UEFA Champions League Final: Key Stats

Frank De Boer is confident Ajax are ready for their first competitive game of the new season as they enter the UEFA Champions League at the third qualifying round.

The four-time winners travel to Austria for the first leg of their clash with Rapid Vienna on Wednesday, the Dutch side one of three former champions in at this early stage.

Celtic and Steaua Bucharest will also make their bow in the 2015-16 competition this week, the former hosting Qarabag while the latter welcome Partizan to Romania.

Ajax are looking to plot their way to a sixth-successive appearance in the Champions League group stages this year, and De Boer has been pleased with their pre-season.

The preparation has been good, he told the club s official website. Especially as we had only…

Manchester United star Juan Mata believes Antonio Valencia will hold the key to a Champions League victory against CSKA Moscow on Wednesday.

The Ecuador winger scored the only goal of the game when United last visited the home of the current Russian Premier League leaders in the group stages of the 2009-10 season.

With Louis van Gaal s side having lost their opening away game against PSV last month, Mata hopes Valencia can offer some insight into inflicting a first home defeat on Leonid Slutsky s side this term to take them to six points from three games.

We have three points after the first two weeks and the game in Moscow could be crucial, Mata wrote in his blog. Defeating CSKA would give us momentum ahead of the last three games.

I ve been told that …

If Thomas Tuchel is after any advice on how to deal with the Romelu Lukaku issue, the Chelsea head coach could do worse than to have a brief word with the man he will come face-to-face with on Wednesday.

Under now-Tottenham boss Antonio Conte across two seasons with Inter, Lukaku enjoyed the best form of his career, scoring and assisting a combined 81 goals in 95 appearances.

Lukaku has not been as prolific since returning to Stamford Bridge in August, finding the net seven times in 18 games, and already his future at Chelsea has been called into question following an explosive interview in the Italian press that was published last week.

The Belgium international was subsequently dropped for Chelsea s crucial clash with Liverpool on Sunday but is in line return f…

Koke has conceded that Spain may need to bring The Red Fury back into their style of play if they are to retain their European Championship title.

Though Spain became renowned for their attractive passing game dubbed tiki taka as they won three consecutive major tournaments between 2008 and 2012, they failed to reach the knockout stages at the 2014 World Cup and a 2-1 defeat to Croatia saw them finish second in Group D at Euro 2016.

Prior to that period of success, Spain had been nicknamed The Red Fury to signal their fiery on-field tone, and midfielder Koke believes a middle ground between the two styles would boost their hopes of defending their European title.

Tiki-taka has done great things for us and brought us a lot of success, he told AS.

We c…

Market: Wrexham win

Odds: 4/11 @

Two sides who find themselves battling it out at opposite ends of the National League table, Wrexham will host Gateshead on Tuesday night.

Starting with the hosts, after stunningly crashingly out of the play-offs last season, it is no secret that Wrexham are desperate to go one step further this time around. Once again tipped as a standout pick in this year s promotion chase, Phil Parkinson s men have enjoyed an eye-catching start to the 2022/23 campaign. Last seen over the weekend picking up an action-packed 3-2 victory away at Woking, the Dragons have lost just one of their opening five National League contests. Likewise, now racking up eight strikes in their back-to-back fifth-tier wins, the ex-Sunderland boss will be calling …

Gerard Pique believes Pep Guardiola is the perfect mentor to develop John Stones into a world-class defender at Manchester City.

Stones moved to City from Everton earlier this month for a fee believed to be in the region of £50million, as Guardiola attempts to mould a team able to fit his philosophy of playing out from the back.

Those plans have already seen goalkeeper Joe Hart dropped to the bench, with Willy Caballero preferred and speculation mounting that the England international could seek a move away from Etihad Stadium.

But one man who appears set for the long haul is Stones.

The 22-year-old has drawn comparisons with Pique, winner of three straight LaLiga crowns and two Champions League titles under Guardiola at Camp Nou.

Stones is a gr…

FIFA has struck a new deal with Budweiser despite banning the product from sale at World Cup venues in Qatar last year.

The new agreement with ABInBev, the company which owns the brand, makes the product the official beer of this summer’s Women’s World Cup and the men’s World Cup in 2026.

FIFA pulled plans to sell Budweiser, except for the alcohol-free Bud Zero, within stadium perimeters in Qatar on the eve of the finals last November. It was reported at the time that FIFA had come under pressure from Qatar’s royal family, in a country where the consumption and purchase of alcohol is severely restricted.

Statement on beer sales at stadiums on behalf of FIFA and Host Country :

— FIFA Media (@fifamedia)

A tweet from Budweiser at the tim…

Jim Ratcliffe says he has been told Manchester United are not for sale by the Glazer family and he can t sit around waiting for the club to become available.

Britain s richest man, chairman of INEOS, stated in August he would be keen to strike a deal should the Glazers be willing to sell up.

There have been multiple protests against the club s owners from supporters, including one in May 2021 that saw United s match against Liverpool postponed.

But any hopes fans had of a changing of the guard at Old Trafford have been dampened by Ratcliffe, who met with Joel and Avram Glazer.

Manchester United is owned by the Glazer family, whom I have met, Ratcliffe, told the Financial Times. I ve met Joel [Glazer] and Avram [Glazer] and they are the nicest people, I h…

Julian Nagelsmann says Thomas Muller s new contract sends a positive signal and hopes other Bayern Munich players follow suit.

Long-serving forward Muller this week extended his deal with the Bundesliga champions until 2024.

Robert Lewandowski, Manuel Neuer and Serge Gnabry are only under contract with the Bavarian giants until the end of next season, while Corentin Tolisso and Niklas Sule are nearing the end of their deals, with the latter set to join Borussia Dortmund as a free agent ahead of 2022-23.

Bayern boss Nagelsmann says it was vital to keep Muller and believes the 32-year-old s decision to commit his future to the club may prompt some of his team-mates to stay.

He said in a press conference on Friday: It was very important that he extended,…

Chloe Kelly has stressed the importance of being “ready for your moment” at this summer’s World Cup whether starting in the England team or as a substitute.

The winger came off the bench and scored the extra-time winner against Germany in the Euros final at Wembley a year ago as the Lionesses secured the first major trophy in their history.

Going into that tournament having only recently returned to action after an ACL injury, she was utilised as a substitute throughout as boss Sarina Wiegman retained the same starting line-up.

Since then, Kelly has scored five goals and provided nine assists across the 2022-23 Women’s Super League season for Manchester City, and been on the scoresheet four times in 10 England appearances – the first five of which were …