Category: Sport News

LONDON: Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes said the 2-1 victory over giants Liverpool in the League Cup final, which ended the club’s 56-year wait for a major trophy, was “the best of my life.”

And Burn put Newcastle ahead late in the first half before Alexander Isak doubled the lead after the break.

Federico Chiesa struck in injury time, but Newcastle held on to claim their first major trophy since the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

“It’s for all these fans,” Guimaraes told Sky Sports.

“They deserve everything. When I first arrived here I said I wanted to make my name in history.

“Now we can say we are champions again. This is one of the best days of my life.

“I have no other words. It was the best day of my life. For them (the fans) it was like the World Cup. They grew up and didn’t see us as champions. It was my first year as captain of this club and it was one of the best days. It’s hard to believe.

“This is my second home. We are making history. One day when I leave this club I want the fans to sing my name like they did for (Alan) Shearer. He sent me a message before the game. I was very emotional today.”

MILAN: Inter Milan advanced to the quarter-finals of the Champions League to face Bayern Munich after a 4-1 aggregate victory over Feyenoord in the last 16.

Simone Inzaghi’s squad now has the opportunity to make up for the loss against the German giants after losing four times to two different teams.

Inzaghi met Bayern in this tournament four times, twice with Inter and twice with Lazio, but lost all of them.

Inter midfielder Kristjan Asllani has been suspended for one match after being shown a yellow card in the 2-1 second leg win against Feyenoord.

Inter are currently struggling with injuries to Matteo Darmian, Federico Dimarco, Piotr Zielinski and Nicola Zalewski.

“It will be a difficult match. I face Bayern along with Inter and Lazio.

“We will fight hard, like we have done so far. We hope everyone can play, I sympathize with Asllani’s yellow card.

“Two players from the youth squad have been called up, they will also help us because at the moment we are short of players,” said Inzaghi.

After leading 2-0 in the first leg, Inzaghi brought on 18-year-old defender Matteo Cocchi and midfielder Thomas Berenbruch, 19, for their first senior debuts.

Marcus Thuram opened the scoring for Inter in the eighth minute of the second leg to make it 3-0 on aggregate, before Jakub Moder reduced the deficit with a 42nd-minute penalty. Hakan Calhanoglu, however, converted a 51st-minute penalty to give Inter a 4-1 aggregate victory.

LONDON: Liverpool must block out players who perform better than Mohamed Salah if they are to overcome Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the Champions League.

Ousmane Dembele scored his 18th goal since the beginning of January last Saturday as PSG crushed Lille 4-1.

Previously, the player with the most goals since the start of the 21st century for any club in the top five leagues was held by Lionel Messi, who scored 17 goals for Barcelona in 2016 — after he surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo’s 16 goals for Real Madrid in 2013.

Dembele equalled that record in midweek during PSG’s dominant win over Stade Briochin in the French Cup quarter-finals, in which he scored the final goal of the match.

The France international has been in impressive form, scoring 26 goals in all competitions — an astonishing 21 since December 15.

Salah has scored 30 goals in total, with 14 goals since mid-December.

It sparked Liverpool’s long-awaited clash, sparked by Salah’s inspiration, in the last 16 of the Champions League in Paris early Thursday morning.

Both strikers have made significant contributions to their respective teams’ success this season, both domestically and in European competitions.

The head-to-head clash could have important implications for the Ballon d’Or award race, which looks to be wide open this season.

Dembele enjoyed the best season of his career as PSG trusted him to lead their project after the departure of Kylian Mbappe.

LONDON: Arsenal and Liverpool are now competing to get the services of Bayern Munich star Joshua Kimmich.

Kimmich’s contract expires this summer and the Bundesliga giants have no plans to renew his contract.

Kimmich is now free to negotiate with other clubs, and several Premier League clubs as well as Barcelona are interested in the German player.

The Gunners are looking to strengthen their midfield with Jorginho, 33, and Thomas Partey, 31, also in the final year of their contracts.

Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi is also on the shortlist for a £51 million move to the Emirates.

However, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is quite interested in Kimmich’s game, who can also play as a centre-back.

Meanwhile, Liverpool, who also need to strengthen their midfield after failing to do so last summer, are hoping Kimmich can replace England defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has been linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Barca manager Hansi Flick, who previously coached Kimmich at Bayern, is also interested in signing the player but the La Liga club are still facing financial difficulties.

LIVERPOOL: While Liverpool fans celebrated their victory over Newcastle United at Anfield as if they had won the Premier League, manager Arne Slot and the players were still down to earth.

The Premier League leaders now extend their lead at the top of the league to 13 points over nearest rivals Arsenal, who have played a game less, after a 2-0 win over Newcastle.

“There’s still a long way to go, 10 games, we have the (League Cup) final and two important games against Paris Saint-Germain, so we’re not focused on the long term.

“Now I think the players have two days off, so on Saturday we will come back and focus on Paris Saint-Germain more than on the Premier League standings,” said Slot.

Liverpool, who lead the Champions League standings after eight league matches, head to Paris to face PSG for the first leg of their last-16 tie on Wednesday.

Slot’s men have been consistent this season, unbeaten in 27 of their 28 league games.

The victory early this morning was the 32nd in 43 matches in all competitions, the most by a team in Europe’s top five leagues.

The win over Newcastle came courtesy of goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister, with Szoboszlai also suggesting it was not time to breathe a sigh of relief.

“After that they (Arsenal) could no longer catch us. We were very happy to be 13 points ahead but we were just focused on ourselves.

“The Champions League game is also waiting for us, so that’s what we need to focus on. We want to stay at the top,” said Szoboszlai.