Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag hopes his players are "saving goals for next week" after a dismal display of finishing during their 1-0 Europa League win over Omonia Nicosia on Thursday.
Scott McTominay scored with United's 34th shot of the game in the third minute of stoppage time, becoming the first substitute to score a winning goal after the 90th minute in a European match for the Red Devils since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's iconic goal in the 1999 Champions League final.
It followed a particularly wasteful performance from Marcus Rashford, who failed to find the back of the net with a whopping 10 shots.
Ten Hag was not overly concerned by United's profligacy and expects his side to start scoring more regularly soon.
Asked if winning was the main thing, Ten Hag told BT Sport: "No, it's not, because football is about scoring goals.
"We created so many chances but we only hit the back of the net once. The team are patient, they kept creating and then they scored.
"I have no concern because in every game we score. I have the faith we will continue with that. Hopefully we're saving the goals for next week.
"We said at half-time we need to keep the focus. When you play against a defensively compact opponent and you don't score, you get impatient. You can get sloppy and lose you the ball and then they break.
"I have a preference to score more and earlier because it makes it easier. We still have two games to go and we go game to game."
McTominay's goal was his first in Europe for United since February 2020 against Club Brugge, and the Scotland international was pleased with his team-mates' patience against stubborn opponents.
"We knew we needed the win tonight but that they'd be fired up too," he said.
"Neil Lennon is a great coach and no games like this are ever easy. Everyone is pleased with the result.
"You have to be patient sometimes. Rashford had so many chances and we did everything but score. Their goalkeeper was a different class but we created enough chances and deserved to score in the end.
"I wasn't on the pitch for the majority of the game but sometimes you think it's not going to be your day. The team spirit is good though and no one ever gives up.
"It's a massive goal because we need to win the group."
United are next in action on Sunday when they host Newcastle United in the Premier League.
Ronaldo's Al Nassr dismiss head coach Castro
Al Nassr are on the hunt for a new boss after dismissing head coach Luis Castro, the Saudi Pro League side confirmed on Tuesday.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. have struggled through an underwhelming start to the season, winning just one of their opening three league fixtures of the campaign.
The Riyadh club were also defeated in the Saudi Super Cup final 4-1 against champions Al Hilal last month.
Al Nassr have seen enough, swiftly moving to part ways with 63-year-old Castro, who previously took charge of Brazilian Serie A side Botafago.
"Everyone at AlNassr would like to thank Luis and his staff for their dedicated work during the past 14 months," the club said in a brief statement on social media.
Castro, a fellow Portugal compatriot to Ronaldo, led the club to lift the Arab Club Champions Cup last year, a competition contested by 37 teams from Asia and Africa.
However, Al Nassr finished second in the league last season, 14 points behind Jorge Jesus' Al Hilal, who were inspired by the goal-scoring exploits of Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Al Nassr drew 1-1 against Al Shorta of Iraq on Monday in the opening game of the AFC Champions League Elite, which proved to be Castro's final match at the helm.
Stefano Pioli, formerly of AC Milan, is one of Al Nassr's preferred replacements according to reports in local Saudi media.
Hingst wants Ballon d'Or to move away from 'superstar' preference after Putellas nomination
World Cup winner Ariane Hingst believes the Ballon d'Or Feminin must reconsider who merits the global award in order to do "justice to the great football players".
Former Germany international Hingst, speaking at the Thinking Football Summit organised by Liga Portugal, could not fathom the reasoning behind including the likes of injury-hit Alexia Putellas as a nominee.
The 30-player list was announced at the start of September, with the winner revealed later in October, as Aitana Bonmati heads to the award ceremony in Paris as the favourite.
Spain's Nations League success saw five of their players nominated, including Bonmati, while the United States women's national team also had as many nominees after their Olympic success in the French capital.
Hingst, winner of FIFA's top international competition in 2003 and 2007, believes the Ballon d'Or needs to look further than "superstars", however.
"It's always interesting to see the nominees of these Ballon d'Ors," Hingst said to Stats Perform. "I think the problem is that you only have the big picture when you have a big tournament going on.
"We had the Olympics, but you see all kinds of sports, so you can't just follow the football, so it's hard to follow.
"What frustrates me the most is, and don't get me wrong, the likes of Alexia Putellas, [she is] a great, great player, but she's been injured for such a long time and is on the list to be the best of this season.
"This can't be right and I don't think that it does justice to the great football players we have out there if Putellas is on this list as well.
"We need to get away from the superstars and just recognise the season that has been played."
Though wanting to stray away from the "superstar" tag for Ballon d'Or selection, Hingst reserved special praise for Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr.
"The interesting part is, that I always had a problem with just this one big superstar because soccer is a team sport and it took me some time to realise that you need those superstars," Hingst added.
"Definitely, Sam Kerr is one of them. It took some time for us in Germany to recognise her as much. She became really big when she was in America, an absolute superstar.
"Now then going to England and it's just tremendous. You need those figures because they are idols. Girls are talking about, 'I want to be Sam Kerr', the boys are talking about her, so you need those big names.
"For example, now you have Alex Morgan just retiring from the women's game. She was one of those superstars as well. [Megan] Rapinoe from America also retired. So who's the next?"
Nashville SC v Chicago Fire: Callaghan keen to build on first win
B.J. Callaghan is desperate for Nashville SC to build on his first win at the helm when they host the Chicago Fire in MLS on Wednesday.
Nashville lost nine of 10 games – going down in a penalty shoot-out after drawing the other – either side of Callaghan's appointment, but they finally turned the corner on Saturday.
Goals from Alexandre Muyl and Hany Mukhtar fired them to a 2-0 win over Atlanta United, and Callaghan sees Wednesday's clash with Chicago – who are level with
Nashville in the Eastern Conference standings – as an opportunity to build some momentum.
"We were pleased with the performance we had, we've talked about having consistent performances and stacking them up," Callaghan said.
"It's a quick turnaround, so everything we've been doing leading into Chicago has been about focusing on ourselves and making sure the guys recover.
"Then we'll just focus on the things we're good at, try to get better at those things, and we'll apply some of those ideas to the challenge that Chicago will bring.
"They're probably looking at us the same way as we're looking at them, as a game where they want to earn three points."
Chicago also halted a miserable run of six games without a win (one draw, five defats) by beating the New York Red Bulls 2-1 last time out, moving within four points of the wild-card places.
"It's about time! It feels great, because I think we faced some adversity," Klopas said.
"People faced adversity and stepped up, so huge credit to the team as a whole. It's important that we're still in this thing, now we have to go on the road and keep fighting."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Nashville SC – Hany Mukhtar
Mukhtar has scored two hat-tricks against the Fire in his MLS career, one of seven players to record multiple hat-tricks against a single opponent.
No player in MLS history has recorded three hat-tricks against a single opponent.
Chicago Fire – Georgios Koutsias
Koutsias has scored on each of his last two appearances. Two Fire players (Maren Haile-Selassie and Hugo Cuypers) have already scored in at least three straight games this year.
The only previous seasons in which three different Fire players had streaks of three or more games with a goal were 2018 and 1998.
MATCH PREDICTION – NASHVILLE SC
The Fire's 1-0 home win over Nashville on July 8 was their first win in the teams' head-to-head series, after Nashville had gone unbeaten through the first four encounters (two wins, two draws).
Nashville ended an eight-match losing streak in MLS action on Saturday, beating Atlanta United 2-0 to also end a run of allowing multiple goals in eight successive games.
They might be confident of repeating the trick, with Chicago only winning three of their last 21 road games in all competitions (six draws, 12 defeats).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Nashville SC – 46.3%
Chicago Fire – 27.1%
Draw – 26.6%
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