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UEFA Champions League

Man Utd’s luck will turn, insists defiant Ten Hag

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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said his side are due a turnaround in fortune after collapsing to a 4-3 defeat at FC Copenhagen that left the Red Devils close to exiting the Champions League.

United led 2-0 inside half an hour in the Danish capital after Rasmus Hojlund struck twice against his former club.

But a red card for Marcus Rashford after a VAR review on 42 minutes changed the course of the game.

Copenhagen made the most of 13 added minutes at the end of the first half to level through Mohamed Elyounoussi and a Diogo Goncalves penalty.

Bruno Fernandes restored United’s lead from the penalty spot, but the Danish champions struck twice in the final 10 minutes through Lukas Lerager and 17-year-old Roony Bardghji to secure their first Champions League win since 2016.

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A third defeat in four games leaves United bottom of Group A.

But Ten Hag was unhappy at the award of both Copenhagen’s first two goals and Rashford’s dismissal.

The former Ajax boss believed Elyounoussi’s strike should have been ruled out for offside and that the decision to penalise Harry Maguire for handball inside the area was harsh.

“We played very good until the red card. The red card changed everything. Then we concede two goals that should never count,” said Ten Hag.

“Not only tonight. In this moment, we are in a season where we have to deal with many decisions against us.

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“That’s how it is. I’m sure it will turn. A season is long and at one point it will turn in our favour.”

A ninth defeat in 17 games this season ramps up the pressure on Ten Hag’s position.

However, the Dutchman believes there are positives to take from his side’s performance before Rashford’s harsh dismissal.

There appeared to be no intent from the England international when his studs caught Elias Jelert on the ankle as he tried to protect the ball.

United had produced arguably their best first 30 minutes of the season so far as two predatory finishes from Hojlund took his tally to five Champions League goals in four games.

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“I have seen a lot of positives from this game but at the end we lose possibly some focus,” added Ten Hag.

“Also, with 10 (men) we were still controlling the game.

“(The players are) very disappointed of course. We fought so hard, played so good and still we don’t have one point.”

United can still reach the last 16 as they sit one point behind Galatasaray and Copenhagen in the battle to join Bayern Munich in the knockout stages.

Ten Hag’s men travel to Galatasaray in three weeks before hosting Bayern at Old Trafford on December 12.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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UEFA Champions League

LaLiga to have five teams in 2025-26 Champions League

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Soccer Football - Europa League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Athletic Bilbao v Rangers - San Mames, Bilbao, Spain - April 17, 2025 Athletic Bilbao fans REUTERS/Vincent West

Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.

LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.

England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.

Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.

They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.

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-Reuters

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UEFA Champions League

No complaints from Ancelotti, as Real humbled by Arsenal

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Champions League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Real Madrid v Arsenal - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - April 16, 2025 Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti reacts REUTERS/Juan Medina

Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.

“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”

When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.

But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.

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“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.

Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.

“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.

“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”

-Reuters

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UEFA Champions League

Arsenal cruise past lacklustre Real Madrid to reach semis

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Champions League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Real Madrid v Arsenal - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - April 16, 2025 Arsenal's Bukayo Saka scores their first goal Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY 

Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.

Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.

Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.

Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.

They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.

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“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.

“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”

A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.

But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.

“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”

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PENALTY MISS

Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.

Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.

Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.

It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.

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After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.

That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.

Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.

Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.

William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.

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Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.

-Reuters

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