FIFA rankings - Egypt makes big leap in latest rankings

Egypt have climbed up more places than any other African country in Fifa's latest world rankings for March.

14 Mar 2014
2014 World Cup - warm up - Ghana

Ghana Sports Minister Elvis Ankrah is confident the team will prepare in the right way for a successful World Cup.

12 Mar 2014
2014 World Cup - warm up - African sides ready

All five of Africa's World Cup finalists are in action this week as they continue their preparations for this summer's tournament in Brazil.
(Algeria; Cameroon; Ghana; Côte d'Ivoire; Nigeria)

5 Mar 2014
stars in Europe - Yaya Toure's incredible journey

He won the Champions League and two La Liga titles while with Barca. Toure also won league titles in Greece and England, and domestic cups in each country too. According to the people who know him best, Yaya Toure always had the ability and ambition he needed to make his journey from a barefooted boy footballer to one of the best players in the world. 

22 Feb 2014
stars in Europe - AC Milan set to sign Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien

Chelsea have agreed a deal with AC Milan to sell midfielder Michael Essien to the Italian side. Essien has flown in for talks and a medical with Clarence Seedorf's underachieving Serie A club.

25 Jan 2014
NATIONAL LEAGUE - TUNISIA - COACH - Ruud Krol appointed as new Esperance coach

The 64-year-old former Dutch World Cup captain joined the Tunisian side only a day after leading CS Sfaxien to glory in the Confederation Cup with a 3:2 aggregate win over TP Mazembe. Krol's departure ends a successful year at the club in which he also led the Tunisians to a first league title in eight years in May. "It was my decision to leave. 

20 Jan 2014

2014 World Cup - warm up - Nigeria vs Greece 0:0

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has said that his side will have to improve if they are to make an impact at the World Cup in Brazil. He was talking after they drew 0:0 with fellow World Cup finalists Greece in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Both sides created chances but lacked a clinical edge to find the target. "We will always have very difficult games but the motivation will be to do a lot better than we managed in our last couple of games." Keshi said.

"The truth is we didn't play our game. The importance of a friendly game is to know your weakness and what needs improvement. "What I found out is that we were not able to keep the ball in our possession.

The whole idea was to control the game." Nigeria's best chances fell to Stoke City's Peter Odemwingie, Michael Babatunde (Volyn Lutsk), Ogenyi Onazi (Lazio) and Chelsea's Victor Moses late on but all of them failed to find the back of the net.

The Nigerians also drew 2:2 with Scotland last week and Keshi feels these games have given him and his players an insight into what lies ahead. "All I need is the mentality and discipline to dominate the game and take chances," he added. "In friendlies you can correct your mistakes but in a tournament it can cost us dearly. "So we'll see how it goes in the next game because that is another chance to improve on this performance."

The next friendly for the African champions will come against the USA on Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida. The team depart for Brazil on 8 June to prepare for their first match of the tournament against Iran in Curitiba eight days later. They then play Bosnia-Hercegovina and finish their Group F campaign against Argentina as they attempt to reach the Last 16, as they did in 1994 and 1998.

 

Did you know?
Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi is still searching for a first win against European opposition since he took charge in 2011.

 

Greece

 

5 Jun 2014
(BBC Sport by Oluwashina Okeleji)

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