Liverpool forwards Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino will miss Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg with Barcelona through injury.

Mohamed Salah is the Premier League’s top scorer with 22 goals this season

Salah left the pitch on a stretcher after an aerial collision with Newcastle keeper Martin Dubravka during Saturday’s 3-2 win.

Manager Jurgen Klopp says concussion will keep Salah out, as Liverpool look to overhaul a 3-0 deficit at Anfield.

Firmino missed the win over Newcastle with a muscle injury.

“Two of the world’s best strikers are not available tomorrow night and we have to score four goals,” said Klopp.

“It doesn’t make life easier but we will try for 90 minutes to celebrate the Champions League campaign to give it a proper finish.”

Defender Virgil van Dijk and midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also both missed training on Monday.

Barcelona tweeted Liverpool following news of Salah and Firmino missing the fixture

United’s latest failure to reach the Champions League underlines how far they have fallen, and it is a path their arch-rivals have trodden in the past.

Photo by Getty Images

Between 1972 and 1990, Liverpool added 11 league titles to their previous haul of seven, finished second six times and fifth once. It felt as though their dominance might never end.

Yet they are two Manchester City victories away from a 29th season without winning English football’s ultimate prize.

Compare that with Manchester United, who between 1992 and 2013 added 13 league titles to their previous haul of seven, finished second five times and third three times.

Six years on from the end of their own period of dominance, they are facing the reality of a Europa League campaign next season while their manager has labelled a title challenge in 2019-20 “unrealistic”.

For so much of the last three decades, United fans have revelled in their own continued success at a time when, by their assertion, Liverpool’s supporters were ‘living in the past’. But now they can have little argument about the fact that Manchester United are becoming the new Liverpool.

That is not to say that United are destined for another 20 years of failure, but as they embark upon a rebuild both on and off the pitch with no guarantee of success at the end of it, there is certainly a fear that the next domestic title is still some years away, even if things go to plan over the summer months.

United have the benefit of having been the top dogs during by far the richest period the sport has ever known in this country, something which worked against Liverpool as they attempted to pick up the pieces of their own failures just as the mega money was beginning to benefit those who were peaking in the early 1990s.

Add in the fact that it takes a special kind of mediocrity to keep finishing outside of the expanded Champions League picture these days and United have so many more factors weighing in their favour compared to their bitter rivals when they were experiencing similar struggles.

But whereas the Merseysiders’ long-held traditions were embraced perhaps too closely when appointing Graeme Souness and then Roy Evans before breaking away in appointing Gerard Houllier as joint-manager in 1998, United have bounced from project to project since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement marked the start of their decline.

Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Huddersfield means that United have finished outside the top four in four of the last six seasons, and each time they fail to qualify for the Champions League their claim to being the biggest club in the world is further undermined.

They will be hit financially – their budget will be cut by 25 per cent now that Europa League football has been confirmed – and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s admission that a number of his current squad might have played their final game for the club points to the kind of overhaul that the club has needed for some time but which will also provide a certain amount of instability in the short to medium-term.

United are used to such volatility of late.

Louis van Gaal came in and booted out many of Sir Alex Ferguson’s trusted squad members such as Javier Hernandez, Jonny Evans and Darren Fletcher.

Wind forward a couple of years and Jose Mourinho was dumping Van Gaal additions such as Memphis Depay, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin.

The fall-out of the last six years has left United with their own variations on the Sean Dundees and Djimi Traores, the players whose very presence are proof of the decline and indecision of a once-untouchable outfit.

And in Alexis Sanchez they have the biggest of big-money blowouts who has been an abject failure at almost every turn in a United shirt, all the while causing a huge rift in the camp due to the hefty salary he is drawing win, lose or draw.

They have too many players like Phil Jones and Chris Smalling, who have been dedicated but ultimately average contributors to the cause in recent years, and for as long as their bigger, better, more talented players are turning in apathetic displays, then they are going to go nowhere fast.

The bottom line is that this might only be the start of their decline if they do not start to put the right people in the right places.

Liverpool had to go through three periods of ownership, countless changes of chief executive, various rifts with fans, umpteen managers and an endless swathe of players to get as close as they currently are to the big prize once more.

United cannot afford to end up following the same path, but that is exactly what they are threatening to do if they do not get this summer right.

Solskjaer wants changes in his squad but is realistic as to the turnover.

“There will be new players coming in over summer but I don’t think you can expect six,” he said recently. “I don’t think any manager you ask would be in favour of that amount of change anyway.

“We want to rebuild but it is going to have to be gradual, over a few windows.”

All the signs suggest that this will be a long and arduous process, especially given the apparent unwillingness to contemplate a revolution in the way the football side of the club is run.

United fans need to brace themselves for the possibility of this getting even worse before it gets better.

Thursday nights might have to be blocked out in the calendar for more than the next 12 months, and the salivating ridicule from opposition fans might only become more intense.

That has been the reality for much of the last 29 years for Liverpool fans.

And while United ought to get it right a hell of a lot quicker than that given the factors in play in football in 2019, this could yet be just the early onset rather than the dog days of an increasingly ignominious spell in a great club’s history.

Source – Goal.com

The captain struck what could be the goal of the season to give the Blues a victory that they so desperately needed in their pursuit of the title.

Photo by Getty

You cannot keep Vincent Kompany down. On a night when Manchester Cityneeded something, anything, their club captain came up with the goods. And then some.

This was not a trademark Kompany header, the type you would expect if you’d read online that the big Belgian had scored the winning goal. Not the kind he scored against Manchester United in 2012, or the one he scored against them last year, for that matter.

This was the kind of goal you would expect if you checked your phone and saw Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi had scored in a Champions League semi-final.

City were not great here. The nerves in the stands transmitted to the players on the pitch and Pep Guardiola’s men, who have looked so sure of themselves, so calculated, so committed to the cause in racking up 12 consecutive wins to take them to the verge of the Premier League title, suddenly looked overawed.

Liverpool‘s nervy victory up at Newcastle on Saturday evening sent shudders down the spine of many City fans, just as it did in April when Jurgen Klopp’s side picked up a late, somewhat fortuitous victory against Spurs in April.

City’s players had never seemed bothered by the nerves of their supporters beforehand, which is why they are in this position at all.

But they did here. They passed the ball around but too often it just ended up at the feet of a centre-back. They sometimes got down the sides of the Leicester defence but could not get in those trademark positions on the byline to cut the ball back and walk it into the net. They got corners but didn’t really know what to do with them – although Sergio Aguero’s header did clip the bar and had to be flicked off the line by Kasper Schmeichel.

That was the best chance of the first half but it did not feel like City were on the verge of breaking the door down. The fans were nervous. By the looks of the TV pictures Guardiola was, too – perhaps more than anybody else.

City started the second half looking a bit more like themselves – especially when Leroy Sane came on for Phil Foden – but still there was not really an overwhelming sense that they would get the goal they needed.

A draw, or worse, would have been pretty much the end of City’s title hopes. Liverpool have come this far in their own right and clearly they are not going away. Needing to rely on them to drop points for the first time since March 3 in their final game of the season would’ve meant relying on a miracle.

They needed a goal.

City’s centre-backs, given Jamie Vardy’s defensive duties, were able to push right up into the Leicester half. Usually they cycled possession out to the wings. On one occasion Kompany went for a crossfield pass but got it horribly wrong and was so embarrassed (or ashamed) that he put his hand up and appeared to apologise directly to Guardiola.

So a few minutes later when it looked like he was lining up another one, City fans would have been forgiven for thinking “don’t!”. He didn’t. Instead, he rifled one towards the top corner. What was he doing?! Guardiola said afterwards he was thinking “don’t shoot, don’t shoot”.

But Guardiola was wrong. It went in. Unbelievably, it went in. It went in the top corner. The postage stamp. Where the spiders live. The top bins – as Raheem Sterling would say.

Nobody could believe it. Leicester’s players least of all. Schmeichel had no answer. Harry Maguire, who was charged with blocking the shot, knew it had gone over his shoulder but clearly expected it to go into the stands. He didn’t even bother turning around to see where it ended up, and was surprised when the fans started celebrating.

And how they celebrated. After the cruelty of the Champions League meeting with Spurs, there was no doubt about this one. No VAR to intervene, certainly no offside.

Well, there could have been doubts. Did that really just happen? Surely not. The replays, the confirmation of what had just transpired, were celebrated as if City had scored a second goal.

In the end, they didn’t. This was like Burnley all over again – bring on a centre-back and keep the ball in the corners.

They didn’t get the second goal but more importantly Leicester did not get one themselves. City shut up shop, they battled for their lives and if Kompany’s goal did not give them the cool heads that they could have done with, it gave them victory.

Now they need just one more. If they win at Brighton on Sunday the title will be theirs. They will need cooler heads than they had here, but at least, in a weird way, they will not be at home, where the edginess of the crowd so clearly affected them on Monday.

Kompany did not need to do anything else to be written into City folklore, he has already earned his place. Those headers, those tackles, those all-or-nothing performances over the years, amid all of those battles with his own body, have assured him of a place in City history.

But after that goal he might get a statue. That’s how big it could be for City.

After the final whistle, one greeted with yet more wild celebrations, the City players celebrated, and then assembled for their end-of-season lap of appreciation.

Kompany, as he walked around the pitch with his children, was seen in tears. His contract expires this summer and all indications are that he will sign a new one, so they were surely not farewell tears.

That will come out in the wash, but one thing is for sure: Vincent Kompany has come up with what could be the moment of the season, in the most spectacular fashion, when City needed it most.

One more win and City will win the title. They will need to be better than they were on Monday. Or they will need another moment like that.

Source – Goal.com

Vardy has scored 11 goals in as many games and could be set to ruin City’s hopes of a second successive title,

Photo by Getty Images

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy can “hurt” Manchester City and put a major dent in their quest to defend the Premier League title, according to Brendan Rodgers.

City host Liverpool on Monday evening knowing that a win will take them above Liverpool with just one match remaining, away to Brighton next Sunday.

But Vardy is in a rich vein of form, scoring 11 goals in as many games. In the last seven seasons, Vardy has scored 34 times against the top-six teams – a return that only Sergio Aguero with 44 can better.

Having found the net five times against City, the former England striker’s current manager Rodgers says that Pep Guardiola ought to factor in Vardy’s quality, otherwise he will punish them.

“When I was preparing a team to play against him you just knew you’d got to be really careful,” Rodgers said.

“If you don’t counter-press the game well and there’s space to play that pass, he’s going to hurt you. It’s brilliant to have him on your side.”

Although City need to win at the Etihad, it appears that Guardiola will be instructing his team on how to handle Vardy. He described him as “an incredible striker with his movement, finishing and fighting”.

“His career speaks for itself,” he added, “not just the last few games, but (lately) he’s scored in every single game. He’s done incredible in this league.”

The home team will be expected to dominate proceedings, but Rodgers has transformed Leicester since he took from Claude Puel in February.

And the former Celtic manager is determined to return from Manchester with a result that would help his former team Liverpool towards a maiden Premier League title.

“For us it’s about super-compact pressing at the right moment and when you have the ball, playing quickly,” he said. “Can you come out of that? Then the space is there for you.

“It’s exciting to be involved in the title race but my thoughts are solely with Leicester and doing what we can to get a result.

“We respect that it will be a tough game for us. But we have a model that can beat any team.”

Source – Goal.com

Zinedine Zidane refused to discuss Gareth Bale’s future after the forward was left out of the matchday squad as Real Madrid claimed a hard-fought 3-2 win over Villarreal on Sunday.

Zinedine Zidane refused to discuss Gareth Bale’s future after Real Madrid’s 3-2 win over Villarreal

A double from Mariano and Jesus Vallejo’s close-range strike ultimately gave the home side all three points, although Villarreal had been on level terms through Gerard Moreno and created numerous chances before Jaume Costa scored in the fourth minute of injury time.

Despite Karim Benzema being ruled out through injury, Bale was deemed surplus to requirements by Zidane, fuelling speculation that Bale will leave the Bernabeu in the summer.

“I’m the coach, I have to pick the team and that’s all there is to it,” Zidane said of his decision to leave Bale out in quotes published on the club’s official website.

“You can interpret it as you wish. I need to pick a squad of players and some are going to miss out.”

Source – Sky Sports

Roma’s Antonio Mirante saved a stoppage-time penalty to earn a point in a 1-1 draw at Genoa in Serie A although Sunday’s result still damaged the capital club’s Champions League qualifying hopes.

Roma were pegged back injury time and succumbed to a draw against Genoa. Paolo Rattini/Getty Images

Roma’s Stephan El Shaarawy had put the visitors ahead in the 82nd minute before Genoa defender Cristian Romero headed home from a corner eight minutes later to level the scores.

The hosts then had a glorious chance to complete a remarkable turnaround when Mirante brought down Antonio Sanabria to concede a penalty deep into added time, but the Roma keeper made up for his error by saving the Paraguayan’s spot kick.

“Genoa did well not to give up,” Roma coach Claudio Ranieri told Sky Sport Italia. “We knew it was going to be difficult but we let ourselves get surprised on the corner, otherwise we would have taken the win home.

“This was I think Romero’s fourth goal of the season from set pieces. [Patrik] Schick was marking him but he managed to get away and head in at the last second. It’s a pity, because the three points would have been very useful, but we’ll keep going.”

Roma are fifth in the standings and needed a win to stay within touching distance of fourth-placed Atalanta, who beat Lazio 3-1 earlier on Sunday.

The draw leaves Ranieri’s team three points behind the Bergamo club on 59, while it could prove to be a valuable point for 16th-placed Genoa, who lie four points above the relegation zone with three rounds of matches remaining.

“We were able to get a problematic situation back on track and now we’re right up there,” Ranieri added, “so whoever picks up the most points in these final rounds will take the Champions League spot.”

Genoa keeper Ionut Radu denied Roma an opener midway through the first half when he flew across his goal to claw Federico Fazio‘s header back off the line.

Romero then failed to direct an angled effort on target at the back post before Nicolo Zaniolo had a powerful strike tipped over by Radu after the break.

The game came to life in the closing stages when El Shaarawy met Edin Dzeko‘s flick-on to volley the opening goal into the bottom corner against his former club.

Roma’s top scorer appeared to have secured a valuable win but Cesare Prandelli’s side kept coming and were rewarded when Romero rose to nod in from a corner in the 90th minute.

Substitute Sanabria then won a penalty when he was brought down by Mirante in the fifth minute of added time, only for the striker to see his tame effort saved in a dramatic finale.

Source – ESPN

The Egypt international was stretchered off with a head injury but the remarkably resilient Reds managed too eek out a dramatic 3-2 win at Newcastle.

Photo by Clive Brunskill

“No surrender. Not just yet, anyway.

For the first time in five years, the Premier League title race will go to the final day of the season.

Liverpool are still in there fighting, but only just.

On the ground where Manchester City suffered their last league loss, Jurgen Klopp’s side kept their dream alive in the most dramatic of fashion. St James’ Park produced one of the most remarkable nights of the campaign. What is it about this fixture?

The Reds’ 3-2 victory over Newcastle at St James’ Park moves them back to the top of the table, but only tells half the story of this nerve-shredding evening.

Liverpool won it and lost it, twice, but Jamaal Lascelles’ own goal, four minutes from time, got them over the line in the end.
Asked question after question, Liverpool once more found the answers.

What must Manchester City make of this team? Where does it find its energy reserves, its courage, its character?

Whoever lifts that trophy next weekend, we should applaud and appreciate them. These are two special football sides.

Pep Guardiola’s men had one hand on the trophy at 1-1. They had one-and-a-half on it when Salomon Rondon smashed Newcastle level at 2-2. Instead, the ball is in City’s court. It is they who have to win now.

Liverpool rocked and they shook during an absorbing second half. They lost Mohamed Salah to a head injury, and lost their shape and their composure as the final whistle loomed on the horizon.

But then Klopp’s substitutes, his dice-rolls, paid off big time.

Xherdan Shaqiri swung in a free-kick, Divock Origi climbed, the ball cannoned off Lascelles and into the net.

The Liverpudlians crammed into the away end, breathed once more. They had stared into the abyss and been dragged to safety.

This was their eighth successive league victory. It would be feat at any time, in any place. In this season, against the Manchester City machine, it is incredible.

The pressure builds and builds, and Liverpool find ways to deal with it. Their bravery is unquestionable.

“We had to fight,” said a delighted, if drained, Klopp at the end. “I couldn’t be more proud.”

They had so many excuses here. They were without Roberto Firmino and they lost Salah. They were leggy after their midweek exertions in Barcelona. They hadn’t won away at Newcastle in six years, and found a Magpies side emboldened under the lights in their final home game of the season.

Rafa Benitez would do them a favour, the story went. He didn’t, he scared the living daylights out of his former club. Ta Rafa, la.

Liverpool led, first through Virgil van Dijk and then through Salah, who netted his 100th European top-flight goal and his 22nd in the Premier League this season. The Egyptian’s finish, off his right foot, was clinical.

Newcastle levelled through Christian Atsu, the former Everton loanee, and then saw Rondon restore parity at 2-2 early in the second half with a superbly-taken volley.

That looked like it would be the killer blow, but Liverpool had other ideas. They found a way, as they have done so often over the past 10 months.

“What the boys did is unbelievable,” said Klopp. “It’s brilliant, so deserved.”

Now, having seen off one former manager, Liverpool must now hope for a favour from another.

Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester, who visit City on Monday night, are the Reds’ next phone-a-friend. A draw or win for the Foxes at the Etihad will put Klopp’s men in control.

That’s for Monday, though. For now, Liverpool fans should enjoy their weekend.

They have a hell of a team, one which is giving them one hell of a ride.

And a few scares too, of course!

Source – Goal.com

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says goalkeeper David de Gea will keep his place for Sunday’s trip to Huddersfield.

De Gea has made three mistakes that led directly to goals in his last four matches

Paris St-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe has been banned for three games after being sent off in the French Cup final, while disciplinary proceedings have been opened against team-mate Neymar.

Kylian Mbappe has been sent-off three times for PSG

France international Mbappe was sent-off for a bad foul in extra time of the 2-2 draw, with Rennes winning 6-5 on penalties.

Neymar appeared to lash out at a fan as he walked up to collect his medal.

PSG have four league games remaining, but have already won the Ligue 1 title.

The Rennes defeat ended PSG’s four-year reign in the French Cup and means that, while they have retained the French league title, they have won none of the cup competitions they entered this season, having lost to Manchester United in the last-16 stage of the Champions League.

Ligue 1 top-scorer Mbappe has already missed one game, Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to Montpellier, and will now miss games against Nice and Angers, before returning for the final two matches of the season.

PSG boss Thomas Tuchel criticised Neymar over the Brazilian’s altercation, saying: “You can’t get into a fight with a spectator. You just can’t do that.

“It’s not easy to go up the steps after a defeat. It’s very difficult for me, for everybody – but we have to accept it. If we lose, we have to show respect.”

“Did I act badly?” Neymar asked in an Instagram comment. “Yes. But no-one can stay indifferent.”

In a separate post on Sunday, the 27-year-old forward said “nobody likes to lose, so I …” before failing to finish the sentence.

He added: “Anyone who knows me knows how competitive I am and how much defeat shakes me.

“But losing is part of an athlete’s life, makes us grow, makes us think, makes us better. Happy to be able to play again, to score again and feel good on the pitch, but the biggest feeling today is one of sadness.”

Neymar has only just returned from a serious foot injury.

Last week, he was given a three-match European ban by Uefa for a tirade at officials following PSG’s 3-1 home loss to United in the second leg of their last-16 tie – a game that he missed through injury.

Source – BBC News

The Portugal star scored a late header in Friday’s Turin derby, preventing Juve’s city rivals from earning a huge win.

Photo by Getty Images

Cristiano Ronaldo’s late equaliser on Friday prevented city rivals Torino from earning a landmark win over Juventus.

With Juventus down 1-0 to Torino late in the game, Ronaldo rose up from six yards out to nod Leonardo Spinazzola’s cross past Salvatore Sirigu.

The 84th-minute equaliser salvaged a 1-1 draw for Juventus in the Turin derby, with Ronaldo now having scored seven goals in his last nine Serie Aappearances.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s late equaliser on Friday prevented city rivals Torino from earning a landmark win over Juventus.

With Juventus down 1-0 to Torino late in the game, Ronaldo rose up from six yards out to nod Leonardo Spinazzola’s cross past Salvatore Sirigu.

The 84th-minute equaliser salvaged a 1-1 draw for Juventus in the Turin derby, with Ronaldo now having scored seven goals in his last nine Serie Aappearances.

Massimiliano Allegri’s men will close out the season with games against Atalanta and Sampdoria.

Source – Goal.com