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• Juventus without Dusan Vlahovic and Arkadiusz Milik for Atalanta trip

  Juventus will have to deal with a depleted attack when they travel to Atalanta on Sunday as both Dusan Vlahovic and Arkadiusz Milik have been ruled out by injury.

  Vlahovic, who has scored four times in Juve’s opening six Serie A games, has a back issue, while Milik, who got the winner against Lecce last time out, has a calf problem.

  “Unfortunately both Dusan Vlahovic and Arek Milik won’t be available tomorrow,” boss Massimiliano Allegri told a press conference.

  “Dusan has a back problem. This week he trained, but then yesterday he was in too much pain and had to stop. He tried to grit his teeth to be there, but it’s better to give him time off to recover.

  “Arek, however, felt pain in his calf after Lecce and since then it’s been a delicate situation, so we preferred to rest him so that he can return to the team on Tuesday.”

  Allegri, whose side’s last away game resulted in a 4-2 defeat at Sassuolo, warned his players to expect a hard-fought encounter against Atalanta, who are on a three-match winning run in all competitions.

  The hosts trail third-placed Juve by just a single point, while the last three meetings between the sides have ended in draws.

  Allegri said: “Usually the matches against Atalanta are all very tight.

  “Atalanta are in good form, they haven’t lost or conceded a goal at home yet. You have to prepare for the match in the best possible way, with great attention to detail while keeping up a good rhythm.

  “We won a direct clash against Lazio, now we have another one against a team that play in a completely different way and are more physical and more aggressive.”

  And Allegri wants nothing less than total commitment from his side.

  He added: “Clearly the championship doesn’t end tomorrow, but tomorrow is one of those matches where you have to give everything if you want to bring home a result.

  “We don’t have to look at the rankings now, even if staying in the top four would help us have greater self-esteem and allow us to work with more peace of mind.

  “We must continue to work, knowing that our goal is to get into the top four so we can play in the Champions League next year. There is enthusiasm in the group and, above all, a desire to improve.”

• Contract dilemma: outgoing Girlz coach Donaldson says JFF's decision had nothing to do with football; Chung reluctant to engage in public spat

  Outgoing senior Reggae Girlz Head coach Lorne Donaldson stopped just short of saying he is the victim of a personal vendetta waged against him by Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) General Secretary Dennis Chung, as he refuted claims about how discussions to cut ties, transpired.

  Donaldson in response to a widely circulated release by the JFF, pointed out that the decision not to renew his contract was by no means mutual, as the meeting with Chung and JFF’s Human Resource Manager Suzie George-Gayle, lasted a mere five minutes.

  The JFF in its statement said, “after an extended discussion, both parties came to an agreement that the contract would not be renewed.”

  But Donaldson in an interview with Sportsmax.tv, rubbished the claims.

   “He [Chung] said they are terminating me. There was no discussion. In a five-minute meeting, he just said congrats on everything and the next thing was, ‘we will not renew your contract.’ There was no reason why, or anything, he just said, we will not renew your contract,” he shared.

  Donaldson, along with former Head coach Hue Menzies, was first introduced to the Reggae Girlz programme by women’s football ambassador Cedella Marley in 2015 and led the country to an historic first FIFA Women’s World Cup appearance in France in 2019.

  However, after departing the programme in 2020, following the steps of Menzies, who left earlier in 2019, Donaldson was reappointed in June 2022, to replace Vinimore “Vin” Blaine, who was forced to resign a few months into his tenure, after the Girlz expressed their displeasure with his leadership in a scathing letter.

  Like he did in 2019, Donaldson again led the Reggae Girlz to the World Cup, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, where they had an historic run to the round of 16, after drawing with France and Brazil and defeating Panama in the group stage.

  The Reggae Girlz eventually bowed out following a 0-1 loss to Colombia.

  In their most recent fixtures, the Reggae Girlz suffered back-to-back losses to Canada in a failed bid to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, but the progress the team has made under Donaldson’s leadership is without question.

  The tactician doesn’t believe he was judged on that basis.

  “Another thing he said is that if they had done well with the Olympic qualifiers, we (the coaching staff) would have carried on. You don’t want to work in a condition where you are being judged based on one game and not your body of work. So, I guess what happened at the World Cup didn’t matter and it never really had anything to do with football,” Donaldson opined.

  “It’s because I disagreed with the way they want to treat players and coaches, and I defended the Girlz. They have been waiting for the opportunity to do this (get rid of me) because they have been trying to do this from June,” he added.

  The outspoken coach recalled a conversation in which he and Chung didn’t see eye-to-eye and he believes it was from that point that their relationship spiralled.

  “From day one when he said women’s football will never catch on in Jamaica and people will never support women’s football, and I told him he is wrong, I realised the relationship has been topsy-turvy since then,” Donaldson revealed.

  He continued: “He said nobody cares about women’s football in Jamaica and it doesn’t matter how bad the men’s team is, the men will get more support than the women. That was when we were trying to go to Australia for the (Cup of Nations) tournament and from that day I knew we are always going to be fighting for these Girlz because it revealed to me that they really don’t care about the Girlz.

  “He was trying to justify why we shouldn’t have gone to the tournament in Australia, all because they were spending a little money, even though Australia was spending some money as well. And then he came up with these ridiculous flight prices and I said no, it is way less than that. And from February on, he was total against everything that we were doing.”

  Despite sensing Chung’s perceived dislike, Donaldson explained that it was his duty as Head coach to remain resolute in his fight for the players, who sometimes felt disheartened by the show of support, or lack thereof, from the country’s governing football body in particular.

  “We had to stand up for the Girlz and I stick to that. When they are right, we fought for them and when they were wrong, I told them. And then we had to make sure they had the resources that we can have them perform,” Donaldson said.

  “It showed the other day when we didn’t have the proper equipment for them to train. There was no equipment on the first day of camp and stuff like that affected the Girlz because they didn’t feel the love. They kept saying people didn’t care.

  “They just went to a World Cup and see all around the world how everybody (other countries) is speaking glowingly of their team, and they come to Jamaica and can’t even get the proper equipment,” he reasoned.

  That said, Donaldson wished the JFF and Reggae Girlz well on their future endeavours, starting with the upcoming Concacaf Women's Gold Cup qualifying matches against Panama and Guatemala, next month.

  “The JFF, whatever they have planned for the Girlz, I hope they are successful with it, and I wish them all the best from the bottom of my heart. They made a decision, and I am fine with that,” he declared.

  “We have a great group of players that are going to come in, and what we have achieved is basically a scratch on the surface because the sky is the limit with this group of Girlz,” Donaldson ended.

  Meanwhile, Chung when contacted about the allegations, was reluctant to address what transpired during the meeting.

  “I don’t want to comment on those decisions (made during the meeting), I don’t know where those comments are coming from, but from an ethical point of view, I’m just not going to comment on it. We issued a release, and the release speaks for itself,” Chung told Sportsmax.tv.

  However, he admitted to an extent that the February conversation in Montego Bay did happen, but not exactly how it was stated by Donaldson.

  “I never said that people don’t care about women’s football, I don’t know where that is coming from. What I have said in the past is that no matter how well the women do, it seems like people tend to support the men more in terms of attendance at matches and that is something that has been said internationally. So, I was just echoing it because someone said it on a sports programme I was listening to,” Chung explained.

   “It is an unfortunate comment that he made, but I didn’t listen to it, because the fact is that the JFF has spent a lot more money on the women’s programme than the men’s programme and in terms of resourcing it, has given it equal footing, if not more.

  “So, it’s a very unfortunate comment if that was said because when you talk about sponsorship, most of the sponsors have come in for the women’s programme, so that was very unfortunate,” he argued.

  When asked about the possible timeline for Donaldson’s replacement given the significance of the upcoming fixtures, Chung said information should be forthcoming by Monday.

   “We are working to ensure that a team is in place so I’m sure that by Monday we will have that sorted in terms of what we are doing. So, something is being worked on and the JFF will communicate that,” Chung noted.

• Tony Mowbray wants teams to fear Sunderland after another strong away display

  Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray said he wants Sky Bet Championship teams to feel his side’s attacking threat after they beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 at Hillsborough to move up to fourth in the table.

  A Dan Ballard header and two goals from Jack Clarke, the second a penalty,  ensured the Black Cats’ victory in a little more than half an hour.

  Mowbray said: “We needed to start fast, we were mindful of our last away game at Blackburn. Tonight we started fast and gave ourselves a great platform to go on.

  “To get three goals before half-time was great. The only thing, and I said it in the dressing room, I was a little disappointed we didn’t go on and score more.

  “They are a young group of lads and they have to learn. I can’t really complain; to come away and score three goals is good.

  “But you always feel in this stadium that one goal goes in and you never know, so we talked about not giving them chances and it wasn’t until the last few minutes that they had any.

  “If anything, we had to let them feel our threat more in the second half and be more clinical; score some more goals. I want every team to fear us and sit players behind the ball as a result.

  “We were happy to keep the ball but moving forward, I would like other teams in this league to feel our threat – that if they get it wrong we are going to score.

  “Of course, it’s about winning but the bigger picture is I want us to be an even better team and when teams aren’t quite right, we can really damage them.

  “But it’s another three goals away from home for the third time on the bounce, so we just have to keep rolling.”

  Wednesday boss Xisco Munoz apologised to supporters, with his side making the joint-worst start after nine games in Championship history.

  Munoz said: “We started so badly and everyone is disappointed. This is the level we are at and after the second goal the game was done. In the second half we had some better moments but not enough.

  “In the first half an hour we have three shots and they have three shots but they score the goals. We need to change the dynamic and be better in the final third.

  “We changed systems and we changed players. We continued to try to find solutions and we tried to take risks after the second goal but it’s very hard to react the way we want to.

  “We need to try to change a lot of things and my way is to try to find solutions. To get results you need to earn them but it was impossible after the first half.

  “The results are very poor, that’s clear. But if you ask me if we have improved since I arrived, then yes. It’s not easy and we need to manage the pressure.”

  Wednesday are in disarray off the field, with chairman Dejphon Chansiri releasing a statement earlier in the day stating he would be putting no additional money into the club.

  Munoz added: “I can’t speak about the chairman; my job is the football side of things and the focus is on the players.

  “To the fans, I’m so sorry. I’ve been under pressure since the first day. It’s a big challenge but I will continue to fight every day.”