Sports
In Spite of Death Threats, Nwabali Vows to Return to His South African Club
The Goalkeeper of the national team, Stanley Nwabali, has said he will be returning to his South African club side, Chippa United, because he has no reason to fear going back.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after President Bola Tinubu hosted the Super Eagles at the end of the CAF’s African Cup of Nations (AfCON), which was concluded in Abdijan, Cote d’Ivoire, last Sunday.
Despite playing for a South African club, Nwabali was allegedly threatened on social media by some ardent Bafana Bafana supporters for his role in their team’s elimination at the semi-final stage.
He stopped two penalty kicks by Bafana Bafana players in the decider penalty stage, during the Nigerian – South African semi-final match at the Stade de la Paix, in Bouake.
Asked if he would be returning to Chippa United despite the threat, Nwabali said “Definitely, I must go back to my club, but talking about the threat, this is football, you can’t threaten someone because they also won some other teams too. How about if those they beat decided to keep threatening your players? It doesn’t make sense. It’s football, I don’t think there’s anything attached to it. Maybe it was just someone writing on social media.
“But it’s cool to me because I spoke to my chairman like three days ago, but he didn’t say anything like all those stuff. So he felt like ‘no, it’s cool, you can come back. Definitely I must go back to my club because they owe me”, he said.
Liverpool winger, Mohamed Salah, on Saturday, surpassed Chelsea legend, Frank Lampard’s goal record in the Premier League.
The Egyptian international achieved the feat after scoring a brace in Liverpool’s away Premier League 2-0 win against Bournemouth.
The match was played at the Vitality Stadium as Salah netted a penalty in the first half and another goal in the second half.
Salah’s two goals means, the former Chelsea and AS Roma star has now surpassed Lampard as 6th all time goal scorer in Premier League history.
The 32-year-old now has 178 Premier League goals with a goal ahead of Lampard, who now sit in 7th position on the all-time Premier League goal scorers chat.
He is, however, behind the likes of Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole and Sergio Aguero in the goal chat.
Salah has scored 21 goals for the Reds so far this season.
He could leave Liverpool in the summer as he is yet to sign a new deal.
His contract with Arne Slot’s side will expire at the end of the season.
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, on Friday announced the full match schedule for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Nine venues will be used across six cities for the continent’s flagship soccer event.
Hosts Morocco will will take on Comoros in the competition’s opening game at the newly-built 69,500-seater Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat on Sunday, December 21.
The country’s capital, Rabat, will have four match venues.
Other host cities are Casablanca, Agadir, Marrakech, Fes and Tangier, which will have one match each.
The four quarter-final fixtures will be played at the Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat, as well as in Tangier, Marrakech and Agadir.
The semi-finals will be in Rabat and Tangier, with the third-place play-off set for the Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca.
52 matches will be played during the biennial competition.
The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire are the defending champions of the competition.
The draw for this season’s UEFA Champions League knockout phase play-off draw has been conducted on Friday.
Eight teams have progressed straight to the round of 16 following the completion of the league phase.
They are Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa.
They will all return to the competition in March, but others have more football to play before then.
The teams that finished between 9th and 24th, have a two-legged play-off to navigate in February.
FULL KNOCKOUT PHASE PLAY-OFF DRAW
Brest vs Paris-Saint Germain
Feyenoord vs AC Milan
Juventus vs PSV
Monaco vs Benfica
Man City vs Real Madrid
Celtic vs Bayern Munich
Sporting vs Borussia Dortmund
Club Brugge vs Atalanta
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