AVGSPORTS

Tournaments

News, fixtures, squads, and analysis from major competitions.

  • 10 African stars doing wonderfully well in foreign leagues.

    10 African stars doing wonderfully well in foreign leagues.

    Mohamed Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly, known as Mohamed Salah, plays as a right-winger or forward for Liverpool. He was born 15 June 1992, joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017 and had 279 appearances with 182 goals for the
    Liverpool.

    Victor James Osimhen, a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker, born 29 December 1998, joined Napoli 2020 with
    108 appearances and a 65-goal loan to Galatasaray in 2024 had
    20 appearances and 17goals for the team.

    Ademola Lookman is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Atalanta. From 2022 on
    Atalanta’s current African footballer of the year had 101 appearances. With 50 goals for the club.

    Simon Kofi Adingra is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion. He had 61 appearances for the team with 12 goals, joined Brighton on 24 June 2022, and was born on Jan 1, 2002. Simon is on loan to union SG.

    Achraf Hakimi Mouh is a Moroccan professional footballer who plays as a right-back or right-winger for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain. Hakimi is rated as one of the best full-backs in the world. From 2021, he has joined the team and had 105 appearances with 17goals.

    Amad Diallo is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a winger, midfielder, or wing-back for Manchester United. Born 11 July 2002, he was signed by Manchester in 2021 and loaned to Sunderland had 37 appearances with 13 goals. Returning to Manchester, he played in the vast majority of their Premier League games in 2024/2025, making 22 appearances overall and playing 1,594 minutes, and scoring 7 goals.

    Victor Okoh Boniface is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. Born 23 December 2000, joined
    Bayer Leverkusen in 2023 with 37 appearancess and 21 goals.

    Sébastien Romain Teddy Haller is an Ivory Coast professional footballer who plays as a striker for Eredivisie club Utrecht, on loan from Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. Born on 22 June 1994, on loan to Utrecht in 2025, he had 8 appearances with 1goal.

    Issa Kaboré is a Burkinabé professional footballer who plays as a right-back or right wing-back for Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, on loan from Premier League club Manchester City. Issa was born on 12 May 2001, signed for Manchester City in 2020 and had no appearances before loaning out to Mechelen, Troyes, Marseille, Luton Town, Benfica and is currently at Werder Bremen, still on loan.

    Omar Khaled Mohamed Marmoush is an Egyptian professional
    The footballer plays as a forward for Manchester City, born on 7 February 1999, joined Eintracht Frankfurt in 2023–2025 from VfL Wolfsburg, had 46 appearances with 27 goals for Frankfurt and later joined Manchester City this
    2025 with 6 appearances and 3 goals.

  • Review of Round of 16 UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa League quarter-finals pairing

    Review of Round of 16 UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa League quarter-finals pairing

    United are through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League on a 5-2 aggregate. The Bruno Fernandes hat-trick gave them a 4-1 win over Real Socied in the second leg and United will play Lyon in the quarter-finals at Old Trafford for their first-leg tie on 10th April.


    After win yesterday United still continue unbeaten at UEFA Europa league The Skipo of team Bruno Fernandes: “This club is all about winning. We need to win games. We have a long way to go but we are confident, with the right mentality, we can win games.”


    Apart from a poor performance in the first leg last week in the Netherlands, losing 1-0, Tottenham made improvements at home on Thursday by winning 3-1 over AZ through a goal from Odobert in the 26th and 74 minutes of the game, accomplished by James Maddison’s goal on 48 minutes. Spurs are going to play Eintracht Frankfurt, who beat Ajax 4-1 in the second leg and qualify 6-2 on aggregate, in the quarter-finals.


    Athletic Bilbao regained their composure over Roma as Mats Hummels was sent off for a professional foul in the 11th minute, remembering Athletic Bilbao lost to the Italian side 2-1 in the first leg. Gaining an extra man count gave Athletic Bilbao a 3-1 victory over Roma with double goals from N. Williams at 45+3 and 82 minutes with 68 minutes from Yuri, making Athletic Bilbao progress to the quarter-finals on a 4-3 aggregate.


    First half match. Between. Lazio and Viktoria PLzan ended goalless. Shortly after resuming the second half, a good shot from Pavel Sulc gave Viktoria PLzan a chance to beat Lazio, but in the 77th minute, Lazio equalized with a goal from Romagnoli, who helped Lazio to the quarter-finals on a 3-2 aggregate, having won the first leg 2-1 in Plzen.


    The match between Rangers and Fenerbahçe ended 3-3 on aggregate after Fenerbahçe beat Rangers 2-0 at Rangers’ home yesterday with goals from S. Szymanski in 45 and 73 minutes of the game. After 90 minutes of playing, Grace gave Rangers a 3–2 win on penalties to face Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-final.


    Apart from Olympiacos beating Bodo/Glimt 2-1 from R. Yaremchuk’s 53’and 65-minute goals.
    With play Olympiacos on a man down from K. Tzolakis 88 minutes Red cards. Bodo/Glimt still qualify on a 4-2 aggregate with them getting consolation goals from K. Høgh on 36 minutes. Bodo/Glimt is playing Lazio in the quarter-final.

    🚨UEFA Europa League quarter-finals

    🇫🇷 Lyon vs Man United🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
    🇩🇪Eintracht Frankfurt vs Tottenham🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
    🇪🇸 Athletic Bilbao vs Rangers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
    🇳🇴 Bodø/Glimt vs 🇮🇹 Lazio

  • List of the players who set records in the Champions League in round of 16 in March 2025.

    List of the players who set records in the Champions League in round of 16 in March 2025.

    Erling Haaland was only only player who scored 49 goals in 48 Champions League games and becoming the fastest player to 30 goals, surpassing the previous bestOf rund  van Nistelrooy.

     

    That assist made Kane the second Englishman in Champions League history to hit 50 goal contributions (39 goals, 11 assists) after David Beckham (16 goals, 36 assists).

    Lamine Yamal goal 11th march 2025 make him has three goals and two assists in nine appearances for Barcelona, at just 17 years and 24 days old. This make him became the youngest player in Champions League history to both score and assist in the same match.

  • See the quarter-final draws and can this record change as both are going to meet in the quarter final of the Champions League.

    See the quarter-final draws and can this record change as both are going to meet in the quarter final of the Champions League.

    The result is a massive disappointment for Lille as Dortmund fought back to beat them 2-1 in France in the second leg of their Champions League last round of 16 as both tie on Wednesday Goal from E. Can at 54 minutes of the game and M Beier on 65 minutes make Dortmund seal a 3-2 win on aggregate and going face Barcelona in quarter of Champions League.

    Barcelona and Dortmund have met 3 times in the Champions League. Barcelona won 2 and played 1 draw with a total of 9 goals between them. 6 goals were scored by Barcelona and 3 Dortmund.

    Aston Villa makes it classic football, beating Club Brugge 3-0 again to secure a 6-1 aggregate win. The first goal of the club was from M. Asensio in 50 and 51 minutes of the game, while the third goal was scored by me. Maatsen on 57 minutes.

    In the quarter-finals, Aston Villa will play Paris St-Germain.

    PSV’s fate of the victory led them to fight back yesterday. Arsenal scored their first goal 6 minutes of the game from O. Zinchenko. The next minutes later I Pensic equaled the goal, then O. Rice, at 37 minutes, scored the second goal. Within 70 minutes of the game, C. Driouech scored again to make the game-ending draw, but Arsenal qualified for the quarter-finals on a 9-3 aggregate to face 15 Champions League titles.

    An early 1-minute goal by C. Gallagher Atlético goal ‘messed up the quality of the Real Madrid game, and it took moments of composure for Atlético. The result made the game end draw on aggregate and went on penalties. Real Madrid won the penalty by 4-2 to make it a fourth time – now the outright most of any side in Europe’s premier competition.

    Real Madrid will play Arsenal in the next round and this team is the only team Real Madrid has never beaten or scored against in the history of the Champions League.

    After the match between Real Madrid and Atlético, Conor Gallagher, the goalscorer for Atlético, spoke to the media:

    “We are happy with the performance, but we came here to win and unfortunately fell short.

    “It was a massive game, it meant so much to the players, fans and clubs, but we left it all out there on the pitch but didn’t have enough in the end.

    “To play games like this is really special. It would have been nicer to get through, but we can all take the experience into the next games and next year in the competition.”
    The date for the quarter-finals and semi-finals?
    Both the first and second legs are in April.
    The first legs of the quarter-finals take place on 8 and 9 April, with the second leg taking place one week later.
    What do ever be will be semifinal still on April 29 and 30 April for the first legs, with the return leg coming on 6 and 7 May?

    When and where is the final?

    The final takes place on 31 May at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

  • UEFA results and how Premier League leader with 70 points crashes out from Champions league

    UEFA results and how Premier League leader with 70 points crashes out from Champions league


    On Tuesday 11th March, Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Benfica confirmed Barcelona’s spot in the quarter of the Champions League. The winning goals came from Raphinha at 11 and 42 minutes with a 27-minute goal from the youngest player in Champions League history to both score and assist a goal in a match, L. Yamal, but Benfica showed more interest in the game by equalizing the first goal in 13 minutes of the game.

    There was a smile on the PSG faces as Dembélé’s 12-minute goals gave them chances to drag Liverpool to
    Penalty and win over the penalty by 4-1.

    Inter Milan showed superiority over Feyenoord FC by winning 4-2 on aggregate and ended today’s match 2-1 in favor of Inter Milan with goals from. M. Thuram at 8 and a penalty from H. Çalhanoğlu on 51 minutes, but Feyenoord were able to return one through a penalty scored by J. Moder on 42 minutes of the game.

    Henry Kane 52 minutes and A. Davies 71 minutes goals made Bayern advance to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals by 2 -0.
    Win over Leverkusen in today’s match to make Bayern 5-0 on aggregate.

  • Why Eric Chelle should keep an eye on four NPFL players for Super Eagles World Cup qualifiers

    Why Eric Chelle should keep an eye on four NPFL players for Super Eagles World Cup qualifiers

    Ahead of the Super Eagle qualifier matches against Rwanda and Zimbabwe, the head coach, Eric Charlie, has sent out a preliminary invitation to 39 players from which a final list of 25 players will be picked for the games. We can exclusively report that four players from the NPFL made the list. They are
    ▫️ Kayode Bankole (Remo Stars FC)
    ▫️ Ahmed Musa (Kano Pillars FC)
    ▫️ Ifeanyi Onyebuchi (Rangers Int’l FC)
    ▫️ Papa Daniel (Niger Tornadoes FC)

     

    My suggestion
    Inviting home base has been a normal thing for coaches who understand the system, but giving them chances to play is the pathway to regaining past glory.
    Throwback to when the Nigeria Super Eagles had a standard squad started at Algiers 90, where the Super Eagles had only two professional players, Andrew Uwe and Ademola Adeshine from the Second Division league. Others are home base participants in the 1990 AFCON. Below is a list of players.

    Goalkeepers: Alloy Agu, Pressley Berthold.

    Defenders: Abdul Aminu, Uche Okechukwu, Andrew Uwe, Tajudeen Oyekanmi, Wahab Adeshina, Isaac Semitoje, Herbert Anijekwu, Ben Iroha and Toyin Ayinla.

    Midfielders: Ayo Ogunlana, Thompson Oliha, Wasiu Ipaye, Moses Kpakor, Emmanuel Okocha, Friday Elaho.

    Forwards: Rashidi Yekini, Daniel Amokachi, Baldwin Bazuaye.
    Lost 1-0 to the hosts in the final and this approach generated the team that qualified for the first World Cup for nation in 1994, and kept qualified until recently time when we struggled to also win the AFCON the same year, 1994.
    I suggest NFF and coaches should go back to drawing boards.
    According to Baba Festus Onigbinde, an invitation of the home-based into the national team is just a way of inviting the whole nation to watch game and seriously praying for your success as a coach.

  • CAF realizes Final Draw for Total Energies CAF U-17 Morocco 2025 .

    The Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) conducted the official Final Draw for the TotalEnergies CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 yesterday Thursday, 13 February at CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

    After the AFCON U17 draw was conducted by former Mali international Adama Coulibaly and ex-Senegalese star Souleymane Camara, the host nation was officially mapped in a group A alongside Uganda. Tanzania, Zambia and the two qualified teams from the UNIFFAC tournament were found in group B and D respectively.

    As CAF picked Gambia and Tunisia, which finished third in two other wafu zone tournaments, and turned off two other zones. CAF organized another tournament with the Central African Football Federation (UNIFFAC) to pick two to complete 16team for AFCON 2025. The UNIFFAC tournament will be hosted by Cameroon from 16-28. Five countries, Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo, will participate in the championship. The two got qualified name UNIFFAC 1 and 2 in the draws.
    TotalEnergies CAF U-17 CAF AFCON Morocco 2025 Draw Outcome:

    GROUP A: Morocco (Hosts), Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia

    GROUP B: Burkina Faso, UNIFFAC 1, South Africa, Egypt

    GROUP C: Senegal, Gambia, Somalia, Tunisia

    GROUP D: Mali, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, UNIFFAC 2

     

  • Madrid wins against Man-city make them win tight

    The Real Madrid win yesterday made their win tight. Both teams have met on 13 different occasions in the Champions League. Both teams played 5 draws and 4 matches, winning against each other.

    Here are their stages of meeting.

    2012/13 match day 5 group d

    First leg Madrid. 3 vs 2 man city

    Second leg-Man City 1 Man Madrid.

    2015/16 semifinal

    First leg-Man Madrid 0 vs Madrid 0

    Second. Leg. Madrid 1 vs 0 Man City.

    2019 /20 round of 16

    First leg Madrid 1 vs 2 Man City

    Second leg. Man City 2 vs 1 Madrid.

    2021/22 semifinal

    First leg : Man City 4 vs Madrid 3

    Second leg : Madrid 3 vs 1 Man City.

    2022/23 semifinal

    First leg: Madrid 1 vs 1 man city

    Second leg : Mancity 4 vs Madrid 0.

    2023/24 quarter-final

    First leg :Madrid 3 vs 3 man-city

    Second leg : Man-city 1 City vs1 Madrid

    Penalties were used to resolve it, which favored Madrid 4 -3.

    2024/25 Knockout Round

    first leg

  • Ahead of Cote d’Ivoire 2025 AFCON u20, Flying Eagles head coach called 30 players to camp for Egypt friendlies.

    Ahead of the Cup of Nations u20, which will be played in Cote d’Ivoire from April 26 to May 18, 2025. According to Team Administrator, Aliyu Lawal Ibrahim, The Flying Eagles’ Head Coach Aliyu Zubairu has called 30 players to camp in Abuja to select the best players to represent Nigeria as the Nigerian U-20 are going to play a doubles friendly match against Egyptian u20 on February 25 and 27.

    The seven-time AFCON winners in 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2005, 2011, and 2015, and two FIFA World Cup runners, Saudi Arabia 89 against Portugal and the Netherlands 2005 against Argentina, will clash with their Egyptian counterparts in Cairo. Both countries met six times. They both won two matches each and drew two times.

    The players in the Abuja camp from goalkeepers are Ifeanyi Harcourt (Sporting Lagos); Light Emerenonye (Diamond Academy) and Abubakar Rufai (Mavlon FC), as well as defenders Adamu Maigari (El-Kanemi Warriors); Daniel Bameyi (Bayelsa United); Kenneth Igbokwe (Enugu Rangers); Haruna Aliyu (Wikki Tourists); Musa Adamu (Wireless FC); Shamsudeen Muhammad (Mavlon FC); Ibrahim Abdullahi; Shamsudeen Ishaq (Grassrunner FC); and Steven Jolomi (Mavlon FC).

    Midfielders expected in the camp are Raphael Oyebanji (Shuffle Select FC); Mohammed Ibrahim (Niger Tornadoes); Kizito Opara (Campus Academy); Alabi Sulaiman Jojo (El-Kanemi Warriors); Sulaiman Abubakar (Diamond Academy); Shafiu Adamu (Wikki Tourists); and Cletus Simon (Mavlon FC), while the forwards are Bidemi Amole (Real Sapphire Academy); Clinton Japhet (Enyimba FC); Matthew Chukwusa (Morack Academy); Nasiru Salihu (El-Kanemi Warriors); Divine Olisha (Fostar Academy); Jerry Salami (Aspire Academy); Oluwaseyi Akinfenwa (Real Sapphire Academy); Shola Adelami (Ikorodu City); Abdulrahaman Ishaq (Sport Supply Academy); Ezekiel Anthony (Aspire Academy); and Sodiq Olalekan Adewunmi (Jaguar Sports FC).

  • CAF turn off Eaglets into U-17 AFCON slots


    As CAF picks Bronze Winning to Complete 16 -team at u17 AFCON, the thought of this approach may give the five-time world champions (Golden Eaglets) the opportunity to participate in the FIFA U17 World Cups, as the Nigeria 17 national team finished third behind eventual winners, Burkina Faso and runners, up Cote D’Ivoire who pick the region’s automatic ticket at the WAFU B championship held in Ghana.


    Nigeria hope to participate in Morocco AFCON u17 from March 30th to April 19, 2025, as CAF allotted two of the extra four slots to the Gambia, who finished third in WAFU Zone A, as well as Tunisia. And the other two slots will be filled by the two top teams from the UNIFFAC region qualifier qualifiers, which will be hosted by Cameroon from February 16-28. Five countries; Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo will participate in the championship without Nigeria participating in UNIFFAC.