Thibaut Courtois admits Real Madrid are worried about Arsenal set pieces

  • Goalkeeper reveals side have trained to deal with them
  • ‘The first thing is not to concede too many corners’

Thibaut Courtois has revealed that Real Madrid are wary of Arsenal’s prowess from set pieces and have been preparing specifically for the challenge of facing them.

The reigning European champions come into Tuesday’s first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at the Emirates following a 2-1 home defeat by Valencia in La Liga that left them four points behind leaders Barcelona. A poor defensive performance saw Madrid concede their 10th goal from a corner this season, although Carlo Ancelotti will welcome back Courtois and David Alaba from injury against Mikel Arteta’s side.

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Saka mentally refreshed and ready to write ‘own story’ for Arsenal against Madrid

  • Winger ‘focused on coming back stronger’ after injury
  • Arteta says quarter-final biggest game of coaching career

Bukayo Saka has said he feels mentally refreshed after missing three months through injury and believes Arsenal are ready to “write our own story” against Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final.

Saka is expected to start against Madrid on Tuesday in the first leg for the first time since rupturing a hamstring in December, having come on in the past two matches. The Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, said having the 23-year-old back for what he described as the biggest game of his coaching career was a massive boost as his team attempt to overcome the reigning champions.

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Get Real: serial Champions League winners Madrid face fresh threat | Jonathan Wilson

Paris Saint-Germain, who beat Liverpool with verve and energy, are the upstart newcomers among big-name quarter-finalists

Narratives are never as straightforward as they may appear. One era does not yield easily to another. What constitutes an era changes over time. While history is happening it’s often hard to make sense of it; patterns seem to emerge that, from the perspective of 20 years later are meaningless, or culs-de-sac. That seems particularly true this season. As the Champions League reaches its quarter-final stage this coming week, it feels that one age has ended and another has yet to materialise.

The past was a simpler place. First there was the age of dominance by Real Madrid and Benfica, teams from the capitals of Iberian nations under right-wing dictatorships, packed with great individuals. Then came systematisation, catenaccio and the Italian ascendancy, followed, with a brief period of crossover, by the era of domination by the northern European industrial powers, skipping swiftly over Celtic and Manchester United to the Dutch and Total Football and then Bayern Munich. Then came the long period of English superiority before the Heysel ban, after which everything gets more complicated.

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Mbappé and Vinícius investigated by Uefa before Arsenal quarter-final

  • Real Madrid players face inquiry for Atlético celebrations
  • Rüdiger and Ceballos also under the spotlight

Uefa has opened an investigation into a possible breach of disciplinary regulations by several Real Madrid players at the end of their recent Champions League match at Atlético Madrid. The inquiry centres on allegations of improper conduct by Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior, Dani Ceballos and Antonio Rüdiger, Uefa revealed on Thursday.

Real Madrid face Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the competition on 8 and 16 April. If Uefa’s investigation results in player suspensions, they are likely to affect their availability for that tie.

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Rangers tell fans behind ‘shameful’ banner to stay away after Uefa charge

  • Banner appeared during victory over Fenerbahce
  • Club expecting ‘significant sanctions’ from Uefa

Rangers have described the behaviour of a minority of their fans as “embarrassing” after being charged by Uefa over incidents during last week’s Europa League last-16 victory over Fenerbahce at Ibrox.

Rangers confirmed on Wednesday that they faced significant sanctions after what Uefa described as a “racist and/or discriminatory banner” was unveiled by a group of fans. The banner read: “Keep woke foreign ideologies out. Defend Europe.”

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Pep Guardiola fires back at Capello’s jibe about making football boring

  • ‘It’s not the first time he’s said that’
  • Capello said Guardiola ruined Italian football

Pep Guardiola has responded sarcastically to Fabio Capello’s claim that he is arrogant, has “ruined Italian football” and has made the sport boring. The former England coach offered his view of Guardiola to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo this week. On Friday Manchester City’s manager was asked whether he listened to someone of the Italian’s stature in the game.

“I listen to everything that people say about me. Everything. So be careful. I am controlling you,” he said as a joke. “It’s not the first time that Mr Fabio Capello said that. I’m not good enough to win Italian football. Italian football is much, much more important than the way you do it. A big hug from Fabio. A big hug.”

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James Maddison looks to Europa League to make a special season for Spurs

  • Spurs face Eintracht Frankfurt in last eight
  • ‘We’re a good team, the belief is definitely there’

James Maddison believes Tottenham are real contenders to win the Europa League and is hoping their victory over AZ Alkmaar can be the catalyst for Ange Postecoglou’s side to make it a “special season”.

Spurs overturned a 1-0 deficit from the first leg with a stirring 3-1 home victory over the Dutch side on Thursday to set up a quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt next month. Maddison was instrumental in the move that created Wilson Odobert’s winning goal, having earlier scored his 11th of the season to make it 2-0.

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Fernandes takes aim at Ratcliffe for saying some players ‘overpaid’ and ‘not good enough’

  • ‘It’s not nice to hear certain things,’ says United captain
  • Fernandes responds after co-owner’s critical interviews

Bruno Fernandes has aimed a barb at Sir Jim Ratcliffe by stating no player wants to be told they are “not good enough or overpaid”, as Manchester United’s co-owner said this week regarding some of Ruben Amorim’s squad.

The captain was speaking after his hat-trick in Thursday’s Europa League last-16 second leg 4-1 win over Real Sociedad that sealed United’s passage to a quarter-final against Lyon.

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Manchester United must win titles for Bruno Fernandes, says Ruben Amorim

  • United in Europa League last eight after beating Sociedad
  • ‘We need to help him win titles because he deserves this’

Ruben Amorim praised Bruno Fernandes’s hat-trick performance that swept Real Sociedad aside and took Manchester United into the Europa League quarter-finals, saying his side “needs to win titles” for the captain.

After Mikel Oyarzabal struck first via an early penalty, United dominated, Fernandes scoring two from the spot on 16 and 50 minutes, before a superb late strike to complete the hat-trick. Diogo Dalot’s added-time fourth sealed progress.

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‘Why not dare to dream?’: McGinn and Villa fear no one in Champions League

  • ‘We can compete against the best in the world’
  • Midfielder excited at prospect of facing PSG

Not so long ago, John McGinn presumed a detour to the Paris Saint-Germain club shop on a family holiday as a kid, getting kitted out en route to Disneyland, would be the closest he got to playing at the Parc des Princes. Unai Emery is a former PSG manager, Marco Asensio is on loan from the Ligue 1 club, but McGinn’s ties are more modest, if not tenuous.

“The only place I’ve been there is the shop,” he says, smiling. “We were in a big campervan and stopped off in Paris. I think I was about seven or eight … I remember getting a PSG strip.”

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Fernandes hat-trick powers electric Manchester United past Real Sociedad

Manchester United’s trophy hopes live to fight on against Lyon in the Europa League quarter-final after a swaggering display that battered Real Sociedad and must be the Ruben Amorim blueprint.

From the moment they fell behind early on, his side was electrified, as if finally locating the high-voltage socket under Amorim and gleefully plugging themselves in. United came at Sociedad relentlessly, a whir of energy and creativity that is the best advertisement yet for where their head coach might take them.

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Europa League roundup: Athletic stun Roma after Nico Williams double

  • Athletic Club earn 4-3 aggregate win over 10-man Roma
  • Lazio and Bodø/Glimt progress as Frankfurt rout Ajax

Nico Williams scored twice as Athletic Club advanced to the Europa League quarter-finals with a 3-1 second-leg win over 10-man Roma on Thursday and Lazio progressed after a 1-1 home draw with Viktoria Plzen. Lazio will face Bodø/Glimt in the last eight after the Norwegian club continued their impressive European adventure despite losing 2-1 at Olympiakos, while Eintracht Frankfurt had little trouble finishing off Ajax with a 4-1 win.

Roma, 2-1 up from the first leg, were down to 10 men in the 11th minute after Mats Hummels saw red for taking down Maroan Sannadi who had intercepted his sloppy pass and Williams levelled the tie on aggregate in added time before the break. His shot took a deflection off Roma’s Angeliño before finding the net and Athletic went ahead on aggregate with 22 minutes left when Yuri Berchiche headed in from a corner.

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Tottenham and Rangers reach Europa League quarter-finals – as it happened

Spurs made it through to the Europa League quarters … as did Rangers after some late Ibrox drama

Chelsea make five changes to the team that started in Denmark last week. Filip Jørgensen replaces Robert Sánchez in goal, while Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernández, Jadon Sancho and Joshua Acheampong also step up. Sánchez drops to the bench, as do Shumaira Mheuka, Cole Palmer and Reece James, the latter pair having been ill all week. Malo Gusto misses out altogether through injury.

Copenhagen make two changes from that game. Mohamed Elyounoussi, once of Southampton, and Rodrigo Huecas come in, while Giorgi Gocholeishvili and Amin Chiakha are benched.

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Manchester United v Real Sociedad: Europa League last-16, second leg – as it happened

A terrific performance from United, who came from behind to wallop Sociedad with Bruno Fernandes scoring a hat-trick

It’s big night tonight for Højlund. He’s improved a bit in the last couple of games – he’s getting chances and missing them, rather than disappearing – and has done well in Europe since joining United. I think Amorim has him pegged, as it goes:

“We have to look at Rasmus as a player – he has the pace, he has the technique, he’s scored some goals that are really hard to score. Sometimes he doesn’t choose the better run, sometimes he’s so anxious to touch the ball and he moves away from the goal. We address that in training but sometimes it is the confidence of the player.”

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Football Daily | Zinchenko and a deep respect for a loan spell in 2017-18

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While the first-leg shellacking Arsenal dished out to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands meant that Wednesday night’s return leg was predictably low on drama, there was at least one moment of highly performative nonsense for fans at the Emirates to enjoy. Handed a rare start by Mikel Arteta, Oleksandr Zinchenko repaid his manager by firing his side ahead with a terrific strike but very pointedly refused to celebrate his first ever Bigger Cup goal for reasons that initially seemed to baffle his own teammates, PSV’s players, both sets of supporters and anyone like Football Daily with so little going on in their life that they’d tuned in to watch this 90-minute long foregone conclusion unfold on TV.

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