Football news

Nigeria have to accept they are no longer the soccer powerhouse of Africa, striker Peter Odemwingie said following their exit from the African Nations Cup. Sunday's 2-1 quarter-final defeat by Ghana meant Nigeria failed to reach the last four for the first time in five tournaments.

"Football has changed. We are used to being the big team of Africa but the game has changed. We can't afford to underrate anyone," he said.

The Lokomotiv Moscow striker said they had lost concentration at vital times in their four matches at the tournament.

"We have a good team, we just have to learn to play together, we have to work harder," the 26-year-old said.

Pato on the mend

Milan hope Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato (picture) can recover from an ankle injury in time for the Champions League match at Arsenal later this month, vice-president Adriano Galliani said yesterday.

The 18-year-old hurt his ankle after coming on as a substitute and scoring in Sunday's 1-0 win at Fiorentina. The European champions visit the English Premier League leaders in a last 16 first-leg clash on Feb. 20.

"I have heard from the doctors. The hope is that we will have him for London," Galliani told Italian media.

Capello breaches language barrier

When he was named England coach at the start of December, Italian Fabio Capello, who spoke little English, said he would be fluent in his new language in a month.

Yesterday he met the British media for the first time since then and said he was "happy with his English" and "I am speaking to the players in English". However, Capello was praising his new skills in Italian through an interpreter.

He said: "I will not speak to you in English until I am happy I have learned all the expressions and phrases I need. You have a way of twisting words, so I will speak to you in English later on."

Breitner criticises Cannavaro

Former Germany midfielder Paul Breitner has hit out at Fabio Cannavaro. Despite clinching the Spanish title in his first season outside Italy, life in La Liga has been far from a fairytale for Cannavaro.

"I don't like Cannavaro," Breitner told journalists. "He adds nothing to the play, doesn't get involved and makes too many mistakes.

"He may be a Ballon d'Or and World Cup winner, but Madrid need to strengthen his position.

"Coach Bernd Schuster already knows that something has to be done and will be looking at the situation."

Collina wants two refs

Italian referees' chief Pierluigi Collina likes UEFA president Michel Platini's idea of having two referees monitoring the penalty area.

"We are in favour of anything that is reasonable and can help.

"Introducing an official close to the goal can improve the situation," Collina told Gazzetta dello Sport following a number of controversial incidents in Serie A recently.

Benjani completes City move

Manchester City have completed the signing of Portsmouth striker Benjani Mwaruwari for £3.87 million. The Zimbabwe striker passed a medical on Monday and has signed a 2-1/2 year contract.

City failed to clinch the signing of Benjani on transfer deadline day last Thursday when Portsmouth spent around nine million pounds on Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe.

However, the Premier League have approved the deal which will rise to around seven million pounds if Benjani, Portsmouth's top scorer this season, starts 75 matches for City.

Spain to play in yellow

Spain will change their traditional red shirts for yellow ones for today's friendly international against France in Malaga, while their opponents will wear red.

"Red forms part of the colours of the French flag and we've been working on the new strip for a year and a half," coach Raymond Domenech said.

"We haven't done it to upset the Spanish."

Rush to solve striking woes

Malaysian soccer chiefs are hoping to inject some Anfield magic into their forward line after recruiting Liverpool great Ian Rush to help solve the country's goalscoring problems.

Khairy Jamaluddin, deputy president of the FA of Malaysia, said Malaysia were struggling because of their poor quality strikers.

"Rush will be here in March... we know that our strikers are not doing very well so they should learn from him," Khairy said.

Roma - no approach for Di Natale

Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale will not be moving to Roma. There was widespread speculation before the winter transfer window that Roma were looking to lure the 30-year-old, but no offer materialised.

"It's not true that Roma asked Udinese for Di Natale," Bruno Carpeggiani, the player's agent, said.

"There certainly hasn't been anything this year. It's still too early to know Antonio's future."