Football news

Panama booked their Gold Cup semi-final berth in dramatic style on Sunday, beating El Salvador 5-3 on penalties after Luis Tejada equalised in the 90th minute.

Panama lined up another match against their Group C rivals the United States, who had second-half goals from Jermaine Jones and Clint Dempsey in a 2-0 victory over Jamaica in the quarter-finals.

In the second match of the day’s double-header at RFK Stadium, Tejada’s 90th-minute strike cancelled out the penalty converted by Rodolfo Zelaya in the 78th for El Salvador.

Tejada then converted the decisive penalty in the shoot-out.

Malesani becomes coach of Genoa

Genoa have appointed Alberto Malesani as their coach for next season, the club confirmed.

Malesani replaces Davide Ballardini, who parted company with the Grifoni earlier this month.

A brief statement from Genoa read: “Genoa announces they have hired Alberto Malesani as the new coach of the first team.

“Malesani will take over from July 1, 2011.”

Last month Malesani turned down a contract extension with Bologna after helping the team retain their Italian Serie A status despite being handed a three-point deduction for failing to make tax payments.

Leonardo ‘prefers executive role’

Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani would not be surprised to see Leonardo leave his job as Inter coach to take up the sporting director’s role at Paris St Germain.

Former Milan player and coach Leonardo joined Inter just six months ago and guided the club to finish runners-up in Serie A and lift the Coppa Italia title.

“I didn’t expect Leonardo to say goodbye to Inter so suddenly,” Galliani said to Corriere dello Sport.

“But I know that he prefers to be an executive rather than a coach.”

The Brazilian tactician caused a stir when he replaced Rafael Benitez at the Inter helm in December after having left Milan six months earlier.

Juventus still keen on Aguero

Juventus are still keen to sign Sergio Aguero from Atletico Madrid this summer even if they face competition from across Europe for the Argentina international.

Aguero, who confirmed his wish to leave the Spanish outfit, has a €45 million buy-out clause and is also a target of Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid.

“Aguero is a great player and when I speak of enhancing the quality level of Juventus I am referring also to the Argentinian player,” Juventus club admini-strator Giuseppe Marotta told Corriere dello Sport.

Aguero recently said that no decision will be made about his future until after the Copa America, which will be played from July 1 to July 24 in Argentina.

Villas-Boas in Chelsea talks

Porto coach Andre Villas-Boas is set to succeed Carlo Ancelotti as coach of English Premier League side Chelsea, according to a report from Portuguese news agency Lusa yesterday.

Citing sources close to the talks, Lusa claims the London club have agreed to pay the €15-million ($21.35m) departure clause in Villas-Boas’s contract.

A former assistant to Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, 33-year-old Villas-Boas led Porto to three titles in his first season at the club: the Portuguese league title, the Portuguese Cup and the 2011 Europa League.

In doing so, he became the youngest coach to win a European trophy.

Sanchez can travel to Spain – Borghi

Chile coach Claudio Borghi will allow star forward Alexis Sanchez to leave the national team’s training camp ahead of the Copa America to sign for Barcelona.

Sanchez, who plays for Udinese, is close to joining the Spanish and European champions, but needs to travel to Spain in order to finalise a deal.

“It’s a very complicated matter,” Borghi said.

“If we don’t allow him to travel, and the sale goes through, we would be accountable for 45 million dollars in the event of anything happening to him.

“It’s very simple. As soon as the confirmation of his transfer comes through, he will have the autho-risation (to travel).”

Pulis expects expensive market

Stoke manager Tony Pulis expects this summer’s transfer market to be an expensive one with smaller clubs feeling the knock-on effect of larger fees being paid by the top Premier League sides.

Manchester United and Liverpool have already signed England Under-21 internationals Phil Jones and Jordan Henderson for fees in excess of £16million.

“It’s going to be an active market and an expensive market this year,” he told BBC Radio Stoke.

“The top six clubs are all looking to spend. That always filters through.

“Sunderland have sold big, Blackburn have sold big and there will be other clubs who will have a little bit of money in their pockets to go out and buy players.”