Tuesday, 18 February 2014

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

07:37

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com


Nicolas Anelka quenelle hearing to be held by Football Association next week

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 03:21 PM PST

• Striker faces five-game ban for making gesture
• Anelka insists quenelle is 'neither antisemitic nor racist'

The hearing into Nicolas Anelka's quenelle gesture will be heard by the Football Association early next week, with the West Bromwich striker to contest a charge that his celebration was abusive and insulting.

Anelka made the gesture after scoring in his side's 3-3 draw against West Ham in December, and could face a minimum five-match ban if the FA hearing finds that it was "abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper".

The 34-year-old has previously said that the quenelle is "neither antisemitic, nor racist" and merely a show of support for his friend Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, a controversial French comedian.

The hearing will comprise of an independent three-person commission that will consider evidence from lawyers representing both the FA and Anelka.


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Oxlade-Chamberlain firing Arsenal

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 03:01 PM PST

The midfielder has enriched Arsenal's attacking tenacity and will be key for the visit of Bayern Munich in the Champions League

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could just be the antidote for Arsenal's febrile February. If this is a month when Arsène Wenger's side often crack under the strain of seminal fixtures, then a return to prominence of a player who has revitalised and enriched their attacking tenacity certainly represents significant cause for optimism before the biggest challenge yet.

Bayern Munich, the European champions and treble winners last season, return to the Emirates seeking to inflict more misery on a side they beat in the last 16 of the Champions League a year ago.

On that occasion Oxlade-Chamberlain played only 18 minutes of the second leg in Germany – a 2-0 victory – and escaped the ignominy of a dispiriting 3-1 home defeat but this time he is arguably the biggest threat to a team 16 points clear at the summit of the Bundesliga and attempting to become the first club to defend their European crown successfully in 24 years.

If Arsenal are to overcome the Munich machine, then Oxlade-Chamberlain could have a key role to play. It is still questionable whether he will even start on Wednesday night but following his impressive performance against Liverpool on Sunday, any decision to omit the 20-year-old from the starting line-up would be a major surprise and could be interpreted as a negative approach to the tie before a ball has even been kicked.

Mikel Arteta is suspended following his red card against Napoli in the group stage, meaning Jack Wilshere and Mathieu Flamini will most likely pair up in central midfield behind a combination of three from Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil, Lukas Podolski, Tomas Rosicky and Oxlade-Chamberlain, unless, as against Crystal Palace at the beginning of the month, the England international is deployed in the centre of the park.

Against Liverpool Oxlade-Chamberlain was in scintillating form, scoring a goal in the first half and creating one in the second, causing Aly Cissokho headaches on the right flank and also prompting Steven Gerrard to hack him down in the middle of a swift counter-attack. If he plays against Bayern, then a potential battle with David Alaba would be a different proposition entirely from the challenge posed by Cissokho but the youngster's pace and direct approach certainly provide fresh impetus for a team that has at times lacked attacking thrust since Theo Walcott's long-term knee injury sustained in January.

After Oxlade-Chamberlain scored twice against Palace Wenger claimed that he would eventually be a central midfielder. "I believe Chamberlain can play out wide or centrally," the manager said. "Certainly in a few years he will be a central midfielder. He has that surge of power which is so vital in the game today. He is also a good finisher."

After his match-winning display against Liverpool Flamini said of his team-mate: "Chambo is a great player and when you are a great player you have the possibility to play in every position.

"Wherever he plays, he does it perfectly so I am happy for him. Again today he played on the side and he was brilliant. He really deserves the success he is getting right now."

Roy Hodgson was not present at the Emirates to watch Oxlade-Chamberlain against Liverpool but his recent displays will almost certainly have elevated him into consideration for this summer's World Cup, not only as a member of the England squad but potentially as a key player in the starting line-up.

If he can cause problems for Bayern Munich, he can cause problems for anyone, although opportunities on the ball may not come easily.

Philipp Lahm will provide an effective shield for Bayern's defence, although Franck Ribéry is injured and Manchester City showed they are certainly not infallible in December.

Either way Oxlade-Chamberlain's season has suddenly transformed from anonymity to acclaim after five months out since the opening day of the league campaign. For Arsenal his resurgence could not have come at a better time.


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Manchester United send scouts to watch Porto's Eliaquim Mangala

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 02:43 PM PST

• David Moyes interested in 23-year-old central defender
• Mangala almost joined Manchester City for £37m in January

Manchester United are keeping tabs on Eliaquim Mangala, the Porto central defender who came close to joining Manchester City for £37m in the January transfer window.

David Moyes sent scouts to watch the 23-year-old in Sunday's game between Porto and Gil Vincente, according to reports in Portugal.

City are expected to return for the player in the summer and, with Paris St-Germain also interested in signing him, United face a battle to secure his signature if he does decide to move.

Moyes is hoping to overhaul United's squad in the close season, with the manager being handed a mandate by the club to bring in at least four major signings.


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Manchester City now bigger club than United, says Manuel Pellegrini

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 02:38 PM PST

• Manager seeks style and substance against Barcelona
• David Silva: 'Winning would be like a coming of age'

Manuel Pellegrini has claimed that Manchester City are now bigger than Manchester United, with the manager believing that knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League would be a defining moment in the club's evolution.

Speaking on the eve of Barça's visit to the Etihad Stadium, Pellegrini said: "If we only consider this season, there is just one club in Manchester and it's ours, but you cannot forget what United has done in the previous years.

"We are aiming to keep growing by winning many trophies – not just national but international trophies. We are fighting for four titles this year. We have to be patient because you cannot change the team from one day to another. We have to keep the philosophy of the style and for that you need time."

The meeting with the team led by the four-times player of the year, Lionel Messi, indicates the rise of the club owned by the billionaire Sheikh Mansour since September 2008.

Pellegrini was asked how important defeating Barcelona would be in City's quest to establish themselves among the continental elite."It is a good test. It is important," he said. "I don't think it is the most important thing because we are just in the round of 16. We can beat Barcelona and maybe in the next round you can have defeat.

"This club is trying to develop those areas. So far we have a good season and we must finish that way. One of our targets is to continue in the Champions League knowing we play against [and beat] the most important club in the world."

Pellegrini knows what the tie means to supporters. "Of course I understand, I'm absolutely sure the fans will enjoy to see us play this game. They also enjoyed it a lot when we qualified for the next round because it was the first time we did it but I think the supporters are also enjoying the season.

"We want to be champion in the Premier League or both cups we are playing in but, for me, it's always very important that the fans like the way we play. I think we can have both – to achieve important results and play in a style the fans enjoy."

David Silva believes the club, who have Fernandinho back although Sergio Agüero is still out as he recovers from injury, will have arrived on the European stage if they can knock out Barcelona.

"It will be difficult but beating Barcelona would be like a coming of age for Man City. It's very important for our confidence and international recognition," the midfielder said.

"Barcelona are the favourites. They have the history, the experience, and the best player in the world in Leo Messi. But of course we have an opportunity. We believe in ourselves and in our football.

"The key is to keep the pressure on for 90 minutes, to avoid silly mistakes and take advantage of the chances. Against such a good team, you cannot miss them."

Pellegrini indicated that City would not change their approach, saying: "When you play against Barcelona you always must consider important things but I think the most important thing is to try to be the same team that you're seeing every week here in the Premier League.

"That for me is very important – continuing to have a style of play, to continue having personality, but you can't play without considering that they have Messi and other important players. We are not going to play just thinking about defending because thinking about what we are going to do with the ball is the most important thing."

Pellegrini would not be drawn regarding whether he would play either Edin Dzeko or Stevan Jovetic alongside Álvaro Negredo, or select "The Beast" as a lone striker.

"We will see the way we are going to play," he said. "I believe in a style of playing but you can make changes, you can play in different ways but I'm absolutely sure that we can have 11 defending but if we don't know how to defend we're not going to do it well. Just as we could have 11 midfielders but if we don't have possession of the ball we are going to lose the ball."


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Zlatan Ibrahimovic key for Paris St-Germain against Bayer Leverkusen

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 02:34 PM PST

• Swede will be focal point of attack in Edinson Cavani's absence
• He is still seeking a first Champions League winner's medal

Paris Saint-Germain will have to compensate for a lack of height at set pieces when they face Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday, their coach Laurent Blanc said.

The French champions are expected to dominate possession at the Bayer Arena and Blanc said his side would be wary of counterattacks and set plays, which he identified as Leverkusen's best weapons.

"Set pieces will be a key, though not the only one," Blanc said. "They have a very athletic team. I think we lack a bit of height. We will not be able to fight them in the air because PSG players won't grow 10cm taller overnight. So if we don't control the game, if we don't force them to adapt to our play, their philosophy will prevail and we are going to suffer."

Leverkusen often threaten at free-kicks and corners but they also concede a lot of goals in the same way. "This is a paradox but it means that they are better in those kind of situations when they attack. We'll have to keep that in mind," Blanc said.

In the absence of Edinson Cavani, Blanc will be looking to the striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to produce a top European performance. The Sweden international was rarely decisive in the knockout stages with his former sides Juventus, Milan, Internazionale or Barcelona and he has never played in a final.

Blanc said he had no doubt the Swede, who has enjoyed his best Champions League campaign so far with eight goals in the group stage, will live up to expectations. "He's going to turn 33 this year, he's more mature and he has a lot of experience. He scores, he has always scored and he will continue to score until the end of his career. He will be our main asset because he's the one who scores the most in this team.

"I think that Bayer will focus on him and that he will come out in force. He loves the big games, he's more motivated and, hopefully, he will be more efficient than he is in the [French] league."

Leverkusen are second in the Bundesliga but have struggled for form since the winter break and have lost five of their past seven games, including a 2-1 defeat by Schalke at the weekend that left them 16 points adrift of Bayern Munich.

Their centre-back Emir Spahic may miss the home leg after suffering a thigh injury in the Schalke match while the midfielder Emre Can is unavailable through suspension.

Nevertheless, their captain, Simon Rolfes, said: "We're going into the game with a lot of confidence. Paris may be favourites but that doesn't concern us.

"We are the challengers but want to go to our absolute limits. It is about getting ahead since only one can win. There will be a great atmosphere again. Many of us have grown up with this melody [the Champions League anthem]. It is just still something very special."

Their coach, Sami Hyypia, said: "We're going to have to give 100%," and warned of the threat posed by Ibrahimovic. "He's a good player, one of the best in the world. He can score a goal from nothing. Even when you play perfectly against him, he's always capable of scoring."

"But all of their players are quality. They've brought in a lot of top-class players. We've just got to concentrate on ourselves and make sure we give our all, both mentally and physically."

Hyypia welcomes Sidney Sam back into his squad after leaving the midfielder out against his future employers at the weekend. Stefan Kiessling, an ever-present for Leverkusen in Europe this season, is assured of his place, with Blanc aware he is Leverkusen's dangerman. "He's an absolute crown jewel," Blanc said. "But he's not the only one we've got to watch out for."


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Tranmere suspend manager Moore

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 02:24 PM PST

• FA looking at alleged breach of betting rules
• John McMahon in charge of first-team affairs

Tranmere Rovers have suspended their manager, Ronnie Moore, while the Football Association determines whether he has breached betting rules.

On Friday it emerged that the FA wanted to speak to the 61-year-old Rovers manager over allegations he broke rules by betting in a competition in which Tranmere were involved.

Moore took charge of Tranmere on Saturday in the 2-2 draw at Bristol City and conducted his press conference on Monday before the game at Crawley Town on Tuesday.

The League One club issued a statement on Monday evening which said they were suspending Moore until the conclusion of the FA's investigation.

A statement on the club's website read: "Tranmere Rovers have announced that with immediate effect manager Ronnie Moore has been suspended until the conclusion of a Football Association investigation into a potential breach of betting rules. Assistant manager, John McMahon, has been placed in temporary charge of first-team affairs. The club will be making no further comment until the outcome of the investigation."


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Mark Clattenburg to take charge of Southampton against West Ham

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 02:21 PM PST

• First time he has refereed Saints game since Lallana complaint
FA cleared referee and he will officiate West Ham match

Mark Clattenburg is to referee Southampton's game at West Ham on Saturday, the first time he will have taken charge of a Saints game since they filed an official complaint against him.

The Durham official angered Saints when, during their defeat by Everton on 29 December, he told their captain Adam Lallana: "You are very different now, since you've played for England – you never used to be like this."

The club reported those comments to the referees' governing body, the PGMOL, and said it would be difficult for Clattenburg to take charge of their matches in future but the referee was cleared of any wrongdoing.

The latest complaint was also dismissed by the Football Association. An FA statement last month read: "The FA can confirm it received a complaint from Southampton concerning referee Mark Clattenburg and his alleged comments made to their player Adam Lallana.

"The FA has given its full consideration to this matter and it is our view that the comments, as disclosed in Southampton's letter of complaint, do not constitute misconduct under the FA's rules.

"Consequently the FA will not be taking any further action in relation to this matter and now considers this case to be closed."

Clattenburg was previously cleared of a complaint by Chelsea that he racially abused their player John Obi Mikel and has since taken charge of games involving the London club.


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Football in brief

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 02:08 PM PST

• Football Association sets date for Nicolas Anelka hearing
• Manchester United express interest in Eliaquim Mangala

Fulham

The turmoil at Fulham continued with reports that the club had sacked their technical director, Alan Curbishley, and assistant manager, Ray Wilkins, following the appointment of Felix Magath as manager, although the future of René Meulensteen remains shrouded in uncertainty. Curbishley, who was brought into the club over Christmas by the Fulham chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, is believed to have left with Wilkins. Neither Meulensteen nor Wilkins attended Magath's first training session at the weekend, although Curbishley met the German and there were suggestions he could remain. However, there were numerous reports that he and Wilkins had been relieved of their duties. Fulham were unavailable for comment last night. An independent three-person commission that will consider evidence from lawyers representing the FA and Anelka. James Riach

Nicolas Anelka

The hearing into Nicolas Anelka's quenelle gesture will be conducted by the Football Association early next week, when the West Bromwich striker will contest a charge that his goal celebration was "abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper". Anelka made the gesture in the 3-3 draw against West Ham in December and could face a minimum five-match ban if the FA hearing finds him guilty. The 34-year-old has said that the quenelle is "neither antisemitic nor racist". An independent three-person commission that will consider evidence from lawyers representing the FA and Anelka. James Riach

Manchester United

David Moyes is keeping tabs on Eliaquim Mangala, the Porto central defender who came close to joining Manchester City for £37m in January. The United manager sent scouts to watch the 23-year-old in Sunday's game between Porto and Gil Vicente. City are expected to return for the player in the summer and, with Paris St-Germain also interested in signing him, United face a battle to secure his signature if he does decide to move. Jamie Jackson

Southampton

Mark Clattenburg is to referee Southampton's game at West Ham on Saturday, the first time he will have taken charge of a Saints game since they filed an official complaint against him. Clattenburg angered Southampton when, during their defeat by Everton in December, he told Adam Lallana: "You are very different now, since you've played for England." The club reported those comments to the referees' governing body, the PGMOL, and said it would be difficult for Clattenburg to take charge of their matches in future but he was cleared of any wrongdoing. PA

Norwich City

The chief executive, David McNally, has suggested Norwich could move swiftly to replace Chris Hughton if their Premier League status is threatened. Norwich are the only side in the bottom six not to have changed manager this season. "It would be almost delinquent of the club to not be aware of potential candidates if for any reason your manager left," McNally told the Eastern Daily Press. PA


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Barcelona's Gerardo Martino regards Manchester City with huge respect

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 02:08 PM PST

• Head coach believes City are one of the greatest
• Martino sees tie as good enough to be the final

Gerardo Martino said it would be a failure if his side did not knock Manchester City out of the Champions League, though the Barcelona head coach believes they are "one of the greatest teams in the world".

"For the last six seasons Barcelona have made it to the semis and the fans are used to it," Martino said. "It will be difficult to understand if we don't go through but it is the tightest tie of all."

City have a strong Spanish influence as Álvaro Negredo, David Silva and Jesús Navas are all from the country, while Ferran Soriano, the chief executive, and the director of football, Txiki Begiristain, are Spaniards who formerly held the same respective positions at the Catalan club.

With Manuel Pellegrini also favouring a high-tempo attacking game, City could be viewed as a mini-Barcelona, though Martino played down the comparison. "I don't think City are a mini-Barcelona or a mini-any-team," he said. "I think they are one of the greatest teams in the world. They have great Spanish players like [Jesús] Navas, who plays very vertically, [David] Silva who knows when to pass and when to cross. But it is not only Spanish players. They have great players from all over the world, like Yaya Touré and Fernandinho."

Martino believes that the tie is of a quality high enough to be the final. "Yeah, it could have been," he said. "It would be ideal if we meet them later, maybe in the last eight. The two teams are very good, doing very well in the league and the cups, and it is the perfect timing for them to arrive into this game."

Barcelona have been embroiled in controversy, with the dispute over Neymar's precise transfer fee from Santos in the summer causing the president, Sandro Rosell, to resign. Gerard Piqué believes the showdown with City will allow Barcelona to do their talking on the field.

"The only way we have to speak is on the pitch," the defender said. "We know that at the club in the last six months there were some things that we cannot control as players.

"All we can do is on the pitch and show the world that we can still be the best and try to play a great game against a great team like Man City."

Martino would not be drawn regarding whether Neymar, who has played only one game following injury, will start. "What is important for us is to have him healthy," he said. "He played 30 minutes against Rayo Vallecano [at the weekend]. We will decide tomorrow whether he will start or come on later."

Despite Manchester United's downturn in fortunes this season Piqué, who spent three years at Old Trafford before moving to Barça insisted he would still prefer to join the champions rather than City.

"What do you think?" he said. "If I had to choose one, it would be United but I am very happy in Barcelona, it is the club of my life and I am not thinking to leave."

Of his time at United Piqué added: "I was 17 when I came here, I was a child. Obviously I would have liked to play more but it is was a very special three years, I learned a lot. I always say Man Utd is my second time after Barça and Sir Alex Ferguson is the best."


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Brighton 1-1 Hull City

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 02:04 PM PST

Hull City struck late last night to secure a replay that neither of these teams wanted. The extra game distracts Brighton from their quest to reach the Championship play-offs and Hull from their battle to steer clear of relegation from the Premier League, but Steve Bruce, the Hull manager, was celebrating nonetheless when Yannick Sagbo's goal in the 86th minute cancelled out Leo Ulloa's first-half opener for Brighton, his ninth goal of the season.

looked as if they had held the Premier League side at bay to secure a sixth-round tie at home to Sunderland, managed by Gus Poyet, the manager they dismissed last summer. Instead Bruce will now be the favourite to entertain the Wearsiders, his previous club.

Bruce, who lifted the trophy three times as a Manchester United player, said before the match that he wanted to "have a good run" in the competition, and his team selection bore that out. Although he made six changes to the team that lost at home to Southampton, three were enforced – Shane Long and Nikica Jelavic were cup-tied and Paul McShane, once on loan at Brighton, is injured. But Curtis Davies and Tom Huddlestone started, and Sone Aluko made his first start for four months after recovering from an achilles injury.

Brighton's head coach, Óscar García, rested a number of players, including the Poland goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak and captain Gordon Greer, and his players took slightly longer to settle as Hull enjoyed better possession early on. But Brighton began to threaten when Hull failed to clear a free-kick from Will Buckley and Jake Forster-Caskey faded a shot past Allan McGregor's right-hand post. Then a surprisingly slack piece of control by Huddlestone gave Buckley a chance on his first start of a hamstrung 2014, but he wasted it with a shot high into the stand.

Hull, in contrast, struggled to make an impression on the Brighton defence. Too many final passes were aimless and both Aluko's and Sagbo's first efforts on goal were dragged wide, whereas Brighton were continuing to look dangerous, with Forster-Caskey sending a flying scissors-kick from Inigo Calderón's cross just over the crossbar.

But after 26 minutes, Sagbo bettered that effort and came within a coat of paint of giving Hull the lead. He had just had a first-time shot from Ahmed Elmohamady's low cross blocked by Matthew Upson, and when the ball was returned from the wing, the Ivorian took it waist-high, his shot beating goalkeeper Peter Brezovan but rebounding from the angle of post and bar.

However, if Hull felt they were taking control, they were in for a shock as Brighton grabbed the lead on the half-hour. Leo Ulloa started and finished it, taking a pass out of defence with his back to goal, laying the ball off to Buckley and heading towards goal. Taking Buckley's return pass in his stride, the Argentinian forward outpaced the defence before clipping the ball over Allan McGregor and in.

Back came Hull, and from a corner on the left, Curtis Davies thumped a header against the bar. And the home side should have gone further ahead in the second minute of first-half injury time when Ulloa was found unmarked five yards out at the far post by Buckley only to head weakly wide from five yards.

Hull played with increased urgency after the break, with Elmohamady's surges from right-back once again looking the most likely source of a goal. But the Premier League side struggled to find a cutting edge and even when Jake Livermore found space inside the penalty area, Upson was swift to get across and block.

But with five minutes to go, Hull found an equaliser out of nothing. Seconds after Elmohamady had made a last-ditch challenge to frustrate a Brighton break, Aluko cut in from the right and curled a cross ito the heart of the Brighton defence with his left foot. Sagbo nipped in front of Lewis Dunk and shot home on the turn. And Hull still managed to fashion two chances to win it in injury time. First Robert Koren made a yard of space but saw his shot deflected over the bar by Dunk, then Meyler fierce header was nodded away by Forster-C askey.


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Brighton v Hull City – as it happened | Lawrence Ostlere

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 01:48 PM PST

Hull scored a late equaliser through Yannick Sagbo to deny Brighton and force a fifth round replay









How Manchester City embraced the Barcelona blueprint | Sid Lowe

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 01:41 PM PST

Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano arrived at the Etihad with a philosophy born at the Camp Nou for sustainable brilliance

There is a glint in Joan Laporta's eye as he recalls the conversation he had with Pep Guardiola in the spring of 2008. The decision had already been made that Franck Rijkaard would not continue beyond the end of the season and Barcelona's then president called in the B-team coach to tell him that the board thought that he, a 38-year-old with no first-team experience, was the ideal man to take over. "And do you know what he said to me?" Laporta grins. "He said: 'You haven't got the balls'."

As it turned out, he did have the balls. But the decision wasn't just about courage, it was also rooted in conviction and calculation. Laporta considered Johan Cruyff but had been persuaded otherwise and a thorough search began. The sporting director had played with Guardiola in Cruyff's "Dream Team", closely monitored Barcelona B and came increasingly to see Guardiola as the best candidate. Not just for who he was but also for what he represented: former ballboy and captain, defender of a particular style and promoter of youth. "We chose a philosophy," Laporta is fond of saying.

Manchester City did too. Barça's sporting director was of course Txiki Begiristain, now at the Etihad, and Laporta's vice-president in charge of economic affairs was Ferran Soriano, now City's chief executive officer. The first call came in December 2011. Soriano met Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Khaldoon al-Mubarak in Abu Dhabi but with his company, Spanair, in a process of liquidation, he declined. When he eventually agreed in summer 2012, one of his first calls was to Begiristain. Now comes a blast from the recent past. "I'd have preferred a different opponent," Begiristain said after the Champions League draw, "but I'm happy to see old friends again."

The assumption that City simply copied Barcelona's model, air-lifting it in, is facile and flawed. So is the theory that signing Soriano and Begiristain was merely a prelude to signing Guardiola, although no doubt they would have liked to. Much of what City are building pre-dated their arrival but the official line sounds very like Barcelona when it talks of a "common football philosophy that links the youngest academy boy to the most senior first-team player," that includes the heart of the gigantic Etihad Campus development, the City Football Academy.

Yet Sheikh Mansour did see in Barcelona's model something that dovetailed with his vision and goes beyond the football: from international expansion to the opening of new markets, from youth development to revenue creation there are parallels. It may be over-simplistic, but here there's a temptation to say that City, like Barcelona, want to be likeable; to avoid being seen just as arrivistes.

There is also a need to make their economic position sustainable: financial fair play demands it. "Sustainability has always been central to Sheikh Mansour's investment in City," the statement ran when they unveiled academy plans. "The long-term future is dependent on the ability to recruit and develop young players." When Sorriano was at Barcelona he calculated that every home-grown player who reached the first team had cost the club ¤2m. "Good business," as he put it.

When Laporta's board won the elections in 2003 Barcelona had gone four years without winning a trophy, the debt stood at ¤186m and salaries accounted for 88% of their income. Soriano was obsessed with bringing that figure down to 50%, a mantra he repeats in Manchester. Barcelona's income was only the 10th biggest globally and, according to Soriano, they risked becoming a "medium" club. Soriano later wrote how every club, every business, needs a "Visionary"; a "Doctor No", who imposed realism; and a "Back", someone who carries the team in practical terms, a doer. That message, too, is familiar to staff at City.

Outgoings would be cut but more importantly Barcelona had to increase income. Soriano talked often of kick-starting a "virtuous circle", for which risks had to be taken. Another, related word used often was "mediático": Barcelona needed players who generated media and marketing interest, particularly internationally. Only 23% of their average TV audience was national and, Soriano noted, supporters could be captured through allegiance to key players. Laporta had campaigned on a deal with Manchester United to sign David Beckham.

Ironically City's CEO admitted that the model Barcelona followed was United's. "I saw David Gill once and confessed that we'd taken inspiration from his marketing and commercial strategy to make Barcelona recover. I said thank you to him," Soriano wrote in 2009. "And 'inspire' is a euphemism: what we did really was directly copy everything United did well."

Beckham did not arrive, Ronaldinho did. As it turned out, it would have been impossible to sign a more likeable player. He was a good one too. The Brazilian was Fifa world player two years in a row. "He changed our history," Xavi Hernández said. "He was more a boardroom signing than ours," Begiristain admitted.

Barcelona also sought to repackage and express the notion of "Més que un club" (more than a club) for an international audience. It was rarely defined with precision. Rather, it was projected in as something broad, a little nebulous, as something "good", a reflection of the club's "values". The sponsorship of Unicef was the result, explicitly designed to give an idealistic look to the club's identity. A commitment to a "spectacular" style contributed too. But, Soriano admitted, "A good footballing product is a team that wins." He even had a formula for it: (CxE)T. Commitment multiplied by balance to the power of talent. Soriano wanted players hungry for success, who'd not yet won much.

He insisted, too, on the style. Barcelona drew up a nine-point checklist of the attributes managers needed, with each point fleshed out. It began with "respect for the sporting model" and included references to the style of play, the idiosyncrasies and "values" of the club and the importance of youth development. For Begiristain, "talent" or technical ability had to predominate. "Good play starts from the back," he explained. "At least one of the centre-backs has to be able to play, for example."

When Rijkaard was struggling in the first season, Sandro Rosell, then one of the vice-presidents, agitated to sack the Dutchman and sign Luiz Felipe Scolari, rejecting the style that now seems so entrenched. As Soriano told Graham Hunter for his exceptional book Barça: "[Rosell and his group's] idea was that this kind of football, the Barça style, was outdated. We lost [to Chelsea] and they said: 'You see? We should hire a Scolari-type manager and bigger, stronger players.' The magic we achieved was to say: 'No, that's not who we are. We play spectacular football and will not deviate.'"

Rijkaard continued and won two league titles and the European Cup. By 2008 Soriano and fellow directors thought the hunger had gone and the search for a new manager began. Begiristain had focused on Guardiola but was initially reluctant to say so, staying open-minded. There was a process to undergo, one that took him to Lisbon to meet José Mourinho, guided by that same nine-point checklist.

The meeting was three hours long, with Mourinho offering a detailed analysis of how to remedy the team's ills and insisting he would play a Barça style. Begiristain was impressed but harboured doubts, not least that the Portuguese would start fires, inside the club and out. That footballing "identity", the concept, weighed heavily too.

It looks obvious now; it was risky then. Mourinho was the safe bet. Laporta and his board had the balls. Here again are the parallels. Sacking Roberto Mancini was not popular, just as turning down Mourinho was not. But Begiristain had played under Cruyff and still adopts an almost reverential tone when he talks of the Dutchman as a "fearless" manager whose response to problems was "always to be more attacking". Guardiola, a Cruyffist, lacked experience but fitted the idea.

Xavi is among many players who see similarities between Pellegrini and Guardiola. "We're asking the new manager to build a squad and also a football concept and a way of working that will last 10 years," Soriano said when City turned to Pellegrini. "This was a long-term decision taken with a lot of careful analysis. I was worried about the image we were giving the world."

"One of the reasons I came here was Txiki," Pellegrini said. "I chose City because I was convinced they knew my footballing model. Managers have to deliver the spectacle fans want, especially at clubs that invest a lot of money signing the world's best players. I'm not an iluso [a naive dreamer]: if someone says you're going to win 1-0 playing badly, fine. But I believe you get better results playing well. It's not about mortgaging your results for a sterile beauty."

And that's the crux. Soriano admitted that he wanted five titles in five years. As for Begiristain, not long before joining City he said: "Barcelona are attractive because of their style but without the titles that would mean nothing."


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Daniel Taylor on Man City's conundrum

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 01:06 PM PST

Manuel Pellegrini is determined to ask questions of Barcelona rather than simply trying to answer theirs

Sometimes you have to hear from the footballers who have been in Lionel Messi's direct line of vision to understand what it must be like, as an opposition defender, to see him advancing with the ball. Asier del Horno sums it up pretty well. "Aargh," says the former Athletic Bilbao, Chelsea and Valencia player. "Difficult, very difficult. The situation you're in, his divine inspiration. He drives the ball forward, quickly, with the ball glued to his foot. He has speed, he has skills … aargh, he's a real problem for any defender."

Antonio Conte, the Juventus coach, was asked if there was a way to stop Messi. "Only with a gun," he replied. Internet videos promise to reveal the secret then just reel off some of the worst chops and elbows and kicks against those multimillion-pound insured limbs. "Defenders need to keep a tight line, be aggressive and hold the position well," is Del Horno's verdict. But you have to catch him first and that is the first problem for Manchester City tomorrow. As Thierry Henry points out: "If he has a good day, there is really no way of stopping him."

Carlos Queiroz, Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant when Manchester United won the Champions League in 2008, was so obsessed with doing just that he used sit-up mats on the training pitch to prepare for the semi-final against Barcelona and show the players exactly where they had to go. "We'd never seen such attention to detail," Gary Neville recalls. "We rehearsed time and again, sometimes walking through the tactics slowly with the ball in our hands."

It went against everything Ferguson wanted in his teams – "defended really deep, put myself through torture, put the fans through hell," he writes in his latest autobiography – but United did not concede a goal over 180 minutes and went through thanks to a Paul Scholes special. Ferguson, sans Queiroz, then abandoned those tactics against Barcelona in the 2009 and 2011 finals. "I wanted a more positive outlook and we were beaten partly because of the change in emphasis. If we had retreated to our box and kept the defending tight, we might have achieved the results we craved."

The disparity is worth noting because, if there has been one common theme running through Manuel Pellegrini's pre-match quotes, it is that the modern-day, free-scoring City bend for nobody these days. They were, he said, the "biggest team" in Manchester now and the most important thing was to carry on playing as they have all season, keeping the ball, pressing the opposition and backing their own ability to beat anyone. Messi was mentioned almost as an afterthought. "He's the top player in the world," Pellegrini said. "He's very important but I don't think Barcelona is just Messi."

His team were "not going to think just about defending; what we do with the ball is the most important thing. It's very important when we get the ball Barcelona chase us. They can get tired chasing us."

Pellegrini, in other words, wants to beat Barcelona at their own game and, if nothing else, you have to admire his boldness. Yet it does leave a question about whether City might be playing into Barcelona's hands, if it also means Messi has the space to be at his most devastating. "It's a problem," Yaya Touré said. "For me he is the best. OK, Cristiano Ronaldo won the last Ballon d'Or but Ronaldo's unlucky to find himself in the Messi era, and this era is about Messi. If Messi hadn't had that injury, which kept him sidelined for a month, I think he would have won it again."

Another manager might ask Touré to help nullify that threat by curtailing those surging runs from his starting position as a defensive midfielder. José Mourinho sometimes used Pepe in this role at Real Madrid, specifically to patrol Messi's favourite part of the pitch. But Pellegrini shook his head. "Yaya plays the way I want him to play," he said matter-of-factly. "I want him to be free."

It is a calculated gamble. Dietmar Hamann made the point recently that Touré, for all his obvious qualities, was guilty sometimes of leaving too much space behind him. Touré, he said, could be a "liability".

"We have a lot of respect for our old players but sometimes they are wrong," Touré countered. "For me, they are not important people. The most important thing is what my manager tells me to do. I'm in the right place. Liability or no liability, I've been playing for a long time. I have been playing in this position for a couple of clubs and I have a lot of experience."

Touré, preparing to come up against his former club, also used the word "stupid" to describe Hamann's analysis, but the German does know a thing or two about that position. Bayern Munich and Chelsea have both exploited Touré's licence to roam this season and the tactic, as he puts it, of "going where the ball goes". The trick is getting the balance right, otherwise the fit-again Fernandinho could be badly exposed as the last line of cover. For all his talk about the importance of "continuing our style of play, our personality", Pellegrini still used James Milner to double-up with Pablo Zabaleta on Eden Hazard as City eliminated Chelsea from the FA Cup on Saturday. One idea under consideration is for Javi García to play alongside Fernandinho and Touré to move further forward.

Chelsea's tactic against Barcelona has often revolved around ceding the wide areas, concluding that there is not a great deal of danger to come from crosses, and congesting the centre of the pitch, funnelling Messi's runs by using a strategically narrow team shape. Even then they are quite happy to admit they also needed an extraordinary amount of good fortune, including Messi thudding a penalty against the crossbar, to survive the onslaught of that epic 2012 semi-final.

Ferguson, like Pellegrini, wanted to be adventurous but now thinks he should have thought more about trying to stifle Barcelona's tormentor-in-chief. "After the inquest I told myself: 'When we play Barcelona next time in a Champions League final, I would have [Phil] Jones and [Chris]Smalling, or Smalling and [Jonny] Evans, right on top of Messi.' I wasn't going to let him torture us again."

Yet Pellegrini made the point that Barcelona are a "different team now", meaning not quite as formidable, and that it was always going to be "very difficult for them to continue at the same level as three years ago". Barcelona are still holding off Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid at the top of La Liga, by virtue of a plus-52 goal difference. They also have a four-time Ballon d'Or winner who, at 26, has just set a record for the highest number of goals, 337, by one player at a Spanish club. "I have never seen Messi play badly," Pellegrini said. "He's either excellent or great. We hope to face the worse Messi – the great one."


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Finney had the talent but not the rewards | @guardianletters

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 01:00 PM PST

Your editorial compares the era of the admirable and magnificent Tom Finney with what you obviously regard as the evils of the modern game (In praise of…, 17 February). However, your sports writers, along with others in the media, seem to delight in reporting the idiotic soap opera of managerial mind games. Your review of Tom Finney's career (15 February) revealed his attempt to earn the rewards his talent deserved by moving to Italy. He was prevented from doing so because, like all his fellow working-class professionals at the time, he was the victim of the retain and transfer system which made him in effect "14 years a slave".

Do I detect in your editorial comment a hankering for a bygone age when working-class sportsmen knew their place? Interesting also to note that you continue to quote footballers' salaries as a weekly sum. I cannot think of any other sport where this applies. I don't suppose that Wayne Rooney queues up on a Friday afternoon to collect his money in a brown envelope as Tom Finney probably did, but I am pretty sure what Tom would have preferred.
David Cronin
Stockport

• You quite correctly refer to today's "charmless cacophony" in your praise of a saner age in football. Can I suggest that in tribute to that era you hold your own brief period of silence by not reporting some of the mega-ego statements that so often fill your own sports pages?
Lee Porter

Bridport, Dorset

• In addition to his comment about him being a great footballer, even if wearing an overcoat, Bill Shankly made another astute observation about his beloved Tom Finney. After a Sheffield United v Liverpool match in which Tony Currie played a blinder, Shankly was asked if he thought Currie was now as good as Finney. "Aye, maybe," he replied. "But dinnae forget, Tommy's nearly 60 now."
Peter Lock
Liverpool


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A-League tactics: How Newcastle beat Brisbane ... again

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 12:49 PM PST

Kate Cohen: The Jets continued to make the midfield area a battle zone as they got the better of the league leaders



The Brazilian women using football to escape the favelas

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 10:41 AM PST

For decades, women's football was banned in Brazil. Now ex-drug traffickers are tackling prejudice in the game by training future soccer stars from the favelas

The Astroturf on the football pitch in Rio de Janeiro's Penha favela complex is torn and covered with litter, while graffiti on the bullet-ridden, pockmarked walls vows "death to the police".

"Stray bullets are part of my life here," says Jessica, a 17-year-old football coach. "Sometimes you have to jump into a house to dodge them."

The conditions for the girls playing football in this favela in northern Rio could not be more different to those facing Brazil's national men's team ahead of this year's Fifa World Cup. Yet the coaching that goes on here is perhaps just as important for Brazil's future generations. Philip Veldhuis, the founder of Favela Street, a project that trains ex-drug traffickers to coach football youngsters at risk from the drugs trade, says: "The kids here have a choice. Join the drug traffickers or play football with us."

Penha is one of Rio's toughest areas; a police "pacifying unit" arrived in 2010 to reclaim control from the drug gangs, but violence is still endemic and has recently erupted again in Vila Cruzeiro – which is part of the Penha complex. A study by Rio de Janeiro State University found that incidents of rape and domestic violence against women had risen in pacified favelas between 2006 and 2011.

There is a high risk for some girls who grow up in impoverished favelas and see joining the drugs trade or becoming the girlfriend of a drug dealer as the only way to earn money or prestige in communities where educational provision is often erratic or interrupted by shootouts. According to one report last month, the number of women on Rio's most-wanted list, mainly for drug trafficking, is at a record high.

Jessica started living on the streets after receiving death threats from the drug traffickers she worked for. She returned to Penha only after the Ibiss foundation, the non-profit organisation that funds the Favela Street soccer schools among other projects, negotiated her return with the drugs lords.

Around 1,000 children have been coached by the ex-drug traffickers recruited by Favela Street in four favelas. Around 80 girls currently play football and Veldhuis, who began developing the programme as an intern with Ibiss in 2008, plans to increase girls' membership by extending it to more areas.

Despite the national passion for football and success of the men's team, the women's game has been slow to establish itself in Brazil; the fourth incarnation of a women's league was launched last September. Between 1941 and 1979, a law – originally imposed by the then-ruling military dictator – prohibited girls and women from playing football as it was considered "incompatible with the female form". Women's teams have lacked sponsorship, support and media attention – even despite the homegrown success of Marta, routinely named as the world's best women's footballer.

Even without much hope of professional support, Veldhuis says Favela Street is helping to change perceptions about the young women involved, as well as building up their self-esteem. "I didn't do anything before Favela Street," says 16-year-old Thiyane. "I just went to school and came home because it was too dangerous to be on the streets, but with the project I can go somewhere and do something." She hopes to be among players in the Favela Street team that will represent Brazil in the girls-only tournament of the Street Child World Cup (SCWC), a global campaign for children's rights, which hosts a football competition and conference in Rio for teenagers in March, before the Fifa event in June.

Just before Christmas, Arsenal and England footballer Alex Scott was invited, as part of her ambassadorial role with the SCWC, to visit the Brazilian girls' team in Rio. It is a long way from Penha to east London, where Scott grew up, but for girls in the favelas and those from Scott's council estate, similar experiences could still be shared. "I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't got into football," says Scott. Being picked up by Arsenal aged eight gave her a lifelong sense of direction and confidence.

Whether in London or in Rio, the Arsenal defender believes the sport can offer ways to cope with living in tough urban environments. "Football helps you because you have to learn how to channel your aggression. If you let it overwhelm you, you risk letting down the whole team. Developing that discipline helps you in the rest of your life."

Favela Street is using football to change life opportunities for Brazilian girls against difficult odds. Often, even the smallest logistical details can present a real challenge. "All the children who take part in the soccer schools are given instructions on where to go if the shooting starts," says Veldhuis. "But sometimes we have to cancel training if it's too dangerous."

"There are always barriers [to playing football]," says Jessica, who is determined to lead the Favela Street girls to victory at the SCWC tournament, "but barriers are there to be overcome."


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Football Weekly: Arsenal and Manchester City get FA Cup revenge

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 08:59 AM PST

On today's Jimbo-less edition of Football Weekly, charming host Dave Farrar has James Horncastle, Barry Glendenning and – tin hats at the ready – Fernando Duarte for company as they reflect on a weekend of FA Cup drama and look forward to some cracking games in the Champions League.

Arsenal and Manchester City avenged their recent league defeats to Liverpool and Chelsea, but do they have what it takes to grab an advantage in their home ties against Bayern Munich and Barcelona?

Next, we get ourselves acquainted with Felix Magath, the new and ever-so-slightly sadistic new manager of Fulham after the Cottagers decided to ditch poor old René Meulensteen.

Finally, our fiery Latin friend fills us in on the progress of the hosts ahead of this summer's World Cup in Brazil.

Rafa Honigstein and Iain Macintosh will be with us on Thursday, and hopefully you will be too.









'There is only one club in Manchester and it is ours', says Manchester City's Manuel Pellegrini – video

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 08:53 AM PST

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini claims his club is now bigger than Manchester United









As understated and dignified as you'd expect | The Fiver

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 08:02 AM PST

Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm, or if your usual copy has stopped arriving

SOME KINDA DRUID DUDES

José Mourinho called Classy Arsène a "specialist in failure" the other day and then the internet exploded – there were gifs and lists and five things we've learnt and memes and galleries and righteous indignation and Arsenal fans and righteously indignant Arsenal fans all over the place. It was quite the scene, as understated and dignified as you'd expect. But once the dust settled, it soon became apparent that Mourinho had miscalculated. This, it turned out, was the wrong time for him to start repeatedly jabbing Clarsène in the chest and ask him what he's going to do about it, huh, what you gonna do about it if you're so tough, you gonna cry, you gonna cry like a baby, aww look at the little baby cry, because 48 hours later Chelsea had specialised in failing against Manchester City and Arsenal had specialised in succeeding against Liverpool. Oh José! What a blunder! Hoist by your own petard and out-tacticked by Manuel Pellegrini! Looks like the mind-gamer has become the mind-gamee. How very ironic.

At this juncture, it would be remiss of The Fiver not to point out that the 2-1 win for Arsenal that took them into the last eight of the FA Cup could easily – easily! – have been a 10-2 win for Liverpool if Daniel Sturridge hadn't accidentally packed his clown shoes instead of his shooting boots and if Howard Webb had brought his glasses instead of splattering his face with a custard pie before kick-off, thus rendering England's top referee, it says here, unable to spot things like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain taking out Luis Suárez in the area. Well done, Howard, top work, another World Cup for you! But those quibbles aside, Arsenal succeeded, displaying impressive testicular fortitude, and with a scratch side to boot, Clarsène having rested players in preparation for Wednesday's Big Cup tie with Bayern Munich.

The win in the bag, then, now was the perfect time for Clarsène to throw Mourinho's insult back in his face. But he went in a different direction. "I am embarrassed for him," Clarsène professeured, stroking his chin thoughtfully and sighing disdainfully at the folly of youth. "Honestly. I didn't speak about him at all in my press conference and I have no more to say." Or did he? "Let's focus on things that are worth it, on football," he better-manned. "I am more disappointed for Chelsea than for me. I don't want to get into those silly disrespectful remarks." From here, it kind of looks like he does. But whatever, the narrative is set, not that Mourinho is having it. He wasn't going quietly. Not his style. He'd rather poke you in the eye than go quietly and made sure to point out that Clarsène was the one who started their latest feud. "I don't accept that one is always Monsieur Polite and the other one is always the bad guy," he said. "I don't accept, I'm sorry." Honestly, these two, it's like something out of Made in Chelsea. It won't be long before they're telling each other to, like, totally talk to the hand, okay?

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE TONIGHT

From 7.15pm GMT … join Lawrence Ostlere for MBM coverage of Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 Hull City.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Maybe in the shower in the morning you sing the Yaya-Yaya Kolo-Kolo song?" – An Austrian journalist at Manchester City's press conference ahead of their Big Cup tie against Barcelona takes the opportunity to ask Yaya Touré the hard questions.

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BITS AND BOBS

Having been reasonably dignified since his arrival in England, the effects of the Premier League have finally rubbed off on Manchester City's Manuel Pellegrini and provoked him to point out that his club is now bigger than Manchester United. Meanwhile Fernandinho has returned to training after muscle knack.

Villarreal president Fernando Roig has got the hot funk on after a smoke canister was thrown onto the pitch causing his side's match against Celta Vigo to be delayed for 20 minutes. "We believe it was someone not associated with the club who committed an unspeakable act of vandalism, an outrage," sniffed Roig.

If Chris Hughton was in need of a confidence-boost to see him through the rest of Norwich's season, he'd best not look at what his chief executive David McNally has been saying. "It would be almost delinquent of the football club to not be aware of potential candidates if for any reason your manager left," growled Norwich's head suit ominously.

STILL WANT MORE?

DOWNLOAD FOOTBALL WEEKLY NOW! DOWNLOAD FOOTBALL WEEKLY NOW! DOWNLOAD FOOTBALL WEEKLY NOW! DOWNLOAD FOOTBALL WEEKLY NOW! DOWNLOAD FOOTBALL WEEKLY NOW! Or at least do it when it's up.

FA Cup. Talking Points. Click.

Sid Lowe on the Villarreal tear gas attack.

Raphael Honigstein on how Pep Guardiola has improved Bayern Munich.

Paolo Bandini on how Inter's Mauro Icardi is starting to make the right headlines at last.

And busy old Sid Lowe again, who has been asking Barcelona's Pedro some questions.

A 70-yard tackle and a keeper's overhead kick: the best goals of the week.

Oh, and if it's your thing, you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace.

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CONGRATULATIONS JONNY WEEKS


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The best goals of the week: Messi, Balotelli, Neymar and Forlán

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 07:19 AM PST

Featuring a tackle from 70 yards, magic in Barcelona, Diego Forlán's debut goal in Japan and a goalkeeper's overhead kick









Pellegrini: City are now a bigger club than Manchester United

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 06:55 AM PST

• Manager ready for Barcelona in Champions League
• 'But you cannot forget what United have done in the past'

Manuel Pellegrini has claimed that Manchester City are now bigger than Manchester United, with the manager believing that knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League would be a defining moment in the club's evolution.

Pellegrini said: "If we only consider this season, there is just one club in Manchester and it's ours but you cannot forget what United has done in the previous years.

"We are aiming to keep growing by winning trophies – not just national but international trophies. We are fighting for four titles this year. We have to be patient because you cannot change the team from one day to another. We have to keep the philosophy of the style and for that you need time."

Speaking Spanish, Pellegrini's answer regarding City and United was actually given by the Uefa translator as: "The biggest team is City now but we cannot forget the last few years." Yet the Chilean, who speaks good English and was sat next to the translator, did not object to her interpretation.

The meeting against the side led by the four-times player of the year, Lionel Messi, indicates the rise of the club owned by the billionaire Sheikh Mansour since September 2009.

Pellegrini was asked how important defeating Barcelona would be in City's drive to establish themselves among the elite. "It is a good test," he said. "It is important. I don't think it is the most important thing because we are just in the round of 16. We can beat Barcelona and maybe in the next round you can have defeat. This club is trying to develop those areas.

"So far we have a good season and we must finish that way. One or our targets is to continue in the Champions League knowing we play against [and beat] the most important club in the world."

He confirmed that Fernandinho is in the squad, though Sergio Agüero is unavailable owing to injury.


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BT wins court battle forcing review of Sky wholesale pricing decision

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 06:36 AM PST

Court says tribunal should re-examine whether BSkyB should be forced to offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 to rivals at a discount

BT has won a court battle to force the competition tribunal to re-examine its decision to stop BSkyB being forced to offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 to rivals at a discount.

In summer 2012 the Competition Appeal Tribunal handed down a scathing judgment concluding that the basis of media regulator Ofcom's decision to force BSkyB to cut the amount it charges rivals to air Sky Sports was "unfounded".

BT challenged this decision and on Monday the court of appeal handed down a judgment forcing the CAT to reopen the issue.

Lord Justice Aikens said that the CAT failed to properly investigate the issue the level of discounts that BSkyB claimed it gave rivals on the ratecard price for its sports channels.

"There remain significant, independent, competition concerns based on the rate-card price and penetration discount, as found by Ofcom," said Aikens. "The reasons that the CAT gave for not considering that matter further were inadequate. I would propose that the matter be remitted to the CAT for further consideration in order that further findings and conclusions may be made in the light of this judgment."

Ofcom proposed to introduce a new pricing structure in March 2010, which would have made Sky Sports 1 and 2 up to 23% cheaper than the previous wholesale price, after determining that BSkyB was abusing its power in the market.

"We are glad that this issue will now be considered afresh and are hopeful that the outcome will finally deliver increased competition in pay-TV which would be in the best interests of consumers," said a spokeswoman for BT. "Ofcom was correct to impose the wholesale must offer ('WMO') on Sky and this remains essential to address the significant competition concerns with Sky's supply of its channels."

BT said that it is still unable to offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 on YouView, the TV service it is banking on building it into a major pay-TV player.

"Sky's refusal to offer access to these channels on reasonable terms causes serious harm to consumers and must be resolved urgently," said BT.

A spokesman for Ofcom, which had its reputation battered by the CAT's original decision, said that it welcomed the decision.

"Ofcom welcomes the court of appeal's decision that the judgment of the Competition Appeal Tribunal failed properly to consider Ofcom's findings that there was ineffective competition in the market," a spokesman said. "Ensuring fair and effective competition in the pay-TV market has always been Ofcom's objective. Ofcom's 2010 decision that Sky must offer premium sports channels to other providers was designed to deliver choice and innovation to consumers through greater competition."

Sky said in a statement: "This does not alter in any way the CAT's fundamental findings, overturning Ofcom, that Sky engaged constructively with other distributors over the supply of its premium sports channels, and that Virgin Media is able to compete effectively with Sky on the basis of Sky's rate card prices.

"Sky continues to believe that Ofcom's 2010 decision is flawed and that the WMO obligation ought properly to be removed, and will continue to pursue all available options to achieve this aim."

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Norwich keeping options open to replace Hughton

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 06:07 AM PST

• Chief executive David McNally hints at managerial change
• 'You have to be aware of who is out there to help'

Chief executive David McNally has suggested Norwich could move swiftly to replace Chris Hughton if their Premier League status is threatened.

In a congested bottom half of the table, the Canaries are two places and one point above Sunderland, who occupy the final place in the relegation zone but have a game in hand.

The Canaries are the only side in the bottom six not to have changed manager this season.

"It would be almost delinquent of the football club to not be aware of potential candidates if for any reason your manager left," McNally told the Eastern Daily Press.

"If results are not good enough you have to be aware of who is out there to help. You look at the market and who might be right for Norwich City.

"If we needed to make a change – and the average tenure of a Premier League manager is about a year and a half, which puts Chris in the top six or top eight longest serving right now – then if a change was necessary it wouldn't be a case of, who are the contenders? It would be a case of reviewing what is required, where are we going and who is best placed to take the club forward."

The bottom 11 teams are separated by eight points with 12 games to go and the Canaries are three points behind 10th-placed Swansea and West Ham, in 11th, whose recent revival has taken them clear of the drop zone.

"If we believe Chris is the right man to take the club forward then we stick with that," McNally added. "It is fine margins in our sport and what you have to be sure of is a guaranteed improvement."


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Why the Villarreal tear gas incident really is a crying matter for La Liga | Sid Lowe

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 06:06 AM PST

The extraordinary scenes that interrupted Saturday's game against Celta Vigo were all the more surprising given that Villarreal are one of Spain's most peaceful clubs

When the smoke bomb flew from somewhere in the south stand and landed in the penalty area, Villarreal's striker Jonathan Pereira followed the standard procedure: he walked over to the canister and kicked it, sending it rolling towards the edge of the pitch, then turned to get on with the game. Nothing to see here and no time to waste. It was 11.42pm on Saturday night and there were just three minutes left.

Somehow Villarreal were losing 1-0 at home to Celta Vigo, slipping four points behind Athletic Bilbao in the chase for the final Champions League place, and Athletic were still to play the following night. The Yellow Submarine needed something and quick. But the plumes that rose around Pereira reached higher and wider than normal and then it started: the coughing and the choking and the crying. The smoke engulfed the stadium, thick and impenetrable, and not far away Celta goalkeeper Yoel suddenly felt like he was suffocating. Tears welled up in his eyes and his throat tightened. "It was like I was drowning. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't see properly," he admitted.

The Villarreal midfielder Tomas Pina was standing 20 metres away: "I started to cough and my eyes were burning." Something was wrong; this wasn't the typical bengala or smoke bomb, common in Spanish stadiums. This was tear gas. "Military issue," police said. Celta's team doctor called the players over to the touchline, shirts were pulled over mouths and noses and cold water was poured onto reddening eyes. Then the players disappeared down the tunnel, seeking safety away from the smoke.

"The stinging sensation was powerful," said Villarreal's captain, Bruno, "and we were worried because we also knew that we had friends and family in the stands." Somewhere up there, a father picked up his 10-year-old son, an asthma sufferer, and made for the exit as quickly as he could. An announcement over the loud speakers recommended that others do the same. Mostly it was calm and rational and actually quite impressive: 15,000 people were eventually evacuated in just eight minutes.

There was also something surreal about it at first, as if this just wasn't that much of a big deal. It couldn't be, could it? And yet the sensation of insecurity grew. The niece of the recently retired Javier Farinós dislocated an arm heading for the exit on the night when her uncle's ex-team-mates had run onto the pitch wearing t-shirts that said: "Gracias Fari".

"There were moments of anguish," Bruno said. Cameras showed club directors heading out, breathing through hankies. The ballboys collected up the balls and ran for the players' tunnel. In the stadium and at home, people wondered what was going on. The TV channel showing the game, whose powerless commentators were in a studio 430 kilometres away, did what it does and went to ads. Some reported that the game would be postponed, including Celta's Twitter account.

In the end, that wasn't necessary. Fifteen minutes passed. The sprinklers were turned on and players gulped down water and rinsed their eyes. The tear gas had hit at 11.42pm. At 11.56 the players were back out again, warming up. The fans weren't there. At midnight, the loud speakers announced that the game would restart in five minutes and fans could return. Most had gone. At 12.05am the game restarted in front of largely empty stands and at 12.08 Celta de Vigo scored the second.

Asked what the "experience" had been like afterwards, Villarreal's manager, Marcelino, stared ahead, his jaw clenched and his brow lowered. "Shit," he said. He continued: "There are human beings that do things that are impossible to understand. I think the best thing we can do is not even talk about it. The game is more important than some lunatic who's seeking attention."

He was right, of course, and there was much to talk about from the game. This was Celta's third win in four, with the other a 0-0 draw against Athletic Bilbao, and they are now just three points from a European place. For much of the season they've got less than they deserved; now they've started getting what they deserved. In fact, here they got even more than they deserved.

For Villarreal, it was a third defeat in four, their second in a row, after a run of three consecutive wins in which they scored five against Rayo, five against Real Sociedad and beat Almería 2-0. No one could understand how it happened. Bruno was superb again, Villarreal had 10 shots, Jérémy_Perbet missed two great chances, Marcelino rightly talked about "a crushing dominance" and Luis Enrique admitted that Celta had been fortunate.

But if Marcelino was right about that, if he was right when it came to not wanting to talk about some attention seeking lunatic, he was also wrong. It was inevitable that it was the tear gas that attracted the most attention. All the more so in a week in which the headlines had been dominated by the lighter thrown at Cristiano Ronaldo's head by an Atlético Madrid fan. "Where will we end up?" asked Marca's cover on Sunday morning.

"This is more dangerous [than the lighter thrown at Ronaldo] and it is controllable," said Javier Tebas, the president of the league. "Measures have to be taken, to make sure this doesn't happen again. The problem is that Villarreal's security failed." Villarreal insist that they cannot frisk every single fan coming into the stadium, while Luis Enrique was swift to differentiate between one isolated incident and a entire fan base, but the consequences could be significant.

Depending on whether the disciplinary committee judges what happened to have been "grave", El Madrigal could be closed for anything from one game to two months. Villarreal remain hopeful that it will not be closed at all. After the game, their president, Fernando Roig, gave a press conference to condemn what had happened. Villarreal is a club with virtually no history of trouble, that has no ultras, and Roig was at a loss to explain events.

"I can't make head nor tail of it. The ball wasn't there, there was no one moaning at the referee, or anyone else, no tension," he said. "Some gutless hooligan from outside the club has tried to damage Villarreal." But who? Villarreal are not only a club without ultras, they're a club that's almost universally popular, and one that doesn't even really have significant rivals.

Roig also publicly rejected suggestions that it could have been someone who has it in for him personally. Privately, though, that hypothesis is not being ruled out. One thing is for sure: this was a premeditated attack. You don't just accidentally turn up at a football stadium with a tear gas canister in your pocket, get wound up a bit and chuck it on the pitch.

The canister is basically the same set up as a grenade, with a pin, a release handle and a detonator, of the type used by the military and riot police, although Spain's national police force say it is not like the ones they use. It cannot be bought legally.

Initially, there were suggestions that it had been fired from a gun by a man wearing a balaclava who had sneaked into the stadium in the final 10 minutes when the turnstiles are opened for supporters departing the ground and then made a run for it. Now, police believe that he had been in the stadium for the whole game and footage shows that he was not disguised.

The images are not clear enough to identify him yet but he was around 30 years old and 1.70m tall. Standing in one of the gangways, after throwing the canister by hand, he put on the coat he had hung over his arm and walked slowly out of the stadium, literally disappearing in a puff of smoke. He didn't wait to see the trouble he'd caused.

Talking points

* Sevilla versus Valencia should have been a great game. Instead, it was a strange, sometimes surreal shambles of a match in which everyone shot but no one could shoot on target, in which there was loads of space but no one to take advantage of it and in which Sevilla seemed to be playing with a sweeper 27 miles behind everyone else and employing a revolutionary no right-back formation, while Denis Cheryshev came on in the 59th minute, got booked in the 69th and was sent off in the 92nd, for getting fouled in the area.

It also had a dreadful referee, you see. Álvarez Izquierdo gave a penalty that was less of a penalty than the four or five he didn't give. Still Sevilla didn't score. Ivan Rakitic, easily their best player this season, missed his third penalty of the campaign, the first Sevilla player in 23 years to do so. Or more to the point, Diego Alves saved it, just as he has saved penalties from Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fredi Kanouté, and Fernando Llorente. On average 75% of penalties are scored but, according to football statistician Mr Chip, Alves has faced 28 and let in just 14. He has saved 12 of them, a whopping 43%.

* "The history books will show that Espanyol were the first [away] team to win at [the new] San Mamés", beamed Javier Aguirre after his side's 2-1 win in Bilbao took them level with the European places. Aguirre's nickname? El Vasco. The Basque.

* After two minutes, Barcelona scored. After three minutes, Atlético Madrid scored. After four minutes, Atlético scored again. And after five minutes Real Madrid scored. They're still level at the top of the table on 60 points each. Valladolid, Rayo, and Getafe, their opponents, continue to be in trouble. Messi and Neymar scored lovely goals for Barcelona, Diego Costa lobbed one in for Atlético, making it 21 for the season, and Jesé curled home a beauty for Madrid. "A goal that only six or seven players in the league could score," the former Atlético Madrid striker Kiko said.

* The most entertaining match of the weekend was probably Ramos versus the ref. Sergio Ramos is on four yellow cards and he decided that he quite fancied being on five yellow cards. That way he would get a game suspension, sit out against Elche and come back against Atlético with the slate wiped clean. So he went looking for the fifth in the final 15 minutes against Getafe. There was just one problem with the plan: the referee Pérez Montero was wise to it. Ramos committed five fouls in the game and those were the ones that were given; there were as many again that weren't. However hard Ramos tried -- and he tried pretty hard, handballing and kicking and pushing and protesting and flying in - Pérez Montero stubbornly, and comically, refused to pull out the card. When the whistle went, the best man had won and covering his mouth to avoid the lip-readers, close to breaking into a giggle, Ramos could only offer his hand and his congratulations. Well played.

Results: Elche 0-0 Osasuna, Atlético Madrid 3-0 Real Valladolid, Levante 1-0 Almería, Barcelona 6-0 Rayo Vallecano, Villarreal 0-2 Celta Vigo, Granada 1-0 Real Betis, Getafe 0-3 Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Espanyol, Sevilla 0-0 Valencia. Monday: Málaga-Real Sociedad.

Latest La Liga table here


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Bayern Munich: five things Pep Guardiola, has done to improve them | Raphael Honigstein

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 06:01 AM PST

As they prepare to face Arsenal, here's how the manager, Pep Guardiola, has made the European champions even stronger

1 He keeps his opponents guessing

Under Louis van Gaal, the godfather of Bayern's possession game and Jupp Heynckes, his more pragmatic and tactically refined successor, it was easy to predict Bayern's lineups. They always formed-up in a 4-2-3-1, changes were always injury-enforced, and both coaches would simply try to find replacements that would most closely resemble the properties of the missing regulars. Under Guardiola, that kind of certainty has largely gone out of the window. Only the back-four are settled. Philipp Lahm's transformation into a holding midfielder seems to have become permanent but it's still possible that the captain will find himself back in the right-back role later this season. Javier Martínez, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thiago Alcântara and Toni Kroos are all vying for places in midfield and have been used in different roles. Further upfield, the injured Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben have remained untouchable, but the two central attacking slots are being changed every game, in accordance with the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.

2. Continuous innovation through micro-management

Guardiola's football philosophy is based on dominating possession, creating a constant numerical advantage in midfield and aggressive pressing. The 43-year-old has not been afraid to deviate from his principles when necessary. In the 3-0 win at Borussia Dortmund in November he ordered his centre-backs to play long balls out of defence to escape Borussia's high-pressing. Martínez, the team's ball-winner, was stationed high up behind the striker Mario Mandzukic to win the headers and to put pressure on the opposition's midfield. This destructive ploy worked well and both Dortmund's and Bayern's passing rhythm was thoroughly disrupted. Guardiola reverted to a "false nine" system midway through the second half, to exploit the spaces that were beginning to open up.

Smaller and more subtle tweaks are constantly being employed before and during matches. Xavier Sala-i-Martín, a professor of economics and a former Barcelona treasurer, has compared Guardiola's "continuous innovation" to the highly-flexible production process of Spanish retailer Zara. Zara's collections are more expensive to produce than those of rival chains but change much more frequently, in line with trends or micro-trends. Both Zara's and Bayern's output is still defined by a grand framework but within that, flexibility is just as important: employing the appropriate micro-tactics for any given situation takes precedent over dogma.

3 Shows no fear when mixing-up play

Last season, Heynckes had one move that he would repeat again and again. As soon as Bayern were in front in a big match, Luiz Gustavo would come on as a second holding midfielder in place of the central midfielder, with Schweinsteiger moving up into the vacated No10 position. There was no need to come up with any different ideas because this one worked beautifully, all the way to the Champions League win at Wembley.

Guardiola, like Van Gaal before him, is much more radical and pro-active on the touchline. He frequently changes players, positions and formations in the middle of a match if he feels that the opposition has found a way to deal with the initial plan. Lahm ended up playing four different positions in the 4-1 win against Mainz. Guardiola's interventionism often impacts negatively on the flow of Bayern's football – too many changes can make them disjointed – but they tend to get the job done.

4 Has reshaped the attack to offer three options

Providing Guardiola with a midfielder who could play as a withdrawn striker through the middle cost Bayern €37m (£30.3m) and a lot of goodwill from neutrals, who felt the move was both vindictive towards Dortmund as well as a bit of overkill. With time, it has become apparent why the Catalan wanted Mario Götze (or a Götze-type player): playing the 21-year-old instead of an orthodox striker has made it much easier for the treble winners to break down negative opponents who defend in a "medium-to-low block" (as André Villas-Boas would have it) near their own penalty box. Götze can dribble past players or go wide to overload areas occupied by the wingers, and he helps Bayern control the tempo and the ball by falling deep, as well.

In addition, Guardiola has fielded Thomas Müller, initially a striker who was converted into a free-roaming or wide midfielder, in the Götze role, most successfully in the 3-1 win at Manchester City. Müller, hard to define at the best of times, has interpreted the role slightly more like a forward, in terms of positioning; as a slightly less false nine, if you will. The Peru veteran Claudio Pizarro would also fit that bill, owing to this propensity to go deep and join up with the buildup play. As a result, there are three different ways in which the sharp end of Bayern's attack can take shape.

5 Makes the most out of weaknesses

Bayern are a little lop-sided in the wide defensive positions. David Alaba, who plays in midfield for Austria, is fast, technically proficient and phenomenal. Rafinha, his Brazilian counterpart, on the other hand, is solid rather than spectacular and often looks like the team's weak link. Guardiola came up with an idea that would play to their respective strengths and their weaknesses: he ordered them up the pitch but infield, closer to the centre-circle than to the touchline. In possession, Bayern had even more options in the centre of the pitch. Opposition wingers were unsure whether to move inside too or to protect the space in front of their full-backs. More possession – and specifically more central possession – has brought out the best in Alaba but also reduced the risk of Rafinha being isolated on the right. In recent games, the full-backs were playing in a more orthodox fashion again but it proved a very useful ploy in the first half of the season.


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