Louis Saha announces retirement

Ralf Rangnick is ready to make Cristiano Ronaldo a central part of his Manchester United plans after taking on the biggest job of his career.

The new United interim manager spoke at his first news conference since accepting the job, and he backed 36-year-old Ronaldo to be a standard-setter to the rest of his squad.

Rangnick was speaking less than 12 hours after United completed a 3-2 home win over Arsenal in the Premier League, a game that he watched from the stands.

There had been speculation that Ronaldo would not fit into Rangnick s system, but the new boss sees nobody better suited to helping the Red Devils push for success this season.

The Portuguese striker s two goals against Arsenal could not have been more timely, and now Rangnick can prepare for…

Mikel Arteta believes Kieran Tierney could go on to become Arsenal captain, with the former Celtic full-back having been in superb form lately.

Tierney has played in all but one of Arsenal s 17 league matches this season and opened his account for the campaign with a wonderful goal against West Brom on Saturday.

The 23-year-old cut inside from the left flank and curled a brilliant finish beyond Sam Johnstone to open the scoring, before then going on to tee up Alexandre Lacazette s second goal in a 4-0 rout of Sam Allardyce s woeful Baggies.

It was a third successive victory for Arsenal, who have turned their fortunes around after a seven-game winless streak in the top flight.

Since the start of December, no defender in the league has created more chances …

Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen scored a last-gasp equaliser through Robert Andrich to come from two goals down and rescue a 2-2 draw against Stuttgart on Saturday.

The late drama ensured the hosts extended their record unbeaten run to 46 matches across all competitions.

Germany international Andrich slotted in from eight metres after Florian Wirtz had floated a free kick into the box, completing his side s latest comeback after also scoring a stoppage-time goal to snatch a 1-1 draw against Borussia Dortmund last week.

Leverkusen – who play Roma in the Europa League semi-finals, are also through to the DFB-Pokal final and have already secured their first-ever league title – have now scored 17 goals in the 89th minute or later in all competitions this se…

Olga Carmona’s stunning late winner fired Spain into the World Cup final with a 2-1 win against Sweden.

In a cagey contest with few chances for either side, the game suddenly sprung into life in the final stages with three goals in the final 10 minutes of normal time.

Barcelona winger Salma Paralluelo, 19, gave Spain the lead in the 81st minute, but her goal was soon cancelled out by Rebecka Blomqvist.

But Carmona responded in emphatic fashion just one minute later, sealing a final clash against either Australia or England on Sunday.

81 1-088 1-189 2-1

Nine minutes of mayhem! |

— FIFA Women s World Cup (@FIFAWWC)

Spain kept possession well in the opening stages and had a chance when a looping cross found Alba Redondo at the …

Everton defender Leighton Baines insists he was unaware of any interest from Manchester United for his signature during the transfer window.

The left-back was widely reported to be a target for United as they searched for a long-term successor for Patrice Evra.

Sir Alex Ferguson eventually turned to Vitesse full-back Alexander Buttner but Baines says he knew of no contact from United.

People were asking me and yet I didn t know anything, he told reporters. It was getting mentioned that often that I was getting puzzled by it and yet I d heard nothing.

As far as I knew, there was not a great deal in it.

Baines said he was not the type of player to push for a move to a bigger club but did not deny that he had ambitions of winning trophies and pla…

2nd October 2012

Portuguese giants Benfica take on mighty Barcelona at a sold out Estadio da Luz in what should be the most interesting match of Tuesday’s Champions League programme. The Eagles have already proved they can mix it up even with the best of them, and they can now further improve their reputation with a good showing against the La Liga leaders.

Benfica spent much of the last decade trailing arch rivals Porto on domestic stage and largely struggling in Europe, but everything changed with the arrival of coach Jorge Jesus. Backed by the club board, the experienced coach built a very strong side that helped the club return to old glory days. While doing well to win the league title in 2009/2010 and several other domestic trophies, the Eagles also managed to p…

Luis Enrique said one only has to look at Barcelona s history to see they are not yet defeated in the Supercopa de Espana, despite Athletic Bilbao s 4-0 win on Friday.

After watching his side decimated by Aritz Aduriz s second-half hat-trick at San Mames, the Barca boss stayed calm in the face of crisis the Catalans having conceded eight times in two matches.

Monday s second leg would need to see Barcelona pull off one of their better Houdini efforts but Luis Enrique said the history books show his men are capable.

Barca arrested a 2-0 deficit against Milan in the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 in 2012-13, while they also came from 3-1 down against Chelsea (1999-00 quarter-finals) and by the same margin against Sevilla in the 2010 Supercopa all of their reviva…

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger maintains there is no bad blood between his side and Saturday s Premier League opponents, Stoke City.

The teams meet at the Emirates Stadium at the weekend with their rivalry having eased off somewhat in recent seasons Stoke s previously robust approach often attracting the ire of Wenger and his side.

A broken leg suffered by Aaron Ramsey in a tackle with Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross at the Britannia Stadium in 2010 served as a catalyst for emotions to run high.

Stoke have never won at the Emirates while Arsenal have traditionally struggling at the Britannia.

After a mixed start to Arsenal s season, Wenger wants to kick-start the campaign against a Stoke team now geared towards attacking flair with the likes of Xherdan Shaqir…

Sean Dyche and Tony Pulis were both content with their sides efforts as Burnley and West Brom battled to an entertaining 2-2 draw at Turf Moor on Saturday.

The Clarets edged ahead early in the second period through Sam Vokes, but the Baggies levelled as Salomon Rondon netted his first goal in 19 matches, ending West Brom s five-game drought in the process.

And things got better for the visitors as birthday boy Craig Dawson headed home only for Vokes to earn a draw for the Clarets, who reached 40 points and are all-but assured of their Premier League status for next season.

I prefer not to [celebrate] until it s definitely done, but everyone recognised 40 points as a very strong marker in the Premier League, Dyche told Sky Sports.

Two-goal hero Sam Vokes …

Arsenal avoided an upset and booked a place in the semi-finals of the FA Cup on Saturday, but defeating fifth-tier Lincoln City 5-0 at Emirates Stadium is unlikely to ease the intense scrutiny bearing down on manager Arsene Wenger.

Strikes from Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey and Luke Waterfall s own goal sealed the victory, but more protests prior to the game called for the departure of the veteran manager, who is out of contract at the end of the season and under pressure to walk away having failed to win the Premier League since 2003-04.

A humiliating 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League in midweek, which sealed a catastrophic 10-2 aggregate exit at the last-16 stage for a seventh successive season, could yet prove too great an…