Sports
Klopp To Support Man Utd, Warns Against Arsenal
Jurgen Klopp has warned Manchester United they will get beaten by Arsenal next month if they play like they did against his Liverpool side.
Klopp urged Liverpool to stay calm after losing the Premier League leadership this weekend, drawing 2-2 at Old Trafford on Sunday.
United could yet help Klopp’s side, as they host Arsenal, the new leaders, on the season’s penultimate weekend.
However, Klopp fears United need to up their game if they are to halt Mikel Arteta’s side.
“Probably,” said the Liverpool boss, when asked if he would be cheering for United on 11 May. “If we are still around then that would be great.
“But Arsenal are a good football team. If they [United] play like today, Arsenal will win the game, I am 100 percent sure. I am sorry to say that.”
Sunday’s match was Liverpool second visit to Old Trafford in three weeks, and they had a total of 53 shots over those two matches, yet won neither.
They were beaten 4-3 in an FA Cup quarter-final on March 17, and have now dropped what could be two crucial Premier League points in their battle with Arsenal and Manchester City.
“It is a fact we should have won both games but didn’t,” Klopp said.
Nevertheless, he added that Liverpool supporters should not lose faith in their club’s ability to mark the German’s final season at Anfield by winning a record-equalling 20th title.
“To the whole Liverpool community, just stay calm,” he said.
Liverpool’s goal difference is nine inferior to Arsenal, while they are a point ahead of Manchester City.
Whilst some of their remaining fixtures offer the opportunity to improve on that front, Klopp feels it would be a mistake to focus on that.
He said: “People will tell us we need to better our goal difference and to go for that but that would be the dumbest thing we could do.”
“That doesn’t happen on purpose, you don’t go into a game wanting to score eight goals and it happens.
“I knew it would be super tricky until the end. Until yesterday we were top, now it’s Arsenal and, I don’t know when, then it may be somebody else.
“I’m not over the moon about it. It’s not the best result I have ever seen but I am fine with it. You shouldn’t do what we do today constantly, that won’t be enough. Definitely not. But we know that.
“We want to be there after the last matchday. It’s obviously better to be there the whole time and have distance between you and the others. But we will keep going with all that we have.”
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor