Man.City ‘not good enough’ for frustrated Haaland

Erling Haaland said Manchester City must show more energy to end their miserable run on the road in the Champions League after twice blowing the lead in a 2-2 draw at Monaco.

Haaland scored both the visitors’ goals at the Stade Louis II to take his tally for the season to 17 in just 10 appearances for club and country.

Monaco rallied to level through a wonder strike by Jordan Teze and Eric Dier’s late penalty secured a point for the Ligue 1 side.

“I’m pissed off, I think everyone should be,” Haaland told the BBC. “It’s not good enough.”

City have failed to win away from home in Europe for a year, although a point did at least snap a run of four consecutive Champions League defeats on the road.

Pep Guardiola’s men were dumped out before the last-16 stage last season for the first time since the 2012/13 campaign.

City scraped into the play-off round despite winning just three of their eight league phase games before a 6-3 humbling by Real Madrid over two legs.

Haaland was frustrated by his side’s approach as they tried to protect their slender lead in the second half in Monaco rather than seeking to kill the game off.

“Of course I don’t feel good, we didn’t win,” he added.

“We do something unnecessarily in the second half and we don’t think we played good enough. We don’t deserve to win.

“We need more energy. We need to get at them more as we did in the first half and dominated much more.”

City sit eighth in the Champions League table with four points from their opening two games.

Guardiola’s men face a tough run in Europe before the end of 2025 with trips to Villarreal and Real Madrid, while German teams Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund visit the Etihad.

Barca must defend better to reach PSG level, says Flick

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick insisted his team must learn how to defend better after conceding a last-gasp winner against Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) on Wednesday.

The French side struck in the 90th minute through Goncalo Ramos to claim a 2-1 victory at the Olympic stadium in the league stage clash.

Barcelona’s high defensive line was unpicked with Achraf Hakimi racing in and crossing for Ramos to finish, and Flick admitted PSG were operating on a higher level.

The Catalans were knocked out in the semi-finals of last season’s Champions League by Inter Milan as their defensive deficiencies were exposed, conceding seven goals across the two legs.

“With (the score at) 1-1 you have to defend better, have a better structure in the defence,” Flick told reporters.

“We will learn this and we have to make it better next time against this quality of team.”

The German coach said PSG deserved to win the game and that his team were below their best and could not match the European champions on the night.

“There is no point in saying we are on the same level (but) I believe in my team -- today wasn’t our best day,” continued Flick.

“We train to get better and better and this game today (will) help us a lot, also for the future. The whole team has to defend, the whole team has to attack...

“The philosophy that they (PSG) have, is fantastic. They have young players, they had high quality and speed on the ball, very, very good.”

Flick said when his team were playing at their best they could match Luis Enrique’s side.

“We could see today how the level of PSG is, I’m 100 percent sure we can play like this,” added the coach.

Clean sheets and bench strength boosting Arsenal, Arteta says

Arsenal’s beefed-up bench strength and habit of keeping clean sheets are putting the club in position for another good run in the Champions League, coach Mikel Arteta said on Wednesday after his team battled past Greek side Olympiacos.

Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli pounced to convert a rebound in the 12th minute to reward the north London club’s early domination, but they missed a host of chances before a stoppage-time effort by substitute Bukayo Saka sealed the 2-0 win.

“We had another 2-3 big chances and if you don’t put them away in this competition you have to be careful,” Arteta told reporters.

Olympiacos boasted an enviable record against Arsenal, winning on their last three visits to the Emirates Stadium, and the Greek side recovered from their early setback to make it an uncomfortable night at times for the hosts.

Arteta said his side would have scored more had it not been for some outstanding saves from Olympiacos keeper Kostas Tzolakis, but also pointed to his side’s 11 clean sheets in their last 14 Champions League matches.

Having spent over 250 million pounds ($337 million) on new players in the close-season, Arteta also has much greater depth to his squad than at any time since he took charge in 2019.

On Wednesday, he brought on five substitutes and made six changes from the side that came from behind to snatch a late 2-1 Premier League win against Newcastle United on Sunday.

“We had the feeling as well that physically we were dropping because we played a really intense match in Newcastle a few days ago,” Arteta said. “The ones that came in again, they lifted the level, they helped us to win the game.”

One of the players that came off on Wednesday was key defender Gabriel, but Arteta said it was a precautionary move and that the Brazilian should be fine for Saturday’s Premier League game against West Ham United.

He also praised new striker Viktor Gyokeres’ work rate despite the Swede not scoring in his last few matches.

“We want him to be scoring goals, but if he doesn’t do that, at least to do everything else he is doing for the team, because he’s helping the team a lot,” Arteta said.

Apart from the three points, the biggest plus for Arsenal was the sight of captain Martin Odegaard back pulling the strings after a season so far disrupted by niggling injuries.

“I think he played a really, really good game,” Arteta said. “Every level defensively and attacking, and he looked really focussed.”

Agencies