FIFA draw for 2022 World Cup inter-confederation play-offs confirmed

Verdict: Northern Ireland to win to nil

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The friendly game at Windsor Park will serve as a good opportunity for both sides to gauge their form ahead of important competitive fixtures as Northern Ireland prepare for the all-important qualifier against Azerbaijan and New Zealand begin preparations for the 2017 Confederations Cup.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland seriously improved their profile over the last few years, qualifying for their first ever European Championship finals in 2016, and they even managed to get past the group stage, albeit losing three of four matches in France. The excellent performance at Euro 2016 definitely served as a major lift and Norn Iron continued in the same manner. Michael O’Neill’s side enjoye…

For fans of the Premier League and English football, this season has been a triumph in terms of competitiveness in Europe. As a result of Manchester United winning the 2017 Europa League, five English teams entered the prestigious competition this year, and all five progressed from the group stage.

United topped their group, as did Liverpool and Manchester City, and Tottenham finished first in a group that contained both Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. In fact the only English team that didn’t finish top of their group was Chelsea, who only managed a second place finish behind Roma.

The round of 16 is still in progress at the time of writing, but both City and Liverpool are looking primed to progress further, after 0-4 and 0-5 away wins against Basel and Porto resp…

Xavi credited Ousmane Dembele with changing his mentality in order to discover the form he has shown for Barcelona this season.

Barca reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey thanks to a second-half strike from Dembele to beat Real Sociedad 1-0 at Camp Nou, aided by the sending off of La Real midfielder Brais Mendez late in the first half.

Dembele attempted 11 dribbles during the game, equalling the highest total by a Barca player in a game this season, which came from the French winger himself against Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League.

Speaking to the media after the win, Xavi said that filling Dembele with confidence is the major difference from the player he inherited when he took charge of the club in November 2021.

The only thing we have giv…

Relegated Fulham ended a nine-match losing streak with a surprise 2-0 Premier League win over Everton at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

Playing for the first time since their return to the Championship was confirmed by defeat to Watford last week, Scott Parker earned his first win as caretaker manager.

After controlling the opening period, captain Tom Cairney s first goal of season just 31 seconds into the second half put Fulham on their way before Ryan Babel sealed victory.

Everton had won three straight games without conceding coming into the game but produced a lacklustre performance.

The lively Aleksandar Mitrovic had two early shots saved by Jordan Pickford and then tested the Everton goalkeeper with a powerful header.

Fulham continued to domi…

Pep Guardiola insists he will never return for a second stint as Barcelona head coach and has no interest in becoming Camp Nou president.

Guardiola masterminded a golden era with the Catalan club between 2008 and 2012, with three La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and two Club World Cups among a host of honours collected across four seasons.

Similar success followed at Bayern Munich before the 47-year-old guided Manchester City to Premier League and EFL Cup glory this term, but his time on the field and in the dugout for Barca means Guardiola remains inextricably linked to his boyhood club.

He still regularly declares himself to be a Barcelona fan but the association looks unlikely to ever extend beyond that again.

My time there as a coach is finishe…

Market: Las Palmas win

Odds: 1/1 @

Hoping to make up some ground in the European chase, Las Palmas will welcome Cadiz to the Estadio Gran Canaria on Sunday evening.

Starting with the hosts, while Las Palmas might have only made their La Liga return this season, the Pirates are in the midst of what has become a record-breaking flurry. Continuing to gain a string of plaudits from across Spain’s elite since opening up the 2023/24 campaign, Garcia Pimienta’s men are riding a major wave of momentum. Last seen putting in another rugged display as they clinched a 1-0 victory away at Alaves, the former Barcelona coach has seen his squad win all of their previous three domestic appearances on the spin. Opening up December with a routine 2-0 win against Getafe, some a…

Jose Mourinho has admitted to being frustrated by the number of individual errors being made by his Tottenham players after they drew 2-2 at Norwich City.

Tottenham twice fought back from a goal down to salvage a point against the Premier League s bottom side in Saturday s clash at Carrow Road.

Mario Vrancic capitalised on some slack defending to give Norwich an 18th-minute lead and Teemu Pukki had one ruled out by the video assistant referee for offside.

Spurs improved after the break and equalised through Christian Eriksen s free-kick, only for Toby Alderweireld s clearance to hit Serge Aurier and trickle in for City s second.

Harry Kane rescued Tottenham with a penalty seven minutes from time on his 200th Premier League appearance, but Mourinho was not…

James Rodriguez has targeted victory over Paraguay in Colombia s final Group B outing to maintain his side s momentum heading into the Copa America knockout stages.

The 2001 champions are already assured of a place in the quarter-finals after following up a 2-0 win over Argentina in their opening match with a 1-0 success against Qatar.

Duvan Zapata settled a scrappy encounter against the Asian champions with a late header to leave Colombia with six points from six ahead of their meeting with Paraguay, who are four points adrift in second place after back-to-back draws.

Boss Carlos Queiroz has the chance to rotate his side at Arena Fonte Nova with goalkeeper David Ospina a confirmed absentee knowing that Los Cafeteros cannot be caught no matter what happens when Q…

Everton have been linked with a move for Manchester United defender Phil Jones, according to the Mail Online.

Toffees boss Sam Allardyce is keen to be reunited with the defender, who he handed his professional debut for Blackburn Rovers in 2009 and could be set to table a bid in the summer, assuming he is still in charge.

There has been speculation surrounding the future of the former England manager, who replaced Ronald Koeman as manager back in November despite him steering the club away from any immediate danger of relegation.

Jones has racked up one hundred and eighty-eight appearances for Manchester United in all compeitions, scoring five goals and during that time has won the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League.

Internationally, he has bee…

Raul Garcia scored twice as Athletic Bilbao secured a rare 2-1 win over holders Real Madrid to set up a Supercopa de Espana final against Barcelona.

Athletic had won only one of their previous 22 matches against the LaLiga champions but beat them for the first time since March 2015 at La Rosaleda on Thursday to hand Marcelino his first victory.

Raul Garcia was set up by Dani Garcia for the opening goal and struck again from the penalty spot to stun Madrid in the first half.

Karim Benzema reduced the deficit after Marco Asensio struck the woodwork twice, but Bilbao held on to end Madrid s nine-match unbeaten run and ensure they will do battle with Barca for the trophy at Estadio de La Cartuja on Sunday.

Athletic did not allow Madrid to settle and they we…