West Ham ease pressure on Bilic
Obiang, Ayew sink Huddersfield
“I would have liked Morata to stay, but you have to understand that he wanted to leave to play more and we respect that.”
Zidane will also be able to recall Keylor Navas, Raphael Varane, Casemiro, Luka Modric, Isco and Gareth Bale after they were all rested from the start against Levante at the weekend.
Pep Guardiola’s rampant Manchester City will be keen to keep the momentum going as they open the hunt for Champions League glory against a diminished Feyenoord in Rotterdam on Wednesday.
After mauling Liverpool 5-0 in the Premier League on Saturday, City now travel to face the Dutch champions — who face a daunting prospect after a 15-year absence from the group stage of the competition.
Eyes in particular will be on City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, whose sublime form played a major part in the Liverpool drubbing and who is sure to sniff out and exploit weaknesses in Feyenoord’s midfield and defence.
Feyenoord may have beaten Heracles 4-2 in a Dutch top-flight match over the weekend, but their opponents came dangerously close to scoring more goals — a fact no doubt that will play on coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s mind.
The Rotterdam club faced a further blow up front after leading striker Nicolai Jorgensen came off with a leg muscle injury 21 minutes into the Heracles game.
The 26-year-old Danish international — last year’s Eredivisie top scorer with 21 goals in 32 games — will not play in the City match which opens their Group F campaign, Feyenoord announced on
Guardiola
Monday.
With Jorgensen out, former Dutch skipper and Arsenal midfielder Van Bronckhorst will now have to draw on every ounce of Premier League experience if he is to try and outfox Guardiola’s team.
City have spent more than £200 million ($264 million, 219 million euros) over the summer strengthening their squad after losing to Monaco in the last 16 last season.
Just eight years after starting life in the local leagues, RB Leipzig will enhance their rags to riches tale on Wednesday by hosting Monaco on the German club’s Champions League debut.
Backed by energy drinks giant Red Bull, who bought the licence of a fifthdivision club, Leipzig began climbing Germany’s football pyramid in 2009.
They are widely unpopular with German fans, due to the commercialism they represent, but after four promotions in seven years they finished second last season in the Bundesliga to qualify directly for a Champions League place.
Leipzig make their debut against last season’s semifinalists Monaco at the Red Bull Arena and director of sport Ralf Rangnick is proud of their achievement.
“When you think we were still in the fourth division five years ago, then the Champions League is another promotion,” said Rangnick.
“Something like that has never happened before and most likely won’t happen again in the next 50 years.”
This is a step into the unknown for Leipzig with only four members of their squad having Champions League experience.
Swedish playmaker Emil Forsberg, plus new-signings Bruma, Jean-Kevin Augustin and Kevin Kampl are the only ones to have played at this level.
The quartet have a combined tally of 31 Champions League appearances.
LONDON, Sept 12, (AFP): Pedro Obiang and Andre Ayew scored to give West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic the perfect 49th birthday present as the Hammers beat Huddersfield Town 2-0 in the Premier League.
Obiang got the opener via an enormous deflection and Bilic then pumped the air in relief as much as delight when Ghanaian star Ayew pounced to add the second as West Ham claimed their first points of the season.
Defeat to Huddersfield would have left the charismatic Croat in real danger of becoming the second managerial casualty of the season, after Frank de Boer was fired by pointless Crystal Palace on Monday.
“We started with three away games (they couldn’t play at home until the London Stadium was re-adapted after the World Athletics Championships) and three defeats and this was a mustwin game,” Bilic told Sky Sports.
“I feel the pressure for a whole year now. It is maybe not logical for me to be under pressure after three games but it is
Ayew
modern football.
“It is my birthday today and this is a great, great present for me.”
For Huddersfield it was their first reverse — and the first goals they had conceded — of what has been an impressive start to life among the elite.
A match big on commitment but poor in quality had seen West Ham, with Andy Carroll back in attack after a thigh injury, go close twice in a first half they dominated.
Mexico striker Javier Hernandez was denied by the crossbar while Jonas Loessl got down to smother the ball on the line from James Collins’ header after 22 minutes.
However, the hosts deservedly went ahead 18 minutes from time with a piece of luck that had deserted them in their previous three league games.
Obiang’s shot looked to be going wide but took a significant deflection off Mathias Jorgensen and gave Loessl no chance, the goalkeeper desperately trying to make up ground but left flailing at the ball.
There was no luck involved in the second as Ayew, who had been sent on as a substitute, took advantage of a Huddersfield defender failing to clear the ball from a corner and tucked it away.
Huddersfield responded gamely with Tom Ince hitting the crossbar but they never threatened to spoil Bilic’s party.