Belgian football club Anderlecht have been
sanctioned after a firework thrown by a fan exploded next to the
visiting ex-Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.

Former Manchester
City captain Vincent Kompany, who joined Anderlecht in June as
player-manager, appealed to a rowdy section of home fans after the
incident as the home side went down 2-1 on the day in a local derby
against Club Brugge.

Part of a stand will be closed for one game and the Brussels outfit must pay a fine of 5 000 euros after the incident.

Odion Ighalo will be in the Manchester United
squad for the Premier League clash with Chelsea next Monday despite
missing a training camp in Spain due to fears he could be denied
re-entry into Britain if restrictions against the outbreak of
Coronavirus are tightened.

The 30-year-old Nigerian international
striker joined United on loan until the end of the season on deadline
day last month from Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua.

The British
government called the novel coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat”,
and said anyone with the disease can now be forcibly quarantined if
they are deemed a threat to public health as the number of cases in
Britain doubled to eight.

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.