Spurs hoping to make home advantage count in United semi

Liverpool’s Salah seeks silver lining with Golden Boot

MANCHESTER, England, April 19, (RTRS): Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur can both claim to have had seasons of progress in the Premier League but the FA Cup, in which they meet in Saturday’s semifinal, remains their only chance of ending the campaign with silverware.

The sides meet at Wembley Stadium, which is nominally a neutral venue even if Spurs have been playing all their home games at the national stadium this season.

At the start of the season some questioned whether Spurs would ever feel at home at Wembley but with nearly a full campaign under their belt, defender Jan Vertonghen believes Spurs are certainly at ease in the arena. in his time at the club but Vertonghen believes an FA Cup triumph could be a launch-pad for more success.

“This team and club deserves a trophy for all the work we’ve put in and we hope Saturday can be the next step. When I won my first trophy (at Ajax), the next couple followed at a very quick tempo. You just need that belief you can do it and then they will come. We’re full of confidence we can do it,” he said.

United bounced back from Sunday’s shock 1-0 home Premier League defeat by bottom club West Bromwich Albion with a convincing 2-0 win at Bournemouth on Wednesday to consolidate second place in the table.

“The players we good,” United manager Jose Mourinho said. “It was a good professional performance with good effort and responsibility. There was desire to score and a desire to cope with the defensive responsibilities against a fast team.”

The other semifinal on Sunday pits Antonio Conte’s Chelsea against relegation-threatened Southampton.

Chelsea, fifth in the league, also have strong motivation to win the trophy given their title defence ended with them facing the possibility of missing out on Champions League football next season.

Mark Hughes’s Saints will take a welcome break from their dogfight against the drop as they seek their first appearance in the FA Cup final since their 2003 defeat by Arsenal.

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah hopes to stay clear at the top of the scoring charts to claim this season’s Premier League Golden Boot award, the Egypt international adding that his team mates were eager to help him achieve the goal.

The 25-year-old has scored 30 goals in 32 league appearances during a spectacular debut season at Liverpool with Salah tallying 40 strikes in total across all competitions in 45 outings.

Salah holds a four-goal cushion over Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane in the race for the Golden Boot with four league matches remaining.

“The players are trying to help me a lot now to score goals, because they know now I am in for the Golden Boot. In the end it is an individual award, but it also helps the team get the points,” Salah told Sky Sports.

“The way we play is very good, and you can see the fans are very happy and I feel very good about that, I feel they want me to win something.

“It’s the last four games, so it’s very clear, I play for it. In the beginning I played for it, but it’s always for the team. I want to score for the team.”

The forward also said that while he would always welcome individual honours, helping the team achieve their targets was of greater importance.

Liverpool have benefited from Salah’s exploits with the club fighting to finish second in the league and also in contention to reach the Champions League final after drawing AS Roma in the semi-finals.

Salah could also break the league

Manchester United’s French striker Anthony Martial (left), vies with Bournemouth’s English defender Simon Francis during the English Premier League football match between Bournemouth and Manchester United at the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth, southern England on April 18. (AFP)

scoring record for the most goals in a 38-game season (31) while even surpassing the 34-goal record for a 42game campaign.

“Now it’s very clear, I want to break the Premier League (record). 31 goals in a 38-game season. One goal to go, right? I want to break both records! It’s just four goals and four games,” he added.

Liverpool travel to basement side West Bromwich Albion in the league on Saturday before hosting the first leg of the Champions League semifinal against Roma at Anfield on Tuesday.

Newly crowned Premier League champions Manchester City need to continue winning trophies if they want to be regarded among the great teams of English top-flight football, defender Kyle Walker has said.

City won their third title in seven seasons with five games to spare on Sunday after a record-breaking campaign that has seen manager Pep Guardiola’s side outclass their rivals, but Walker believes there is potential to do more.

“There is still a lot of room for improvement,” England international Walker told BBC Radio 5 live. “I have read some articles that say we need to win things continuously for a number of years before we are classed as a great team.

“Every single one of us wants to be recognised as one of the greatest teams to play in the Premier League.”

City’s march to the title and their League Cup triumph in February has been offset by a shock FA Cup exit to Wigan Athletic and the 5-1 aggregate defeat by Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals.

“If we concentrate on ourselves then as a team we can go on to great things,” Walker added. “But the Liverpool game(s) showed us that we are not a perfect team.”

The 27-year-old also credited perfectionist Guardiola for City’s freeflowing style of play, which has led to their domestic dominance.

City can sweeten their title win by breaking several records in their five remaining league games, starting with BERLIN, April 19, (RTRS): Borussia Dortmund will look to redeem a disappointing Bundesliga season with victory over fellow Champions League contenders Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday as former European champions Hamburg SV teeter on the brink of a historic relegation.

The Ruhr valley club were pre-season title contenders and six wins in their first seven Bundesliga matches had reinforced that view.

Yet it went quickly downhill for Dortmund with Dutch coach Peter Bosz departing after only a few months in charge and Peter Stoeger taking over. Sunday’s home match against struggling Swansea City.

Crystal Palace may have moved to six points above the Premier League relegation zone but Saturday’s visit to Vicarage Road to face Watford could be crucial to Roy Hodgson’s side’s survival hopes.

While the Hornets are in a relatively comfortable 12th place, they are only three points above Palace and are smarting from a stoppage-time defeat at Huddersfield last week.

Javier Gracia’s team have not won since a March 3 victory over bottom club West Brom and history is against them when facing the Eagles.

Watford are winless in their last six home meetings with Crystal Palace in all competitions, losing three of those games, and they have not beaten the London side since a 2-0 victory in the second-tier Championship in 2009.

All of which makes this a winnable game for Roy Hodgson’s Palace whose in-form winger Wilfried Zaha will pose serious questions for the Watford defence. unlikely to extend Stoeger’s contract, according to German media reports. Dortmund, who will be without injured striker Michy Batshuayi, will face a Leverkusen side wounded by their 6-2 demolition at the hands of Bayern Munich in their midweek German Cup semifinal.

Leverkusen are hungry for success and in third place with a slightly better goal difference than Dortmund.

Should Dortmund lose then waiting in the wings for a shot at a top-four finish and a Champions League group stage spot next season are RB Leipzig, in fifth on 47. They host sixthplaced Hoffenheim (46 points) on Saturday.

Hamburg have been in the Bundesliga since 1963 but their record run in the top division could come to an end this weekend when they face 16th-placed Freiburg, who sit in the relegation playoff spot.

Former European champions Hamburg are languishing eight points behind Freiburg in 17th place.

Hamburg are the only club to have played in every season since the creation of the Bundesliga 55 years ago, but defeat to Freiburg in combination with wins for VfL Wolfsburg and Mainz 05 would send Hamburg into the second division.

“We are not naive and we know that the situation going into the last four matches is not improved,” said Hamburg chairman Frank Wettstein. “But that does not change our approach to the games. Only victories can help us use our final chance.”

Wettstein said relegation was already part of the club’s planning.

“Obviously relegation would be very sad. But it is a scenario we have been forced to deal with for some time. But we still have one chance even if most people have already written us off.”