Football news

Thierry Henry has been ruled out of Barcelona's Champions League semi-final encounter with Chelsea tomorrow after being told that he will be out of action for at least two weeks.

The French forward suffered a knock to his knee in the second half of Barcelona's 6-2 victory over Real Madrid last weekend.

Henry will not only have to sit out the game against Chelsea, but he will also miss the league encounter with Villarreal at the weekend, when Barca could be crowned champions, as well as the King's Cup final next week.

Further tests will be made on his knee injury this week in a bid to ease him back into action as quickly as possible.

Liverpool join race for Negredo

Liverpool are interested in signing Almeria striker Alvero Negredo.

Fulham tried to sign him in January while Aston Villa are also keeping an eye on his progress.

Liverpool are now ready to join the chase for the player, although his situation is somewhat complicated in that Real Madrid have first option on him until the end of June.

"To play next to Fernando Torres at Anfield is a dream and any player would accept that," Negredo, 24, said.

"But I prefer to talk about reality and I have not spoken with Rafa Benitez, but I do know that some contact exists between the clubs."

FA to look into crowd trouble

The English FA are to launch an investigation into the crowd trouble involving West Ham and Stoke fans at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.

Police officers had to step in to prevent clashes between rival sets of supporters and there were some scuffles inside the stadium.

There were also incidents outside the ground after the match.

An FA spokesman said: "We will investigate the incidents."

It is not the first time this season that there has been crowd trouble at Stoke. A steward was hospitalised last month after violence before the Middlesbrough match.

Wolfsburg set sights on Mutu

Bundesliga club Wolfsburg are preparing an audacious bid to sign Adrian Mutu from Fiorentina, according to reports.

Wolfsburg are the emerging force in German football and they raided Serie A last summer for Palermo defenders Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo.

Reports claim that Wolfsburg want to strengthen in the summer and have identified Mutu as one of their top targets.

Fiorentina have no intention of selling their Romanian striker, but they know that he could ask for a move should they fail to qualify for next season's Champions League.

United will make mistakes - Benitez

Rafael Benitez believes Manchester United will make enough mistakes to enable Liverpool to bridge the gap with the champions in the title race.

The Reds annihilated Newcastle 3-0 at Anfield on Sunday to stay on the heels of leaders United, three points adrift. Liverpool could go top if they beat West Ham on Saturday, with United not facing Manchester City until Sunday.

Benitez is now hoping for the "two big mistakes I still believe United will make" in the title race.

"Manchester United are a good team with good players, and they will need to make two big mistakes to let us in. But I still believe they can be caught and they will make mistakes," he said.

Ranieri facing Juve axe - reports

Italian media were awash with speculation yesterday that Juventus are set to sack coach Claudio Ranieri before the end of the season and hand the reins to Ciro Ferrara.

Ranieri's future in Turin is in the balance after a 2-2 draw with Lecce angered fans and left the Bianconeri highly unlikely to secure second place.

Since the sacking of Argentine Luis Carniglia in 1969, the Juventus board has shown great patience towards its coaches but reports suggest that Ranieri has lost control of the dressing room and that key men such as goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon are livid with the state of affairs.

Tuttosport reported that Juve youth academy chief Ferrara, who is also an assistant to Azzurri boss Marcello Lippi, could be made caretaker coach for the final four Serie A games.

In the longer term, Bari coach Antonio Conte is being widely tipped to take charge of Juventus.

Ferdinand trains ahead of Arsenal tie

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand trained yesterday ahead of the Champions League semi-final second leg at Arsenal tonight, the club said on their website (www.manutd.com).

Ferdinand bruised his lungs in Wednesday's 1-0 first leg victory at Old Trafford and was rested for Saturday's 2-0 Premier League win at Middlesbrough.

Fellow defenders Patrice Evra, who picked up a knock against Boro, and Wes Brown did not train yesterday however.