A team-mate of England defender Lucy Bronze at Barcelona, midfielder Asisat Oshoala opened her 2023 World Cup account with what proved to be the winner against Australia.
Earlier in her career the 28-year-old had spells in England with Liverpool and Arsenal, winning the 2016 FA Cup with the latter.
Following a move to Barcelona from Chinese club Dalian, Oshoala – a five-time African Women’s Footballer of the Year – went on to win the Champions League as well as the Primera Division title.
Nigeria coach Waldrum is in no doubt about the impact she can make, saying: “When you have Oshoala, you have a chance against any team.”
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The Lionesses won their first meeting with Nigeria, Karen Farley striking twice in a 3-2 victory in the final…
Monza will not be signing Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic ahead of next season, Adriano Galliani says.
The veteran forward has been linked with a move to the Lombardy club, who won promotion to Serie B after being taken over by former Milan president Silvio Berlusconi.
With ex-Rossoneri CEO Galliani also installed at the club, it has been suggested Monza could launch ambitious bids to sign Ibrahimovic and fellow former Milan star Kaka, who announced his retirement in December 2017.
Berlusconi admitted in June he remains very attached to the players, although Galliani later clarified that they would be considered in their spending, telling Sky: Our budget will be used to get into Serie A. We won t go crazy, but we will do what s necessary.
Speaking to Bi…
Joshua Kimmich joked he may have to play until the age of 45 to lift an international trophy as he rued Germany s dire showing at the 2022 World Cup.
Having been eliminated in the group stage at Russia 2018 and fallen to England in the last 16 at Euro 2020, Germany arrived in Qatar in the midst of a dismal run of tournament showings.
Hansi Flick s side were left with a familiar sinking feeling as they failed to recover from a shock defeat to Japan in their Group E opener, missing out on a place in the round of 16 despite taking four points from games against Spain and Costa Rica.
Bayern Munich midfielder Kimmich has now been a Germany regular at four major tournaments, and their shortcomings have left him with a bitter taste.
Kimmich is back in Doha for …
Brendan Rodgers is confident James Maddison will remain a Leicester City player, despite speculation linking him with Arsenal.
Having already brought in Ben White and Albert Sambi Lokonga, Arsenal are rumoured to be interested in the Leicester midfielder, though Rodgers dismissed those reports on Thursday.
Leicester, who are preparing for the Community Shield on Saturday, won the FA Cup last season before falling at the final hurdle for Champions League qualification, with Maddison playing an integral role.
Yes, I believe so, Rodgers said when asked whether Maddison would remain at the King Power Stadium. I haven t been told anything to say he won t be.
He s happy in training, he s working very hard and he s just recently become a father so he has re…
If Manchester United were concerned about Gary Neville s opinions before Sunday s game with Tottenham, presumably they are now terrified.
The club were said to be frustrated with Neville, and other former Red Devils stars, for creating an air of negativity about their transfer business. Inflammatory and disturbing were the words United used, as reported by the Mirror.
How appropriate, then, that Ed Woodward was in the stands to watch the first half against Spurs at Old Trafford, a record-breaking 45 minutes of utter and abject humiliation that will have disturbed the executive vice-chairman to his core, and maybe imminent new signings Edinson Cavani and Alex Telles, too.
The manner of United s collapse after a second-minute Bruno Fernandes penalty was something n…
Ivan Toney continued his impressive penalty-scoring record on Monday but the Brentford striker says his method is simple.
The 26-year-old stroked the ball into the bottom-right corner from 12 yards again as Thomas Frank s side claimed a 3-2 Premier League victory over fellow unlikely European hopefuls Fulham.
Toney has converted all 22 penalties he has taken for Brentford, with 10 of those coming in the Premier League.
Only Yaya Toure, who scored all 11 spot-kick attempts for Manchester City, boasts a better 100 per cent conversion rate in the competition – yet Toney explained his penalty procedure is all about being relaxed.
After being made to wait before putting Brentford 2-1 up in the 53rd minute at the Brentford Community Stadium, he told Sky Sport…
Barcelona have signed England defender Lucy Bronze after she announced her departure from Manchester City last month.
Bronze, named The Best FIFA Women s Player in 2020, had been linked with a move to the United States but has instead made a shock switch to Champions League runners-up Barca.
The 30-year-old won five trophies during two spells with City, having been a European champion in three successive seasons with Lyon between 2017 and 2020.
And the full-back will be confident of adding to those successes with the Blaugranes, who have won three consecutive Spanish top-flight titles and lost out to Lyon in last month s Champions League final, having thrashed Chelsea to claim the European crown in 2021.
Barcelona Femeni s official twitter account pos…
Stefano Pioli is confident his Milan side will learn from a painful loss to Fiorentina after their unbeaten start to the Serie A campaign came to an end at Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Milan fell to a 4-3 defeat in Saturday s thrilling contest as they missed out on the chance to move three points clear of Napoli, who play their game in hand at Inter on Sunday.
The Rossoneri last tasted defeat in the top flight 18 games ago against Lazio in April, while not since August 2015 had they lost away to Fiorentina in the league.
Pioli s side were without a number of players through injury, including Fikayo Tomori, Davide Calabria, Ante Rebic and Mike Maignan, and that told in a poor display.
A mix-up between back-up goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu and Matteo Gabbia gif…
Xabi Alonso is capable of guiding exceptional Bayer Leverkusen through the remainder of the season unbeaten en route to winning a historic treble.
That is according to former Leverkusen defender Carsten Ramelow, who told Stats Perform that Alonso is undoubtedly the key to their success.
Bayer were crowned champions of Germany at the weekend for the first time in their 120-year history with five Bundesliga games still to play.
Not only have Alonso s side dodged defeat in the league, they have also not lost any of their 14 DFB-Pokal or Europa League matches.
With a 2-0 lead heading into their Europa quarter-final second leg against West Ham, and with Kaiserslautern awaiting them in the domestic cup final, the treble is very much on.
The season they…
The first Derby della Madonina of the season was played at Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro) on Saturday, and Inter Milan absolutely destroyed their city rivals by putting five goals past them, and conceding one in return.
The deadlock was broken within five minutes from kick-off by Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Marcus Thuram added the second in the 38th. It looked as though Milan might be finding their way back into the game when Rafael Leao made it 2-1 in the 57th, but it took Mkhitaryan only 12 minutes to restore a two-goal lead for Milan. After that, the Rossoneri completely fell apart, and Hakan Calhanoglu converted a penalty conceded by Theo Hernandez in the 69th, before Davide Frattesi set the final score three minutes into the stoppage time.
Milan is black-and-blue
AC Milan…