Buffon avoids ban for blasphemous comments, fined €5,000

Riccardo Montolivo feels goal difference may be the deciding factor behind whether Italy progress from Group D at the FIFA World Cup.

Italy have been drawn alongside England, who they face in their opening game in Manaus on June 14, Uruguay and Costa Rica in what is arguably the toughest group of the competition.

The four-time winners failed to get into the knockout stages in South Africa four years ago, but responded well by reaching the final of the 2012 UEFA European Championships.

Milan midfielder Montolivo is well aware of the challenge facing Cesare Prandelli s men in Brazil and expects the group to be settled by the finest of margins.

Certainly it is not going to be easy, said in an interview with Forza Milan magazine.

The most delicate game is alway…

Dutch local newspaper Eindhovens Dagblad is reporting that Chelsea defender Jeffrey Bruma is set to leave Hamburger SV.

Bruma, 21, has joined the Bundesliga side on loan in the summer of 2011, but has recently lost his place in the starting line-up.

This is not an ideal situation for his parent club Chelsea, and Blues advisor Piet de Visser claims the defender is set to leave HSV in search of first team football.

“His situation at Hamburg is currently not as we hoped,” De Visser told Eindhovens Dagblad.

“He is currently not a first choice with his coach. Bruma is a boy who needs to play week in week out.”

Vitesse and PSV Eindhoven hope to take advantage of the situation and are ready to offer the player an escape route from Imtech Arena.<…

Both Sarina Wiegman and Martina Voss-Tecklenburg have resisted temptation to tamper with their starting XIs as they have named unchanged teams for Sunday s Women s Euro 2022 final between England and Germany.

There had been speculation that Lionesses manager Wiegman would give in-form Alessia Russo a first start of the campaign, with the striker third in the scoring charts with four goals from the bench.

However, Wiegman has instead kept faith with Ellen White, who has scored just twice in five starts but is England s all-time top goalscorer.

England have named the same team from the start in all six of their matches at the finals, making them the first team in either a men s or women s European Championship to name an unchanged starting XI in every game fr…

A study from Ofcom ahead of the new season has found that seven out of 10 Premier League footballers have been abused on Twitter.

It also revealed that 362 tweets containing abuse are sent to Premier League players every day, and that eight out of the top 10 Premier League players most abused online played for Manchester United last season.

Half of the derogatory tweets were targeted at just 12 players, with United s Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire receiving the most abuse.

Other players in the top 10 included Bruno Fernandes, Fred, David de Gea, Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Harry Kane and Jack Grealish.

In the report, Ofcom s Group Director for Broadcasting and Online Content Kevin Bakhurst said: Football is a game of high emotion, p…

Maya Yoshida thinks Japan s settled starting XI will see the defending Asian Cup champions improve again in the quarter-finals.

Japan s settled starting line-up is helping the reigning champions build momentum at the Asian Cup, as they prepare for their quarter-final against United Arab Emirates.

Coach Javier Aguirre selected the same XI to begin each of Japan s three group matches and they completed a clean sweep on Tuesday with a 2-0 triumph over bogey team Jordan.

With games every four days at the Asian Cup, many coaches have focused on rotation to keep their squads fresh.

But Japan central defender Maya Yoshida insists Aguirre s stance is a benefit for the title-holders.

[We are] getting better every day and understand each other [better] ev…

Andre Schurrle has been hotly tipped to join Wolfsburg, but the Bundesliga club say a deal to sign the Chelsea forward is not done yet.

Wolfsburg have yet to agree a deal for Chelsea forward Andre Schurrle, with the club s sporting director stating that time is running out to complete the transfer.

Premier League leaders Chelsea are expected to confirm the signing of Fiorentina s Juan Cuadrado with Schurrle having been tipped to depart Stamford Bridge throughout the transfer window.

Bundesliga side Wolfsburg are reportedly in pole position for the Germany international s signature, but the club s sporting director Klaus Allofs has warned there is still plenty of work to do.

There is no agreement at the moment, he told Wolfsburger Nachrichten.