Alan Pardew is under no illusions as to the importance of Crystal Palace s Premier League clash against relegation rivals Norwich City at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Palace have not won in the league since December 19 at which point they were flying high in sixth position – and have dramatically slumped into the scrap at the bottom of the table.

Indeed, victory for Norwich would bring Alex Neil s men level with Palace on 34 points, just above the bottom three.

Palace, whose victory in the reverse fixture on the opening day of the season was their first over Norwich in their nine Premier League meetings, are the only team in the top four tiers who are yet to win a game in 2016.

Pardew s strugglers have lost six consecutive home games and could become t…

Lionel Messi knows his illustrious career is running out of time as the Argentina great suggested his club playing days will end with Inter Miami.

The Barcelona legend completed a switch to MLS side Miami last year after two decades of European football with the Blaugrana and Paris Saint-Germain.

As Messi starts to prepare for Argentina s Copa America defence this month, retirement remains a pertinent question for the global superstar.

The 36-year-old, speaking to ESPN, acknowledged Miami will likely be my last club as the fear sets in over ending his playing career sooner rather than later.

I ve done this all of my life; I love playing ball, the eight-time Ballon d Or winner said on Wednesday.

I enjoy the practices and the day-to-day, the game…

England got their Nations League campaign off to a winning start with a 2-1 win against Scotland at the Stadium of Light.

Just over a month after their World Cup final defeat to Spain, the Lionesses earned an inaugural win in the competition after going ahead through former Black Cat Lucy Bronze.

Lauren Hemp doubled the lead before Scotland pulled one back just before the break through Kirsty Hanson and the visitors had plenty of good opportunities to level in the second half but were unable to capitalise on their chances.

Starting our campaign with a WIN!

— Lionesses (@Lionesses)

Prior to kick-off both teams paid their respects to Sheffield United’s Maddy Cusack, who has died aged 27, and a period of silence was observed around the stadium…

League Cup-winning former Aston Villa skipper Chris Nicholl has died at the age of 77, former club Walsall have announced.

Nicholl, who later played for and then managed Southampton before taking charge of the Saddlers, had been living with dementia, which he attributed to brain damage caused by repeatedly heading balls over his lengthy career.

The former central defender’s death was confirmed in a statement on Walsall’s official X – formerly Twitter – account which said: “We are devastated to learn that former manager Chris Nicholl has passed away.

We are devastated to learn that former manager Chris Nicholl has passed away.

Chris led the Saddlers from 1994 to 1997 and won promotion to Division Two in what was a memorable 1994-95 campaign.

…

Competition: Euro 2016
Market: Poland to win against Northern Ireland
Odds:

Poland square off with Northern Ireland for their opening Euro 2016 Group C game at the Allianz Riviera this afternoon, and are big favourites to pick up all three points given the superior strength of their squad.

From their last six games in all competitions, Poland have enjoyed four wins against Iceland, Czech Republic, Serbia and Finland, while drawing against Lithuania most recently. They have prolific Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski spearheading the attack, and should have too much for Northern Ireland as a result.

As for the underdogs, Michael O’Neill’s men are coming off the back of good form in all competitions, winning three of their last five games ag…

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner is not dwelling on the refereeing error that cost Eberechi Eze a goal in Sunday s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Brentford.

Goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa fired Brentford to a matchday-one victory at the Gtech Community Stadium, with Palace briefly levelling in the second half via an Ethan Pinnock own goal.

The Eagles thought they had taken a 26th-minute lead when Eze produced a brilliant effort from a wide free-kick, his ambitious shot clipping the near post and beating Mark Flekken.

However, referee Samuel Barrott blew for a foul from Will Hughes on Nathan Collins, and the VAR was unable to intervene due to the whistle sounding before Eze s shot crossed the line.

After the game, Glasner revealed Barrott had admi…

Pep Guardiola is constantly evolving to stay ahead of the rest of the game, giving him the best advantage to keep winning, so says Rodri.

Manchester City won an unprecedented fourth consecutive Premier League title last season, following on from their historic treble, with Rodri s goal sealing it as the club won their first-ever Champions League.

Rodri has been a key piece of Guardiola s team since joining from Atletico Madrid in July 2019, and last season made 34 appearances in the top-flight, never tasting defeat in any of them.

In all competitions last campaign, he made 50 appearances, playing the most minutes of any of his team-mates (4,325). Rodri also featured in six of Spain s seven Euro 2024 matches, helping them to win a record fourth title at the tourna…

Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri has emphasised the need for calm and focus as the Old Lady look to end their winless run this weekend.

Having been held 1-1 by Empoli while down to 10 men and then beaten 1-0 by Serie A leaders Inter Milan and Udinese, Juve went a fourth successive game without victory last Saturday with a 2-2 draw at Hellas Verona.

Allegri’s side are second in the table, nine points adrift of Inter having played a game more, ahead of Sunday’s game at home to Frosinone.

Fully focused for

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen)

Allegri told a press conference: “We have worked well, as always, and tomorrow we have only one goal – to return to winning ways.

“Periods like these in football happen, I’ve been through them…

Phil Neville is pleased with the Portland Timbers recent form but admits they still have a lot to work on as they prepare to face Austin FC on Wednesday.

After a run of nine games without a win in MLS, Portland have now won two of their last three outings, beating Sporting Kansas City 2-1 on Saturday.

That win moved them up to 16 points in the Western Conference, and the Timbers are now just one point behind the ninth-placed Seattle Sounders in a playoff place.

Neville was pleased with his side s reaction to a recent defeat to Minnesota United and is looking forward to building on their upturn.

We ve got two wins out of [last] three and it s what we expect, what we want. We want to keep improving. I think we ve seen improvements over the last two or thre…

Another fervent European evening, another scarcely credible denouement in the Champions League.

Tottenham were 3-0 down on aggregate in Amsterdam with nowhere left go in the semi-final – or at least that was how it looked until Lucas Moura scored twice in a hurry before completing a brilliant hat-trick deep into stoppage time.

Ajax and Spurs had both plotted improbable paths to their semi-final, a drama that played out 24 hours after Liverpool ransacked Barcelona in remarkable scenes at Anfield.

Here, we look back at three months where Europe s grown-up football competition started behaving like a devil-may-care teenager and was all the better for it.

THAT feeling when you reach your first-ever !

Congratulations,

— UEFA Champions …