Super Falcons star Asisat Oshoala scored a hat-trick for Barcelona Femeni in their 7-0 thumping of Las Planas Femeni.

Fresh off winning the Spanish Super Cup over the weekend, Laliga Femeni holders Barcelona welcomed 11th-placed Las Planas to Estadi Johan Cruyff in their 15th game of the season.

Oshoala was tasked with the job of leading the Barcelona forward line, and she did her job excellently.

The Super Falcons star doubled Barcelona’s lead in the 25th minute after Crnogorcevic opened the scoring in the eighth minute.

Crnogorcevic scored again for Barcelona Femeni to put them three up before the break. Then Spanish youngster Vicky Lopez continued the onslaught making it four just three minutes after the restart.

Oshoala then netted two goals in the 56th and 63rd minute to take Barcelona’s tally to six. Then Mariona Caldentey scored in the 74th minute to seal the 7-0 victory for the Catalan Queens.

Nigerian striker Oshoala hit new heights in the victory, as her hat-trick took her goal tally for Barcelona to 95- the fourth-highest at the club. It was fifty wins in a row.

Nigeria’s Super Falcons will intensify their preparations for the forthcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in February as they will be among the teams invited to take part in a 4-Nations tournament in Mexico.

According to the report from Mexico, the competition is tagged Revelation Cup and Super Falcons of Nigeria, Costa Rica, Colombia and host Mexico are the countries invited to participate.

The organiser confirmed this through the Mexico Football Federation’s social media handle.

“The tournament will be a home run with Mexico, Nigeria, Costa Rica and Colombia to be played between February 13 to 22, 2023.

The country with the most points wins the tournament”, Director Arturo Fizsman stated.

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has resigned from his position as president of the Egyptian Referees Committee after only five months in charge.

The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) confirmed on Wednesday it had agreed that the 47-year-old could leave the role.

Clattenburg was promoted to refereeing Premier League matches in 2004 after three seasons in the Football League.

His final game was in April 2017 as Leicester City won 1-0 at West Brom.

He also took charge of the Euro 2016 final as Portugal beat France 1-0 and the Champions League final, when Real Madrid beat local rivals Atletico, the same year.

Meanwhile, Clattenburg was this week the subject of criticism from the president of the Zamalek club, Mortada Mansour, on Zamalek’s own TV channel.

Zamalek are one of Egypt’s two most famous and powerful clubs, alongside their bitter city rivals Al-Ahly. They have their own TV channel, and Mansour appears on it regularly.

Mansour’s criticism of Clattenburg has increased in the last few weeks, and has included making allegations of a personal nature.

This intensity of Mansour’s attacks has coincided with a drop-off in Zamalek’s league form, culminating in a defeat by Al-Ahly on Saturday.

The manager of the English Championship side (Watford FC) Slaven Bilic, has confirmed the imminent departure of the Nigeria’s Super Eagles defender William Troost-Ekong on loan to the Salernitana of Italy.

The Nigeria captain who has two and half years left on his contract was an unused substitute during the 1-1 draw with Rotherham on Saturday but went onto the pitch at full-time.

He applauded the crowd but also appeared to be waving goodbye as he acknowledged the crowd on all four sides of Vicarage Road.

Ekong made 17 appearances and scored once for the Hornet

“There is something about it I heard it before the game. It is not just a rumour,” 

“We need to bring something, we need to. Now if (Troost-Ekong) goes and with Christian Kabasele injured suddenly we are incredibly short so we need that if we want to do what we want to do,” Bilic told athletic.

Italian Serie A most successful team Juventus have been deducted 15 points in the wake of an investigation into the club’s past transfer dealings.

The Serie A giants were accused of fixing their balance sheets by artificial gains from club transfers.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) confirmed the news on Friday, with ex-Juve director Fabio Paratici – who is now at Tottenham – given a two-and-a-half-year ban from Italian football.

The FIGC has also hit Agnelli and the club’s former chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene with two-year bans, while current sports director Federico Cherubini has been given a 16-month ban.

A total of 11 former and current Juventus executives have received sanctions, with Nedved given an eight-month ban.

The FIGC says all the bans include a request for the sanction to be extended to Uefa and Fifa and therefore then apply worldwide.

Juventus had been in third place but the penalty will drop them to 10th.

Real Madrid and bitter rivals Atletico Madrid will lock horn for a place in the Copa del Rey semi-finals after being paired in the last eight.

Los Blancos survived a scare on Thursday as they came from 2-0 down at Villarreal to win 3-2 thanks to goals from Vinicius Junior, Eder Militao and Dani Ceballos.

It ensured Carlo Ancelotti’s team bounced back from losing to Barcelona in the Supercopa de Espana final four days earlier.

Nevertheless, their route does not get any easier with the draw pitting them against city rivals Atletico at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Diego Simeone’s side beat Levante 2-0 in Valencia on Wednesday, with Alvaro Morata and Marcos Llorente scoring in the second half.

It will be the first time Atletico and Madrid have tussled in the Copa since January 2015, when the former emerged 4-2 aggregate winners over two legs.

The competition remains on track for a Clasico final, though Barca will also have to get past tricky opponents to reach the last four.

Real Sociedad, who have won each of their past eight games in all competitions and are third in LaLiga, will visit Camp Nou.

Last season’s beaten finalists Valencia will meet Athletic Bilbao at the Mestalla Stadium, while Osasuna – conquerors of defending champions Real Betis – play host to a Sevilla side who are battling relegation in the league.

The matches are scheduled across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week.

The chairman of Ibom Angels Mr Moses Nana has apologised to the team sponsors and fans for the poor performance of the team in the first round of the Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL).

The team is placed 7th on the table after recording 5 losses and 1 victory in 6 matches of the first round.

The chairman further assured that five new players have been contacted to strengthen the team.

“We have contacted over five players as we seek to fortify the team ahead of the second round of the league.

We are sincerely sorry for the team’s bad performance as some of the players couldn’t live up to expectations

So, some new players are already on their way to join the camp team. We hope to see a new improved side in the second round”, he told the club media.

After the first round of games, the organiser of the Nigeria Women Football League has announced a mid-season break for the team.

The first round of the season ended on Wednesday with Edo Queens and Delta Queens leading the table in groups A and B.

The organiser announced on Thursday evening that the league has gone on break and will resume for the second round on the 8th of February, 2023.

Meanwhile the organizer further announced that the transfer window will run from January 23rd to February 23rd.

“The NWFL announce the start of the mid-season break for the NWFL Premiership after the end of the first stanza. At the break, the mid-season transfer window will run from 23rd January 2023 to 3 February 2023. Second round returns on 8 February”, the statement said.

Chris Wood has completed his loan move to Nottingham Forest from Newcastle and is set to join the club permanently in the summer.

Wood only signed for Newcastle in January 2022, leaving then-relegation rivals Burnley in a £25million move.

The forward will remain at the City Ground until the end of the campaign and if Forest’s battle for top-flight survival is successful, it would trigger a full-time deal.

The New Zealand international, who helped Newcastle avoid relegation last season, has played 18 games in the league this campaign, scoring twice, but has only made four starts.

The Tricky Trees, needed a forward after Taiwo Awoniyi was ruled out for up to eight weeks and Wood is a proven Premier League player, having delivered regularly for Burnley – reaching double figures for goals in four consecutive seasons.

Arsenal have completed the signing of Leandro Trossard from Brighton in a deal that would eventually be worth £27million.

Mikel Arteta has been eager to strengthen his attacking options as the Gunners pursue a first Premier League title since 2004, missing out on  Ukraine winger Mykhailo Mudryk, who joined arch rival Chelsea.

Brighton will receive a guaranteed figure of around £20m with the remaining £7m made up of achievable incentives.

The 28-year-old’s contract runs until 2027 and has the option of being extended by a year. He has scored seven goals and provided three assists in 16 top-flight games for Brighton this season.

Trossard, who made three appearances for Belgium at the 2022 World Cup, will wear number 19 for Arsenal, previously worn by Nicolas Pepe.

However Trossard could be in the Arsenal squad to face Manchester United in a pivotal clash at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, with the league leader revealing they had submitted all of the necessary paperwork to the Premier League.

Paul Ebere Onuachu’s dream of a Premier League move in the January transfer window appears to have hit a snag after his Belgian club KRC Genk rejected a 12m euros offer from Southampton for the lanky Nigerian

Onuachu’s start after a few matches due to injury and fitness, the striker has appeared in the vast majority of Genk’s league games in the 2022/2023 season, making 18 appearances overall and playing 1,119 minutes. scoring 14 goals.

Genk Sporting Director Dimitri de Condé already indicated before the start of the transfer period that Genk was not prepared to let its regular players leave, which was once again reinforced with the contract extension of Carlos Cuesta. Only for Onuachu, an exception was made if a very good offer comes in.

But the Nigerian will certainly not just leave after Sacha Tavolieri revealed that Southampton made a bid for the top scorer.  The Saints are battling relegation in the Premier League and are keen to bring in another striker this month.