UEFA Champions League
Welcome back to ‘Hell’: Man United braced for Galatasaray cauldron
Thirty years after Manchester United left Galatasaray with their Champions League hopes in tatters on one of the most notorious nights in the club’s history, they will return to “hell” for another do-or-die clash on Nov 29.
The Red Devils sit bottom of Group A and will be eliminated if they lose to Galatasaray in their penultimate fixture.
It is a predicament that brings back painful memories for United players and fans who ran the gauntlet of hate in Istanbul back in 1993.
Finally crowned English champions the previous season, United were confident of a long run in their first European Cup campaign since 1969.
A surprise 3-3 draw against Galatasaray in the second-round, first leg at Old Trafford put that ambition in peril, but even then United were not fully aware of the cauldron that awaited them in Turkey.
They were greeted at the airport by thousands of Galatasaray fans, one waving the infamous banner that said “Welcome to Hell”, while others threw missiles and menacingly drew their fingers across their throats.
Alex Ferguson, United’s manager then, described the intimidation as being “exposed to as much hostility and harassment I have ever known”.
The nightmare was only just beginning as United, clearly unsettled by the volcanic atmosphere in the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, failed to get the result they needed.
Galatasaray held on for the draw, knocking out United on away goals and sparking an appropriately chaotic finale.
United’s star striker Eric Cantona was attacked by a Turkish police officer wielding a truncheon after being sent off following the final whistle.
When midfielder Bryan Robson tried to come to Cantona’s rescue, he was left with six stitches in a cut arm after being thrown down concrete steps that led to the dressing room.
“The hatred was unbelievable. Even the police started to pick fights with us,” United midfielder Paul Ince said.
Defender Gary Pallister said the atmosphere in United’s matches at Anfield, home of arch-rivals Liverpool, seemed like a “tea party” in comparison to Galatasaray’s.
United’s team bus was bombarded with bricks and rocks on the way out of the stadium, prompting Ferguson to exclaim: “I never want to go back there again.”
Fast forward 30 years, they are returning to Turkey but United manager Erik ten Hag believes his team can handle the hostility.
“You could see that this team has personality and character in hostile environments, like in Copenhagen. We deal with it,” the 53-year-old Dutchman said.
“I feel quite comfortable (away from home). You have to stay calm in your head, don’t get too emotional. You have to control it.
“Don’t give them anything. We know how to deal with it, we know what we can do and we are confident. We have to make it our game.”
Captain Bruno Fernandes added: “We know that’s going to be tough, but we have to think that we can do it because we have done it in the past in difficult situations. Galatasaray away is going to be great, is going to be an amazing atmosphere. We prepare for that.”
Galatasaray have been a house of horrors for United, who have failed to win any of their three visits, losing their most recent encounter there 1-0 in the 2012-13 Champions League group stage.
Although the Ali Sami Yen Stadium closed in 2011, there is little doubt Galatasaray fans can replicate the wall of sound that greeted United three decades ago when they meet at the 52,600-capacity RAMS Park.
Ten Hag’s side can take heart from the way they survived a hostile Goodison Park to beat Everton 3-0 in the English Premier League over the weekend.
He will also be boosted by the return of Rasmus Hojlund and Antony from injury, while Marcus Rashford is suspended. The Red Devils have won two in a row while keeping two clean sheets.
Emerging unscathed from their latest visit to the Galatasaray inferno would be another significant step in the right direction for the manager and his troubled team. AFP
-AFP
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.
-Reuters
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.
“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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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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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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