Football News: Giants clash at Wembley, Ancelotti takes the blame

 

Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that he called his Real Madrid players and told them the defeat to Barcelona was his fault. (Photo credit: Marca)

The weekend was packed with lots of football across top leagues, we look at a few results and incidents from the FA Cup to La Liga and other top leagues.

It was my fault – Carlo Ancelotti

Barcelona destroyed Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu and you wonder how it must feel for the veteran manager, Carlo Ancelotti on his second coming at the club, he took it on the chin was quick to throw his hands in the air as the number one culprit.

"It isn't difficult to explain. They played better than us," Ancelotti told Movistar. "We wanted to control the ball more, to press them high, but it didn't work ... It's my fault."

FA Cup semis pitch title contenders together

The FA Cup draw has set a stage for a repeat of the premier league title challenge, for the semifinal at Wembley, it would be Liverpool vs Manchester City while the other fixture would see troubled Chelsea up against Crystal Palace.

The Eagles annihilated Frank Lampard’s Everton 4-0 on Sunday while Chelsea outclassed Middlesbrough 2-0 a day earlier. City and Liverpool beat Southampton 4-1 and Nottingham Forest 1-0 respectively to set up a mouthwatering FA Cup semi final clash, would be interesting to see where this swings.

AC Milan for the Serie A title?

Inter Milan limped to a 1-1 draw against Fiorentina on Saturday and lost more grounds to AC Milan and Napoli in the title race, they must rue missed chances as the Florence side held them to a stalemate.

Napoli beat Udinese 2-1, thanks to two Victor Osimhen goals to stay three points behind the log leaders. AC Milan beat Cagliari 1-0 in a game that was marred by racist chants among the Cagliari fans targeting Fikayo Tomori and Mike Maignan, an act Stefano Pioli condemned at his post-match conference.

“Own Goal” ranks third on Spurs’ scorers’ list

Would you have guessed right if you were asked to name Tottenham’s third highest goal scorer this season? The answer is “Own goal” and if that’s not strange enough, the fact that no team has benefitted from the opponents beating their own goalkeeper more than Spurs tops the cake.

There’s been lots of debates around Spurs’ over-reliance on Harry Kane and Heung Min Son, but the arrival of “Own Goal” with six goals in the premier league following Kurt Zouma’s diversion of Kane’s effort past his own keeper on Sunday, making it ten in all competition… Such a prolific record there.

Bayern eye Gravenberch, Kessie to Barca

The window isn’t opening until June but clubs have started circling the players they want as Barcelona are firming up plans with the agents of Ivorian international and AC Milan midfielder Frank Yannick Kessie in what would be a free transfer.

Bayern Munich have bee reported to have contacted Ajax Midfielder and his camp Ryan Gravenberch with a view of landing him in the summer. With Correntin Tolisso up for sale, Bayern would need a replacement in the heart of the midfield.