Zidane: I want Neymar fit to face Real Madrid

The Frenchman has said that he is “not happy” about the prospect of the world’s most expensive player missing next week’s big match

Zinedine Zidane expressed hope that Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar returns from his ankle injury in time to face Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Neymar was carried off the Parc des Princes pitch in tears during PSG’s 3-0 Classique victory over Marseille on Sunday after riding a challenge from Bouna Sarr before twisting his right ankle as he planted his foot on the turf.

On Monday, Neymar posted a photo of his foot in heavy strapping after being taken to hospital and, although head coach Unai Emery said in his post-match news conference that the injury is not serious, it remains to be seen whether the forward will be fit in time to face Madrid on March 6.

While the absence of Neymar would undoubtedly weaken PSG’s star-studded attack, Zidane – whose Madrid side lead 3-1 from the first leg ahead of the return tie in Paris – expressed a desire for the Brazil star, who continues to be heavily linked with a move to the Santiago Bernabeu, to play.

“No, I don’t like it when players get injured,” Zidane told reporters on Monday at a news conference ahead of Madrid’s La Liga trip to Espanyol on Tuesday.

“I’m not happy if Neymar is injured. Hopefully, he can play. I’m never going to want an opposing player to get injured.

“I do not think it influences next week’s game. There will always be a player who plays if it’s not him.

“I did not like it when he got injured, I was watching the game. I don’t think everything revolves around Neymar, but I hope it’s nothing serious.”

Cristiano Ronaldo has found his form at a potentially vital part of the season, having struggled in front of goal in LaLiga before the turn of the year.

The Portugal star has 10 league goals in his last six appearances and Zidane suggested there is an element of deliberation about him finding form in the second half of the season, with the World Cup coming up.

“It is a bit of everything,” Zidane said. “He knows his body very well. We talk often and it’s important that he’s at the top of his game, in the best shape possible.

“It’s important he rests sometimes too. It’s a long season and at the end of the season there’s a World Cup.

“Sometimes players don’t think about it and take it one day at a time, but at the back of their mind they know there’s a World Cup around the corner. I’ve lived it. It happened to me.”

Source: www.goal.com

Willian: Jose is my friend but I am at Chelsea

The Brazilian is ready for a reunion with his old manager and is hoping for another positive performance against Manchester United

Willian is looking forward to a reunion with his “friend” Jose Mourinho when Chelsea head to Manchester United on Sunday.

Mourinho signed Willian for Chelsea from Anzhi Makhachkala in August 2013 and the Brazilian attacker has repeatedly been linked with a move to Old Trafford to rejoin his old boss.

But, ahead of the weekend’s Premier League clash at United, Willian is only focusing on the game as the two clubs battle for Champions League qualification.

“He is my friend. I had a great time with him, but I am at Chelsea and he is now at Manchester United,” said Willian.

Chelsea head into the game on the back of drawing 1-1 at home to Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, which saw Antonio Conte’s side produce a disciplined tactical performance.

With trips to Premier League leaders Manchester City and the return in Barcelona the next away fixtures after the United game, the attacker is looking for similar displays from Chelsea.

He added: “They are difficult games. It is totally different to play in the Premier League to the Champions League. I think we can stay at this level and we can go to Old Trafford on Sunday and play another great game.

“We have to play in a similar way. Against Manchester United, I think we can do a great job.

“Against Manchester City, it will be like the game against Barcelona – they like to have the ball. We have to stay compact and use the same plan as we used against Barcelona. We can win these games. We will go there to try to win.”

After firing Chelsea in front against Barcelona, having struck the post twice in the first half, Willian pointed to the sky in celebration, and he revealed that he had his family on his mind before his team-mates rushed over.

The 29-year-old took compassionate leave from Chelsea last season after losing his his mother, Dona Zeze, to cancer and he appeared emotional after scoring against Barca.

“To score a goal in a match like that you feel a lot of emotion, it’s normal,” he said. “I was thinking about my family, the people that stay with me all of the time and support me. Of course, it was a good moment and I was really happy at this moment, but I have to continue.

“I almost had three against Barcelona and I almost had three against Hull City.”

Lionel Messi equalised after an Andreas Christensen mistake later in the match but Chelsea came away feeling that they put in a near perfect performanceagainst the Spanish league leaders.

For the return leg at Camp Nou, Willian hopes Chelsea can emulate the display they produced against Atletico Madrid in the group stage, when they became the first away team to win at the newly built Wanda Metropolitano stadium in September.

He continued: “Of course, it was a great game, we played very well, we had a plan to come into this game. We were unlucky because we made a mistake and then we suffered an away goal but I think the result is still open.

“We can try to go there and win the game. It will be a completely different game, to play there is different. But if we go with the same mentality as we did against Atletico, we can go there with great spirit and win the game.”

Source: www.goal.com

Barcelona even stronger now without Neymar, says Ter Stegen

The German goalkeeper has hailed the signings of Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele but also had words of praise for the PSG forward

Neymar’s €222 million move to Paris Saint-Germain has only served to make Barcelona stronger this season, says goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

The departure came at a time of perceived institutional crisis at Barca, with fan anger at the running of the club compounded by a thrashing to Real Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana.

However, Ernesto Valverde has led a serene march towards La Liga glory this season, and Barca are unbeaten after 24 league games – a run stretching back a club-record 31 league contests – with a healthy lead over Atletico Madrid in second.

Though Barca’s fabled ‘MSN’ strikeforce of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar has been broken up, Ter Stegen believes the squad as a whole has stepped up after the latter left, inspiring their success this term.

“The quality of Ney, you can’t explain it,” Ter Stegen told ESPN . “Because he was super important for us, as a person [and] in the team, as a footballer.

“Now, everyone needs to understand what he did because maybe he wants to win something else, also personally.

“His decision only he knows but in the end we had to compensate all this and this is not easy because he had so much quality, but we did it in a different way and now we have a very, very strong team.

“I think we’ve got some new players who have made us even stronger and hopefully they feel good and comfortable in the team and they adapt very fast.”

Two of the players drafted in to compensate for the loss of Neymar are Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho.

The pair joined in deals that could be worth over €300m, but Ter Stegen says both deserve time to show they can fill the Brazil star’s boots.

“Dembele didn’t play very often because he was injured [and] Coutinho just came,” Ter Stegen said.

“We always need to give them time and be patient because they are young and they have some great years ahead.”

Barca travel to Chelsea on Tuesday for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. Valverde has named the strongest squad possible, with only the suspended Nelson Semedo and ineligible Coutinho missing.

Source: www.goal.com

Ostersunds 0 Arsenal 3: Ozil crowns Arctic stroll for Wenger’s men

Nacho Monreal and Mesut Ozil were on target either side of a Sotirios Papagiannopoulos own goal as Arsenal eased to a 3-0 win at Ostersunds.

Arsenal avoided any undue alarms as they cruised to a 3-0 Europa League win over Swedish minnows Ostersunds.

Arsene Wenger’s men emerged in sub-zero temperatures at the Jamtkraft Arena and there was little prospect of the contest warming up after defensive errors from the hosts gifted a 13th-minute opener to Nacho Monreal.

Sotirios Papagiannopoulos’ own goal compounded matters for Ostersunds and their English coach Graham Potter and, although their performance improved, Mesut Ozil marked his first appearance in the Europa League this season with a third in the 58th minute.

A run to the last-32 featuring wins over the likes of Galatasaray and Hertha Berlin has seen Ostersunds’ produce a modern footballing fairytale in the Europa League this season.

They will need something altogether more fantastical to turn the tie around at Emirates Stadium next week – even more so after Tom Pettersson had a stoppage-time penalty saved, Hector Bellerin having needlessly hauled down substitute Tesfaldet Tekie.

Ostersunds goalkeeper Aly Keita put his side in trouble with a poor pass out in the 12th minute, only spared when Papagiannopoulos bravely blocked from Ozil, and his poor handling allowed Monreal to follow up Alex Iwobi’s shot and open the scoring moments later.

The entirely avoidable nature of the goals conceded by a seemingly overawed Ostersunds will have irritated Potter and Papagiannopoulos was powerless to avoid a 24th-minute own-goal after Pettersson gave away possession inside his own box for Henrikh Mkhitaryan to drill into the goalmouth.

Some similarly slack work in the defensive half from Arsenal prompted the hosts’ first opening, with David Ospina acrobatically pushing over Alhaji Gero’s shot from the edge of the area.

Ostersunds had grown into the contest as half-time approached and striker Saman Ghoddos drove at a backpedalling Arsenal backline to fire narrowly wide.

Potter sent on Tekie and Jamie Hopcutt in place of captain Brwa Nouri and Gero, a move that further encouraged his team’s resurgence in the contest.

Shkodran Mustafi turned anxiously to the referee before the hour when Tekie went down in the area under pressure from the Germany international. Play was allowed to continue and Arsenal glided down the other end to make it three.

Ozil exchanged passes pleasingly with Mkhitaryan but Keita was culpable once again, getting his hands to a shot that squirmed over the line.

Much of the remaining action resembled an extended training drill as far as the Premier League side were concerned, with prospects of defeat to a club who have been in existence for a shorter time than Wenger has been Arsenal manager all but extinguished by the time Pettersson rounded out a dismal individual outing by stroking his penalty into Ospina’s arms.

Source: www.goal.com

 

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Ronaldo & Real show why they’re champions to leave PSG project in peril

The champions came out on top at the Bernabeu and proved they can never be written off in this competition as their rivals flattered to deceive again

Real Madrid’s season is still alive. Zinedine Zidane’s side came from a goal down to beat Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the teams’ last-16 tie on Wednesday to show why they have such a special affinity with the Champions League.

Los Blancos have won the European Cup 12 times and six of those trophies arrived before PSG were founded in 1970. The next six have come in more recent times, including back-to-back victories in the past two seasons. And sometimes, history has an impact in these ties.

Despite Madrid’s poor form, which had seen them fall out of contention in La Liga and eliminated from the Copa del Rey, there was always the feeling they could produce when it mattered most – even against PSG’s formidable forward line that came into this game rated as the best in Europe.

“I am disconcerted by Real Madrid,” the club’s former player Jorge Valdano said in the lead-up to this match. “I will find it even more difficult to understand if they brush aside PSG, but it wouldn’t surprise me either.”

And ultimately, that is exactly what happened. In truth, it can always happen in the Champions League. Why? Because in these huge one-off games when their future is at stake, and in their competition of choice, Madrid’s players work harder. They give more.

It is for that reason that Madrid have won the Champions League three times over the past four seasons, but more often than not lacked the consistency to claim La Liga (one title since 2012) week in, week out over nine or 10 months.

Madrid were in trouble. Not just before the game, but also in it as PSG took the lead through Adrien Rabiot. Then, the match and probably the tie was there for the taking and there was a chance for Unai Emery’s side to make it 2-0.

Real were all over the place, but they soon settled and were able to get back into the game through a somewhat soft penalty. Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up to score it and it was his 100th goal for the club in the Champions League – an absolutely astonishing feat.

After that, it looked like it would finish all square as the second half became more and more cagey. A draw would not have been a particularly great result for Madrid, though, with a tough trip to Paris ahead on March 6. So, in the last few minutes, Zidane’s side went for it – and they received their reward.

Zidane was stubborn, first by picking the out-of-sorts Karim Benzema and then by leaving him on the pitch for so long. But he eventually opted for Gareth Bale plus the extra energy of Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio, and those substitutions made all the difference.

Ronaldo was in the right place at the right time to knee home a second goal he knew little about with seven minutes left, before Marcelo’s deflected shot made it 3-1 right before the end. It was not the perfect result, but given the circumstances of the night, it was a dream scenario for Real.

There was an element of luck about all three goals, while some of the decisions went their way on the night too (including the penalty and a Sergio Ramos handball the referee failed to spot).

But Madrid had earned that good fortune. PSG had appeared content to stick with what they had, failing again on the big occasion just as they had against Barcelona last season, throwing away the 4-0 lead they had earned exactly a year earlier on February 14, 2017.

“We have to be optimistic ahead of the second leg, and play again as we did today, when we created a lot of chances,” Emery said, putting a brave face on a defeat which could and should have been a better result for side.

It will be a long way back now, however, even at the Parc des Princes, and perhaps Sergio Ramos summed it up best. “You can never take Real Madrid as dead,” he said.

In the Champions League, that has been proven over and again and, as PSG’s project looks on the brink, Los Blancos seem set for the quarter-finals. And despite the pre-match form guide, nobody should really be surprised at all.

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