Cornella hosts Barcelona at the Campo Nuevo Municipal de Cornella in a game from the 1/16-finals of the Copa del Rey. Stay with us because we are going to provide you with a useful preview for this game in our soccer betting winning tips. Let’s get to work.

For Barcelona this match comes after a serious dissapointment the Catalans suffered on Sunday. Los Cules faced Athletic Bilbao in the Super Cup final, but they wasted one goal advantage and suffered a 2-3 defeat after extra-time.

Antoine Griezmann scored a brace against the Basques, but once again Barca’s defense dissapointed the fans and the manager Ronald Koeman with its performance. It was a chance for the Catalans to win their first trophy for the season, but Athletic took all the glory at the end.

Koeman was highly dissapointed with the way Barca lost the final. Another blow for him was Lionel Messi’s red card – the first one which the Argentine idol recieved with the blaugrana shirt. Because of this Messi won’t be playing against Cornella on Thursday.

This Copa del Rey game is a great chance for Koeman to rotate the line-up and give chance to players who have fewer amount of minutes. We expect to see Neto replacing Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the starting eleven. At the same time Junior Firpo, Samuel Umtiti and Oscar Mingueza should start in defense.

In midfield we expect to see Miralem Pjanic and Riqui Puig from the first minute while Sergio Busquets, Frenkie de Jong and Pedri should be rested. Most likely Martin Braithwaite and Trincao will be starting in attack. The 19-years old American Konrad De La Fuente is another option for the attacking trident Koeman could use.

For Barcelona it’s a crucial thing to avoid any shocking scenario against Cornella. They are facing a Segunda B team in the 1/16-finals, so for their own confidence it would be disastrious to lose this one.

Cornella reached the Copa del Rey 1/16-finals after a fantastic 1-0 win over the current La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid in the previous round. This should be a huge warning sign for Barcelona – they are facing a team which already caused one huge upset in the competition. If Barca are not careful here it could happen again.

Cornella’s Adrian Jimenez scored the only goal against Atletico Madrid in the previous round. In the remaining time of the game Guillermo Fernandez’ team defended well and didn’t concede any goals.

In the Segunda B Cornella are currently 8th in the standings and they are not having the best season so far. It seems that right now they are performing better in the Copa than in the league.

These are the soccer betting winning tips for the Copa del Rey 1/16-finals game between Cornella and Barcelona. The hosts already eliminated Atletico Madrid from the competition, so Ronald Koeman’s Barca must be very careful here. They must do the job without the suspended Lionel Messi, though – the Argentine captain is suspended for this game.

Nigeria were yesterday beaten by Côte d’Ivoire 2-3 in the final of the WAFU B U17 AFCON Qualifiers in Lomé , Togo. Another setback in the country’s quest to return to the top of youth football in Africa.

It’s worthy to note that since the coming of this present board of the Nigeria Football Federation, the country’s fortune at youth football particularly U17 level is nothing to write home about.

The success of the 2015 set achieved under this board was as a result of the groundwork done by the erstwhile board under Aminu Maigari. 2017 was the first time the board had to prepare a team and it ended up in the team failing to qualify for the Africa U17 Cup of Nations.

Here are five reasons why Nigeria is no longer a feared force in youth football as investigated the past four years by Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman.

No Clear Cut Grassroot Plan – Many will point at the introduction of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Test (MRI) as why Nigeria is no longer dominating African youth football. It is indeed part of it but what it has done is expose the lack of a specific way to source for talents in the country.

The scan means picking players from the old method of having over 1000 players come for screening is no longer efficient with most of the talented ones failing the test or knocked out for various age related issues.

A vibrant youth league with teams from the Nigeria Professional Football Leagues and other organized academies in the country will address this area of concern. Presently coaches of U17 teams are made to work with what is available to them and not the best available in the country.

Interference From NFF – There is an unwritten rule in the last two U17 teams that coaches must find a way to include players from the NFF organized youth tournaments and also the U15 team even if they are not the best. The idea from what many said is to encourage the sponsors to do more in that area.

“ We had to drop some players and pick the boys from the NFF tournament because of the sponsors interest. Same as for the U15 that we must pick from there too. We ended up dropping a defender for a striker of the U15 and converted the striker to a defender. We had no choice”, a backroom staff of the 2019 U19 team revealed.

NFF Board Members Turned Agents: This particular issue rocked the last U17 team and distorted preparations of this present set. Two board members of the NFF have hijacked the U17 team for their friends and associates who are football agents. The claim is that agents are behind the recent struggle at youth level.

That claim made the NFF president Amaju Pinnick to bar players with agents from the U17 team regardless of how talented they are but little did he know that the idea is crafted to empower his board members who felt agents made a kill from the success of the 2013 and 2015 set hence want their own piece of it. So far it has been a disaster.

Appointment Of Coaches – Unconfirmed report has it that the present coach of the U17 team Fatai Amoo wasn’t the first choice option of the NFF but was forced on them by a top official in the Nigerian government who is from same state as the coach.

The idea from what I gathered was to have Manu Garba whose ability to spot talent is second to none remain as head coach with former international Finidi George as one of his assistants.

Finidi’s appointment as assistant was suppose to be the first step towards easing him into the Nigeria national team coaching circle but it wasn’t to be with Amoo picked by a power the football house dare not say no to.

NFF Lack Of Interest In Youth Football– This present board will try to say they have plans for youth football but it’s far from the truth. The one brand that bothers the and get all the attention is the Super Eagles. Any other is seen as a waste of funds with their preparations treated as nothing far from students getting set for inter house sports meets.

Never in the history of Nigerian football have we had youth teams preparations for tournaments so bad like we are seeing under this board.

The Bayern Munich hitman added to his goal tally against Freiburg with his 21st of the season and broke a league record in the process.

It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it ? A record was bound to tumble with Robert Lewandowski in incredible form and against Freiburg, the striker added another record to his name. Lewandowski broke a Bundesliga goals record that was set by former club great Gerd Muller after his opening goal against Freiburg on Sunday.

The striker was an influential figure last season with Bayern winning the treble after scoring 55 goals in just 47 matches in all competitions.

Out ofhis 55 goals, 34 of them were in the Bundesliga and Lewandowski just missed out on the European Golden Shoe after Ciro Immobile, the Lazio striker beat Lewandowski tothe title by a single goal.

However now, Bayern’s lead man is top of scoring charts halfway  through the campaign and has been at the forefront of Bayern’s rise up the Bundesliga table. With his finish against Freiburg, Lewandowski took his total to 21 goals and broke a record at the same time.

The forward broke Gerd Muller’s record of 20 goals in the first half of a Bundesliga season. The record had stood for 42 years before Lewandowski’s strike on Sunday.

While it’s clear that the striker is a legend thanks to his goal-scoring feats and will make a lot more positive Bayern Munich News.

The Bayern forward won FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player title after his incredible 2020 season and he is in line to add to his resume again as he continues at an incredible scoring pace.

The striker was listed as a possible Ballon d’Orwinner before the award ceremony was cancelled due to Covid-19 and ended his chance to win the award.

Despite Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi’s dominance over the award, the striker said that he thinks he is on their level after an interview in December with France Football.

“If you take the numbers for this year and even previous ones, I think I’m pretty good in terms of performance and goals scored,” he said.

“Failing to be at the same tableas Messi and Ronaldo, I think I can invite them to eat at mine!”

The father of Chelsea 19 year old midfielder Faustino Anjorin is aware of interest from Nigeria to have his son switch allegiance to the senior national team of Nigeria.

Anjorin has played for Chelsea first team in the UEFA Champions League and also the FA Cup after excelling for the B team in the Premier League 2 where he has three goals and two assists in six games.

Although he has represented England from U16 to U19 level he was offered the chance of switching to Nigeria in 2019 by former coach of the Nigerian U20 team Paul Aigbogun.

Aigbogun was keen on the midfielder after watching him in a youth game for the U18 of Chelsea and went as far as speaking with the father of the then 18 year old over joining his U20 team of Nigeria.

The father insist on his son concentrating on progressing through the ladder with the English youth teams and will make a decision on his international future when the time comes.

Manchester United forward Odion Ighalo says he is open to the idea of representing Nigeria at another Africa Cup of Nations or World Cup if the opportunity arises.

On loan to Manchester United from Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua in a deal which will expire at the end of this month after the initial six months loan was extended retired from international football after the 2019 AFCON, where he finished as top scorer.

At Manchester United he has fallen out of favour and with his exit set to happen in about three weeks, Ighalo who says he will love to try out in the MLS opened the door to representing Nigeria again.

He said he will return to the national as if his dream to play at another Africa Cup of Nations or World Cup Nigeria or maybe both if he is offered the opportunity but he hinted that it’s not in the immediate.

“I have good relationship with Gernot Rohr and at a time he wanted me to return to the team because he finds it difficult to seeing me play for Manchester United and not playing again for the Super Eagles.

“Although I retired from the team very early due to injury before the AFCON for eight weeks and unfortunately, I left the tournament with another injury and considering the travels from China wasn’t good from for me and have to look at other options of giving the younger ones a chance.

“I miss everyone in the team and if the need arises, I will want to play at another World Cup finals or the African Cup of Nations if not both tournaments but for now I will want the young lads to enjoy themselves,” he said in a television interview with ESPN.

FK Tirana of Albania title winning coach Ndubuisi Egbo says his feat wasn’t respected by the club because he isn’t a white coach.

The former Nigeria international goalkeeper helped the Albanian side win their first title in eleven years but was sacked after a not too impressive start the next season at same club.

Egbo while speaking on coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr in an interview with Punch media said the German coach is still in charge of the team because he is white.

He said a Nigerian coach wouldn’t have gotten same chance after failing to win any title with the team since his appointment in 2016. Egbo went further by narrowing the situation to his predicament at Tirana.

“Look at Frank Lampard in Chelsea, he has lost many games but he is still there. If it was a person of colour. If he was not an English man a maximum of two to three games, he would have been out just as I was removed from my team after winning the Championship after 11 years”, he told Punch.

Per a statement English Championship side QPR has confirmed that their Anglo Nigerian winger Bright Osayi-Samuel has signed a pre contract with Turkish side Fenerbahce.

The club in a statement said the 23 year old who joined them in 2017 from Blackpool will remain at the club till the end of his contract which runs out in the summer unless an agreement is reached with Fenerbahce.

“QPR can confirm Bright Osayi-Samuel has today (Saturday 16th January) informed the club he has signed a pre-contract agreement with Turkish Super Lig side Fenerbahce.

“Osayi-Samuel will remain a QPR player until the end of the 2020/21 season unless Fenerbahce reach an agreement with the club for his early release.”

His signing by the Turkish side is coming on the heels of breakthrough in talks for the Turkish giants to sign Germany World Cup winner Mesut Ozil from Arsenal in few days time.

Osayi-Samuel is eligible for Nigeria and England but hasn’t represented any of the country at any level although he has pledged his allegiance to the senior national team of Nigeria.

Nigeria international defender Semi Ajayi has gone last Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk and others in the English Premier League with his goal for West Brom in their 3-2 comeback win against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Ajayi drew West Brom level with a well placed header for his second goal of the season which helped his team to tie the game at 2-2 before they finally secured all three points in the derby clash.

The goal was his 9th with his head since 2018/2019 season. A number which no defender playing in any level of English football can boast off including the highly rated Van Dijk of Liverpool.

He now has 8 goals for West Brom from central defence since joining them last season just one goal away from equaling the record set by the Nigerian strike duo of Kanu Nwankwo and Victor Anichebe during their time at the club.

His goal played a big role in helping West Brom secure their first win under new coach Sam Allardyce who is tasked with the job of ensuring that the baggies beat the drop to the English Championship.

The impending transfer of Paul Onuachu to Lyon has drawn a reaction from the sporting director of Genk who we reported have agreed a deal for the sale of the forward.

Onuachu was included in the Genk squad for the game against Royal Excel Mouscron tomorrow and he is expected to start in attack as his move to Lyon is likely off.

According to Dimitri De Conde who is the sporting director of Genk, he admitted that talks were held with Lyon but a move away in January is not an option before admitting that in the summer it is very possible.

He rounded up by praising the 26 year old as a striker who can succeed in any league in the world base on the qualities he possesses.

”Olympique Lyon has already shown interest, but a departure in January is not an option at all. Next summer there is a chance that the attacker will want to visit other places. After all, Onuachu will turn 27 in May and that is an age at which a football player has to gradually take the step to a top competition.

“Let us enjoy him a little longer. Paul has not been playing for Genk for long (1.5 years, ed.) And at the moment he scores very well. He is a player who can succeed anywhere with his strength, speed and footballing ability. It’s a fairly complete striker, “De Condé told Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio.