Antonio Conte has thanked Diego Costa after the Chelsea forward s January move to Atletico Madrid was confirmed.

Chelsea and Atletico agreed a deal, estimated to be worth up to €60million, on Thursday, which is set to go through in full when a medical has been passed and personal terms are agreed.

Conte and Costa, who has been at Stamford Bridge since 2014, were involved in a major feud after the Chelsea boss made it clear the striker would not be part of his plans for 2017-18 despite winning the Premier League last season.

Atletico were under a transfer ban in the most recent window meaning there was no urgency to wrap up a deal, but now an agreement is in place Conte is keen to move on.

We want to thank him for what he did with this club, Conte said …

Dimitri Payet was hit by a bottle thrown from the crowd early in Lyon s home game with Marseille, causing Sunday s big Ligue 1 clash to be suspended.

Former West Ham playmaker Payet was preparing to take a corner amid a hostile atmosphere when he was struck on the side of the head by a bottle full of liquid.

He immediately went to ground and needed treatment, prompting referee Ruddy Buquet to take the players off the pitch.

Payet left the pitch with an ice pack pressed to the side of his head.

There have been a number of major crowd trouble incidents in French football this season, starting from the opening weekend when Marseille midfielder Valentin Rongier was hit by a bottle while celebrating a goal that Payet scored against Montpellier.

Marseil…

Manchester United have completed the signing of Netherlands midfielder Donny van de Beek from Ajax for a fee that could rise to £39.1million (€44m).

United will pay an initial £34.7m for the 23-year-old, who has penned a five-year contract with the option of a further 12 months to become Ole Gunnar Solskjaer s first recruit ahead of the 2020-21 season.

Van de Beek was one of the star performers for Ajax as they embarked upon a memorable run to the semi-finals of the 2018-19 Champions League.

However, he now follows former team-mates Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt and Hakim Ziyech in making a big-money move away from the Johan Cruijff ArenA, having sat out Ajax s weekend friendly against Eintracht Frankfurt.

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— AFC Ajax (@AFCAjax)

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The agent of Brazilian forward Hulk says he needs to move from Portugal to realise his dreams.

The 25-year-old has scored 39 goals in 52 appearances for Porto in his last two seasons of domestic action, form which has seen him linked to the likes of Chelsea.

And with Didier Drogba leaving Stamford Bridge, a position has opened up at the Champions League winners, leading to further speculation about the striker s future.

Hulk s agent, Teodoro Fonseca, increased the attention on his client s future, saying that he needs to move to a stronger league.

Porto are a big club, with a big structure and who are in a good position in Uefa s ranking, Fonseca told Lancenet.

The problem is the Portuguese Liga. Hulk has won everything at Porto, except the Cha…

Paris Saint-Germain director of football Patrick Kluivert is keen to sign a high-profile player, but has stressed he will not try to take advantage of Neymar s legal woes at Barcelona.

The Ligue 1 champions have continually been linked with a big-money for the 24-year-old, who is regarded as one of the top talents in world football.

Neymar penned a new deal with Barca in October, but his 2013 transfer from Santos to Camp Nou continues to face scrutiny in Spain.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Jose Perals requested a two-year sentence and a €10million fine for Neymar and his father, along with the same fine and a one-year prison term for his mother, on the grounds of alleged corruption in the Brazil captain s move from his homeland to LaLiga.

But Kluivert says …

Juventus have a commanding seven-point lead over Roma in Serie A, but head coach Massimiliano Allegri is taking nothing for granted.

Massimiliano Allegri has warned his Juventus side that there is plenty of work to do to retain the Serie A title.

Juve suffered a rare blip when they were held 0-0 at Udinese last weekend, but second-placed Roma drew for the fourth successive league match to keep the gap at the top of the table to seven points.

Head coach Allegri insists that Rudi Garcia s side remain a threat, though, and will not allow Juve s standards to drop.

[Is the] Scudetto already won? No chance, he said ahead of Juve s clash with Milan on Saturday.  There s still a long way to go and Roma are firmly in the hunt.

We need to stay focused,…

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Real Madrid will play host to Granada at the Alfredo Di Stefano stadium on Wednesday evening in what will be the 15th La Liga game of the season for Los Blancos, while for Granada it will be the 14th. It goes without saying that points are very important for every team at this stage of the campaign.

Real Madrid

Real were under a lot of pressure recently, probably none more than head coach Zinedine Zidane who was at one point reportedly in danger of losing his job. Nevertheless, Los Blancos have snapped out of the poor run of form and their results have improved significantly, which means the Frenchman can now breathe more easily.

His team sit second in the La Liga table at the moment with 29 points to their name the same as Atl…

Lauren James has apologised to Michelle Alozie for the incident which led to her being sent off during England’s last-16 World Cup win over Nigeria and vowed to learn from the experience.

The forward was dismissed for deliberately standing on the back of Nigeria defender Alozie with three minutes of normal time remaining in Brisbane.

England survived the dismissal to advance to the quarter-finals 4-2 on penalties after the game finished goalless following extra time.

All my love and respect to you. I am sorry for what happened.

Also, for our England fans and my team-mates, playing with and for you is my greatest honour and I promise to learn from my experience.

— Lauren James (@laurenjamess22)

In response to a tweet from Alozie, Jame…

Vinicius Junior ticked off another landmark achievement as the Real Madrid attacker became the first player born in 2000 or later to hit 10 goals in a LaLiga season. 

The 21-year-old Brazilian, born on July 12, 2000, continued his highly impressive start to the campaign with a classy opener against Real Sociedad on Saturday. 

He played a clever one-two with Luka Jovic before striking a powerful shot low into the left corner to put Madrid 1-0 up after 47 minutes at the Reale Arena. 

It was his 10th goal in 16 games in LaLiga this season, underlining the progress he has made under Carlo Ancelotti this term. 

In his first three seasons at Madrid, Vinicius scored a total of eight goals across 82 LaLiga appearances, albeit starting only 43 of those games…

Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani says he was pushed out on loan by the club, but is keen to prove himself to new manager Brendan Rodgers.

The 28-year-old, who was bought by Rafael Benitez as a replacement for Xabi Alonso in August 2009, has not featured for the Merseyside club in a competitive game since the former Benitez s departure two years ago.

Since then, Aquiliani has enjoyed loan spells at Juventus and AC Milan, but he is now keen to finally prove his worth at Anfield after struggling for opportunities in the past.

How can you pay 20 million pounds for a player and this player is never taken into consideration? he told the BBC.

I never asked to leave but I was always pushed by the club. I am here and I would like to play for Liverpool but …