Sports

Liverpool On Brink Of Europa League Exit After Atalanta Thrashing

Published

10 months ago

April 12, 2024

Atalanta stunned Anfield as Gianluca Scamacca scored twice in a 3-0 win on Thursday to leave Liverpool with a mountain to climb to reach the Europa League semi-finals.

Mario Pasalic added a third seven minutes from time to condemn Liverpool to a first home defeat in all competitions for 14 months.

The Reds had been favourites to end the Jurgen Klopp era by completing the German’s set of trophies won as Liverpool boss in his last game in charge in the Dublin final.

With Liverpool locked in a tight three-way battle for the Premier League title alongside Arsenal and Manchester City, Klopp showed that remains his priority as he made six changes to the side that were held 2-2 by Manchester United on Sunday.

Mohamed Salah was one of those left on the bench but he was unable to inspire a response despite being thrust into action right at the start of the second half after a lacklustre first 45 minutes from the home side.

Atalanta had won just two of their previous nine games in all competitions.

But the side sitting sixth in Serie A were a threat from the first whistle.

Pasalic missed a glorious chance to open the scoring after just three minutes when he fired into Caoimhin Kelleher’s face as the Irish international spread himself.

Harvey Elliott hit the crossbar and Darwin Nunez sliced wide when clean through on goal but those promising Liverpool attacks were few and far between.

Scamacca failed to shine during his one season in the Premier League with West Ham, but he has now scored three times in England for club and country this season.

Atalanta made the breakthrough on 38 minutes when the Italian international fired low through Kelleher’s grasp from Davide Zappacosta’s cross.

Teun Koopmeiners should have made it 2-0 before the break when he failed to beat Kelleher one-on-one.

Klopp reacted at half-time as Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and Andy Robertson were sent on in a rescue mission.

However, even the changes failed to muster a response from a jaded looking side in their 50th game of the season.

Scamacca was offered an acre of space to slot home Charles De Ketelaere’s cross on the hour mark.

Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota were then introduced by Klopp but Liverpool continued to create little despite their abundance of attacking talent on the field and left themselves open to the counter-attack.

Atalanta took full advantage to close to within the brink of just their second ever European final.

Scamacca turned provider for the third after Szoboszlai gifted possession away inside his own half.

Ederson’s first effort was saved by Kelleher, but Pasalic thumped home the rebound to the delight of the travelling fans.

Liverpool have a history of thrilling comebacks in the European competition, most notably from 3-0 down at half-time in the 2005 Champions League final against AC Milan.

But they will need a fightback of that magnitude to keep alive the dream of sending Klopp out with a European trophy.

AFP

Sports

Former Belgium player Radja Nainggolan arrested for alleged cocaine smuggling

Published

1 day ago

January 28, 2025

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Former Belgian footballer, Radja Nainggolan has reportedly been arrested for alleged involvement in cocaine smuggling.

According to a report by Corriere della Sera, the former AS Roma midfielder was allegedly part of a smuggling operation transporting cocaine from South America to Antwerp.

The Brussels public prosecutor’s office confirmed Nainggolan’s arrest as part of a large-scale raid on 30,000 houses in Antwerp and Brussels on Monday, January 27, 2025.

“The federal judicial police of Brussels carried out thirty house searches on Monday morning in the context of a case from the Organized Crime department of the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. The searches mainly took place in the province of Antwerp and in Brussels.”

“The investigation concerns suspected activities related to the importation of cocaine from South America to Europe via the port of Antwerp, as well as its distribution in Belgium. We can confirm that the footballer RN (Radja Nainggolan) has been taken into custody in connection with this case,” the statement read as quoted by UK outlet, Daily Mail.

“Given that interrogations are ongoing, and in compliance with the principle of presumption of innocence, no further comment will be made at this stage.”

Nainggolan, 36, currently plays for Lokeren-Temse, a lower-tier club in Belgium. He rose to prominence during his time in Italy, representing clubs such as Inter Milan, AS Roma, and Cagliari.

The former midfielder announced his retirement from international football in 2018 after being omitted from Belgium’s squad for the FIFA World Cup that year.

Sports

Full List: AFCON 2025 Draw Confirmed

Published

1 day ago

January 28, 2025

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, has been confirmed on Monday.

The tournament is scheduled to run from December 21, 2025 until January 18, 2026.

All the 24 countries that will be present in Morocco have been found out their initial opponents.

All but two of the 52 Confederation of African Football (CAF) member participated in the qualifying series.

Following the preliminary round, 48 teams were divided into 12 groups of four, playing home and away in a total of six matches, where the top two teams from each group qualified.

The tournament will take place in six cities over four weeks, but there can only be one nation crowned the kings of Africa.

Here are all the important details and the full draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

AFCON 2025 groups
Group A: Morocco, Mali, Zambia, Comoros
Group B: Egypt, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe
Group C: Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Tanzania
Group D: Senegal, DR Congo, Benin, Botswana
Group E: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan
Group F: Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique

Sports

Para Badminton Int’l: Nigeria’s Bolaji wins gold in Egypt

Published

2 days ago

January 27, 2025

Naijablitznews

By Francesca Hangeior

Paralympic bronze medalist, Eniola Bolaji, on Sunday won gold medal in her final match at the Egypt Para Badminton International 2025.

To get this point, Bolaji won all her previous games in the competition hosted by Egypt.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Bolaji defeated Sweden’s Hillevi Salomonsson 2-0 (21-1, 21-2) in the women’s SL3 final on Sunday in Cairo Egypt.

The African champion demonstrated her skill throughout the tournament, beating Shahinda Mohamed (21-7, 21-2).

She also defeated Basma Nabil-Fawzy (21-6, 21-4) and further conquered Elizabeth Puma (21-2, 21-4) with straight-set victories in earlier rounds.

Bolaji triumphed in dominant style, extending her remarkable winning streak by claiming her 10th title in 10 tournaments, while securing her 58th win in 64 matches

According to the Badminton World Federation (BWF), Bolaji has competed in 10 international championships over the past two years, emerging victorious in all.

This is a remarkable feat that bonds her as a force to be reckoned with in Para Badminton.

She broke multiple records and brought pride to Nigeria and Africa.

Bolaji’s achievement followed her radical success in 2024 where she made history as the first African athlete to win a badminton medal at the Paralympic Games

The Egypt Para Badminton International 2025 which started on Jan.21, ended on today (Jan. 26) in Cairo.