England and Italy disappoint, Van Persie, Oxlade-Chamberlain injured

This morning's news, June 5, updates the developments of international friendly matches that took place early this morning, the results of the Roland Garros tennis tournament, and updates on the injury situation of soccer stars before the 2014 World Cup.

Roland Garros: Defeating Ferrer, Nadal reunites with Murray in the semi-finals

In the second quarter-final of the French Open, world number one Rafael Nadal started slowly and lost to David Ferrer. However, he did not waver. He played with concentration in the second set, won important break points and won with the exact score of 6-4.

Set 3 easily belonged to Nadal when he broke early and then crushed Ferrer with a score of 6-0. The following set also witnessed Ferrer's rapid decline when he only won 1 game before giving up 1-6.

Nadal excelled in the semi-finals.

Nadal's opponent in the semi-finals will be Andy Murray. Murray started the match better with a 6-4 win in the first set, before increasing the gap to 2-0 with a resounding 6-1 victory in the second set against Monfils.

However, the British player immediately encountered strong resistance from his opponent. Being cornered, Monfils played as if he had nothing to lose. The French player's efforts were rewarded with two consecutive wins 6-4, 6-1 and forced Murray into a deciding set 5.

With the psychological advantage after catching up the score, Monfils should have played explosively in set 5. However, things went in the opposite direction. Despite receiving cheers from tens of thousands of home fans, the 27-year-old tennis player's declining physical strength caused him to lose 3 breaks and quickly lose 0-6 after only 22 minutes.

In the women's singles, an easy win over Svetlana Kuznetsova set up a clash with Andrea Petkovic in the semi-finals of Roland Garros this year. Despite facing an "experienced" Kuznetsova who is currently in top form, Halep showed no signs of fear against her senior.

On the contrary, the Romanian player completely dominated the first set. Halep won 3 breaks in the set to end the perfect start with a 6-2 victory.

Monfils disappointed.

In the second set, Halep faced 7 break-points and the 1991-born player lost 1 of them. However, by breaking Kuznetsova in 3 games, Halep easily won another set 6-2 and officially eliminated the Russian senior in the quarterfinals.

Halep’s next opponent is Andrea Petkovic, who surprisingly defeated Sara Errani with the same score of 6-2 in both sets. In fact, this was a match where the serving ability of both players was not really good. However, Petkovic was the player who excelled in the ability to return serve and the 6-2, 6-2 victory for the world 27 player was completely deserved. Thus, this year’s Roland Garros semi-final will be an interesting clash between two players who are in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time.

Netherlands win. England and Italy disappoint.

In the friendly matches before the 2014 World Cup, the Netherlands had an impressive warm-up against Wales. Star Robben opened the score in the 32nd minute of the match. And the name that sealed the 2-0 score was Jeremain Lens.

Chamberlain was injured after the match against Ecuador.

In another match, Italy played unconvincingly against Luxembourg. The first goal was scored by Marchisio in the 9th minute of the match. However, in the 85th minute, Luxembourg unexpectedly scored the equalizer to make it 1-1 after Chanot scored.

Meanwhile, England's stars were surprised early on in Ecuador, when Valencia scored in the 8th minute. After about half the match, England scored 2 goals to take a 2-1 lead, thanks to Rooney and Southampton striker Ricky Lambert. However, in the 70th minute, Arroyo brought the match back to the starting line with an equalizer.

Results of international friendly matches

Gibraltar – Malta 1-0

Algeria – Romania 2-1

Hungary – Albania 1-0

Netherlands – Wales 2-0

Italy – Luxembourg 1-1

Ecuador – England 2-2

Jamaica – Egypt 2-1

Iceland – Estonia 1-0

Cristiano Ronaldo will be injured for life

The Guardian has just published a surprising piece of information, that the injuries to Ronaldo's left knee and left thigh, which caused him to miss the recent friendly match against Greece, were caused by a famous witch in Ghana. This witch predicted in February 2014 that Ronaldo would even miss the 2014 World Cup because of the above injuries.

Ronaldo was cursed by a witch.

The witch doctor, Nana Kwaku Bonsam, meaning “Wednesday Demon,” told Ghanaian media: “I knew about Cristiano Ronaldo’s injury, I created it. I’m serious. Last week, I went around and found four dogs, and I caught them to create a special magic called Kahwiri Kapam.”

“I said four months ago that I would seriously injure Cristiano Ronaldo and keep him out of the World Cup, not allowing him to play against Ghana. This injury will never be cured. They will never find a cure for it because it is caused by a spiritual factor. Today it is the knee, tomorrow it will be the thigh, the next day it will be something else.”

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ruptured ligaments

England have just drawn 2-2 with Ecuador in a friendly, but are worried about losing midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with a ligament injury. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was injured in the match, and will undergo scans on his right knee to determine the extent of the injury. England manager Roy Hodgson himself said he was “concerned about some ligament damage”. The man who injured Chamberlain was Carlos Gruezo, after a collision in the second half.

Before meeting Italy at the World Cup on June 14, England will play a friendly match with Honduras.

Robin van Persie could miss the World Cup?

The Netherlands easily beat Wales 2-0 in a friendly match early this morning, but the price they paid was Robin van Persie grimacing as he walked down the tunnel after being substituted in the 45th minute. A member of the Dutch team confirmed to the Daily Mail that van Persie had suffered a groin injury and would see the team doctor to determine the severity.

“He has to wait until he sees a doctor. It would be better if he didn’t get injured in such a small game. It seems to be a minor injury, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore it,” said Louis van Gaal.

Van Gaal added that he hoped van Persie would be fully fit before the World Cup after missing six months of last season with a knee injury. Van Persie himself tried not to worry Dutch fans: “I left the pitch just to be on the safe side,” he said.

After undergoing a medical examination, Diego Costa is preparing to join Chelsea.

The Daily Mail reports that Brazilian striker Diego Costa has undergone a medical and is set to join Chelsea for £35 million. There is no official word yet, but Chelsea hope to complete Costa's transfer from Atletico Madrid by June 12, which means before the World Cup starts.

Costa is a Chelsea player.

Costa is currently suffering from a hamstring injury, while training with the Spanish national team for the 2014 World Cup. Spanish national team coach Vicente Del Bosque still decided to wait for Costa and call him up for the World Cup, ignoring the striker who had good form last season, Fernando Llorente.

Tottenham want to push Roberto Soldado away

Tottenham are keen to offload star striker Roberto Soldado next season. The striker is likely to go to Sevilla, his former club, on loan as part of a deal to sign left-back Alberto Moreno from Tottenham.

Will Soldado be pushed away?

The “Roosters” have placed a bid of 14 million euros for Moreno, a defender who is also being courted by Chelsea and Liverpool. New Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino is very fond of Latin-style players and has asked the club’s board to approach Moreno.

Moreno was also recently included in the Spanish national team roster for the 2014 World Cup. However, he was left out of the final 23-man roster.

Moreno is 21 years old this year. He is a product of Sevilla's training academy.

According to Thethaovanhoa.vn