Managers

LONDON - Steven Gerrard withstood a period of intense pressure to turn fallen giants Rangers into Scottish champions again and now Aston Villa provides one of the Premier League's all-time great players with a platform to truly prove himself as a manager.

Gerrard, who spent 17 years patrolling Liverpool's midfield and scored 120 Premier League goals in 504 appearances, has been named Villa boss after the Birmingham club sacked Dean Smith on Sunday.

There was a large sense during the USWNT’s last two friendlies against South Korea that the team was growing stale.

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel hopes Christian Pulisic and N'Golo Kante return from the international break unscathed as he says the pair are not 100 percent ready despite being called up by France and the United States.

Kante has just returned from an injury layoff, playing 85 minutes for the league leaders in their 1-1 draw with Burnley at the weekend, while Pulisic has played only four times in all competitions this season due to an ankle injury.

VENICE - AS Roma’s slump continued with a 3-2 Serie A defeat by lowly Venezia on Sunday, as the hosts recovered from surrendering the lead before halftime to launch a sensational second half fightback.

José Mourinho’s side have one win in their last seven games in all competitions and have dropped out of the top four after picking up four points from their last five league games.

“This is not the year to dream big, but it is up to me to raise the ambition and motivation. Our goal is fourth place, but for some reason we have slid to sixth," Mourinho told DAZN.

VIGO — Barcelona threw away a three-goal lead to draw 3-3 at Celta Vigo in LaLiga on Saturday in a chaotic game which underlined the scale of the task facing incoming coach Xavi Hernandez.

Celta captain Iago Aspas completed a remarkable second-half comeback from the hosts by scoring in the fifth minute of added time after he had pulled their first goal back in the 52nd and Nolito had struck in the 74th to set up a tense finish.

MANCHESTER — Premier League champions Manchester City cruised to a 2-0 win over struggling Manchester United in their derby at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Gifted two goals by United in the first half, City were happy to control the game after the break, while their hosts failed to present any sort of real threat.

It was ultimately a disappointing derby with City's superiority in all areas confirmed abundantly while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's showed once again they simply lack enough quality to mount even a token title bid.