All is forgiven as Luis Suarez and Giorgio Chiellini finally make peace (VIDEO)

Substitute Sergi Darder fired Real Mallorca into the Copa del Rey final in a dramatic penalty shoot-out at Real Sociedad.

The visitors scored all five of their spot-kicks after Mikel Oyarzabal had missed with the hosts’ first attempt to book a showdown with either Athletic Bilbao or Atletico Madrid, who meet on Thursday at the San Mames Stadium with Bilbao defending a 1-0 first leg lead.

Mallorca, who sit in 16th place in LaLiga, had taken the lead at the Reale Arena through Giovanni Gonzalez’s header after keeper Dominik Greif had saved Brais Mendez’s penalty but Oyarzabal made it 1-1 to take the tie into extra time, only to be found wanting from 12 yards.

A LA FINAAAAAAAL

— Real Mallorca (@RCD_Mallorca)

Mikel Merino, whose late strike …

Manchester City are one win away from sporting immortality after underlining their greatness by completing a Premier League and FA Cup double.

Not even arch-rivals Manchester United, in the white-hot atmosphere of a Wembley derby, could throw a spanner in the works as their seemingly relentless charge towards the treble continued on Saturday.

As the only previous side to win the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season – back in 1999 – United and their fans would have loved nothing more than to halt Pep Guardiola’s juggernaut.

— Manchester City (@ManCity)

Yet, although they were not eviscerated in the manner Arsenal and Real Madrid were in two other high-profile City fixtures recently, they were ultimately no match…

Research from FIFA has shown a 30 per cent increase in fees paid to agents during transfers in 2013.

The Global Transfer Market 2014 report, carried out by football s govering body, revealed the increase last year in comparison to 2012.

It comes despite a reduction in the number of transfers involving agents or intermediary commissions , with this figure dropping from 17 per cent two years to ago to 14 per cent.

The research is based on data from the International Transfer Matching System (ITMS), which became mandatory for all international transfers of professional male players for 11-a-side football in 2010, and also revealed England spent more than any other country.

Clubs in England spent $913 million on transfers, representing a quarter of the total, with Br…

Patrick Vieira s equaliser cancelled out Nikola Kalinic s opener but Manchester City still had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Blackburn at Eastlands on Saturday.

Kalinic gave Rovers an early lead after a blunder from Joe Hart and despite pulling level at the start of the second half, they could not find a winner, leaving Roberto Mancini s free-spending City with only one win from four games.

Sam Allardyce s Blackburn will be satisfied to come away with a point to avoid slipping to three straight defeats for the first time since the manager took charge in December 2008.

Blackburn threatened early with a goal-mouth scramble from Morten Gamst Pedersen s corner.

But City cleared and immediately went close themselves, with Paul Robinson having to turn away Ada…

The Clasico circus is rolling into town and while the usual intense scrutiny will pile on Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi it is Real Madrid s king of escapology Sergio Ramos who can prove decisive in the battle of LaLiga s behemoths. 

Few matches in world football stir up passions like El Clasico and no debate divides opinion more than that of who is the greater individual talent between Madrid s ultimate Galactico Ronaldo and Barcelona s king Messi.

Ronaldo s uncanny talismanic traits have been on show in the past week with the Portugal captain scoring five of Madrid s goals in a 6-3 aggregate victory over Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.

But on the biggest stages it has been Madrid s captain fantastic Ramos and not Ronaldo who has been …

Lionel Messi said LaLiga is more competitive than ever and he hopes it stays that way as he collected the Trofeo Di Stefano for the division s best player in 2017-18.

The Barcelona superstar received the award from Spanish sports newspaper Marca on Monday, while also being presented with the Trofeo Pichichi for his 34-goal haul last season.

Messi took his LaLiga tally for 2018-19 to nine with a double in Barca s surprise 4-3 loss at home to Real Betis on Sunday, a result that saw their advantage at the summit cut to just one point.

Sevilla, Atletico Madrid, Deportivo Alaves and Espnayol are all above perennial title challengers Real Madrid who sit four points off top  in the table and Messi welcomes the more open nature of the division.

It s good that …

Raheem the role model

Other examples of Sterling s community mindedness could be found when he arranged tickets to City s FA Cup semi-final against Brighton and Hove Albion for 550 pupils from his old school, while last month he urged those able to among his 2.2million Twitter follows to register to vote in the upcoming UK general election.

He s a young, black role model for so many young people. His status will go far and beyond football, that s for sure, said Townsend, who feels Sterling can align with some of British football s true pioneers and icons.

You will have young people not just wanting to be Raheem Sterling the footballer, but who will want to be Raheem Sterling the human being.

I take that as the kind of impact John Barnes had, when he w…

More claims of graft in world football marred the final stages of the race to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on Tuesday, as Olympic chiefs vowed to probe one of their own officials caught up in the allegations.

The renewed allegations and action by the International Olympic Committee failed to dampen an intense lobbying drive by British prime minister David Cameron in Zurich to woo support for England s 2018 bid ahead of Thursday s vote.

But a spokesman for Vladimir Putin said that the Russian premier would follow in his rival s steps, as officials from Russia 2018 suggested that the members of the FIFA executive committee had already made up their mind.

The final decision will be made in a secret ballot among the 22 top footballing officials on Thursday, the…

Christophe Galtier has extended his contract as coach of Saint-Etienne by three seasons, the French first division club announced on Thursday.

The 44-year-old took over as first team coach from Alain Perrin in December 2009, having arrived at the club as Perrin s assistant in November 2008.

Despite having been in charge of first-team affairs since the end of last year, Galtier was only tied to the club by his original contract as an assistant coach, which was due to expire in June 2011.

It s an important decision to bring stability and put the club on a long-term footing, club president Roland Romeyer told the Saint-Etienne website.

Galtier took Saint-Etienne, 10-time French champions, to the top of Ligue 1 earlier this season, but a subsequent nine-gam…

that Chelsea have turned down a £75m bid from Chinese side Jiangsu Suning for Oscar.

The news comes weeks after the same side signed fellow Brazil international Ramires from the Blues, and amidst a hub of transfer activity from the Asian division.

The league’s transfer record has been broken five times this season and the potential deal for Oscar was worth more than what Suning paid for Alex Teixeira this week.

Oscar moved to Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2012 and has so far racked up one hundred and seventy-nine appearances for the club, scoring thirty-eight goals three of which came in his sides 5-1 win over MK Dons in the fourth round of the FA Cup last weekend.

Having been held to a goalless draw by Watford on Wednesday, Guus Hiddink’s s…