French Ligue 1 outfit Lorient have signed a replacement for central defender Moritz Jenz who has been strongly linked with a move to Scottish Premiership side Celtic this summer. 24-year-old MontassarTaibi has signed for Lorient from Russia Premier League side Rubin Kazan.

Taibi has played 20 times for Tunisia having started his professional career at ES Tunis in his native Tunisia. He moved to CaykurRizespor in the Turkish top flight where he spent three years before leaving the club last year. The defender signed for Russia team Rubin Kazan last summer, but he has made the decision to leave the club after one season mainly due to the ongoing feud between Ukraine and Russia. The feud has affected football activities in the two countries, while clubs from Russia and the Russian national team are banned from competitions in Europe and on the world stage. Continue reading →

Russia will spend the next edition of the UEFA Nations League in section C after the were relegated from section B. The Russians have been relegated from section B to section C without kicking a ball as punishment for the forceful invasion of neighbours Ukraine by president Vladimir Putin and his men.

The Russians were initially drawn in the second group, section B of the current UEFA Nations League campaign. Apart from Russia, Israel, Iceland and Albania are also in the group known as B2. Continue reading →

Spartak Moscow have booked their place in the Russian Cup final after beating Yenisey 3-0 in their semifinal clash on Wednesday. Spartak Moscow came into the Russian Cup last four clash with Yenisey on the back of two wins in the Russia Premier League and they were able to make it three wins in a row in all competitions after the emphatic win over Yenisey.

Capital club Spartak Moscow began their current run of three straight wins in all competitions on the back of the 3-2 defeat at the hands of hosts FC Rostov. The loss at FC Rostov in the Russia Premier League was followed by the 2-1 home win over KrylyaSovetov in the same competition as well. Spartak Moscow made it two Russia Premier League wins on the bounce with the 3-1 victory at Ural. The away win over Ural preceded the FA Cup semifinal victory over Yenisey. Continue reading →

Poland went through a barren spell recently as they failed to qualify for two successive FIFA World Cup tournaments on the back of their appearance at the 2006 edition on German soil. They didn’t qualify for both the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa and the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil.

The Polish team were able to end their 12-year wait for an appearance at the World Cup during the last edition in Russia. Poland showed a lot of promise during the qualifiers ahead of the tournament in Russia four years only for them to perform poorly when hostilities began on Russian soil. They were the favourites in their group ahead of Senegal, Colombia and Japan, but they struggled badly to live up to that status and were bottom of the group at the end of proceedings. Continue reading →

It would be a straight battle between Sweden and Poland when the two teams meetin the playoff final clash scheduled to take place at the Stadion Slaski in Chorzow, Poland on Tuesday night with a place in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament at stake. This means that only one of Sweden and Poland will be at the World Cup tournament scheduled to take place later this year in Qatar.

Poland are the hosts, but Sweden can solace from the fact that they have a very good record against them. Sweden have won their last six meetings between the two countries since they lost the first meeting at the 1974 FIFA World Cup tournament in West Germany. The Swedes have a record of six wins and one defeat in seven meetings against Poland with 14 goals scored and four goals conceded. Two of the four goals conceded against Poland came at the Euro 2020 tournament last summer thanks to the brace from Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski. Despite the two goals from their star man, Poland were still beaten 3-2 by Sweden. Continue reading →

Russia are in pole position in Group J of the European qualifiers ahead of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament after they took advantage of dropped points from former leaders Croatia. The 2018 World Cup hosts became the new leaders in their group after an impressive 2-1 win at the home of Slovenia last week Monday.

Apart from Russia, Croatia and Slovenia, the other teams in Group J are Malta, Cyprus and Slovakia. Ahead of the eighth round of games in the group held last week Monday, Croatia held on to the summit from Russia via goal difference. Continue reading →