Rangers and Mourinho’s Fenerbahce knocked out of Champions League

Fenerbahce's Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho walks on the pitch prior to the UEFA Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round second leg football match between Fenerbahce and Lille at the Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium in Istanbul on August 13, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 14 August 2024
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Rangers and Mourinho’s Fenerbahce knocked out of Champions League

  • Jonathan David’s penalty secured Lille a place in the next round as the French club snatched a 3-2 aggregate victory in Turkiye, marking a disappointing start to Mourinho’s time in charge of Fenerbahce

PARIS: Rangers exited the Champions League after losing 2-0 to Dynamo Kyiv in the second leg of the third qualifying round on Tuesday, while Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce were knocked out by Lille.
Hosts Rangers paid the price for a harsh second yellow card issued to defender Jefte as Dynamo struck twice in the final 10 minutes through substitutes Oleksandr Pikhalonok and Nazar Voloshyn.
Rangers coach Philippe Clement blasted the referee’s decision that left his team with 10 men.
“It’s hard for my team. They don’t deserve this after these two games versus Dynamo Kyiv. One person with one decision made a really big change for us,” Clement told BBC Scotland.
“It’s the second time in my career of over 30 years that something unjust has happened. We can only accept it and move forward toward the league and the Europa League.”
Clement, who is looking to overhaul his squad in an attempt to challenge Celtic, said the defeat would have serious ramifications for the club’s finances.
“Financially, it’s a big difference for the club. It will make a difference for the transfers coming in also. I don’t expect this rebuild to be done in a few weeks’ time.”
Ukrainians Dynamo advanced 3-1 on aggregate and head into a play-off tie against Salzburg, who edged FC Twente 5-4 after a 3-3 draw in the return leg in the Netherlands.
Jonathan David’s penalty secured Lille a place in the next round as the French club snatched a 3-2 aggregate victory in Turkiye, marking a disappointing start to Mourinho’s time in charge of Fenerbahce.
Fenerbahce lost the first leg 2-1 last week and appeared to be going out until Bafode Diakite’s late own goal sent the match to extra time.
Lille substitute Aissa Mandi was sent off on his debut for a reckless challenge on Irfan Can Kahveci, but the visitors were awarded a penalty for a handball by Jayden Oosterwolde and David made no mistake from the spot.
Cenk Tosun then headed against the bar as Lille held on. Their reward is a meeting with Slavia Prague, who were 4-1 aggregate winners over Union Saint-Gilloise.
Slovan Bratislava, who entered in the first qualifying round, overcame APOEL Nicosia 2-0 over two legs.
They will take on Midtjylland for a place in the new-look, 36-team tournament after the Danish champions beat Hungary’s Ferencvaros 3-1 on aggregate.
Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt eased through with a 4-1 win over Poland’s Jagiellonia Bialystok, completing a 5-1 aggregate triumph.
Sweden’s Malmo won a thrilling tie with PAOK, striking late in Greece to force extra time and then winning the second leg 4-3 to prevail 6-5 overall.
Sparta Prague beat Romanians FCSB 4-3 on aggregate, while Qarabag stunned Ludogorets with four goals in extra time to pull off a remarkable 7-2 win in Bulgaria.
Switzerland international Kwadwo Duah netted twice on the night to put Ludogorets 4-2 ahead in the tie, but the visitors from Azerbaijan scored six times without reply to run away with an 8-4 aggregate success.


Three of Liverpool’s biggest stars are out of contract soon but Arne Slot is still smiling about it

Updated 56 min 29 sec ago
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Three of Liverpool’s biggest stars are out of contract soon but Arne Slot is still smiling about it

  • Manager Arne Slot still found time to joke about the situation on Friday when quizzed about their futures
  • 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

Updated 04 October 2024
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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

Updated 04 October 2024
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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

Updated 04 October 2024
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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

Updated 04 October 2024
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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.