Piotr Zielinski struck twice and assisted another as Liverpool s poor start to the season continued with a humbling 4-1 defeat at Napoli in their Champions League opener.

Jurgen Klopp s side have underwhelmed in their first six Premier League games, winning just twice, and were behind after only five minutes in Naples following Zielinski s penalty.

Alisson denied Victor Osimhen s spot-kick just 13 minutes later, but Napoli were 3-0 up at half-time after strikes from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone, the latter on his Champions League debut.

Zielinski finished past Alisson again after the interval before Luiz Diaz responded with a bending effort – a mere consolation goal for Liverpool in the Group A encounter.

1 Giovanni Simeone has scored…

Former Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spain striker Fernando Torres has announced he will be retiring from playing professional football.

During the illustrious 18-year career, he won the Champions League, the Europa League twice, one FA Cup, two European Championships and the 2010 World Cup. Following his second spell with Atletico, he ends his playing days in Japan, with Sagan Tosu.

Football will surely miss him.

I have something very important to announce. After 18 exciting years, the time has come to put an end to my football career. Next Sunday, the 23rd at 10:00AM, local time in Japan, I will have a press conference in Tokyo to explain all the details.See you there.

Fernando Torres (@Torres)

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Eden Hazard says he will not leave Chelsea in January but wants to play in LaLiga to boost his chances of winning the Ballon d Or.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the award for the past decade, winning five each, while Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder Luka Modric is many people s favourite for the 2018 prize.

Hazard has been named on the 30-man shortlist and has made a stunning start to the Premier League season, leading the race for the Golden Boot with seven goals.

But the 27-year-old will enter the last year of his Chelsea contract at the end of the 2018-19 season, leaving the Blues in a similar position to when they sold Thibaut Courtois to Madrid this year.

Hazard has regularly spoken of his desire to play for the European champio…

Brighton coach Fabian Hurzeler has confirmed that new signing Matt O Riley requires ankle surgery and will be out of action for some time.

O Riley was forced off ten minutes into his Brighton debut against Crawley following his big-money move from Celtic, after being on the receiving end of a strong challenge.

Hurzeler confirmed that the Danish international will be on the sidelines for a while, and hopes the whole club can rally round him during his recovery.

He said: It s a bad injury, he needs ankle surgery and I can t say how long he s out. We will support him and try to get him back fast on the pitch.

He s a good character, and is a really positive guy. It s really important to stay mentally strong and I am certain he will come back stronger from th…

Harry Kane was substituted against Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League with a knee issue but should be fit to face London rivals Arsenal on Sunday, according to Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho.

Spurs star Kane had scored both goals in Thursday s 2-0 Europa League last-16 first leg win over Croatian giants Dinamo at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

An effort in either half turned the tie in Tottenham s favour and took the England captain s club tally to 26 for the season, the most of any Premier League player.

But Kane s hopes of improving his scoring record further this weekend were dealt a blow as he went down under a challenge from Arijan Ademi with eight minutes remaining.

Mourinho swiftly replaced his main man, having also seen Tanguy Ndombele exit the fi…

Gareth Southgate has long believed England can play technically proficient, possession football on the biggest stage – now they must prove it in their World Cup opener against Tunisia on Monday.

Former Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and England centre-back Southgate was parachuted into the national team job following Sam Allardyce s ignominious sacking in 2016, despite having not held a senior coaching position since being sacked by Boro on the other side of relegation in 2009.

But the 47-year-old honed his craft and methodology under the employ of the Football Association and a stint in charge of England Under-21s positioned him to pick up the pieces after Allardyce fell foul of a newspaper sting.

Southgate has brought an England team to Russia more certain and …

Luis Enrique scoffed at suggestions Spain do not score enough goals, pointing out they are averaging more than LaLiga s most prolific side Barcelona.

Spain began their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign on Saturday, beating Norway 2-1 thanks to Sergio Ramos 71st-minute penalty.

But the European champions of 2008 and 2012 were guilty of wasting a host of chances, and for a short while that looked like costing them when Joshua King equalised from the spot midway through the second half.

It was put to Luis Enrique that the performance against Norway was indicative of an apparent problem Spain have in front of goal, but he dismissed such a suggestion.

The debate about the lack of goals has reached me, he told reporters ahead of Tuesday s match away to Malta.

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Sergio Reguilon s reaction to Erik Lamela s utterly audacious opening goal in the north London derby said more than any words could.

Faced with Arsenal defenders in front and a Lucas Moura pass just slightly behind him, Argentina international Lamela pulled an impudent rabona out of his bag of tricks to send the ball spinning into the bottom right corner, beyond a helpless Bernd Leno.

Reguilon, whose career at parent club Real Madrid means he will be well-versed when it comes to experiencing excellence first hand, ran off in pursuit of the goalscorer open-mouthed, with his hands seemingly glued to his head.

The left-back s expression was one of near-delirious shock at what will surely come to be remembered as one of the great Premier League strikes

Sport…

Milan Skriniar s superb second-half strike gave Slovakia a surprise win to start their Euro 2020 campaign as they overcame 10-man Poland 2-1 in St Petersburg.

Seen as the likely whipping boys of Group E, Slovakia were out of the blocks significantly quicker than Poland and took the lead thanks to great work from Robert Mak that led to Wojciech Szczesny becoming the first goalkeeper to score an own goal at a European Championship.

Poland levelled soon after half-time through Karol Linetty, but the game turned on the dismissal of midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak.

Slovakia made the most of their extra man as Skriniar, who did an excellent job keeping Robert Lewandowski quiet, had a decisive impact at the other end with a fine 69th-minute effort.

Ondrej Duda …

Lee Carsley insisted his England players have to take all of the credit after winning his debut match as England manager.

Interim boss Carsley oversaw a 2-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland in their Nations League fixture at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

It marked the first time Ireland have lost a home match against England since May 1964.

The former England Under-21s manager, however, was keen to credit his players after first-half goals from Jack Grealish and Declan Rice saw England over the line.

The lads have to take a lot of credit, all of the credit. I think we ve showed we ve got some real talent and we can be really pleased with the clean sheet as well, he told ITV.

I thought it was good in parts. You ve seen some of the things we ve…