Football

Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood says he retains faith in goalkeeper Brad Guzan despite some uncharacteristic mistakes for the Premier League strugglers this season.

Neymar missed Brazil's opening World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Venezuela earlier this month as he served a four-game international ban.

Frenchman Gregory Arnolin's 84th minute strike helped FC Goa edge past Kerala Blasters FC 2-1 in a keenly contested ISL football game and take top spot in the league table in Margao city of western Indian state of Goa on Thursday.

City is second in the group, a point behind Juventus and three ahead of Sevilla going into the reverse fixture against the Spanish club next.

Ghanaian striker Richard Gadze's late strike in the 87th minute ensured third straight victory for Delhi Dynamos as they beat hosts Kerala Blasters 1-0 in the Indian Super League football tournament on Sunday.

Defending champions Atletico de Kolkata are currently placed at the top of the points table with seven points from three games, having won against Chennaiyin FC, Kerala Blasters FC and drawn against FC Goa.

Sepp Blatter, suspended president of soccer's world governing body, FIFA, said he aimed to return to office in time to hand over power to a successor to be elected at a special congress in February.

The Portuguese player, who recently scored his 500th career goal, was photographed holding a Real Madrid jersey with a signed message, which was posted on twitter by the club's official handle.

Stones also was forced to drop out of England's squad for their final two Euro 2016 qualifiers during the international break.

The Dutch team was stunned 3-2 at home to the 10-man Czech Republic in their final qualifier on Tuesday to miss out on Euro 2016.

Stiven Mendoza scored the first hat-trick of the tournament as Chennaiyin FC thrashed FC Goa 4-0 in a third round match of Indian Super League football on Sunday.

Italy qualified for the Euro 2016 finals when they won 3-1 in Azerbaijan on Saturday to make sure of one of the two automatic qualifying places from Group H.

Spain's latest win was soured by injuries to forward Alvaro Morata and midfielder David Silva who came off in the first half to be replaced by Juan Mata and Paco Alcacer respectively.

European champions Spain beat minnows Luxembourg 4-0 on Friday to reach the Euro 2016 finals in France where they will aim to complete an unprecedented hat-trick of continental titles.

Spain had not progressed beyond the quarter-final stage of any major competition since ending the 1984 edition of the same tournament as runners-up.

Members of FIFA's ethics committee met this week after the Swiss attorney general opened criminal proceedings against Blatter, 79, last month.