Wayne Rooney is determined to turn things around at struggling Birmingham after a 3-0 defeat against Leeds left his side facing a Championship relegation battle.
Birmingham sit in 20th place in the table but the former Manchester United and England striker is refusing to throw in the towel despite his own team’s fans calling for his sacking after the final whistle at Elland Road.
Asked where the result and the chants left him, Rooney said: “I’m a fighter and I get football fans’ opinions.
“I have to draw on my career, my playing career wasn’t always about success.
“I was in a relegation battle with Everton, I believe in myself.
“We’ve got a very young squad and it’s difficult for the players as well. The second half wasn’t good enough, but we have to keep fighting.”
Rooney will continue to back his players but would like to add to his squad during the January transfer window.
Rooney added: “I think what is clear is we need some players coming in to help the quality of the team and some fresh faces around the building.
“We are working extremely hard to get players in.”
Rooney was disappointed his defenders gave Patrick Bamford too much space for the opening goal.
He said: “It was not the result we wanted. We knew it was going to be a tough game here.
“Until they scored the first goal, I thought we played well. The first goal makes a big difference to the game.
“You can’t leave Bamford free in the six-yard box because he will punish you. After they scored the second, I felt if we got the next goal we could get back in the game.”
Bamford marked his first Leeds start of the season with the opening goal in a victory which ended a run of two successive defeats for Daniel Farke’s side.
Bamford met a Dan James cross from the right with a perfectly timed header before James doubled the home side’s lead in first-half stoppage time and Crysencio Summerville picked his spot for the third midway through the second half.
Birmingham’s best chance came early in the second half, but Juninho Bacuna chipped wide after being set clear from halfway by Siriki Dembele.
Farke said: “When you head into the fourth game in 10 days on the back of back-to-back defeats, the confidence level you could feel was low in the first 20 minutes.
“We needed to dig in and get the opening goal. Then we controlled the game and didn’t allow them to have chances.
“It was a really good performance. A big win today to return to the dressing room with a clean sheet.”
Bamford’s scoring return was also a high point for his boss, who said: “I’m delighted for Patrick. He has had a really difficult time.
“He had a pretty good pre-season then a long-term injury, he was eight weeks out.
“There was a period where he lost his confidence, but I had a good feeling about today from his performances in training.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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