Month: June 2020

Harry Maguire earned a glowing assessment from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after the Man Utd captain’s extra-time winner at Norwich sealed the Red Devils’ spot in the FA Cup semi-finals.

United had to dig deep against the Premier League’s bottom side as Odion Ighalo’s fifth goal in four starts for the club was cancelled out by Todd Cantwell’s strike from distance.

Timm Klose was sent off in the 89th minute for bringing down Ighalo, after which Man Utd found stubborn resistance from Tim Krul during extra-time, but the Norwich goalkeeper was beaten when Maguire reacted quickest to direct home in the 118th minute.

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GOSSIP: Liverpool to bid for £90m man in coming days; Man Utd ‘seduced’

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Maguire was the subject of some fierce criticism from former Manchester United captain Roy Keane following last week’s 1-1 draw at Tottenham but Solskjaer could not have been prouder of the centre-half’s display at Carrow Road.

The United manager said: “Harry has been magnificent since he’s come to the club, his leadership skills are there to be seen, he helped us with the build-up.

“Today I think he won every single header and every challenge, so I’m very pleased with Harry.”

Maguire’s effort from close range at the death is his second goal in this season’s competition, with his first a 25-yard pile-driver against Tranmere in January.

Solskjaer added: “The two goals are two different goals and maybe two goals you don’t expect from him – one from 30 yards in the top corner and then a poacher’s goal.”

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United became the first side to seal their spot in the last four and two wins at Wembley would secure their first trophy under Solskjaer’s direction.

 

But while they extended their unbeaten sequence in all competitions to 14 matches, Maguire knows they must vastly improve to go all the way in the cup.

“It would mean everything (to win the FA Cup),” Maguire told the BBC. “I joined this club to win trophies. We’re in a semi-final of the FA Cup, it’s a great tournament, and we’re going to look forward to it.

“Hopefully when the semi-final does come, and whoever we’re drawn against, we play a lot better than we have done tonight. It was a difficult game and we made hard work of it.”

Solskjaer also had warm words for Ighalo, who continued his record of scoring at least once in every United game he’s started.

The Norwegian said: “Odion knows how much we value him in and around the dressing room and, of course, on the pitch.

“He’s a goalscorer and a poacher, he’s strong and we can play the ball into him like we did on the winning goal.

“He’s performing well and that also gives me the chance to rotate with Marcus (Rashford), Anthony (Martial) and Mason (Greenwood) so they can get a rest and be fresh for every game.”

 

Winning second balls was the key for Wolves against Aston Villa after they struggled to settle down early on, says Nuno Espirito Santo.

Wolves claimed a third straight win thanks to a goal from Leander Dendoncker, which in turn compounded Villa’s struggles in the relegation battle.

The situation is quite the opposite for Wolves, whose gaze is firmly fixed up the table. Having qualified for the Europa League last season, they have an outside chance of going one better and reaching the Champions League this time around.

Wolves have now risen to fifth place, two points behind the top four having played a game more. Fifth may be enough to secure Champions League football if Manchester City’s European ban is upheld.

There is still a lot of work to do, as a busy schedule awaits. And Nuno says it is time to start preparing already, after being impressed with their approach at Villa Park.

“I think we performed well in terms of our organisation and in terms of staying in the game,” he told BT Sport. “We approached the game really well.

“We didn’t settle down early on but once we had a couple of opportunities we started to control the game and create more chances.

“Honestly everyone knows in football you can plan but anything can change. We had an idea, today was about controlling the game, about getting tough and opening them to get possession in the wide areas.

“I am very happy for Leander, he is a hard worker. It is time now to recover and prepare because next week we have three games in one week and it will be tough.”

Elaborating further on the difference between the way Wolves started and finished the game, Nuno pointed to a lack of possession early on as a problem.

However, the coach revealed that his players’ hard work was enough to put things right.

He added to BBC Sport: “Happy with the hard work of the players. But we did not start well.

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“We were not able to have our possession. We won a lot of second balls which was important in this game.

“The aim of the second half after we scored was to hold on and stay compact but after that we did not create many chances.”

Wolves are next in action next Saturday, when they face Arsenal. Games against Sheffield United and Everton follow in quick succession.

 

Croisés au dernier festival de l’Alpe d’Huez, Jean-Luc Perreard et son tandem d’acteurs Leïla Bekhti-Fred Testot nous ont parlé d’ “Itinéraire bis”, comédie (romantique), road-movie et premier film du réalisateur.

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En grande forme (et en roue libre), les très sympathiques Leïla Bekhti et Fred Testot nous ont mis de bonne humeur pour la journée, tandis que leur jeune réalisateur Jean-Luc Perreard nous expliquait la genèse du film et son… itinéraire.

Propos recueillis en janvier 2011 par Alexis Geng / Cadre : Benoît Gonnot / Montage : Sébastien Olland

Jose Mourinho launched a recent defence of his management of Harry Kane despite not even being asked.

Mourinho reacted unfavourably to comments made by Paul Merson about how Kane “will have a serious think at the end of the season” about his future.

The Sky Sports pundit added that “I don’t see him getting 25-30 goals a season the way Jose will want to play,” which further frustrated Mourinho.

The Portuguese listed a number of his former strikers, including “one guy called Drogba” who “played for me four seasons” and  “scored 186 goals which gives an average of 46 goals per season”.

It was later pointed out that Drogba had made 186 appearances under Mourinho, scoring 73 goals.

Matt Hughes of the Daily Mail claims Stefano Marchesi, PR adviser to Mourinho and former communications director at a couple of Italian clubs, ‘provided the manager with the goal stats’. It is not made clear whether it was his mistake or Mourinho’s confusion that led to the error.

It is, however, stressed that journalists on the Zoom call for the press conference were ‘nonplussed’ by the ‘statistical tirade’ as no-one had actually asked Mourinho about Merson’s comments, nor were they ‘planning to’.

In another incident this week, Mourinho denied any sort of rift with Tottenham’s club-record signing Tanguy Ndombele.

The Frenchman has not featured in either of their two games since the Premier League’s restart, with reports suggesting that the relationship between player and manager was in ruins.

“You know, it’s not just him,” he explained. “I try to do the best for my team. I cannot start the game with 12 or 13 players, I try to do the best for the team.

“Sometimes I apologise to my players that are not my first choice because I feel their work in training deserves something more than I give but I have to do my job the best I can and I felt for these two matches I didn’t need him.”

 

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is excited to see how Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes develop together as the Manchester United manager once again reiterated his intention to keep the France midfielder.

United are preparing for a key FA Cup quarter-final clash at Norwich amid wild celebrations down the road at Liverpool, who on Thursday saw their 30-year wait for the league title come to an end.

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Solskjaer’s fifth-placed side are an eye-watering 37 points behind the Reds and, despite being on a 13-match unbeaten run in all competitions, need to improve if they are to launch a first title challenge since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

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Top ten partnerships of the Premier League season

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The January arrival of Fernandes has certainly boosted their chances, as has Pogba’s return to fitness, with the World Cup winner making his first start since September in Wednesday’s 3-0 win against Sheffield United.

“I am certain that they can play well together, yes, because they have proven both in training and in the games they’ve played together that it’s exciting,” Solskjaer said of the midfield duo.

“There will be rotations, there will be times when Paul will play up with Bruno, sometimes it’s deeper, sometimes you play with a diamond.

“Of course it has been encouraging to see them together but it’s also encouraging how Nemanja (Matic), Scott (McTominay) and Fred are making it difficult for me to leave them out, which is a good position for me to be in as a coach.

“But of course you want to give Paul the chance to get 100 per cent fit and back to his best.

“He has been out for so long. I think it says everything about the quality of the boy, his performances.”

Pogba put in a promising display against the Blades and looks determined to end the season on a high, but speculation about his future is never far away.

Asked if he was confident Pogba would still be at Old Trafford next season, Solskjaer said with a laugh: “Here we go again!

“I don’t think you can ever question Paul’s professionality. He is a very, very professional boy and he lives his life the right way. He wants to be the best he can be.

“He knows he’s a special talent and he doesn’t want to in five, 10 years’ time look back and say, ‘I didn’t make the most of it’.

“Because he is already a World Cup winner, he has won things with Juventus and us, so I’m not surprised by his enthusiasm and dedication to us.

“And, yes, we are looking to keep Paul here and we’re looking to keep the best players here anyway.”

 

Granit Xhaka believes Arsenal’s victory at Southampton on Thursday night was crucial to keeping their slim chances of European qualification alive.

With a combination of injuries, suspension and protracted contract negotiations hanging over the club, Arsenal lost at both Manchester City and Brighton in their first two Premier Leagues fixtures since the restart.

They finally got up and running with a 2-0 win at 10-man Southampton as goals from Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock secured what Xhaka feels was an essential three points – with the Gunners moving up to ninth, six point adrift of Manchester United in fifth.

“Of course, we had to win,” he said when asked if victory was important for Arsenal’s hopes of qualifying for Europe.

“How I said before we didn’t play well last week and then we were a little bit unlucky (at Brighton).

“But yesterday we played very, very compact we were aggressive in a lot of the duels and we deserved the three points.”

 

 

Xhaka was also full of praise for the goalscorers, Nketiah taking his chance having once again been preferred over Alexandre Lacazette and Willock grabbing his first Premier League goal.

“I think we have some very good youngsters and they have big futures,” he added.

“They are already helping us and there keep working hard as well. I think we all work very hard, we had a game plan and Mikel did very good preparation for us.

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“But sometimes you need luck, sometimes it is not your day but yesterday we started again with another three points and we want to keep going.”

Both Arsenal goals at St Mary’s came following errors from Saints goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.

The England international gifted possession to Nketiah before fumbling a shot into the path of Willock moments after Jack Stephens had been sent off for fouling Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

“At the end of the day, in the Premier League you can’t give away two cheap goals,” defender Ryan Bertrand told Southampton’s official website.

“No matter what you do, if you do that you’re going to get punished. Other than that, we definitely deserved something, but we gave them two goals.

“Before the sending off – which levelled things in their favour I guess – it was a strange one, because even though we weren’t fully firing in first half, other than the goal we gave them we were the better team I’d say.”

 

Graeme Souness claims the Liverpool players should be “angry” despite winning the first league title for the club for 30 years.

The Reds legend – who won 11 major honours at Anfield – is delighted to see his former side thriving under Jurgen Klopp, but claims they should be upset not have won more.

He told Sky Sports: “They won the Champions League last year and now they have won the Premier League title, but I still think Jurgen Klopp will look back at this period and feel they should have won more than two major trophies.

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FEATURE: Seven games that turned Klopp’s Liverpool into champions

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“Okay, there was the Club World Cup as well, but to have been so good and so consistent and yet only won two big trophies, I think the players have got to be a bit angry at themselves about that.

“The challenge for them now is to win the big trophies consistently and establish prolonged dominance like the Liverpool teams of the past.

 

 

“In five years, if they have dominated the Premier League, if they have dominated the Champions League, then they can be considered as good as any team Liverpool has ever had. But to become a legendary team, you’ve got to become serial winners.

“What I would say is that, given the ages of the players in that Liverpool squad now, given where they are, given the manager they’ve got and the structure in place around the team, they have the potential to go on and become serial winners.

“These players, especially the goalkeeper and the defenders, could play together for another five years easily. That is a great place to be in, knowing you’ve got that foundation.

“The signings they have made have been off the charts and Jurgen deserves huge credit for the work he has done.”

 

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Géraldine Nakache & Hervé Mimran, les réalisateurs de “Tout ce qui brille”, se retrouvent et retrouvent certains de leurs comédiens sur leur deuxième film.

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Avec près d’1,5 millions d’entrées, des prix (Festival de Cabourg, Etoiles de la presse, My French Film Festival, Festival de l’Alpe d’Huez) et trois nominations aux César (dont une statuette du meilleur espoir pour Leïla Bekhti), Tout ce qui brille s’est imposé comme l’une des surprises françaises de 2010. Il était donc logique que l’équipe se retrouve pour une nouvelle aventure cinéma devant la caméra du tandem Géraldine Nakache / Hervé Mimran.

Une aventure cinéma baptisée Nous York -la vie de deux banlieusardes au coeur de la Grosse Pomme- qui réunira donc à nouveau Manu Payet, Leïla Bekhti, Nader Boussandel et Géraldine Nakache. Tournage prévu en septembre à… New York, forcément.

Yoann Sardet

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says it “hurts” to see any other team win the Premier League title, after Liverpool clinched top spot on Thursday.

Liverpool won their first league title in 30 years courtesy of Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

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FEATURE: Seven games that turned Klopp’s Liverpool into champions

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The title is the Reds’ 19th, putting them one behind United for most championships won.

Solskjaer, who won the top flight six times as a United player, said: “First of all, any team that wins the championship and a Premier League deserves it and they deserve credit, it’s a hard league to win.

“So well done to Jurgen [Klopp] and his players. Every time you see anyone else lift the trophy it hurts.

“I reckon that’s the feeling everyone associated with Manchester United – all our players, staff supporters – we want to get back to winning ways and that’s our challenge.”

 

 

Despite Liverpool’s dominance this season, Solskjaer doesn’t think Klopp’s side are in a position to consistently deliver titles over the next decade in the way that Sir Alex Ferguson did at Old Trafford.

And the United boss claims his side’s “challenge” is to avoid going too long without winning the league again, in a not-so-subtle reference to Liverpool’s lengthy spell without the top prize.

“The run of titles that we won under Sir Alex, I don’t think that’s going to be easy for anyone to emulate or copy,” he added. “Sir Alex was a master of staying at the top so, for me, our challenge is to make sure we don’t go, say, 26 years or more until the next time we win it.

“We’re going to do everything we can to shorten the distance or even go past them, of course.”

United are currently in fifth place in the Premier League table, 37 points behind the champions and while Solskjaer is keen to see his side close the gap he wants them to focus on other priorities first.

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“I don’t think it is time to say how far behind [United are]. We are in a position where we have to improve, we have to get into the Champions League, get higher up the league and start challenging for trophies,” the Norwegian said.

“That consistency and efficiency they have shown – that is a challenge for us as well. We know at our best we are very good. We have to do it again and again and that is the challenge for our players going forward.”

 

Virgil van Dijk and Jordan Henderson hailed Liverpool’s “incredible season” after “taking it to another level”.

Liverpool put themselves on the brink of glory with a 4-0 thumping of Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening.

And their coronation was confirmed when Chelsea beat Man City 2-1 to end Pep Guardiola’s grip on the trophy.

Liverpool were last champions of England in 1990. But the party can now get started after their 30-year wait was finally ended.

 

 

Speaking to BT Sport, Van Dyke said: “It’s unbelievable, what a season. We’ve been incredible. To be part of this group of players and part of this journey is incredible.  I am very proud to be able to call myself a Premier League winner.

“Of course I watched the (Chelsea) game. I don’t watch too many games but the game felt like it was taking ages and never ended. When the free-kick went in from Kevin (De Bruyne) – what an incredible goal by the way – I was getting nervous. I haven’t been nervous in a while.

“But after that it was just celebration time and we are all proud of each other. I can’t really describe the feeling to be honest.

“In the league this year we have taken it to another level. We have been so consistent and played so well.”

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FEATURE: Transfers and titles: Five gems from Klopp’s first presser

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And Henderson told Sky Sports he had been reluctant to celebrate prematurely.

The Liverpool captain said: “I didn’t want to talk about it until this moment so it’s amazing to finally get over the line. I’m so happy for all the boys, the fans, the whole club, the city.

“I’m just a little bit overwhelmed right now, it’s just an amazing feeling and just so proud of what we’ve achieved.

“Obviously (when we won) the Champions League everyone was on the pitch and there was a lot of emotion, but it was a different experience watching the game and the final whistle going and being able to be with everyone, staff and everyone together was amazing really.

“Another moment in our lives that we’ll never forget.”

 

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