Mohamed Salah finally re-signs with Liverpool with two-year deal; Tottenham, Man United struggle in Europa
Happy Friday one and all. We're now through the first legs of the Champions League and Europa League. I'm Francesco Porzio, let's look back at what went down before diving into the treats ahead of us.
📺 Footy fixAll times U.S./Eastern
Friday, April 11🇮🇹 Serie A: Udinese vs. Milan, 2:45 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+🇪🇸 La Liga: Valencia vs. Sevilla, 3 p.m. ➡️ ESPN+🇺🇸 NWSL: Utah Royals vs. Portland Timbers, 10 p.m. ➡️ Amazon Prime Video
Saturday, April 12
🏴 League One: Wrexham vs. Wigan ➡️ Paramount+🇮🇹 Serie A: Inter vs. Cagliari, 12 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+🇩🇪 Bundesliga: Bayern vs. Dortmund, 12:30 p.m. ➡️ ESPN🇪🇸 La Liga: Leganes vs. Barcelona, 3 p.m. ➡️ ESPN+ 🇲🇽 America vs. Cruz Azul, 11:15 p.m. ➡️ TUDN
Sunday, April 13🏴 EPL: Liverpool vs. West Ham, 9 a.m. ➡️ USA Network🇪🇸 La Liga: Alaves vs. Real Madrid, 10:15 a.m. ➡️ ESPN+ 🏴 EPL: Newcastle vs. Man United, 11:30 a.m. ➡️ USA Network 🇮🇹 Serie A: Lazio vs. Roma, 2:45 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+🇺🇸 NWSL: NJ/NY Gotham FC vs. NC Courage, 4 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+🇺🇸 MLS: Chicago Fire vs. Inter Miami, 4:30 p.m. ➡️ MLS Season Pass
⚽ The Forward LineMo Salah signs new two-year deal with LiverpoolIt's finally official! Liverpool fans woke up with some exciting news this morning as Liverpool announced that Mo Salah has signed a new deal with English team. Salah's deal was due to expire in the summer 2025 but over the last days reports about a new contract emerged and became more concrete. The same pattern occurred for Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk, who is now expected to sign a new deal over the next days.
- Salah: "Of course I'm very excited. We have a great team now. Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football. It's great, I had my best years here. I played eight years, hopefully it's going to be 10. Enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I had the best years in my career. I would like to say to the fans, I am very, very happy to be here. I signed here because I believe we can win a lot of big trophies together. Keep supporting us and we'll give it our best, and hopefully in the future we're going to win more trophies."
Salah is one of the best players around the world and is currently third in the Liverpool's all-time top scorers list, with 243 goals in 394 appearances, and during his time at Anfield Salah has won the Premier League Golden Boot on three occasions, been named the PFA Players' Player of the Year twice and taken home two FWA Footballer of the Year awards. With the Reds, Salah have won seven trophies with Liverpool, including the Premier League during the 2019-20 season and are now one step away from winning their second one, the UEFA Champions League in 2019 and multiple cup competitions over the years including one FA Cup since he joined from AS Roma during the summer 2017 for around $40 million.
Sponsored by Paramount+It was another disappointing Europa League night for both Manchester United and Tottenham as the two sides drew on Thursday, confirming again their current issues. While the Red Devils drew 2-2 in Lyon in the first leg of the Europa's quarterfinals, Tottenham drew 1-1 at their home stadium in London against Eintracht Frankfurt and they will have to win away next week to avoid elimination from the tournament.
Manchester United conceded to first goal to former Atlanta United forward Thiago Almada but then scored the equalizer with Leny Yoro right before the halftime. It seemed Joshua Zirkzee's goal could be crucial at the 88th minute of the match in Lyon, but another mistake from former Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana helped Rayan Cherki to score and even the game 2-2 deep in stoppage time. Asked about the disappointing performance of their goalkeeper, Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim defended his player:
- Amorim: "If you look at the season, I've made more mistakes than the players during these last months. It happens. It can happen if you play football and a lot of games, that you will make mistakes".
Tottenham, on the other hand, seemed to continue their negative form and drew in front of their home fans in London after conceding an early goal to Eintracht Frankfurt's striker Hugo Ekitike before Pedro Porro's strike levelled the result on the final 1-1. The return leg, which is scheduled to be played on April 17 at the Deutsche Bank Park will probably also determine the imminent future of their manager Ange Postecglou.
- Postecglou: "I guess a little bit frustrated by the result, I thought the performance in general was really, really good from the boys. Obviously we conceded early, which was disappointing and it was a fair strike from the lad [Ekitike]. We responded well. We hit the crossbar three times and on any other day we're winning that game."
⏪ UCL golazo rewind: There were some absolutely stunning goals in midweek Champions League, which made ranking the top five goals extremely difficult.
🔍 Champions League Power Rankings: Our James Benge ranked the last eight teams after each played their quarterfinal first leg this week.
🏆 Survive and advance: What's it going to take to punch tickets to the semifinals of UCL? Here are the scenarios ahead of next week's second legs.
🦩 Messi's future at Inter Miami: The Argentina star looks set to stay at the club with his contract expiring this year. Club co-owner Jorge Mas seemed confident that an agreement was on the horizon.
💰 The Back Line💵 Best bets- Serie A: Udinese vs. AC Milan, 2:45 p.m. 💰 AC Milan to win away against Udinese (-105): The Rossoneri have to win if they want to be in the race until the end of the season for one of the European spot and their last chance to make it happen is to win against Udinese on Friday. AC Milan are coming from only two wins in the last five Serie A matches, including their last home draw against Fiorentina. Winning against Udinese away would boost the chances for Sergio Conceicao's side to try and at least to end up in the top eight, with Lazio and AS Roma facing each others on Sunday in the heated Derby della Capitale.
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