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• Manchester City's Alvarez named in Argentina Olympics squad

  Manchester City's Julian Alvarez has been named in Argentina's Olympics squad for the Paris games and is likely to miss the start of the 2024-25 Premier League season. 

  Alvarez, who is currently at the Copa America, was included in Javier Mascherano's 18-man squad as one of the three overage players, along with Geronimo Rulli and Nicolas Otamendi.

  The final of that competition takes place just 10 days before the Olympics begins, with Mascherano’s side playing Morocco, Iraq and Ukraine in the group stage in France.

  With the Olympics final to be played on August 9, the day before Manchester City's Community Shield fixture against Manchester United, Alvarez's involvement has almost certainly ruled him out of the start of the new season. 

  Last season, the 24-year-old made 54 appearances in all competitions for Pep Guardiola's side, more than any other player. 

  Manchester City's Premier League campaign starts on August 18th against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. 

  Claudio Echeverri has also been included in the squad. The teenager joined the Premier League champions in January but immediately returned to River Plate on loan.

  Sergio Gomez has also been called up by Spain for the competition, meaning Guardiola has three players competing at this summer’s games in Paris.

• FC Dallas v Portland Timbers: Neville keeping feet on the ground despite unbeaten run

  Portland Timbers head coach Phil Neville insists he and his players are keeping their feet on the ground ahead of travelling to FC Dallas this Friday. 

  The Timbers extended their unbeaten run to seven matches in the MLS following their 3-2 victory over Minnesota United at Providence Park last time out. 

  Neville's side are now fifth in the Western Conference table but are among a cluster of teams tightly packed in the middle of the division. 

  However, the Portland head coach said that despite his side's recent form, they have achieved nothing but is confident his side will continue to push up the standings. 

  "We are keeping our feet on the ground, I think that is massively important," Neville said. 

  "If we hadn't scored that last minute goal, we would probably have been down in eighth or ninth. There are a number of teams jostling for positions in the league, so there is a long way to go. 

  "We've got now four games before the Leagues Cup. We have a mini points target that we have set ourselves. 

  "We want to keep pushing, we know the teams below us are pushing. We have to keep concentrating on ourselves. We are now in fifth, but we have achieved nothing.

  "At this moment in time, fifth is not competing. Competing is being up at the top of the league. We are on the climb, we have momentum, we have confidence, we have belief but there is still a long way to go."

  For Dallas, they suffered back-to-back league defeats in a narrow defeat to Cincinnati last time out, courtesy of Luca Orellano's second half strike. 

  The result leaves Peter Luccin's side in 11th place in the Western Conference table, a point ahead of St. Louis City and seven behind Austin FC. 

  However, the Toros will be hopeful of continuing their impressive home record against their opponents at the Toyota Stadium and build momentum ahead of their important league meeting with Kansas City three days later. 

  pic.twitter.com/ySE1b0WqfU

  — FC Dallas (@FCDallas) June 30, 2024

  PLAYERS TO WATCH

  FC Dallas – Petar Musa

  Petar Musa has been in fine goal-scoring form since his arrival from Benfica in February, notching 11 goal involvements from 19 games for Dallas.

  The Toros’ top scorer has four goals in his last three league games, including a hat-trick against Minnesota United, and will be confident of taking his tally into double figures.

  Portland Timbers – Evander

  Evander grabbed a goal and an assist in the Timbers’ win over Minnesota on Saturday, his seventh match this season with multiple goal contributions.

  In doing so, the Brazilian equalled Diego Valeri (2013, 2017) for the most such games in a single regular season by a Timbers player in MLS.

  MATCH PREDICTION: FC DALLAS WIN

  Dallas will be looking for an immediate return to winning ways following their defeat to FC Cincinnati last time out. The loss was just their third in their last 22 home matches in all competitions (W10 D9) dating back to the start of the Leagues Cup last July. It was also only the second time in that span that Dallas failed to score in a home match.

  Luccin’s side hold a favourable record against their opponents and have lost just one of their previous 11 encounters against Portland at the Toyota Stadium (W6 D4), dating back to 2015.

  However, the visitors will come into the fixture with confidence following their comeback win over Minnesota. They came from two goals down to win 3-2, having also come back to win the previous time they trailed by two goals (vs. San Jose in May). Prior to these two comebacks, Portland had a record of W1 D11 L100 when trailing by multiple goals in an MLS match.

  OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

  FC Dallas – 44.2%

  Draw – 26.8%

  Portland Timbers – 28.9%

• Montella praises Turkiye's soul and belief shown in Austria triumph

  Vincenzo Montella praised Turkiye's soul and belief following their victory over Austria in Leipzig on Tuesday. 

  Merih Demiral's double ensured Montella's side progressed to the quarter-finals of a European Championships for the first time since 2008. 

  "No one gave up," Montella said. "Everyone gave a bit extra in terms of their soul, and for a head coach, you know that there are matches such as these and you can only win matches such as these if there is a soul within the squad.

  "There's that belief, that conviction. I could go on all night, but I saw all of those attributes, and that makes me very proud."

  However, the result could have been so much different if it was not for the fingertips of Mert Gunok. 

  With the game ticking towards the fourth and final minute of injury time, Christoph Baumgartner saw his header brilliantly tipped behind by the Besiktas goalkeeper. 

  The triumph was of huge significance to the Turkiye head coach, having seen his side lose 6-1 to Austria in an international friendly back in March. 

  "That was a horrible stain on my career," Montella said. "That was the team that I was really waiting for, to try and get this monkey off my back.

  "So I respect Austria, I respect their head coach, I respect their game plan, the tactics that they implemented on the pitch. But we head coaches, just like footballers, are competitors. 

  "And I had that real competitive instinct deep within me because I wanted to change this result. It was only a friendly, but there's no such thing as a friendly at international level."

  Montella's side face the Netherlands in Berlin this Saturday for a place in the semi-finals and set up a potential tie against England. 

  "We've got huge following. There's passion and the love is really visceral back home in Turkey, so I'm very happy to have handed Turks a bit of pride," he said.

  "So this responsibility, this love and support, we constantly feel it. But you can only really embrace these dreams if you work hard right from day one. We've done that right from the outset. We'll really celebrate tonight, but as of tomorrow, we get down to work."