De Gea blunders help Chelsea win
LONDON: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted David De Gea’s place is not guaranteed after the goalkeeper endured another errorstrewn display in Manchester United’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea. Chelsea will face London rivals Arsenal in the final on August 1 thanks to a pair of embarrassing blunders from De Gea in United’s 3-1 loss at Wembley on Sunday.
The Spaniard’s nightmare season hit a new low as he was at fault when Olivier Giroud’s shot trickled over the line late in the first half. And De Gea made an even worse mistake moments after the interval when he allowed Mason Mount’s shot to evade his weak attempted save.
ATLETICO FINISH THIRD AFTER SOCIEDAD DRAW MADRID: A late goal by Real Sociedad substitute Adnan Januzaj secured a 1-1 draw at Atletico
Madrid on the final day of the Liga season as they finished sixth to secure a Europa League spot.
The draw left third-placed Atletico on 70 points, 17 adrift of champions Real Madrid and 12 behind Barcelona. They will be joined in next season’s Champions League by already qualified fourth-placed Sevilla, who beat Valencia 1-0.
Granada hammered Athletic Bilbao 4-0 to grab seventh place and a spot in the Europa League second qualifying round.
INTER TITLE HOPES HIT BY 2-2 DRAW AT ROMA ROME: Inter Milan substitute Romelu Lukaku’s penalty in the 88th minute salvaged a 2-2 draw at AS Roma in Serie A on Sunday as they stuttered in their pursuit of leaders Juventus. Secondplaced Inter, who had been gaining ground on Juve over the last 10 days, will see the result as two points lost since they are five behind the Turin side with four more rounds to go.
The spot kick was given away in bizarre style by Leonardo Spinazzola when he missed his kick as he attempted to clear the ball and made contact with Inter forward Victor Moses instead. Spinazzola had scored Roma’s first goal amid protests from Inter who claimed
Lautaro Martinez was fouled in the build-up.
BALLON D’OR CALLED OFF AMID COVID CRISIS LONDON: The prestigious Ballon d’or will not be awarded this year because the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the football season.
Awarded by France Football magazine, the Ballon d’or has been given out every year since Stanley Matthews won the first one in 1956. Lionel Messi has won it a record six times—one more than longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
“It’s such a strange year that we couldn’t treat it as an ordinary one. Let’s say that we started talking about (making the decision) at least two months ago,” France Football editor Pascal Ferré told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “It isn’t a decision we took lightly but we had to accept it couldn’t be a normal or typical Ballon d’or winner, and what really worried us it that it wouldn’t be fairly awarded.”