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Olympique Marseille’s disappointing season is starting to improve at last. After a 3-0 defeat of Paris Saint-Germain lifted them into ninth place in Ligue 1, the OM hierarchy have now made peace with striker Andre-Pierre Gignac.The French international was banned from contact with the first-team squad last week, after criticising coach Didier Deschamps in front of his teammates for being omitted from the side who faced Olympiakos in the Champions League.
However, following a meeting with Deschamps and club president Vincent Labrune on Tuesday, Gignac agreed to apologise to the squad for his conduct and, as a result, he will resume first-team training on Wednesday.
Now it would be good for OM if Deschamps and sporting director Jose Anigo could settle their differences after disagreeing over the club’s recruitment policy.
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The Premier League was completely overshadowed by the death of the Wales manager, Gary Speed, who was found hanged at the age of 42. Only Ryan Giggs of outfield players, had featured more in the Premier League than Speed, who at Leeds, Everton, Newcastle and Bolton played more than 500 times. Craig Bellamy, his team-mate at Newcastle and who played with and for him at Wales, was too upset to lead Liverpool’s attack in the 1-1 draw with Manchester City. The match saw Roberto Mancini’s side extend their lead over Manchester United to five points despite having Mario Balotelli sent off. City scored both goals with Vincent Kompany heading the first and Joleon Lescott deflecting Charlie Adam’s shot past his own keeper. Speed’s death cast a shadow in his native Wales, where Swansea played out a goalless draw with Aston Villa.
Sir Alex Ferguson has said he will not go into the transfer market in January despite the fact that his Brazilian midfielder, Anderson, will be out of action for two months. Manchester United have already lost Tom Cleverley, who many saw as the inspiration behind their electric start to the season, and have sent Anderson to Portugal for treatment on a knee injury. He has not played for Manchester United since the 2-0 win over Otelul Galati at the beginning of November. However, Ferguson distrusts the January transfer window and, since bringing in Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic in 2006, it is an option he rarely uses. He argued that players who might improve United, such as Wesley Sneijder, are no longer available and are cup-tied for the Champions League.
Manchester City, the world’s wealthiest club, face elimination from the Champions League after defeat in Naples. Two goals from Edisnon Cavani ensured that Manchester City would have to beat Bayern Munich, the runaway leaders of Group A, to go through ahead of Napoli. A draw would not be good enough since Napoli, who are one point clear, have a better head-to-head record against them. What makes matters worse for Roberto Mancini’s side is that Napoli’s final game is at Villarreal, who have yet to pick up a point in Group A. Mancini will, however, be criticised for not starting with Sergio Aguero on the ground where his father-in-law, Diego Maradona, won two Serie A titles. Bayern Munich continued their impressive sweep through the Champions League with a 3-1 win over Villarreal at the Allianz Arena.
AZ Alkmaar remain top of the Dutch Eredivisie despite only managing a goalless away draw against Excelsior.
Following the international break, Barcelona and Real Madrid are determined to keep up their challenge for the La Liga title.
Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov is the latest high-profile name to be linked with big spending Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala.
Cristiano Ronaldo will be playing at the Euro 2012 Finals following Portugal’s 6-2 hammering of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Lisbon.
Euro 2012 finalists hoping that Spain are not the force they were last year after their surprise 1-0 defeat to an inexperienced England team at Wembley should not read too much into the loss.
Substitute Loic Remy kicked off France’s build-up to Euro 2012 in the best possible fashion in Paris on Friday night with the only goal in Les Bleus’ 1-0 victory over the USA.
The ridiculous pressure which Serie A bosses work under was emphasised on Wednesday when 10th-placed Cagliari named Davide Ballardini as their third coach of the season.