It was meant to be Robert Lewandowski’s game.
The Bayern Munich striker is Poland s captain and their undisputed star. He scored 13 times in qualifying for Euro 2016, and plundered 42 goals in all competitions for his club in 2015-16.
Lewandowski appeared primed to lead his country to their first ever European Championship victory in their tournament opener against Northern Ireland in Nice on Sunday.
But it was not meant to be.
Northern Ireland boss Michael O Neill lauded Lewandowski before the match, and fielded a five-man defence and two holding midfielders in a nod to the qualities of Poland s talisman.
And the 27-year-old, quite incredibly, failed to register a shot on target throughout the 90 minutes, as he struggled from a lack of top…
Prediction: Match to end in 1-1 draw
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Sparta Prague and AS Monaco will face each other in the first leg of the Champions League Third Qualifying Round this week. The match will be held at Stadion Letna and will kick off at 6pm UK time on Tuesday evening.
Sparta Prague
Sparta Prague got the better of Austrian club Rapid Vienna in the second qualifying round of the Champions League. The club from the Czech Republic won 3-2 on aggregate against Rapid.
Czech club Sparta lost the first leg of their tie against Vienna 2-1, but they recovered in the second leg to book their place in the third qualifying round. Pavel Vrba’s side are doing well in the domestic league and will head into the match against Monaco on Tuesday high o…
Manchester City completed an unprecedented clean sweep of domestic honours in English football this season.
But 20 years ago the club were operating in a very different reality and on the brink of ruin, having dropped down to the third tier for the first time in their history.
Having initially struggled with the status of being overwhelming favourites for the Division Two title, Joe Royle s side managed to scrape into the play-off final at Wembley on May 30, 1999 against Gillingham.
Goals from Carl Asaba and Robert Taylor had Tony Pulis and his underdogs 2-0 to the good as the 90-minute mark approached.
City, whose neighbours Manchester United had completed their own incredible comeback to win the Champions League against Bayern Munich in Barcelona four n…
Arsene Wenger refused to criticise Shkodran Mustafi s role in Manchester City s opening goal after Arsenal were thrashed 3-0 in Sunday s EFL Cup final at Wembley.
City ultimately cruised to victory at the national stadium, with Vincent Kompany and David Silva scoring after the interval, but the first half was a different story.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang wasted a good chance to open the scoring, and Aguero edged City ahead when he latched onto a long Claudio Bravo punt and lobbed David Ospina.
Mustafi caught flak for his role in the goal, the German defender appealing for a foul to referee Craig Pawson rather than chase the striker, and former England defender Gary Neville lambasted spineless play from the Arsenal man.
He thought [so] yes, Wenger said if …