EUROPA League
MAN UNITED’S SOLSKJAER FACES OLD TEAMMATE IN EUROPA LEAGUE
The Europa League will set up a reunion for Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as he takes on an old friend in the quarterfinals.
When Solskjaer’s team faces Copenhagen in Cologne on Monday, the opposing coach will be his old Norway teammate Stale Solbakken.
The two played at the 1998 World Cup when Norway reached the last 16 and beat Brazil along the way. The Norwegian team was bursting with talent then but hasn’t qualified for a World Cup since.
“I used to play with Stale Solbakken and he’s a good friend of mine — we’ve been in touch before today. We wished each other good luck and said hope to see you in Germany. They did their job, we did our job, so on to the next one,” Solskjaer said Wednesday, according to UEFA.
“Stale’s teams are always well organised and difficult to play against. Very talented young players with experience. He’s done fantastic in building team after team and it’s going to be a difficult one.”
United will be the overwhelming favorite, but Copenhagen and Solbakken have sprung surprises before. During his first spell as Copenhagen coach in 2006, Solbakken led the team to a 1-0 victory over United in the Champions League group stage.
Solskjaer was on the field for United that day alongside Wayne Rooney in attack, with a 21-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo on the flank.
WOLVES HUNTING TROPHY
Solbakken has an unhappy history with another team in the quarterfinals. His six months as coach of Wolverhampton in 2012-13 were a far cry from its European successes this season.
Back then Solbakken’s team flirted with relegation from the second-tier championship and he was dismissed after just six months in charge. That paved the way for Solbakken to join Copenhagen seven months later and he’s stayed ever since.
Wolves take on five-time Europa League winner Sevilla on Tuesday in their biggest European game since losing the 1972 UEFA Cup final to Tottenham.
It’s been a long road for Wolves, who started the Europa League in the second qualifying round in July 2019 against Northern Irish club Crusaders.
“This goal means everything. It’s everything we were going through, for the whole season. Since the beginning we were training, we were working hard,” striker Raul Jimenez said Thursday after scoring the winning penalty against Olympiakos.
“We started the Europa League in the qualification rounds and have had a big, big season, but we have to keep going.”
NOW OR NEVERKUSEN
For Bayer Leverkusen, the Europa League tournament on home soil offers a golden chance to shed its nickname of “Neverkusen.”
Five times the Bundesliga runner-up and never the champion, and the losing finalist to Real Madrid in the 2002 Champions League final, Leverkusen has a reputation for falling just short of success. It has history in this competition though, beating Espanyol on penalties in 1988 in the final of what was then called the UEFA Cup.
Winning the trophy would put Leverkusen back in the Champions League for 2020-21 after it missed out by two points in June.
It’s now or never for Kai Havertz too. The Leverkusen forward has been linked with a move to Chelsea, so each game in the Europa League could be his last for the club he joined at the age of 11. He hit the bar and put another shot just wide as Leverkusen defeated Rangers in the round of 16.
The draw hasn’t made that easy, pitting Leverkusen against Inter Milan in the quarterfinal Tuesday. Inter is aiming to cap its recent resurgence with its first trophy in nine years. No Italian club has won this competition since Parma won the UEFA Cup in 1999.
-AP
UEFA has decided to postpone its assessment of the multi-club ownership case involving Olympique Lyonnais and Crystal Palace until the French club’s relegation has been confirmed, European football’s governing body said on Monday.
The multi-club ownership regulations do not allow clubs under the same ownership compete in the same European competition, and American businessman John Textor holds a stake in both Palace and Lyon.
Palace qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup last season while Lyon reached the competition by finishing sixth in Ligue 1 but have since been relegated to Ligue 2 by French football’s financial watchdog (DNCG).
Lyon are appealing the decision, which came following an audit of the club’s finances, and UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body will now await the outcome of the appeal before making its decision.
UEFA and Lyon reached a settlement agreement over the club’s breach of the financial sustainability requirements, and as part of the settlement, Lyon agreed to their exclusion from European competition should the DNCG confirm their relegation.
League of Ireland club Drogheda United lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this month over their exclusion from the Conference League, after falling foul of the multi-club ownership rules.
-Reuters
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Tottenham Hotspur have sacked manager Ange Postecoglou, the club said on Friday, little more than two weeks after the Australian guided the London club to a first major trophy in 17 years with victory in the Europa League final.
While Postecoglou’s fate has split opinion amongst the fans, the 59-year-old ultimately paid the price for an horrendous Premier League season which saw Tottenham finish 17th.
“The Board has unanimously concluded that it is in the best interests of the Club for a change to take place,” Tottenham said in a statement.
“Following a positive start in the 2023/24 Premier League (PL) season, we recorded 78 points from the last 66 PL games. This culminated in our worst-ever PL finish last season.”
Postecoglou leaves two years to the day after his appointment and 16 days after his side beat Manchester United 1-0 in Bilbao for the club’s first silverware since 2008, a win that also put them in next season’s Champions League.
The former Celtic manager has had to face questions over his future for several months, yet delivered on his claim early last season that he always wins a trophy in his second season in a job
He also took Tottenham to the League Cup semi-final but their league campaign was their worst since 1976-77, the last time the club suffered relegation from the top flight.
Several of the club’s first team have voiced their support for Postecoglou since beating United, but chairman Daniel Levy is now searching for his fifth full-time manager in six years since Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in 2019.
“At times there were extenuating circumstances — injuries and then a decision to prioritise our European campaign,” the club said. “Whilst winning the Europa League this season ranks as one of the Club’s greatest moments, we cannot base our decision on emotions aligned to this triumph.”
Several managers have been linked to the Tottenham job, including Brentford’s Thomas Frank and Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner.
GOOD START
Postecoglou will walk away with his pride intact and a handsome bonus, but his recent comment to fans at the Europa League victory parade that the third season of a TV series is always better than the second now looks hollow.
It all started so well for Postecoglou. He began the 2023-24 campaign by guiding Tottenham to their best start to a top-flight season since the 1961 title-winning team.
That form soon dipped though and despite finishing fifth in his first campaign the momentum had long since gone.
This season Tottenham earned only 38 points and lost 22 top-flight matches. They managed five points from their last 12 league games and the only win they earned during that run was against a Southampton side who narrowly avoided becoming statistically the worst team ever in the Premier League.
Postecoglou has pointed to a long injury list which denied him the likes of Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Dejan Kulusevski, Destiny Udogie, Dominic Solanke, James Maddison and Son Heung-min for significant periods.
But while it has clearly been one of long-serving chairman Levy’s toughest calls, he has concluded that Postecoglou is not the man to lead the club forward.
“We have made what we believe is the right decision to give us the best chance of success going forward, not the easy decision,” the club statement said.
“We have a talented, young squad and Ange has given us a great platform to build upon. We should like to express our gratitude to him. We wish him well for the future — he will always be welcome back at our home.”
Many fans reacted to the news of Postecoglou’s sacking with surprise, but England manager Thomas Tuchel said that sometimes even winning a trophy is not enough.
“I feel for every manager and I have huge sympathy for every manager in these moments because I was in the same spot,” the German, who was sacked by Chelsea despite taking them to the Champions League title, said on Friday.
“If the trust is not there anymore then sometimes it’s not enough to win a trophy.”
-Reuters
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UEFA apologised for running out of winners’ medals during the Europa League final trophy ceremony on Wednesday after more Tottenham Hotspur players lined up to receive their prizes.
Spurs captain Son Heung-min and two other players, the last to line up for individual medals, were left empty-handed after their team beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the club’s fourth European title on Wednesday.
Son lifted the trophy without a medal around his neck.
“To our great displeasure, we did not have enough medals available on stage during the trophy ceremony presentation due to an unexpected discrepancy in the player count …” British media quoted European soccer’s governing body as saying on Thursday.
“More team members – including injured players – participated in the ceremony than initially anticipated.
“The missing medals were promptly delivered to the winning team in the dressing room, along with our sincerest apologies for the oversight.”
-Reuters
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