Nasri fears teasing from England mates

Pep Guardiola revealed Sergio Aguero did not train on Monday and will miss Manchester City s Champions League trip to Porto.

City s talisman has been beset by injury problems this season but returned from a hamstring issue in last week s 1-0 Group C win at Olympiacos.

However, the Argentina forward appears to have suffered a minor setback, although Guardiola was not too alarmed.

I m not concerned, he said ahead of Tuesday s game. He didn t train, he has a little bit of disturbance in his knee.

He didn t train but I m not concerned.

We re off to Portugal this afternoon for Matchday 5!

Before then, we ll have all the updates from the pre-match press conference 

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— Manchester City (@ManCity)

The 32-year-o…

Graham Potter will not hide behind the support he has been given by Chelsea s owners and is not listening to the noise over his future ahead of a clash with Leeds United.

Blues head coach Potter was only appointed last September, but is under huge pressure following a run of just one win in 11 games.

A 2-0 London derby defeat at Tottenham last Sunday was Chelsea s third loss in a row without scoring a goal and they sit down in 10th spot in the Premier League.

Potter has been backed by the Blues hierarchy, but knows his side must stop the rot when relegation-threatened Leeds come to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Asked if he still has support from the owners, Potter said: There is support and I ve spoken to them. But I m not going to hide behind that. The re…

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Atletico Madrid welcome Valencia to the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium on Wednesday in what will be the 34th La Liga game of the 2018/19 season for both sides.

Atletico Madrid

It cannot be said that points mean much for Atleti at this point, at least in terms of their table position. Sitting in second place, realistically speaking, they don t really stand a chance of catching up with Barcelona on top who are nine points clear with five games to go. Looking below, there is only Real Madrid near enough to potentially overtake them, but the importance of who finishes second and who third is rather questionable as neither position brings a trophy and both lead into the Champions League next season.

However, it is a team led by the ru…

Benfica may no longer be considered as a European heavyweight but that will not stop Roger Schmidt from dreaming of an unlikely Champions League success.

The Benfica coach declared nothing is impossible when the question was posed as to the Primeira Liga side s hopes in UEFA s top club competition this season.

Schmidt s men host Club Brugge in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash on Tuesday, boasting a 2-0 lead from the first meeting in Belgium.

The first priority for Benfica will be reaching the quarter-finals for a second successive campaign in the competition, having last done so between 1967 and 1969 in the European Cup.

I think all the teams who are in the knockout stages can win the Champions League but not with the same probabili…

Franz Beckenbauer says disgraced former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness should replace sporting director Matthias Sammer during his illness.

Sammer has been absent from recent Bayern matches after undergoing treatment for a minute circulatory disorder in the brain .

Hoeness was convicted in March 2014 and jailed the following June after it was discovered he had evaded €28.5million in taxes, but he was released in February and Beckenbauer feels his experience could prove vital.

For many Bayern players he is like a father, Beckenbauer told Bild. His word has great weight, his closeness would help the team. 

He knows all the situations of football, he could take over some tasks of Matthias Sammer as long as he is unwell.

…

Peter Taylor has been dismissed as manager of League One side Gillingham.

The 61-year-old returned to Priestfield for a second spell in charge in October 2013 to replace Martin Allen, originally on a temporary basis before taking the reins full-time a month later.

Taylor who also managed Gillingham between 1999 and 2000  steered the club a 17th-place finish in the 2013-14 campaign, avoiding relegation by six points.

However, Gillingham have continued to struggle this term and they sit outside the bottom four by just two points, having lost 10 of their 23 matches thus far.

A 3-1 loss at home to leaders Bristol City on Sunday proved the final straw for Taylor.

Peter Taylor has been relieved of his duties with immediate effect, read a statement o…

John Terry admits England need clear the air talks to avoid any repeat of their friendly flop against the Czech Republic in next month s World Cup qualifiers.

Terry was disappointed with the way Fabio Capello s side struggled to impose themselves during Wednesday s lacklustre 2-2 draw at Wembley.

The England captain expects Capello to call a meeting to discuss the performance at length when they get together for the Andorra and Croatia matches in September.

It is not just this game where there have been problems. There have been other games and there will be problems in the future that will occur, Terry said.

We need to sit down and address it and address it very quickly otherwise it stays around the squad. The manager will thrash things out and we w…

Brazil has given birth to some of the best full-backs in football history. From Djalma and Nilton Santos in the Pele days, the duo of Roberto Carlos and Cafu grabbed headlines during the 90 s and 2ooo s. And nowadays it is not any different. Dani Alves, Alex Sandro, Marcelo and Luis Filipe are just some of the best full-backs in the world, and all of them are Brazilian.

However, there is one player no one ever talks about. He does not even play in Europe, even though he is one of the best right-backs in Brazil. He features for Vasco da Gama, and goes by the name of Yago Pikachu. Yes, you read that right. He is named after the famous cartoon character. And while he doesn t produce thunderbolts with his play, he is certainly an exciting player that should move to one of the top l…

Zlatan Ibrahimovic would have a huge impact if he joined LA Galaxy, according to the MLS side s head coach Sigi Schmid.

Veteran Manchester United striker Ibrahimovic plundered 24 goals on his debut season with the Premier League giants last term, including a match-winning brace in the EFL Cup final against Southampton.

But a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered against Anderlecht in the Europa League quarter-finals brought a premature end to his campaign and the 36-year-old has been a marginal figure under Jose Mourinho since returning from surgery, with fitness issues continuing to linger.

The ex-Barcelona, Inter and Paris Saint-Germain star has been linked with a move to Los Angeles and, although he would not be drawn on the particulars of any de…

Equatorial Guinea have been disqualified from the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations for fielding an ineligible player.

The Central African nation claimed a 3-1 aggregate victory over Mauritania in the first round of qualifying, but had been under investigation since their opponents questioned the eligibility of attacker Thierry Fidjeu Tazemeta.

The 31-year-old was by no means a newcomer to the side, having featured for them at the 2012 tournament on home soil, but CAF confirmed on Thursday that the country will be removed from qualifying for next year s event.

Tweeting their judgement, CAF said: Organising committee of AFCON disqualified Equatorial Guinea from the play-offs of AFCON Morocco 2015 in a decision reached 3rd July 2014.

AFCON organising committee de…