Lazio has tied down midfield star Luis Alberto to a new five-year contract.
Alberto has looked a player reborn since moving to the Italian capital from Liverpool, where he made just 12 appearances in a three-year spell. The Spaniard was a key aspect of Lazio's title charge last season which eventually fell short, seeing the Romans finish fourth. He finished the campaign with 15 assists in Serie A, behind only Atalanta's Papu Gomez.
In Champions League playoff action, Ukraine's Dynamo Kyiv will take on Belgian side Gent on Tuesday in the second leg of their tie.
BUDAPEST — Bayern Munich beat Sevilla 2-1 after extra time on Thursday to lift the UEFA Super Cup and complete a quadruple under coach Hansi Flick, in the first European game played with fans in the stands since the sport returned amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Substitute Javi Martinez headed in the winner in the 104th minute after Europa League winners Sevilla had taken a 13th-minute lead through Lucas Ocampos's penalty and Bayern levelled through Leon Goretzka in the 34th.
Al-Hilal — three-time winner of the AFC Champions League and last season’s champion — has withdrawn from this season’s competition after failing to field enough players for a group stage match. The 16-time Saudi Professional League champion has been hammered with cases of Covid-19 and attempted to field a lineup that had three goalkeepers, eight outfield players and no substitutes.
After every season, UEFA gives out a litany of awards honoring the best performers. Honors like the goalkeeper of the season, forward of the season and coach of the season are handed out to the elite men’s and women’s players/coaches. The UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award turns the most heads as it is essentially a less glorified Ballon d’Or award.
BUDAPEST — When Hungarian and European football leaders invited Hungarian ambulance workers to the continent's first major international match open to fans since the COVID-19 pandemic began, 500 paramedics jumped at the chance to attend Thursday's Super Cup.
Champions League winners Bayern Munich of Germany and Europa League champions Sevilla of Spain meet at Budapest's Puskas Arena in a game that European football's governing body UEFA considers a safety test of games with spectators.
Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder on Monday urged Bayern Munich fans not to travel to the UEFA Super Cup final against Sevilla in Budapest this week or risk turning the event into a hotbed for COVID-19 to spread.
The German champions, who won the Champions League, face Europa League winners Sevilla in the Hungarian capital on Thursday.
"My stomach hurts thinking about the Super Cup. Budapest is a risk area. We have to be very careful that we don't risk turning it into a football-Ischgl," he said.
BUDAPEST — Hungarian champion Ferencvaros progressed to the Champions League playoff round for the first time after winger Myrto Uzuni went from villain to hero in their shock 2-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday.
Uzuni scored a 23rd-minute own goal which hauled Dinamo level after captain Gergo Lovrencsics had given the home side an early lead and he netted a 65th-minute winner to set up a two-legged tie against Molde.
LONDON — Chelsea have signed Germany's highly-rated attacking midfielder Kai Havertz from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen on a five-year contract, the Premier League club announced on Friday.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed but British media reported the fee for the 21-year-old was in the region of 71 million pounds ($94.34 million).
BARCELONA — Barcelona fans breathed a sigh of relief on Friday, after Lionel Messi ended weeks of speculation by announcing he had decided, with reluctance, to stay at the club.
Messi, who made a shock announcement that he wanted to leave his lifelong club last month, said he would see out his contract until 2021 in order to avoid taking Barca to court.
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