Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson has confirmed his contract has been extended to include the Euro 2028 campaign. Hallgrimsson confirmed the news on Thursday in a press conference announcing a 25-man squad for next Thursday’s World Cup play-off away to Czechia. The new contract comes on the back of a period of excellent progress for the team under Hallgrimsson’s leadership.
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Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski each scored twice as a rampant Barcelona dumped Newcastle United out of the Champions League. The visitors showed immense spirit to twice equalise through the rapid Anthony Elanga in a competitive first half and cancel out goals from Raphinha and Marc Bernal. But the Magpies fell apart after the restart and goals from Fermin Lopez, Raphinha and a double from Lewandowski ended their European adventure in sobering fashion.
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Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze opened his Champions League account with a stunning goal as his side outclassed Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 at home to reach the quarter-finals with a 3-1 aggregate victory. The tireless Declan Rice made it 2-0 just past the hour mark with a precise low finish and Leverkusen, who ended Arsenal’s 100% record in this season’s competition when they had the better of a 1-1 draw in last week’s first leg, never really threatened a comeback.
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Chelsea have been fined £10.75m, handed a suspended ban from signing first-team players and given an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban by the Premier League over breaches of financial rules during Roman Abramovich’s ownership. The club, who still face potential sanctions from the Football Association over 74 charges of breaching agent regulations, were investigated by the league over undisclosed payments to agents, non-licensed intermediaries and other figures, including players, around signings between 2011 and 2018.
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Richarlison’s 90th-minute equaliser earned Tottenham’s under-fire interim head coach Igor Tudor a stay of execution with a 1-1 draw at Anfield as Liverpool conceded another late goal to dent their Champions League qualification hopes. Substitute Randal Kolo Muani held off Virgil van Dijk to roll a pass for the Brazil international to slot past international team-mate Alisson Becker and have Tudor punching the air as he ran out of his technical area to celebrate his first point in his five matches.
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