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Asamoah Gyan’s injury is not too serious-FA

The Ghana Football Association(GFA) has disclosed that, captain of the Black Stars, Asamoah Gyan’s injury is a minor one as he could feature in Sunday’s game against DR Congo.

Ronaldo scores free-kick at last but Real Madrid crash out of Copa del Rey

Real Madrid crashed out of the Copa del Rey as calamity full back Danilo put through his own goal for the second time this month despite Cristiano Ronaldo's best efforts with a second-half free-kick.

Zinedine Zidane's team came into the game at Celta's Balaidos Stadium 2-1 down from the first leg after Iago Aspas and Jonny Castro had given the underdogs the lead at the Santiago Bernabeu.

But things went against them in the first half as they tried to get back on level terms. Ronaldo could have levelled the tie on aggregate but first he saw his header from Isco's cross pushed on to the bar by Celta goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez. Then when the ball came back out to him he could not adjust his feet and instead of a right foot finish, he sent a left-foot shot on to the post. 

Things went from bad to worse for Madrid and full back Danilo on 44 minutes when the home side took the lead on the night. 

Iago Aspas, the former Liverpool forward, flicked the ball through to John Guidetti and when his shot was saved by Kiko Casilla it hit back-tracking Danilo and rolled into the net.

The defender scored an own goal in the last round powering a header past his own keeper against Sevilla. 

His confidence has been shot of late to the point where he was kept on the bench by Zidane at the Bernabeu at the weekend to save him from the boo boys. 

His relationship with his own supporters will not have improved by this latest showing and Madrid now needed a second-half miracle.

If anyone can come up with a miracle it's Ronaldo and when he was fouled by Gustavo Cabral on 61 minutes it was a case of cometh the hour cometh the man.  

The Portugal star's free-kick didn't seem to bend or dip but it was hit with such force that it went past the wall and Alvarez to make the score 1-1. Real Madrid now only needed a goal to take the game to extra-time. 

 

But as they poured forward Celta got their golden goal to surely kill off the tie. Daniel Wass played the ball to substitute Jozabed and he laid it back to the Dane who calmly found the back of the net.

 

Madrid never know when they are beaten and on 90 minutes Lucas Vazquez headed in a corner leaving them needing one more goal to go through and four injury-time minutes to score it.

But the goal never came and Madrid crashed out of the; their chance of a treble this season, gone.  Mail Online

 

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Egypt beat Ghana 1-0 to move top of Group D

Egypt denied Ghana the top position in Group D after beating the Black Stars 1-0 to move top of the group as the two clashed in the last group game at Port Gentil, Gabon in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Avram Grant makes four changes in the team to face Egypt

Coach Avram Grant has made four changes to the squad that played against Mali as the Black Stars of Ghana come face-to-face with Egypt in their last group game tonight in the Africa Cup of Nations(AFCON) in Gabon.

Diego Costa scores on return to Chelsea team as Blues extend lead with 2-0 win over Hull

Diego Costa scored on his return to the Chelsea starting XI as the Blues extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to eight points with a 2-0 win over Hull City.

The goal, his 52nd for Chelsea came on his 100th appearance and after a lot of noise over his future since missing the win at Leicester City, officially due to a back injury.

The reported bust-up with Antonio Conte and his staff, as well as speculation over a move to the Chinese Super League, had little impact on Costa, whose 15th goal of the season was followed by a Gary Cahill header.

Conte said he was willing to "put my hands in the fire" for Costa, who was cheered at every opportunity.

And the faith was justified with a goal on a near-ideal weekend for Chelsea.

Rivals Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham and Manchester United all dropped points on Saturday and Arsenal narrowly avoided doing so on Sunday.

Hull's ninth straight away loss was marred by a head injury to Ryan Mason, who was carried off on a stretcher as oxygen was administered.

Such was the focus on Costa that little fuss was made about John Terry's absence from the matchday squad as the captain's place on the substitutes' bench went to Nathan Ake.

Asmir Begovic was also there as Chelsea consider a bid from Bournemouth for their backup goalkeeper.

Costa went close in the opening 10 seconds. He sent the kickoff to David Luiz, who launched the ball forwards towards Pedro.

The ball dropped for Costa who sent a fizzing volley just wide.

Tom Huddlestone then shot narrowly wide on the break for Hull before a lengthy delay after Mason and Cahill clashed heads while challenging for an aerial ball in the Hull box.

Cahill was soon back on his feet and continued, but Mason was attended to before being taken by ambulance to hospital for further assessment.

Hull were proving difficult to break through, but showed signs of weakness.

Curtis Davies was booked for hauling down N'Golo Kante as Chelsea looked to counter.

And the Hull defender was perhaps fortunate to avoid a second yellow card for a foul on Pedro during the nine minutes of first-half stoppage time.

Costa had already had an effort ruled out for offside against Pedro before Chelsea finally penetrated the Hull defence.

Victor Moses darted down the right and Hazard left his cross for Costa to convert.

Costa celebrated not by kissing the Chelsea badge, but by making an apparent reference to the speculation surrounding his future.

Hull wanted a penalty soon after the restart and felt aggrieved when Marcos Alonso's challenge on Abel Hernandez went unpunished.

David Meyler was denied by Thibaut Courtois and Michael Dawson blocked from Costa, who was more often in action making headed clearances than threatening in the Hull half.

But Chelsea's perseverance paid off. Their advantage was doubled when Cahill headed in substitute Cesc Fabregas' free kick.

Costa was denied a second as goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic saved with his feet before the striker made way for Michy Batshuayi and was warmly embraced by Conte as he left the pitch.

 

Credit: espnfc.com