Zenit 1 – 0 Auxerre
Din. Kiev 1 – 1 Ajax
Rosenborg 2 – 1 FC Copenhagen
Sparta Prague 0 – 2 Zilina
Young Boys 3 – 2 Tottenham
Basel 1 – 0 S. Tiraspol
Braga 1 – 0 Sevilla
Bremen 3 – 1 Sampdoria
Partizan 2 – 2 Anderlecht
Salzburg 2 – 3 H. Tel Aviv
Uefa Champions League Playoffs 2010-2011
Chelsea to sign Brazilian wonderkid Neymar
Neymar was one of Chelsea‘s main objectives this summer but Santos rejected every approach from the Premier League giants.
Neymar performances of this year, when he scored 13 goals in 40 appearances for Santos, have not gone unnoticed by Mano Menezes who rewarded him with first call-up to the Brazil senior squad.
The 18 year old forward played against SUA in a friendly game on 10 August when he had a very appreciated performance. Neymar managed to score the first goal of the game and was voted as Man of the Match by several football sites.
This goal and fear of losing him to other teams determined Chelsea to raise the bid to €25 millions for the player, a sum that was accepted by Santos.
Neymar is one of the Brazilian wonderkids and is already compared with Pele.
Mourinho couldn’t get Maicon but got Carvalho instead
After arriving in Madrid Jose Mourinho primary target was Maicon as he intended to move Sergio Ramos into the center of defence.
Real Madrid could not reach an agreement with Inter over Maicon transfer price and Mourinho switched his priorities to a central defender. The Portuguese manager was looking for an experienced defender. As one of his best men in that compartment,Brazilian Pepe, got injured and the negotiations with Milan over Thiago Silva stalled Mourinho has quickly turned attention on his former player from Chelsea.
Mourinho wanted to sign Carvalho also last year at Inter but got Lucio instead what was proven to be a very good acquisition.
Carvalho will undergo a medical test tomorrow. Real Madrid will pay around €8 millions for the 32 years old defender and it is supposed that the player will sign a two years contract.
Before moving to Chelsea Carvalho played for Porto, Leca, Vitoria de Setubal and Alverca.
Romelu Lukaku the next Mourinho’s galacticos?
Jose Mourinho recently declared that his squad need one more striker as they can not play the full season with only two strikers available and it looks like Lukaku, the Anderlecht youngster, is one of the favorites to reach at Bernabeu.
The 17 years old player who is regarded as one of the most promising talents in Europe is the target for almost all big teams in Europe. There are speculations that Chelsea and Anderlecht have already reach an agreement for the next summer.
Mourinho seems to be willing to offer €20 millions now to be sure that he will not miss the player.
Lukaku is the third youngest player that scored in a European competition. The “New Drogba” scored 19 goals for Anderlecht last season and was already called by Dick Advocaat at Belgium senior squad.
Manchester City the transfer champions?
Fabregas to Barcelona, Maicon to Real or Robinho to Milan are the transfers that could compete with those made by Manchester City this summer.
Check out the list of transfers below and then the odds on betting sites to see if any of this will make a difference to their chances of winning…!
Jerome Boateng was signed for €12.5 millions, Yaya Toure for €30millions, Kolarov for €20millions and David Silva for €28.75millions, a total of €91.25millions which appears to be insignificant for City owner who has a fortune of approximately €15billions.
The previous season transfer record of €157millions was overtaken only by Real Madrid who spent the fabulous sum of €257millions on transfers.
It looks like this season Mancini wants to break all records. Not less than 10 players are still on Mancini’s list. Frank Ribery is one of them and the transfer sum could be around €60millions. Also Liverpool stars Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres are among the players wanted by Mancini and could cost him €50millions each.
Barcelona’s prolific striker Ibrahimovic is also wanted, with City offering €46millions. Also Balotelli is closer to sign for City for the sum of €30millions.
Another two players wanted at City of Manchester stadium are David Luiz and James Milner who could come for €29.5millions respectively €26 millions.
Luis Fabiano for €26millions and Marek Hamsik for €24millions are the last two players on the list.
If we count the sum spent until now €91.25millions with €372millions in case all this transfers would take place then we could assist at the largest amount spent one season in the history of football transfers.
