Preparations for Euro 2012 are right on schedule, tournament co-hosts Poland and Ukraine said Thursday.

Taking full responsibility, we can say that everything is going according to UEFA s plans, and that the matches will take place in eight cities, four in Poland and four in Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said during a visit by his Ukrainian opposite number Mykola Azarov.

We can congratulate each other, with a clear conscience, he told reporters.

The two leaders said that they had approved a road map for the remaining preparations for the European football championships, which are set to kick off in Poland s brand new national stadium in Warsaw in June 8, 2012

In April 2007, European football s governing body UEFA caught the pundits napping…

Market: Both teams to score

Odds: 2/3 @

Looking to make it three victories on the bounce this weekend, Fulham will travel to Portman Road on Saturday afternoon when they meet Ipswich.

Starting with the hosts, while Ipswich might have secured a famous Premier League return for this season, the Blues have struggled to deal with a drastic jump up in class. Marking their iconic top-flight return with a 2-0 loss at home against Liverpool on August 17th, Kieran McKenna’s men are desperately seeking a much-needed boost. Suffering an expected collapse away at defending champions Manchester City last weekend as they eventually slumped to a 4-1 defeat at Portman Road, the one-time Manchester United coach will have a mounting headache over his side’s defensive struggle…

Comeback defender Jack Iredale scored his first goal for the club as Bolton recorded their best opening day win for 12 years with a 3-0 Sky Bet League One success over Lincoln.

Australian Iredale had not played for last season’s play-off semi-finalists since injuring his knee at Barnsley on January 2.

But the ex-Cambridge star needed only four minutes to make an impact, heading in Aaron Morley’s corner.

The Imps sought a quick response and Ben House fired a shot into the side netting.

However, the Trotters were always in control and Randell Williams headed wide from debutant Josh Dacres-Cogley’s cross before the interval.

Lincoln’s set-piece frailty was evident again when Wanderers doubled their lead after 58 minutes. This time the unchall…

Competition: Euro 2016
Market: England to win against Slovakia
Odds:

Slovakia and England meet in their final Euro 2016 Group B clash at the Geoffroy-Guichard tonight with both sides chasing a last-16 spot. England are favourites to come out on top, but with Slovakia winning their last game to resurrect their qualifying hopes, this evening’s outing might not be so one-sided.

Third in Group B with three points from two games, Slovakia are now in a great position to make the next round. They beat Russia most recently and have momentum going into their meeting with England. Just one point behind leaders England in the group, Slovakia could finish the day top of the pack if results go their way.

England are top of Group A with four points from two gam…

In what was a real Champions League controversy on Tuesday night, Newcastle suffered major European heartbreak as they eventually had to settle for a 1-1 stalemate against PSG in the French capital.

While the Magpies might have arrived in Paris dealing with a public injury crisis, Eddie Howe’s side took a shock lead midway through the first half as Alexander Isak tapped home from close range.

Putting in another gritty Champions League display here and with Nick Pope producing a string of wonderful stops after returning from the interval, it appeared that Newcastle were seconds away from springing another famous European upset.

However, Howe’s squad were rightfully left heartbroken in the dying seconds of injury-time as PSG were awarded a hugely controversial…

Nottingham Forest are on the verge of signing Nikola Milenkovic from Fiorentina in the summer transfer window, according to Fabrizio Romano. The well-known and well-respected journalist has claimed that Forest have a deal in place for the 26-year-old Serbia international centre-back.

Romano wrote on : “Nikola Milenkovic to Nottingham Forest, here we go! Deal in place for £12m and medical booked for Serbian defender. He’s set to leave Fiorentina as reported earlier this week.”

Milenkovic has been on the books of Fiorentina since 2017 and has established himself as one of the best central defenders in Serie A. The Serbia international centre-back made 27 starts and seven substitute appearances in Serie A last season. In the 2022-23 campaign, the defender scored two…

Bradley Barcola continued his scoring streak for Paris Saint-Germain as his brace helped the Ligue 1 leaders to a 3-1 victory over Rennes at the Parc des Princes.

The hosts were almost handed the perfect start when Marquinhos turned home Achraf Hakimi s corner, only for the goal to be chalked off by VAR after the Brazilian finished in an offside position.

But the Parisiens opened the scoring in the 30th minute through their star man as Barcola curled a fine effort beyond Steve Mandanda into the far corner after Christopher Wooh gave the ball away cheaply to Joao Neves.

Luis Enrique s side were unable to increase their advantage before the break but got the goal their performance merited shortly after the interval when Lee Kang-In headed into an empty net follo…

Predicting the winner of a major international tournament is a natural part of being a football fan, even if it can sometimes be something of a fool s errand – as proven by Greece and Denmark.

But considering how integral statistics are to football these days, using data could potentially give you the edge, and that s where Stats Perform comes in.

Our Artificial Intelligence team have used Opta s extensive data reserves to quantify each team s chances of winning the entire tournament.

Every match has been run through the Stats Perform Euros Prediction model to calculate the estimated probability of the outcome (win, draw or loss). This uses odds from betting markets and Stats Perform team rankings, which are based on historical and recent performances.

…

Arsenal defender Jen Beattie wants more investment targeted towards girls in the Scottish grassroots to ensure those who dream of becoming professionals can envisage a clear path to following in her footsteps.

Beattie, 32, won 144 caps and scored 24 goals for Scotland before announcing her decision to step away from international football in January.

The Glaswegian and Gunners team-mate and captain Kim Little are amongst the highest-profile Scottish women in football, and Beattie feels a “responsibility” to leave the game in a better place than they found it.

She told the PA news agency: “The money needs to be put in to allow girls to have opportunities to go to training, whether that’s before or after school or university or whatever it is.

“Wh…

Oranje boss Bert van Marwijk has revealed that he will change his starting XI for Sunday s deciding group match against Portugal.

Normally we have a lot of creativity and we are fast at the front, but against Denmark and Germany it was not there, he told KNVB s official website.

But this happens in football. We lost two games, so I have to change my squad for match against Portugal.

Perhaps Van Marwijk himself is to blame for this lack of creativity . How creative and ambitious can you be if you deploy two defensive-minded midfielders, Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong.

Thus, Van Marwijk will surely sacrifice either the Manchester City man or the veteran skipper.

Of the two, I fancy Van Bommel to keep his place, while De Jong will…