⚽ News and previews heading into the weekend’s action ⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for | Mail Tom
Manchester City’s hopes of avoiding the ‘punishment round’ of the Women’s Champions League took a blow last night. Tara Elimbi Gilbert’s late effort handed City their third consecutive draw of the league phase and the English champions now probably need to wins on each of the last three matchdays to avoid the knockout phase play-offs in February.
“Annoying is not the right word but it’s a little bit a feeling of ‘argh’,” said City manager Andrée Jeglertz, post-match “We deserved more, I think, but that’s how it is in the Champions League. When you dominate games and you don’t score, the opponent will take their chances and that’s what they did.”
Read Tom Garry’s full report from the Joie Stadium:
After a week of Carabao Cup action, we are counting down to the weekend football action.
Last night saw the last of this round of matches as Everton beat a poor Newcastle side to move into the quarter-finals, crucially without Jack Grealish. The England international was dropped for what the club described as a ‘breach of club discipline’, with David Moyes later saying he supported the decision without offering further details. Interestingly, Everton travel to Newcastle for Monday night football, whether Grealish will travel for that one will surely gather a lot of attention.
Away from the drama on Merseyside, is the drama at Old Trafford. Last Friday we were treated to Michael Carrick’s six-minute monologue after which his Manchester United side crumbled at home to Bournemouth. Remarkably Carrick is still in situ and this weekend United are on the road for a nostalgia-tinged trip to Chelsea, a fixture that was once key to the top four battle, and kind of still is but now it’s just a bit sadder.
We are due a slate of pre-match Premier League press conferences, which we’ll be keeping you across, plus looking back at last night’s Women’s Champions League action and more. Your football weekend starts here, (I like to imagine that bit with quite a Sky Sports News heading to the ad break style delivery).
