Napoli and Juventus are engaged in a transfer market competition for the signature of Barcelona striker Alexis Sanchez, reports in Italy said yesterday.
With Sanchez linked with a move away from the Nou Camp in summer, the hunt is on for the Chilean international and Napoli are the latest to join the queue with Juventus having declared their interest last month.
Napoli may have enough funds available to lure Sanchez if they part with Edinson Cavani who has a €63m million release clause in his contract.
Riquelme flop
Juan Roman Riquelme’s return for Boca Juniors amid joyouscelebrations at La Bombonera turned to disappointment after a shock 3-1 defeat by relegation candidates Union on Sunday.
Union, the team against whom Riquelme made his Boca debut 17 years ago, ended a run of 26 Argentine league matches without tasting victory in the most unlikely of places.
Riquelme, 34, made his highly-anticipated comeback after taking a seven-month break from football following their defeat in the 2012 Libertadores Cup final.
The former Argentina playmaker captained a Boca side let down by defensive blunders as coach Carlos Bianchi rested several first choice players for Thursday’s Libertadores clash at home to Uruguayan champions Nacional.
Battling Bayern delight Heynckes
Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes was delighted with the way his side “rolled up their sleeves” to edge out Hoffenheim on Sunday.
Forty-four points separated the two teams at kick-off and 47 were between them come the final whistle, but the gap seemed far smaller at the Rhein-Neckar Arena.
Heynckes said: “Our opponents are in the thick of it and they played with an amazing level of courage, aggression and energy. We had to work hard for this win. It was not classy, but we still get three points for it.
“You can’t score three or five goals every weekend. We had to roll up our sleeves.”
Reds in the red
Liverpool’s debts have in-creased by £21.8 million, ac-cording to their accounts published yesterday, as prolonged absence from the money-spinning Champions League takes its toll.
The Premier League side’s latest accounts, which run from August 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012, show the club recorded a loss of £40.5 million and debts in-creased to £87.2 million.
The club said the cost of rebuilding their squad during a period without European soccer played a large part in the debt increase and said revenue actually increased by five million pounds.
Milan to offer Pazzini new deal
Giampaolo Pazzini is set to prolong his stay at Milan as the club is ready to offer the 28-year-old striker an extension to his current contract.
Pazzini, who joined Milan from Inter last summer as part of the Antonio Cassano deal, has a current contract that expires in 2015. However, the Rossoneri are ready to add another year to that deal even though there will be no change to his €2.7m per season salary.
Pazzini, who also played for Atalanta, Fiorentina and Sampdoria, was twice on the mark in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Lazio at the San Siro. He made 21 Serie A appearances this season and scored 12 goals.
Rangers report first half loss
Rangers reported an underlying loss of £7m in the seven months to December as the football club’s new owners rebuild from the bottom tier of the Scottish game.
“The Company is expected to report an operating loss at year end in accordance with the business plan and broader growth strategy,” it said in a statement.
The previous parent company of Rangers, 54 times Scottish champions, went into liquidation last year and the team is now playing in the fourth tier of Scottish football.
Rangers said it had a pre-tax profit of £9.5 million but noted that this was driven by a one-off accounting credit of £20.5 million.
Tough semi-final for Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg have been handed the unenviable task of a trip to Bayern Munich in the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal.
Dieter Hecking’s side were given the draw they were hoping to avoid with an away game at the Allianz Arena now standing between them and a place in the Berlin final.
“As anybody could imagine, this was not our dream draw,” Hecking said.
“But, if we want to win the cup, then we have got to beat Bayern.”
In the other semi-final, Stutt-gart and Freiburg will meet in a Baden-Wurttemberg derby.
The ties will be played on April 16 and 17 with the winners meeting in the final in Berlin’s Olympiastadion on June 1 – a week after the Champions Lea-gue final in London.