Holders Real Madrid will hope for a return to winning ways when they make the short trip to face rivals Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey.

Real s club-record run of 22 consecutive competitive wins came to a halt on Sunday night, when Valencia came back to overturn Cristiano Ronaldo s opening penalty and seal a stirring 2-1 win at the Mestalla.

And boss Carlo Ancelotti could not have asked for a tougher last-16 assignment as Real have failed to beat their neighbours in three attempts this term, even though they did knock Atletico with a 5-0 aggregate thrashing en route to Copa del Rey glory last season.

The reigning La Liga champions left the Santiago Bernabeu with a 1-1 draw in the first leg of August s Spanish Super Cup, a title they would lift thanks to Mari…

Besiktas have signed Arsenal youngster Oguzhan Ozyakup for 405,000 pounds.

The 19-year-old midfielder joined the Gunners as a trainee in 2008 and made his first two senior appearances last season in a Carling Cup clash with Shrewsbury and the 8-2 Premier League defeat to Manchester United.

There are many experienced players at this club and I want to learn from them. It s a significant advantage for me, Oguzhan told Besiktas official website.

The Turkish giants will pay Oguzhan an 81,000 pounds signing-on fee, a per-game bonus of 6,100 pounds limited for 40 games, and wages of 324,000 pounds in his first season.

Oguzhan has represented the Netherlands, the country of his birth, at youth international level, but has this year declared his intention to re…

It is Monday September 28, 1992, and Sevilla s Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan is the location of a media circus rarely seen before or since in the stadium. Bavarian giants Bayern Munich are in town for a hastily arranged friendly.

Aside from the two teams  meeting in the UEFA Super Cup on Thursday and a Champions League quarter-final tie in 2018, this friendly 28 years ago is the only previous occasion in which Sevilla faced their illustrious German visitors.

Yet, Bayern were not the focus of the media attention. No, they were there for the first game of Diego Maradona s return to Spain.

The world s most renowned footballer formerly of Barcelona was barely given enough space to take part in the coin toss such was the scrum around him, with microphones and cameras sho…

Prediction: Chelsea to win 2-0

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Claude Puel’s Leicester City travel to Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon to do battle with reigning Premier League champions Chelsea.

The Blues meanwhile will be aiming to get back to winning ways after only managing to battle to three consecutive draws in recent weeks.

Chelsea

Whilst Antonio Conte’s men have not managed to notch their first victory of 2018 yet, the champions have been in exemplary form. Their only loss within their last 17 games came in the form of a 1-0 defeat to local rivals West Ham United at the start of December. Last drawing 2-2 with Arsenal in league action, the Blues will be keen to get back on track with their maiden win of the year after slipping to third in the…

Leeds United do not plan to offload Helder Costa in the January transfer window, according to . The winger has not been at his best in recent weeks and is not guaranteed a place in head coach Marcelo Bielsa’s starting lineup, but the Premier League club see him as a long-term investment and will not sell him or send him out on loan.

Costa spent the 2019-20 campaign on loan at Leeds from Wolverhampton Wanderers, and the deal was made permanent for £15 million in the summer of 2020. According to , the 26-year-old made 33 starts and 10 substitute appearances in the Championship for the Whites last season, scoring four goals and providing four assists in the league. So far this campaign, the Portuguese winger has made eight starts and two substitute appearances in the Premier Le…

Best odds: 21/50

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The qualifications for the World Cup 2022 in Qatar have started in the CONMEBOL group. The first round has been played in full, and the second is about to follow in which Peru welcome Brazil to the Estadio Nacional de Lima for a game between the 2019 Copa America finalists. That contest saw Brazil emerge victorious by 3-1 with Everton Soares, Gabriel Jesus and Richarlison all on target, while Paolo Guerrero netted what proved a consolation goal for Peru from the spot. Peru then beat Brazil 1-0 in a friendly played at the United Airlines Field at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles in September the same year.

Peru also played two friendlies against Uruguay later, losing once and drawing once, and then lost to Colombia, all in the fina…

Rico Lewis says winning the treble once “isn’t good enough” as Manchester City look to repeat the feat and eye an unprecedented quadruple.

Pep Guardiola’s perennial Premier League champions added the FA Cup in June before beating Inter Milan to win the club’s first ever Champions League crown.

City joined Manchester United’s 1999 side as the only English teams in history to complete the treble, but there appears little chance of them stopping there.

Erling Haaland’s brace saw them open up their league campaign with a 3-0 win at promoted Burnley on Friday, after which teenage star Lewis outlined his ambitions.

. on the opening day:

22/23 23/24

— Manchester City (@ManCity)

“The objective is to win the treble agai…

Marc Overmars is staying at Ajax after extending his contract with the Eredivisie champions until June 2026.

Ajax s director of football has been linked with Newcastle United, Barcelona and Arsenal.

But the former Netherlands winger has ended speculation over his future by putting pen to paper on a new deal with the Amsterdam club, who tweeted stop calling Marc when they announced his new deal.

Overmars, who played for the club between 1992 and 1997 before leaving for Arsenal, said: I still feel very excited by my work and get a lot of satisfaction out of it.

The cooperation with my fellow board members is very good, as well as with the people at the Toekomst [the Ajax sports complex] with whom I work together in the fields of scouting, youth, transfe…

John Terry has been accused of tarnishing Chelsea s international reputation after the Englishman was found guilty of racism by the FA.

The defender has also been fined 220,000 British pounds and is yet to be disciplined by Chelsea following the outcome of the FA charge after he was found guilty of racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.

Lord Triesman, the former FA chairman, has lashed out at Chelsea and is far from impressed by their handling of the situation.

He told The Mirror: Large numbers of ­people around the world, especially black people, will read about what has happened. And they will wonder how on earth did Chelsea allow that?

The club s international reputation has suffered. Its brand has been damaged.

They should be sayin…

Tottenham simply have to put in the hard graft as they look to salvage something from what is turning out to be a disappointing end to the campaign.

Spurs Champions League hopes appear to be fading fast after they lost for a third straight game in the Premier League, going down 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.

Tottenham have four games remaining, albeit that includes meetings with Liverpool and Manchester City, and they are seven points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa.

They were particularly vulnerable from set-pieces once again, with both of Chelsea s goals coming from such scenarios.

Asked how Spurs can turn it around, Postecoglou said told BBC Sport: Just hard work mate, there s no major formula. We will work hard and make sure we get it right.