Griffiths Bags Hat-trick In Celtic Win

Super-sub Leigh Griffiths scored a hat-trick as Celtic came from behind to claim a 4-1 win over Kilmarnock that extends their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

After a first half that failed to produce a shot on target, Kilmarnock took a surprise lead in the 50th minute as Daryl Westlake's deflected shot got the better of Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon.

The Hoops weren't behind for long, though, as Scott Brown fired them level in the 58th minute before Griffiths headed the home side in front eight minutes later.

Griffiths claimed his second in the 80th minute with a vicious strike from 25 yards before completing his hat-trick with an angled shot five minutes from time to send Celtic eight points clear of Aberdeen with just six matches remaining.

"Defensively we were very good for the first 60 minutes, but our attacking play was too slow," Celtic manager Ronny Deila said.

"With Leigh coming on we had a lot of momentum and we finally opened them up and got our goals."

Killie manager Gary Locke looked for positives in defeat.

"I thought the game plan was working a treat. We were quite compact, well-organised and their fans were starting to get frustrated and then we went a goal up," he said.

"We probably should have defended better, but I think we have to look at the positives and we contained them for long spells."

UNCHALLENGED

Deila made four changes as he looked to freshen up his side from their drab draw with Inverness CT at the weekend.

The Hoops monopolised possession from the start, but despite their pressure they were unable to test Killie 'keeper Craig Samson and were continually left frustrated on their frequent forays forward.

Virgil van Dijk had the home fans out of their seats when he rose unchallenged to connect with a Kris Commons corner to send a bullet header towards goal, but his effort flashed narrowly wide.

A shot on target finally came immediately after the break when John Guidetti played the ball into Brown's path, but the Celtic captain fired his shot straight at Samson.

This sparked their opponents into life and Killie took a shock lead with their first shot on goal in the 50th minute.

Westlake worked room for himself at the edge of the Celtic box and his strike took a wicked deflection off Jason Denayer to completely wrong-foot 'keeper Gordon on its way into the net.

Brown hauled them back on equal terms in the 58th minute. A poor defensive header reached Sammy Clingan on the edge of the box and the Celtic captain dispossessed him before lashing a shot into the roof of the net from 10 yards.

Celtic took the lead for the first time in the 66th minute through substitute Griffiths.

Commons showed some fancy footwork in the box before floating a cross to the back post where the Scottish striker sent a header into the turf and bouncing over the outstretched hand of Samson.

Stefan Johansen missed an open goal before Griffiths got his second with a superb low strike from 25 yards that swerved away from Samson before crashing into the net off the inside of the post.

The striker then completed his hat-trick 24 minutes after coming on to replace the ineffectual James Forrest when he beat the offside trap to latch on to a long ball over the top of the Killie defence and drill an angled shot into the bottom right-hand corner.

Klopp Favourite For Man City Job

Juergen Klopp is being tipped as Manchester City's next manager after announcing on Wednesday that he would be leaving Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season after seven years in charge.

With Manuel Pellegrini's future at Man City under scrutiny after his side's feeble defence of the Premier League title and another disappointing Champions League campaign, speculation is rife that Klopp will replace the Chilean.

Pellegrini has one more year left on his contract.

British bookmaker William Hill said Klopp, who captured two Bundesliga titles for Dortmund and reached the Champions League final, was 5-4 favourite to be the next Manchester City manager and quoted odds of 6-4 that his next club would be the English champions.

Klopp has also been linked with Real Madrid.

It is easy to see why Klopp is being linked with Man City.

He has bags of charisma, a proven record in the Champions League where City have struggled, speaks good English and plays an attacking brand of football.

The 47-year-old went on record last year he would be interested in working in the Premier League.

Porto 3-1 Bayern Munich: Dominant Hosts Down Pep's Men

Porto took advantage of a host of defensive errors to stun Bayern Munich and prevail 3-1 in their Champions League quarter-final first leg.

Bayern came into Wednesday's clash at the Estadio do Dragao as favourites, but a trio of mistakes at the back leaves them with a huge task at the Allianz Arena next week.

In a dramatic start to proceedings, Ricardo Quaresma took full advantage of two glaring errors from Bayern in the opening 10 minutes, first converting from the penalty spot after Jackson Martinez had dispossessed Xabi Alonso and then been felled by Manuel Neuer inside the box.

Quaresma then robbed Dante and produced a calm finish to double his tally and leave visiting coach Pep Guardiola standing aghast on the touchline.

Bayern, missing the likes of Franck Ribery, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Arjen Robben, got themselves back into the tie shortly before the half-hour when Thiago Alcantara scored his first goal since February 2014 with a close-range finish.

But Jerome Boateng's second-half lapse in judgement afforded Martinez - back after over a month out with a groin problem - the opportunity to net his seventh Champions League goal of the campaign, leaving Bayern facing an uphill challenge in the second leg.

Porto took the lead in the third minute after Martinez robbed Alonso on the edge of the area and then went down under Neuer's sliding challenge.

The goalkeeper was booked despite appearing to get a touch on the ball and Quaresma sent him the wrong way from the spot.

Robert Lewandowski headed over as Bayern almost found an equaliser, only for another defensive slip in the 10th minute to allow Porto in for their second.

Dante miscontrolled to leave Quaresma with a free run on goal and he coolly slotted past Neuer with the outside of his right boot.

A stunned Bayern slowly regained their composure and, after a period of sustained pressure, got their reward in the 28th minute when Thiago converted Boateng's low cross at the back post.

Neuer almost suffered further embarrassment six minutes later when he fumbled Alex Sandro's cross onto the crossbar, before gathering at the second attempt.

The Germany keeper excelled himself 12 minutes into the second half, though, producing a superb reaction save to keep out Boateng's deflection from close range.

But there was little he could do in the 65th minute as Boateng misjudged the flight of the ball, allowing Martinez to control, round Neuer and slot home.

Porto held on to their two-goal advantage in the final stages in a performance that was only soured by cautions for Sandro and Danilo, ruling them out of next Tuesday's return leg.

Bayern, meanwhile, will hope to have at least Schweinsteiger and Ribery back for that fixture as they aim to overturn the deficit following their first defeat on Portuguese soil.

Five-Point Agenda: Making The Super Eagles Great Again

The last nine months have been a purely forgettable one for the Nigeria national team – the Super Eagles. From a second round qualification at the 2014 World Cup, the team has plunged to lows never envisaged by its throng of fervent followers and supporters.

Since the end of the World Cup in Brazil, the team has not had a substantive manager with ‘caretaking’ the order of the day as the Nigeria Football Federation dallies with the appointment or otherwise of Stephen Keshi. However, that is not the crux of this piece.

We are looking at what has happened to the team and what can and should be done to rescue it and in the same instant stop bringing heartache and headaches to her teeming supporters.

Mark Gleeson gave a simple exercise on a programme on television last week when he said, “Can you mention how many Nigerian players are playing in Europe?” He mentioned Mikel Obi, Vincent Enyeama, Ogenyi Onazi and then stopped…

Six to 10 years ago, you could start and name at least 15 players before stopping, now it is only three before you start ‘Googling’ the names and where they are presently playing.

Now what that tells you immediately is that the team does not have big names anymore. What is presently constituted are just players of average ability and even below.

So what needs to done?


Change the coaching crew

A team is almost always as good as the manager at the helm. I know some people will disagree with this point but let’s objectively look at the current setup. Over the last four years, Keshi, Daniel Amokachi and company have told us that they are rebuilding the side. However, a side that is being rebuilt is not supposed to be in this current state. You cannot perpetually be in a state of rebuilding – when are we supposed to enjoy the rebuilt side? All countries fall into the trough in which Nigeria currently finds itself but there is a process to be used to get out of that period on time even though we know there will be lots of pain to bear.


Get a manager that understands youth development

Not all coaches have the penchant or the patience to blood youngsters and stay with their choices. So it is not a crime – people like Jose Mourinho do not have time for fledglings, they want fully formed players that understand and can key in to their strategies. Keshi seems to be a manager like this and so in this reproductive stage, he will be found wanting.


Promote the young players immediately

Since we can never be a 100% sure of the ages of the players in the lower cadre national teams, the ones that have shown promise, especially in the U-20 setup should be promoted immediately into the senior team. There is no need of waiting for them to ‘mature’. Let them get experience and playing mentality understudying and playing with their more experienced seniors and spend more time playing in the national team.



The NFF must have a cogent process of ‘selling’ our players

We cannot continue to delude ourselves on the basis of cash inducements. Why did the NFF allow Kelechi Iheanacho to sign for Manchester City? It was foolhardy to say the least. When would he be able to force his way into a cash-laden team like City, who can buy the best players? He and the country would have been better served signing for clubs like Anderlecht, Ajax, Montpellier, etc., there he would have had the opportunity to quickly develop.

The U-17 World Cup winner shone for City during pre-season, where his display ensured that a player like John Guidetti was sent out on loan to Celtic of Scotland. But that kind of loan would have benefited the precociously gifted Nigerian, but we do not even know what he is doing today.


Monitor, sift and monitor again

The restructuring and building of a new national team that we can all be proud of must be seen as a project. And as a project progresses, there will always be the need to evaluate constantly. There are players that will fall off the grid and there are others that will jump into the limelight. So the Technical Department of the NFF has serious tasks to accomplish, rather the time-wasting exercise of training match readers. There is data software available to help do whatever monitoring is required.



In all the above, there will be things that need to be added and variations and corrections that will have to be made as we go on and that is why a proficient NFF is needed to accomplish the tasks that have to be accomplished. In all this I have not mentioned the local leagues because they are already in a systemic failure stage.

So let us use the blueprint developed by the German Football Federation, through which they regenerated their national side by creating the kind of footballers that fitted their plan. We can go the same way if we are determined and ready to pay the price!

P- S-G 1-3 Barcelona: Suarez And Neymar Give Visitors The Advantage

A quickfire brace from Luis Suarez put Barcelona on course for the Champions League semi-finals as they claimed a comfortable 3-1 first-leg advantage in their quarter-final meeting with Paris Saint-Germain.

After Neymar's 18th-minute strike had given the Catalan giants an important away goal at the Parc des Princes, Suarez scored twice in 12 minutes in the second half to help Barca put one foot in the last four.

Having nutmegged substitute David Luiz, the Uruguayan held off Marquinhos and Maxwell to nudge home his first, before outfoxing Luiz again en route to a beautifully-finished strike.

That set the seal on the result and put Barca on the verge of a seventh European semi-final in eight seasons, with Gregory van der Wiel's deflected strike eight minutes from time doing little to offer Laurent Blanc's side hope.

Having fallen behind early on, the French champions were also hit by the injury-enforced withdrawal of captain Thiago Silva - and that loss was keenly felt.

His absence added to the omissions of energetic midfielder Marco Verratti and talismanic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic - both serving one-match bans - and the hosts now face an uphill battle in the return leg next Tuesday.

Following a low-key start, Barca - for whom Dani Alves was suspended - gradually got into their groove and went ahead when Lionel Messi struck Salvatore Sirigu's right-hand post with a curled strike 13 minutes in.

The visitors' persistence was eventually rewarded when Neymar opened the scoring five minutes later - Sergio Busquets dispossessing Adrien Rabiot and allowing Messi an opportunity to craft a perfect throughball.

Neymar made no mistake with his finish and PSG were  dealt a double blow in the aftermath of the goal, as captain Silva was forced off to be replaced by Luiz.

Javier Mascherano - one of three Barca changes from the weekend Liga draw with Sevilla - produced a last-ditch tackle to deny Edinson Cavani a sight on goal as Blanc's men enjoyed their first spell of sustained pressure.

Despite ending the half strongly, PSG almost fell further behind prior to the break when Suarez dispossessed Luiz, only to shoot tamely at Sirigu.

That momentum continued into the second half as long-range strikes from Javier Pastore and Rabiot caused problems Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

However, Suarez took the game beyond PSG with a sublime first after 67 minutes, as he showed skill and strength to beat three markers and prod past Sirigu - registering Barca's 400th Champions League goal.

Suarez cleverly evaded Luiz again and made it three soon afterwards with the only blow to their night coming when Jeremy Mathieu diverted Van der Wiel's strike past Ter Stegen with time running out.

Mathieu made amends with a timely block from Cavani's strike before the end, helping maintain Barca's two-goal lead ahead of the second leg at Camp Nou.

Jack Wilshere Says Arsenal Is A "Joy To Watch"

Jack Wilshere says Arsenal's recent performances have been a "joy to watch" during his injury-enforced absence.

The England international has been absent since November with an ankle problem and he has thus missed their current run of eight consecutive Premier League victories.

Arsene Wenger's men are now just seven points behind table-toppers Chelsea - though the Blues have a game in hand - and the two London rivals are set to meet at the Emirates on April 26.

Wilshere, who has been stepping up his rehabilitation in recent weeks and featured in an Under-21s game earlier this week, has now admitted that is savouring Arsenal's steady improvement.

"Not just over the last season, I think it's over the last few years [that we have made progress]," he told the club's official website.

"We lost a lot of players from when I started in the first team, a lot of people said Arsenal would never come back but we didn't listen to them.

"We kept going, added real quality, world-class players to the squad and the main thing here is the team ethic.

"You can see that we have a great atmosphere around, everyone wants to work for one another and we go into every game knowing we can create chances if we stay strong defensively.

"I remember when I got my first injury and it was the year when Cesc [Fabregas] left. We struggled that year at the start and it was tough to watch.

"It has been totally different this year - they have been playing great football and it has been a joy to watch."

I Want To Impress Luis Enrique - Ter Stegen

The Germany international is yet to make his Liga debut but wants to use the Champions League to demonstrate just what he can do

Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen says his goal is to show coach Luis Enrique that he is worthy of more first-team minutes.

The Germany international signed for the Liga leaders last summer from Borussia Monchengladbach and was handed the No.1 jersey vacated by the departing Victor Valdes.

Alves Closer To Barcelona Stay Than PSG Move

SPECIAL REPORT: The Brazilian right-back is hoping to pressure the Catalan club into awarding him a three-year deal as the possibility of a Paris switch now appears dead
Dani Alves still hopes to be at Barcelona next season - even though his representative claimed last week that the right-back would not be signing a new contract at the Camp Nou.

Stephen Keshi’s Long Wait Ends On Friday

The out-of-contract coach of the Super Eagles is expected to put pen to paper on Friday in a new two-year deal that would take him to the end of the 2017 Afcon in Gabon

After a prolonged battle over the coaching job of the Nigeria senior national team which has seen the Super Eagles’ fortune dip in recent time, respite seems to have finally arrived.

Dr. Sanusi Mohammed, the General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation, told media on Thursday that the signing of a new contract by coach Stephen Keshi will be done by Friday.

“I promise you by Friday, the issue of who becomes the coach of the Super Eagles will be over because it will be sorted out finally. So by Friday we will all know the new coach of the Super Eagles,” said Sanusi.

Goal reliably gathered Keshi would arrive Abuja from his base in Benin on Thursday early enough for the Friday unveiling.

An impeccable source told Goal that “Keshi has agreed in totality with the leadership of the NFF on his new two year contract that would expire after the finals of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, if Nigeria qualifies any way.”

Keshi is expected to earn Five million Naira per month and would report to the Technical Committee of the NFF.

Sanusi equally spoke on plans to bring in more investors into the game to support football development, and not relying solely on the Federal government for support.

“I want to use this medium also to call on all aggrieved parties and friends that love football to please come together to move the game to the next level.. Let's build our football together,” he concluded.

The 53-year-old has also confirmed his intention to meet with the NFF and sign the contract on Friday.

“Yes, I have been called for the contract signing. It is happening this week. We’ll tidy it all up,” Keshi was quoted by SportingLife.

Keshi’s previous contract ended after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil where he led Nigeria to the second round, the first time since 1998.

While the NFF faced internal crisis of its own, his contract was not renewed as he was asked to work on a per-game basis as Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

All Eyes On Kano As Enyimba Visit

Sani Abacha Stadium, Kofarmata in Kano will this Sunday be the centre of attraction as current NPFL champions, Kano Pillars will go head-to-head with their much heralded foes, Enyimba.

The resumption of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) has thrown up a mouth watering clash and potentially the biggest game of the season in the three week old Glo Premier League.

League champions Kano Pillars will welcome two-time African champions, Enyimba of Aba in a week 4 encounter that has become one of the most anticipated games every season in the Nigeria's top flight football.

Kano Pillars and Enyimba have become unarguably the biggest sides in the country in the last decade.

Kano stadium on Sunday will be dressed in the home colours of Yellow and Green

Pillars have won the last three Glo Premier League titles and would hope to add another this year starting with this weekend's duel against perennial rivals, Enyimba.

Both teams were knocked out of this year's Caf Champions League at the same stage, and they would want to put behind them the ouster with a win in this Sunday's clash.

Kano Pillars were put to the sword by Moroccan side, Maghreb Atletic Tetouan 5-2 on aggregate while Enyimba were bundled out by Egyptian club, Smouha 2-1 on aggregate.

Enyimba fans are still battling to come to terms with their defeat in Egypt as they claimed that their boys lost to the referee that officiated the match and not to their foes.

As expected, this weekend's clash holds a lot for both teams as they try to get over their ouster from the continent and get the fans back into happy mood

Match background.

Pillars have played only one match this season, and the tie was the 2-0 spanking of Bayelsa United at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kofarmata

The armed robbery attack that occurred along the Abaji-Lokoja highway when the Sai Masugida were on their way to honour a week two encounter at Heartland in Owerri do them no good as five of their players were shot.



Enyimba's gunslingers will aim to end Pillars 13 year home unbeaten streak

The attack necessitated the League Management Company (LMC) to put on hold a couple of their games and their engagements on the continent .

Enyimba have stuttered a bit playing a drab goalless draw against Akwa United in Aba, but picked up a valuable point away at Lobi Stars before dispatching off Bayelsa United 1-0 as well.

Enyimba would have recorded an outright victory at Lobi Stars after experienced defender, Idris Aloma netted the opener, but the Stars struck back right at the end

History favors Kano Pillars as they go into this match on Sunday because Enyimba have never won in Kano, and the Sai Masugida would want to consolidate on this feat.

Form coming into the game

Kano Pillars: W L W W L W

Enyimba: W D W D W L

Last six meetings between the two sides

February 29, 2012 Kano Pillars 2 Enyimba 0

May 9th, 2012 Enyimba 2 Kano Pillars 2

May 12th 2013 Enyimba 3 Kano Pillars 0

October 8th, 2013 Kano Pillars 1 Enyimba 0

June 1st, 2014 Kano Pillars 1 Enyimba 0

November 16th 2014 Kano Pillars 3 Kano Pillars 1

OBIOZOR's EXIT

Kano Pillars are still in pain over the exit of Nigerian international striker, Christian Obiozor who left the Sai Masugida unceremoniously.

Obiozor's move to Kano Pillars in January was well celebrated, and the petite forward scored six goals to emerge as the club's leading scorer in all competitions before his exit.

The rationale behind his exit at Kano Pillars is still hidden as Obiozor claimed his employers did not follow the terms of his contract, but Kano Pillars officials are still mum on the matter.

Super Eagles striker, Gambo Muhammad who would have been another striking weapon for Okey Emordi is still recuperating from the injury he sustained in the armed robbery attack as he was shot at the chest, and this could give Enyimba's defenders some ease.

“I know this match will definitely be tough for my players, but I have told them the method that would help us in Kano, and I'm sure that we would not lose this tie,” Enyimba coach, Kadiri Ikhana said to supersport.com