Sport
What to know before Man City’s UCL clash with PSG
After defeating Dortmund 4-2 on aggregate, Man City are officially into the Champions League semi-final.
Awaiting them in the penultimate round is PSG – with Chelsea and Real Madrid also jostling for a place in the final.
Man City and PSG are considered as the top two clubs remaining in the tournament – with the winner of their clash tipped to scoop the trophy overall.
Ahead of the highly-anticipated first leg on April 28, here’s what you need to know.
League positions
Typically, the Premier League table feels like an all-out fist fight you’d watch while betting on the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, as it’s ordinarily highly competitive. Not this year, however, as Man City are running away with the title – currently with an 11-point lead over Manchester United.
PSG are all too familiar with double-digit leads in their league as they’ve finished each of the past three years with such advantage. But 2020-21 is a different story. At the moment, PSG are runners-up in Ligue 1, three points behind Lille.
These divergent league paths partly explain why City are slight favourites to edge PSG, at least according to the online bet-makers. Few teams in the world have played to the calibre of Guardiola’s team since the season began.
Pressure busts pipes or makes diamonds
The weight of the world is seemingly on City right now. Not only is a Champions League and Premier League championship in their crosshairs, but so is an FA Cup and League Cup. No club in history has swept all four tournaments in a single year.
You can look at this pursuit of history in one of two ways: Either the pressure will force Man City to falter in at least one of their trophy chases. Or, on the flip side, City will feed off the pressure and pull off the unprecedented quadruple win.
Speaking of pressure, PSG have developed a reputation — whether fair or not — for choking in pressure-cooked moments, especially come Champions League time. But is that still fair to say?
In the quarter-finals, PSG eliminated Bayern Munich, the reigning champions who happened to defeat them in last year’s final. Give credit where credit is due, PSG went on the road and pulled off a gutsy 3-2 win with two goals from Kylian Mbappe – winning on aggregate despite a 1-0 defeat in the second tie. The PSG of old may not have held on.
Make no mistake, City and PSG are desperate to get their hands on a Champions League title – a trophy which has so far eluded both these clubs despite aggressively spending over the last decade.
Who has the edge on the pitch?
Any discussion about PSG begins with their attack. Mbappe and Neymar are as good as it gets in terms of a football frontline. Any magic from them, even for a split second, could create problems for Man City’s defence – especially if City aren’t tactful in possession.
Nevertheless, we can’t overlook that City should be at full-strength against PSG. Paris dodged a bullet last round with Robert Lewandowski — one the world’s top footballers — nursing an injury and missing both matches for Bayern. No such issues are expected for City.
All in all, this semi-final tie feels like it could be a trophy decider. Both PSG and City are red-hot for different reasons – and they’ve never had a better chance to win the coveted cup. We’ll see what unfolds two weeks from now when both collide.
Sport
Manchester United reject offers for Mason Greenwood as rep says he ‘should be allowed to move forward with his young life’
Danny Jones
Manchester United have reportedly rejected a number of offers for Mason Greenwood as the club continues their internal investigation into his behaviour.
The club have reportedly received a number of offers for the young forward from Turkish teams in recent weeks and months while Greenwood has been suspended from playing or training. He has yet to return to the sport after charges of attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm were dropped.
The charges handed down in January 2022 were ultimately dropped last month when key witnesses withdrew, more than a year on from the incident that was widely circulated on social media.
Now, following a behind-the-scenes feature by The Athletic and ‘new material’ leading the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the case for the foreseeable, it seems United are now the only party still investigating Greenwood, with his own team and figures around the club pushing for a resolution.
Speaking to Laurie Whitwell as part of the piece, one of Greenwood’s representatives argued that there is “no real substance” to the allegations, them “a mix of old news, speculation, half-truths and completely untrue claims.”
He went on to say, “Mason is 21, he has been cleared and should be allowed the opportunity to rebuild and move forward with his young life.”
Another source is also said to have told the outlet that the youngster has been fundamentally changed by the experience, insisting that he “would run through a brick wall” to be back playing at United.
As for the club’s stance, it remains to be seen what their final decision on his future will be, but it was reported earlier this month that a potential return is still “firmly under consideration” and his number 11 shirt has not yet been vacated as many would have expected if he was set to move on.
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On the other hand, the article goes on to detail questions surrounding Greenwood’s conduct and general attitude during his relatively short time as a senior player too, the suggestion being that he was slacking in training because “he knew he was a good player”.
His attendance at Carrington is said to have been raised as an issue on more than one occasion and then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær often covered for training sessions and games he missed after failing to turn up to the team hotel for “unexplained absences”.
Another source who watched him play aged just 16 also went on to reveal that Bradford-born academy product “wasn’t shy about telling someone they were s***”, apparently even calling out Cristiano Ronaldo as “dead [finished]” when he was still at Real Madrid.
Greenwood played over 100 senior games for United and was widely considered one of the brightest young prospects in England, let alone the club, but the career trajectory he looked to be on is widely different from the problematic position he finds himself in now, regardless of any offers from abroad.
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Featured Image — Manchester United (Twitter)
Sport
Commentator Arlo White shows off what the Old Trafford gantry walk looks like
Danny Jones
Ever wondered what it’s like to be up in the gantry in a football stadium, say, Old Trafford? Well, we certainly have.
You see the odd shot of the commentators sat there on the telly from time to time but it never really gives much away either and, at some venues, it’s quite a ways up there. There’s a little bit of allure behind these mysterious parts of footy grounds that most fans will never get to see.
Unless you follow Arlo White on TikTok, that is.
After hours of mindless scrolling on the social media app, we stumbled across the well-known sports commentator‘s channel where he’s been showing off what it’s like to go in the gantry and one of them is his long walk to crow’s nest up at the Theatre of Dreams.
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Mystery revealed — pretty cool, right?
As it turns out, Arlo’s been doing these videos for a couple of years now, revealing how the gantry looks not only at Old Trafford but other big Premier League grounds too, such as down the road at the Etihad, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, Tottenham Hotspurs’ sparkly new ground and many more.
Another reason we found ourselves stuck on his TikTok for so long was also because of the other behind-the-scenes details he reveals too, even shedding light on how he prepares for games: note-taking, data sheets, how keeps himself warm up there during those cold nights on comms and so on.
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Featured Image — Arlo White (via TikTok)
The Manc -
14th April 2021 
