Category sport-news

In their Champions League play-off against Manchester City, Joe Bellingham won, but his week quickly turned around.

Los Blancos lost two points in the spanish title race on Saturday at Osasuna as the England international was sent off in the opening half.

The midfielder will at least be prepared for the tie-breaker with City on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Real Madrid leading the tie 3-2 heading into the match after winning last week at the Etihad Stadium.

Bellingham apologized to his team-mates and acknowledged that he had let his side down by rejecting his dissent despite claiming that the referee had misinterpreted him.

If he helps Madrid get past Pep Guardiola’s City and into the last 16, all will be forgiven.

“Enough said about the misunderstanding, just wanted to apologise again for leaving my team-mates in such a tough position and thank the fans for their support and understanding”, wrote Bellingham on social media.

“We’ll see each other on Wednesday, (playing) at home”.

Since moving to Spain from Borussia Dortmund in 2023, he received his second red card for arguing with officials.

Bellingham has mostly enjoyed himself in Spain despite occasionally getting frustrated with officials.

His goals were crucial in Madrid’s La Liga victory last year, and he helped his team win their 15th Champions League title at Wembley against his former team, Dortmund, who had won it before.

Bellingham had previously been linked to City, but he claimed that he got “goosebumps” after being taken by the Spanish giants and that his heart almost stopped when they arrived in Madrid.

“I’d always been aware of the interest from England so that was pretty normal”, he said after joining.

Money is not something I should have. I don’t think about money at all when I make these kind of decisions. I play the game solely out of love, which I never have and will never do.

” It wasn’t a case of other teams are bad or they weren’t good but, for me, Madrid is the greatest. “

Big game Bellingham

Bellingham converted a penalty in the Champions League quarter-final shootout against City that his fairytale debut season would have won. In his fairytale debut season, Bellingham had 23 goals in 43 games.

Bellingham has often shone in Madrid’s key matches.

The 21-year-old scored vital goals in both league Clasicos last season, and in both games against Girona, who for most of the season were Madrid’s main title contenders.

He scored four goals in the group stage and set up Vinicius for a goal in the Champions League final against Dortmund.

Following the arrival of French superstar Kylian Mbappe, he initially struggled to find his spark in the attack, playing a slightly more reserved role this season.

Bellingham, who had scored double figures the previous year, failed to find the net in his first 12 games.

However, Carlo Ancelotti, the coach, praised the midfielder’s hard work in the defensive zone.

Eventually Bellingham’s nose for goal returned and he has scored 10 times in his last 20 games, as well as providing six assists.

In the 92nd minute, City gave Madrid the lead before the most recent of those strikes struck.

Although the events that followed have been turbulent, Bellingham will have been focused on getting the job done by the time the Champions League anthem ringes out at the Bernabeu.

After overcoming nerves in their tense win against Wolves, Arne Slot insists Liverpool can handle the pressure of the Premier League title race.

In a bid to win a record-equalling 20th English title, Slot’s side travels to Aston Villa on Wednesday, confident that a victory will put them 10 points clear of Arsenal in the process.

But Liverpool, in dynamic form for much of the season, have looked less secure of late and almost blew a two-goal lead in Sunday’s 2-1 win over lowly Wolves at Anfield.

Just days prior to the Merseyside derby draw, Everton’s James Tarkowski scored a stoppage-time equalizer to end the Reds’ costly collapse.

Liverpool’s reserves also crashed out of the FA Cup with an embarrassing fourth-round loss at second-tier Plymouth recently, leading to fears the treble chasers are beginning to crack as expectations increase.

After the Wolves game, Reds left-back Andrew Robertson acknowledged that it was typical for the players to become anxious as they nearer the finish line.

However, Slot cited Liverpool’s ability to win at least one game this season as evidence that they won’t crumble under pressure.

According to Slot, “It is because we are coming to the end of the season, not because of us but because of what people think of it,” Slot said to reporters on Tuesday.

“We have won other games, either at home or away, with one goal and a tight score.” When it was ultimately too tight, I can recall Crystal Palace being away.

You two will talk about nerves if this occurs at the end of the season.

If we are winning 1-0, it will require a lot of defending and hard work to secure a win in the Premier League.

&nbsp, ‘Fight until the end ‘

With a 15-game unbeaten run in the league so far, including their most recent top-flight defeat at Newcastle on November 2, Arsenal have just added to the concern at Anfield.

After winning the Premier League in 2020 under Slot’s successor Jurgen Klopp, several of Liverpool’s players have experience in the title race.

In his Dutch title-winning campaign with Feyenoord, Slot has also been successful in fending off the stress of the season’s final weeks.

However, the Reds manager has opinions on how helpful those victories will be in Liverpool’s season-long success.

“We lean a lot on the players. They have to show up and bring the performance. We don’t present a meeting on how to deal with the pressure, that is not how it works”, he said.

They are used to playing large games with a lot of pressure, but don’t overdo it, they say. We must not over-value experience.

” It is difficult to take experiences from that time with Feyenoord, different players, different opponents, different league.

“And the ones who won the league in Corona time (during the pandemic) with no fans in the stadium, who had a lead of 25 points at one point, hardly any pressure then,” they said.

Slot is aware that Villa could put pressure on Liverpool, but he thinks their successful defeat of Wolves will prove effective.

“They have a great home record. You’re aware that Villa away is one of the toughest fixtures you can face when you get the fixture list. Very good manager, always has a very good game plan”, he said.

“We didn’t play our best on Sunday, but winning gave us a different perspective than the final minute of an Everton game.”

It indicates that your team will fight until the very end. You must win these games if you want anything, right?

Cody Gakpo and Joe Gomez will miss against Villa because they will need a “several weeks” to recover from a hamstring injury.

After seven games without a win, which plunged Parma into the Serie A relegation zone, the team and coach Fabio Pecchia have parted ways.

Following their fourth straight defeat at home against Roma over the weekend, the club announced the news late on Monday.

Pecchia, a 51-year-old man, had been in charge since June 2022 and had helped Parma regain its dominance after capturing the Serie B title last year.

Parma are currently 18th place, one point short of safety, and haven’t won in the league since December 28.

Pecchia, a former midfielder with Napoli, Juventus and Bologna, is the eighth coach in Serie A to lose his job this season.

Former Romanian international Cristian Chivu, who had recently been playing for one of his old clubs, will take his place, according to local media reports.