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INTER MILAN APPOINTS SIMONE INZAGHI AS NEW MANAGER ON 2-YEAR CONTRACT

Inter Milan appointed Simone Inzaghi as coach on Thursday, signing him to a two-year contract.

Inzaghi replaces Antonio Conte, who left Inter last month after leading the club to its first Serie A title in more than a decade.

The 45-year-old Inzaghi has been coaching Lazio and led the club to the Italian Cup title in 2019.

He also won two Italian Super Cups in his five seasons.

Inzaghi had been expected to extend his contract with Lazio last week but opted not to after Conte left Inter.

Inzaghi is the younger brother of former AC Milan player and coach Filippo Inzaghi.

Conte officially left Inter by mutual consent, but he was reportedly unhappy about the club’s decision to sell players in the upcoming transfer window because of financial constraints.

Inter’s finances were hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the club’s early elimination from European soccer.

The club was forced to take out a loan from Oaktree Capital recently in a financing deal with the American investment fund.

Inter owner Suning and president Steven Zhang reportedly wanted to cut salaries by 20% and make a profit of about 100 million euros (USD 122 million) in the transfer market, likely by selling at least one of the club’s top players.

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TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD LIMPS OUT OF ENGLAND EUROS WARM-UP WIN

Trent Alexander-Arnold looks in doubt for the Euros after limping off towards the end of the warm-up friendly win against Austria.

Alexander-Arnold suffered a thigh injury that Gareth Southgate admitted did not look good.

Playing in front of supporters for the first time in 18 months, the Three Lions got their Euro 2020 preparations off to a winning start against Austria at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough.

England rode their luck at times but a first international goal to Bukayo Saka, 19, was enough to secure a 1-0 victory against the fellow Euro finalists.

With his selection in Southgate’s 26-man group one of the main talking points before the match, Alexander-Arnold, 22 – one of four right-backs in the squad – will remain in the spotlight after picking up a late injury.

“It looks like a thigh but we don’t know the extent at the moment,” the England manager said.

“Clearly, it’s not a good sign that he had to walk off and looked in some discomfort with it but we’ll know more in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

Southgate played down concerns over Jack Grealish, who only recently returned from a shin problem and was taken off in the second half.

Jordan Henderson had been due to play his first minutes for club or country since undergoing groin surgery in February, but the Liverpool captain remained on the bench against Austria.

“With Jack, we just felt that that was enough time,” Southgate said.

“I think you can see still a little bit of sharpness still coming and we didn’t want to overplay him through that period.

“With Jordan, we had hoped to involve him today. That was the original plan. This morning he wasn’t so happy with how he felt.

“We’ve scanned him just to be certain. There’s no problem on the scan so he’ll be able to resume training but we’ve taken a decision to leave him out of this game.”

Wednesday’s line-up is likely to be very different to the one against Croatia on June 13, given Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea players were all unavailable after their European final clash.

But the likes of Saka and Jude Bellingham, who made his first Three Lions start at just 17, impressed on the evening.

“I thought they were both excellent,” England manager Southgate said.

“They were as they’ve been since they’ve walked through the door, really, with us.

“Both in training and in the matches, they’ve played with confidence, they’ve played with freedom, they’ve played with maturity.

“I thought Bukayo right from the start linked the game really well. He received well on the line, he received well inside.

“He’s got a lovely ability to receive in that traffic in the middle of the field. It’s like a slippery eel getting away from those challenges.

“I thought his all-round game [was good] and he works defensively well for the team. Really pleased with him and for him to get the goal.

“And Jude, you can’t help but marvel at the performance of a boy that age, really.

“It’s a bit disrespectful [to call him a boy]. He’s a boy because he’s 17, but he’s not a boy, is he? He plays like a man.

“I would just say that he’s still, of course, learning the understanding. He’s probably running more than he needs to if anything. He got cramp towards the end.

“That efficiency that he can still learn but his ability to receive under pressure, his calmness on the ball, he competes, he wants to compete.

“Even in training sessions with us right from the start, he didn’t hold back and look at the senior players. He’s in there and he should be really proud of his first start.”

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MANCHESTER CITY CHAIRMAN KHALDOON AL MUBARAK RUES INVOLVEMENT IN ESL

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has vowed to continue to “disrupt” the world’s best but revealed his regret over the doomed European Super League.

The Premier League champions caused outrage in April by agreeing to join a Super League with 11 other European giants.

City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham all quickly pulled out of the plan – which also involved Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, both Milan clubs and Juventus – after furious fan protests.

A new set of measures put in place by the Premier League in May includes an owners’ charter which all club owners will be required to sign up to – committing them to the core principles of the competition – but Al Mubarak insisted City will always look to improve.

He said: “We will continue to push the envelope in everything we do. We want to be the best club in the world and to do so we have to disrupt and we will disrupt.

“In being disruptive sometimes you make mistakes. We have made mistakes in the past, we will make mistakes in the future, but we will do more right than wrong.

“We will be better, stronger and more successful. What I tell the fans on this is, to get to where we are today we have done a lot of things right and we have made a lot of mistakes. It’s part of growing and improving.

“You need to have the courage to make mistakes and to own up to these mistakes to go forward.

“If you go back 12 years ago where we started, to where we are today, we couldn’t have done the leaps we have made over the years without taking risks and without making mistakes, learning and coming back and constantly improving.”

But Al Mubarak conceded it was a mistake to get involved in the Super League which strained their relationships with fans, the league and other top-flight clubs.
“Regret, yes, a big learning experience. We go on and we will continue,” he told the club’s website.

“It was a decision based on a view, which was a mistaken view, this will improve and strengthen our position as a club. What it missed was an important aspect which is how the fans felt about it.

“We will learn from it, I have no doubt. Our fans appreciate the heart and spirit of everything we do. Our fans, I hope, will understand when we make such a mistake like this our heart was in the right place. Our assessment was wrong.

“We took a decision, I took a decision on this and I take full responsibility, it was a mistake.”

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NECO WILLIAMS SEES RED AS FRANCE THRASH WALES IN EURO WARM UP GAME

Wales fell to a 3-0 Euro 2020 warm-up defeat to France after Neco Williams’ controversial red card left them playing with 10 men for more than an hour.

Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele made France’s numerical advantage count as Wales went into damage limitation mode on a night in Nice which proved anything but pleasant for the Dragons.

Williams was banished on 26 minutes after blocking Karim Benzema’s close-range shot with his arms outstretched, following a VAR check by Portuguese referee Luis Godinho.

It seemed a harsh decision, but Williams now looks set to miss Wales’ final pre-Euro 2020 friendly against Albania in Cardiff on Saturday through suspension.

Benzema saw his resulting spot-kick saved by Danny Ward, but the outcome was inevitable from that point as the world champions revelled in the extra space created by Williams’ departure.

Wales interim boss Robert Page had promised to manage his players’ minutes against France and Albania amid several fitness concerns just 10 days before their tournament opener against Switzerland in Baku.

Aaron Ramsey, Ben Davies and Joe Allen all had injury issues in the final months of the season with the trio having little or no game time.

Only Allen of the three started at the Allianz Riviera, the Stoke midfielder’s first game since pulling up in a World Cup qualifying defeat to Belgium in March.

Ramsey and Davies were on the bench while Ethan Ampadu and Tom Lockyer, a late addition to the Euro 2020 party on Monday when James Lawrence dropped out, did not make the matchday squad after injury.

Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris captained France for the 100th time in the city of his birth as Real Madrid striker Benzema ended an international absence of nearly six years by joining Griezmann and Mbappe in attack.

Griezmann and Olivier Giroud had scored when the two nations last met, France winning a Paris friendly 2-0 in November 2017.

Les Bleus might have been looking for a good omen with that victory coming eight months before their World Cup celebrations in Russia, and Didier Deschamps’ side started on the front foot.

Williams was assigned to do a man-marking job on Paul Pogba, but the Manchester United man found space in the fourth minute to deliver a cross which Benzema headed powerfully but Ward pushed to safety.

Wales responded instantly and Daniel James broke into space to test Lloris with a low shot, with Presnel Kimpembe preventing Allen from bundling home the rebound.

The visitors were matching France in what was an open high-tempo contest, but that was to change when Ward reacted brilliantly to save Pogba’s close-range header.

Benzema’s follow-up was heading goalwards until Williams got in the way and Wales paid the penalty in more than one way as the Liverpool youngster was dismissed.

France made their extra man count after 34 minutes when Adrien Rabiot’s shot from the edge of the area took a wicked deflection.

Ward stuck out a foot but the ball looped into the air and Mbappe was on hand to finish with a classy volley.

France doubled their lead two minutes into the second half.

Mbappe cleverly flicked the ball into Griezmann’s path and the Barcelona forward beat Ward with an unerring effort from the edge of the box.

Ramsey was introduced among a raft of second-half substitutions and the Juventus playmaker produced a delicious pass to set up James for an effort which Lloris saved with a strong right hand.

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WOLVES CLOSER TO APPOINTING BRUNO LAGE AS NEW MANAGER

Wolves moved a step closer to appointing Bruno Lage as their new boss after the switch was cleared by the Football Association.

The 45-year-old initially failed to pass post-Brexit regulations but, at a hearing on Wednesday, Wolves won their case and he has been given the green light to move to Molineux.

Lage has been first choice to replace former manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who left at the end of the season, in a move driven by owners Fosun.

He held talks with Wolves last month as the club look to progress further after four years under Nuno, who took them from the Championship and into Europe.

Nuno left after the club finished 13th in the Premier League, although his exit was not based on results.

Fosun had been considering a change in regards to the club’s wider progress, with the owners wanting to make a proactive and decisive choice.

The incoming Lage guided Benfica to the Portuguese title in 2019 with his side including current Manchester City defender – and former Wolves target – Ruben Dias.

He left in June 2020 and his expected appointment at Molineux will see him return to English football.

Lage spent time as Carlos Carvalhal’s assistant at Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea.

Nuno, meanwhile, has been linked to the vacant jobs at Everton and Crystal Palace after the departure of Carlo Ancelotti to Real Madrid and Roy Hodgson’s decision to step down at Selhurst Park.

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SAKA ON TARGET, BELLINGHAM STARS, AS ENGLAND BEAT AUSTRIA IN EUROS WARM-UP GAME

Bukayo Saka got absentee-hit England’s Euro 2020 preparations off to a winning start against Austria but all eyes will be on Trent Alexander-Arnold after his late injury.

Having whittled his 33-man provisional squad down to 26 players on the eve of Wednesday’s friendly, Gareth Southgate’s side triumphed as they played in front of fans for the first time in 18 months.

Saka’s debut goal was the difference in England’s 1-0 victory against fellow Euros outfit Austria, but the main talking point after the match will be Alexander-Arnold limping off late on in Middlesbrough.

Southgate’s men will return to the Riverside Stadium for their final warm-up friendly against Romania on Sunday, when the England will be hoping there will be no repeat of the jeers that met players taking the knee.

There were around 7,000 in attendance as England fans got to see some new stars for the first time, with Jack Grealish, Saka and 17-year-old full debutant Jude Bellingham looking bright.

Harry Kane had the best chance of the first half and 19-year-old Saka kept his cool to put the Three Lions into a deserved lead early in the second period.

Jordan Pickford spared debutant Ben Godfrey’s blushes and got the slightest touch as Marcel Sabitzer struck the crossbar on a night that Southgate was unable to call on Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea players.

There were some hairy moments defensively and the night ended with widely-discussed right-back Alexander-Arnold hobbling off.

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Emerson becomes Barcelona’s third arrival in three days after Aguero, Garcia join

Barcelona have completed their third transfer of the week activating a clause to recall Emerson Royal from Real Betis for a fee of €9 million.

The Brazil international signed a five-year contract with Barca when he moved to Spain from Atletico Mineiro in 2019, but spent the last two-and-a-half years at Betis.

Barca agreed the original deal in collaboration with Betis, with each club paying €6m and Barca reserving an option to pay Betis €9m this summer to end the loan and take the player to Camp Nou. Betis will also be due 20% of any future transfer.

Both clubs paid €6m each to bring Emerson to Europe, with Barca reserving an option to sign him outright from Betis this summer for €9m. Betis will also be due 20% of any future transfer.

Juan Miranda has moved in the other direction. The left-back, who spent last season on loan at Betis, has returned to the Seville-based club for free, although Barca will be due to 40% of any future transfer.

Emerson, 22, becomes the third player to make the move to Camp Nou this week following the arrivals of Manchester City duo Sergio Aguero and Eric Garcia.

In just over two years at Betis, he has been a regular at right-back, making 79 appearances across all competitions and helping the club qualify for the Europa League this season.

He is with the Brazil national team preparing for this week’s World Cup qualifiers and could be involved in the Copa America later this month in his homeland.

Barca have now added two right-backs in the last year. Emerson follows Sergino Dest, who joined from Ajax for around €20m last September, and the two will compete for a place in the team next season.

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Messi Agrees Barcelona Contract

Barcelona have reportedly set to end the year-long speculation surrounding his future by penning a new two-year deal with Barcelona.

The six-time Ballon d’Or winner’s future has been the talk of the transfer market since he tried to force a move away from a club last summer, but a dispute over his release clause ultimately led to him staying.

The Argentine did not commit his future to the club during the 2020-21 campaign, though, with Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain thought to be on red alert as his deal prepares to expire at the end of this month.

However, reports in Spain have claimed that Messi has decided to continue at Barcelona and will soon sign a new deal with the club until the summer of 2023.

Messi is therefore set to ply his trade alongside compatriot Sergio Aguero at Camp Nou for the 2021-22 season, with the former Man City striker joining as a free agent on a two-year deal.

Messi – who will turn 34 later this month – enjoyed another stellar campaign in Catalonia last term, chalking up 38 goals and 14 assists in 47 appearances across all competitions.

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VENUE CHANGE: 2021 COPA AMERICA MOVED FROM ARGENTINA TO BRAZIL

CONMEBOL named Brazil as the host nation of the 47th Copa America on Monday, although President Jair Bolsonaro’s chief of staff said ongoing talks might not reach a formal conclusion until the next day.

The decision was made less than 24 hours after South America’s football governing body announced Argentina would no longer stage the event that is due to start on June 13 and last until July 10.

A CONMEBOL statement read: “The CONMEBOL @CopaAmerica 2021 will be played in Brazil! Tournament start and end dates are confirmed. The venues and the fixture will be informed by CONMEBOL in the next few hours. The oldest national team tournament in the world will thrill the entire continent!”

Later on Monday, Luiz Eduardo Ramos, Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, ]said negotiations were underway and that there was “nothing certain” about the tournament’s potential relocation.

CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez said it was a unanimous decision that the council took to have Brazil as the host nation. He also thanked original co-hosts Argentina and Colombia and stated that opportunities would come along for the two countries to stage events in the future.

Brazil are the holders of the competition, having won it on home soil in 2019.

CONMEBOL cited “the present circumstances” as the reason for Argentina’s withdrawal as hosts, with the country having experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases. There were 348 deaths reported on Sunday and 21,346 new infections.

CONMEBOL, reluctant to cancel the tournament for a second successive year after the 2020 event was not held due to the pandemic, acted quickly with fewer than two weeks to go before the start of the competition.

The last Copa America, held in Brazil in 2019, brought in $118 million in revenue.

The tournament involving 10 South American countries, was originally set to be staged by Argentina and Colombia, the first time in its 105-year history to have joint hosts.

Colombia had a request to have the tournament postponed rejected by CONMEBOL and pulled out as co-hosts on May 20 due to social and economic unrest in the nation.

Although no decision has yet been made on venues, many of the stadiums Brazil built or reformed for the 2014 World Cup could be candidates to host matches, with the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro or the Mane Garrincha stadium in the capital Brasilia possible locations.

The last-minute decision also throws up some complicated questions for the Brazilian national federation (CBF). The Brazilian league was not due to be halted for the Copa America and at least 70 league games are scheduled to be played during the month-long tournament.

News reports in Brazil said Flamengo would ask the CBF to suspend the league for the duration of the Copa.

More than 460,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Brazil, the second-highest number in the world after the U.S, and the vaccination roll-out has stuttered. But Argentina is struggling with a recent spike. According to a Reuters tally, Brazil has reported 204 infections per 100,000 people in the past seven days, compared with 484 per 100,000 in Argentina.

Lionel Messi’s Argentina are scheduled to open the tournament against Chile on Jun. 13, while Brazil begin their title defence against Venezuela one day later.

South American teams are also preparing for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers that were originally scheduled to be played in March but were postponed because of coronavirus travel restrictions.

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ENGLAND EURO 2020 SQUAD: GREENWOOD PULLS OUT DUE TO INJURY

Mason Greenwood has pulled out of the provisional England Euro 2020 squad due to a pre-existing injury.

The Manchester United forward was part of the initial 33-man squad selected by Gareth Southgate for this summer’s tournament. But ahead of the announcement of the final squad on Tuesday, his club have said he will not take part in the European Championship.

A statement from Manchester United read: “Manchester United striker Mason Greenwood has withdrawn from the provisional England Euro 2020 squad, in order to recover fully from an underlying injury that also kept him out of the Under-21 European Championship in March.

“Mason’s club appearances were managed carefully to maintain his availability through the intensive 2020-21 Premier League and Europa League schedules.

“But a further spell of tournament football would not be beneficial and Mason will remain at Manchester United to recuperate and prepare for pre-season training.”

Southgate will name a cut-down 26-man squad later on Tuesday.