Arsenal have won just three matches since
Mikel Arteta took over as manager in December but playmaker Mesut Ozil
says the team have improved thanks to the Spaniard’s fresh tactical
approach.

Arsenal are 10th in the Premier League on 31 points, 10
behind fourth-placed Chelsea, but Ozil said the players are still
targeting a Champions League qualification spot with 13 games left to
play.

“It’s just two months that Mikel has been here, and we have improved a lot tactically,” Ozil told reporters.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are
set to go head-to-head in Thursday’s Italian Cup semifinal, first leg
between Juventus and AC Milan at the San Siro.

Both Ronaldo and
Ibrahimovic scored at the weekend in defeats as Juventus fell 2-1 at
Hellas Verona, while AC Milan threw away a two-goal lead in a 4-2 defeat
by city rivals Inter.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted,” said the
35-year-old Ronaldo despite becoming the first Juventus player to score
in 10 successive league games, just one game short of the Serie A
record.

Italian club SPAL have sacked coach Leonardo Semplici, the Serie A basement club confirmed on Monday.

The announcement comes after the Ferrara-based team lost 2-1 at home against Sassuolo on Sunday.

Semplici,
52, took over in December 2014 leading the club from Serie C up to the
top flight for the first time in 49 years for the 2017-2018 campaign.

Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford says his role as England’s number one has made him the target of unfair criticism.

Pickford
let Christian Benteke’s equaliser slip under him in Everton’s 3-1 win
over Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.

Former
defender and television pundit Gary Neville slammed Pickford in
September for laughing when Everton were 3-1 down against Manchester
City, while others have highlighted his patchy form over the last 18
months.

Champions Zesco United returned to winning
ways and Green Eagles climbed to the top of the Zambia Super League in
another big weekend of action in the race for the title.

Zesco
left it late but two goals in the final three minutes secured a 2-0
victory over bottom side Mufulira Wanderers for what would have been a
stunning draw.

Winston Kalengo finally broke the deadlock, before
Kenyan forward John Makwatta scored on debut to seal the points for the
away side.

Lionel Messi gave a hat-trick of assists on
Sunday as Barcelona ended their turbulent week with a thrilling 3-2
victory over Real Betis to stay in touch with Real Madrid at the top of
La Liga.

Madrid’s 4-1 win away at Osasna earlier in the day put
pressure on Barca to respond, only for Betis to twice lead at the Benito
Villamarin through a penalty from Sergio Canales and brilliant solo
effort from Nabil Fekir.

French international forward Ousmane Dembele has suffered a badly torn hamstring, his club Barcelona announced on Tuesday.

“Tests
carried out on Tuesday on Ousmane Dembele have shown that the player
has a complete proximal hamstring tear in his right thigh,” the club
announced. “In the next few hours a decision will be made on the
treatment to be followed for his recovery.”

The 22-year-old has
struggled with hamstring problems. He had only just returned to training
from an injury to the right thigh he suffered in November before
suffering a fresh problem in training on Monday.

Bayern Munich striker Ivan Perisic will be
sidelined for several weeks after fracturing an ankle bone in Tuesday’s
training, coach Hansi Flick said.

The Croatian 31-year-old was
injured during a challenge with teammate Alvaro Odriozola and had to be
taken off the pitch in a golf cart.

“Ivan has an ankle bone
fracture. That means it will take four weeks until it fully heals. After
that there will also be rehabilitative training,” Flick said.

Torino parted ways with experienced coach
Walter Mazzarri on Tuesday after three successive defeats, the last two
of which saw them concede a combined 11 goals.

The 58-year-old
Mazzarri will be replaced by Moreno Longo, a former coach of the club’s
youth side, and leaves with Torino 12th in Serie A.

Torino
suffered their heaviest ever home defeat last month when they were
beaten 7-0 by Atalanta. The final straw for Mazzarri came with Sunday’s
4-0 loss at strugglers Lecce.

A South Korean court ordered a local promoter
Tuesday to compensate fans for Cristiano Ronaldo’s no-show at a
friendly match in Seoul last year.

The Juventus star stayed on
the bench throughout a 3-3 draw with a K-League all-stars team at the
Seoul World Cup Stadium in July, despite rounds of appeals from a
sell-out crowd of 65 000.

Match promoter The Festa had run adverts heavily featuring the Portuguese striker.

Tickets – priced from 30 000 won ($25) to 400 000 won – sold out in less than three minutes, with many eager to see the 34-year-old superstar in action.