Maldini returns to Milan in director´s role

Ante Rebic struck the winner as Milan got the better of Roma in a wild Stadio Olimpico clash to narrow the gap on leaders Inter with a 2-1 victory.

The Serie A title battle might have been all but over if Milan had lost this game, but chances came thick and fast and it was a wonder there were only three goals.

The first was a Franck Kessie penalty in the 43rd minute, but Roma got level early in the second half thanks to Jordan Veretout s fine finish.

Rebic scored a classy winner just before the hour; however, he and Zlatan Ibrahimovic both left the fray with injury concerns, having played their part in trimming Inter s lead to four points.

7 No player has scored more goals from the penalty spot than Franck in the top-5 European Leagues this term: seven…

When Juventus made Gianluigi Buffon the world s most expensive goalkeeper for a reported €53.5million in 2001, high expectations certainly accompanied the promising 23-year-old.

But few, if any, would have dared to predict he would still be at the peak of his powers some 17 years later.

Yet the 40-year-old appears to have lost very little – if any – of the command, agility and leadership he has shown throughout his immense career.

Buffon is not sure he will stop just yet, either, having confirmed he has had offers to continue playing after he leaves Juve at the end of the season, although he will fall short of Paolo Maldini s record of 647 Serie A appearances if he moves abroad.

Nevertheless, he will go down as one of the greats and may well reta…

Kylian Mbappe made history as Paris Saint-Germain booked their place in the Champions League last eight with a 1-1 draw against Barcelona at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday. 

Mbappe plundered a stunning hat-trick to help Mauricio Pochettino s side to a 4-1 first-leg win at Camp Nou last month and the World Cup winner opened the scoring in Paris, whipping home from the penalty spot shortly after the half-hour mark. 

That goal saw him overtake Lionel Messi as the youngest player to reach 25 goals in the competition, aged 22 years and 80 days, but the Barca talisman had his say soon after, thundering home a glorious equaliser from outside the area. 

Barca s hopes of becoming the first side in Champions League history to progress from a knockout tie after …

Gareth Bale is going nowhere amid ongoing speculation over his Real Madrid future, according to agent Jonathan Barnett.

Bale found himself out of favour as Madrid dethroned bitter rivals Barcelona as LaLiga champions this season, making just two appearances since the 2019-20 campaign resumed last month following the coronavirus-enforced break.

The star forward, whose behaviour has been criticised, featured in 16 league matches this term after he was left out of Zinedine Zidane s squad to face Leganes on the final day of the season on Sunday.

Despite struggling for game time, Barnett insisted his client Bale has no plans to leave the Santiago Bernabeu.

Gareth is fine. He has two years left on his contract, he told BBC Sport. He likes living in Madrid and …

Gareth Southgate thinks the all-English Champions League final shows the strength of the Premier League although he wants more young English talent to be given a chance.

Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid on Saturday in the first final in the competition featuring two teams from England s top flight since Manchester United defeated Chelsea on penalties in 2008.

Seven English players started the match at the Wanda Metropolitano and a further three came off the bench, something Southgate believes is a huge positive for his England squad ahead of their Nations League showdown with Netherlands on Thursday.

However, he would still like to see more home-grown youngsters given the opportunity to impress.

The brilliant thing from an English point of view is�…

Hansi Flick has confirmed Robert Lewandowski is fit to continue his goalscoring record pursuit for Bayern Munich when they play Freiburg on Saturday.

Lewandowski has scored a remarkable 39 Bundesliga goals in 27 matches this season, putting him just one behind the record held by Gerd Muller, who netted 40 times in the league during the 1971-72 campaign.

There were fears Lewandowski – who recently returned from a month out with a knee injury suffered while on international duty with Poland could miss the clash with Freiburg after he made an early exit from a session at the club s training camp on Thursday.

But Flick revealed the striker is ready to go after playing a part in Friday s session and said helping him to the milestone is one of his last remaining t…

As Jurgen Klopp waits for Liverpool s 2019-20 Premier League coronation, he might look back fondly on this day in 2012 when he was nudging ever closer to glory with Borussia Dortmund.

BVB were also involved in a major news story exactly five years later, when their players were stunned by a bomb attack on their team bus before a Champions League game.

Phil Mickelson landed his first major golf title at the Masters in 2004, and a South African cricket great s downfall came on this day in 2000.

Here we look back here at standout sporting moments to have occurred on April 11 through the years.

2000 Disgraced Cronje loses South Africa captaincy

Hansie Cronje was one of South Africa s greatest cricketers, and one of the country s most popula…

Barcelona great Xavi believes Raheem Sterling is on course to emerge as the world s best player when Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo leave centre stage.

Manchester City star Sterling has started the new season in scintillating fashion, scoring eight times for club and country.

His goal return and overall effectiveness has markedly improved with Pep Guardiola s guidance and the 24-year-old is now one of the first players chosen for the Premier League champions.

Sterling won Europe s Golden Boy award in 2014 given to the continent s brightest young talent and Xavi thinks the England international is on course to replace Messi and Ronaldo at the front of the queue for further honours.

Xavi told The Mirror: Messi is the best ever for me, and even though th…

Carlos Soler scored a hat-trick of penalties as Valencia ended a four-match winless run in LaLiga with a 4-1 rout of Real Madrid at Mestalla.

Soler s penalties – the first of which had to be re-taken due to an infringement by Yunus Musah – were added to by Raphael Varane s own goal as Valencia came from behind in a frantic encounter.

Karim Benzema, who has now scored more LaLiga goals than any other player since the resumption in June, opened the scoring with a thunderous strike – his fifth goal in his last four top-flight meetings with Valencia.

But Benzema s brilliance was not enough to inspire Zinedine Zidane s defensively suspect side, whose misery was compounded when Sergio Ramos handled to concede a third spot-kick, which Soler duly converted to con…

Prediction: Borussia Dortmund to win 2-0

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Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Monchengladbach will face each other in the opening weekend of the 2020-21 Bundesliga game.The match at Signal Iduna Park is scheduled to kick off at 5:30pm UK time on Saturday. It promises to be a hugely exiting game and should be an entertaining affair for the onlookers.

Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund will be looking to have a better season than they had during the 2019-20 campaign. Dortmund have established themselves as serious and consistent challengers to Bayern Munich for the Bundesliga title, but things were far from ideal in 2019-20. Although Lucien Favre’s side ended up second in the standings, they finished as many as 13 points behind event…