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Wednesday, February 19, 2020

February 19, 2020

Five ties to watch in the Europa League this week

PARIS:

The Europa League knockout phase begins on Thursday, with VAR being introduced to Europe’s secondary club competition for the first time outwith the final for the last 32, first-leg ties. AFP Sport picks five games to watch this week:

Manchester United’s Champions League aspirations have been given a major boost in recent days, first with the news of Manchester City’s two-year ban from the competition. Then, on Monday, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side beat Chelsea 2-0 away to close to within three points of their opponents in fourth place in the Premier League.

Now they revert their focus to the Europa League, which could also offer them a ticket to next season’s Champions League if they reach the final in Gdansk in May and lift the trophy.United head to Belgium to take on Club Brugge in the first leg of their tie. Beaten by Liverpool in two European finals in the 1970s, Club Brugge are not a side to be taken lightly. They dropped out of the Champions League group stage despite holding Real Madrid away, and are nine points clear atop the Belgian league.

Arsenal are unbeaten in their last eight games under Mikel Arteta, although the Gunners’ new Spanish boss could do with turning some of his team’s many draws into more victories.

Currently in mid-table in the Premier League, last season’s beaten finalists travel to face Olympiakos knowing this competition is surely their best bet if they are to return to the Champions League next term.

“They may not have started well in the Premier League this season, but they have great players, are dangerous and deserve our respect,” said Pedro Martins, the coach of Olympiakos.

The Greek league leaders dropped out of the Champions League group stage despite holding Tottenham Hotspur to a 2-2 draw in Piraeus.

After enchanting Europe on their run to the Champions League semi-finals last year, Ajax were brought crashing back to earth when they were eliminated from this season’s competition in the group stage.

The Dutch champions were then handed a tough Europa League draw against a Getafe side who have been one of the stories of the season in Spain.

The unfashionable outfit from the working-class satellite town just south of Madrid finished fifth in La Liga last season and are currently third under Jose Bordalas, whose his idol as a youngster was Johan Cruyff.

“They are warriors. They fight for every ball and really give everything,” Ajax star Dusan Tadic told Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad. “They are physically very strong and go beyond the limits if necessary.”

It is Getafe’s first European knockout tie since they took Bayern Munich to extra time in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in 2008.

Erling Braut Haaland’s eight goals were not enough for Salzburg to qualify from the Champions League group stage, and the Austrians have since lost their striker to Borussia Dortmund. Japanese winger Takumi Minamino also departed for Liverpool, leaving them looking seriously weakened for the second half of the season.

Salzburg did sign Swiss starlet Noah Okafor, but their first league game after a long winter break ended in a 3-2 home defeat by title rivals LASK Linz last weekend.

Now Salzburg face Eintracht Frankfurt, meaning a reunion with Adi Huetter, who coached Salzburg to a league and cup double in 2015.

Celtic have been eliminated at this stage in the last two seasons but should fancy their chances against FC Copenhagen as they head to Denmark.

While Celtic have claimed nine straight wins this calendar year, Copenhagen’s first league game of 2020 ended in defeat last weekend.

Current Celtic manager Neil Lennon was a player when the Glasgow giants lost 3-1 on their last trip to Copenhagen in the Champions League in 2006.

His team qualified by topping their group, and of this tie he said: “It’s great to have European football after Christmas, and it’s a tough draw. It could have been tougher, but it could have been easier.”

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Tuesday, February 18, 2020

February 18, 2020

'Welcome to Anfield': Klopp warns Atletico

LONDON:

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp expects a very different atmosphere at Anfield will help turn his side’s Champions League last 16 tie with Atletico Madrid around after a 1-0 first leg defeat in the Spanish capital on Tuesday.

Saul Niguez’s early strike inflicted just Liverpool’s second defeat of the season in all competitions with a senior team.

The holders were frustrated by the hosts’ playacting and Polish referee Szymon Marciniak’s performance as Atletico boss Diego Simeone whipped the Wanda Metropolitano crowd into a frenzy.“Wow, that’s energy!” Klopp told BT Sport when asked about Simeone’s touchline antics.

“I don’t think I have to do that much to be honest (in the second leg), I hope I can be focused a little bit more on the game.

“Our people will be ready. Welcome to Anfield! It’s not over yet.”

Klopp replaced Sadio Mane at half-time with the Senegalese at risk of being sent-off as Atletico players surrounded Marciniak demanding a second yellow card for the African player of the year just before the break.

“He was targeted that was clear,” added Klopp.

“Sadio played a really good first half and they only thing they wanted is to make sure he gets a yellow card.

“For me we didn’t lose, it’s only half-time, the score is 1-0 that’s all. But you need to be really strong as a ref in this atmosphere, that was obviously not easy.”

The visitors were also riled by the celebrations of Simeone and some of his players at full-time after they secured a victory that could kickstart at faltering season.

“They’ve celebrated as if they’ve won the tie after the game, so let’s see,” said left-back Andy Robertson.

“We’ve got a couple of weeks, Premier League business to take care of, and then we’re coming back to Anfield.

“We know our fans will be there, we’ll be there, so it’s up to them to come as well.”

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February 18, 2020

Neymar criticises PSG injury handling after Dortmund defeat

DORTMUND:

Neymar has criticised Paris Saint-Germain’s handling of his recent injury after scoring in the 2-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund, which leaves the French club facing the prospect of another early Champions League exit.

After missing four games in the last fortnight with a rib injury, the Brazilian superstar looked short of match fitness in Tuesday’s last-16, first-leg, defeat at Dortmund.

Norwegian goal-machine Erling Braut Haaland scored twice to make him the Champions League joint top-scorer, but Neymar gave PSG a lifeline for the second leg in Paris on March 11.He tapped home for what could prove a crucial away goal after being set up by France striker Kylian Mbappe in the second half.

Neymar, the world’s most expensive player, was critical of the French league champions for not letting him play more before Tuesday’s clash.

“It’s hard to go four games without playing,” said Neymar.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t my choice, it was the choice of the club, of the doctors, they made that decision, which I didn’t like.

“We had a lot of discussions about it because I wanted to play, I felt good, but the club was afraid and in the end it was me who suffered.”

Big-spending PSG are desperate to avoid exiting the Champions League at the first knockout round for a fourth season in a row.

“It was a tough game, but we have to do what we can in the return game,” Neymar, 28, told reporters.

“Playing now at home is the best thing in the world, we have 90 minutes to do something.

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February 18, 2020

Dortmund loanee Hakimi unsure over Real Madrid future

The young defender is desperate to play and seemed to concede a permanent move away from the Santiago Bernabeu could suit him

Real Madrid full-back Achraf Hakimi said he wants to play and continue growing as his loan deal with Borussia Dortmund expires at the end of the season.

Achraf has starred for Bundesliga side Dortmund since arriving from La Liga giants Madrid on a two-season loan contract in 2018.

The 21-year-old produced another solid performance as Dortmund defeated Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in Tuesday's Champions League last-16 first leg.

Achraf is set to return to Madrid at season's end but the Morocco international said anything is possible as he looks to further his development.

"That's what people say and the contract I have signed," Achraf said when asked about his loan spell ending in June. "Everything can happen in June, but we'll see what the summer holds.

"In my head is that I want to play and I want to continue growing. Here in Germany they are giving me the opportunity."

Erling Haaland scored a quick-fire second-half brace to lead Dortmund past visiting French champions PSG on Tuesday.

Haaland has been a revelation since swapping Salzburg for Dortmund in January, scoring 11 goals in all competitions and Achraf hailed his team-mate post-game.

"We have prepared the game quite well and it worked out well," Achraf added. "Haaland has helped us a lot and we hope it stays that way.

"He [Haaland] has been smart. He is still young and knows he has to play."

Dortmund coach Lucien Favre also applauded Haaland, singling out his defensive work rather than his two decisive goals.

"He defended well with the others," Favre told reporters post-game. "He also stood very compactly in combination with the other players. It helped us that he also defended. He did that very, very well.

"If we have the possibility to combine with him, then we will do that. Either with balls into the depth or he gets the ball and holds it for now. He did that very well.

"Before the 2-1 it is a great pass from Giovanni Reyna. The ball was very good, but it was especially so good because Haaland moved well."

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February 18, 2020

Borussia Dortmund beats Neymar, PSG as Erling Haaland scores two more goals

Erling Haaland picked up right where he left off in the Champions League.

The 19-year-old Borussia Dortmund striker — acquired in January after scoring eight times in six group stage games for Red Bull Salzburg — bagged another two goals on Tuesday to give BVB a 2-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their round of 16 clash in Germany.

Brazilian superstar Neymar scored PSG’s lone goal off a pass from Kylian Mbappe two minutes before Haaland’s winner. The second leg will be played in the French capital on March 11.

Dortmund-PSG livens up after a scoreless first half

After an unexpectedly listless (and scoreless) opening 45 minutes from two of the global game’s most attack-minded teams, the match exploded midway though the second half.

Dortmund had come out of the tunnel full of energy following the break, and any defensive caginess from the visitors went out the window after Haaland got the hosts on the scoreboard in the 69th minute:

Neymar gets PSG a potentially vital away goal

Haaland’s strike changed the complexion of the match. Suddenly forced to chase the game, PSG surged forward with its all-world front three of Neymar, Mbappe and Angel Di Maria.

It took the Parisians just six minutes to overwhelm the hosts’ suspect back line, with Neymar able to turn in his goal into the roof of Roman Burki’s net from close range:

It might not have been enough to salvage a draw in the end, but Neymar’s goal still matters. Because of the away goals rule, it means that a 1-0 triumph in the return leg at Parc des Princes would be enough to beat manager Thomas Tuchel’s former team and send PSG to the quarterfinals.

Haaland gets the last laugh

A win is a win, though, and Dortmund will certainly take it. Even after Neymar temporarily silenced the 80,000-plus in attendance at the Westfalenstadion, there was a sense that teenage sensation Haaland wasn’t done scoring himself.

Sure enough, the youngster put the home side up for good with a rocket of a shot from distance just moments after the restart — a goal that was assisted by 17-year-old Giovanni Reyna, who became the youngest American ever to play in Europe’s top club competition when he entered off the bench in the second half:

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February 18, 2020

Well-drilled Atletico Madrid leaves Liverpool on verge of early Champions League collapse

There’s a reason it took more than a quarter of a century for someone to win the UEFA Champions League in back-to-back seasons. AC Milan won the old European Cup in 1989 and 1990, and then nobody repeated again until Real Madrid won it three years in a row from 2016 through 2018.

Certainly, there were dynastic runs, like Barca winning it three times in six years, or Real winning three in five at the turn of the century. But winning it back-to-back is the rarest of things.

On Tuesday, as the Champions League returned from its two-month hiatus to kick off the typically unchained knockout stages following the dreary group stage, Liverpool once again learned why repeating in Europe is so tough.

It’s the margins – margins so fine they make a brand-new razor blade look like a blunt instrument.

The margin of a ball taking a bounce right in front of Saul Niguez from Atletico Madrid’s corner, allowing the midfielder to slide it into the net for the only goal in the first leg of the round of 16 with the defending champions, which ended 1-0. The margin of Atletico not quite converting any of its other early chances, in one case saved by Andy Robertson’s outstretched toe.

The margin of Mohamed Salah’s shot just skimming off a defender and over at the other end. Or the Liverpool forward’s open header only just missing the target right after halftime. The margin of Alvaro Morata just getting nudged off the ball as he wound up for a wide-open shot to put away the game – and likely the two-leg tie. The margin of Jordan Henderson volleying the ball inches wide.

A narrow margin was all Atletico’s embattled manager Diego Simeone needed. He’s leveraged those scarce victories into two runs to the Champions League final, in 2014 and 2016, turning an unappreciated and unloved club into a European power. There was little pretense of Atletico even attacking for much of the second half, only venturing out when Liverpool began to tire of crashing onto the red-and-white embankment. All the while, Simeone waved wildly at the fans to ratchet up the pressure in the cooker.

Simeone can turn a 1-0 score into anything, like water into wine – or maybe vinegar, more like. In the return leg in Liverpool, the Reds will huff and puff and struggle to blow down the Atletico defenses, poured from reinforced concrete. But there isn’t a man in the world more qualified to protect a 1-0 lead.

And so Liverpool’s dream season could finally unravel, at least partially, in that single moment in front of its goal in the Wanda Metropolitano. Everything had broken right for Jurgen Klopp’s much-loved, much-admired team this season. It couldn’t have been in a rosier position going into this game. Its staggering 25-point Premier League all but sews up a first league title in three decades as Manchester City was wasteful and everybody else was just a mess.

The storied club didn’t even bother to field a first-team lineup for an FA Cup replay, instead sending the under-23s and opting to keep its winter break pristine. It was betting it all on that liberating league title and the European title defense, with the Club World Cup already secured. And it could rotate players in the league to rest and prepare for the Champions League optimally.

But then Liverpool fell behind for the first time in 1,739 minutes, if you discount the Dec. 17 League Cup match against Aston Villa, when the under-23 team was eliminated as well. Atletico was only the fourth team all season to shut Liverpool out – in 43 games – during regulation. If you discount the Villa game or the Club World Cup final against Flamengo, when Liverpool won in extra-time, it was just the second shutout. The first also came in the Champions League, in Liverpool’s very first group stage match against Napoli on Sep. 17, the only other first-team defeat of the season.

During the second half, Klopp grew ever more animated, grimacing and getting cautioned by the referee. He knew the trap his team had walked into. He knew that Simeone had organized his side so meticulously that there was simply no room for Liverpool’s lightning-quick transitions. Every time the Reds won the ball, Atletico was already there, bunkered into its half, tight lines arranged just so, drilled to perfection. You can’t catch out a team that never leaves its half, pouncing on a set piece for the lead.

Klopp knew what the margins were. He understood immediately how much trouble his side is in. He now knows how close it is to seeing its superb accomplishments in the league sullied somewhat by a European campaign that could collapse prematurely.

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