England

In the lead-up to Manchester City’s fifth-round FA Cup match with Newport County, Pep Guardiola said his team of superstars would “suffer” against a team in 15th place in EFL League Two.

Just before the match, Newport coach Michael Flynn told Guardiola he is a “genius.” 

"It's a pleasure to see you, you're an absolute genius."

Ashley Cole has completed another first in his 20-year career: his first FA Cup goal.

The 38-year-old recently signed for Frank Lampard’s Derby County from MLS and made his debut in it’s fifth-round FA Cup tie with Brighton & Hove Albion.

After going down 2-0 to the host, Derby County pressed for a response in the second half. After a ball over the top caused a scramble in the box, a poor clearance by Daniel Burn fell kindly to Cole’s head.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was his calm and collected self in his most recent press conference, especially since he revealed that Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial will be injured for some important games.

Martial has a groin injury while Lingard has a hamstring issue. 

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During the last few months of his topsy turvy tenure and Manchester United, Jose Mourinho was subject to a number of rumors surrounding his sacking — Zidane replacing him, players threatening to leave unless he was ousted, the whole Paul Pogba ruckus, etc.

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Arsenal struggled Thursday evening in Barysaw, Belarus. Losing 1-0 to BATE Borisov and failing to grab an all-important away goal could come back to bite the Gunners in the second leg of the Europa Leaague Round of 32.

To make matters worse, Arsenal will have to play the second leg without Alexandre Lacazette.

Arsenal's last nine away games across all competitions:

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For all the talk of wingers Christian Pulisic and Jadon Sancho heading into Borussia Dortmund’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Wembley Stadium, it was a Tottenham center back for who provided the game-changing moments from out wide. 

PSG was rocking at Old Trafford on Tuesday evening.

After a close first half, Les Parisiens turned it on in the second. Goals from Presnel Kimpembe (who was lucky to still be on the pitch) and Kylian Mbappé both assisted by Angel Di Maria sealed a 2-0 away victory, which will be vital to PSG for the second match of the tie. Without Edinson Cavani and Neymar, PSG strolled through in Manchester.

Paris Saint-Germain was without Neymar. Without Edinson Cavani. Without Thomas Meunier. But Kylian Mbappé is still very much a fast, fast man.

The footballing world is mourning the passing of England’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who died at the age of 81 on Monday night. Banks spent the majority of his professional career with Leicester City and Stoke City, but it’s his 73 international appearances and heroics at both the ’66 and ’70 World Cups that cemented his global legacy.