Champions League

ANTONIO CONTE urged Tottenham to put more pressure on Premier League chiefs to lighten their “crazy” fixture load.Spurs begin their Champions League campaign on Wednesday night at home to Marseille — having already played three times in six days last week.
Conte is not happy with Tottenham’s schedule in the coming monthsCredit: PA
The clash against the French side sparks a run of 17 matches in just ten weeks before the World Cup in Qatar.
And worried boss Conte said: “To see this schedule is incredible.
“It’s just crazy because we played three games in six days against Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Fulham.
“I think maybe this is the first time in my career I see a schedule like this.
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“Honestly, I try to check the schedule of the other teams and I have seen that in this situation, Tottenham they penalise a lot — they penalise a lot our club and our team.
“I think in this situation we are unlucky. But I think in the future, and also I spoke with the club, we have to pay great attention to also speak to the Premier League.
“We have to pay attention when there is this type of schedule.
“One day more, one day less, can change totally your life and you can drop points.
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“This is no good for a team like Tottenham. When you want to start to think as a winner, you have to take care of the details.
“And the schedule is a detail that is very important for every club, especially for one that wants to fight for something important. I think we can do much better for the future.”
The hectic schedule will hardly help as Conte seeks to improve a relatively poor personal record in the Champions League.

He may have won the Serie A title four times as well as the Premier League, but the Italian has never been past the quarter-finals of Europe’s elite club competition.
The ex-Chelsea, Juventus and Inter Milan chief has only been out of the group stage twice in his five managerial campaigns — winning just 12 of his 34 games.
Conte, who lost the 2020 Europa League final to Sevilla with Inter, badly wants to succeed in Europe.
But he downplayed Tottenham’s prospects compared to the competition’s big beasts.
Conte added: “For sure, the story of a lot of clubs in this competition is really, really big.
“To be at the same level, in this moment, is unthinkable for Spurs.
“But it has to be for us a big push to try and improve and reduce the gap and try to fight for something important.”
Keeper Hugo Lloris has celebrated a decade at Spurs but is yet to win a trophy with the club, coming closest in 2019 when they lost the Champions League final to Liverpool.
Asked if he still had the hunger to win that first medal with Tottenham, the French World Cup winner, 35, replied: “I’m still looking for it.
“And I believe we are capable of it, but it’s going to demand a lot of effort, a lot of work. I feel and believe we are going in the right direction. But there are a lot of competitive clubs in England and in Europe. So that’s why we need to go step by step.”
Meanwhile, Spurs have been boosted by a rule change which means that Welsh star Ben Davies now counts as “homegrown” in Europe.
Players trained in Wales, as Davies was with Swansea, were previously counted as foreign for Uefa competitions.
Credit: Getty
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But the recent switch means no overseas players will be left out of Tottenham’s Champions League squad — unlike back in 2019 when Argentine centre-back Juan Foyth had to be omitted.
TOTTENHAM (likely): Lloris, Sanchez, Dier, Davies, Royal, Hojbjerg, Bissouma, Perisic, Kulusevski, Kane, Son. More

THOMAS TUCHEL ripped into his Chelsea flops as they ruined his 100th game as Blues boss.Furious Tuchel admitted being shocked by the pathetic performance in Zagreb just days after he finished splashing £259.1MILLION on new stars.
Thomas Tuchel admitted “everything is missing” from his team at presentCredit: AP
“Of course I’m frustrated; there’s too much to analyse, I’m a part of it, and we are clearly not where we need to be,” Tuchel told BT Sport.
“At the moment everything is missing.
“I need to find solutions for the next match, of course.”
The German added: “This is a huge under-performance from all of us. “It’s not precise enough, not clinical enough and it’s not aggressive enough.
“It’s not determined enough individually and as a team and that’s why we lost.
“I’m angry with myself and I’m angry with our performance.
“It’s for me to find the solution and find the reason why.
“Obviously they are under-performing and I don’t really know where this performance comes from.
“A lack of hunger and a lack of intensity to actually do the things that we need at the highest level. We are clearly not where we want to be.
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“It was the story of the last few games — we started OK for 15 or 20 minutes but then lacked determination, precision and maybe even lacked the smell of blood.”
Tuchel admits there can be no days off now with his team playing so badly.
Chelsea travel to rivals Fulham in just 72 hours – where they will be hoping to avoid a fourth consecutive away defeat.
He had hoped that a battling 2-1 comeback against West Ham at the weekend would prove a turning point for his expensive squad.
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Tuchel added: “I didn’t see it coming. Obviously I was in the wrong movie.
“I thought that the last game helped us. I thought we showed a reaction in a difficult moment against West Ham, got the result in the moments when you need a bit of luck.
“We had good training sessions, I thought the team was prepared.“I didn’t see it coming, that’s why I’m angry at myself.

“We had an amount of deliveries, of spaces and an amount of ball that should be enough to have far more attempts but we did not.
“We conceded a goal with two players in a counter-attack that has never happened before. I don’t understand why it happened today.
“It’s clearly my job to analyse it so that will continue.
“We need to be much better. We are not happy with our results, we are not happy with the way we play in general.
“There is no day off in the planning and there cannot be a day off at the moment.”
Jubilant Dinamo coach Ante Cacic claimed his victory — thanks to Mislav Orsic’s goal — was a work of art.
He said: “We have witnessed a beautiful match. We saw a beautiful football atmosphere.
“Not one individual was bad tonight.
“When it is raining you have to wear a raincoat or when it is winter you have to get your feet warm. We had to do everything to make them play slower.
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“For me I have had beautiful wins but this is one of my favourites.
“This is a big win — a good confirmation and affirmation of my work.” More

NOT EVEN PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG’S space-age face mask could cover up an abject Chelsea performance.The £12 million striker’s debut was overshadowed by the worst performance yet this season which saw boss Thomas Tuchel in bother with the referee again as his frustrations boiled over.
Dinamo Zagreb’s Mislav Orsic celebrates after breaking the deadlock early doorsCredit: AFP
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang failed to find the target on his Blues bowCredit: AP
Aubameyang, 33, was thrown in from the start and wearing a bespoke plastic face covering to protect the broken jaw he suffered in a raid on his house in Spain just eight days ago.
It was meant to give Chelsea a lift but a disastrous all round performance and a tactical disaster show by Tuchel summed up a miserable opening night in the Champions League.

The Premier League side changed defensive formation twice in the 90 minutes as Tuchel tried and failed to get to grips with the game Croatians.
Chelsea’s new £105 million centre half pairing of Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana were also humbled for Zagreb’s first half goal while the strikers were easily controlled by the Zagreb defence.
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Winger Mislav Orsic, who destroyed Tottenham two years ago with a hat-trick against them in the Europa League, scored yet again to pile pressure on Tuchel as his side struggles to gather any momentum in a tricky start to the season both at home and abroad.
Fofana in particular was comfortably outpaced by Orsic for the 13th minute goal which gave Dinamo a famous win on the 55th anniversary of the day they beat Leeds to win the now defunct Fairs Cup.
And had it not been for two saves by stand-in Chelsea keeper Kepa – one a stunning one-handed tip onto the bar, it would have been even worse.
By the end of the game, Tuchel had at one point used all six of the major signings from the summer transfer window at a cost of more than £200m only to see them flop.
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To make it even worse for Aubameyang he did put the ball in the net in his first game for Chelsea, only for Ben Chilwell to be ruled offside.
Reece James also hit the post in the dying minutes.
Chelsea needed a late fightback and the help of an incorrect decision by VAR at the weekend to take three points against West Ham at home and this performance was even worse. 
A clearly agitated Tuchel was given a yellow card by Romanian ref Istvan Kovacs for animated complaints about Dinamo time-wasting in the second half. More