Premier League: Tottenham 3 QPR 1

A Gareth Bale brace saw Tottenham defeat Queens Park Rangers 3-1 at White Hart Lane to move into fifth place in the Premier League.

Bale opened the scoring before Rafael Van Der Vaart chimed in with a goal, before QPR substitute Jay Bothroyd breathed some life into the game with a second-half strike.

But Bale extinguished the visitors’ hopes with his second of the match to seal three points for Harry Redknapp’s side.

After early pressure from Spurs, the visitors’ first chance came after a good passing move ended with Heidur Helguson just inside the area, but the Icelandic international could not direct the ball towards Brad Friedel’s goal.

Redknapp’s men then went in front straight after that chance as the goal kick by Friedel was knocked on by Emmanuel Adebayor to Aaron Lennon, who found the onrushing Bale before the Welshman slotted past Paddy Kenny in the QPR goal.

Spurs continued to dominate the game and were ultimately rewarded as Van Der Vaart latched onto a loose ball and placed it beyond Kenny for his fifth goal in as many Premier League games.

The hosts could have killed the game off minutes into the second period as Van Der Vaart found space on the edge of the area before his drive was clawed away by Kenny.

QPR found a lifeline just after the hour as a corner from the right was knocked back into the danger zone, with Bothroyd on hand to knock the ball home from close range.

Kenny once again showed his worth for the Loftus Road side, making two outstanding saves from Adebayor and Bale to keep his team in the game.

Spurs eventually got their third after a superb one-two between Lennon and Bale ended with the latter curling a shot around the helpless Kenny to restore his side’s two-goal cushion.

With 15 minutes left Spurs should have killed the game off as Lennon showed great skill to find Adebayor inside the box, but the Togolese striker failed to find the target from point-blank range.

QPR had a series of chances inside injury time, but they failed to find the target as Spurs ran out comfortable winners.

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Ronaldo tips glory year for Real

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo believes the Spanish giants are primed to win plenty of silverware this season.

The Bernabeu outfit are one point clear at the top of La Liga, and have already qualified for the Champions League knockout stages.

Ronaldo will receive the European Golden Shoe on Friday for his 40 goals in La Liga last season and the 26-year-old is delighted to have won the award.

“To win the Golden Shoe is very good, but the important thing is the collective titles,” he told AS.

“Individual titles are also a product of the work of the group.”

“The dressing room is united and ready to fight for all titles. The hardest part lies ahead, but I believe this will be a glorious year and together we will win important things.”

The Portugal international notched his 100th goal for Real Madrid midweek after a little more than two years at the club and had kind words for his colleagues.

“I did not expect to reach the 100-goal mark this season,” he noted. “I would like to thank my team-mates and the coach.”

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Kolarov hails ´important´ win

Manchester City’s Aleksandar Kolarov has talked up the importance of beating Wolves following Saturday’s 3-1 win at the Etihad Stadium.

Goals from the Serb, Edin Dzeko and Adam Johnson ensured the hosts would claim all three points and maintain their five-point gap at the top of the table and Kolarov insists Roberto Mancini’s side deserved the result.

“We played well, we deserved to win,” he told talkSPORT. “They came here just to defend and in this kind of game you need to be patient and keep the ball.”

The left-back said the victory would hold them in good stead in the race for the Premier League title.

“These types of games are important if you want to win the title. It is difficult but we need to improve every game and to work hard. We know that every game is very hard,” he said.

“We are in a good moment now but we need to work hard every day and to keep our feet on the ground.”

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Three points the aim for Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson says that Manchester United are treating their midweek Champions League clash with Otelul Galati as a must-win encounter.

The Red Devils shaded the Romanian club in the reverse fixture 2-0 a fortnight ago thanks to two Wayne Rooney penalties, but Ferguson is not taking Wednesday’s clash at Old Trafford lightly.

“We have to win on Wednesday, without doubt,” Ferguson told United’s official website.

“We’re at home and I expect us to win and, if we do that, (qualification) is in our hands when we play Benfica at home.”

“We’ll hopefully win our game and, when we play Benfica at home, it’ll be the decider in our section.”

United sit in second place in the Group C standings, two points behind leaders Benfica who play Basel in the other fixture.

And Ferguson is not content with merely qualifying for the knockout stages, underlining the importance of winning the group to avoid some of Europe’s biggest clubs in the next round.

“It’s always better to finish first than second,” Ferguson said.

“After getting the first result against Galati and then playing them again at home, we’ll hopefully go into the Benfica game with eight points. That will be an important match.”

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Injury concerns for Real duo

Real Madrid duo Kaka and Alvaro Arbeloa are both in doubt for Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Lyon because of minor muscle injuries.

Spanish giants Real revealed the news on Monday but did not disclose how long the players will be out for.

Kaka came on as a second-half substitute in Madrid’s 1-0 victory at Real Sociedad on Saturday, while Arbeloa played the whole match.

Real defender Ricardo Carvalho is still recovering from a back injury and has been ruled out of the midweek encounter at Stade de Gerland.

Real currently top Group D with a perfect record after three games, while Lyon have four points.

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Agger out to stay involved

Daniel Agger is hoping to keep his place in Liverpool’s starting XI after an injury hit spell at Anfield.

The Denmark defender, who has suffered several stints on the sidelines since joining Liverpool from Brondby in 2006, has featured regularly for Kenny Dalglish’s side this season and made his 100th English Premier League appearance in Saturday’s 2-0 win against West Brom.

“It’s special to play 100 league games for Liverpool and it has been a long time coming because of the unlucky injuries I have had,” said Agger, whose side moved fifth on the Premier League table, pending Tottenham’s match with QPR on Sunday.

“Hopefully now I can have an injury free run and I hope now to keep on going and play another 100 games for this club.”

“I am enjoying my football now. I feel I have been unlucky with injuries and hopefully I can get some good luck now because it means a lot to me to play for this club.”

Agger also revealed his delight at keeping a clean sheet against West Brom at The Hawthorn: “It was so important for us to keep a clean sheet and that is always good for us defenders and great for the whole team as well,” he said.

“I thought we played well and deserved the three points. We are happy and we have to continue this form and keep winning games.”

“I think we can take a lot from this result and we now look ahead to the next game against Swansea at home and try and get another three points.”

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West Brom knew of Suarez threat, says Jones

West Brom defender Billy Jones revealed his side discussed the danger of tackling Luis Suarez in the box before the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool.

Liverpool opened the scoring from the spot in the first half of the English Premier League encounter through Charlie Adam after Jerome Thomas bundled over Suarez in the area.

Jones said: “It was a bit of a harsh penalty, and going 1-0 down against Liverpool, it is always going to be hard.”

“I don’t think it was a penalty. Jerome was in a good position. I think he has taken a touch and Suarez has got himself in front of him.”

“We spoke beforehand of being careful of Suarez in the penalty area because he has won penalties before for Liverpool.”

“He is good at winning penalties and we knew we had to be careful around him – and Jerome was.”

“Suarez has gone down and the linesman has given it. It was one of those things. It was harsh to concede a goal that way.”

But former Preston player Jones, 24, went on to praise the blossoming partnership between Suarez and strike partner Andy Carroll.

“They were a threat,” he said.

“There were balls which got knocked in where Carroll wasn’t favourite to win them or get anything from them.”

“But he turns those half-balls into good balls by getting it down and releasing other players.”

“He sets up Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam while Suarez is already on his bike making good runs.”

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Theo Walcott: ‘We Can Beat Anyone’

Confidence is at a season high at the Emirates following the Gunners 5-3 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Saturday’s win was by far the Gunners most impressive of 2011-12.

Arsenal was led by captain fantastic Robin van Persie — who bagged a hat-trick and a 10 out of 10 match rating by football experts.

Can the Gunners overcome their nightmare start to the season?

Arsenal have won eight of their last nine games and with matches versus West Brom, Fulham, Norwich and Wigan upcoming, Arsene Wenger will be keen on making it twelve wins in thirteen games.

I must admit that Arsene Wenger’s new one match at a time mentality is in fact working; Theo Walcott’s comments confirm exactly that.

“We are not looking too far ahead. We don’t want to say where we’re going to finish at the end of the season, but the way we’re playing at this moment in time we believe we can beat anyone,” Walcott said.

“We’re enjoying our football, our run is great now and we’re just going to keep on continuing that. Everyone is buzzing at the moment.

“We were disappointed to go 2-1 down just before half-time, but before that we were playing some great football.

“It seemed that every time we went forward it looked like we were going to score and it could have been 8-7. It was just one of those crazy games that I’ll never forget.”

Walcott also praised the impact made by Brazilian international Andre Santos, claiming that he looks like a season Premier League veteran.

“We have got some absolute characters in that dressing room and Andre Santos was absolutely brilliant. He looks like he has been in the Premier League for many years,” Walcott said.

“We have the right balance between youth and experience now and we’ve got a lot of players coming back from injury too,” added the England winger.

The 22-year-old Gunners winger also found time to hail the performance of Arsenal captain Robin van Persie.

The Dutch striker bagged a hat-trick, including the all important go-ahead goal in the 85th minute before tacking on some insurance to secure three points for the Gunners in the 90th minute.

“Robin’s form is fantastic. It makes our job much easier when he plays like that,” Walcott said.

“I have been playing alongside him for many years. It’s nice to see a fit Robin. He is enjoying playing his football, he is enjoying scoring, he is enjoying getting other people involved.

“He is a great leader, a great captain. Anyone in that dressing room will tell you he is an absolute leader.

“He is very passionate and on the pitch it showed. We never had a fit Robin throughout the whole season. Hopefully he can look after himself and we can have a run until the end of the year.”

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Napoli to make a move for Tevez

Napoli have switched their attention to Carlos Tevez after Manchester City officials rejected their inquiry for Mario Balotelli.

The Argentine will be available at a cut-back price in January and the Partenopei believe they can persuade the Citizens into doing a swap deal.

City boss Roberto Mancini has earlier expressed his interest in Napoli stars Marek Hamsik, Edison Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi.

It is believed that Napoli chiefs would be willing to send one of the players to Eastlands in exchange for Carlos Tevez.

However, should they decide to make a move, the Azzurri are likely to face stiff competition from other interest clubs.

Tevez’s former club Corinthians are reportedly leading the race for the player’s signature, while Milan and Juventus are also keen.

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Eredivisie wrap: Feyenoord hit for six

FC Groningen thrashed Feyenoord 6-0 in the Eredivisie on Sunday, with six individual goal scorers netting in the victory at the Euroborg.

A first-minute goal to Dusan Tadic set the tone for a goal fest for the home side, before Maikel Kieftenbeld and Petter Andersson both scored to make it 3-0 on 18 minutes.

Leandro Bacuna struck in the 57th minute, before last-gasp goals to Virgil van Dijk and Hyun-Jun Suk capped off an amazing result.

Elsewhere, a 70th-minute strike from Bono Wilfried helped Vitesse claim a 1-0 victory on the road to De Graafschap, with John van den Brom’s side moving up into the top four with the result.

NEC Nijmegen broke a six-match losing streak with a 3-1 win over FC Utrecht.

The hosts at the Goffertstadion were quick to get off the mark as Lasse Schone fired home in the third minute, before Leroy George doubled their advantage on 13 minutes.

NEC’s drought-breaking win was sealed when Utrecht goalkeeper Roberto Fernandez took the final touch into his own net for 3-0 on 74 minutes.

Jacob Mulenga pulled a goal back for the visitors from the penalty spot on 76 minutes, but it was little more than a consolation.

In Sunday’s late game, AZ Alkmaar extended their lead atop the standings to six points after teenage midfielder Adam Maher’s late strike gave them a 1-0 win away to Heracles.

With the match seemingly headed for a draw, Maher popped up in the 89th minute to snare all three points for Gertjan Verbeek’s side, who extended their unbeaten streak to 15 matches in all competitions.

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Serie A wrap: Udinese bounce back

Udinese climbed into second spot in Serie A with a 1-0 win over Palermo on Sunday, while Fiorentina also returned to winning ways.

Antonio Di Natale’s 38th-minute goal was enough to see Francesco Guidolin’s men take all three points at the Stadio Communale Friuli, as they bounced back from a midweek defeat to Napoli.

The win saw Udinese rise above AC Milan, who had taken second place on Saturday with their 3-2 away defeat of Roma.

Milan fell back into third, one point shy of Udinese.

Atalanta lost just their second game since being promoted into the Italian top flight, going down 3-1 at Bologna.

Stefano Colantuono’s men took an early lead away at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara when German Denis struck in the seventh minute, but a lapse late in the first half saw Marco Di Vaio equalise from the penalty spot for Bologna.

Bologna took the lead through Gaston Ramirez three minutes into the second half, before Simon Loria sealed victory with his side’s third goal.

Fiorentina snapped a five-game winless streak with a 1-0 triumph at home to Genoa, with Andrea Lazzari scoring the only goal on 41 minutes.

Lecce and Novara both remain in the relegation zone after playing out a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Comunale Via del Mare, with Lecce’s Rodney Starsser firing the hosts ahead before Marco Rigoni’s equaliser from the spot.

In other matches, Parma beat bottom-placed Cesena 2-0, while Siena thrashed Chievo 4-1 in the earlier kick-off.

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Napoli to make a move for Tevez

Napoli have switched their attention to Carlos Tevez after Manchester City officials rejected their inquiry for Mario Balotelli.

The Argentine will be available at a cut-back price in January and the Partenopei believe they can persuade the Citizens into doing a swap deal.

City boss Roberto Mancini has earlier expressed his interest in Napoli stars Marek Hamsik, Edison Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi.

It is believed that Napoli chiefs would be willing to send one of the players to Eastlands in exchange for Carlos Tevez.

However, should they decide to make a move, the Azzurri are likely to face stiff competition from other interest clubs.

Tevez’s former club Corinthians are reportedly leading the race for the player’s signature, while Milan and Juventus are also keen.

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