Hazard, Dzeko men to watch
– Edin Dzeko versus Eden Hazard – tonight’s Champions League clash between Roma and Chelsea in the Stadio Olympico could turn out to be one between the two star forwards.
Both Roma’s Dzeko and Chelsea’s Hazard (above) scored two goals apiece in their thriller in Stamford Bridge on October 18.
Belgian playmaker Hazard, formed a good partnership behind striker Alvaro Morata up front, as Chelsea raced to a two-goal lead.
But with two goals from Dzeko, Roma turned the game around before Hazard bailed Chelsea out of trouble in the 3-3 draw.
And the pair are expected to be a key part of Eusebio Di Francesco and Antonio Conte’s plans for the Group C return leg in Rome’s Stadio Olympico on Tuesday night.
Chelsea currently top the group with seven points from three games – two ahead of Roma – and can qualify for the last-16 with two games to spare if Atletico Madrid fail to beat Qarabag in Spain on Wednesday.
Hazard, 26, missed the start of the season after ankle surgery but has been gaining momentum claiming three goals in as many Chelsea games in all competitions.
“A big week is coming for me, so it was important also for the confidence to stay high. We are full of confidence now, two big games in the Champions League and Premier League. And we are ready to play both.”
Hazard joined Chelsea in 2012 from French club Lille. Since then he has scored 58 goals in 181 appearances for the London club.
But his opposite number in Rome, former Manchester City forward Dzeko, 31, has equally impressive statistics scoring 72 times in 189 games in England before heading for Italy in 2015.
Last season he scored 29 league goals for Roma. – AFP
Neither Anthony Martial nor Marcus Rashford are happy spending time on the bench, but the competition between them is pushing both to greater heights for Manchester United this season.
With Romelu Lukaku the firstchoice No 9 and Henrikh Mkhitaryan generally preferred by Jose Mourinho on the right flank, Martial and Rashford have had to fight it out for the left-wing slot.
Rashford tends to start, but Martial has proved brilliantly effective as an impact player and after netting the winner against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, he said he had no desire to become known as a super sub. “I want to play,” he said. With four goals and two assists in 267 minutes of Premier League action, Martial has been decisive roughly once every half of football and has already matched his goal tally from last season.
Rashford has played much more – 607 minutes – but his three goals and three assists have come at intervals of 100 minutes.
Underlining the extent to which they have tended to take things in turns, the pair have found the net in the same game only once – in last month’s 4-1 win over Burton Albion in the League Cup.
Prior to Martial’s match-winning cameo against Tottenham, Rashford had had the upper hand.
He scored the only goal in United’s 1- 0 win away to Benfica in the Champions League and netted the consolation goal in their shock 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield Town after replacing Martial at half-time.
Mourinho drew an interesting distinction between them, however, when he explained his decision to pitch Martial into the fray at Rashford’s expense at Old Trafford on Saturday.
“Anthony Martial is the same position as Marcus, but is more comfortable than Marcus dropping in between the lines to help drive the ball and not just attack space,” said Mourinho.
One area where they differ is in terms of their standing at international level, with Rashford almost a guaranteed starter for England whereas Martial was not called up for France’s most recent matches.
But Martial’s form, allied to Ousmane Dembele’s unavailability through injury and Dimitri Payet switching No 10 for Marseille, could open the door to a recall when Didier Deschamps names his next squad on Thursday. – AFP
Today: Basel (Sui) v CSKA Moscow (Rus), Manchester United (Eng) v Benfica (Por), Celtic (Sco) v Bayern Munich (Ger), PSG (Fra) v Anderlecht (Bel), Atletico Madrid (Esp) v Qarabag (Aze), Roma (Ita) v Chelsea (Eng), Olympiakos (Gre) v Barcelona (Esp), Sporting Lisbon (Por) v Juventus (Ita).
Tomorrow: Liverpool (Eng) v Maribor (Slo), Sevilla (Esp) v Spartak Moscow (Rus), Napoli (Ita) v Manchester City (Eng), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukr) v Feyenoord (Ned), Besiktas (Tur) v Monaco (Fra), Porto (Por) v RB Leipzig (Ger), Borussia Dortmund (Ger) v APOEL Nicosia (Cyp), Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) v Real Madrid (Esp).