LYON: Thierry Henry won almost everything possible in a glittering career as a player and is now “living a dream” as a coach after leading hosts France to the final of the Olympic men’s football.
France are aiming to win gold for the second time, 40 years after their triumph in Los Angeles, and will face Spain in the final after narrowly avoiding a shock defeat against Egypt on Monday.
Henry’s team were trailing 1-0 in the semifinal in Lyon but came back to win 3-1, with Jean-Philippe Mateta equalising to force extra time and then scoring again in the 99th minute before Michael Olize sealed the victory.
“I am going to be honest, I am mainly happy for Team France because when you see everyone picking up medals all over the place, you say to yourself that you can’t let them down,” Henry said.
“You don’t want to be the team that doesn’t win a medal, so at least that is done, and now we will see what color we get.
“But honestly I am living a dream and I don’t want to wake up.”
Henry, who won the Champions League with Barcelona and both the World Cup and European Championship with France as a player, was appointed coach of France’s Under-21 and Olympic teams just under a year ago.
The 46-year-old will now lead them out on Friday in the final at the Parc des Princes, the same ground where France beat Spain in the final of the 1984 European Championship just weeks before their only Olympic victory to date.
“You know how difficult it is going to be against them. They are often in the finals of competitions, in both men’s and women’s football,” Henry added of the Tokyo Olympic silver medallists who beat Morocco 2-1 in their semifinal.
France are guaranteed a medal after making the final despite failing to enrol the services of full national team captain Kylian Mbappe and vice-captain Antoine Griezmann for the Olympic tournament.
Instead they have been led from the front by Lyon’s former Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette, while their star man in the knockout rounds has been Mateta.
He scored 16 goals in the Premier League last season for Crystal Palace, including 14 in his last 16 games.
Now he is France’s top scorer at the Games with four goals, among them the winner in a fiery quarter-final against Argentina and his double against Egypt.
“It is a dream to be in the final and I can’t wait to be in Paris,” said Mateta, who comes from the suburbs of the French capital.
“We have been talking about the Games for a year and a half now and finally we get to go to Paris.”
Henry ‘living a dream’ as France reach Olympic men’s football final
https://arab.news/6enw7
Henry ‘living a dream’ as France reach Olympic men’s football final
Three of Liverpool’s biggest stars are out of contract soon but Arne Slot is still smiling about it
Questions about Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold will only grow as the season goes on and their contracts run down
LIVERPOOL, England: Mohamad Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold have entered the final months of their contracts at Liverpool and can leave as free agents at the end of the season.
Yet, manager Arne Slot still found time to joke about the situation on Friday when quizzed about their futures.
“It’s the same boring answer as always and I could really understand if you ask me this once every two weeks but if you ask me this after two or three days again then you still get the same answer and people feel that I’m boring them,” Slot told reporters at his media conference ahead of Saturday’s game against Crystal Palace. “So, try it after the international break again.”
Questions about Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold will only grow as the season goes on and their contracts run down. All three will be able to talk to potential suitors outside of England from January.
All three are Liverpool icons given their roles in leading the Merseyside club to its first league title in 30 years in 2020 and having won the Champions League the season before.
Alexander-Arnold is a home-grown talent and, at the age of 26, a player whose best years are likely ahead of him.
In the cases of Salah, 32, and Van Dijk, 33, Liverpool are dealing with players at the latter stages of their careers, who are unlikely to have any sell-on value if handed long-term deals.
Those are factors that Liverpool executives such as football CEO Michael Edwards will have to consider.
Salah, who has consistently been linked with a move to the Saudi League, has been in outstanding form this season, with six goals in nine games as Liverpool has risen to the top of the Premier League and made a perfect start in the Champions League. If he is not to be offered a new deal, a January move would be a final chance to realize a financial return on the forward, who cost around $50 million when signed from Roma in 2017.
That would have a potentially detrimental impact on Liverpool’s season, while Salah would also miss out on a hefty signing bonus he would be able to negotiate as a free agent.
The same applies with Van Dijk, who is Liverpool’s captain and remains a rock at the heart of the defense.
Salah said he is treating this like his last season at the club, while Van Dijk has said he is calm about his position.
Liverpool spent around $150 million in total to sign the duo, who were so pivotal to its success under former manager Jurgen Klopp, and it would likely cost well in excess of that to replace them with like-for-like players.
All three players have been important to what has been such a promising start for Slot since he succeeded Klopp in the offseason.
And Slot was keen Friday to focus on maintaining that form, rather than contract discussions.
Liverpool can move four points clear at the top by beating Palace in the early kickoff, before defending champion Manchester City and Arsenal play later in the day.
There was no danger, he said, of his team getting carried away with its early success under him.
“We are Liverpool, so players are used to being on top of the league,” he said. “It would be very weird if a player at Liverpool is all of a sudden with his head in the clouds.”
Chelsea not ready for Premier League title tilt, says Maresca
- “I really don’t think we can compete with City and Arsenal,” Enzo Maresca said
- “The reason why is that City are working with the same manager for nine years, Arsenal for five years“
LONDON: Enzo Maresca says Chelsea are not ready to compete with Manchester City and Arsenal for the Premier League title despite their impressive start to the season.
The Blues are fourth in the table and, with 15 goals, are the division’s top scorers after winning four of their six league games under the Italian.
Cole Palmer, who scored four first-half goals against Brighton last week, is one of the form players in the top-flight.
Maresca demonstrated Chelsea’s enviable strength in depth by fielding an entirely changed starting line-up for Thursday’s 4-2 Europa Conference League win over Gent.
However, three months into his tenure, the former Leicester boss dismissed suggestions Chelsea could challenge the league’s established top two and win a first title since 2017.
“I really don’t think we can compete with City and Arsenal,” he said. “I really think that, because we are not ready.
“The reason why is that City are working with the same manager for nine years, Arsenal for five years. It’s something that if you want to compete for important things, you need that time.”
Chelsea host Nottingham Forest on Sunday seeking their fourth league win in a row.
The mood around the club has been transformed since Forest’s last visit to Stamford Bridge a year ago when they won 1-0 during a poor run for Chelsea, who ultimately finished sixth after a strong finish.
Chelsea have spent lavishly over the past two years, compiling a huge squad with mixed results, but there are signs they may have turned a corner at last.
“When you win games it always creates energy, trust, confidence,” said Maresca. “It’s helping the process.
“But the players are the first to recognize when the team plays well or not. The results are helping but they are convinced because they can see clearly the purpose and identity we have.”
Tennis world number one Iga Swiatek splits with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski
- The 23-year-old won the French Open and US Open during her first season with Tomasz Wiktorowski
- The world number one has won five Grand Slam titles including four French Open trophies
WARSAW: World number one Iga Swiatek on Friday confirmed she has split with her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and as a result would not compete in next week’s WTA tournament in Wuhan, China.
“After three years of the greatest achievements in my career, together with my coach Tomasz Wiktorowski we decided to part ways,” Swiatek wrote on Instagram.
“After an important change in my sports team, I decided to withdraw from the tournament in Wuhan,” she later said in a post on the X account of the Chinese tournament.
“I’m really sorry for fans in China and those who wait to see me play, but I hope you understand that I need some time.”
After her US Open quarter-final defeat in September, Swiatek also withdrew from the prestigious Beijing 1000 WTA tournament in which she was the defending champion citing “personal matters.”
“I want to start with a big thank you and appreciating our work together,” Swiatek said of fellow Pole Wiktorowski.
“His experience, analytical and strategic attitude and enormous knowledge about tennis helped us to achieve things I’ve never dreamed of only a few months after we started working together.”
Swiatek said she has held “first talks” with possible new coaches, adding: “I’m ready to take the next step of my career. I will let you know when I make a decision.”
The 23-year-old won the French Open and US Open during her first season with Wiktorowski, and has held the world number one ranking since November 2023.
She has won five Grand Slam titles including four French Open trophies.
Top seed Sabalenka stunned by Muchova in Beijing last eight
- World number two Aryna Sabalenka was on a streak of 15 victories in a row
- She won titles in Cincinnati and then the US Open for the first time
BEIJING: The 49th-ranked Karolina Muchova stunned top seed Aryna Sabalenka in three sets to reach the China Open semifinals on Friday.
The Czech player won 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-4 and faces China’s Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen or 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva for a place in the final.
Last year’s US Open champion Coco Gauff plays Spain’s former world number two Paula Badosa in the other semifinal in Beijing.
World number two Sabalenka was on a streak of 15 victories in a row, claiming titles in Cincinnati and then the US Open for the first time.
The Belarusian previously had trouble though with Muchova, who this time last year was inside the top 10 before injury struck.
US Open semifinalist Muchova had won the last two meetings between them with both going to a deciding set.
This encounter proved to be just as tight as Sabalenka’s hopes of usurping Iga Swiatek at the top of the rankings took an unexpected hit, having been a break up at 4-2 in the deciding set and seemingly on course for the last four.
“The conditions here are so tough, it can go one way or the other. There was a couple of great returns from her, she got the momentum and started playing more aggressively,” said Sabalenka, who will play at the Wuhan Open next week.
“It was a really high-level match and she played some unbelievable tennis.”
Three-time major champion Sabalenka faced three break points at the start but she held firm, then had a sniff herself on her opponent’s serve at 2-1, but Muchova similarly refused to buckle.
The hard-hitting Sabalenka had set point on Muchova’s serve at 5-4 but surrendered the opportunity when she rattled her forehand wide on the Czech’s second serve.
Muchova double-faulted to give Sabalenka another chance to wrap up the first set but again she failed to take it.
The Czech had two set points in the tiebreak and grabbed the second at the end of a thrilling rally to go a set up.
It was the first set 26-year-old Sabalenka had dropped since the third round in New York.
Sabalenka started the second set brightly to break for 2-1 and broke once more on the way to sealing the set with comparative ease.
Neither could hold serve in the deciding set before Muchova, who at one point had appeared to be wilting in the face of her opponent’s superior power, found another gear to clinch the match in two hours, 46 minutes.
This time last year 28-year-old Muchova was ranked ninth in the world having reached the French Open final and semifinals at Flushing Meadows.
But her 2023 season ended after the US Open because of wrist surgery and she did not play for nearly 10 months until returning this summer.
Sabalenka felt she should have been more aggressive in the match, but said: “I was really close to winning today, but things didn’t go my way and I can only be proud of myself,” she said.
Jamal Musiala to miss Bayern Munich and Germany games with hip injury
- Bayern said Friday that Musiala would be “out for the time being”
- Musiala had been included in Germany’s squad on Thursday but the team confirmed he would miss upcoming Nations League games
MUNICH: Bayern Munich attacking midfielder Jamal Musiala is set to miss upcoming games for his club and the German national team with a hip injury.
Bayern said Friday that Musiala would be “out for the time being.” Musiala had been included in Germany’s squad on Thursday but the team confirmed he would miss upcoming Nations League games this month against Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Netherlands.
Stuttgart winger Jamie Leweling could make his debut for Germany after he was called up to replace Musiala.
Musiala played the entire second half of Bayern’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa in the Champions League on Wednesday, the first loss of new coach Vincent Kompany’s time in charge. Bayern leads the Bundesliga ahead of playing Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday.