[ad_pod ]Tottenham Hotspur have been drawn against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City in the quarter finals of the Champions League. The first leg of the tie will be a home fixture for Spurs, taking place on April 9th, whilst the return leg will be staged at the Etihad Stadium on April 17th.The north London outfit are certainly the underdogs, but Mauricio Pochettino will believe his side have what it takes to overcome Pep Guardiola’s men. Spurs’ talismanic No. 10, Harry Kane, is certainly in bullish spirits ahead of the clash.Check out the video below for pure scenes at the North London Derby on Sunday…

What he said

The England captain took to Twitter to deliver a simple, straightforward three-word response to the outcome of the draw: “bring it on.â€

Such a confident response will give Spurs fans heart and hope heading into the encounter, but they’ll be relying upon Kane to back up his words with a fine performance on the pitch.

Living up to the billing

If Spurs are anything short of their best then City will likely tear them apart. However, if Kane is on song then he has the capacity to hurt the opposition.Â

The 25-year-old striker is one of the best goalscorers in world football. He must now live up to that billing, on the biggest domestic stage, when his side meet City in April.

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Liverpool fans on Twitter are collectively baffled by Joleon Lescott’s bizarre comments comparing their side to that of Manchester City.

The Citizens’ former centre-back said: “I’m not sure I’d take a single one of Liverpool’s players for Man City’s team.

Has Alisson been Liverpool’s most important signing of the season? Check out the video below to find out why Jurgen Klopp thinks so…

“From a Man City perspective, I have been very impressed with Aymeric Laporte this season, who has arguably made a similar impact to what Virgil van Dijk has at Liverpool.”

With world-class names such as Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Van Dijk in the Reds’ ranks, Lescott’s comments are fairly ridiculous and seem as if he is being somewhat biased towards his former side.

Both City and Liverpool are vying for the Premier League title, with Jurgen Klopp’s men just two points clear of Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions, although City do have a game in hand.

Whilst this is one of the most exciting title races in recent years, it could do without one of the side’s former players sticking his two pence in just for the sake of it, especially when it’s a comment as mindless as Lescott’s.

Let’s take a look at what some of the bemused Liverpool fans on Twitter are saying about the 36-year-old former England international’s remark…

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Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino is the current favourite to take over at Real Madrid, per Mundo Deportivo.

The Spurs manager – who saw his side beat Real 3-1 at Wembley last season – has masterminded his side’s progression into the Champions League quarter-finals, while Los Blancos were knocked out by Ajax on Tuesday evening.

What’s the word?

The pressure continues to rise on Santiago Solari at the Bernabeu, with Real undergoing something of a crisis.

The club are third in La Liga, five points behind second-placed Atletico Madrid and 12 behind leaders Barcelona.

Barca defeated Real 1-0 at the weekend prior to Los Blancos’ humiliating 4-1 thumping at the hands of Ajax in midweek.

And the aforementioned report claims that president Florenino Perez is already considering the possibility of appointing a new manager in the summer.

Pochettino, they claim, is the favourite, ahead of Jose Mourinho, who is out of work following his departure from Manchester United.

Real, however, are wary of negotiating with Spurs, having struggled to extricate both Luka Modric and Gareth Bale from the club in recent seasons.

Massimiliano Allegri and Jurgen Klopp are also potential appointments according to the Independent, while former manager Zinedine Zidane, who won back-to-back-to-back Champions League trophies, could reportedly be convinced to return.

Spurs face a fight

This is crunch time for Spurs.

The club appear to have successfully fended off the interest of United, who look poised to appoint Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on a permanent basis at the end of the season.

Real, though, are a whole different ball game. While Spurs can claim to be ahead of United in terms of their development and talent from goalkeeper all the way to striker, they have no such superiority over Real.

Real boast a number of world-class stars and, while they are not quite on top form, they have the resources to sign almost any player in the world.

That may well apply to managers too; Pochettino is forward-thinking, has done a fine job at Spurs and is adept at working under tight parameters.

It remains to be seen if his philosophy of promoting youth players would transmit to La Liga, but he is the clear candidate to perform a rescue job and lay down roots for the future.

If their interest is formalised, Spurs may well struggle to convince him to stay.

With survival not quite guaranteed yet for the Eagles, a few changes need to be made to ensure that future years will hold a lot more stability. Indeed, there can’t be a relegation battle every year can there? Palace fans reading this will be sick of the sight of them, considering some of the quality in their side. 

Despite looking better in recent weeks, Palace still find themselves only five points off the drop zone, and yet again it will be another season with nothing to get excited about, after crashing out the FA Cup last weekend. Right now, Roy Hodgson doesn’t look the most inspiring of bosses, but with the right backing, he might be.

So, fans will obviously now focus on making sure that they remain in the Premier League next season. If Palace were to go down however they would surely deserve it as that would have to be a HUGE slip up to find themselves drop from this position. No one will count their chickens yet of course, but it’s hard to see it.

So, with that in mind, we are taking a look at a couple of requests Hodgson must make in order to ensure that next season isn’t so close.

Find another Zaha 

Time and time again you see Wilfried Zaha carrying Palace through games pretty much all by himself.

Surely Palace know that they can’t rely on one man forever?

It is imperative that Roy Hodgson finds someone else with the quality of Zaha to come into the side. It has been seen before: once Zaha drops out of the team through injury, they struggle to even hold the ball. That can’t go on – no Premier League side could be a one-man team.

The board must look to find at least one possibly two other players that can bear the weight of the club on their shoulders like Zaha. Allow the Ivorian to flourish, not merely function.

Start a modern-day dynasty 

With his contract running out in 2020, Roy Hodgson should look to become a history maker and become the oldest manager in the Premier League. Obviously, at his age and the nature of modern-day football, a dynasty is by no means possible any more, but he can certainly build for the future.

Look at the job he did with England. Despite the infamous loss to Iceland at Euro 2016, many of the building blocks he put in place have allowed Gareth Southgate to flourish.

A couple more seasons before a more dynamic option arrives would be good long-term planning.

Chelsea were once again poor in the Premier League as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Wolves this afternoon.

The Blues had a last minute equaliser from Eden Hazard to thank for snatching a point, but overall it was another below par display from Mauro Sarri’s men, who are struggling to get any sort of consistency into their game of late.

The summer is going to be a massive one for Chelsea too, with the transfer ban placed on the club meaning the signing of new players will be firmly off the table come July and August.

However, there are still plenty of things Chelsea can move to do to sort out their form and general squad feeling, and we here in the Tavern think there’s some obvious things which need dealing with.

With that thought in mind, we took a look at TWO issues Chelsea need to resolve this summer to ger back to winning ways…

The future of Hazard

This has been rumbling on now for quite some time and despite his brilliance, it can’t be helping the club as a whole.

Sarri needs to plan for the coming seasons, and knowing if Hazard is going to be part of that plan or not is vital.

If he goes, it might be the end of a brilliant chapter, but at least Chelsea can move on and look to the future.

Defensive consistency

luiz, h

Any defence with David Luiz is going to get questions asked of it, but this season has highlighted his weaknesses even more.

Sarri needs to sort this out and quickly. With the option of bringing in a new defender something which is off the table, he’s going to have to use his coaching and planning skills to come up with a system which gets the best out of his defence.

If this is something which cannot be sorted, we can expect Chelsea to struggle once again come next term.

[ad_pod ]Crystal Palace recorded a great result on Saturday as they took three points from Turf Moor in their clash with Burnley, with Roy Hodgson making five changes to the team that lost to Manchester United on Wednesday.Although one was certainly bemusing – they proved effective. In his post-match interview, the 71-year-old boss explained why he made certain decisions and now it all makes sense.

What did he say?

Asked by Palace’s media if he was pleased with the players who came in for the 3-1 win, Hodgson said:

“Absolutely. But it was really just a question of giving our players who have played a lot of games the opportunity to get some rest, in particular [James] McArthur and Andros Townsend.

“They’ve played every game, battling away and yet, for people like Max Meyer and Cheikhou [Kouyate] who’ve been patiently awaiting a chance they’ve got fresh legs and plenty of enthusiasm so it [the Burnley game] was a great opportunity to put them in.

“Scott Dann, we thought was probably the right man to counter the sort of play we knew we would be facing and the same goes for Wayne Hennessey, the goalkeeper.”

Great news

While plenty of Palace fans were alarmed by the decision to omit the previously impressive Vicente Guaita from the starting XI in favour of a start for Hennessey – particular amid reports of the Spaniard possibly seeking an exit – Hodgson has surely relieved that panic in his post-match interview.

The Clarets are renowned for their direct, long-ball approach and the decision to start 6-foot-6 Hennessey in such a physical game is of no surprise now that Hodgson has explained that was the reasoning behind dropping Guaita.

Watch how to cross the road like a boss with freestyler Ben Nuttall in the video below…

Hennessey, who has 81 caps for Wales, was unlucky not to keep a clean sheet having brilliantly tipped Peter Crouch’s effort past the post although he was culpable for Ashley Barnes’ late consolation and it would be a real surprise if he keeps his place ahead of Guaita for the hot-blooded clash with Brighton this weekend.

كشفت تقارير صحفية موقف شيردان شاكيري صانع ألعاب فريق ليفربول، من المشاركة في مباراة سويسرا وإسبانيا في دوري الأمم الأوروبية.

إسبانيا تواجه سويسرا بعد غد،مساء السبت، على ملعب “ألفريدو دي ستيفانو” بالجولة الثالثة من الأمم الأوروبية.

وكان الاتحاد السويسري قد أعلن قبل يومين إصابة شاكيري بفيروس كورونا، ولكن صباح اليوم الخميس أكد الاتحاد أن ليفربول خضع لاختبار جديد، وسجل نتيجة سلبية، مما يعني تعافيه من فيروس كورونا، أو وجود خطأ في العينة الأولى.

وذكرت شبكة “sportsmole” البريطانية، أنه من المقرر أن يتواجد شاكيري بشكل طبيعي في مباراة السبت ضد إسبانيا.

وأوضح التقرير أن الاتحاد السويسري ينتظر فقط الحصول على الضوء الأخضر من لجنة الصحة في الاتحاد الأوروبي “يويفا” ليشارك شاكيري في المباراة، ومن المتوقع أن توافق اللجنة.

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You’d be forgiven for thinking that Frank de Boer’s woefully brief tenure at Selhurst Park was, at the very least, a learning curve for the Dutchman.

However, if the reaction by Atlanta United fans on social media is anything to go by, it would seem that he is still insistent on the style of play that failed in the Premier League and that it isn’t going any better across the Atlantic.

The MLS outfit were thumped by Mexican club Monterrey in the CONCACAF Champions League on Thursday, with the hosts running out comfortable 3-0 victors.

De Boer has persisted with the 3-4-3 which he unsuccessfully attempted to implement at Selhurst Park and the Atlanta faithful are raising the same points that Eagles fans were in 2017.

Watch the best fails from the world of indoor football in the video below…

Given the short 77 days he was afforded at Selhurst Park, de Boer and his ambitious philosophies were doomed to fail and his next job doesn’t look like it’s going particularly well, either.

The suggestion was that de Boer was the failure rather than the players and, considering that this is now the third team that the tactical extremist has tried and failed to convert into the next Ajax, it would seem Steve Parish was right to give him the boot.

Here’s what Palace fans had to say on Twitter as history appears to be repeating itself…

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Loads of Newcastle fans have been reacting to a confidence boost for Salomon Rondon, as the striker was named in EA Sports’ FIFA Team of the Week.

International breaks can be pretty dull for fans of club football, but Newcastle’s players ensured there was plenty to talk about over the last couple of weeks.

Fabian Schar has become the subject of much controversy after continuing in a match for Switzerland despite being knocked totally unconscious in the first half, while Rondon stunned Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

Venezuela faced La Albiceleste in Madrid in what was Messi’s first match back since his self-imposed exile. Rondon made sure it was his side that took all the headlines though, lobbing the goalkeeper to open the scoring after just six minutes.

His side won 3-1, and the 29 year-old has now bagged ten goals and four assists in his last 20 games for club and country, per Whoscored.

Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas reveals why Tyne-Wear is a more intense derby than anything London can offer – check out the video below….

And he has been rewarded with a place in the FIFA Team of the Week, with loads of fans now signing his praises.

Unsurprisingly, most of the reactions are begging the club to turn his loan move into a permanent one. Have a look at the best from Twitter down below…

[ad_pod ]Many Leeds United fans have paid tribute to, and shared their memories of, Bill Fotherby, who was the Elland Road club’s managing director in the late 70s, 80s and 90s.Fotherby passed away in Tenerife on Tuesday night, at the age of 88. He is well-remembered by the Whites for the instrumental role he played in bringing success and silverware to the club in the early 90s.Fotherby joined the board of the Yorkshire club in 1978 and eventually became chairman Leslie Silver’s partner in crime. He went on to revolutionise the way the club was run.

In 1988, following the sacking of Billy Bremner, Fotherby convinced Howard Wilkinson to leave Hillsborough and take up the hot seat at Elland Road. With the support of Silver and Fotherby, Wilkinson was able to get Leeds promoted into the top tier in 1990.

The crowning glory came in 1992, when the manager’s side won the top flight title – he remains the last English manager to achieve the feat, which was only made possible by Fotherby.

His influence cannot be overstated, and he has earned the mantle of legend at Leeds. Following his passing, many supporters have taken to Twitter to pay their respects…