
Chelsea to host pre-season tournament featuring Leverkusen and Milan
Chelsea have announced they will host a mini-tournament in August involving Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan as post-Club World Cup preparations for the new campaign.The competition will kick off on 8 August, with the hosts taking on Bundesliga runners-up Leverkusen, now managed by Erik ten Hag.The Blues wrap up the weekend on 10 August, taking on AC Milan, led once again by Massimiliano Allegri.Should Chelsea progress to the final of the Club World Cup, then there would be less than a month of rest for the players.
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Reuters
21 minutes ago
- Reuters
Alcaraz battles past lucky loser Walton to advance at Queen's Club
LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Top seed Carlos Alcaraz got his grasscourt campaign up and running with a 6-4 7-6(4) victory over Australian Adam Walton to move into the last 16 at the Queen's Club Championships on Tuesday. Playing in his first match since his epic 5-1/2 hour French Open final victory over world number one Jannik Sinner nine days ago, Alcaraz was tested by Walton who had set points in the second set before the Spaniard recovered and won the tiebreak. Alcaraz was meant to play compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina but the Spaniard withdrew due to illness, giving lucky loser Walton the chance to play the French Open champion as he warmed up for his Wimbledon title defence. "I realised that I was going to play against Adam after my warm-up... He has played a few matches already before this one. I think he played really great tennis," said Alcaraz, the champion at Queen's Club in 2023. "It surprised me a little bit. So I knew that I was going to struggle a little bit today, but just really happy to get the win. "I feel super happy to be back on grass. It is a special surface, a special place to me." Walton is ranked number 86 in the world and the Australian did not seem overawed by the occasion as he showcased some attacking tennis to hold serve until Alcaraz finally got to grips with the surface and broke to take a 4-3 lead. Alcaraz used serve and volley to good effect, showing finesse with some exquisite drop shots while he was also virtually unstoppable on serve, sealing the opening set with an ace. But Walton held serve well in the second set and nearly broke Alcaraz with his first break points -- which were also set points -- when he was 5-4 up but the Spaniard held on. Once he forced a tiebreak, there was no looking back as Alcaraz wrapped up the contest. Earlier, second seed Jack Draper warmed up the home crowd when he claimed an impressive 6-3 6-1 victory over American Jenson Brooksby for his first win on grass this season. Draper had beaten defending champion Alcaraz in the second round last year and the Briton is hoping to improve on his quarter-final run. "It's tricky coming onto the grass after clay, to adapt, I'm hitting the ball a bit late, not on time," Draper said. "The more matches and time I have on practice courts, I'll get better and better. It's definitely a surface I really enjoy playing on." Australia's fifth seed Alex de Minaur also bowed out of the tournament after a 6-4 6-2 loss to Jiri Lehecka while Alexei Popyrin beat Aleksandar Vukic 6-2 6-7(9) 7-6(3) in an all-Australian battle. American sixth seed Ben Shelton, who had reached the semi-finals in Stuttgart last week, was also knocked out in a 7-6(5) 7-6(4) loss to French qualifier Arthur Rinderknech.


Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Porto transfer targets did not want to play in Club World Cup, says Villas-Boas
June 17 (Reuters) - Portuguese side Porto struggled to recruit players ahead of FIFA's expanded Club World Cup, with transfer targets turning down moves specifically to avoid the tournament's additional fixture burden, club president Andre Villas-Boas said. FIFA had given leagues the option to open the transfer window between June 1-10 so participating clubs could sign players before the month-long tournament in the United States. "We tested the market recently, so we had a special transfer window from June 1-10 where the Club World Cup clubs operated. It was incredible to see that a lot of football players didn't want to be in the competition," Villas-Boas told Men in Blazers. "They prefer to rest in order to start afresh in the new season. So this is actually outstanding as well because FIFPRO (the global players' union) is demanding more rest for the players." A FIFPRO study concluded that a four-week off-season break should be mandatory for professional soccer players. "With the World Cup coming in America next season (2026), it's an even bigger competition -- more teams, probably 1,200 athletes in one competition," he added. "So the calendar is becoming exhausting and we have more injuries... The players can't put on a good spectacle if they are not fresh." Villas-Boas, a former manager at clubs like Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, also said that the expanded 32-team tournament comes at a "very bad time" for European clubs who wrapped up an exhausting season in May. Porto drew 0-0 with Palmeiras in their opening group game where the Brazilian side dominated the contest but were unable to find a breakthrough. "A few of us (European clubs) have had to give a vacation to the players, then we have to bring them back early without time enough for them to reset," Villas-Boas said. "So for us, we are like in a continuation of the last season. And whatever happens after this tournament, the new season is coming, so they never actually have the reset that they need (going) into a new season." Porto will next play Lionel Messi's Inter Miami on Thursday.


BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
Would you give Son a new deal, Tottenham fans?
Son Heung-min just completed his 10th campaign as a Tottenham player and there are questions marks over the forward's future in north London as he enters the final 12 months of his Sport's Sami Mokbel reported earlier today that Son could leave the club before next season amid interest from Saudi Arabia though any exit for the forward is likely to be delayed until after Spurs' summer trip to South 32-year-old's output did start to drop in 2024-25, scoring only 11 goals in all competitions despite featuring in 46 games, including 37 starts, and playing more than 3000 was Son's lowest goal tally in a single campaign for Spurs in nearly a decade, since he scored eight times during his debut season with the club in averages 12.7 Premier League goals per season but scored only seven in 2024-25. His shot conversion rate this season was just 12.5% - when he jointly won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2021-22, it was 24.2%.However, it's not all negative data. Son provided 11 assists in all competitions in 2024-25 – a tally he has only ever bettered once for the on those numbers, would you give him a new deal, Tottenham fans?Tell us here