Key occasions
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GOAL! Sporting 0-2 Borussia Dortmund (Gross 67)
A one-two punch from Dortmund, who rating a near-identical aim to their first. This time Guirassy turns supplier, delivering one other cracking cross from that proper wing. Pascal Gross, previously of Brighton in fact, ghosts in utterly unmarked on the again publish and knees the ball into the nook. It’s a cool, improvised end after the ball whizzed previous a few Sporting heads. Dortmund 2-0 up!
Exeter 2-2 Nottingham Forest
62 min: Niskanen goes shut for Exeter! Might they actually nick a winner?! The Finnish’s end attracts Sels into an excellent save only a few minutes after approaching. Forest reside dangerously!
GOAL! Sporting 0-1 Borussia Dortmund (Guirassy 60)
A easy but lovely aim! Brandt has time and house to cross on the suitable wing and the German curls one to the again publish. Guirassy will get up early above the Sporting defenders and crops an exquisite looping header over Rui Silva and into the far nook! Enormous aim within the tie!
Exeter 2-2 Nottingham Forest
58 min: Forest are going to have to vary their keeper with Carlos Miguel struggling an harm. The Brazilian has has a nightmare night time in Devon. Utterly at fault for Exeter’s first aim, he maybe may have performed higher for his or her second too, failing to return for the cross that led to Magennis’s shot. Sels, arguably the very best keeper within the Premier League this season, is on.
GOAL! Juventus 1-1 PSV (Perisic 55)
A luxurious aim by the Croatian veteran! It’s in opposition to the run of play, however this can be a aim stuffed with high quality with Perisic controlling a rebounded shot with the deftest of touches, reducing inside Kelly and firing a lazer of a left-footed shot inside Di Gregorio’s close to publish! Perisic has all the time been very two-footed and also you gained’t see a greater instance: right-foot management, left-foot end.
The aim was checked by VAR for a PSV handball by Lang within the build-up, however ultimately given. I believe the Dutch facet are a bit fortunate to get away with that one, personally!
GOAL! Exeter 2-2 Nottingham Forest (Boly og 51)
Exeter are degree! From a nook Magennis wins a again publish header, the ball pinballs across the six-yard field, and the Northern Eire striker in some way turns the unfastened ball house! It was a horribly messy strike, bobbling in off Boly’s foot I believe, however Exeter gained’t care. St James Park erupts!
Exeter 1-2 Nottingham Forest
49 min: “Oi,” emails Damian Clarke reacting to the peak of Exeter goalkeeper Joe Whitworth. “Simply 5ft8in? 5ft5in goalkeeper right here. Thanks very a lot (OK, indoor 5 a facet veterans). However nonetheless …”
“Now that Liverpool has fallen sufferer to the Pilgrims’ progress, I’m rooting for the underdogs within the FA Cup,” writes Peter Oh. “Come on Exeter! By the way in which, I’m questioning how a lot League One gamers make. How a lot does a Grecian earn?”
Appears to be like like the very best paid Exeter gamers make round £3-4k every week. Not too shabby, however lower than Morgan Gibbs-White makes in a lunchbreak. Most likely.
Juventus 1-0 PSV
47 min: Mbangula has come on for Yilmaz at half-time. That’s a straight swap however I’m stunned by that. The Turkish worldwide was pretty shiny.
Peeeeeeeeep!
We’re stay within the Champions League matches and shall be up and operating once more with Exeter v Forest shortly.
Half-time studying:
Half-time: Exeter 1-2 Nottingham Forest
Whitworth, who has let in two targets however in any other case been wonderful for Exeter, does very nicely to clear away a nook from beneath his personal crossbar by means of a crowded penalty space simply earlier than the half-time whistle. The keeper, on mortgage from Crystal Palace, stands at simply 5ft8in!
Half-time: Sporting 0-0 PSV
Goalless on the break.
Half-time: Juventus 1-0 PSV
The Outdated Girl are nicely price their lead.
Sporting 0-0 Dortmund
43 min: In the meantime, it’s Dortmund pushing for the opener in Lisbon. Guirassy tries his luck from vary, there’s a depraved deflection and Rui Silva has to palm is over. The ball was spinning beneath the bar! From the ensuing nook, Guirassy pokes huge however replays present the Dortmund striker is nicely offside.
Juventus 1-0 PSV
40 min: Juventus are more and more dominant in Turin. De Jong is reducing a lonely determine up prime for PSV, who’ve threatened from set items however in any other case been somewhat stale.
Half-time scores within the Soccer League
GOAL! Exeter 1-2 Nottingham Forest (Awoniyi 37)
Awoniyi will get his aim, simply his second of the season because of Wooden’s kind. To be truthful to the Forest striker, that is an knowledgeable little bit of ahead play: receiving a move together with his again to aim, holding off two Exeter defenders on the sting of the realm and swivelling fantastically to curve a left-footed shot proper into the underside nook. Whitworth didn’t transfer! That was Premier League class.
GOAL! Juventus 1-0 PSV (McKennie 33)
Gatti engineers the opening, breaking tackles and cantering up from centre-back earlier than he crosses to Muani. The Frenchman is denied by Benitez, however after one other key contact from Gatti, the rebound falls to McKennie on the sting of the realm and the American hammers a volley into the roof of the web! An absolute thunderbastard, however that probability was all made by the industriousness of Gatti.
Exeter 1-1 Nottingham Forest
30 min: Outrageous save from Whitworth to disclaim Awoniyi! Wooooow, this can be a world-class cease to maintain Exeter degree, diving to his proper and tipping the Nigerian’s volley across the publish! How?!
Exeter 1-1 Nottingham Forest
27 min: Demetri Mitchell, who created Exeter’s aim, stays an actual risk down the League One membership’s proper flank. Toffolo is struggling to take care of the previous Manchester United academy man.
There was a aim on the Etihad.
Brest 0-3 PSG match report
Juventus 0-0 PSV
23 min: A penny for the ideas of Lloyd Kelly. One minute you’ll be able to’t get a kick for Newcastle, the following you’re lining up in a Champions League knock-out tie for Juventus. Soccer is a humorous sport.
Additionally, can somebody examine on Marcus Edwards, now on mortgage at Burnley from Sporting. I can’t say I’ve watched quite a lot of Sporting not too long ago but it surely wasn’t too way back that he was a key a part of this Portuguese group. Now the 26-year-old is within the Championship.
Exeter 1-1 Nottingham Forest
21 min: Forest are beginning to hit their stride now with lengthy spells of possession. Sangare and Danilo pulling the strings.
Sporting 0-0 Dortmund
18 minutes: I miss Marco Reus.
Sporting 0-0 Dortmund
16 minutes: Sporting hit the bar! Araujo finds some room 25 yards out and crashes a shot so onerous in opposition to Dortmund’s bar that the ball rebounds nicely exterior the penalty space. Dortmund look rattled and are fortunate to nonetheless be on degree phrases.
GOAL! Exeter 1-1 Nottingham Forest (Sosa 14)
Sosa ranges! The Paraguayan collects a chipped move, wiggles by means of a few Exeter challenges and finds the end previous Whitworth. Forest shall be delighted however that was weak defending in reality, a gentle one to concede.
Juventus 0-0 PSV
10 min: Benitez dallies on the ball and is sort of caught by McKennie, who’s inches from tackling the goalkeeper on his personal six-yard line, however truly finally ends up leaving a couple of stud marks within the PSV keeper’s ankle. Ouch.
Exeter 1-0 Nottingham Forest
7 min: Genuinely one of many worst goalkeeping howlers of the season. That is simply Carlos Miguel’s third look of the season. The Brazilian, signed from Corinthians final summer season, could have been constructing himself up for tonight however the stress appears to have gotten to him. That was a regulation catch.
GOAL! Exeter 1-0 Nottingham Forest (Magennis 5)
Oh my days! Exeter in dreamland! Mitchell tries a hopeful cross, Carlos Miguel ought to catch it simply however makes a dreadful spill and Magennis is there to poke within the rebound! Wooooow! One other Devon shock is on.
Juventus v PSV
2 min: Muani, who has been on flames since becoming a member of on mortgage from PSG, breaks the offside lure, attracts Benitez out of the PSV aim and cuts the ball again to Yildiz however the Turkish worldwide can’t drive the ball into the empty web with Ledezma making a wonderful last-ditch block.
Peeeeeeeeeep!
We’re off in all three matches. I’ll publish the half-time scores within the Soccer League (Championship, League One and League Two matches) in about half an hour.
The groups are out! The Champions League anthems have been performed (not in Devon, sadly).
It’s attention-grabbing to see that Dortmund’s big-money summer season signing Waldemar Anton has been not noted after his personal aim within the weekend defeat to Stuttgart.
Nottingham Forest supervisor Nuno Espírito Santo speaks!
It’s not a threat [to make 10 changes from the 7-0 win over Brighton]. It’s the identical strategy that we made [in the last round] in opposition to Luton. It’s alternative for our gamers. We’re exceeding expectations however now we have to have the identical perspective. Now we have to respect our opponents. Nothing is granted. I need to see targets.
It’s a threat to relaxation gamers, as Slot did at Plymouth, however the largest distinction between Forest and Liverpool is Nuno’s bench: Sels, Morato, Williams, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Wooden, Dominguez, Elanga, Abbott. There are many senior professionals, matchwinners there.
Full-time: Brest 0-3 PSG
Ousmane Dembélé scored two on an excellent night time for the Parisians. One suspects that that play-off is finished if the scores keep like that, and with PSG at house for the second leg.
A massively disappointing draw for Brest, who would a minimum of wish to have confronted a overseas facet within the play-off spherical, and a massively disappointing efficiency. Ouch.
“Earlier than this season, Ousmane Dembélé’s season greatest aim tally was 14,” emails Kári Tulinius. “He’s nicely previous 20 already this season. I can’t consider many different gamers who’ve each been teenage wonders and late bloomers”.
Just a few eye-catching substitutes within the Sporting v Dortmund sport. For the house facet, star striker Viktor Gyokeres is simply match sufficient for a spot on the bench, simply as he was within the weekend draw at Porto.
For Dortmund, Carney Chukwuemeka may make his debut in yellow and black following his mortgage transfer from Chelsea. Dortmund are nonetheless gentle in defence with Niklas Sule making the bench after a protracted harm lay-off. The vastly underrated Nico Schlotterbeck begins, although. The German hasn’t performed for a few weeks so a well timed return for the centre-back.
“Provided that Fulham play Forest on Saturday I hope Exeter are up for a scrap, with loads of the Issues No One Likes To See,” says Richard Hirst, disgracefully.
I believe that Exeter gained’t play 100% good, and that Forest might need a bit extra of the ball than they’re used to within the Premier League. Though their low-possession, counter-attacking soccer is what has labored for them? Let’s see.
Exeter v Nottingham Forest groups
Exeter: Whitworth, Angus MacDonald, Turns, Francis, Harper, Jake Richards, Trevitt, McMillan, Mitchell, Niskanen, Magennis.
Subs: Shaun MacDonald, Purrington, Watts, Woods, Cole, Aitchison, Jones, Yogane, Chicken.
Nottingham Forest: Carlos Miguel, Boly, Sangare, Toffolo, Sosa, Yates, Danilo, Alex, Jota Silva, Moreira, Awoniyi.
Subs: Sels, Morato, Williams, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Wooden, Dominguez, Elanga, Abbott.
Sporting v Borussia Dortmund groups
Sporting: Rui Silva, Fresneda, St Juste, Diomande, Matheus Reis, Simoes, Debast, Quenda, Trincao, Araujo, Tougher.
Subs: Israel, Callai, Morita, Gyokeres, Braganca, Inacio, Gabriel Teixeira, Ricardo Esgaio, Brito, Quaresma, Afonso Moreira, Anjos.
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Ryerson, Can, Schlotterbeck, Svensson, Sabitzer, Gross, Adeyemi, Brandt, Bynoe-Gittens, Guirassy.
Subs: Meyer, Laurenz Lotka, Yan Couto, Anton, Ozcan, Reyna, Beier, Duranville, Chukwuemeka, Sule.
Juventus v PSV group information
Juventus: Di Gregorio, Weah, Gatti, Veiga, Kelly, Locatelli, Douglas Luiz, Gonzalez, McKennie, Yildiz, Muani.
Subs: Perin, Pinsoglio, Francisco Conceicao, Koopmeiners, Vlahovic, Thuram, Savona, Rouhi, Mbangula.
PSV: Benitez, Ledezma, Flamingo, Obispo, Junior, Schouten, Veerman, Perisic, Saibari, Lang, de Jong.
Subs: Drommel, Schiks, Malacia, Bakayoko, Bajraktarevic, Til, Driouech, Babadi, Land, Kuhn, Uneken, Nagalo.
We’re nicely into the second half within the early Champions League kick-off. Brest, in some ways the stand-out group of the league part are 2-0 down at house to PSG. Bear in mind, there are two legs to those play-offs, so nonetheless a protracted strategy to go, but it surely’s nonetheless an ominous scoreline for the Brittany membership.
The opposite play-off, keep in mind, is Manchester Metropolis v Actual Madrid, which might be going to be completely garbage and not price listening to.
Right here’s a useful preview for the Champions League play-offs.
Juventus v PSV
The Outdated Girl has a spring in her step as Juve gear as much as welcome PSV to Turin. After a three-game winless run, Juventus have claimed back-to-back victories, beating Empoli and Como to get their top-four pursuit again on monitor. January signing Randal Kolo Muani has been a breath of recent air, scoring 5 league targets in simply three outings for the Italian facet; solely Dusan Vlahovic (eight) has netted extra for Thiago Motta’s facet this season.
Kolo Muani, together with fellow January arrivals Lloyd Kelly and Renato Veiga, have been added to the membership’s Champions League squad, and the trio could also be wanted from the outset. Left-back Andrea Cambiaso, who was linked with a transfer to Manchester Metropolis final month, is a doubt, whereas fellow defenders Bremer, Juan Cabal and Pierre Kalulu all miss the assembly with Eredivisie leaders PSV.
The Dutch facet have their justifiable share of issues. Defenders Oscar Boscagli and Richard Ledezma are lacking because of harm, with the absence of the previous an enormous blow. Ahead pair Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi are additionally sidelined, although Peter Bosz can eventually name upon Ivan Perisic after he joined too late to be included of their Champions League squad for the league part. Mortgage signing Tyrell Malacia may characteristic at left-back following Matteo Dams’ transfer to Saudi facet Al Ahli. Prediction: Juventus to progress
Sporting v Borussia Dortmund
Sporting have struggled since Ruben Amorim’s departure. They continue to be prime of the Primeira Liga however their 1-1 draw with Porto on the weekend means their lead has been lower to only 4 factors. They’ve been inconsistent beneath Rui Borges, successful simply two of their final 5 matches.
Sporting have points in midfield. Morten Hjulmand misses the primary leg assembly with Borussia Dortmund because of a ban, and João Simões was compelled off on the weekend, that means Zeno Debast ought to associate Hidemasa Morita in the midst of the park. Nuno Santos, Pote and Geny Catamo are additionally injured, however star striker Viktor Gyökeres is again.
Borussia Dortmund have been overwhelmed by Stuttgart on the weekend, persevering with a poor run of kind. They’re eleventh within the Bundesliga, having misplaced as many matches as they’ve gained this season. The excellent news is that centre-back Nico Schlotterbeck is again after a ban. New arrival Carney Chukwuemeka should wait somewhat longer to make his debut because of harm, and he’s joined by Felix Nmecha and Niklas Sule on the sidelines.
Dortmund face an uphill activity in Lisbon this weekend; they’ve misplaced 9 of their final 13 away matches. That mentioned, two of their 5 away wins this season have come within the Champions League. Prediction: Sporting to progress
Preamble
Selection is the spice of life, and this MBM has taken that saying fairly actually. Not solely will we carry you reside piping scorching FA Cup motion from Exeter v Nottingham Forest – the place the Midlands membership will try to keep away from turning into the second elite Premier League membership to change into unstuck in Devon in the previous few days – we can even carry you the most recent updates from Juventus v PSV and Sporting v Borussia Dortmund – the 2 8pm GMT Champions League play-off matches that aren’t lined in our devoted Manchester Metropolis v Actual Madrid liveblog.
A reminder that the FA Cup match is a straight knockout match – no VAR and no replays in fact – with additional time and penalties if wanted. Exeter or Forest will face Ipswich City at house within the fifth-round, so a really winnable tie given the stage of the competitors.
Within the Champions League matches, that is the primary of a two-leg play-off, with the winners reaching the last-16 knockout spherical.
Oh, and if that’s not sufficient, there shall be a sprinkling of EFL motion as nicely (if my palms sort quick sufficient). There are 5 Championship matches tonight and loads of League One and Two motion besides.
Exeter, Turin and Lisbon. What a deal with. All three kick-offs, throughout the 2 competitions, are at 8pm GMT.
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