% record but remain in 22nd place on minus 8 points while Bournemouth and Luton remain on minus 15 and 26 respectively.

In Scotland Celtic took over at the top after beating winless Falkirk 3-0. Rangers and Kilmarnock occupy 2nd and 3rd. In Division 3 Annan Athletic are still unbeaten in the inagural season in the league after drawing 1-1 with Montrose, who have drawn all of their four games to date and must be a banker on the pools coupon this week.

Stoke fail in bid to sign Hyppia from Liverpool

Baggies sign Valero

Jo brace secures bronze medal for Brazil

American Johnson moves to Wales on loan

Maloney rejoins Celtic and Edu gets work permit

The shortlist for this year’s UEFA European Club Footballer of the Year awards is dominated by Premier League players, the shortlist, announced today by UEFA, has 17 players from the Premier league out of 25.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Liverpool’s Fernando Torres and Chelsea’s Frank Lampard will all be leading contenders for the award. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Carles Puyol are also in contention.

The list of nominees, from which the overall winner will be selected, is:

UEFA club goalkeeper of the year: Manuel Almunia (Arsenal), Petr Cech (Chelsea), Manuel Neuer (FC Schalke 04), Jose Reina (Liverpool), Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United).

UEFA club defender of the year: Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Carles Puyol (Barcelona), John Terry (Chelsea), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United).

UEFA club midfielder of the year: Michael Essien (Chelsea), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Paul Scholes (Manchester United).

UEFA club forward of the year: Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Fernando Torres (Liverpool).

Premier new boys Stoke City have failed in a bid to sign Liverpool’s Finnish centre-back Sami Hyypia meanwhile Liverpool reserve team striker Craig Lindfield has joined League Two outfit AFC Bournemouth on a months loan.

West Brom have completed the signing of Borja Valero from Real Mallorca for a club record £4.7million. The 23-year-old midfielder has signed a four-year contract after passing a medical. The deal takes the Baggies spending to past £20million since their promotion.

Manchester City’s Jo scored two goals and Diego added a third as Brazil beat Belgium 3-0 to win the bronze medal in the men’s soccer at the Olympics. Argentina play Nigeria in the final on Saturday morning at 5am British time.

Cardiff City have signed USA international striker Eddie Johnson on a season’s loan from Fulham. However, the Cottagers have the option to recall the 24-year-old striker in January 2009 should they require.

Shaun Maloney has rejoined the Scottish Champions, Celtic, on a four-year deal worth up to £2.5m, meanwhile over at rival Rangers, USA midfielder Maurice Edu is set to complete a move after being granted a work permit. The 22-year-old agreed a five-year contract last week after the Ibrox club and Major League Soccer settled on a fee of £2.6m.

Hamburg part Kompany with Vincent

Gunner Traore joins Pompey on loan

Burgmeier joins Quakers

Lloyd’s strike seals gold for USA

Sunderland have confirmed the signing of France striker Djibril Cisse on a season-long loan deal from Marseille. He is joined at the Stadium of Light by Northern Ireland striker David Healy, who has signed from Fulham.

Manchester City have agreed a fee to sign Belgium international defender Vincent Kompany from Hamburg, according to the German club. The 22-year-old defender, who has played 23 times for his country, began his career at Belgian club Anderlecht

Portsmouth have signed Arsenal’s French left-back Armand Traore on a one-year loan deal.

Darlington have signed versatile Liechtenstein international Franz Burgmeier on a free transfer. The 26-year-old, who can play at left-back or on the left wing, has 46 caps and has scored seven goals.

A twenty-yard goal by Carli Lloyd in extra-time gave United States a 1-0 victory over Brazil in the Olympic women’s football final.

Silvester makes surprise move from Manchester to Arsenal

Brian Barwick leaving FA at end of the year

Ostapenko double sees Kazakhstan win

International Round-Up

It may have been raining heavily at Wembley but there was no sign of the brolly used by the former man in charge of the England team, but it was a familiar story on the pitch as England picked up an undeserved 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic. Once more England seemed to lack any form of creativity.

Milan Baros opened the scoring for the Czech Republic with a shot that took a deflection off of Ashley Cole. Wes Brown gave England some hope by equalising on half time. Jankulovski scored from a free-kick just three minutes after the break and it wasn’t until the 92nd minuted the Joe Cole scored a scrappy equaliser.

Mikael Silvestre became the first man to move from Manchester United to Arsenal since Brian Kidd made the trip in August 1974. Silvestre was expected to make the short trip across Manchester to their city rivals before Arsenal came in with a late bid. (Jim Leighton and Matt Wicks have also made the trip since Kidd, but neither played for Arsenal.)

It was announced today that Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick is to leave the organisation at the end of the year.

While England were losing to the Czech Republic the first match in their qualifying group for the 2010 World cup took place with Kazakhstan beating Andorra 3-0 with Ostapenko scoring twice. Andorra will be England’s first opponents in the qualifying tournament on the 6th September.

Scotland and Northern Ireland shared the spoils with a goalless draw. David Healy missed a penalty for the Irish and Ryan McGivern was sent off on his debut for Northern Ireland after picking up two yellow cards. Wales lost at home to Georgia 2-1, Jason Koumas scoring the Welsh goal. Robbie Keane grabbed Republic of Ireland’s goal as they drew 1-1 with Norway.

In other international friendlies, Euro 2008 winners Spain beat Denmark 3-0 with Xabi Alonso scoring a brace and Xavi also netting. Austria scored four times in Italy but could only draw 2-2. Stranzl and Ozcan scoring own-goals to deny Austria a shock win after they had taken a 2-0 lead. Croatia beat Slovenia 3-2, and France beat Sweden by the same score with Govou scoring twice.

Terry named captain of England

Milner scores winner for England U21s

Derby get young gunner on loan

Council set to fine Street players

Argentina beat Brazil 3-0 to set up an Olympic final against Nigeria in the men’s football competition.

Sergio Aguero put Argentina ahead on 53 minutes when he chested in a low cross before his glanced shot added a second. Juan Riquelme’s penalty made it 3-0 before Thiago Neves and Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva were both sent off. Lucas was sent off for a foul on Liverpool team-mate Javier Mascherano and he was also fouled when Neves saw red.

Nigeria beat Belgium 4-1 in the other semi-final. Olubayo Adefemi gave Nigeria an early lead, with Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi getting the second after half-time. Obasi scored his second and Chibuzor Okonkwo hit the fourth before Laurent Ciman claimed a late consolation goal.

Fabio Capello has appointed Chelsea defender John Terry as permanent England captain. Terry will led the side against the Czech Republic tomorrow night.

James Milner scored the winner for England U21s as they came back from a goal down to beat Slovenia in a friendly. Micah Richards equalised Etien Velikonja’s opener. The Slovenian’s had Nejc Pecnik sent off when he picked up a second yellow for dissent.

Derby County have completed the signing of young Arsenal midfielder Nacer Barazite on an initial one-month loan.

Children in a Nottinghamshire town will be fined £100 for playing football on the street. Newark and Sherwood District council is clamping down on young people causing “annoyance” to residents.

It’s back! 97 days after Manchester United picked up the English Premier title, Saturday Arsenal and West Brom played the first game in the 2008-2009 season and it took debutant Samir Nasri just four minutes to score the first goal. The goal was enough to give a 1-0 win in front of over 60,000 fans.

Team of the Day has to be Premier newcomers Hull City, who were playing their first game in the top level of English football, behind 1-0 to Fulham a stunning goal from Geovanni levelled it up before Caleb Folan gained his place in Hull City folklore by scoring the winner and sending the crowd home ecstatic.

Liverpool struggled to find form, before the Spanish duo of Alonso and Torres combined and the Spanish striker shot home from 20 yards to give the Merseysiders a 1-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Blackburn Rovers made it a great start for manager Paul Ince, managing his first game in the top division, by beating Everton 3-2. Blackburn’s winner looked like it started from an offside position.

Elsewhere Stoke’s start to their Premier campaign saw them lose 3-1 at Bolton, Dean Ashton scored twice as West Ham beat Wigan and Middlesbrough beat Tottenham 2-1 with former Tottenham striker scoring the winner, Berbatov started on the bench for Tottenham and his future is still uncertain.

On Sunday Luiz-Felipe Scolari saw his Chelsea reign get off to a wonderful start with a 4-0 victory over Portsmouth that included a blistering 25-yard strike from new boy Deco. The midfielder’s late effort sent Blues fans home happy but it was first-half goals from Joe Cole, Nicolas Anelka and Frank Lampard that really won the points and set out Chelsea’s title credentials in real style.

At Villa Park. Gabriel Agbonlahor scored the second fastest hat-trick in Premier League history when he netted three times in eight minutes in the 4-2 win against Manchester City. Robbie Fowler is the only player to have scored a quicker hat-trick in the Premier League era. He scored three goals in four minutes and 33 seconds in August 1994.

Manchester City striker Valeri Bojinov faces six months on the sidelines after snapping his Achilles tendon before Sunday’s defeat by Aston Villa. The 22-year-old Bulgarian forward had been set to make his first league start since injuring his knee ligaments a year ago but was injured in the warm-up.

Manchester United were held to a draw at home as the started the defence of their title looking to equal Liverpool’s record of 18 championships. Newcastle took the lead through Martins on 22 minutes but Fletcher struck back just two minutes later.