In Europa, United to play Midtjylland
NYON: Triple European champions Manchester United and their under-fire coach Louis van Gaal face a tricky task against littleknown Midtjylland in the last 32 of the Europa League following Monday’s draw.
United, knocked out of the Champions League last week, meet the Danish league winners, an unsung club backed by owner Matthew Benham who are in their maiden European campaign and eliminated Southampton earlier in the competition.
Midtjylland have adopted the use of mathematical modelling and key performance indicators in their management and style of play, factors Van Gaal will need to study after a probable call to fellow Dutchman and Southampton manager Ronald Koeman.
MCCLAREN WANTS MORE FROM NEWCASTLE LONDON: Manager Steve Mcclaren called for more of the same after Newcastle United beat Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday to put some daylight between themselves and the relegation zone, but stopped short of describing the win as a turning point in their season.
Newcastle travelled to White Hart Lane buoyed by their morale boosting 2-0 defeat of Liverpool a week earlier and notched their first back-to-back wins of the season when they downed an in-form Spurs team 2-1. Spurs, who were on a club record 14-match unbeaten run in the Premier League era, took a first-half lead through Eric Dier before Mcclaren’s decision to bring on strikers Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ayoze Perez turned the game on its head.
QATAR ‘SINGLED OUT’
FOR CRITICISM: WC CHIEF DOHA: Qatar has been “singled out” for criticism the 2022
World Cup committee chief said on Monday, adding that no labourer has died during more than 14 million man hours of work on tournament venues
In a robust defence of Qatar’s position, Hassan Al-thawadi also said the Gulf state does not expect to lose the World Cup Thawadi, secretary-general of the 2022 Supreme Committee the body overseeing tournament preparations said there was no evidence of wrongdoing against Qatar and that the country would cooperate with investi gators in Switzerland and the US “should there be any request”.
CECH HAS CHANGED BACK FOUR: WALCOTT LONDON: The close-season signing of Petr Cech from Chelsea has raised Arsenal’s defending to a new level, according to England striker Theo Walcott. The Czech Republic goalkeeper equalled David James’ Premier League record of 169 clean sheets when the Gunners beat Aston Villa 2-0 on Sunday to climb to the top of the table. Arsenal boast the second meanest defence this season, conceding 13 goals, and Cech’s clean sheet against Villa which came in his 349th Premier League game, was his seventh of the campaign. “He’s changed us completely in that back four He’s a talker, he believes in us all,” Walcott said.