uefa champions league

Champions League Final Most ‘Dangerous’ Game: Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti

Danijones7 months ago06 mins

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti warned his players the Champions League final is the most “dangerous” game in football on the eve of their clash with Borussia Dortmund at Wembley. The Italian, who has won the competition as a coach a record four times, said Los Blancos were afraid the trophy could escape them. Madrid, record 14-time winners, are firm favourites for the clash against the Bundesliga side. “A Champions League final is the most important game but also the most dangerous,” Ancelotti told a news conference Friday. “We have to enjoy being here, but knowing it can go wrong because we are close to the most important thing in football — winning a Champions League — but having the fear this can escape us. “Things have to go very well, you need to be lucky too, success is very close and so the worry begins tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon.” Real Madrid captain Nacho said he was feeling confident but nervous. “We’ve got more nerves than in any other moment of the season,” admitted Madrid captain Nacho. “We’re humans, it’s a calm week for (some people) but for the players it’s not. It’s special, and that makes it not calm.” Veteran midfielder Luka Modric said despite Madrid’s strength in contrast to Dortmund, he was approaching the match as if it were an even battle. “Everyone thinks we are big favourites, but we don’t think about it like that,” said the Croatian. “It’s 50-50, we’re playing a big team that has had a magnificent season in the Champions League.” Nacho and Modric, along with Toni Kroos and Dani Carvajal, would reach six career Champions League wins with a victory over Dortmund, levelling all-time leader and former Madrid great Paco Gento. “It was hard to imagine we’d get to this moment but we are here, very happy and enjoying this moment,” said Modric. “I hope tomorrow we can take this step further, as a team and have six European Cups would be something big.” ‘Something special’ Madrid came from behind to beat Bayern Munich in the semi-finals and have a remarkable ability to turn games around in Europe when it seems like they are defeated. “We prefer to take the lead if it’s possible,” said Modric. “But we’ve shown many times this year and before, that when things don’t go well we fight until the end. “We always find a way, we’re capable of turning the game around. We keep having this mentality, this commitment and fight, but like I said, we’d prefer to take the lead.” Ancelotti said Madrid’s ability to come back from the dead “has happened so many times it’s not chance”. “It’s something special… it could be the history, the quality, the tradition, the character,” he mused. The coach confirmed goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois would start the final ahead of Andriy Lunin, resolving the main selection query ahead of the game. “Lunin had the flu and hasn’t travelled with the team, tomorrow he will travel and will be on the bench — Courtois will play tomorrow,” said Ancelotti. Belgian stopper Courtois returned from a long-term knee injury earlier in May and has kept four clean sheets in four appearances since. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Topics mentioned in this article

Kylian Mbappe And PSG Aim To Seize Moment In Champions League Semi-Final

Danijones8 months ago07 mins

Paris Saint-Germain are bidding to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit and beat Borussia Dortmund in their Champions League semi-final return match on Tuesday, with the aim of bringing the curtain down on the Kylian Mbappe era at the club in the final at Wembley. The only time PSG have previously appeared in the biggest match in club football turned out to be a depressingly flat occasion, with the French side losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich behind closed doors in Lisbon in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Reaching the June 1 showpiece in London, and playing before a crowd of 90,000 against either Real Madrid or Bayern again, would be a different occasion entirely. Getting there would give Mbappe the chance to end his seven-year stay with the Qatar-owned outfit in the best possible way, as they look to win the Champions League for the first time in their history, and just the second time for a French club after Marseille in 1993. Mbappe informed PSG in February of his intention to depart the Parc des Princes when his contract expires at the end of the season, ending a prolific association with his hometown team which began when he signed from Monaco in 2017. Now 25 and the captain of France, Mbappe has become the Parisians’ all-time top scorer with 255 goals in 305 appearances so far, including 43 this season alone. He has 48 in the Champions League — a tally which includes six with Monaco in his breakthrough 2016/17 campaign — and Tuesday’s second leg against Dortmund would be the ideal time for him to bring up the half-century. Luis Enrique’s team did not produce their best performance in losing 1-0 in Germany last week, and the pressure is on them as favourites to turn the tie around at home. However, a repeat of what happened when they hosted Dortmund in the group stage last September will suffice — on that occasion they won 2-0, with Mbappe netting the first goal from the penalty spot. “We are sure we are going to turn it around and qualify for the final,” Mbappe told several media including AFP on Sunday on the sidelines of an event on the French capital’s famed Champs-Elysees. “There is a lot of pressure on us, which is normal because there is a place in the Champions League final at stake. “All the more so when you know about this club’s past in the competition.” Defensive dilemma PSG were not necessarily expected to get as far as the semi-finals this season, with the squad undergoing a major overhaul following the departures of Lionel Messi and Neymar at the end of the last campaign. They had gone out in the last 16 in five of the last seven seasons, frequently failing in spectacular fashion in that time. Before this season, and since the Qatari takeover of the club in 2011, PSG had won nine Champions League knockout ties in total. Five of those came behind closed doors in the Covid era, including two ties played as one-off games on neutral turf in Lisbon in 2020. This season’s draw has been as kind as it could be, with Real Sociedad ideal opponents in the last 16 and Dortmund the best they could have wished for in the semi-finals. However, their performance in overturning a first-leg deficit to defeat Barcelona in the last eight is not to be dismissed. While all eyes will, as usual, be on Mbappe, the key to PSG’s chances of recovering from another first-leg loss when they face Dortmund may be in defence. They suffered a huge blow when Lucas Hernandez ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while trying to stop Niclas Fuellkrug’s goal in Dortmund. He is set to be out for many months. In addition, left-back Nuno Mendes, who has himself not long returned from a lengthy spell out, had a torrid time up against Jadon Sancho at the Signal Iduna Park. Mendes will still almost certainly start at the Parc des Princes, while Danilo Pereira looks the most likely option to partner skipper Marquinhos at centre-back. “We know how strong we are at the Parc. Nothing is finished, everything is open,” Marquinhos said after the first leg. One other factor in favour of PSG, who have already wrapped up the French title, might be freshness — their weekend league game at Nice was postponed to help them prepare. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Topics mentioned in this article

PSG Optimistic About Champions League Final Chances Despite Borussia Dortmund Defeat

Danijones8 months ago06 mins

Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique was hopeful his side would still reach the Champions League final despite a 1-0 defeat away to Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their last-four tie on Wednesday. “It’s football. Very often it is marvellous and other times it is like this. We would have preferred to be in a different situation, but I think when you look at it it was a very even game,” the Spaniard told broadcaster Canal Plus after his side were undone by a solitary Niclas Fuellkrug goal in the first half. The French champions had more possession and more attempts on goal but were hindered by wayward finishing and perhaps a lack of luck — Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi hit separate posts in the same move at one point in the second half. “Nobody ever said it was going to be easy in the semi-finals of the Champions League. The boys in the dressing room are a bit down. We had one chance where we hit both posts,” Luis Enrique added. “You have to say this is an exceptional stadium but I am sure we will be very strong in Paris and we have nothing to lose.” It is just the fifth game PSG have lost all season, and the first time they have been beaten under Luis Enrique without scoring. However, they can take heart from the fact they have already defeated Dortmund at home in the current campaign, winning 2-0 at the Parc des Princes when the teams met there in the group stage in September. They also overturned a 3-2 first-leg deficit to knock out Barcelona in the quarter-finals by winning 4-1 in the return. Going further back, PSG knocked the German club out of the Champions League in the last 16 in 2020 with a 2-0 win at home after going down 2-1 away in the first leg. Hernandez injury fears “We are two teams who like to get forward, who like to have the ball, who press. It was a very physical match,” PSG captain Marquinhos — who produced one crucial lunge to deny Julian Brandt late on — told Canal Plus. “In terms of the result it is true we had lots of good chances, especially in the second half, clear chances that we can’t afford to miss if we want to get to the final. “At home we will really need to make sure we convert chances like that.” The Brazilian added: “It is always very difficult to play here. We wanted to come here and win. We didn’t manage to do that but it is only 1-0. “We have managed to do it in the past. We have shown we can do it, especially at home with the energy of our supporters. You can be sure it will be a different scenario there.” Meanwhile, Luis Enrique said he had no news about the injury which forced defender Lucas Hernandez off late in the first half but admitted it “doesn’t look at all positive”. Hernandez appeared to hurt his knee while trying to stop Fuellkrug’s goal and attempted to carry on before crumbling to the ground and having to be replaced by Lucas Beraldo. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Topics mentioned in this article

Joshua Kimmich Heads Bayern Munich Past Arsenal Into Champions League Semi-Finals

Danijones8 months ago06 mins

A 63rd-minute Joshua Kimmich header gave Bayern Munich a 1-0 win over Arsenal and a place in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday. The 3-2 aggregate quarter-final victory means Bayern return to the last-four for the first time since winning the title in 2020. Bayern will face Real Madrid for a place in the final after the 14-time champions overcame holder Manchester City on penalties. The result continues a poor week for Arsenal, who conceded top spot in the Premier League table on Sunday with their first league loss of 2024. “We can enjoy this one. The first half was cagey and then we upped the tempo,” Bayern striker Harry Kane told TNT. “These games are tough and we had to find our way through them. “It’s going to be a tough semi final whoever we play.” Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said his side had “wanted it so badly”. “However, you can see with many other clubs that sometimes it takes six or seven years to get to that stage. We were very close, that is the reality.” Unlike last week’s four-goal spectacle in London, Wednesday’s match was a cagey affair, with few clear chances for either side in a testy opening half. Midway through the second-half and with extra-time on the horizon, Kimmich burst through the Arsenal box and headed in a perfect Raphael Guerreiro chip. Guerreiro, pushed from wing-back to the forwards due to Bayern’s injury woes, impressed as a creative presence when freed up from his usual defensive duties. Six-time Champions League winners Bayern join fellow Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, who face Paris Saint-Germain, in the semi-finals. Hit by injuries to several first-team attackers including former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry — who scored along with Kane in the first leg — and Kingsley Coman, Tuchel pushed Guerreiro into an unfamiliar advanced role. The move worked early, with the Portuguese finding space down the left flank and linking well with Jamal Musiala in the centre. Arteta opted for the defensive stability of Takehiro Tomiyasu in place of Jakub Kiwior at left-back to neutralise Leroy Sane but the Japanese, who was making his first start since December, notably lacked rythym. Tomiyasu completely misjudged a Musiala pass early, allowing Sane to stroll through the Arsenal box and force a corner. Gabriel Martinelli was the visitors’ most dangerous player in the opening half. He scuffed a curling ball just wide of the post after seven minutes and then shot directly at Manuel Neuer with the goal beckoning on the half-hour mark. Bayern were the better team after the break and went close immediately, Leon Goretzka heading a clever Kimmich cross onto the woodwork. The pressure began to tell and Bayern broke through after 63 minutes when Kimmich, among the shortest players on the pitch, was allowed to slip through a crowded Arsenal box and head in a Guerreiro chip. The hosts almost doubled the tally moments after when Kane found an unmarked Sane in the box, but the Germany winger blasted his shot skywards. Arsenal pushed for an equaliser and went close in stoppage time when Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka lashed at a bouncing ball in the box but could not break through, ending the visitors’ hopes of a return to the Champions League semis for the first time since 2009. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Topics mentioned in this article