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Steve Bruce is spoilt for choice when it comes to centre backs, however, if the club are wanting to push away from relegation battles then they could do with signing defenders that are comfortable on the ball.

Someone like Celtic’s Kristoffer Ajer could be ideal, especially if he turns out like Virgil van Dijk, and that’s what Steve Howey is hoping will happen.

Ajer has long been linked with Newcastle United but they have always had competition to sign the contract rebel at Celtic from the likes of Bayern Leverkusen and Norwich City, and with just one year left on his current deal it could be a smart signing for any side.

The Magpies have Fabian Schar and Florian Lejeune who are both comfortable bringing the ball out of defence but with the latter set to be sold this summer, Ajer would be an ideal replacement for a bargain price of £12 million.

Ajer is similar to Van Dijk in many ways with both of them impressing at Celtic and ultimately using the club as a springboard into the Premier League, and they both are very comfortable and willing to drive into midfield.

To sign someone anywhere near as good as the Dutchman would be a huge bonus for Newcastle according to Howey, who spoke exclusively to Football FanCast:

“Well, if he ever turns out to be something like Van Dijk then we will have done absolutely brilliant and he’s a decent player. But I just think about the budget and how much the manager has been given to spend, although I do think that strength in depth is going to be important.”

There has been fresh reports in the last 24 hours that Norwich are now the frontrunners to sign the Celtic defender with the Canaries having £33 million on top of their original transfer budget to spend this summer after selling Emiliano Buendia.

If Ajer was to end up at St James’ Park then he would certainly be a starter under Steve Bruce if he was to play with three centre backs as it would make the Magpies a much more attacking side if one of their defenders could glide into midfield and change the game.

Nasser Hussain collected his OBE at Buckingham Palace today, but was quickly back into his stride as England’s captain ahead of tomorrow’s NatWest Series final against India at Lord’s.Hussain received the OBE from Prince Charles, but is now concentrating on England’s tenth one-day encounter with India this year. The score stands at four-all with one game, at Chester-le-Street last week, abandoned.”Today was the first opportunity to go to the Palace and I wanted to do thatand now I’ve done that it’s back to my day job trying to win games of cricket,but I wouldn’t swap the award I got today for much,” said Hussain.”This is not that important in the grand scheme of things. We won this tournament two years ago when we had Zimbabwe and West Indies over here and no one remembers that too highly now.”But it will be nice to win and you do have to keep an eye on that World Cupeven though it will probably be better to beat them in the World Cup becausethat will be the major one-day tournament.”Sometimes it’s frustrating when we take one step forward and two steps backand it would be nice to just go forward all the time, but that has got to comefrom our disciplines and our work ethic.”Just because we’ve had a good game against India at the Oval, it doesn’tmean we can afford to slack off in practice – we have to try to go forward allthe time.”Everyone in the England team tomorrow will be aiming to clinch a place in this winter’s one-day squads for the ICC Champions’ Trophy in Sri Lanka, the triangular series in Australia which follows, and quite probably the World Cup campaign, which England launch against Zimbabwe in Harare next February.”We’re closer now than ever to picking our one-day squad for the World Cup and a good performance and a good result against India in this match will make it very difficult to make too many changes,” said Hussain.”There haven’t been that many new names in this squad from the winter tours -we’ve shuffled and made ourselves a bit more flexible in our batting line-upsand we’re closer to knowing our squad, but we’re still a little bit away fromknowing our best XI.”We’ve got plenty of games to put that right and the door’s not closed by anymeans. You only have to see Ronnie Irani as an example – two or three months agonobody had him down but know everyone has him in the squad and there’s otherpeople out there who could easily burst into this squad."One selection dilemma concerns Graham Thorpe, who missed one game because of a slight ankle injury, and was not selected for the last two.”He’s played a lot of cricket for England over the last two years when he’s been available for selection and it will be a very difficult selection because all 15 people could easily play,” Hussain said.”Originally he had a sore ankle and we wanted to give him a rest, look atMichael Vaughan and try a few other things and be a bit more dynamic in thefield.”We want people to get caps under their belt so that if someone rocks up fora semi-final injured or something the lads that are coming in have played quitea bit of cricket.”Thorpe, Darren Gough and Andrew Flintoff are all available despite slight injuries, and Dominic Cork will not necessarily be in the final eleven after being called up as a replacement for James Kirtley.

Quoted by LaRoma24, translated by Sport Witness, Italian journalist Massimiliano Magni has been left stunned by a development at Tottenham Hotspur involving Paulo Fonseca.

The Lowdown: Spurs and Fonseca…

As widely reported, it looks like Fonseca is now the overwhelming favourite to become Tottenham’s new manager.

Talks had been held with elite candidates like Mauricio Pochettino and Antonio Conte, but moves for both men eventually fell through.

Paris-Saint Germain stood firm and refused to grant a Pochettino return to north London, meanwhile talks with Conte broke down due to an alleged difference in plans for Spurs.

Now, Fonseca has reportedly emerged as the prime candidate thanks to incoming sporting director Fabio Paratici.

The Latest: Magni left stunned…

Indeed, talks are apparently at a very advanced stage over the 48-year-old’s appointment and Italian reporter Magni just can’t quite believe the development.

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“Tottenham fire Mourinho and take Fonseca, it’s a surreal thing,” he explained (via Sport Witness).

“They went from Conte to Fonseca. There are things that can’t be understood at Tottenham.”

The Verdict: Right to be bemused…

Swapping Mourinho for Fonseca is, on paper at least, a pretty bizarre move by the club – even if he wasn’t the prime candidate to begin with.

Compared to Roma’s 2020/2021 season under the Portuguese, Tottenham’s league record from last campaign is practically identical.

As per Sky Sports (via Football Daily), both teams carried the exact same number of games won (18), games drew (8), games lost (12), league points (62) and even goals scored (68).

The only difference between both sides is Roma managed to concede more goals in the league (58).

Therefore, it’s little wonder those in the media are feeling a little bemused.

In other news: ‘Sources close…’ – Journalist shares exciting transfer development at Spurs, find out more here.

Charlton must act swiftly to land Gillingham attacker Jordan Graham this summer amid interest from League One rivals.

What’s the talk?

According to Football League World, the Addicks are interested in signing the attacker this summer to bolster their attacking options going into next season. The 26-year-old is out of contract at the end of the month and is set to become a free agent in July, allowing Charlton to potentially sign him for nothing.

However, Charlton’s League One rivals Lincoln have stolen a march on their rivals in the race to land Graham. Football League World’s report added that the beaten play-off finalists have already been in talks with Graham and have now firmed up their interest with a contract offer for the 26-year-old, with Charlton and Birmingham lagging behind the Imps in the transfer pursuit.

Gillingham manager Steve Evans was full of praise for the “outstanding” attacker in 2020 after an impressive showing against Burton. He told Kent Online: “He (Graham) was outstanding.

“Colin Daniel (the Burton left-back) is a great lad, he’s played for me (at Peterborough) but he didn’t know where he was when Jordan got on the ball, credit to Jordan.

“He is a confidence boy, you have to feed him and give him the ball, we have to get him to work a little bit harder but you could say that about every wide player in the world.”

Charlton must act swiftly

Charlton must act swiftly to make sure that they win the race to land Graham. This update suggests that Lincoln are racing out in front but there is still time for the Addicks to accelerate and overtake their rivals to secure his services for next season. Nothing is done and dusted yet and Charlton still have the chance to make their own offer in an attempt to snap him up, which they should be looking to do given his quality.

Graham caught the eye with a string of dazzling performances in League One for Gillingham and he could be a superb addition to Nigel Adkins’ squad. The former Wolves winger averaged a brilliant SofaScore rating of 7.20 in League One as he produced a whopping 12 goals and six assists in 36 starts. This shows that he has the quality to produce regularly at this level, which proves that he is good enough to make a big impact for Charlton in League One.

The £2,100-per-week dynamo outperformed Charlton’s wide players by some distance. Liam Millar and Graham Shinnie regularly played on the wings for Adkins and provided five goals and 12 assists between them. Creatively, both of them matched Graham’s tally of six, but Shinnie’s three goals and Millar’s two fell well short of Graham’s 12-goal haul for Gillingham.

This suggests that the 26-year-old could be a substantial upgrade on Adkins’ current wide options because of the goal threat he carries, so they must not let Lincoln snap him up without at least putting up a fight.

AND in other news, Claim emerges on “powerhouse” £5.4k-p/w dynamo that will have Charlton fans buzzing…

Tottenham Hotspur may be gifted the perfect opportunity to bolster a key area of weakness this summer, according to emerging reports…

What’s the word?

The Daily Star claimed that Manchester City could offer defender Nathan Ake as a makeweight in their attempts to bring Harry Kane to the Etihad Stadium.

Citizens striker Gabriel Jesus is also being considered in this regard but Pep Guardiola may be reluctant to lose the Brazil international, so they may prefer to offer the former Bournemouth defender plus cash for the England talisman.

The 26-year-old Dutchman is currently valued at just €30m (£26m) by CIES Football Observatory, so you would imagine that the Premier League champions would need to offer a substantial wedge of cash to tempt Spurs into a sale, especially as they are looking at around £150m for Kane’s signature, as per The Telegraph.

Vertonghen 2.0

As reported by The Athletic earlier in the season, one of Spurs’ biggest problems has been in defence, where a lack of cohesion and an abundance of individual mistakes have been the worrying and defining themes of their dismal campaign.

Last summer, the club let Jan Vertonghen depart for nothing after seven years in north London, but Daniel Levy and the club’s hierarchy failed to provide Jose Mourinho with a viable successor.

He did manage to sign Joe Rodon before the domestic deadline for £11m, and whilst he has performed decently whenever given a rare opportunity, he is no Vertonghen. The 6 foot 2 Belgian could play in the middle and at left-back, whilst his vast experience and leadership in the Premier League was a valuable asset which has clearly been missed by Spurs this season.

Alasdair Gold at football.london believes that the side have lacked a leader at the back, which is why they are said to be searching for one as a top priority this summer.

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Since his £41m move to City, Ake has struggled for minutes on the pitch (993), with John Stones and Ruben Dias the preferred centre-back pairing under Pep Guardiola.

Interestingly, the Dutch centre-back can also play on the left – just like Vertonghen – and that makes him an appealing candidate for Tottenham in the summer, especially as Ben Davies had a spell on the sidelines towards the end of the campaign through injury.

Ake has earned the praise of one of the Premier League’s best, too. Speaking to the Bournemouth Daily Echo in March 2020, Liverpool colossus Virgil van Dijk waxed lyrical about his fellow countryman.

The Netherlands captain gushed: “First of all, he’s a fantastic guy. I speak with him quite a bit at the national team and I think he’s a fantastic player as well,” revealed the Dutch international before adding: “He has the quality but he has to have more than just the quality these days. But he’s still young, he’s improving and you never know what decision might happen.”

This merely echoes the words from his former teammate and Bournemouth captain Steve Cook, who lauded the 5 foot 11 defender as an “amazing player” and an “even better person” following the confirmation of his move to City.

Ake was one of the few bright sparks during the Cherries’ relegation campaign last year, during which Spurs saw first-hand the qualities he possesses.

The 26-year-old captained the side to a clean sheet back in July 2020 despite Jose Mourinho having the services of Harry Kane. That afternoon, Ake silenced the England talisman and even recorded a better rating (7.3) than him (6.6), as per SofaScore. He also put in three blocks to deny Kane, made one interception and registered five clearances.

Levy could do very little wrong in bringing Ake to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this summer, even if it means sending their star striker in the opposite direction.

At the very least, they’d be getting an immediate fix to the defensive problems, along with a likely abundance of cash to fund a rebuild elsewhere in the squad.

AND in other news, Spurs hiring 45 y/o gem dubbed “the best” by Guardiola would be shades of Mauricio Pochettino…

Neil McKenzie had the best view of all of Shaun Pollock’s majestic maiden Test century on the opening day of the third and final Castle Lager/MTN Test match against Sri Lanka at SuperSport Park

Peter Robinson20-Jan-2001Neil McKenzie had the best view of all of Shaun Pollock’s majestic maiden Test century on the opening day of the third and final Castle Lager/MTN Test match against Sri Lanka at SuperSport Park. “It was like a highlights package all by itself,” said McKenzie on Saturday night.Pollock’s wonderful 111, scored in his 51st Test match, enabled South Africa to reach 375 for nine at the end of a memorable first day. It was an emotional moment for the South African captain, who has always argued that he needed a century to prove himself a genuine all-rounder, and it came two Test matches after taking his 200th Test wicket.In other words, it has taken some time for Pollock who has gradually slipped down the order to nine and had to endure the ribbing of his lower-order team-mates, the likes of Nicky Boje, Mark Boucher and Lance Klusener who all Test centuries to their name.But if it took a long time coming, it was all the more special for it. When Pollock came to the crease after tea following the contentious run out of Justin Kemp, South Africa were 204 for seven and Sanath Jayasuriya’s decision to bowl first appeared to have been entirely vindicated.Pollock, however, had looked in excellent form in a despairing attempt to win the sixth one-day international at the Wanderers and he picked up on Saturday where he had left off on Wednesday.”I can’t really explain it,” he said. “I tried a couple of cuts and the ball came off the ball sweetly and went for four. It was just one of those days.”Most certainly it was. As he laid about the attack the Sri Lankan bowlers lost the “in-between” length that had caused so many problems for South Africa’s top order and started to dig it in short. And the shorter they bowled, the further Pollock hit them.
NeilMcKenzie
Photo Rian Botes
He made 45 out of the first 50 in partnership with McKenzie and by the time the latter was out after the pair had put on 150 for the eighth wicket – a South African record – Pollock had made 108 of them.McKenzie’s contribution should not be underestimated. His 103 was his second Test century and without it, South Africa would surely have been dismissed for less than 250. But it is the nature of these things that Pollock’s effort captured all the plaudits and, no doubt, all Sunday’s headlines.He was simply terrific, reaching three figures off 95 balls and finally departing after hitting 16 fours and three sixes, almost all of them struck as sweetly as his first couple of cuts.The Sri Lankans had held sway for the first two sessions, despite the absence of their two senior bowlers, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan. In Vaas’ place was Ruchira Perera, flown in from Kenya on Friday night and thrown into his fourth Test within hours of landing.For the first few hours, though, Sri Lanka bowled extremely well and even though the scoring rate seldom dipped below four to the over, wickets fell too regularly for the comfort of a 12 000 home crowd.Boeta Dippenaar (20), Daryll Cullinan (48) and Mark Boucher (38) all looked in excellent touch before getting out as the bounce in the pitch made itself felt. But Pollock ripped the game away from Sri Lanka with the most exciting cricket of the entire summer.There is still a fair deal of bounce in the pitch as was demonstrated when the second new ball accounted for both McKenzie and Pollock and local opinion has it that the strip will play quicker on days two and three. If the Sri Lankans can bat as half as well as Pollock on a thrilling first day, this could become a spectacular Test match.

كشفت تقارير صحفية فرنسية، عن مغادرة لاعب تشيلسي نجولو كانتي معسكر منتخب فرنسا اليوم الثلاثاء، دون الكشف عن السبب وراء ذلك.

منتخب فرنسا يستعد لخوض مباراتين وديتين خلال توقف مارس الجاري، أمام كوت ديفوار وجنوب إفريقيا.

راديو مونتي كارلو الفرنسي، أكد أن كانتي غادر العسكر صباح اليوم لأسباب شخصية دون توضيح أي شيء آخر، وقد يعود من جديد للمعسكر إذا تمكن من ذلك.

طالع أيضًا..قائمة فرنسا لمباراتي كوت ديفوار وجنوب إفريقيا.. عودة بوجبا وثنائي جديد

ويواجه المنتخب الفرنسي نظيره الإيفواري يوم 25 مارس بملعب الفالدروم، قبل استضافة جنوب إفريقيا 29 من نفس الشهر بملعب ليل ميتروبولي، وكلا المباراتين داخل فرنسا.

المنتخب الفرنسي ضمن تأهله رسميًا إلى نهائيات كأس العالم 2022 في قطر، بعدما حل في صدارة المجموعة الرابعة في تصفيات أوروبا، والتي ضمت أوكرانيا وفنلندا والبوسنة والهرسك، بالإضافة لـ كازخستان.

The Union Sports Minister Uma Bharti on Wednesday said in Ahmedabad that there would be no hurdles in India’s participation in the ICC KnockOut tourney next year

Staff and Agencies03-May-2001Uma Bharti sees no hurdles for India’s participation in ICC KnockOutThe Union Sports Minister Uma Bharti on Wednesday said in Ahmedabad that there would be no hurdles in India’s participation in the ICC KnockOut tourney next year. Talking to reporters, Bharti said the decision not to allow the team toparticipate in Sharjah was a collective decision of various ministries. Bharti denied that the Sports Ministry had unilaterally decided not to permit the Indian cricket team to participate in the triangular series.”Cricket is played for commercial considerations in Sharjah”, Bharti said. She added that other ministries like the External Affairs had also influenced the decision. Moreover, together with Singapore and Toronto, Sharjah was not recognised as a cricket venue by the ICC, she added. On the recent notice by the IT department to the BCCI seeking details, the sports minister said she was unaware of it.We have a very good seam attack: TendulkarFormer Indian captain and master player Sachin Tendulkar said he was in favour of the board’s decision to include seven seamers in the list of probables for the forthcoming tour against Zimbabwe. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, the batting maestro said “The ball in Zimbabwe might seam around and probably spinners will not be assisted by the wicket there, so it is better to have seamers in the attack.” Tendulkar, who was in Delhi to inaugurate a sport-goods showroom, said India could now boast of a “very good seam bowling attack”. He added”We have got a lot of youngsters who have experience at the international level and we can expect a good performance from them…I am sure we will have an even better attack in years to come.”On the recently concluded Australian tour, Tendulkar said “In the previous Australian series, I had scored 440 runs. This time I have scored 330 plus…So both the series were good for me personally. In the last six Test matches against Australia, I have scored three hundreds and four or five 50’s..It’s not a bad performance,” the star batsman said.On breaking milestones, the little master said “Once you have achieved something, obviously you feel proud of it and feel happy that after playing for so many years you have achieved some goals,” he said. On the youngsters, Tendulkar opined that “the junior players in the last series really played well. The Australian series was big one for all of us and the way youngsters like Shiv Sunder Das, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan performed is really commendable. They all contributed a lot to the team.”Marsh calls for high standard of wicketsThe BCCI consultant and former Australian coach Geoff Marsh on Wednesday said in New Delhi the quality of the three Test wickets that produced a fantastic series between India and Australia should hold good for all the wickets in the country if India were to excel in world cricket. “All the three wickets on which the Test matches were played during the recent Australian series were excellent. But every wicket in the country needs to be of a very high standard. It is also important that the trainees, selected for various zonal cricket academies for a two-month training stint, are provided with good wickets if good results are to be achieved,” Marsh said.Marsh, on a whistle-stop visit here, examined the pitch and interacted with the 20 trainees of the North Zone cricket academy undergoing practice at the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds. “The best 120 kids are undergoing training at academies all over the country – the results can only be good, to say the least. This is going to do a lot for Indian cricket,” Marsh said. The ex-Aussie opener said the boys were extremely fortunate to undergo training under former cricketers of great repute. “India is lucky to have former cricketers who have immense experience and knowledge of the game. The boys are really lucky to have this opportunity to interact with the best cricketers at the age of 16 or 17”. He said the boys must appreciate this and make full use of it. “They are already enjoying their training stint. They are very enthusiastic and I did not see them complain about anything.”ICC anti-corruption unit submits preliminary reportThe International Cricket Council’s (ICC)anti-corruption unit has submitted its preliminary report to Lord Griffiths, head of ICC’s code of conduct committee. Confirming that it has been submitted, an ICC spokesman said in London on Wednesday that Lord Griffith would now convene a panel to consider the report, which would be forwarded to the ICC board scheduled to meet here on June 15.The board would consider the confidential report on June 18, the spokesman said. He, however, said that details of the report would not be made officially known till then. According to sources, the scourge of match-fixing was still going on in international cricket and at least a couple of the matches in the recent one-day series between Pakistan and New Zealand might have been affected, quotes PTI.Sir Paul Condon, head of ICC’s anti-corruption unit said the probe into the match-fixing scandal would go beyond allegations made in India’s CBI report on bribery and corruption in the game. His team’s investigation would cover a “whole realm of charges not contained in the CBI report and it will expand to further material not in the public domain.”Sir Paul, who is currently in Sri Lanka as part of the world-wideinvestigation, said he would not be part of any cover-up. “I can assure you that our investigation will be independent. Nobody will be spared. Nothing will be kept from my inquiry,” he told journalists in Colombo. Condon said two ICC investigators, both former Scotland Yard detectives, would remain in Sri Lanka for a week to help the local cricketing authority conduct its own probe. Sir Paul will travel to Pakistan in a few weeks to monitor the inquiry there.

Ralph Hasenhuttl’s hopes of keeping Southampton striker Danny Ings this summer may have suffered a blow after Manchester United registered an interest in the England international.

According to The Telegraph, Manchester United have made enquiries about the 28-year-old’s situation at St Mary’s as they look to add to their attacking options ahead of next season, despite Edinson Cavani committing to a new one-year contract at Old Trafford earlier this month.

Ings has just one year left on his contract with the Saints but Hasenhuttl has repeatedly suggested that the striker won’t be allowed to leave the club this summer.

This is despite the former Liverpool man seemingly refusing to sign a new deal with the south coast outfit as he eyes a move to a club who can offer him European football in the near future, something which he would have at Old Trafford after their second-placed finish in the Premier League.

Therefore, even if Hasenhuttl is desperate to keep Ings, it seems likely that the striker could be tempted by a switch to Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s side. The Austrian may be forced to cash in on him while he still can, rather than keeping an unhappy Ings at the club and potentially losing him for nothing next summer.

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Despite some injury problems, the 28-year-old is still Southampton’s top scorer in the Premier League this season with 12 goals, and he emphasised his immense quality on his return to the side recently by scoring a brace in a 3-1 win against Crystal Palace.

Ings is certainly one of the key players in Hasenhuttl’s team, and his partnership with Che Adams has really grown this season, which should give Southampton fans plenty to be hopeful about next season if they can both stay fit.

Unfortunately, Ings may well have his head turned by the interest from Manchester United, and if they submit a substantial bid for the “first-class” forward – as hailed by Clinton Morrison – it is difficult to see Southampton being able to keep him at St Mary’s, regardless of Hasenhuttl’s recent claims. That could leave the manager raging if he is unable to retain the 28-year-old, given his importance to the Saints.

In other news… Semmens can sign Southampton’s next Mane with swoop for 21 y/o wonderkid

Manchester City took a big step towards the Champions League Final on Wednesday night as they came from behind to beat PSG 2-1 at Les Parc de Princes.

Marquinhos headed a dominant PSG side in front early on but the pendulum swung in City’s favour in the second half, as they produced an excellent display and completely nullified the threat of Kylian Mbappe and Neymar.

Kevin De Bruyne’s intended cross went all the way in for the equaliser, before Riyad Mahrez curled a free-kick through a weak PSG wall to give Pep Guardiola’s side the lead, before the French champions went down to 10 men after a horror tackle from Idrissa Gana Gueye.

The former Everton man was one of several PSG stars to lose their heads in the second half as they began to chase shadows and his foul on Ilkay Gundogan was perhaps in frustration that the German international completely ran the show in the second half.

As per SofaScore, the former Borussia Dortmund man would earn a solid 7.1/10 rating for his performance on Wednesday night, with only Mahrez (8.2), Bernardo Silva (7.5) and Phil Foden (7.2) rated higher of the City players who featured.

However, the 30-year-old midfielder had the most touches (116) and played the most passes (103) of any player who featured in the game, which highlights that he was key to City’s strong performance.

Gundogan has averaged just 77.5 passes per game in the Champions League this season, which emphasises just how impressive he was on Wednesday night, especially when you consider that this was arguably City’s hardest game in the competition so far.

He also broke forward well, completing all three of his dribbles in the game, which again is more than the 1.2 dribbles he has averaged in the competition so far this season.

Guardiola was full of praise for Gundogan earlier in the season, saying:

“Ilkay is an exceptional player in all situations. He can play more upfront and as a defensive midfielder.”

He emphasised this on Wednesday night as he also impressively won 5/9 of his duels and lost possession on just four occasions, which is impressive when you consider how successful PSG were with their pressing in the first half.

Therefore, whilst Mahrez and De Bruyne will earn the plaudits for their goals, it was Gundogan who kept things ticking over for City, which was vitally important in them earning the win.

And, in other news… Txiki heading for potential Man City disaster over 26-goal “winner”, Pep will be fuming