Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne opens up on past Champions League failures (Video)

Sassuolo secured a sixth-place finish and kept their chances to qualify for next season s Europa League alive with a season-closing 3-1 Serie A victory over 10-man Inter on Saturday.

Eusebio Di Francesco s side have never played European football before but will now be hoping for a Juventus victory over AC Milan in next weekend s Coppa Italia final, which would be enough for them to seal a continental berth.

Milan s defeat to Roma ultimately made Sassuolo s victory irrelevant in the race for sixth, but that result was not known when Matteo Politano s deflected strike put the home side in the box seat after six minutes at Citta del Tricolore.

Lorenzo Pellegrini doubled the advantage with another goal against the run of play before Rodrigo Palacio finally got Inte…

Gianni Infantino believes there should be way more football as he defended FIFA s expansion of the World Cup and new Club World Cup proposal.

Infantino was re-elected as FIFA president at the FIFA Congress on Thursday after running unopposed.

FIFA confirmed earlier this week that the 2026 World Cup will consist of 48 teams, up from 32, split into 12 groups of four, while plans were also confirmed for an expanded Club World Cup containing 32 teams.

Speaking at the Congress in Rwanda, Infantino said: When I hear there is too much football, yes, maybe in some places, but not everywhere. In fact, in most parts of the world there is not enough football played.

We need way more and not less competitions, we want football to develop worldwide.

We are d…

FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to introduce new rules to limit agents fees and transfer market spending in an attempt to rescue the values that made football great .

Transfer fees have been trending upwards for several years, but 2017 saw things reach a whole new level.

Paris Saint-Germain stunned world football when they triggered the €222million release clause in Neymar s Barcelona contract in August, smashing the transfer record that was previously set by Paul Pogba s €105m move from Juventus to Manchester United in 2016.

The Parisians also clinched the loan signing of Kylian Mbappe from Monaco, a deal which will be made permanent for €180m at the end of the season.

Following Neymar s departure, Barcelona have also spent significant sums o…

Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock has signed a two-year contract extension, the club have confirmed.

The 69-year-old has agreed to fresh terms that will run until the end of the 2019-20 season.

Assistant manager Kevin Blackwell and coach Ronnie Jepson have also signed new deals.

Cardiff owner Vincent Tan said: After positive talks, I am very pleased that Neil has committed to Cardiff City Football Club for a further two seasons.

Neil Warnock signs new two-year deal!

— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC)

Having supported Neil since his arrival at the club, we have been delighted to see results follow on the pitch. We are very happy to have agreed this deal, and are looking forward to continuing to bring further success to Ca…

Ravel Morrison s preparations for the new season have been disrupted, with the West Ham midfielder forced to undergo minor groin surgery.

England Under-21 international Morrison, who spent the latter part of last season on loan at QPR, was diagnosed with a problem when West Ham s players reported back for pre-season testing.

A statement on West Ham s website confirmed the player had a minor procedure at a central London hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

It continued: The operation was completed without complications and, following a period of rehabilitation, it is expected the England U21 midfielder will return to training in a few weeks when the first-team squad return from New Zealand.

Morrison joined West Ham from Manchester United in January 2012 and h…

Juventus midfielder Andrea Pirlo says Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona were all keen on his signature during his time at AC Milan.

The 33-year-old ended a 10-year association with Milan in 2011 and, prior to signing for Juventus, a decision he believes was the best of his career, Pirlo said he was not short of suitors keen to secure his services.

I had already reached an agreement with Chelsea, then after Berlusconi intervened I stayed at Milan, he wrote in his autobiography.

I was also very close with (Fabio) Capello at Real Madrid and nearly joined them in 2006.

(Pep) Guardiola then convinced me to join Barcelona in 2011, but Berlusconi stepped in again.

The Italy international said he was happy with his decision to sign for Juve, and str…

Hansi Flick s only chance to collect The Best FIFA Men s Coach award in future is if Bayern Munich find new competitions to win, Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho suggested.

Last season, Flick led Bayern to a Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Champions League treble, while they have also lifted the UEFA Super Cup and DFL Super Cup in 2020.

So, a few eyebrows were raised when Flick was overlooked for best men s coach at FIFA s annual awards ceremony on Thursday, with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp retaining the prize.

Klopp led Liverpool to a first English top-flight title in 30 years last term, but when addressing the media on Friday admitted his own surprise by saying: I m grateful for it, obviously. From the first moment, like everybody else, I was looking at it a bit wide-eye…

Leeds United are interested in signing Ryan Kent from Rangers in the summer transfer window, according to . It has been reported that Leeds wanted to sign Kent last summer and retain interest in the former Liverpool winger.

Kent is one of the best players in the Scottish Premiership and is a key figure at Rangers. The 24-year-old played a big role in Steven Gerrard’s side winning the league title last season and also reaching the Europa League Round of 16. The Englishman made 32 starts and one substitute appearances in the league , scoring eight goals and providing seven assists in the process. Kent also scored two goals and gave two assists in 10 Europa League matches.

Leeds did well in the Premier League last season and could be challenging for the top six in 2021-2…

Wales wing-back Neil Taylor hopes flowing football can be on the agenda in the Euro 2016 quarter-final against Belgium, where each side will hold few surprises for the other.

A Gareth McAuley own-goal 15 minutes from time saw Wales past Northern Ireland 1-0 in Paris on Saturday, while Belgium secured their place in the last eight thanks to a swashbuckling 4-0 win over Hungary on Sunday in Bordeaux.

Chris Coleman s men took four points off Belgium during qualification, having also been paired alongside Marc Wilmots side during the 2014 World Cup preliminaries.

Swansea City s Taylor praised Wales for toughing out an attritional contest with Northern Ireland, where they were short of their best on the back of 3-0 dismissal of Russia that allowed them to top Group B.…

Brazil international Dante has left Wolfsburg and joined Nice, the Ligue 1 club have announced.

Dante spent just one season at Wolfsburg, having joined from  Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich ahead of the 2015-16 campaign.

The 32-year-old completed a medical at Nice late on Monday, although no details of the deal have yet been revealed by either club.

Dante could make his Nice debut on Saturday when they host his former club Lille in Ligue 1, and the defender thanked Wolfsburg for all they had done for him in his short time at the club.

Bienvenue à l’ !

— OGC Nice (@ogcnice)

Although I only played in Wolfsburg for one year, I had a really wonderful and educational time, he told the club s official website.

I gained a lot o…