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RUBEN DIAS WINS FWA PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE SEASON

Manchester City’s Ruben Dias has won the prestigious Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year award, beating Tottenham’s Harry Kane and City teammate Kevin De Bruyne.

Centre-back Dias has enjoyed a fine debut season at City following his move from Benfica last summer, becoming an integral figure in Pep Guardiola’s title-winning team. He becomes the first defender to win the award since Liverpool’s Steve Nicol in 1989.

Overall, nine City players received votes which accounted for over 50% of those cast and FWA chair Carrie Brown said: “Ruben Dias turned heads soon after his arrival in Manchester, a 23- year-old belying his age with fortitude, steel, a relentless drive for perfection and an almost superhuman ability to read and anticipate phases of play.

“This, while commendable, would not alone qualify a player to win the FWA Footballer of the Year award. One of our founding members, Charles Buchan, prescribed the award to recognise and celebrate a player who ‘by precept and example’ is considered to be the footballer of the year.

“Pep Guardiola improves players, shapes them but at no point, has a new signing arrived into one of Pep’s already trophy-laden teams and exerted such influence.

“Dias has demanded the highest standards which have resulted in the swiftest of upturns in fortune not solely for Dias himself, but team-mates to his left, right, front and centre.

“Ruben Dias is our Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year for his leadership on and off the pitch as much as for the infectious joy he derives from executing the art of defending to perfection.”

Dias, 23, started in City’s Carabao Cup final win over Tottenham on April 25, and will look to feature in the club’s first-ever Champions League final against Chelsea on May 29. The Portugal international has made 61 appearances for club and country so far this season.

He signed for City from Benfica for £68 million plus add-ons and quickly imposed himself at the heart of Guardiola’s defence.

“He’s not just a player who plays good, he’s a player who makes the other guys play good too,” the City manager said in February.

“It’s 90 minutes talking, 90 minutes communicating, 90 minutes saying what they have to do in every single action. When that happens, [he is] undroppable.”

Voted for by the FWA members since 1947, the first recipient of the award was Sir Stanley Matthews. Dias succeeds last year’s winner, Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson.

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Pandemic blamed for lack of VAR after Ronaldo’s complaints

UEFA said it intended to use VAR in the World Cup qualifying campaign that began last week but decided it was too complicated to do so.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s tears and rage over the absence of VAR already hastened the introduction of the technology in one competition.

He’ll now be hoping UEFA takes note of his video-review protests once again.

Portugal’s path to the 2022 World Cup has been complicated by Ronaldo being denied a stoppage-time winner against Serbia on Saturday. The ball crossed the line, despite Serbia defender Stefan Mitrovic’s attempt to sweep it clear. But with no goal-line technology or VAR to confirm that to the referee, the goal was not given.

Ronaldo, the Portugal captain, ripped off his armband and tossed it onto the field, storming off the field in disgust.

It brought back memories of Ronaldo’s Champions League debut for Juventus in September 2018 when he was sent off for appearing to pull at an opponent’s hair in a decision that could not be reviewed by VAR. Juve protested and UEFA announced within a week that VAR would be introduced by the following season.

UEFA said it intended to use VAR in the World Cup qualifying campaign that began last week but decided it was too complicated to do so despite it being used in recent Champions League and Europa League knockout phase games. VAR relies on a couple of video assistant referees receiving a live feed of multiple angles from matches and a direct connection to the referee.

“In 2019 UEFA had proposed to FIFA the implementation of VAR in the current World Cup qualifiers,” UEFA said in a statement. “The impact of the pandemic on operational and logistical capabilities led UEFA to delay the implementation of VAR in the Europa League group phase (to 2021-22 instead of 2020-21) as well as to withdraw the proposal to implement VAR in the 2022 European qualifiers.

“VAR was also not in use in the UEFA Nations League group stage in the autumn of 2020 and has therefore to-date never been used in UEFA national team qualifying group stage matches.”

That explanation is not satisfactory for Portugal, which is level on four points with Serbia in Group A rather than being ahead.

“I told the referee on the pitch, with great respect, that it’s unacceptable to play a World Cup qualifying match without VAR and goal-line technology,” Portugal coach Fernando Santos said.

Portugal has support from its neighbor with Spain also complaining about the lack of VAR when Greece was awarded a penalty that led to the qualifier being drawn on Thursday.

Spain looked in control but defender Iñigo Martínez’s foul inside the area led to Greece’s equalizer from the penalty spot in the 57th.

Spain loudly complained about the penalty call, which could not be reviewed but it was not a clear-cut error like Ronaldo’s goal not counting. A video review of the incident could even have resulted in a red card for Martinez for dangerous play in planting his raised studs into an opponent’s leg.

FIFA, which organizes the World Cup, said it was informed by UEFA in January that VAR could not be used in qualifiers due to the “issues and restrictions” caused by the coronavirus.

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Cristiano Ronaldo rages after no goal and no VAR in 2-2 draw at Serbia

Cristiano Ronaldo had gone from savoring a last-gasp winner for his country to protesting what he considered a clear refereeing oversight with no video review available.

Cristiano Ronaldo ripped off his captain’s armband and tossed it onto the field as he stomped off in disgust after Portugal’s 2-2 draw at Serbia in World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

In a split second, Ronaldo had gone from savoring a last-gasp winner for his country to protesting what he considered a clear refereeing oversight with no video review available.

The Portugal star came oh-so-close to scoring a stoppage-time goal when Serbia defender Stefan Mitrovic slid and swept the ball to apparent safety though TV replays indicated it was a goal.

For Ronaldo, the ball had completely crossed the line. For Dutch referee Danny Makkelie it had not, and he rewarded Ronaldo’s complaints with a yellow card.

The incident will no doubt be used by fans of video review to argue for the use of VAR in qualifying matches for the world’s most important soccer tournament.

Juventus forward Ronaldo made a veiled reference to the incident in a social media posting after the match.

“Being captain of the Portugal team is one of the greatest sources of pride and privileges of my life. I always give and will give everything for my country, that will never change. But there are difficult times to deal with, especially when we feel that an entire nation is being harmed. Lift your head and face the next challenge now!” Ronaldo wrote in Portuguese on his Instagram account.

For 10-man Serbia, it was the perfect ending to an inspired fightback from a two-goal deficit.

For Diogo Jota, Portugal should have done more with the two goals he scored in the first half.

“It looked like the hard part was done, but then they changed the system in the second half, scored quickly, and built on from there,” Jota said. “At 15 minutes into the second half, we have already let Serbia draw. We had to kill the game.”

Serbia and Portugal were left with four points each atop Group A.

Luxembourg is next with three points after it stunned Ireland with a 1-0 victory in Dublin. That left Ireland and Azerbaijan with zero points.

Portugal looked ready to roll to a convincing win after Jota scored with two headers.

The Liverpool forward got Portugal going in the 11th with a run to the left post where Bernardo Silva found him with a perfectly placed cross. Ronaldo helped by drawing in three Serbia defenders before laying off for the unmarked Silva on the right side of the box.

Serbia tried to respond through runs by left back Filip Kostic and the playmaking of midfielder Dusan Tadic. But the hosts never seriously threatened Anthony Lopes’ net before Jota made it 2-0.

This time it was for right back Cédric to send a cross to the heart of the box where Jota separated from Nikola Milenkovic and sliced a glancing header off the post and into the net in the 36th.

The double gave Jota five goals in 11 international appearances.

But Serbia got back into the match after coach Dragan Stojkovic made two changes at halftime.

Substitute Nemanja Radonjic needed less than a minute to pass for Aleksandar Mitrovic to head home and set a Serbia national team record with his 39th international goal.

On Wednesday, Mitrovic came off the bench to score a pair of second-half goals to rally Serbia for a 3-2 win over Ireland.

Serbia pressed for an equalizer, and Lopes had to stretch to palm Tadic’s strike over his bar in the 54th.

But Lopes was beaten in the 60th when Serbia mounted a counterattack, with the ball flowing forward from Tadic to Radonjic, who played Filip Kostic clear to slot the ball home.

Ronaldo was denied his chance to be the hero shortly after Serbia defender Nikola Milenkovic saw a direct red card for a dangerous studs-first tackle of Danilo.

KENNY QUESTIONS

Gerson Rodrigues sunk the Irish in the 85th minute when the Luxembourg midfielder rifled in a shot from outside the area into the corner of the net.

The embarrassing defeat will put more pressure on coach Stephen Kenny, who has yet to steer Ireland to a victory in 10 games in charge.

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NGOLO KANTE SCORES TO SEND FRANCE TO NATIONS LEAGUE SEMIS AS HOLDERS PORTUGAL SENT PACKING.

France handed defending Nations League champions Portugal a rare defeat on Saturday, winning 1-0 in Lisbon with N’Golo Kante’s second-half strike to reach the competition’s final four at the expense of the holders.

Anthony Martial missed three clear-cut first half chances for France before Kante scored only his second international goal in the 54th minute, and his first since 2016, to end Portugal’s run of five successive clean sheets.

World champions France went top of Group A3 with 13 points from five games, three ahead of Portugal and with the better head-to-head record to give them an unassailable lead. It was only Portugal’s second defeat since the 2018 World Cup.

“Given the quality of the opposition, it’s of course one of our best performances of recent times,” France coach Didier Deschamps said of Portugal, who are the European champions.

“We deserved the win and we’ve fulfilled our objective of finishing top. I’m very proud of the players. They proved tonight that France are still a great team.”

Antoine Griezmann set up Martial’s first chance in the 12th minute with a slide-rule pass but Portugal’s excellent goalkeeper Rui Patricio blocked it at point-blank range.

Martial then diverted Adrien Rabiot’s acrobatic effort onto the bar with his head and saw another effort brilliantly saved at close range by Patricio from Lucas Hernandez’s cross.

At the other end, Cristiano Ronaldo forced a diving save from France captain Hugo Lloris and also wasted a free kick which he drove straight into the wall.

France finally broke through just as Portugal appeared to be imposing themselves. Griezmann slipped another ball through to Rabiot whose shot was parried by Patricio and Kante was on hand to score from the rebound.

Portugal had three chances go begging in the same attack, including a Jose Fonte header against the post, and Lloris made a one-handed save to parry a raking drive from Joao Moutinho, who then saw his cross evade three forwards as France held out.

“I don’t know what went wrong in the first half, it wasn’t what I expected but it was my responsibility,” said Portugal coach Fernando Santos.

“We were better in the second half but then conceded the goal which settled the game… we had three or four chances to equalise.”

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NATIONS LEAGUE: DIOGO JOTA SCORES BRACE AS PORTUGAL EASES PAST SWEDEN DESPITE RONALDO’S ABSENCE.

Goals from Bernardo Silva and a brace from Diogo Jota gave Portugal a comfortable 3-0 win over Sweden in the Nations League on Wednesday as the hosts cracked on despite the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo due to a positive COVID-19 test.

Ronaldo’s only contribution to the game was a post on Instagram around kickoff time urging on his teammates as he remained in quarantine, and they proved more than equal to the task.

William Carvalho could have given the home side the lead in the opening minutes but his header came back of a post and bounced away to safety, and Sweden’s defence struggled to deal with Portugal’s pace and precision.

Silva opened the scoring in the 21st minute as Portugal won the ball back in the middle of the field and quickly countered, with Jota firing a precise pass to Silva in the penalty area for a perfect first-time finish.

Marcus Berg went close to equalising for Sweden with a powerful shot which hit the post, but the more the Swedes attacked the more vulnerable they were to Portugal’s lightning-quick counter-attacks.

Jota got on the scoresheet just before half-time, lashing home Joao Cancelo’s cross from deep on the right to make it 2-0, and he added a superb third with a solo run and thumping shot in the 71st minute.

Sweden coach Janne Andersson will miss his side’s next Nations League game against Croatia following his second yellow card of the tournament, the 57-year-old showing his frustration with refereeing decisions that went against his team.

With 10 points from four games, Portugal top Group 2 in League A on goal difference ahead of France, who beat Croatia 2-1 in Zagreb. The Swedes are bottom of the group after slumping to four straight defeats.

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CRISTIANO RONALDO TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19.

Portugal and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has tested positive for coronavirus, the Portuguese football federation announced on Tuesday.

Ronaldo “is asymptomatic” and “will not play against Sweden” in Wednesday’s Nations League match, the federation said on its website.

Ronaldo, 35, who has won the Ballon d’Or five times, played in Portugal’s goalless Nations League draw against France in Paris on Sunday.

The federation added that the rest of the Portugal squad were “all negative” after tests on Tuesday morning, as was the France squad, according to the French Football Federation.

Ronaldo has scored 101 goals for Portugal and will be a huge absence for his team against Sweden as they aim to hold on to top spot in their group.

His contracting the disease is also a big blow for Juventus, as the health protocol in force for Serie A says that Ronaldo must self-isolate for 10 days and then record a negative test before he can resume playing.

That means Ronaldo will miss Juve’s Serie A match at Crotone on Saturday and the Italian champions’ opening Champions League group stage game at Dynamo Kiev in a week’s time.

He is also a doubt for Juventus’ following Champions League clash with Barcelona on October 28, which was set to pit Ronaldo against his old rival Lionel Messi.

The test result re-opens the controversy over his departure from Turin for the Portugal training camp, which was, according to local health authorities in Italy’s Piedmont region, a violation of the virus protocol.

Ronaldo and other Juventus stars left to join up with their national teams despite the team being in isolation after two staff members tested positive for the virus.

Roberto Testi, a director of the regional health authority, said that local prosecutors had been informed of the players’ unauthorised departure.

Ronaldo, who has also starred for Manchester United and Real Madrid, is the highest-profile footballer to test positive for Covid-19, which has killed over a million people since the start of the pandemic earlier this year.

Brazil forward Neymar, his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe and AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic have also tested positive for the virus in recent weeks. Premier League champions Liverpool placed Senegalese forward Sadio Mane and Spanish midfielder Thiago Alcantara in isolation after they tested positive last week.

Last week two of Ronaldo’s Portugal teammates goalkeeper Anthony Lopes and defender Jose Fonte also returned positive tests, forcing them out of the Nations League fixtures.

The international break has been marked by a host of players contracting the virus as it continues its spread worldwide.

The Republic of Ireland had five players ruled out just before their Nations League draw with Wales after one squad member tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile Ukraine had to draft in 45-year-old assistant coach Oleksandr Shovkovsky for last week’s friendly with France as the virus swept through the squad.

Ukraine also lost to Germany on Saturday in the Nations League with 14 players missing either through injury or positive for the virus.

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UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE: ENGLAND BEAT BELGIUM AS PORTUGAL, ITALY MAINTAIN TOP SPOTS.

Portugal and Italy kept hold of first place in their UEFA Nations League groups on Sunday with goalless draws against France and Poland respectively on a night of little drama, while England saw off Belgium to take the initiative in their pool.

There was little to talk about at the Stade de France as a star-studded line-up of players including Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann failed to muster much of a spectacle in the League A, Group 3 match.

One-thousand fans gathered in the cavernous stadium just outside Paris to watch France host the reigning European champions, but were treated to just four shots on target as two rugged defenses cancelled out each team’s attacks.

“We didn’t score a goal, but we weren’t here to score goals,” said Portugal coach Fernando Santos. “France are a great team. They have great players. It’s not always possible to create opportunities.”

Pepe headed home what he thought was a 74th-minute opener when he got on the end of Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick but was flagged offside.

Ronaldo, chasing his 102nd international goal, was denied by a flying save from Hugo Lloris in added time.

Mbappe fluffed France’s best when Rui Patricio anticipated his gentle chip when one-on-one with the Portuguese stopper.

Both sides are now on seven points, four ahead of Croatia, whose 2-1 home win over Sweden earlier on Sunday was the group’s more entertaining match, with a calamitous late lapse from Pontus Jansson allowing the 2018 World Cup finalists to snatch the points in a soaking Zagreb.

Defender Jansson dawdled under a high ball into the penalty area with six minutes remaining and allowed Ivan Perisic to nip in behind. The Inter Milan winger then squared the ball for Andrej Kramaric to tap in from close range.

Sweden are stuck on no points after losing all three of their matches.

Elsewhere, Italy stretched their unbeaten streak to 18 matches and held onto top spot in League A, Group 1 with a stalemate in Gdansk.

New Juventus signing Federico Chiesa missed the chance to win the match for the dominant Azzurri from close range in the 11th minute.

Roberto Mancini’s side are one point ahead of the Netherlands, who also drew 0-0 with Bosnia and Herzegovina, ahead of their meeting in Bergamo on Wednesday.

England manager Gareth Southgate said his side showed what they were made of after coming from behind to beat Belgium 2-1 and move top of League A, Group 2 earlier on Sunday.

The Three Lions are on seven points, one ahead of the world’s top-ranked side after Marcus Rashford’s spot-kick and Mason Mount’s deflected winner 25 minutes from time cancelled out Romelu Lukaku’s early penalty.

“We are not going to face a more difficult game defensively,” said Southgate. “That is the beauty of the Nations League, you get games against this level of opponent.

“It’s a great experience for them and to go and win it, (it) should give them a sense of what might be possible in the next few years.”

Denmark are three points behind England in third after their simple 3-0 win over bottom side Iceland.

In League B, Erling Braut Haaland showed what the rescheduled Euro 2020 will be missing after he slammed home a hat-trick to help Norway to a 4-0 thrashing of Romania.

Haaland struck in the 13th, 64th and 74th minutes as Norway moved level on six points with group leaders Austria, 1-0 winners at Northern Ireland.

Norway were knocked out of the Euros playoffs by Serbia on Thursday.