Andrea Pirlo was untouchable at the height of his playing career, a footballer whose grace and prowling presence drew widespread admiration and struck fear into rival teams.
As a coach, we can surmise but really it is a guessing game as to what we will be getting from Pirlo as the dugout rookie leads Juventus into the 2020-21 season.
On Sunday evening in Italy, the man who was a World Cup winner in 2006 takes charge of his first Serie A game with Juve, who play Sampdoria in Turin.
Maurizio Sarri s Juve reign lasted just one season, albeit another Scudetto-yielding campaign for the most successful club in the league s history. Pirlo will be expected to deliver at least that level of success, and encourage a swagger too.
He joins a host of significant …
Paris Saint-Germain will be out for revenge when they face Manchester City in a blockbuster Champions League clash.
City reached their first Champions League final last season by beating PSG 4-1 on aggregate last season and they will meet again in a Group A clash at the Parc des Princes.
PSG were held by Club Brugge in their opening game, while Premier League champions City hammered RB Leipzig 6-3.
Milan face Atletico Madrid in their first home match in Europe s premier cup competition since 2014.
Leaders Liverpool travel to Porto in the other Group B game with fond memories of their previous two trips, while Real Madrid entertain Sheriff in the battle between the top two in Group D.
Here, Stats Perform look at the key Opta data ahead o…
Inter boss Simone Inzaghi believes Hakan Calhanoglu doesn t realise how good he is after a stunning debut performance against Genoa on Saturday.
After joining from city rivals Milan in the close season, Calhanoglu marked his first appearance for the Nerazzurri with a superb goal and an assist for Milan Skriniar in his side s 4-0 win.
Those two goal involvements came inside the first 14 minutes – it took him nine games to achieve that at the start of his Milan career.
Arturo Vidal added a third in the second half before former Roma man Edin Dzeko marked his Inter bow with a header in the 87th minute.
Champions Inter have now scored three or more goals in four successive Serie A home matches for the first time since 2011, when did they did it in six…
Stefano Pioli is paying no attention to his poor record against Massimiliano Allegri ahead of Milan s crunch clash with Juventus at San Siro on Sunday.
Milan boss Pioli has lost 11 and drawn four of his 15 meetings with Allegri in Serie A – the longest winless run for one head coach against another in the three-points-per-win era
That includes a 1-1 draw in their most recent meeting four months ago when Ante Rebic cancelled out an early Alvaro Morata opener.
The Rossoneri are seven points better off than Juve with 22 games played, however, and Pioli is looking to end his disappointing run against Allegri in this latest encounter.
I don t like to look back too much, he said at Saturday s pre-match news conference. The past doesn t count, only tomorrow…
Pep Guardiola bemoaned Manchester City s lack of precision as they were held to a 1-1 Premier League draw by Aston Villa on Saturday.
City looked to be heading to the top of the table when Erling Haaland prodded home from close range five minutes into the second half.
The former Borussia Dortmund striker has now scored 10 goals in his first six Premier League games – the joint-fastest a player has reached that total, along with Mick Quinn in December 1992.
He is also just the fifth player to score in each of their first three away appearances in the Premier League, after Peter Beardsley, Jurgen Klinsmann, Francesco Baiano and Alen Boksic.
However, Leon Bailey s first Premier League goal since September 2021 ensured the spoils were shared, as the Jamaica…
Market: Norwich win
Odds: 19/20 @
Hoping to extend on their unbeaten run when they return from the international break, Norwich will make the trip to Blackpool on Saturday afternoon.
Starting with the hosts, while Blackpool might have opened September with a much-needed victory away at Huddersfield, it appears that was just a minor blip for Michael Appleton s side. Last seen heading into the international break with another downbeat display as they were hit with a 2-1 loss away at Millwall, the Orangers have now lost three of their last four Championship outings. With that run highlighted by a dreadful 3-0 drumming away at Rotherham, the former Portsmouth boss does find some pressure on his shoulders at Bloomfield Road. Marking their return to action this weeken…
Avoiding what would have been another World Cup banana skin on Saturday night, Argentina booked their World Cup quarter-final ticket with a 2-1 victory against Australia.
While the South American giants might have opened their Qatar quest with an infamous 2-1 loss at the hands of Saudi Arabia last month, La Albiceleste have come roaring back over the past fortnight.
With attacking icon Lionel Messi stealing all of the headlines on a record-breaking night for the seven-time Ballon d Or winner, the PSG superstar opened the scoring 10 minutes before the interval with a sublime solo strike.
Watching Manchester City s Julian Alvarez double Argentina s lead before Australia mounted a late surge following Enzo Fernandez s unfortunate own goal, Lionel Scaloni s men were…
Ryan Gravenberch has impressed with his performances for Liverpool so far this season, and he says it is a result of the trust shown to him by Arne Slot.
The midfielder joined Liverpool from Bayern Munich last September and made 26 Premier League appearances under Jurgen Klopp, but only started 12 of those games.
Gravenberch has played in all but one of the Reds games in all competitions so far this season, only missing their EFL Cup win over West Ham, and has become an integral part of Slot s set-up in the deeper-lying midfield role.
The Dutchman has won possession 42 times, more than anyone in the team, and has also won the most duels (41) and made the second-most interceptions (12), only behind Virgil van Dijk (17).
Liverpool sit top of the Premier Lea…
Luuk de Jong scored the only goal of the game as a severely depleted Barcelona edged past Real Mallorca 1-0 in LaLiga on Sunday.
Xavi described the decision to force the Blaugrana to play as crazy after they were hit with a spate of COVID-19 cases during the mid-season break, but his makeshift side coped admirably against Luis Garcia s men.
De Jong – who had already hit the woodwork twice – headed in his second league goal of the campaign in the 44th minute to seal just a second win in Barca s last six games across all competitions.
The result moved the Catalan giants up to fifth – one point behind fourth-placed Atletico Madrid – while Mallorca remained in 15th.
H A P P Y N E W Y E A R !
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona)
Barca…
Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman was left perplexed by Virgil van Dijk s frustrating red card in his side s 1-1 draw with Hungary on Friday.
Van Dijk, making his 77th appearance for his country, received the first dismissal of his international career with two yellow cards in the space of three minutes in the second half.
The first booking stemmed from his protests to referee Lukas Fahndric after a foul on Donyell Malen, before committing a foul soon after to receive his marching orders.
Van Dijk s dismissal looked to have settled the contest after Roland Sallai had smashed home Zsolt Nagy s cross to hand Hungary a goal advantage in the first half.
But the Netherlands drew level four minutes after going down to 10 men when Denzel Dumfries headed Cod…