Manchester City defenders John Stones and Vincent Kompany will be reunited on the game s biggest stage when England face Belgium in the battle to top Group G, but the pair will not discuss football according to the Three Lions centre-back.

When Kompany was fit the pair forged an important pairing in City s formidable title-winning defence in 2017-18 and Stones said he hoped the injuries that have dogged his team-mate over the last three years would not prevent him from being involved on Thursday.

After missing the Red Devils opening 3-0 victory over Panama, Kompany was an unused substitute as they beat Tunisia 5-2 in their second group game.

Looking ahead to the game in Kaliningrad, Stones told FIFA TV: I love Vinny, he s a top guy as well as a top player, and it…

Robert Lewandowski scored a double but Bayern Munich failed to get their Bundesliga campaign off to a winning start as they drew 2-2 with Hertha Berlin at Allianz Arena.

Lewandowski s 24th-minute goal put Niko Kovac s side, who are set to sign Barcelona s Philippe Coutinho on loan, ahead on Friday but Hertha turned the game on its head in the space of two minutes.

Dodi Lukebakio s fortunate strike restored parity in the 36th minute before Marko Grujic capitalised on sloppy Bayern defending.

Grujic turned from Hertha s hero to villain just prior to the hour, however, when his needless foul on Lewandowski was spotted by VAR but, although Bayern s striker tucked in the resulting penalty, the hosts could not carve out a winner.

Bayern wasted little time in fl…

Hull chairman Paul Duffen has dismissed speculation surrounding the future of under-pressure Tigers manager Phil Brown as mischief making.

Brown s side suffered a 6-1 hammering at Liverpool on Saturday to leave the Tigers one place off the foot of the Premier League.

Hull s poor start to the season, and wretched 2009 overall, they have won just two and lost 17 of 24 league games since the turn of the year, has resulted in Brown s position coming under scrutiny.

But despite the mauling at Anfield, City s fourth successive loss, Duffen told the Hull Daily Mail: There is no speculation at the football club about the manager s position.

That s just mischief making in the media if there is. We are certainly not aware of it.

At the moment we are sev…

Galatasaray midfielder Wesley Sneijder has expressed his disappointment at losing the Netherlands captaincy to Robin van Persie.

Sneijder was named captain of the national side in 2012 but current coach Louis van Gaal s decision to award it to Van Persie has hurt him.
Sneijder has only made three appearances for Netherlands in nine months due to injury problems, missing six matches, and although he acknowledges that is not good enough, he is still disappointed to lose the armband.
It was a pretty painful announcement. Not just because I never saw this coming, but also because I have always given my all in the role as captain. I will have to accept this, though, the player told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
It was a huge blow for me. The coach told me that I should focus on mys…

Junior Kabananga capitalised on a goalkeeping error from Munir to give 10-man DR Congo a 1-0 win over Morocco in their opening game of the Africa Cup of Nations.

DR Congo had impressed in the 2015 edition of the competition, progressing to the semi-finals in Equatorial Guinea and beating the hosts on penalties to finish third.

Florent Ibenge s men have been drawn in a tough group as they bid to go one step further this time around, with holders Ivory Coast and Togo playing out a goalless draw earlier on Monday.

But DR Congo will go into the second round of fixtures at the top of the Group C after Munir s moment of misfortune handed them all three points.

Munir failed to deal with Firmin Ndombe Mubele s cross from the left, with Kabananga pouncing t…

Iran drew plaudits for their performances at the World Cup, and one of their biggest clubs, Persepolis, are looking to end the nation s AFC Champions League drought.

In one of the toughest groups in Russia, Iran pushed the likes of Spain and Portugal before narrowly finishing third.

Continentally, an Iranian club last won the title – then the Asian Club Championship – in 1993, when PAS Tehran tasted success.

But league champions Persepolis, led by former Iran coach Branko Ivankovic, are into the quarter-finals, facing Al-Duhail in the last eight. Esteghlal are also through and meet Al-Sadd.

Ivankovic is wary of his team s Qatari opponents, but hopes Persepolis can move into the semi-finals.

Our opponents have shown that they might even be the…

Former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson made his Ajax debut as the Amsterdam outfit held Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.

The England international moved to the Netherlands last month after cutting short his controversial stint in Saudi Arabia.

Loved every second of that. Lots of positives to take. On to the next one

— Jordan Henderson (@JHenderson)

The midfielder played the full 90 minutes for John van ‘t Schip’s side against PSV.

Ajax, who trail the runaway leaders by 21 points, struck first through Steven Berghuis but were pegged back by a Luuk de Jong equaliser.

After the match, Henderson tweeted: “Loved every second of that. Lots of positives to take. On to the next one.”

…

Cash-strapped crisis club Portsmouth were fined a reported seven figure sum by the English Premier League (EPL) on Monday for several rule breaches this season.

Bottom of the Premier League, Portsmouth, were effectively condemned to relegation last week when the EPL imposed a nine-point penalty for the south coast club s entry into administration,

Portsmouth have been fined for a series of breaches of our rules and regulations during the course of this season, an EPL spokesman said.

The fine has been reported as being around one million pounds and is understood to relate to the club s late payment of wages to playing staff something that has happened four times since August and late payment of outstanding transfer cash.

The fine will be paid to the EPL …

Portsmouth have confirmed Paul Cook as their manager after Chesterfield agreed to release him from his contract.

Cook moved to the Proact Stadium from Accrington Stanley in October 2012 and led Chesterfield to the League Two title in 2014.

This season Chesterfield reached the League One play-offs, but were beaten 4-0 on aggregated by Preston North End.

Speculation subsequently mounted that Portsmouth, who have been without with a manager since Andy Awford left his position by mutual consent in April, were given permission to talk to Cook.

A statement on the club s official website has now confirmed his appointment, while talks are taking place with Chesterfield about the possibility of assistant manager Leam Richardson also moving to Fratton Park.

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