EPL

Man Utd cannot afford to get complacent – Ten Hag

By Sports Desk April 26, 2024

Erik ten Hag urged his players not to get complacent against a Burnley side who are still fighting for their place in the Premier League.

After a run of four games without a win in the top-flight, Manchester United came from behind with late goals from Bruno Fernandes and Rasmus Hojlund to beat bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United on Wednesday.

The Red Devils sit in sixth place on 53 points, three more than Newcastle United below them, but have not yet secured a place in Europe next season.

When asked what kind of challenge Burnley would pose, Ten Hag was full of praise for the way Vincent Kompany has set up his team.

“They play high-intensity football. They have changed their approach slightly in the season. They have had good results and are hard to beat, and all the compliments to Vincent and his staff.

“We can’t afford to think [it’s only X] about any opponent. With the team we have available, we have to be creative. We have to take every opponent with 100% focus. We can’t allow and do a little bit less.”

Burnley’s survival hopes were given a huge boost last weekend with an impressive 4-1 win against Sheffield United, leaving them just three points behind Nottingham Forest in 17th.

With just four games left of the season, Kompany highlighted the characteristics have kept the Clarets within touching distance of the teams around them.

He said: “The biggest thing is consistency, hard work and making sure to not get distracted by the outside noise has been the main factor. We haven't found the recipe for Champions League football yet, but we are improving every game.

"I know we still have a chance and that's all that matters to me, whether it's two teams, three teams or four teams still in it, it doesn't matter too much to me.”

Related items

  • Fulham full of confidence for Palace trip after dramatic derby win Fulham full of confidence for Palace trip after dramatic derby win

    Fulham are preparing to visit Crystal Palace with renewed confidence after a dramatic late win in another London derby against Brentford.

    Marco Silva's men were trailing heading into stoppage time at Craven Cottage on Monday, only for a sensational Harry Wilson double to snatch a 2-1 victory.

    That was a first win in four in the Premier League for Fulham, although their performances might have merited more points.

    Alex Iwobi certainly believes so, explaining: "It's a big lift because we feel like our performances recently deserved a lot more, in terms of getting points and results.

    "And the way we did it, against Brentford, we knew it wasn't going to be an easy game, a derby as well... To win it in the manner we did has definitely given us a confidence boost going into another London derby against Palace."

    Palace have themselves been given a big lift in the past couple of weeks, following their belated first league win of the season against Tottenham with an EFL Cup defeat of Aston Villa and a controversial draw at Wolves.

    The Eagles are still only a place above the relegation zone, and Iwobi is hoping Fulham can check their progress.

    "We know it's not going to be easy," he said. "Another derby, it's never easy at their stadium.

    "We know it's always tough to go and play there, but we're going to analyse, see their weaknesses. It's not easy, but we'll analyse and see what we can do.

    "They've only had one win this season – hopefully it remains that way against us and we'll get the result we want."

    Will Hughes had a message for the Palace fans ahead of their return to Selhurst Park: "Thanks for sticking with us, as usual.

    "It's not been the best of starts for us in the league, but hopefully they can see, especially over the last few games, that we're turning a corner, not only results wise but the intensity we're playing with.

    "We were so difficult to play against at the end of last season with our intensity, and I think we've got that bit of mojo back. Hopefully, we can keep pushing on."

    PLAYERS TO WATCH

    Crystal Palace – Jean-Philippe Mateta

    Goals have been hard to come by for Palace this season – especially at Selhurst Park.

    Oliver Glasner's side have netted a league-low three times at home, but all of those have been scored by Mateta, continuing his strong form from the end of last season. He has 14 goals in his past 12 home league games for Palace.

    They will again rely heavily on the French striker, with Eberechi Eze injured and fellow forward Eddie Nketiah struggling for form. New signing Nketiah has attempted 17 shots without scoring, the most in the Premier League this season.

    Fulham – Harry Wilson

    There is increased competition in the wide areas for Fulham this season, with Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson signed and battling with Iwobi, Adama Traore and Wilson for minutes.

    But if Wilson cannot get his opportunity after sensationally stealing a win against Brentford last time out, he might wonder if he will ever return to the XI, still waiting for his first league start of the season.

    His cutting edge was exactly what Fulham had previously been missing, attempting against Brentford 26 shots – their most in the Premier League for over 10 years – but requiring that late show to come away with the points.

    MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW

    Following their comeback against Brentford, Fulham are unbeaten in six Premier League London derbies – their longest run since 2006-07 – and also their past five matches against Palace.

    Yet four of those clashes with the Eagles have ended all square, including each of the last three.

    Palace will hope for more as they look to move clear of the bottom three, but they have not won consecutive league derbies since April 2017 and were victors in their last capital clash against Spurs.

    Perhaps 0-0 is therefore the most likely scoreline. Fulham have kept three consecutive clean sheets at Selhurst Park, and their five away matches in the league this season have seen only 11 goals scored.

    OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

    Crystal Palace – 37.5%
    Draw – 26.3%
    Fulham – 36.2%

  • Bayern Munich 1-0 Benfica: Musiala gets hosts' UCL campaign back on track Bayern Munich 1-0 Benfica: Musiala gets hosts' UCL campaign back on track

    Jamal Musiala scored a header in the second half to give Bayern Munich a crucial 1-0 home victory over Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday.

    Germany international Musiala scored with a bullet header from close range in the 67th minute with Bayern dominating and missing several chances before eventually breaking the deadlock.

    Musiala’s chance was set up when Harry Kane headed Leroy Sane’s cross back across the face of goal.

    The result was much needed to get Bayern’s campaign back on track, with the win seeing them bounce back from suffering two consecutive defeats in the competition – against Aston Villa and Barcelona – for the first time since 2017.

    A win lifted the Germans to six points from four matches and into 17th place with Benfica, who were toothless in attack, also on six points in 19th place.

    Europe's top club competition has switched from a group stage to a league phase this season, where 36 teams play eight matches each. The top eight in the table progress directly to the next round, while the next 16 teams enter a two-legged playoff.

    Bayern have a crunch clash against Paris Saint-Germain next in the competition on November 26.
     

    Data Debrief: Unlucky 13 for Benfica

    Benfica have now played 13 major European matches against Bayern and have never tasted victory, collecting only three draws and suffering 10 defeats.

    That trend rarely showed signs of ending in this match, with Benfica not threatening. The visitors failed to register a shot on target for the first time in 45 Champions League matches. The last time they did not trouble the goalkeeper in this competition was in October 2017 against Manchester United. Bayern, by comparison, racked up 10 attempts on target.

    Benfica also only had four touches in the opposition box, their lowest tally on record since Opta started recording that data in the Champions League in 2007-08, with Bayern tallying 51.

    As for Kane, the assist means he has now been directly involved in 80 goals across all competitions (61 goals, 19 assists) since the start of last season. That is 16 more than any other player across Europe’s biggest five leagues in this period.

  • Mings mistake 'changed everything' as Villa bemoan penalty call that 'killed the game' Mings mistake 'changed everything' as Villa bemoan penalty call that 'killed the game'

    Aston Villa bemoaned the controversial penalty decision that condemned them to a first Champions League defeat at Club Brugge on Wednesday.

    On their return to Europe's elite club competition, Villa won their first three matches without conceding, but that run was ended in a 1-0 reverse in Belgium.

    The decisive goal was highly contentious, however. Tyrone Mings was penalised for picking up a pass from Emiliano Martinez, apparently believing the Villa goalkeeper had not yet taken a goal-kick.

    That error was punished as Hans Vanaken converted the consequent penalty, and Villa could not recover from a moment that boss Unai Emery felt altered the shape of the game.

    "In the second half, the mistake changed everything," Emery said. "A team like [Brugge], they are playing at home, defensively strong, they then focus 100% to stop us. They were better than us."

    Mings' defensive colleague Ezri Konsa described his frustration at the incident, suggesting Mings would have been sent off had there been a genuine infringement.

    "It killed the game," Konsa said. "If it is a handball, deliberate, then he should get a second yellow.

    "He's on a yellow already, so why not send him off for that then? It killed the game.

    "But look, it happened, there's nothing we can do, we've just got to move on from it."

    Villa have now lost three consecutive games in all competitions, matching their worst such run under Emery. They face Premier League and Champions League leaders Liverpool next at Anfield.

© 2024 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.