Igor Akinfeev has ended his 14-year international career on the high of captaining Russia to the World Cup quarter-finals.

The long-serving goalkeeper revealed his decision to step down from the national team on Monday in order to concentrate on club side CSKA Moscow.

Akinfeev debuted as a teenager and went on to collect 111 caps, starting his first major tournament in Russia s run to the final four at Euro 2008.

The 32-year-old s crowning moment came on home soil a decade later as he memorably made two shoot-out saves in the last-16 success against Spain.

Every story has a beginning and an end, Akinfeev wrote in a statement on CSKA s website.

My story with the national team has come to its logical conclusion. It was a great honour for me to cap…

Market: Sheffield Wednesday win

Odds: 6/5 @

Hoping to extend on their recent flurry this weekend, Sheffield Wednesday will welcome Cardiff to Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon.

Starting with the hosts, while Sheffield Wednesday might have marked their Championship return in the midst of a public nightmare, the Owls have certainly come roaring back. Although they might still face a major uphill battle in their bid to keep hold of their second-tier status, Danny Rohl has made an immediate impact since arriving at Hillsborough back in October. Last seen picking up a 2-1 victory at home against fellow relegation scrappers QPR, the Yorkshire-based outfit have now won three of their previous four appearances. Opening December with a 3-1 romp against Blackburn, Sheffi…

This time last year Romelu Lukaku was reflecting on the most prolific season of his career and a fine performance at the World Cup, but he now appears to be on his way out at Manchester United.

Juventus and Inter are reportedly battling it out to take the Red Devils striker to Serie A and bring an end to his eight-year spell in the Premier League.

Should a deal transpire and take Lukaku to pastures new, English football will lose one of its deadliest marksmen in the modern era.

A glance at the Opta statistics begs the question: are United making a mistake in allowing him to leave?

100 Romelu is one of the only 3 players able to score at least 100 goals in Premier League since 2012/13. Fox.

— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo)

113  A t…

Pep Guardiola says winning the Premier League is sweeter reward for effort than any record Manchester City will attain this season.

The champions received their trophy on Sunday following a 0-0 home draw with Huddersfield Town that moved them 17 points clear of Manchester United.

Though they celebrated with gusto, the failure to beat the stubborn Terriers means City must win both of their remaining matches in order to become the first English top-flight team to reach 100 points in a single season.

Guardiola, however, insists he is satisfied irrespective of records.

We cannot deny it would be nice, but it s nicer to win the Premier League, that s the most important thing, the 47-year-old said.

But we spoke about that. These targets help to …

Manchester City cannot be considered to be a club of equal stature to Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, but Pep Guardiola feels they are making steps in the right direction.

Since being taken over by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, City have established themselves as one of the leading forces in the Premier League, winning the title on three occasions.

For the past three seasons they have been managed by one of the greatest coaches in the modern era in Guardiola.

The Catalan led Barca to the treble in 2008-09 and instilled a brand of football that won admirers across the world, including at Bayern, where he won three Bundesliga titles in as many seasons before heading to City.

Guardiola believes sustained success is needed for City to enter the same brack…

Around the time Massimiliano Allegri guided them to Champions League finals in 2015 and 2017, there would have been a sense of inevitability in any game where Juventus needed a 1-0 home win.

They would approach the task with confidence and efficiency and probably win 1-0.

Andrea Pirlo s Juve needed a 1-0 win to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday but had not won a single game by that margin all season. They ended up going out on away goals to 10-man Porto after a thrilling and unwieldly slugfest.

Holding a 2-1 lead from the first leg at Estadio do Dragao, Sergio Conceicao s side lined up with something approaching a back six whenever they were out of possession.

Before the opening half hour was up in Turin, they had managed eight…

Manchester United look destined for the Europa League quarter-finals after cruising to a resounding 5-0 victory over LASK in the first leg of their last-16 tie in Linz on Thursday.

In a match that was played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus outbreak, Odion Ighalo used his third start for United to take his tally for the club to four with a stunning effort in the 28th minute.

Ighalo then set up James to score his first goal since August, ending a run of 32 games and 2,527 minutes without hitting the back of the net in all competitions, before Juan Mata slid home a lovely pass from Fred.

Substitute duo Mason Greenwood and Andreas Pereira struck within the space of 85 seconds in stoppage time to cap an impressive victory for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer s side, w…

It started with that rarest of sights: a Juan Mata header.

David Villa and David Silva combined down the left, the latter picked out a perfect cross of course and Mata supplied the finish, committing every bit of his five-foot-seven-inch frame to an awkward nodding of the ball beyond Oscar Ustari.

This was four minutes into the 2008 Copa del Rey final against Getafe, a game Valencia went on to win 3-1. It remains their only trophy since 2004, when they claimed LaLiga, the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup and threatened to become one of Spain s dominant forces. It was the first title in the club careers of Mata and Silva, and the third for Villa, those three precociously talented forwards leading a mismatched unit of players who had either survived the heady days of four y…

Inter have probably already begun attempts to sign Lionel Messi from Barcelona, former president Massimo Moratti says.

The Nerazzurri have been touted as one of the clubs most likely to try to sign the Argentina star if he chooses to leave Camp Nou.

Messi is said to be giving his future serious consideration after a disappointing season that ended with an 8-2 Champions League loss to Bayern Munich.

Moratti, Inter president between 1995 and 2013, thinks a recent television advert by club owners the Suning group featuring a silhouette of Messi projected onto Milan s Duomo cathedral is a sign they are keen to bring the player to San Siro.

It s not a simple operation economically, that s clear. But the biggest obstacle is Messi s intentions, Moratti told AS.…

Spain midfielder Gavi has returned to training with Barcelona almost 10 months after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Gavi underwent surgery after suffering the injury during Spain s Euro 2024 qualifying win over Georgia last November, causing him to miss the rest of the season.

He also sat out Euro 2024 as La Roja won a record-breaking fourth continental crown, beating England 2-1 in the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.

On Thursday, Barcelona posted a video to social media of the 20-year-old training with his team-mates.

However, he is not expected to make his return to competitive action just yet, with Barca s next match seeing them face Catalan rivals Girona on Sunday.

Under new head coach Hansi Flick, the Blaugrana have…