Conte urges Spurs to be brave against Liverpool European qualification brings some drama to German League Marseille look to Payet as race for second place heats up
LONDON: Antonio Conte has urged Totenham to be “brave” when they face quadruple-chasing Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday in a match that could prove pivotal for both teams.
Spurs are two points behind fourth-placed Arsenal but Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool similarly need the win if they are to catch Manchester City, who are one point clear at the top of the table.
The Reds have only dropped two points in the Premier League since January 2 -- a draw against Pep Guardiola’s City -- and this week booked their place in the Champions League final against Real Madrid.
Klopp’s men already have the League Cup in the trophy cabinet and face Chelsea in the FA Cup final later this month as they hunt an unprecedented clean sweep of silverware.
“When you arrive at this point of the season and you are in a race for every target, it gives you a big, big push to do something incredible,” Spurs boss Conte said on Thursday.
“I think Jurgen Klopp is doing a fantastic job with his team. It is not easy, especially for an English team to arrive at the end of the season to stay in the race for all the competitions that you compete (in).
“It is incredible. You can see Liverpool’s players run a lot, they have not had many injuries. Their enthusiasm is not 100 percent, it is 200 percent. You don’t feel the fatigue when you reach this point.”
The Italian, desperate to secure Champions League football next season, said he wanted his side to play their own game at Anfield ater drawing 2-2 against Liverpool at home earlier in the season.
Spurs have also beaten Premier League leaders City home and away during the current campaign.
“I said this to my players, we need to play a good game and be brave when we have the ball, don’t be scared for all the pressure and to find the solution,” said Conte.
“We have improved a lot. We are in this race for a place in the Champions League and for this reason we need to get points in every game. Every game is a big chance for us to improve the table. In this game we have to try and beat Liverpool.”
Conte also said at his pre-match press conference that loan star Dejan Kulusevski was “100 percent” a Totenham player.
BERLIN: With litle excitement at the top of the Bundesliga, it’s the clubs just below Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund that are providing the entertainment at the end of the season.
Bayer Leverkusen, Freiburg, Leipzig, Cologne and Union Berlin are all scrapping for European places with two matches to go, with two of those teams joining Bayern and Dortmund in the Champions League, while another two will qualify for the Europa League.
Third-place Leverkusen next visits Hoffenheim before ending the season with a potentially decisive game against Freiburg, which currently holds the last Champions League qualification place one point ahead of Leipzig.
Freiburg, which also plays Leipzig in the German Cup final on May 21, hosts Union on Saturday, a game the team will feel it has to win to maintain the all-important fourth spot. Seventh-place Union will be looking for a victory ater drawing with relegated Greuther Fürth last weekend.
Unionendstheseasonathomeagainstbochum, which clinched survival last weekend.
Leipzig, which has lost its last two games ater a 15-match unbeaten run in all competitions, next plays Augsburg at home before its final game at Arminia Bielefeld, which could be relegated by then.
Sixth-place Cologne is also eyeing Europe’s premier competition. The team would secure Europa Conference League qualification if it beats Wolfsburg on Saturday and Union fails to beat Freiburg at the same time.
But Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart said he wouldn’t celebrate yet.
“I’m not counting (points) at all,” Baumgart said.
“I’m counting on the fact that we want to win the next game. And that’s difficult enough. And then we’ll look at the next week. We know where we are. We know how many points we have and we still want to see whether we can go on another step or the other.” Cologne will play relegationthreatened Stutgart in the final round for what is likely to be another high-stakes clash.
Stutgart, Bielefeld and Hertha Berlin are providing the excitement at the other end of the standings. Bielefeld is in second-to-last place - and the most likely to join Fürth in the second division - ahead of its games at Bochum on Friday and Leipzig next weekend.
Stutgart is only two points ahead of Bielefeld ater failing to win any of its last five games, and it looks set for a relegation-promotion playoff against the third-place finisher in the second division to see which club plays in the Bundesliga next season.
PARIS: Marseille is under pressure to hold onto second place in the French League and will need Dimitri Payet in his best form to secure automatic entry into next season’s Champions League.
The 35-year-old Payet is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career, and is on course to beat his career record for most goals in a season.
As the race heats up for second spot behind Paris Saint-germain, Marseille is only three points ahead of third-place Rennes and in-form Monaco. Those two clubs are separated only by goal difference, with Monaco hauling itself into Champions League contention on the back of a seven-game winning run.
Monaco has not looked back since dominating PSG 3-0 at home in March, and the mid-season hiring of coach Philippe Clement to replace Niko Kovac is paying off.
Monaco has scored 17 goals in its winning streak, which included a victory at Rennes, and striker Wissam Ben Yedder is tied for second with Rennes forward Martin Terrier in the scoring charts with 21 goals. They are three behind PSG’S Kylian Mbappe.
Monaco will play Friday at Lille, the French league champions last season. Marseille is at Lorient on Sunday. Rennes is at Nantes, but that game won’t be played until next Wednesday because Nantes faces Nice in the French Cup final on Saturday.
That gives Monaco and Marseille the chance to apply pressure on Rennes with victories. Although the Marseille’s squad will have to recover quickly to reset ater playing Feyenoord on Thursday in the second leg of their Europa Conference League semifinal.
For Marseille, much depends on the form of Payet. Despite his advancing years, he has scored 12 goals - his best in a season for Marseille - and had nine assists. With his ability to play as a false nine, or ghost into position as a deep-lying playmaker, Payet is a crucial component in coach Jorge Sampaoli’s 4-3-3 system.
In addition to his goals, Payet’s exceptional ability to hold the ball back to goal, the fact he almost never gives away possession, allied to his excellent accuracy on free kicks and corners, make him a constant menace for defenders.
“I play in a system that’s well defined around me. A lot of balls come my way. So for a No. 10 there’s nothing beter than to organize things and be at the heart of the game,” Payet said.