SPORTS AND GAME, GOSSIPS AND TRANSFERS (Thursday)

TRANSFER GOSSIP

Manchester United are ready to make a significant bid to entice Barcelona full-back Dani Alves to Old Trafford.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

Liverpool are rumoured to be readying a January bid for Partizan Belgrade striker Cleo.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

Italian side Roma are keen to capture Arsenal utility man Emmanuel Eboue.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

Real Madrid are poised to test Arsenal's resolve to keep Gael Clichy by offering France striker Karim Benzema in a swap deal for the full-back.
Full story: Daily Mirror

Liverpool have targeted a move for Villarreal winger Santi Cazorla as Reds manager Roy Hodgson looks to add more creativity to his side.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

Manchester United have singled out Tottenham's Gareth Bale and Everton's Leighton Baines as the two players they will target to replace current left back Patrice Evra.
Full story: caughtoffside.com

Nigerian striker Victor Anichebe is ready to back down in his contract wrangle with Everton and fight for his Goodison Park future.
Full story: Daily Mail

Sam Allardyce's dismissal at Blackburn has left Sunderland in pole position to land Slovakia's Juraj Kucka.
Full story: Daily Mail

Real Madrid star Lassana Diarra has not ruled out a January return to the Premier League with both Manchester United and Tottenham interested in the former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder.
Full story: talkSPORT

Everton are monitoring Stephen Ireland's showdown talks with Aston Villa, with a view to making a January move for the midfielder.
Full story: talkSPORT

Bayern Munich are interested in Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg - leaving Manchester United in pole position to land Manuel Neuer.
Full story: talkSPORT

OTHER GOSSIP

Man Utd boss Sir Alex Ferguson took on board almost all of the advice predecessor Sir Matt Busby gave him - except when it came to dealing with the media.
Full story: Daily Mirror

Inter Sail Into CWC Final
Inter will meet African side TP Mazembe in the final of the 2010 Club World Cup after Rafa Benitez's men sailed past Seongnam Ilhwa 3-0 in the second semi-final. Dejan Stankovic put the Nerazzurri ahead after just three minutes before Javier Zanetti and Diego Milito sealed off the game with a goal each.

Tevez Talks On Friday
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has confirmed that he will hold talks with Carlos Tevez over the striker’s future on Friday. The Italian tactician hopes that the 26-year-old will change his mind regarding his desire to leave Eastlands.

Reds Relaxation
The fate of both Liverpool and Utrecht in the Europa League had already been sealed, as Liverpool finish as group winners and go through to the next stage of the competition and the Dutch were eliminated. Both teams seemingly had that in mind as there was little action at Anfield in a scoreless stalemate...

EUROPA LEAGUE ROUND UP
Liverpool signed off from the first round of the Europa League with a dull 0-0 draw against FC Utrecht at Anfield but go through to the knockout phase as Group K winners.
Despite suggesting striker Fernando Torres would be involved, having already secured their progress into the knock-out stages, Hodgson opted for a young side, with Brad Jones replacing Pepe Reina in goal and Nathan Eccleston starting up front alongside Milan Jovanovic and Ryan Babel.
Liverpool started strongly and Jovanovic broke through and clattered the bar after a fierce long-range effort, but it was to be a rare opportunity for either side.
Joe Cole had the chance to snatch a late win for the Reds, but his close-range effort was well blocked by Sander Keller after keeper Michel Vorm had spilled Aurelio's cross.

An injury-time goal from Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani gave Napoli a 1-0 win at home against Steaua Bucharest and ensured the Italian side join Liverpool in the next round, as Group K runners up.
Steaua thought they had succeeded in holding Napoli to a draw at the Stadio San Paolo which would have been good enough for them to progress but Cavani had the last say deep in injury time.
If Napoli had failed to qualify, it would have been the first time this century that no Italian club had reached the last 32 in UEFA Cup or Europa League.

Paris St Germain secured top spot in Group J as Karpaty Lviv finally claimed their first point of this year's Europa League thanks to a 1-1 draw. Peguy Luyindula put the visitors ahead after 39 minutes at a freezing cold Ukrayina Stadion but Artem Fedetskiy levelled matters on the stroke of half-time.
While PSG coasted through, group runners-up Sevilla were made to sweat at Borussia Dortmund, holding on for a 2-2 draw to send them through as the German hosts needed a win to progress.
Sevilla, UEFA Cup winners in 2006 and 2007, came into the game on the back of five successive defeats and they suffered a nightmare start as they went behind inside four minutes to a goal from Shinji Kagawa.
However, Gregorio Manzano's men hit back with quickfire goals from Ndri Romaric and Frederic Kanoute, and although runaway Bundesliga leaders Dortmund drew level in the 49th minute through Neven Subotic, it was not enough.

Giuseppe Rossi struck twice as Villarreal fought back from a goal down to defeat Club Brugge 2-1 and secure top spot in Group D.
Brugge took the lead through Dorge Kouemaha's 28th-minute diving header, but within six minutes Rossi equalised and then netted from the penalty spot after he had been barged over inside the area by Ryan Donk.

Dimitris Salpingidis' second-half goal sent PAOK Salonika through as runners-up in Group D with a 1-0 victory away to Dinamo Zagreb.
Kolbeinn Sigthorsson scored twice and Adam Maher also netted as AZ Alkmaar made sure BATE Borisov finished the group stage on a low.
Belarusian champions BATE were already qualified for the next stage going into their final fixture in Group E but lost 3-0 to AZ, who could not qualify, as Sigthorsson scored with six minutes gone and six minutes remaining before Maher added a third.

Dynamo Kiev secured top spot in the group after a 0-0 draw at home to Moldovan side FC Sheriff.
CSKA Moscow relinquished their 100% record in the competition but it hardly mattered to the Group F winners as they drew 1-1 away to Sparta Prague. Alan Dzagoev gave CSKA an early lead, but Sparta found a leveller before half-time from Vaclav Kadlec - and the hosts hit the post at the death.
Palermo substitute Ezequiel Munoz scored the only goal in the 1-0 away win over Lausanne who made it six straight defeats in the group as both sides went out of the competition.
Portuguese giants Porto completed the first stage of their Europa League mission with a fifth victory from six matches. Nicolas Otamendi, Micael and James Rodriguez scored as the Group L winners won 3-1 against CSKA Sofia whose goal came from Spas Delev.

Besiktas claimed a routine 2-0 victory over Rapid Vienna. First-half goals from Ricardo Quaresma and Fabian Ernst secured the points for the hosts, who finished second, 10 points clear of Rapid in third.