Missing part from a statue face, part two

We all know how Zlatan Ibrahimovic (well...his copy of it) went through the first part on the demolition of the bronze structure. At the end of November the loyal fans of Malmo vandalized his statue, and what they did it will not be mentioned here again in order not to be boring. However, here will be said about the latest attack from last Monday. Because the poor sculpt had a little bit of everything in part number one, in this assault someone had come to an idea to leave their 'bronze' idol without a nose.
After the total destruction of the structure before the Swedbank (now Eleda) stadium, a petition is launched where more than 8.000 people has signed it for removal.

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Draw was made for one of the exciting World Cup qualifying region

Just three months remains from an excitatory and probably the best duels who are all eagerly waiting to watch, as the South American continent is going to join the path towards the 2022 World Cup. It is the only region where all 10 countries are placed into one group, playing 18 long rounds: 8 of them is going to be in 2020, while 10 are at 2021.
Probably this will mean nothing to us, but on 17 December in Paraguay was the draw for the confederation. Since all are under one 'roof' playing everybody with everybody twice (home and away duels) the lot was made only to determine the position of a nation so that the schedule will be available. And the little balls came out like this: Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador. Knowing this, at the end of March in the first round are playing: Uruguay - Chile, Colombia - Venezuela, Brazil - Bolivia, Paraguay - Peru, Argentina - Ecuador, plus we expect 17 more phases of combination duels.

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Pairs for first knockout stage revealed

Qualifying are over as well as the group stages, and two months in 2020 will start the third and final part in both European Cups competitions. Last Monday the European football organization has performed couple of draws for the first knockout stage.

Eight dates have been assigned for all games in the Champions league. In order for all to be televised and to be easy for watching, the first knockout round is going to torment us for fully two months, while each duel will start at 21.00 CET. Below is the schedule when pairs are playing for the last 16 round:

18 February (leg 1) and 11 March (leg 2):
Borussia Dortmund - PSG.
Atletico Madrid - Liverpool.

19 February (leg 1) and 10 March (leg 2):
Atalanta - Valencia.
Tottenham - RasenBallsport Leipzig.

25 February (leg 1) and 18 March (leg 2):
Chelsea - Bayern Munich.
Napoli - Barcelona.

26 February (leg 1) and 17 March (leg 2):
Real Madrid - Manchester city.
Olympique Lyonnais - Juventus.

The most interesting event of the two is certainly the Europa league. We have come to the round of 32, while 16 duels will be divided in two time slots: 18.55 and 21.00 CET. For the following games the first leg is going to be on 20 February, while the return matches are six and seven nights later.

Wolverhampton - Espanyol.
Sporting - Basaksehir.
Getafe - Ajax.
Bayer Leverkusen - Porto.
Kobenhavn - Celtic.
APOEL - Basel.
Cluj - Sevilla.
Olympiacos - Arsenal.
AZ - LASK.
Club Brugge - Manchester united.
Ludogorets - Inter.
Eintracht Frankfurt - Red Bull Salzburg.
Shakhtar Donetsk - Benfica.
Wolfsburg - Malmo.
Roma - Gent.
Glasgow rangers - Braga.

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When ten names became three

On 03 December the African football confederation has announced plenty of names that will compete for the best of the region for 2019. Plenty of awards are going to be given at the male and women category, where the most important ones are always the last: who will be the most valuable footballer for this year.
From five nominees for the women player of the year, six days ago the organization have announced three who are in contention: Ajara Nchout (Cameroon), Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria) and Thembi Kgatlana (South Africa). While even double candidates were from the men side, and on the same day were discovered who 'survived' the top three: Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), together with Sadio Mane (Senegal). This trio of players are in the same round for the fourth year.
All will be answered on 07 January, where in the Egyptian resort Hurghada are going to be crowned the winners.

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Youth competition is going to have a debut technology

The more and more criticized digital monitoring system from above is not giving up that easily. While in Europe is getting on each and every one nerves because of an accurate and clean game, at Asia the video assistant referee system is going to appear for the first time in an official youth category football tournament.
At the beginning of the week the confederation has decided that the 'eagle eye' technology will make a debut in three cities of Thailand for the under 23 championship event from 08 until 26 January. Likewise, for the first time ever at the Asian continent the televised monitors will work in all 32 matches who are going to be played in Bangkok, Buriram and Songkhla (also known as Singgora).

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Three clubs penalized for the same reason

Couple of days ago the European football organization collected 225.000 euros and 'ripped off' this money from just three clubs. All of them are punished for the same cause: delaying payments of current and former players and coaches.
'A seasonal greeting for the wonderful holidays ahead' were sent to Crvena Zvezda who have to say good-bye to 50.000 euros, Olimpija have to give 75.000, while 100.000 euros is the punishment for Ordabasy. However, the club from Kazakhstan have been given a deadline until 31 January 2020 to pay all debts, otherwise it risks to be thrown out from the European Cups tournaments in the next two seasons (if they qualify for them).

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Identification software

Hooliganism is a very rude and violent manner where all countries are having trouble controlling it. This behavior is (almost) every day present throughout football games in Italy, thus league leaders have revealed that they are developing a technology of recognition of faces in order to identify supporters responsible for racism. If they receive a permit from the government, these devices will be installed inside stadia within two years, explained the executive director of Serie A Luigi de Siervo last Monday.

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Unpredicted attack

We are often seeing how a dog can interrupt a match, a squirrel might run throughout the pitch, or even couple of birds can walk through it, but what will happen if other kind of animals (who are sticking together in a group) are attacking players from above? The following story is somewhat comic, and the situation is a little bit different.
On 21 December Young Africans and Iringa united played their duel from the third round for the Federation Cup in Tanzania. Just seven minutes into the second half suddenly swarm of bees started to attack all participants on the pitch at the Uhuru stadium in Dar es Salaam. In all this chaos some footballers went down on the ground, while some have managed to escape. After the first part was completed, the uninvited flying guests moved onto the stands where they caused panic among the spectators as well.

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Hardest punishment of all

On 15 December Saint-Etienne and PSG played their duel from the French championship. During the game two security personnel were lightly injured, but after it there was a big fight between the two opposing supporters. To be more worse for the home side, their fans used and 'were bragged' with numerous fireworks throughout the whole match.
Everybody have thought that closure of the stands with the fanatical supporters is going to come out or even the club playing their upcoming games behind closed doors, but a day later the league leaders have issued (maybe) the hardest punishment of all: suspension of the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium on indefinite time!

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Numbers from the just finished mini-tournament

Since the first edition in 2000, we saw a boring last duel at the 2019 Club World Cup event for the second time. Despite this tedious and goalless 90 minutes final, in 10 nights 27 goals were scored in 8 matches or 3.37 per match. Twelve of those were given in the first 45 minutes, while 15 was scored in the second half. On top of that, 1 was at stoppage time, while 1 was an unfortunate own goal. However, if we add 3 more scored in extra time (2 of them given in first 15 additional time plus 1 in the second extra), then 3.75 goals were given per game.
In 720 minutes of football the 'man in blue' gave 3 red cards, of whom 2 were direct whilst 1 player received two yellow cards in 1 game. As for punishments there were 3, and all of them in only 49 minutes of play. This means that 1 penalty was converted in second half, whilst the other 2 were just 7 minutes apart from each other in the first half.
With this 'little' round-up, the official international matches for 2019 are over. Everyone are hoping that in the year with two repetitive numbers will witness plenty of exciting games and goals.

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Classification duel most exciting than final

Club World Cup 2019 in Qatar: classification for third / fourth place, night 5, game 7:

Monterrey - Al-Hilal 2:2, on penalties: 4-3

Scorers: 0:1 35 (34.53) Carlos Eduardo de Oliveira Alves
              1:1 55 (54.47) Arturo Gonzalez
              2:1 60 (59.38) Maximiliano Meza
              2:2 65 (65.02) Bafetimbi Gomis

Stoppage time played for both halves: 1.06 + 4.01.

Club World Cup 2019 in Qatar: final, night 5, game 8:

Liverpool - Flamengo 0:0, after extra time 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 98 (98.10) Roberto Firmino

Stoppage time played for both halves: 1.13 + 8.01.

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Banned for entering sports events

Last Thursday the police in Rome issued a complete ban for 30 Lazio fans, who are not allowed to enter on any sports events: 29 of them received punishments from 3 up to 8 years, while the thirtieth spectator is removed for 10 years because he was spotted in incidents at previous games. This prohibition was issued after these trouble-makers have attacked officers and opposing fans in two duels.
After a violence broke out before the stadium, in the middle of May at the last match of the Italian Cup against Atalanta 13 hooligans were identified. On 11 November, 17 more were labelled when a fight broke up after an Europa league duel versus Celtic.

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Youngest ever goalkeeper and goalscorer at same competition

Last week the European Cups tournaments have ended with its second part - the group stage. At the last round two players which participated at the Champions league on Tuesday night, and plays in different positions, have become the youngest ever in the history of the competition.
With 17 years and 287 days Maarten Vandevoordt now is the youngest goalkeeper of the event. Standing before the goal for Genk against Napoli, the Belgian broke the record surpassing his compatriot Mile Svilar who was the Benfica goalkeeper with 18 years and 52 days in October 2017.
On the other hand, the Barcelona striker Anssumane Fati (who scored the winning goal against Inter) have set a record by becoming the youngest scorer with 17 years and 40 days.

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Goal scored in stoppage time

Club World Cup 2019 in Qatar: semifinal 2, night 4, game 6:

Monterrey - Liverpool 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 11 (11.02) Naby Keita
              1:1 14 (13.22) Rogelio Funes Mori
              1:2 90 (90.18) Roberto Firmino

Stoppage time played for both halves: 0.58 + 3.08.

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Turnaround of the competition, first direct red cards, penalties and hat-trick plus lots of goals

Club World Cup 2019 in Qatar: classification for fifth /sixth place, night 3, game 4:

Al Sadd - Esperance de Tunis 2:6

Scorers: 0:1 06 (05.59) Hamdou Elhouni
              0:2 13 (12.38) Anice Badri
              0:3 25-pen (24.58) Anice Badri
              1:3 32-pen (31.33) Baghdad Bounedjah
              1:4 41 (41.07) Hamdou Elhouni
              2:4 49-pen (48.26) Hassan Khalid al Haydos
              2:5 73 (73.05) Hamdou Elhouni
              2:6 86 (86.03) Sameh Derbali

- An direct red card number one at the competition, earned Abdelkarim Hassan al Haj Fadlalla (Al Sadd) on 23 (23.10) for playing with his hand in the penalty box.

Stoppage time played for both halves: 2.01 + 2.03.

Club World Cup 2019 in Qatar: semifinal 1, night 3, game 5:

Flamengo - Al-Hilal 3:1

Scorers: 0:1 18 (17.47) Salem al-Dawsari
              1:1 48 (48.13) Giorgian de Arrascaeta
              2:1 78 (77.39) Bruno Henrique
              3:1 81-own goal (81.01) Ali Albleahy

- Direct red card in this game received Andre Carrillo (Al-Hilal) on 83 (82.57).

Stoppage time played for both halves: 3.24 + 3.08.

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Additional eight qualifying duels known before entering Gold Cup 2021 event

The 12 teams who have qualified for the main tournament in North, Central America and Caribbean now can rest a little, but the following 12 will torment themselves and have to sweat real good just to be present at the above mentioned Gold Cup. All are coming from the Nations league tournament which were on various places, are going to play two rounds, but only four of them will travel to the main event.
Last Wednesday it was the draw for the play-off matches for the 2021 tournament. In total there are 8 matches, and all will be played on two months: at March 2020 is going to be the first qualifying phase, while in June 2020 will be the last elimination stage when we are going to find out which teams have booked the finals. Every pair will have to play an home-and-away games which are looking like this:

Qualifying round 1:

(Game 1) Guadeloupe - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
(Game 2) Barbados - Guyana.
(Game 3) Bahamas - French Guiana.
(Game 4) Guatemala - Montserrat.

Qualifying round 2:

Winner of duel 1 - Haiti.
Winner of duel 2 - Trinidad and Tobago.
Winner of duel 3 - Bermuda.
Winner of duel 4 - Cuba.

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Four clubs competes for the big and final prize for this year

In six nights time is going to finish the last competition of 2019 where we will find out which continent has the best club in the world. Until the end at the Club World Cup have to be played two classification matches, two semifinals and a final duel. So far we saw 5 clubs playing at the event, thus 2 more are going to be introduced to us for the first time in the final week of playing. The schedule for the last 5 international club official games for this year is the following:

Classification for fifth /sixth place:
Tuesday, 17 December at 15.30 CET: Al Sadd - Esperance de Tunis.

Semifinals:
Tuesday, 17 December at 18.30 CET: Flamengo - Al-Hilal.

Wednesday, 18 December at 18.30 CET: Monterrey - Liverpool.

Classification for third / fourth place:
Saturday, 21 December at 15.30 CET: losing teams from both semifinals.

Final:
Saturday, 21 December at 18.30 CET: winning clubs from both semifinals.

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Who will be crowned African best player of 2019?

An answer to the title question is going to be answered on the first Tuesday of January. The beautiful beach resort Hurghada (Egypt) is going to host edition number 28 on the annual awards of the African continent.
Last Tuesday were revealed all nominees, and plenty of prizes will be given for best footballer of 2019 in the male and female section where, surely, the most exciting ones are going to be at the end. For the the best player in the confederation of the current year in total are competing 15 names: 5 are coming from the women side, while even 10 candidates are on the list for the men: Andre Onana, Hakim Ziyech, Ismael Bennacer, Kalidou Koulibaly, Mohamed Salah, Odion Ighalo, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Riyad Mahrez, Sadio Mane and Youcef Belaili.

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Red card number one issued

Club World Cup 2019 in Qatar: round 2, night 2, game 2:

Al-Hilal - Esperance de Tunis 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 72 (72.15) Bafetimbi Gomis

- The first two red cards at the event was given to Mohamed Ibrahim Kanno (Al-Hilal) on 85 (84.58).

Stoppage time played for both halves: 2.26 + 2.52.

Club World Cup 2019 in Qatar: round 2, night 2, game 3:

Monterrey - Al Sadd 3:2

Scorers: 1:0 22 (22.03) Leonel Vangioni
              2:0 45 (45.02) Rogelio Funes Mori
              2:1 66 (65.54) Baghdad Bounedjah
              3:1 77 (76.31) Carlos Alberto Rodriguez Gomez
              3:2 88 (88.13) Abdelkarim Hassan al Haj Fadlalla

Stoppage time played for both halves: 2.33 + 6.06.

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Suspended for saying stupid things live in program

'Sieg heil' is a Nazi salute which is banned in every country. Knowing this, these two words were spoken live on air (off camera) at the end of November by Marco van Basten who is working as a commentator at the Dutch version on Fox sports network. Thinking that the microphone was off, the former Netherlands international said that, who later issued an apology. He was immediately suspended for seven days from work, while the salary from the 55-year-old was donated at the institute for war documentation in the country. On top of that the well known video gaming company Electronic arts last Tuesday has removed his name from FIFA 20 game.

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Not a single boring match

Europa league, group stage, round 6:

LASK - Sporting 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 22 (22.13) Gernot Trauner
              2:0 37-pen (37.02) Joao Klauss de Mello
              3:0 90+3 (92.43) Marko Raguz

- Renan Ribeiro (Sporting) had to leave early, saying goodbye to the fans on 34 (33.56) due to two yellow cards.

APOEL - Sevilla 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 60 (60.17) Vujadin Savic

- An 11 metre punishment from Moanes Dabbur (Sevilla) was perfectly saved on 56 (56.08).

Qarabag - F91 Dudelange 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 63 (62.45) Sabir Bourgine
              1:1 90+1 (90.23) Magaye Gueye

- Bad boy in this match was Qara Qarayev (Qarabag) who received his second yellow card at 46 (45.43).

Dynamo Kyiv - Lugano 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 45 (44.32) Marco Aratore
              1:1 90+3 (93.18) Viktor Tsyhankov

Standard Liege - Arsenal 2:2

Scorers: 1:0 47 (46.34) Samuel Bastien
              2:0 68 (68.04) Selim Amallah
              2:1 78 (77.53) Alexandre Lacazette
              2:2 80 (80.07) Bukayo Saka

Eintracht Frankfurt - Vitoria 2:3

Scorers: 0:1 08 (07.40) Diogo Filipe Costa Rocha (known as Rochinha)
              1:1 31 (30.30) Danny da Costa
              2:1 38 (37.22) Daichi Kamada
              2:2 85 (84.22) Almoatasembellah Ali Elmusrati
              2:3 87 (86.26) Marcus Edwards

Getafe - Krasnodar 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 76 (75.12) Leandro Cabrera
              2:0 78 (77.56) Jorge Molina Vidal
              3:0 85 (85.15) Robert Kenedy Nunes Nascimento

- The guests finished this duel with 10 players due to two yellow cards from Alyaksandr Martynovich on 88 (87.57).

Basel - Trabzonspor 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 21 (20.55) Silvan Widmer
              2:0 71 (71.15) Valentin Stocker

Kobenhavn - Malmo 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 77-own goal (76.48) Sotiris Papagiannopoulos

PSV - Rosenborg 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 22 (21.43) Pal Andre Helland
              1:1 63 (62.47) Mohamed Ihattaren

Ludogorets - Ferencvaros 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 23 (23.19) Jody Lukoki
              1:1 90+4 (94.15) Nikolai Sihnevich

Partizan - Astana 4:1

Scorers: 1:0 04 (03.44) Seydouba Soumah
              2:0 21 (21.04) Umar Sadiq
              3:0 25 (25.02) Takuma Asano
              4:0 76 (75.51) Umar Sadiq
              4:1 79-own goal (78.46) Strahinja pavlovic

Gent - Olexandriya 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 07 (06.35) Laurent Depoitre
              2:0 16 (15.37) Laurent Depoitre
              2:1 54 (53.46) Denys Miroshnichenko

Espanyol - CSKA Moscow 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 84 (83.38) Nikola Vlasic

Slovan Bratislava - Braga 2:4

Scorers: 1:0 42 (41.30) Anraz Sporar
              1:1 44 (43.35) Rui Fonte
              2:1 69 (69.11) Mohammed Rharsalla Khadfi (simply known as Moha)
              2:2 72 (71.23) Francisco Trincao
              2:3 74-own goal (74.04) Vasil Bozhikov
              2:4 90+2 (92.16) Joao Paulo Dias Fernandes (or just Paulinho)

Borussia Monchengladbach - Basaksehir 1:2

Scorers: 1:0 32 (31.58) Marcus Thuram
              1:1 43 (43.05) Irfan Kahveci
              1:2 90 (89.51) Enzo Crivelli

Glasgow rangers - Young boys Bern 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 30 (29.37) Alfredo Morelos
              1:1 89-own goal (88.29) Borna Barisic

- At 90+3 (92.21) Ryan Jack weakened the home side by receiving his second yellow card.

Roma - Wolfsberger 2:2

Scorers: 1:0 07-pen (06.31) Diego Perotti
              1:1 10-own goal Alessandro Florenzi
              2:1 18 (18.13) Edin Dzeko
              2:2 63 (62.55) Shon Weismann

Porto - Feyenoord 3:2

Scorers: 1:0 13 (13.10) Marulanda Fernando Luis Diaz
              2:0 15-own goal (14.58) Tyrell Malacia
              2:1 19 (18.46) Eric Fernando Botteghin
              2:2 22 (21.48) Sam Larsson
              3:2 33 (32.51) Francisco Soares

Manchester united - AZ 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 53 (52.44) Ashley Young
              2:0 57 (57.10) Mason Greenwood
              3:0 62-pen (61.45) Juan Mata
              4:0 63 (63.13) Mason Greenwood

Wolverhampton - Besiktas 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 57 (56.58) Diogo Jota
              2:0 63 (62.41) Diogo Jota
              3:0 67 (66.33) Leander Dendoncker
              4:0 68 (67.59) Diogo Jota

Cluj - Celtic 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 48 (47.56) Andrei Burca
              2:0 70 (69.31) Damjan Djokovic

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Different tales of two punishments in 87 minutes of play

Champions league, group stage, round 6 (part 2):

Shakhtar Donetsk - Atalanta 0:3

Scorers: 0:1 65 (65.05) Timothy Castagne
              0:2 80 (79.28) Mario Pasalic
              0:3 90+4 (93.53) Robin Gosens

- Domilson Cordeiro dos Santos (known as Dodo, Shakhtar Donetsk) received a ridiculously direct red card on 76 (76.10).

Club Brugge - Real Madrid 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 53 (52.25) Rodrygo Silva de Goes
              1:1 54 (54.07) Hans Vanaken
              1:2 64 (63.30) Vinicius Jose Paixao de Oliveira junior
              1:3 90+1 (90.51) Luka Modric

Atletico Madrid - Lokomotiv Moscow 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 16-pen (16.09) Joao Felix
              2:0 53 (53.11) Felipe Augusto de Almeida Monteiro

- A punishment from Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid) was beautifully saved on 02 (01.55).

Olympiacos - Crvena zvezda 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 87-pen (86.54) Youssef el Arabi

- On 42 (41.42) a crossbar stopped the strong shot from 11 metres from Antonio Manuel Fernandes Mendes (also known as Tomane), for giving Crvena zvezda the lead.


PSG - Galatasaray 5:0

Scorers: 1:0 32 (31.58) Mauro Icardi
              2:0 35 (34.41) Pablo Sarabia
              3:0 46 (46.00) Neymar da Silva Santos junior
              4:0 63 (62.46) Kylian Mbappe
              5:0 83-pen (83.16) Edinson Cavani

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Qatar national champion chose the hard way to qualify for next round

Club World Cup 2019 in Qatar: round 1, night 1, game 1:

Al Sadd - Hienghene sport 1:1, after extra time 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 26 (25.51) Baghdad Bounedjah
              1:1 46 (45.39) Amy Roine
              2:1 100 (99.25) Abdelkarim Hassan al Haj Fadlalla
              3:1 113 (113.09) Pedro Miguel Correia

Stoppage time played for both halves: 3.07 + 3.04.

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Hat-trick scorer and two penalties in same game

Champions league, group stage, round 6 (part 1):

Napoli - Genk 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 02 (02.04) Arkadiusz Milik
              2:0 26 (25.36) Arkadiusz Milik
              3:0 38-pen (37.21) Arkadiusz Milik
              4:0 74-pen (73.58) Dries Mertens

Red Bull Salzburg - Liverpool 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 56 (56.07) Naby Keita
              0:2 58 (57.47) Mohamed Salah

Ajax - Valencia 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 24 (23.55) Rodrigo Moreno

- On 90+3 (92.54) the visiting team finished with 10 players because Gabriel Armando de Abreu (also known as Gabriel Paulista) received a direct red card.

Benfica - Zenit saint Petersburg 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 46 (46.02) Franco Emanuel Cervi
              2:0 58-pen (57.50) Luis Miguel Afonso Fernandes (known as Pizzi)
              3:0 79-own goal (78.50) Sardar Azmoun

- Douglas Santos (Zenit saint Petersburg) left his teammates early due to two yellow cards at 56 (55.53).

Borussia Dortmund - Slavia Prague 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 10 (09.37) Jadon Sancho
              1:1 43 (42.52) Tomas Soucek
              2:1 61 (60.41) Julian Brandt

- Bad boy in this duel was Julian Weigl who had to leave on 77 (76.33) because of two yellow cards.

Inter - Barcelona 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 23 (22.36) Carles Perez
              1:1 43 (43.16) Romelu Lukaku
              1:2 86 (85.56) Anssumane Fati Vieira

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'If you refuse to pay me, then you will not enter stadiums'

One fanatical spectator of Boca juniors (unfortunately) can not go anymore in stadiums to watch his favourite team, unless he pays stagnant rates of alimony to his ex wife. Hugo Federico Suarez did not pay child support for almost a year, thus the court in Salta province at northwest of Argentina last Tuesday issued this unusual decision. The unlucky fan was stripped on football rights, after his ex wife saw how he have a great number of jerseys and souvenirs from the club.
Despite this ban, the accused also cannot go and see live the singer from Chile Mon Laferte performing at Buenos Aires where he already in advance purchased concert and airplane tickets.

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Final club tournament of 2019

It is already known that for the next two editions Qatar is going to host the Club World Cup. Thus, it will be the penultimate sixteenth time in the current format, before this is going to be completely destroyed in 2021.
From 11 until 21 December in the capital Doha eight duels are going to begin, and the following weekend we will know which club (champions in their own way) is playing the best football: six winners are competing from the Champions league from each continent plus the home team who is the championship winner in the country. The schedule for next week says that two rounds have to be completed, five clubs are going to be introduced to the public, while all three games are going to be played on Jassim bin Hamad stadium.

Round 1:
(Game 1) Wednesday, 11 December at 18.30 CET: Al Sadd - Hienghene sport.

Round 2:
(Game 2) Saturday, 14 December at 15.00 CET: Al-Hilal - Esperance de Tunis.
(Game 3) Saturday, 14 December at 18.30 CET: Monterrey - winner of duel number one.

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Last and coldest round, part three

Part number two (out of three) will conclude: after the knockout this summer, next week we are saying goodbye to the 2019 group stages for both European Cups competitions. Besides their opponents the real challenge for all the players will be the weather. Round number six is going to be probably the coldest ever, as in some parts of the continent temperatures are going to be below zero (specially at night). As for the stage is concerned it will be the only playing this month, while the following pairs have met once (from phase two), but this time they are going to meet in reverse order.

For the last time in the group stage, Champions league games are finishing with 2 plus 6 schedule on two consecutive nights. In order clubs and players not to cry as babies later, pairs from each groups are going to start simultaneously.

Tuesday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Napoli - Genk.
Tuesday, 10 December at 18.55 CET: Red Bull Salzburg - Liverpool.

Tuesday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Ajax - Valencia.
Tuesday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Benfica - Zenit saint Petersburg.
Tuesday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Borussia Dortmund - Slavia Prague.
Tuesday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Chelsea - Lille.
Tuesday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Inter - Barcelona.
Tuesday, 10 December at 21.00 CET: Olympique Lyonnais - RasenBallsport Leipzig.

Wednesday, 11 December at 18.55 CET: Dinamo Zagreb - Manchester city.
Wednesday, 11 December at 18.55 CET: Shakhtar Donetsk - Atalanta.

Wednesday, 11 December at 21.00 CET: Atletico Madrid - Lokomotiv Moscow.
Wednesday, 11 December at 21.00 CET: Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Juventus.
Wednesday, 11 December at 21.00 CET: Bayern Munich - Tottenham.
Wednesday, 11 December at 21.00 CET: Club Brugge - Real Madrid.
Wednesday, 11 December at 21.00 CET: Olympiacos - Crvena zvezda.
Wednesday, 11 December at 21.00 CET: PSG - Galatasaray.

Europa league has a different approach, as for the third time (in the group stages) all matches will start on two different time slots. However, there is no inequality here and for the second time (as it was in round one) 12 pairs are going to kick-off at the same time.

Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: APOEL - Sevilla.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Basel - Trabzonspor.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Cluj - Celtic.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Dynamo Kyiv - Lugano.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Eintracht Frankfurt - Vitoria.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Getafe - Krasnodar.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Kobenhavn - Malmo.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: LASK - Sporting.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: PSV - Rosenborg.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Qarabag - F91 Dudelange.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Rennes - Lazio.
Thursday, 12 December at 18.55 CET: Standard Liege - Arsenal.

Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Borussia Monchengladbach - Basaksehir.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Espanyol - CSKA Moscow.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Gent - Olexandriya.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Glasgow rangers - Young boys Bern.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Ludogorets - Ferencvaros.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Manchester united - AZ.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Partizan - Astana.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Porto - Feyenoord.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Roma - Wolfsberger.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Slovan Bratislava - Braga.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Wolfsburg - Saint-Etienne.
Thursday, 12 December at 21.00 CET: Wolverhampton - Besiktas.

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Date announced for qualifying draw of 2021 Gold Cup event

This Thursday it was revealed that on 11 December is going to be performed the draw of the qualifying (mini) duels for the Gold Cup competition which will begin in 2021.
From earlier it was known that the 2019-20 CONCACAF Nations league is going to be part of this event, thus 12 teams are already in the main tournament: Canada, Costa Rica, Curacao, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Suriname and United States of America, which means only four are missing to complete the line-up.
While the above 12 will rest, another 12 teams (who also participated in the Nations league event) are going to play (like an) additional play-off games. Like a second (and final) chance, these 12 are going to play elimination matches in two rounds, where are going to be drawn from:

Pot A: Bermuda, Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago.

Pot B: French Guiana, Guyana, Montserrat, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Pot C: Bahamas, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Guatemala.

Duels will be played in March (round one) and June 2020 (round two), when the missing quartet will be known.

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Changing of an qualifying format

Couple of days ago, the European football organization has decided to change the qualifying format for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
All 55 member associations are going to be divided in 10 groups: five of them will have five teams, and the other five are going to number six teams. Only the group winners will travel to the final, while the runners-up awaits additional qualifiers with two more teams from the 2020-21 Nations league event.
Furthermore these 12 are going to be divided in three groups where they will play semi-finals and final matches in only one duel. The three group winners from these play-off games plus the above 10 from the main qualifiers are making 13 teams of how much the continent has the right to send to the World Cup. Qualifiers in this region is beginning from 25 March 2021.

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Extremely dumb and terrible headline

Under the title of 'Black Friday' on the edition from Thursday, the daily Corriere dello sport newspaper sparked great criticism. Near these couple of words, the editorial put two players of black origin from Inter and Roma: Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling. The two clubs (which will meet on Friday at the Italian championship) slammed the headline alluding to racism, while of course, the editorial staff defended themselves saying they did nothing wrong.

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Oldest international tournament revealed groups for 2020 edition

The forty seventh Copa America will be held from 12 June until 12 July. Six months before, in Cartagena on Tuesday, was the draw for the main South American championship where couple of things is going to debut on the event. Australia will participate for the first time in the competition, plus two countries are going to host this edition (also for the first time): Argentina and Colombia. An main purpose of sharing hospitality means that every spectator can see the games throughout the continent. From earlier was known about two things: that the format system is going to be changed and where the 10 nations from the region are going to play in which groups (thus the draw was needed only to find out where the invitees will go and the schedule for the event):

South zone (group A): Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay.

North zone (group B): Colombia, Brazil, Qatar, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru.

At the end of the group stage, the first four countries will qualify for quarter finals, followed by semi-finals, classification match for third / fourth place and the last duel. Game number one is going to be played in Buenos Aires (Argentina), while the final duel (number 38) is going to be in Barranquilla (Colombia).

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Vandalized statue

For many years he was the most lovable player at Malmo. But one wrong move is enough to be treated as a hostile.
Loyal fans of the club has basically destroyed the statue of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who decided to invest in the biggest rival Hammarby of around 25 percent. This news had really angered the Malmo spectators seven days ago, and thinking it as a betrayal from their idol, got a 'sweet revenge' on the bronze sculpture which was badly damaged: it was surrounded with fireworks, they covered his face with a plastic bag and they put a toilet seat on both arms. A video of this wrath can be found on social media.

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Asian continent crowned its best

December and January are usually the months where each confederations, magazines and various organizations are revealing who is the best player for the current year. As always, one region have disclosed it first before others, for 2019.
On Monday night the Asian continent has declared who is the best footballer at a ceremony in Hong Kong. In total there were 14 categories: 8 for individuals and 6 for football associations. Further more, these 8 was divided in 3 each for males and females, plus the best international and futsal player. Certainly the most interesting categories are the prizes which are awarded at the end of the show: the best for this year.
Saki Kumagai (Japan) took the honours from women side, while Akram Hassan Afif has won for the men. The 23-year-old helped Qatar winning the first ever major title in this sport: Asian Cup at the beginning of the year. He was absent from the ceremony as the striker is currently on duty for winning another title for his country, thus he will receive the deserved reward at the Arabian Gulf Cup (which is an ongoing event at the moment).

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Wonder club goes two ranks lower

In a surprise of many football fans, last year at a European Cup competition one club from Sweden has achieved unbelievable results. Nowadays that same team is facing many difficulties.
Because of these financial problems, Ostersunds is going to be moved into third tier league in the country (which is division 1), unless it gathers enormous 15 million Swedish krona (around / surpassing 1.4 million euros) until the end of 2019. Out of this number, 1.4 million Swedish krona are taxes, and the rest are for various creditors. They can not get a licence to compete into the first league, but the deadline has been extended until 10 December if the club decided to appeal over the decision. Now the team is urgently looking for new sponsors and donations from spectators and companies.
As every individual is saying 'I am not guilty' so did the ex-president Daniel Kindberg, who last month was convicted and went in prison for money laundering. The verdict was that with the help of two other people and three companies pumped into the team illegal money between 2013 and 2017. Under his guidance, he took the club while it was in fourth (amateur) division in 2011, at 2016 the team has entered into the top division (Allsvenskan), 2016-17 season won the Cup, whilst one year later (2017-18) they reached the knock-out stage of Europa league.

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Extension of supplying contract

For full five years (since 2014) Puma has been a proud sponsor of Borussia Dortmund. Over the years the two sides have builded a strong trust, thus the new deal was imminent to be signed again. Although the current agreement expires in 2022, last Thursday the German club decided to extend it until 2028. The manufacturing company did not reveal the financial figures, but the sports magazine Kicker wrote a number which 'had been trebled to around 30 million euros per season'.

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Groups disclosed for the main European championship

Twenty teams have been dispersed into six groups, plus four are going to join them later on (through additional qualifiers at the end of March), which means that 24 are pursuing only one dream: to be the best team (on a national level) in Europe for 2020. In Bucharest today was the draw for the main championship of the continent, who is going to start next summer. At this special and very complicated EURO event, that will be played throughout the confederation, two cities are going to be the hosts for the following six groups from 12 June until 12 July:

Group A: Turkey, Italy, Wales, Switzerland are going to play at Rome and Baku.

Group B: Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Russia. Their homes will be Copenhagen and Saint Petersburg.

Group C: Netherlands, Ukraine, Austria, play-off match winner of A or D are going to be in Amsterdam and Bucharest.

Group D: England, Croatia, play-off game winner C, Czech Republic will be situated in London and Glasgow.

Group E: Spain, Sweden, Poland, play-off match winner B are going to be in Bilbao and Dublin.

Group F: play-off game winner of A or D, Portugal, France, Germany will play in Munich and Budapest.

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