by FSL News | 23 Oct, 2016 | African News
Nigerian striker Ahmed Musa opened his Premier League account with his first goal of the season for the reigning Champions Leicester City, in their 3-1 win over Crystal Palace at the King Power stadium on Saturday.
Shinji Okazaki and Christian Fuchs extended the host lead before Yohan Cabaye scored a consolation for the Londoners as Palace pressurised the hosts in the final five minutes as they attempted an unlikely comeback.
Italian boss Claudio Ranieri signed the Nigerian international in July 2016 for a club record fee estimated at £16.6 million.
Musa, 24, also scored his first goal for the club in a friendly against Barcelona in the 2016 International Champions Cup which ended in a 4-2 loss.
The victory stretched their unbeaten home run to 20 league games as the Foxes followed up their midweek Champions League.
They headed into this encounter with more Champions League points from three games than Premier League points from eight games.
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by FSL News | 20 Oct, 2016 | International, National Sport News Sierra Leone
The National Football team, Leone Stars, has dropped four places again, to become the 97th placed team globally in the latest FIFA rankings released Thursday, October 20.
Leone Stars, who played to a 1-1 draw against Ivory Coast in their final 2017 African Nations Cup qualifier in September, are now placed 26th in Africa.
Africa’s top ten teams are reigning African champions, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana, Egypt, Congo DR, Congo, Mali, and Cameroon.
Algeria, are unchanged – they’re still third in Africa and placed 35 in the world. Cameroon and Zambia are placed 59th and 94th respectively in the world.
The biggest rise in terms of places and points are Montenegro (56th, up 49), following wins over Kazakhstan and Denmark. Argentina, still the best football country in the world and are closely followed by Germany and Brazil in second and third place respectively.
FIFA says the next edition of the World Ranking will be released on 24 November.
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by FSL News | 18 Oct, 2016 | African News
Premier League Champions Leicester City are one win away from Champions League Knockout stages after beating FC Copenhagen at the King Power Stadium to make it three wins in their group on Tuesday.
Algerian international Riyad Mahrez scored the only goal of the game in the 41st minute to register a third successive victory in the competition and move the English champions within touching distance of the knockout stage.
After three successive away defeats in the Premier League by Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea, there was a palpable edginess among the Leicester’s fans on Tuesday night.
However, Italian boss Claudio Ranieri made four changes to the Leicester side that lost heavily at Chelsea on Saturday, with Mahrez, Slimani, Andy King and Danny Simpson all restored to the manager’s starting XI.
It was little from the home team in the first half other than Mahrez’s goal, and they were fortunate not to concede just before half-time.
Leicester City, who won the English top flight with flying starts 2015/2016 season are languishing 13th position in this campaign.
In Ranieri’s post match interview he said: “I am very proud of my players in Europe but very angry with them in the Premier League,”
“And while it is normal that when you play in the big competition you lose something in the league, we want to change that now.”
Leicester will be hoping they win Group G, as they take on FC Copenhagen again in a fortnight.
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by FSL News | 17 Oct, 2016 | Players Abroad News
- Photo: FC Zurich’s Umaru Bangura pictured in action against Villarreal
The FC Zurich defender, in theory, will miss the Steaua București Europa League group stage matchday three on Thursday.
Sierra Leone skipper Umaru Zaingallay Bangura has confirmed to footballsierraleone.net that he will be undergoing a second surgery on his let finger tomorrow. “I will undergo the operation again tomorrow,” he said.
The Sierra Leone centre-back initially damaged the finger during training before their last Europa League game against Spanish top-flight side Villarreal.
During last Monday’s training with his Swiss Challenge League Leaders, The FC Zurich defender injured the same finger again.
Since joining the club, Bangura has only made two League appearances and will now miss important upcoming matches including their Europa League away tie to Steaua Bucureșt on Thursday.
Zaingallay scored his first league goal in Zurich 5-0 thumping of Wohlen at the Niedermatten stadium on Sunday 2 October.
Bangura was part of the FC Zurich’s side that suffered a 2-1 defeat in Spain to Villarreal in the first round of the Europa League ground stage.
In August 2016 he signed a three years contract with Swiss second-tier side FC Zürich.
Connect with us @football_sierra, on Facebook/ Instagram Football Sierra Leone, the writer John Bangura.
by FSL News | 16 Oct, 2016 | Players Abroad News
- Finland Kakkonen Play Offs: OPS 1 – 2 FC Honka
Abdul ‘Buduski’ Sesay scored 14 goals in 19 appearances for Oulun Palloseura Jalkapallo (OPS) this season in the Finish third-tier division, but the Sierra Leone midfielder is bitterly disappointed following their 2-1 playoff defeat on Sunday.
The Oulu-based club promotion bid was dealt a major blow following a shocking home defeat to FC Honka at the Oulu-Lehti Arena.
Both sides played to a 2-all draw in the playoffs the first leg last Sunday, and after today’s disappointment for OPS, FC Honka promoted 4-3 on aggregate.
Sesay, who was hoping OPS will secure promotion and end a three-year absence from Finish’s second-tier admitted his disappointment after his team was brought back down to earth.
“I’m disappointed that we lost because we have been doing very well up to this point, but we always knew it wasn’t going to be easy and that we had to fight.”
“This is football; everyone at the club is down at the moment. We were hoping this year is going to be our year, unfortunately, we lost in the playoffs,” Sesay told footballsierraleone.net.
The deadlock was broken shortly after the first five minutes by the visitors; Generoso Da Silva opens the scoring.
The home side levels the scoreline just before the break – Finish forward Konstantin Belov scored in the 45th minute.
In the 73′ minutes, FC Honka midfielder Robert Ivanov scored the winner for the visitors as they gain promotion to the Finish second-tier away from home.
FC Honka finished with 10 men as Rony Huhtala was sent off for a second booking
Connect with us @football_sierra, on Facebook/ Instagram Football Sierra Leone, the writer John Bangura.
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