Haaland a doubt for Man City showdown with ‘exceptional’ Liverpool
Haaland a doubt for Man City showdown with ‘exceptional’ Liverpool/node/2591119/sport
Haaland a doubt for Man City showdown with ‘exceptional’ Liverpool
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland sits on the bench ahead of their Champions League playoff second leg match against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP)
Short Url
https://arab.news/zh4j9
Updated 21 February 2025
AFP
Haaland a doubt for Man City showdown with ‘exceptional’ Liverpool
“Tomorrow we will know,” said Guardiola at his pre-match press conference
The January signing of Omar Marmoush at least means Guardiola does have a back-up option
Updated 21 February 2025
AFP
MANCHESTER: Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said Erling Haaland remains a doubt for Sunday’s Premier League clash against Liverpool after sitting out his side’s Champions League exit to Real Madrid.
The Norwegian was named on the bench at the Santiago Bernabeu but did not make an appearance as City were outclassed in a 3-1 defeat on Wednesday to crash out 6-3 on aggregate.
“Tomorrow we will know,” said Guardiola at his pre-match press conference on Friday.
The January signing of Omar Marmoush at least means Guardiola does have a back-up option should Haaland fail to recover in time to face the league leaders, but Guardiola could not hide the importance of his 27-goal star striker.
“It’s better to have Erling on the pitch than not,” he added. “Of course with Erling we are stronger.”
The battle for supremacy between Guardiola’s City and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool marked an era in the Premier League.
But Arne Slot has seamlessly succeeded Klopp to have the Reds on course for the title in his first season in charge.
“For me it’s an exceptional team. I have said many times, they have been the biggest rival in my tenure here,” said Guardiola.
“Arsenal right now in the last years have been involved as well, but I could not expect differently that Liverpool (would) be in the position that they are.”
Liverpool hold an eight-point lead over Arsenal, who have a game in hand and are favorites to cut the gap to five when they host West Ham on Saturday.
After four consecutive title triumphs, City’s defense of their crown is realistically over as they are 17 points adrift of Liverpool in fourth.
Injuries have played a major role in City’s decline.
John Stones is set for another couple of months on the sidelines after limping off with a thigh tear early on against Madrid, while Rodri and Manuel Akanji may also not play again this season.
Guardiola pointed to a brutal schedule as the cause and pointed out that Arsenal, Real Madrid and Tottenham are among other clubs battling a number of serious muscle injuries this season.
City’s season could stretch into mid-July due to their participation in the Club World Cup, with the next Premier League season starting barely a month later.
Guardiola said he is already fearing a repeat situation next season that could hinder City’s hopes of bouncing back and competing for major honors.
“Of course, I’m concerned. So, next season, everybody will be fit? I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he added.
“We have already a lot of players that cannot sustain what we have in the past. Week in, week out, playing a dozen different competitions, travels. Without the problems.
“More than 50 games, it’s too much for the players. It’s too much for the human being, the body cannot sustain without a medical issue.
“And we arrived at 65, 70 games and, at the end, look what happened. It’s not just Man City. It’s all the clubs.”
Boateng pulls plug on planned Bayern internship after opposition from fans
“I am thankful to the club leadership and you, dear Vincent, for giving me trust and the opportunity to be part of that,” Boateng said
Bayern fans had opposed his planned internship after the player was handed a suspended fine and a warning last year by a Munich court
Updated 25 October 2025
Reuters
MUNICH: Retired defender Jerome Boateng on Saturday pulled out of a planned coaching internship at Bayern Munich after fans voiced their objection due to the 2014 World Cup winner being found guilty of assaulting a former girlfriend last year.
The former Bayern and Germany defender, who played for the club between 2011 and 2021, had discussed a short internship with coach Vincent Kompany.
“Following the recent discussion regarding myself, I have decided to focus on my issues such as the A training license.... that is where my focus is,” he said in a social media post addressed to Bayern and Kompany.
“Your focus should be solely on the pitch and on extending this 13-match winning run.”
Bayern beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-0 on Saturday to bag their 13th win from 13 matches across all competitions this season.
“I am thankful to the club leadership and you, dear Vincent, for giving me trust and the opportunity to be part of that,” Boateng said.
Bayern fans had opposed his planned internship after the player was handed a suspended fine and a warning last year by a Munich court which found him guilty of premeditated bodily harm against his former partner.
An online petition, headlined “Setting borders against misogynistic violence: Jerome Boateng should not be allowed back to Bayern Munich” had collected several thousand signatures.
The 2024 trial was the third in the bodily harm case.
The 37-year-old Boateng, who made 76 appearances for Germany between 2009 and 2018, spent 10 years at Bayern after joining in 2011 from Manchester City where he had been a teammate of Kompany. He helped Bayern win nine Bundesliga titles and two Champions League trophies.
Boateng retired last month, last featuring for Austrian side LASK Linz where his contract was terminated by mutual consent in August.
De Bruyne scores and limps off as Napoli beat Inter to move top
De Bruyne calmly converted it before clutching the back of his right thigh
In the second half, the atmosphere at Stadio Diego Maradona heated up
Updated 25 October 2025
Reuters
NAPLES: Napoli secured a 3-1 home victory over Inter Milan on Saturday in a heated Serie A clash as Kevin De Bruyne converted a penalty before going off injured before Scott McTominay and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa completed the win.
Napoli moved top of the table on 18 points, one ahead of AC Milan, who were held to a draw by Pisa on Friday. Inter sit third, level on 15 points with fourth-placed AS Roma.
After a quiet start to the game, Inter’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan gave away a penalty after half an hour for tripping Giovanni Di Lorenzo.
De Bruyne calmly converted it before clutching the back of his right thigh. His teammates consoled him as he grimaced and left the pitch before returning to the substitutes’ bench with crutches.
In the second half, the atmosphere at Stadio Diego Maradona heated up. McTominay doubled Napoli’s lead in the 54th minute with a precise finish, latching on to a perfectly delivered long ball from Leonardo Spinazzola.
Afterwards the Scot admitted he was not expecting such a delivery from Spinazzola.
“I lost the ball in the lights, so the pass took me by surprise, the lights are so bright I couldn’t see it. Then I just thought to shoot,” he told DAZN.
“Leo (Spinazzola) is a top player, he put in some great passes this year, now we need to find that consistency so we can continue to push.”
Hakan Calhanoglu pulled one back for Inter from the penalty spot in the 59th minute after Alessandro Buongiorno was penalized for handball.
Moments later, a heated scuffle broke out on the touchline, earning Napoli manager Antonio Conte a yellow card as he exchanged hand gestures with the Inter players.
In the 66th minute, Zambo Anguissa produced a moment of brilliance, driving forward on a counter-attack and holding off the Inter defense before calmly slotting home Napoli’s third.
De Bruyne’s injury added to Napoli’s growing list of absentees, which includes Rasmus Hojlund, Stanislav Lobotka and goalkeeper Alex Meret.
“Perhaps someone has cursed us, but we keep going anyway,” Conte said in regard to his side growing injury list.
“I live the game with my players, for good and bad, and we played against in my view the best squad in Italy.”
Man United finally heading in right direction after thrilling 4-2 win against Brighton
It is still too early to tell if Amorim has turned a corner after such a wretched start to his tenure
A prime source of encouragement for Amorim is the manner in which his summer signings have added a new dimension
Updated 25 October 2025
AP
LONDON: The crisis is over for Manchester United. For now at least.
A third straight win in the Premier League finally has Ruben Amorim’s team moving in the right direction, up to the heady heights of the top five on Saturday and with a sense of momentum not felt for a long time at Old Trafford.
A 4-2 win against Brighton extended coach Amorim’s best run of league wins since he was appointed last November. It was the first time United had won three in a row in England’s topflight since February 2024.
Victory also ended Brighton’s winning streak in this fixture, which dated back three seasons.
It is still too early to tell if Amorim has turned a corner after such a wretched start to his tenure, including the 20-time champion’s worst-ever season in the Premier League last term.
But coming on the heels of last week’s morale-boosting win at Liverpool, the signs are positive, even if Brighton sparked a fightback to make it a nervy finish for the home fans.
A prime source of encouragement for Amorim is the manner in which his summer signings have added a new dimension.
Brazil forward Matheus Cunha scored his first goal for the club with a curling shot from outside the area to give United a 24th-minute lead.
Bryan Mbeumo also scored twice in the second half, making it three in his last two games, after Casemiro had doubled the lead with a deflected effort before the break.
It was a former United player, Danny Welbeck, who gave Brighton hope with a brilliant free kick that flew into the top corner and when substitute Charalampos Kostoulas headed another goal in time added on, the tension rose inside the stadium.
Then came Mbeumo’s second to snuff out any chance of a collapse and ensure the winning streak continued.
Defending champion Liverpool were playing Brentford later Saturday and a win would see them move up to second.
Clasico: Raphinha out and Koundé doubtful for Barcelona, Alexander-Arnold back for Madrid
That leaves only Antonio Rudiger on Madrid’s injured list
Raphinha has been sidelined for a month after injuring his right leg in late September
Updated 25 October 2025
AP
BARCELONA: Raphinha will remain on Barcelona’s injured list and left-back Jules Koundé is doubtful for Sunday’s clasico match, while Trent Alexander-Arnold is ready to play for Real Madrid.
Alexander-Arnold was included Saturday on Xabi Alonso’s squad list for the first time since the former Liverpool star hurt his left hamstring in mid-September.
That leaves only Antonio Rudiger on Madrid’s injured list.
Barcelona were already without Robert Lewandowski, Dani Olmo and first-choice goalkeeper Joan García due to injuries for the big match.
“Of course I’d love to have everyone available, the coach and the team would too, (but) those of us who are fit will give everything and fight for the three points,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri González said.
Barcelona had hoped to have Raphinha ready
Raphinha has been sidelined for a month after injuring his right leg in late September.
Coach Hansi Flick had raised hopes about having his winger back in time for the clasico, but those were dashed a day before the trip to Madrid when assistant coach Marcus Sorg confirmed the Brazil international would not be on the squad.
That leaves Barcelona without Raphinha and Lewadowski, two of their top scorers. In the same fixture from last season, the two players combined for three goals in Barcelona’s 4-0 win.
Sorg said that Spain forward Ferran Torres also may not be ready to start after recently recovering from a muscle strain. His other options to accompany Lamine Yamal up front are Marcus Rashford, Roony Bardghji or experimenting with a red-hot Fermín López as a “false nine.”
Koundé missed two training sessions for unspecified reasons after playing in Barcelona’s 6-1 rout of Olympiakos in the Champions League on Tuesday, when López scored a hat trick.
The defender was back training on Saturday, but Sorg said the team “will wait until the last moment to decide” if Koundé plays.
Sorg will be on the touchline for Barcelona in the place of Flick, who is suspended after seeing a red card for protesting last round.
Madrid lead Barcelona by two points after nine rounds at the top of the table.
Morocco’s U-20 World Cup triumph over Argentina marked the nation’s first global title and a defining moment for Arab football
ֱ has become a football powerhouse, qualifying for World Cup 2026 and set to host Asian Cup 2027 and World Cup 2034
Updated 25 October 2025
Ali Khaled
RIYADH: When Morocco claimed the FIFA U-20 World Cup at the weekend, it was a historic landmark for football in the North African country and the wider Arab world.
The young Atlas Lions’ finest hour came courtesy of a 2-0 win over Argentina in Santiago, Chile, in the early hours of Oct. 20, with two-goal hero Yassir Zabrini announcing himself to the world as a star of the future.
Zabrini was not the only hero. The collective triumph could herald the dawn of a new generation of talent for a country who, after the senior team’s glorious march to the semifinals at Qatar 2022, can claim to be leading the way for Arab football on the international stage.
What made the success in Chile even sweeter was that Morocco’s youngsters exacted revenge for their swashbuckling elders.
In the semifinal, the youngsters defeated France — who ended the senior side’s dream at the same stage in Qatar three years ago — and then wrapped up the title against Argentina, the team that the senior class of 2022 would have faced had they reached the final.
ֱ’s Al-Ahli claimed a first AFC Champions League Elite title this year, making it four Arab winners in the past six years. (Reuters)
There will be caution in some quarters not to overreact. Tunisia in 1978; Algeria in 1982; Kuwait and Iraq in the 1970s; ֱ in the 1980s and ’90s; and, above all others, Morocco in 2022. All have produced teams that have gone down in football folklore before.
Arabs lauded these golden generations in the past and hung their hopes on them to fearlessly go toe-to-toe with the world’s best, only to be disappointed when they eventually failed to progress at World Cups or sustain a period of excellence.
But could the region now be witnessing the start of a golden age of Arab football?
Morocco’s latest success came at the end of two weeks that could turn out to be a turning point for Arab football.
Just days before their U-20 victory came the confirmation that seven Arab countries had qualified to play at the 2026 World Cup, to be held jointly by the US, Mexico, and Canada.
Playoff-bound Iraq and the UAE could yet make that eight. Already this is by some way a record for Arab teams, albeit at an expanded World Cup of 48 teams, with the previous best being four participants in Russia in 2018 and again in Qatar.
Jordan became the first to confirm their spot in June, not only achieving a historic first qualification, but also becoming the first new Arab nation to reach the World Cup finals since ֱ debuted at USA 94.
Returning Frenchman Herve Renard secured his second qualification with ֱ last Tuesday with a 0-0 draw with Iraq, and on the same night Qatar beat the UAE 2-1 to claim a second World Cup appearance in a row.
In the African qualifiers, Morocco cruised to qualification in early September and were then followed by previous World Cup pioneers Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria last week.
After Morocco’s remarkable run in Qatar, as well as ֱ’s sensational win over eventual winner Argentina in the group stages, Arab teams will be emboldened to aim for at least the knockout stages — not just there to make up numbers.
This year, Pyramids, the new disruptors in Egyptian football, claimed a first CAF Champions League trophy after beating South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns FC 3-2 on aggregate in the two-legged final. (AFP)
To add to a stellar week for Arab football, ֱ star and hero of that win against Lionel Messi and co, Salem Al-Dawsari, was named Asia’s best footballer.
It was the second time he has won the award and the seventh time it has gone to a Saudi footballer since the inaugural award was claimed by Saeed Al-Owairan in 1994.
It means Al-Dawsari and Qatar’s Akram Afif — who finished second this year — have shared the accolade in its last four editions. In fact, the last non-Arab winner was China’s Zheng Chi in 2013.
At club level, too, Arab teams have dominated in Asia and Africa. ֱ’s Al-Ahli claimed a first AFC Champions League Elite title this year, making it four Arab winners in the past six years, including fellow Saudi club Al-Hilal (2018, 2021) and the UAE’s Al-Ain (2024).
This represents a major power shift from East to West Asia. The previous 13 years had produced only one Arab winner of the trophy, Qatar’s Al-Sadd in 2011, with Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean teams in the ascendency at the time.
The first edition of the AFC Champions League 2 was won by the UAE’s Sharjah this year, and it will be a major surprise if Cristiano Ronaldo and Al-Nassr, no doubt stung by not taking part in the Elite competition, do not claim the second edition at the end of the 2025-2026 season.
This year, Pyramids, the new disruptors in Egyptian football, claimed a first CAF Champions League trophy after beating South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns FC 3-2 on aggregate in the two-legged final.
It is the ninth year in a row that Africa’s premier club competition has gone to an Arab team, with Egypt’s Al-Ahly winning the trophy four times. Morocco’s Wydad and ES Tunis claimed two each. It is a level of dominance that exceeds even that being shown by Arab teams in Asia.
Al-Hilal’s Salem Al-Dawsari was named AFC Player of the Year. (Reuters)
However, perhaps nothing has turned attention to Arab football in recent years as much as the revolution that swept through Saudi domestic football.
Already one of the Arab world’s strongest competitions, the Saudi Pro League has, since Ronaldo’s arrival in Riyadh three years ago and the subsequent influx of foreign stars, climbed to a level never before seen in the Arab world.
In June, Ronaldo decided to continue his mission with Al-Nassr and, not for the first time, lauded the current standard of a league he helped bring about.
“Of course, we are still improving, but I believe that at this moment we are in the top five (leagues in the world) already,” he said in a video message on Al-Nassr’s official X account.
“I still believe that we will continue to improve, and we have time, and we have shown in the last two years that the league is going up all the time.”
With the likes of Portuguese forward Joao Felix and French serial trophy-winner Kingsley Coman joining an already stellar Al-Nassr squad in the summer, the Riyadh giants have looked unstoppable in the SPL so far this season.
A first league title since 2019 would be Ronaldo’s crowning glory in ֱ. Should that happen, expect the world to tune in to the season’s final in numbers an Arab league could scarcely have dreamt of in the past.
Returning Frenchman Herve Renard secured his second qualification with ֱ last Tuesday with a 0-0 draw with Iraq. (AFP)
The next decade is stacked with elite international football tournaments in the two countries leading the renaissance in Arab football.
At the end of this year the Africa Cup of Nations takes place in Morocco, potentially a trial run for co-hosting the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal.
Likewise, ֱ will host the 2027 AFC Asian Cup for the first time, before crowning an era of unprecedented growth in the game by being the lone host of the 2034 World Cup.
It might seem unthinkable now, but by that time, the region could just be speaking of golden achievements in Arab football in a literal sense.
