Category: RSS English

Zinedine Zidane was contemptuous of Real Madrid’s first-half performance after they were forced to come from two goals down to avoid an ignominious Champions League defeat against Club Brugge.

Emmanuel Dennis’ peculiar brace gave the Belgian side a 2-0 half-time lead against the 13-time European champions, who opened their Pool A account by being brushed aside 3-0 by Paris St Germain a fortnight ago.

Sergio Ramos halved the deficit before the hour before Brugge captain Ruud Vormer was sent off for a second bookable offence and, from the resulting free-kick, Casemiro scored five minutes from time to rescue a 2-2 draw.

Zidane said in his press conference afterwards: “The truth is that we produced a poor first-half display, we made a really bad start in the first five minutes and they made life difficult for us straight away.

“We weren’t in control of any aspect of the game and the second half was a different story and we changed the complexion of the game.

“Fortunately we reacted well and we can take that as a positive. It’s a game of two halves, and at half-time I said to the players: if we go on like this we will lose the game, but we have 45 minutes to change that.

“What I take away with me is the reaction from the players because they are the ones who changed the game. That’s what I take away with me, that and the point.”

Nigerian forward Dennis made a hash of the opener after nine minutes, failing to control the ball before it bounced off his leg and trickled into the net, with the goal awarded after initially being chalked off for offside.

Dennis then broke free in the 39th minute after dispossessing Luka Modric and regained his composure after threatening to stumble to lift the ball over Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Zidane said: “The two goals that they scored were a joke, that’s all I can say on that.

“What happened in the first half can happen to you. We looked to take the three points from start to finish and that was impossible in the first half. We won the second half 2-0 and we end up taking a point.

“I’m not worried. We know we have to make and finish chances because in the first 10 minutes, if we had been a little more clinical, we could have had the opening goal.

“We need to do that at home, go to kill the game from minute one and push our rivals. I don’t want to speak ill of a rival, but if we pressed like we did in the second half, they would have had no chance.”

A stomach ailment led to Courtois being substituted at half-time while defender Nacho’s knee injury led to his withdrawal before the start of the second half.

“Courtois is in a bad way and could not continue for the second half,” added Zidane, who revealed James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale were not considered after picking up knocks earlier this week.

“Nacho got injured too. Courtois was not injured quite as badly, we’ll have to wait and see with the others.”

Arsenal fans and players past and present could not help but revel in former Gunner Serge Gnabry’s four-goal rout of Tottenham in the Champions League group stage.

Spurs were soundly beaten 7-2 by German champions Bayern Munich in north London, and Gnabry notched four of them as he announced himself on the global stage.

Gnabry came through as a teenager at Arsenal but was sold by the club to Werder Bremen in 2016, moving to Bayern the year after.

Former team-mate Hector Bellerin tweeted “@SergeGnabry joke man” after the winger’s performance, while Gunners legend Ian Wright tweeted five applause emojis.

Arsenal fans endured mixed emotions, pleased to see a former Gunner score heavily against Tottenham, but regretful that the club sold such a promising talent.

“Thankfully Gnabry scored so many times that it stopped being sad and became absolutely hilarious,” Arsenal fan James McNicholas (also known as gunnerblog) tweeted.

Actor, comedian and Arsenal fan Matthew Lucas also celebrated, posting “What a goal by gnabry” while another fan joked “Grant Serge Gnabry the freedom of Islington immediately.”

Former Norway and Middlesbrough player Jan Aage Fjortoft meanwhile pointed to Gnabry’s unsuccessful loan spell at West Brom not long before he left English football.

“Gnabry 4 goals against Tottenham. WBA lost 1-0 at Leeds. You know what I mean,” he tweeted.

And former Tottenham striker Gary Lineker offered Spurs fans a small crumb of comfort after Gnabry’s hat-trick goal, tweeting: “Superb hat-trick from Serge Gnabry. Only consolation for @SpursOfficial is that @Arsenal let him slip through the net.”

Champions League winner and former Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand was sympathetic towards Tottenham’s players on BT Sport, saying: “We’ve all been there. We got beat at United, 6-1 against Man City our arch rivals.

“That feeling is a horrendous feeling and as a player all you want is a game to come round again – you’d take a game tomorrow.

“It won’t go away completely but you want the opportunity to go out there and put on a performance and get a result to revitalise not only your team and staff, but the fans as well.”

Pep Guardiola hailed Raheem Sterling’s goalscoring instinct after he provided the decisive moment in Manchester City’s hard-fought Champions League win over Dinamo Zagreb.

England forward Sterling came off the bench to break the deadlock in the second half and put City on course for a 2-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium that took them to the top of Group C.

Sterling has improved year-on-year under Guardiola at City and his 66th-minute strike was his ninth goal of the campaign. He then provided the late assist for Phil Foden to wrap up the scoring in stoppage time.

City boss Guardiola said: “He’s a player who is always there. He has this talent, he loves to score goals. When crosses come he is always there – you have that feeling.

“I think he can still improve his finishing. Still there is a gap to being even more clinical, but it’s important that all the time he’s there and that’s why he’s been able to score the goals.

“A few days ago he missed chances at Everton but he was always thinking of the next one, and today the pass for Phil was perfect.”

City dominated the opening period but wasted several chances and, without the injured Kevin De Bruyne, were beginning to look laboured until Sterling’s introduction.

Guardiola said: “It was good. We didn’t concede a shot on target. We had huge possession, we created enough chances to score earlier but we were patient. We didn’t let them run. It was a good game.

“We had chances but they defended really well and that’s why it was difficult to score a goal.”

Guardiola was shown a yellow card for his angry reaction to a refereeing decision on a night when City might also have been aggrieved about a couple of VAR penalty calls.

Guardiola, however, refused to discuss the issues.

“No comment,” he said.

Dinamo did prove stubborn opponents but coach Nenad Bjelica admitted his side were second best.

He said: “We conceded that first goal in the best phase of our play. We were nervous a lot during the match, making mistakes.

“The home team had a lot of good chances and after we conceded we tried to turn to attack more.

“It was an open match but they are a level above us and they showed that today.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer felt his Manchester United players were affected by the raising of an offside flag for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal but did not dispute that Arsenal deserved their equaliser.

Assistant referee Scott Ledger raised his flag when Aubameyang ran onto Bukayo Saka’s pass in the 58th minute following a mistake by Axel Tuanzebe but replays showed the striker was several yards onside and VAR awarded the goal.

That cancelled out Scott McTominay’s opener just before half-time and the game finished 1-1.

Solskjaer appeared unhappy with the goal on the touchline, but was magnanimous in his press conference later, saying: “Ashley (Young) certainly holds his hand up because he can look straight at the linesman.

“Maybe he hesitates a little bit. He could have probably got a block in and that probably would have helped David (De Gea) but that’s no consolation for us now because it’s a perfectly good goal for them.

“He probably should have kept the flag down. He made an impact on the situation by raising the flag.”

Solskjaer was also aggrieved that United were not awarded a penalty shortly before Aubameyang’s goal for a handball by Sead Kolasinac, which was not deemed an obvious mistake by referee Kevin Friend.

“Loads of the penalty decisions now the refs, if you don’t (give) it, you can’t go back and have it,” added the Norwegian. “But it’s a work in progress. I’m for the right decisions and they definitely deserved their goal.”

It was all too obvious in the first half an hour that this was a contest between two teams at a low ebb, with the first shot not arriving until the 29th minute.

The game improved thereafter but was lacking in quality throughout.

Solskjaer was more animated than usual on the touchline, and he said: “I thought the first 15 or 20 minutes we could have been more direct, more positive. I just wanted the boys to grasp the moment.

“Half-time just came and we didn’t come out of the blocks second half. The first 15 minutes it was almost like we gifted them the initiative. After they scored the response was fantastic. I thought we put the game to them again.”

The result left United in 10th place in the Premier League with nine points from seven games – the first time they have failed to reach double figures by this stage for 30 years.

Solskjaer remains positive there are better times ahead, though, saying: “There’s many things that we look at and many things that give me a lot of confidence.

“We need to learn to win these games. We know that this team is going to be improving. I thought we saw some excellent performances from Scotty, Andreas (Pereira), you can see Axel (Tuanzebe) is going to be a top, top player, so some very positive things.”

Arsenal edged back into the top four with a point that left boss Unai Emery reasonably satisfied.

He said: “We wanted to win because we were thinking it was a very good opportunity to get three points but after 90 minutes it’s a fair result for both (teams).

“That result can be a good point if we win on Sunday against Bournemouth at home. We will analyse the positive things and things to improve.

“Defensively I thought we were very competitive and offensively in some moments maybe we could do better to create more chances.”

Under-fire AC Milan boss Marco Giampaolo admitted the pressure got to his players as they crashed to a 3-1 home defeat by Fiorentina.

The Rossoneri slumped to a fourth loss in six matches and had Mateo Musacchio sent off for a nasty lunge on Franck Ribery.

The defeat leaves a huge question mark over the future of Giampaolo, with reports in Italy claiming he would be sacked were they to lose on Sunday night.

Goals from Erick Pulgar, Gaetano Castrovilli and Ribery did the damage for Fiorentina, who also missed a penalty through Federico Chiesa, with Rafael Leao pulling one back.

“I believe in my ideas, but this Milan team looked like it turned up without ever having a training session together,” Giampaolo said on Sky Sport Italia.

“The team played with great character just three days ago (against Torino) and I saw moments of the football I like. Tonight, it played badly on an individual level, with no organisation or sense of collective responsibility.

“There are some players who are young and can try individual moves, but they can only get you so far. When things aren’t going well, you must have the strength to cling to your identity as a team.

“If we try to resolve things individually, we risk drowning in difficulties and that is what happened this evening.

“I take responsibility, of course, but I go forward because I believe in my ideas. The thing that annoyed me was the team looked like it turned up to San Siro without ever having a training session together. You can lose, but not like that.

“Up until three days ago, I liked the performance and saw good responses against Torino.

“Tonight, the pressure got to them, they felt the absolute need to win and I told them to play with all the right ingredients to win, not waiting for events to happen. We had to create the events ourselves.

“Instead, the pressure weighed on us, we were tense, not reacting quickly enough and evidently feeling the pressure.”

For Fiorentina it was a second win in five days having picked up their first victory of the season against Sampdoria in midweek.

Viola head coach Vincenzo Montella was full of praise for his side and singled out Ribery.

“It’s a great achievement to beat AC Milan at San Siro,” Montella told the club website.

“It’s never easy to play here with the fans whistling at you. We eased off a touch at 3-0 but overall I’m pleased.

“Ribery deserved the standing ovation. Once again he made the difference out there – he always does.”

Raheem Sterling has come to the defence of Manchester City team-mate Bernardo Silva after the Portuguese faced accusations of racism this week.

Midfielder Silva came under fire over a controversial tweet to City colleague Benjamin Mendy in which he posted pictures comparing the Frenchman, with whom he also played at Monaco, to the character on a packet of Conguitos chocolates.

Anti-discrimination body Kick It Out called on the Football Association to take action, referring to the contents of the post as a racist stereotype, while the governing body has been in contact with City requesting their observations.

Silva has since written to the FA expressing regret at any unintentional offence his tweet caused and, in the wake of City’s 3-1 win over Everton on Saturday night, Sterling showed his support for the Portugal international.

“It’s a situation that no one needs at this moment in time. It’s a situation between two friends, Bernardo and Mendy as everyone knows,” the England forward told Sky Sports.

“I can see exactly the point where some people can get touchy-feely on it, but I feel in that situation Bernardo made a joke to his friend.

“He’s not referred to his skin colour, he’s not referred to his lips in both pictures, they’ve both got small heads and the most important thing for me is that he didn’t refer to a colour.”

Silva could face a ban if found guilty of discriminatory behaviour, but Sterling does not believe that is the case.

He said: “We all know, Benjamin knows, everyone can see that Mendy is a black lad. We’ve got to be proud to be black as well. If someone refers to our skin colour with an image, I’d be upset about that – we know what skin colour we are.

“But he hasn’t referred to his skin colour, that’s the most important thing I feel about the situation. It’s really sad to see someone like Bernardo, the whole week, be kind of down about it because he’s not that way inclined.

“They’re two really good friends, it’s sad to see. I can understand where the criticism has come, but I don’t feel it was intentional of trying to be racist and that’s not because they’re my team-mates, it’s just how I view them.

“Bernardo’s deeply sorry about it. He’s not in the wrong for me, but at the same time I can see why people think it’s wrong and we’ve got to be smarter on social media. In this day and age anything you say can be judged and it’s a really sad situation.

“I haven’t really been looking into the newspapers. I’ve seen the situation but the club, as I always would believe, would handle the situation right and I feel the sooner the better the FA can understand there was no intent to be discriminatory, there’s not one moment he uses a negative term to talk about his skin colour.

“He tried to make a joke, it wasn’t the best one but we’ve got to move on and understand that it wasn’t intentional.”

Under-fire Stoke boss Nathan Jones made it clear he was “not going to hang around if I’m not wanted” after witnessing his side stretch their winless SkyBet Championship streak to 15 matches after a 3-2 home defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Jones, who edged a step closer to the sack with this latest loss, again slated errors for City’s downfall that came despite a positive start in which summer signing Lee Gregory netted his first goal for the club in the 10th minute.

But another mistake from goalkeeper Jack Butland – his sixth this season that have all led to goals and with Joe Lolley the latest grateful recipient – gave Forest a way back into the game just before half-time.

The victory was completed via second-half strikes from Sammy Ameobi and Lewis Grabban, with James McClean’s 84th-minute header too little too late.

Describing himself as “a big, bold, strong character”, Jones is not prepared to fall on his sword despite his side’s wretched run of form.

“I don’t think there was much wrong with the performance apart from the errors, three big errors, and that’s been the same for the nine games (in the league this season),” said Jones.

“Look, I speak to the board regularly. If anyone thinks I can’t change this then I’ve got no problem. I know it’s a results-based business so I’m not going to hang around if I’m not wanted.

“But I know we do good work, great work. Yet there has to come a point where certain people have to take responsibility.

“I will take responsibility for anything, I have to. I work hard, long hours, we’re thorough, we pick sides to win games, front-footed sides.

“I believe I’m doing my job but I’m not getting results – which ultimately is what it’s about.”

The win for a Forest side – now unbeaten in the league since the opening game of the season – fired the club to the top of the table, yet manager Sabri Lamouchi is baffled by what he sees as his side’s lack of confidence.

Lamouchi said: “I’m satisfied with the three goals, the three points and the fact we’re top of the league, but we need to do more with the performance.

“By chance, we came back into the game, and the second half was good for us but we never controlled the game and we made a lot of mistakes, gave away a lot of chances which led to critical situations.

“We cannot suffer like this. With the ball, we have a lot of great players and I am happy to work with them, but they need to play with more confidence, to learn to enjoy more on the pitch.

“They need to trust in the quality they have. We must play much better than we did tonight.”

Mauricio Pochettino admits Tottenham’s poor start to the season has left him hurting, but he is committed to turning their fortunes around.

Spurs have won just two of their opening eight games in all competitions this campaign and hit new depths on Tuesday when they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by League Two Colchester.

They are effectively already out of the Premier League title race, sitting 10 points behind leaders Liverpool, and some fans on social media were calling for Pochettino’s head, with #PochOut trending on Twitter.

Although the Argentine claims this period – which has been underpinned by dressing-room unrest due to the future of so many players being in doubt – is not the toughest he has endured at the club, the lack of wins is stinging.

He said: “Football for me is about the glory. There is nothing more important than the glory. When you win, how you feel…there is not another thing you can find like it.

“Of course I am suffering. This is my sixth season here and I am in an unbelievable environment here.

“The training ground is amazing and we have the best stadium in the world. But football is about glory, it is about winning.

“Of course you can be frustrated and disappointed sometimes.

“The challenge is to get back there and I told you we are going to fight to try to make this possible to try to change the history of this club.”

It is not only results this season that have contributed to Pochettino’s grizzly mood as he revealed the Champions League final defeat to Liverpool was one of his lowest moments in the game.

“In football I suffered two big disappointments,” he said. “One when I was a player and there was the penalty at the World Cup.

“It was always my dream to play in a World Cup, my massive, big dream.

“OK, we played three games and went home – when we were a candidate to win.

“For three or four years we were unbeaten. We didn’t lose and we arrived in a circumstance that went the worse and we were out in the group stages. I stayed at home and didn’t go out for 10 days.

“Another day was with Tottenham to win a trophy and the closest to win a trophy was of course the Champions League and it was made even bigger because it was the Champions League.

“To achieve the final of the Champions League with Tottenham – no one expected that.

“It was more than a dream, more than a dream. In that moment I felt disappointed and then I took a train to Barcelona and again you are like depressed.

“And of course you expect (clicks his fingers) because in your mind after a week you move on and say, ‘I want to, again, be there’ and when you, sometimes, I explain, because I don’t want to go back on my words for different reasons – yes, we have some disagreements, of course, you cannot be happy.

“You cannot be happy. But I am happy now because I am positive and of course this season is going to be another massive challenge to change the game and have that energy to try to be contenders and try again to fight for big things.

“I’m going to try until the end.”

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane was full of praise for Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo as the two teenagers helped the side to a 2-0 La Liga win over Osasuna.

Vinicius Junior notched his first goal of the season before the interval and fellow Brazilian Rodrygo marked his first appearance for the Spanish club with a debut goal in the second period.

The side have responded well to last week’s defeat at the hands of Paris St Germain with two consecutive wins sending them top of La Liga by a point.

Speaking after the match, Zidane said of the goalscorers: “You saw just how excited they were at scoring at the Bernabeu.

“I was most pleased with the way they controlled the ball and Rodrygo’s run leading up to the goal was amazing.

“We’re top but that doesn’t mean anything. The important thing is that we continue on in this vein.

“We need to believe in what you’re doing and keep working with the same energy.

“You’re going to have tough spells during a season but we’ve got to be happy tonight.”

Luka Jovic lashed an early rebound just over the crossbar and Toni Kroos was also off target soon after as Real settled and began to chase an early goal.

Osasuna defended effectively after an encouraging start, restricting Real to just one further attempt before Vinicius opened the scoring in the 36th minute.

The Brazilian took one touch after being teed up by Kroos and curled a shot from outside the box into the top corner via a slight deflection off Osasuna defender Raul Navas.

Vinicius tried his luck into the opposite corner moments later, but his effort just cleared the crossbar.

Jovic was wayward when he had a clear shot on goal early in the second period, but he made no mistake when set up by Lucas Vazquez again in the 58th minute, only for his maiden goal for Real to be ruled out for offside by VAR.

Another Vazquez assist saw Kroos’ shot brilliantly saved in the top corner by Osasuna goalkeeper Ruben before Rodrygo scored less than a minute after replacing Vinicius with virtually his first touch.

Rodrygo, signed from Santos for £40million in June 2018 but only with Real’s squad since July, took Casemiro’s cross-field ball in his stride and, after cutting into the area, curled a low shot inside the far post.

Jovic headed Vazquez’s cross just wide and headed another late effort off target, while Rodrygo went close to his second in the closing stages following a corner.