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Player Focus: Fierce Competition as Deschamps Decides France’s Midfield Preferences

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Player Focus: Fierce Competition as Deschamps Decides France’s Midfield Preferences After the Lord Mayor’s Show, it’s normal to have the comedown. Still, reflecting on Samir Nasri’s sumptuous finish for Manchester City in Sunday’s Capital One Cup final win over Sunderland will leave plenty perplexed at why the former Marseille player is absent from Didier De...

Player Focus: Marathon Man Kerbrat Leads Drogba’s Old Team Guingamp Towards Safety

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Player Focus: Marathon Man Kerbrat Leads Drogba’s Old Team Guingamp Towards Safety Shunted into the net in the dying seconds of a hard slog on a muddy pitch, Mustapha Yatabaré’s stoppage-time winner for Guingamp against Nice this weekend felt like a tiny miracle – just like so many things that personify the story of this remarkable little club in western France....

Player Focus: Checking Up on France's Class of Turkey 2013

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Player Focus: Checking Up on France's Class of Turkey 2013 In a country that highly prizes national team honours at any level, France’s victory at the Under-20 World Cup was far more than an impressive footnote for their players’ fledgling careers. It was, as L’Equipe said on the morning after the penalty shoot-out victory over Uruguay in ...

Match Focus: Ranieri Finally Vindicated as Both Monaco & PSG Look to Improve

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Match Focus: Ranieri Finally Vindicated as Both Monaco & PSG Look to Improve In the run-up to Paris Saint-Germain’s visit to Monaco, Claudio Ranieri’s playful demeanour recalled his jocular missives from behind the desk in the training ground press conference room at Chelsea a decade before. The content of his words, however, owed more to the current man in charg...

Team Focus: Nervous Evian Drive Poor Pascal Dupraz to Distraction

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Team Focus: Nervous Evian Drive Poor Pascal Dupraz to Distraction It was a true collector’s item. After a failure by the officiating team to spot an offside had led to a late Junior Tallo equaliser for Ajaccio at Evian Thonon Gaillard on Saturday evening, referee Amaury Delerue came out to face the cameras to apologise on behalf of himself and his assistants...

Match Focus: Underachieving Giants Hamburg and Schalke Headed in Different Directions

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Match Focus: Underachieving Giants Hamburg and Schalke Headed in Different Directions It makes sense that the Bundesliga has the longest winter break of any of the major European leagues. Frankly, the total commitment to attacking football and the lusty atmospheres in the stands means that players and fans alike are more than deserving of a breather at Christmas.There could be no mor...

Team Focus: Montpellier Move Towards Safety but Can They Keep Cabella?

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Team Focus: Montpellier Move Towards Safety but Can They Keep Cabella? As Montpellier closed on an unlikely title triumph in 2012, their colourful president Louis ‘Lou Lou’ Nicollin decreed such an exploit “impossible” in one of his rare printable comments about his club’s progress. A tricky start to this season, leading to the departure o...

League Focus: Can Anybody Stop Lille Finishing Third in Ligue 1?

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League Focus: Can Anybody Stop Lille Finishing Third in Ligue 1? Having began Sunday evening knowing a win would take them into second place in Ligue 1, Lille had the opportunity to build further on a stunning first half of the campaign in which they garnered 40 points - a pre-Christmas record for a third-placed team. In the end, the surprise home defeat to an un...

League Focus: Three Pivotal Matches in Ligue 1’s Battle at the Bottom

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League Focus: Three Pivotal Matches in Ligue 1’s Battle at the Bottom Montpellier v MonacoThis should read as a meeting of some promise, with the 2012 champions taking on stylish, nouveau riche visitors. In fact, we have two teams with wildly divergent aims. Montpellier have lost the fewest matches in the bottom nine (6) but are hovering above the drop zone, with only...

Team Focus: Pep’s Masterplan Taking Root at Bayern

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Team Focus: Pep’s Masterplan Taking Root at Bayern It was, they said, the impossible job, to follow Jupp Heynckes’ efforts in leading Bayern Munich to the historic Bundesliga, DFB Pokal and Champions League treble. In truth, the veteran coach would have faced the same struggle to replicate that success had he been invited to stay on past 2012/...