Barcelona coach Xavi acknowledged he was "very p***ed off" by his side's loss to Almeria, as the Blaugrana suffered just a second LaLiga defeat of the season.
A superb first-half finish from El Bilal Toure secured the spoils for the hosts at Power Horse Stadium, lifting them out of the relegation zone as they dealt a blow to the league leaders.
Despite the result, Barca remain clear at the summit, seven points ahead of rivals Real Madrid, who they meet in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final tie on Thursday.
But that cushion did little to stem Xavi's ire afterwards, with the Spaniard sparring little excuse for his team's lacklustre performance.
"[I am] very p***ed off," he said. "We played the worst game of our season, especially in the first half. We lacked intensity and rhythm.
"We didn't show passion to win the game. In the second half, we were better, but it was a difficult game. We are still leaders by seven points.
"We made mistakes and we apologise to the fans. It will be difficult to win LaLiga, but we have to change the chip now [for the Copa del Rey]]."
Xavi played down suggestions his side showed a lack of passion in their efforts however, suggesting it came down more to a tired team suffering from a recent heavy schedule.
"We noticed a bit of fatigue," he added. "That's why we have made rotations. That's why we have changed players. We've played a lot of games.
"But a golden opportunity has been lost. We could have had 10 points [as a lead]. It has been a bad day."
Ja's Cavalier condemned to first defeat by Haiti's Real Hope in Caribbean Cup
Jamaica’s Cavalier FC suffered their first loss of the Concacaf Caribbean Cup campaign as they were stunned 2-1 by Haitian counterparts Real Hope FA in a keenly contested Group A encounter at the National Stadium on Tuesday.
After taking an early lead through Dwayne Atkinson in the fourth minute, the reigning Jamaica Premier League (JPL) champions lapsed in concentration in the second half and Real Hope capitalised through Rikanel Chery (60th) and Steeve Mondestin (66th) to secure their first win of the tournament.
Despite the loss, Cavalier remain atop the standings on six points, two ahead of Real Hope, who inched up to second on four points. Mount Pleasant (three points), Police FC (one point), and Arnett Gardens (zero) complete the group.
Knowing a victory would put them one step closer to the semi-final, Cavalier started spiritedly and quickly broke the deadlock when Atkinson fired home from Shaquille Stein’s pass after a tidy buildup on the left channel.
The score remained unchanged at the break as both teams created a few half chances but failed to make them count.
Though there was a lengthy delay to the start of the second half, due to a section of the Stadium lights going out, Real Hope were unflustered and pulled level at the hour mark when Chery got on the end of Jeudy Jhonson’s through ball and fired home from close range.
The Haitian club found the lead six minutes later when Mondestin converted from the 12-yard spot after being awarded a penalty.
Still, Cavalier found a fresh wind at the backend of the contest and almost secured a share of the spoils, but Kaile Auvray’s well-struck effort was cleared off the line by Peterson Pierre five minutes from time.
Real Hope will seek to maintain its momentum against another Jamaican outfit, Arnett Gardens, next Wednesday at the same venue, while Cavalier’s next assignment will also be against the ‘Junglists’ on October 3.
Everton ‘nemesis’ must be corrected, says Dyche after cup exit
Sean Dyche is hoping Everton can find their clinical edge upon their return to Premier League action having been dumped out of the Carabao Cup in midweek by Southampton.
Everton were beaten on penalties by the Saints on Tuesday after seeing Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal cancelled out by Taylor Harwood-Bellis.
The Toffees ended the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.54 compared to Southampton’s 0.53, but could only manage four shots on target, the same as their opponents.
Taking opportunities in front of goal has been a persistent problem for Everton this season, with Dyche acknowledging his side must improve when they travel to face Leicester this weekend.
“Yet again we’ve created golden chances, and you’ve got to score those chances and that changes the whole game,” Dyche said.
“There’s been times we’ve scored goals and looked like we can score goals, but you’ve got to kill games off. If you’re not keeping clean sheets, you have to kill games off and we’ve not done that.
“That’s a nemesis for us. It’s been here a long time, and we’ve tried to correct it and tried to find those moments, but that’s the hardest bit as a manager.
“We’ve got in some amazing positions again tonight, with one on ones, but we haven’t scored a second goal. Obviously, the work continues.”
Leicester, meanwhile, had to settle for a point in their controversial 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace last time out as Jean-Philippe Mateta’s penalty shared the spoils at Selhurst Park.
Foxes head coach Steve Cooper was left wanting answers from decision-makers at the Premier League following the award of Palace’s first goal, having seen it initially ruled out for offside, only for VAR to overturn the decision.
However, Cooper insisted he was pleased with his side’s display against the Eagles, saying his players must keep going in their quest to get their first three points on the board.
“There was so much good in the performance, particularly in the first half, but I'm not going to shout that from the rooftops because of obviously how we're feeling about the results,” Cooper said.
“We come up against a team who have invested over a number of years and put a team together and been in the Premier League for a long while.
“It's a pity that we conceded the goals in the way that we have because I don't think that really typified the mentality that we showed, but we have to own it, and we have to keep going. We have to stick together, be positive, and that's what we'll do.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Leicester – Wilfried Ndidi
Ndidi has assisted three goals in his last two Premier League appearances for Leicester, as many as he had in his previous 62 games combined in the top-flight.
He is only the second Foxes player to assist three goals in their opening four Premier League games in a season, along with Marc Albrighton in their title-winning campaign of 2015-16.
Everton – Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Calvert-Lewin has scored in 14 Premier League defeats for Everton, including in his last two games against Bournemouth and Aston Villa.
That’s the most games scored in and lost for the Toffees in the competition, one ahead of Duncan Ferguson who lost 13 times when scoring for Everton.
MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW
Both sides head into the encounter at the King Power Stadium in search of their first three points of the season, but Leicester have struggled against the Toffees of late.
The Foxes have won just one of their last seven Premier League meetings with Everton (D3 L3), a 2-0 away win in November 2022.
And for only a fourth time, Leicester have failed to win any of their first four Premier League games in a season (D2 L2) – in all three previous seasons in which they’ve won none of their first four, they were relegated, in 1994-95, 2003-04 and 2022-23.
However, Everton failed to win any of their first five league games in both 2022-23 (D3 L2) and 2023-24 (D1 L4). In Premier League history, the only team to fail to win any of their opening five games in three consecutive seasons is Sunderland, who did so in four in a row between 2013-14 and 2016-17.
Dyche’s side have been 2-0 up in each of their last two Premier League matches but gone on to lose both 3-2 against Bournemouth and Aston Villa, becoming just the second team in Premier League history to lose consecutive games from 2+ goals ahead, after the Cherries in November 2022. No team has ever failed to win in three games in a row when leading by two or more goals.
But 16 of the 34 Premier League meetings between Leicester and Everton have been drawn, the highest percentage for any fixture to have been played 30+ times in the competition (47%).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Leicester – 38.5%
Draw – 26.3%
Everton – 35.2%
Milan lost 'mental balance' in Liverpool defeat, says Fonseca
Paulo Fonseca cited a loss of "mental balance" that contributed to Milan starting their Champions League campaign with a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on Tuesday.
Milan made a flying start when Christian Pulisic netted after two minutes and 47 seconds, the earliest the Serie A side had scored in the competition since Alexandre Pato's goal against Barcelona in 2011 (24 seconds).
But two headers from Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk, both from set-pieces, gave the visitors the lead before Dominik Szoboszlai sealed the victory after the break.
Liverpool dominated proceedings after their early setback, registering 23 shots on goal, 11 of which were on target compared to Milan's eight and two.
Arne Slot's side ended the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 3.09, while Milan could only muster a tally of 0.61 from their attempts on goal.
Ahead of kick-off, Fonseca expressed the importance of being defensively perfect against the Reds, but upon Espen Eskas' full-time whistle, the Milan head coach was left furious with his side's display.
"We played against Liverpool, who are a huge team," Fonseca began.
"We started well, both attacking and defending, but then we conceded two goals from set plays that changed the game.
"We lost our mental balance because when the team lacks confidence, we develop problems and don’t do what we prepared in training.
"I told the players, you cannot make those mistakes in this kind of game.
"At the same time, I have to admit Liverpool are more of a team right now than we are, we need to keep working to have not 20 good minutes, but 70, 80, 90 minutes playing our football.
"After we conceded the second goal, the team stopped playing, and it became difficult after that.”
Milan's danger man Rafael Leao also endured a quiet evening, despite completing more dribbles (five) than anyone during the fixture.
The Portugal international lost possession 15 times, the most in the Milan side, with Trent Alexander-Arnold coming out on top in their respective duels.
Fonseca reiterated his game plan was for Leao to attack Alexander-Arnold but lamented the lack of service provided to the winger by his midfielders.
“It was something we prepared in the little time that we had, try to put Leao against their right-back," he said.
"We did it once or twice in the match. What we prepared was to send Rafa one-on-one against him and we hardly did it.”
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
