WORLD SERVICEdelay, Jordan Veretout scores a
101st-minute penalty as Fiorentina
draw 3-3 with Internazionale.
SAUDI ARABIA: Croatia’s Slaven
Bilic leaves Al Ittihad, where he is
replaced as coach by Jose Luis
Sierra of Chile.
Monday February 25
MEXICO: Toluca sack coach
Hernan Cristante ahead of
Thursday’s CONCACAF Champions
League second-leg game against
Sporting Kansas City.
REP OF IRELAND: Bohemians
beat Shamrock Rovers 1-0 and go
above them at the top of the table.
TURKEY: Fenerbahce come from
3-0 down to draw 3-3 at Istanbul
rivals Besiktas and move out of the
relegation zone.
Tuesday February 26
ENGLAND: Brendan Rodgers
leaves Scottish Premiership leaders
Celtic to manage Leicester City.
FRANCE: Bordeaux sack coach
Ricardo Gomes.
SCOTLAND: Neil Lennon returns to
Celtic in place of Brendan Rodgers
until the end of the season.
VIETNAM: Hanoi kick off their
AFC Cup campaign with a 10-0
thrashing of Cambodia’s Nagaworld.
ZAMBIA: Sven Vandenbroeck is
told his contract as national coach
will not be renewed when it expires
next month.
Wednesday February 27
ENGLAND: Chelsea beat
Tottenham Hotspur 2-0, while
Arsenal and Liverpool both score
five, against Bournemouth and
Watford respectively.
HOLLAND: Ajax beat Feyenoord
3-0 in Rotterdam to reach the
Dutch Cup Final for the first time
since 2014.
SPAIN: Luis Suarez scores twice
as Barcelona win 3-0 away to
Real Madrid and triumph 4-1
on aggregate to reach a sixth
consecutive Spanish Cup Final.
Thursday February 28
ENGLAND: Fulham appoint Scott
Parker as caretaker manager until
the end of the season after sacking
Claudio Ranieri.
SPAIN: Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos
is handed a two-game ban by UEFA
“for clearly receiving a yellow card
on purpose” during the first leg of
the Champions League tie at Ajax
to make sure he would not miss
a potential quarter-final game.
TURKEY: Fifteen years after last
leading the national side, Senol
Gunes agrees a four-year dealAfrican Nations Cup.
FRANCE: Kylian Mbappe reaches
20 league goals in a season for the
first time as Paris Saint-Germain
thrash Montpellier 5-1.
OMAN: Erwin Koeman, the older
brother of Holland coach Ronald,
takes charge of Oman’s national
team.
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Two
late goals see Manchester City
come from behind to win 3-2 away
to Schalke, while Atletico Madrid
beat Juventus 2-0 in Spain.
Thursday February 21
EUROPA LEAGUE: Arsenal,
Dinamo Zagreb, Red Bull Salzburg
and Zenit overturn first-leg losses to
reach the last 16.
FRANCE: Former Bordeaux and
Marseille boss Rolland Courbis joins
Fabien Mercadal’s coaching staff at
Ligue 1 strugglers Caen.
Friday February 22
ENGLAND: Chelsea are banned
from signing players in the next
two transfer windows for breaching
rules in relation to youth players.
FIFA: This year’s Under-17 World
Cup is taken away from planned
hosts Peru due to “organisational
and infrastructure challenges linked
to the event delivery”.
GREECE: AEK are ordered to play
their next two UEFA competition
home games behind closed doors
and handed a suspended ban
from European competitions “for
a probationary period of two years”
following crowd trouble at their
game against Ajax in November.
JAPAN: Cerezo Osaka kick off the
new J.League season with a 1-0 win
at home to Vissel Kobe.
Saturday February 23
SPAIN: Lionel Messi scores the
50th hat-trick of his career as
Barcelona beat Sevilla 4-2.
Sunday February 24
AUSTRIA: Red Bull Salzburg lose
in the league for the first time this
term, beaten 2-0 at Rapid Vienna.
BELGIUM: Anderlecht draw 2-2 at
home to Club Brugge.
ENGLAND: Leicester City sack
Claude Puel following Saturday’s
4-1 loss at home to Crystal Palace.
Manchester City win the League
Cup on penalties after Chelsea
keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga defies
manager Maurizio Sarri’s attempt
to substitute him.
HOLLAND: Ten-man Feyenoord
hold PSV to a 1-1 draw, while Ajax
win 5-1 at ADO Den Haag.
ITALY: After a five-minute VARcharged with rigging results- was not as damaging to
the league’s reputation as it
may have been. But nor did
it prove to be the turning
point that many hoped for.
Despite the lack of
money, support and media
exposure, standards are
still high in Asian terms.
Korean clubs have been continental champions no
less than 11 times – as many as the next two most
successful, Japan and Saudi Arabia, combined.
Last season, even a Suwon team that was
struggling domestically reached the semi-finals
before narrowly losing to Kashima Antlers in a
titanic tussle over two legs. And in March, Daegu
went to Melbourne Victory in their first-ever
continental game and won 3-1 against a team with
much more Asian experience and considerably
more resources, so talent is still being produced.
The question of how to turn things around has
been the major topic in Seoul for years, and the
problem is nobody really knows the answer.
Perhaps the most that can be hoped for is
that attendances grow a little, the football is more
exciting and a couple of stars emerge from a youth-
development system that still produces good talent.
For now, that will have to do.
Debut...Ryu Jae-
moon of Daegu
in Champions
League action