LONDON -- Chelsea star Eden Hazard does not believe Maurizio Sarri will be able to transform him into the kind of prolific scoring false nine that Dries Mertens blossomed into under the Italian at Napoli.

Hazard passed the century mark for Chelsea goals in a 2-1 win over Watford at Vicarage Road on Wednesday, having been deployed in the middle of Sarri's three-man attack for the fourth consecutive Premier League game.

Those four appearances have yielded three goals and three assists for Hazard --...

LIVERPOOL, England -- Virgil van Dijk believes his challenge on Dries Mertens early in Liverpool's 1-0 win over Napoli on Tuesday was a fair tackle.

Mohamed Salah scored the only goal of the game in the 34th minute at Anfield to send Liverpool into the round-of-16 of the Champions League, although they could have been down to 10 men before the goal was scored.

With 13 minutes on the clock in the must-win tie, Van Dijk slid in on Mertens, winning the ball before catching the forward high on the ankle...

Belgium scored nine goals in their three World Cup group games, more than any other country, and forward Dries Mertens said on Saturday he was motivated by more than just winning the trophy.

Mertens, scorer of a superb volley against Panama that opened Belgium's account in Russia, joked that friends back home were counting on him to help the team hit a target of 16 goals to make good on a retailer's special World Cup promotion.

Asked by reporters at their training camp near Moscow about Belgium's...

Dries Mertens said it was a "big relief" to score his fine volley that put Belgium on their way to a 3-0 win over Panama to open the World Cup.

Belgium were frustrated for the first 45 minutes but Mertens broke the deadlock two minutes after the restart with a superb shot into the opposite corner beyond a helpless Jaime Penedo in the Panama goal.

"The first goal was a big relief for everyone. It was really difficult," Mertens said after the game. "You know when you begin at a World Cup after...