Sports
Man City, Inter Milan set for UEFA Champions League final showdown
Manchester City and Inter Milan clash in Saturday’s Champions League final in Istanbul with the English side, under Pep Guardiola, strongly fancied to win European club football’s biggest prize for the first time.
The match at the 75,000-seat Ataturk Olympic Stadium, kicks off at 10:00pm (1900 GMT) in the Turkish metropolis and brings the curtain down on a season that has stretched almost into mid-June after the long interruption for the World Cup.
City have spent the last decade chasing this trophy having been transformed following an Abu Dhabi-backed takeover in 2008.
Also-rans before Sheikh Mansour arrived, they are now England’s dominant force, fresh from winning a fifth Premier League title in six seasons.
Guardiola, chasing the third Champions League crown of his coaching career, has built a side that is playing arguably the finest football of any team since his great Barcelona of a decade ago.
Now they are through to their second Champions League final in three seasons, two years after losing to Chelsea in Porto, and are hoping to complete a treble after securing the Premier League and FA Cup.
The last English team to win that treble was Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, in 1999.
“We have been good in this competition, but we just need to find a way to win the first one,” said Kevin De Bruyne on Friday.
“If we do it, it would obviously be immense for the players, for the club, and for the fans it would be something amazing.”
City’s rise has been made possible by the investment from the Abu Dhabi United Group, which led to them generating the biggest revenues in world football in 2022 of 731 million euros ($787m).
Question marks surround their success, given City were charged in February by the Premier League with 115 alleged breaches of its financial rules between 2009 and 2018.
In Europe, meanwhile, City were banned for two years from UEFA competitions in February 2020 for “serious financial fair-play breaches”, although that sanction was later overturned.
– Irresistible force –
City have become an almost irresistible force. They brushed aside RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the knockout rounds and have lost just once in 27 matches.
The goals of Erling Haaland — 52 in all competitions — have elevated them to another level, along with Guardiola’s decision to turn centre-back John Stones into a midfielder.
Inter, while one of Europe’s grand old names, should not be able to compete with City when you look at their finances.The Nerazzurri have enormous debts and their income for last year was under half that of City.
However, they emerged from their group ahead of Barcelona before beating Porto, their first victory in a Champions League knockout tie since 2011.
They then saw off Benfica and AC Milan to reach the final. They have won 11 of their last 12 games and recently retained the Coppa Italia.
“We understand what they are as a team,” De Bruyne said.
“They defend incredibly well. We don’t expect it to be an open game. That doesn’t happen a lot in a final anyway.”
Having reached their first Champions League final since lifting the trophy for the third time in their history in 2010, Inter are in to win it.
“We know we have a great opportunity to write a new page in the history of our club,” said coach Simone Inzaghi.
Inzaghi has a settled side, with a grizzled three-man defence, a classy midfield, flying wing-backs in Denzel Dumfries and Federico Dimarco, and Lautaro Martinez alongside veteran ex-City striker Edin Dzeko up front.
Both sides should be at full strength, with Kyle Walker set to start for City after missing training earlier this week.
It is Inter’s sixth European Cup final, but just their second in 51 years.
City’s only European trophy to date came in 1970, when they won the Cup Winners’ Cup, beating Poland’s Gornik Zabrze 2-1 in the final.
That match was not shown on British television due to a clash with the FA Cup final replay the same night.
A huge global audience will watch Saturday’s showdown, for which both clubs were officially allocated around 20,000 tickets.
It is the second Champions League final held at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, situated on the European side of the Bosphorus, 25 kilometres from central Istanbul.
Liverpool triumphed here in 2005, recovering from a three-goal deficit against Milan to draw 3-3 before winning on penalties.
Referee Chris Kavanagh was right to send Declan Rice off in Arsenal’s draw with Brighton, the Key Match Incidents panel has ruled.
The board – which reviews the big refereeing decisions in the Premier League each week – agreed the midfielder should have been dismissed.
Rice, who was already on a booking, nudged the ball away from Joel Veltman as he prepared to take a free-kick in the 49th minute of Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Brighton last weekend.
It was the first red card of the England star’s career, with the panel agreeing his actions were “clear, deliberate and impactful” and a second yellow card was correct.
The panel, which unanimously backed the decision, wrote: “Rice knows what he’s doing – it’s a gentle touch, but once the referee sees it he has no choice.”
Arsenal were 1-0 up at the time after Kai Havertz’s goal, but Joao Pedro’s leveller earned Brighton a point at the Emirates.
The KMI panel is independent and made up of three former players or coaches, one Premier League representative and one from the Professional Game Match Officials Board, the referees’ body.
It also ruled the video assistant referee (VAR) was right to intervene in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s goal in Liverpool’s 3-0 win at Manchester United.
The goal was initially given but was then ruled out, with Mohamed Salah deemed to have been offside in the build-up.
It was the only on-pitch decision ruled to have been incorrect out of the 23 looked into for match week three.
The panel was unanimous in its support of every on-field call, except the decision not to give Crystal Palace’s Will Hughes a second yellow card in their 1-1 draw at Chelsea.
The midfielder, already on a booking, avoided a caution from referee Jarred Gillett despite pulling back Cole Palmer outside the box just after half-time.
The first caution was unanimously supported as correct, with the majority (3-2) supporting Gillett’s decision not to issue a second yellow.
However, two of the panellists argued: “Palmer is the wrong side of Hughes and has options left and right, therefore it is stopping a promising attack.”
Manchester United have identified the manager to take over from Erik ten Hag when the Dutchman leaves.
The former Ajax manager is clearly under pressure following Manchester United’s disappointing start to the season.
The Mirror reports that United’s co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is considering firing him and has identified former Real Madrid manager, Zinedine Zidane as a possible replacement for Ten Hag.
The Red Devils finished eighth in the Premier League last season while also being knocked out of their Champions League group.
Ten Hag was about being sacked before luck shone on him to win the FA Cup final against city rivals, Manchester City.
The club’s revamped board decided to stick with him but the start to the current season has intensified the pressure on him.
After managing a 1-0 win over Fulham, Manchester United suffered a 2-1 defeat to Brighton on the road and were then dismantled by Liverpool at Old Trafford.
This poor form has only heightened the scrutiny on Ten Hag.
And the club’s owners have been monitoring the potential of Zidane replacing Ten Hag if the Dutchman’s tenure falters.
Zidane has not managed a team since 2021, but still remains a sought-after coach.
However, there are other options for Zidane, who is a leading candidate to replace Didier Deschamps as the France national team manager.
John Mikel Obi has refused to blame Victor Osimhen for his social media tirade at former Super Eagles head coach, Finidi George.
Osimhen came under scrutiny for lashing out at Finidi, who allegedly questioned his commitment to the national team.
The forward called out the former Ajax winger and expressed his disappointment and loss of respect for him.
Mikel said Osimhen’s frustration was understandable, especially with the Super Eagles poor results against South Africa and Benin Republic.
The former midfielder admitted that while the striker’s reaction may not be ideal, he understands why the player needs to defend himself.
He praised Osimhen’s humility but acknowledged that respect must be mutual.
“Every time I speak to him, he’s very humble, respects people. As I said, respect is reciprocal. I respect you, you respect me. I think this situation with the Nigerian coach, where he blew out, he just felt it wasn’t fair because the manager didn’t protect him, Mikel said on Obionepodcast.
“He said he had a conversation with the manager, everything was recorded, and the manager just threw him under the bus.
“He was really pissed off, so he came out to defend himself. Maybe the way he did it wasn’t the best, but he had the right to speak out. I have nothing against Victor [Osimhen] for that, and knowing your worth isn’t arrogance.”
Sports
Osimhen stands on wrongdoing as Nigerians celebrate mediocrity, refuses to apologise to Finidi for disgraceful social media rant
Former Super Eagles head coach Finidi George has revealed that Super Eagles star, Victor Osimhen has not apologized for the social media rant that disrespected him.
Osimhen lashed out at Finidi on social media after the Finidi reportedly accused him of pulling out of national team games.
After the rant, Osimhen was widely criticized on social media with top sporting figures urging him to apologize but Finidi says he has put the episode behind him.
“I sent him a message that it was not the best way, just someone telling you that coach said that and you’re talking about me like I said it in an interview,” Finidi told Nigeria Info FM.
“From that point, I didn’t hear from him, I moved on and I wish everybody well, only God will judge”.
Finidi also refused to comment on the suggestion that Osimhen should have been sanctioned with a ban from the Super Eagles.
“I don’t know, he is there already, let him be,” he added.
“We cannot crucify him, he has made a mistake, we have moved on and life goes on.”
British Broadcaster, Piers Morgan has heaped praises on Portugal captain, Cristiano Ronaldo after the forward led his team to beat Scotland in the Nations League on Sunday.
Portugal came from a goal down to beat Scotland 2-1 following Scott McTominay’s goal for the visitors.
Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes scored the goals for the host in Lisbon.
Reacting, Morgan, in a tweet on X after the game, said Ronaldo keeps writing his own scripts, branding the Al Nassr forward as ‘incredible.’
“RONALDO!!!!! His first-ever goal against Scotland. His 901st in professional football,” Morgan tweeted.
“He keeps writing his own scripts. Incredible @Cristiano.”
Jannik Sinner says it “means so much” to win the US Open after a “very difficult” period following the controversy over his positive tests for a banned substance.
The world number one stormed past American Taylor Fritz in Sunday’s final to claim his second Grand Slam of the year.
It was revealed six days before the tournament began that Sinner had been cleared of any wrongdoing after twice testing positive for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol – a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass – in March.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) ruled the Italian was inadvertently contaminated with the substance by Giacomo Naldi, his physiotherapist.
“This title means so much because the last period of my career was not easy,” the 23-year-old said.
“It [the investigation] was and still is on my mind. It’s not that it’s gone, but when I’m on court, I try to handle the situation the best possible way.
“I’m happy how I handled this one. I’m just excited to have this trophy with me.”
Sinner subsequently parted ways with the physio and his fitness trainer – but questions remained about whether Sinner’s case had been handled differently to those of other players because of his status as world number one.
Sinner added he felt “more pressure” in New York than he did when he won his maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January.
“Here it was difficult because also the pre-tournament circumstances weren’t easy,” Sinner said.
“I felt like that I have grown, you know, match by match and that my confidence level went higher and higher at some point.”
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