Key events
Kroupi not yet ready to start for Bournemouth
Marco Rose will hold Bournemouth forward Junior Kroupi back for a little longer despite more minutes in midweek. A foot injury sidelined Kroupi for the first three months of the campaign, but the highly rated French attacker returned in the 3-0 win over Manchester United and was introduced in the 80th minute of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup triumph over Aston Villa.
Ahead of Saturday’s visit of Leeds, Rose told a press conference: “We still need to build up his game time. I’m really happy to have him back, to have his quality, but he knows that he has to be patient in this situation to not get in a difficult situation with another injury.
“We need to get him fit, in a good spot with more and more match time in between good sessions of training.”
The Cherries remain without Alex Scott, but he could return from a thigh injury next week.
Brighton hope to have key duo back for round two with City
Head coach Fabian Hurzeler said he is confident that Chema Andres and Ferdi Kadioglu will be available as Brighton seek immediate revenge on Manchester City after being knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the Etihad Stadium on penalties in midweek.
Andres and Kadioglu suffered hip injuries at Liverpool last weekend, but both are expected to return at the Etihad after sitting out the cup tie, while Charalampos Kostoulas will also be available after he was rested on Wednesday night.
However, summer signing Pascal Struijk will not be available, he is out with an undisclosed knock.
Hurzeler told media in Manchester on Thursday: “A positive was that (Yankuba) Minteh and Mats Wieffer had their comeback yesterday.
“Ferdi, Chema, also Kostoulas (who) we rested yesterday, we are quite convinced that he will be an option for Saturday. This is the new information we can give.
“Regarding Pascal Struijk, he won’t be an option for the weekend, but we are quite convinced that he will be back afterwards.” Press Association
U-turn on Afcon as tournament reverts to two-year cycle
The Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will revert to being held every two years after the continent’s ruling body reversed its decision taken last year to move to a four-year cycle.
The African Football Confederation (Caf) said in a statement that it had: “Unanimously decided that the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will return to taking place every two years.”
Caf said part of the reasoning for performing a U-turn on the decision was the length of time it would take for Afcon’s replacement competition, the Africa Nations League Pan-African Competition, to become financially viable.
“We were also concerned by the several years required before the proposed new Africa Nations League Pan-African competition, (which was supposed to be identical to the current Afcon and take place every two years), could make the substantial financial and football development contributions for African Football and Caf competitions to be globally competitive and self-supporting,” Caf president Patrice Motsepe said in the statement.
Motsepe added that the decision was also taken in the interests “of African players employed by football clubs outside Africa”. That may prove contentious with their clubs looking at losing key players every two years as opposed to four.
Next year’s tournament is being co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and CAF said the following three would take place in 2028, 2031 and 2033.
“The forthcoming Fifa World Cup will take place in 2030 and in accordance with the Fida tradition, the final tournament of the Afcon and other confederations national team competitions may not take place during the year of the Fifa World Cup,” said Motsepe, explaining the three-year gap between the 2028 edition and the scheduled 2031 tournament. AFP
Manchester City’s hopes of avoiding the ‘punishment round’ of the Women’s Champions League took a blow last night. Tara Elimbi Gilbert’s late effort handed City their third consecutive draw of the league phase and the English champions now probably need to wins on each of the last three matchdays to avoid the knockout phase play-offs in February.
“Annoying is not the right word but it’s a little bit a feeling of ‘argh’,” said City manager Andrée Jeglertz, post-match “We deserved more, I think, but that’s how it is in the Champions League. When you dominate games and you don’t score, the opponent will take their chances and that’s what they did.”
Read Tom Garry’s full report from the Joie Stadium:
Preamble
After a week of Carabao Cup action, we are counting down to the weekend football action.
Last night saw the last of this round of matches as Everton beat a poor Newcastle side to move into the quarter-finals, crucially without Jack Grealish. The England international was dropped for what the club described as a ‘breach of club discipline’, with David Moyes later saying he supported the decision without offering further details. Interestingly, Everton travel to Newcastle for Monday night football, whether Grealish will travel for that one will surely gather a lot of attention.
Away from the drama on Merseyside, is the drama at Old Trafford. Last Friday we were treated to Michael Carrick’s six-minute monologue after which his Manchester United side crumbled at home to Bournemouth. Remarkably Carrick is still in situ and this weekend United are on the road for a nostalgia-tinged trip to Chelsea, a fixture that was once key to the top four battle, and kind of still is but now it’s just a bit sadder.
We are due a slate of pre-match Premier League press conferences, which we’ll be keeping you across, plus looking back at last night’s Women’s Champions League action and more. Your football weekend starts here, (I like to imagine that bit with quite a Sky Sports News heading to the ad break style delivery).
