Latest news with #Drogba
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Ballard channelled Drogba to secure Sunderland glory
Dan Ballard says he visualised Didier Drogba's iconic Champions League final goal just seconds before steering in a replica to take Sunderland to 25-year-old former Arsenal youngster headed in a corner at the near post to overcome Coventry in the final seconds of extra time in the Championship play-off semi-final at the Stadium of Light on came 13 years to the week after Drogba produced a similar finish from a corner to snatch an 89th-minute draw for Chelsea in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich, and Ballard said he had visualised it before Enzo Le Fee swung in the set-piece which he stooped to head home in unorthodox fashion in told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I didn't know how many minutes had been put up, I was focused on the game, I knew it would be one of the last opportunities."I pictured, I don't know why, Didier Drogba's goal in the Champions League final. I thought 'I'm going to hang around at the near post and try to get half a yard and flick it into the top corner'."It was a great ball from Enzo and that's what happened. It all worked out perfectly."Ballard admitted Drogba's header, which paved the way for the Blues to win the match on penalties, was his favourite goal growing up, adding: "The corners before hadn't worked out so well and I wasn't getting my timing quite right - I had that picture in my head."Ballard said the celebrations after his winner at the Stadium of Light were "just an outpouring of emotion"."The noise in the stadium, the reaction of the fans, players and staff - I think everyone lost control a little bit," he said."It was really emotional, honestly just pure joy and I think every fan in the stadium felt that as well and the noise in there was just incredible."When the ball came off the back of my head, I just had a feeling it was going in, even though it as strange technique I just had a feeling and when it hit the back of the net I lost all control and I think everyone else did as well."Ballard said he had been taken aback by the response to his goal on Wearside, admitting: "I have had thousands of messages saying it was the greatest night of their life and their greatest football moment. I probably didn't realise the significance of it at the time. A few days go by and I realise the impact it had on the city."Ballard helped Blackpool earn promotion from League One at Wembley in 2021 while on loan from Arsenal and said the experience will help when the Black Cats take on Sheffield United on 24 said: "Four or five were here with Sunderland when they went up from League One in 2022. Even winning the EFL Trophy in 2021 is all experience of playing at Wembley. It was daunting where I first played there. A bit of experience in the dressing room will help massively."Ballard said Sunderland will "take a lot of confidence" from both of their league games against the Blades into the final."Even though we had a 1-0 defeat away from home I thought we played really well," he said. "I wasn't involved at the Stadium of Light but the lads were terrific. They were tough games but we can take a lot of confidence from them."
Metro
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Arsenal or PSG? Didier Drogba asked to pick Champions League favourite
Former Chelsea and Marseille striker Didier Drogba is hoping that both Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain miss out on winning the Champions League this season. PSG have secured the advantage ahead of the second leg of their Champions League semi-final next week following a 1-0 victory over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night. The other semi-final tie is also set up for a thrilling conclusion as Barcelona and Inter played out an epic 3-3 draw in their first leg on Wednesday. Drogba, meanwhile, famously scored Chelsea's winner in their Champions League final against Bayern Munich in 2012 and provided plenty of headaches for Arsenal's defence during the rivalry between the two clubs. The former Ivory Coast striker also has a strong allegiance with Marseille, PSG's arch rivals in Ligue 1, and was reluctant to pick a winner between Arsenal and Luis Enrique's side next week. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we'll send you so we can get football news tailored to you. When asked who he would rather see in the final between Arsenal and PSG, Drogba told RMC Sport: 'Do you really want to know the answer? Neither team. More Trending 'But I think it's good for French football to have a team that's gone this far. Good luck to them.' Asked if it was painful to watch PSG progress so far in the tournament, Drogba replied: 'No comment! It's the truth. 'Good for them but it won't change anything. Forever the leaders, as they say.' Drogba then revealed that his preference to win the Champions League would be either Barcelona or Inter. For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. MORE: Mikel Arteta explains risky Arsenal team selection against Bournemouth MORE: Arsenal linked with shock approach to sign Manchester United transfer flop MORE: Daniel Farke reveals why he sat on bench as Leeds United won the Championship
The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Injuries pile up at Bayern Munich to threaten Thomas Müller's perfect ending
As Didier Drogba's penalty swept into the corner of the net, everything stopped. It had been written that it was Bayern Munich's night. After having their chances in the 2010 Champions League final but ending up as a footnote in Inter's treble, this was where they would put it right. They could have done little more, piling the pressure on a prone and wounded Chelsea. But they, and Drogba in particular, would just not fold – and the striker's winning kick in the shootout made all their worst fears come true. Bayern's party was over. The public transport network, taking the majority of fans back from Fröttmaning to the centre of Munich, ground to an involuntary halt, as if signifying all elements human and digital were unable to digest what had come to pass. Even before that it should have been Thomas Müller's night, with his late opener dethroned from winning goal status by (of course) Drogba's even later headed equaliser, aeons before he and they arrived at the trauma of penalties. In another context, at another time, Müller's Saturday morning announcement that he will leave Bayern at the end of the season would have seemed like the call to make the stars align as the 13th anniversary of 19 May 2012 prepares to be marked and another Allianz Arena final comes into view. It would be his perfect ending, winning the Champions League with his club, in his arena, before taking that familiar saunter off into the sunset after 25 years. Yet fate, it appears, may have different ideas. Bayern overcame degrees of difficulty just down the road at Augsburg on Friday night to retain their advantage in the Bundesliga title race with a few moments of fortune. Coming from a goal down, they were second-half beneficiaries of Cédric Zesiger's contestable second yellow card and Harry Kane giving them the lead almost straight away from the resulting set-piece. Mergim Berisha had the opportunity to score a 90th minute equaliser for the 10-man hosts but got the ball stuck under his feet. Leroy Sané's shot, deflected in by Chrislain Matsima, sealed the win but if they had endured a close scrape, it certainly didn't feel as if they had seen much luck. If anybody in the Bayern camp had thought the injury situation couldn't get any worse they were so, so wrong. Jamal Musiala had hauled Bayern out of difficulty at the end of the first half, equalising with the sort of goal that only he can score. Refusing to be outmuscled by a cluster of Augsburg defenders, he held on to the ball and guided a shot into the right-hand corner of Finn Dahmen's net. Typical Musiala. Whatever the odds, he has a solution. Until he went down, in the seventh minute of the second half. The game carried on around Musiala as he sat on the turf, Sané crossing over for Michael Olise to rattle a shot against the post, as if trying to ignore the moment that could shape Bayern's season. Musiala's race was run. 'We don't know how bad it is yet,' Vincent Kompany told DAZN, but he must have known from the way his player stopped and held the back of his thigh. The diagnosis followed quickly after, with a torn hamstring confirmed and Bayern's chances against the club that vanquished them in Madrid in 2010, already diminished by the injuries to defenders including Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano, greatly reduced. Inter might have been slight favourites; the balance has come down heavily on their side in the last 10 days. The romantic in you wants to believe that this is all setting the stage for a Müller rescue act as he replaces Musiala in the XI, an idea given extra poignancy by Saturday's news. An initial thought that there might be some discord – his acknowledgment that the end of his time playing with Bayern 'did not reflect my personal wishes' came out 41 minutes before the club's confirmation – was quickly quashed with typical Müller humour, in a photo of him flanked by Jan-Christian Dreesen, Christoph Freund and Max Eberl posing with a 'July 2025' jersey, a nod to him staying on for the Club World Cup. It would be something special if one of the great unsung heroes of the Champions League could lead his team back to the grand finale at home – his home. Yet, ironically for one so reluctant to take centre stage, Müller probably lacks the right supporting cast to lift him all the way to glory. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Augsburg 1-3 Bayern, Werder Bremen 2-0 Eintracht Frankfurt, Freiburg 1-4 Dortmund, Heidenheim 0-1 Leverkusen, Mainz 1-1 Holstein Kiel, RB Leipzig 3-1 Hoffenheim, Vfl Bochum 0-4 Stuttgart, Union Berlin 1-0 Wolfsburg, St Pauli 1-1 Mönchengladbach It would have been typical of this title race so far had Leverkusen let Bayern get away again by failing to win on Saturday afternoon at Heidenheim, and they were mightily close to doing so. Emi Buendia's first Bundesliga goal, a deft finish in the first minute of stoppage time, saved Werkself blushes after a second successive well-below-par performance, after the shock DFB Pokal semi-final elimination at third-tier Arminia Bielefeld, with the winner bringing the champions back to six points behind Bayern. The Aston Villa loanee was assisted by Jonas Hofmann, another player getting meagre minutes at the moment. 'When you come in for just seven or eight minutes and make the difference like those two,' argued Granit Xhaka, 'it shows the mentality and how strong our dressing room is.' The other unsuccessful Pokal semi-finalists were Leipzig, after an improved away performance under Zsolt Löw which yielded a clutch of chances nevertheless ended in defeat at Stuttgart. Löw's first Bundesliga game at the helm was more successful as his charges were the eventual beneficiaries of an error-strewn game with struggling Hoffenheim, in which they were gifted a pair of first-half goals after going a goal down before the visitors had Leo Østigård sent off. The home support also showed their affection for the sacked Marco Rose – 'Danke Fuer Alles Marco' said one large banner – and Yussuf Poulsen's late goal to seal the win means they are just a point shy of the top four. The league's more season-long crisis club, remarkably, are still in with a shout of Champions League (or at least European) football. Dortmund's 4-1 win at their perennial rabbits Freiburg was a second straight victory – and second successive competent performance – against a rival for the Euro spots. Carney Chukwuemeka, making his first start after a series of nagging injuries, scored and was influential throughout before being replaced by the returning Felix Nmecha. 'Carney is a great footballer who obviously has some catching up to do,' said Niko Kovac, whose team appears to be listening to him at last. 'He showed what he's capable of today.' That win puts BVB just five points behind the team they vanquished last week, fourth-placed Mainz, who were held at home by bottom club Holstein Kiel, who made it crystal clear that they haven't thrown in the towel yet. Elsewhere in face-offs between European chasers and relegation battlers Dapo Afolayan's brilliant equaliser from range gave St Pauli a deserved point against resurgent Borussia Mönchengladbach and Ermedin Demirovic scored a hat-trick as Stuttgart got back on the Bundesliga rails after reaching their first Pokal final in 12 years, winning 4-0 at Bochum. Eintracht Frankfurt, meanwhile, reminded us that third place is as much up for grabs as fourth by slumping to a 2-0 defeat at Werder Bremen ahead of their Europa League quarter-final visit to Tottenham.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
🎥 Happy birthday to a ruthless Premier League legend 🎂
Today marks the birthday of one of the most devastating and reliable finishers in Premier League history. That man is Didier Drogba who, across two separate spells in Chelsea blue, cemented that reputation as an all-time great at Stamford Bridge. And it is little wonder thanks to some epic moments like these... Clutch. 🏆 — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 11, 2025 Unbelievable. — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 11, 2025 As braces go... 🤤 — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 11, 2025 That famous goal against Spurs. 🫡 — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 11, 2025 Didier Drogba. Clutch. — Premier League (@premierleague) March 11, 2025 Drogba. Iconic. 💙⚽️@ChelseaFC || #UCL — UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) October 18, 2022 The king of clutch indeed. 📸 Scott Heavey - 2011 Getty Images
Al-Ahram Weekly
26-02-2025
- Sport
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Drogba, Essien defend former boss Mourinho in Turkey racism row - World
Former Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, his Ghanaian ex-teammate at Chelsea, on Wednesday defended their former coach Jose Mourinho, who has been accused of racist remarks by Turkish club Galatasaray. Galatasaray said it would launch criminal proceedings against Fenerbahce manager Mourinho following Monday's drawn league match when the 62-year-old said the home bench had been "jumping like monkeys". Fenerbahce responded by saying the Portuguese coach's comments had been "taken out of context" and "deliberately distorted". Drogba, who was Chelsea's record signing when he joined in 2004 and one of Mourinho's key players when he guided them to back-to-back Premier League titles, took to X to lend his support. Dear @GalatasaraySK You know how proud I was to wear the yellow and red jersey and my love for the most decorated club in Turkey!! We all know how passionate and heated rivalries can be, and I've been lucky enough to experience it. Ive seen the recent comments about Jose… — Didier Drogba (@didierdrogba) February 26, 2025 "I've seen the recent comments about Jose Mourinho. Trust me when I tell you I have known Jose for 25 years and he is not a racist and history (past and recent) is there to prove it," posted Drogba who also went on to play for Galatasaray, adding: "How can my 'Dad' be a racist?" Essien also came to his old coach's defence, posting on X and Instagram an old photo of himself and Drogba alongside Mourinho, accompanied by three hearts. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.) Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
