عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Sports

Klopp Stays Positive After Salah Vents About Liverpool Missing Champions League

Liverpool's manager Juergen Klopp waves supporters after the Premier League match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Sunday, May 22, 2022. (AP)
Liverpool's manager Juergen Klopp waves supporters after the Premier League match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Sunday, May 22, 2022. (AP)
TT
TT

Klopp Stays Positive After Salah Vents About Liverpool Missing Champions League

Liverpool's manager Juergen Klopp waves supporters after the Premier League match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Sunday, May 22, 2022. (AP)
Liverpool's manager Juergen Klopp waves supporters after the Premier League match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Sunday, May 22, 2022. (AP)

Mohamed Salah said it’s “too soon” for optimism after Liverpool failed to reach the Champions League.

Jurgen Klopp isn’t as downcast as his star forward.

The Liverpool manager acknowledged that “we didn’t deliver” but rattled off reasons for optimism at Anfield the morning after Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea doomed his team to fifth place and a spot in the second-tier Europe League next season.

Missing out on Champions League money hurts, the German said Friday, The Associated Press reported.

“But besides that, we have European nights next year. Instead of Tuesday-Wednesday, it’s a Thursday, who cares,” Klopp said ahead of Sunday’s Premier League season finale at Southampton.

United’s 4-1 win over Chelsea on Thursday ended top-four hopes for Liverpool, which had played in the Champions League six consecutive years, winning the title in 2019 and reaching the final two other times including last year.

“We didn’t deliver what everybody wanted and everybody expected, rightly so, but we are still really united and that’s the good thing about it,” Klopp said. “If you can go through difficult moments like we did in the last year, I think that’s a really good basis for a better future. So I find a lot of reasons for an optimistic view.”

Liverpool’s top scorer this season turned to social media Thursday night while United fans were still celebrating their Champions League qualification at Old Trafford.

“I’m totally devastated,” the Egypt international’s post said. “There’s absolutely no excuse for this. We had everything we needed to make it to next year’s Champions League and we failed. We are Liverpool and qualifying to the competition is the bare minimum. I am sorry but it’s too soon for an uplifting or optimistic post. We let you and ourselves down.”

The Merseyside club took last year’s Premier League title race to the final day before finishing second to Manchester City. Liverpool struggled for much of this season but the current 10-game unbeaten streak, Klopp said, shows the “trust and faith that we have ... it’s a super basis.”

The manager said he had no issues with Salah’s message.

“In the world of social media, so many bad things happen constantly, I don’t think that was one of them,” he said. “In that moment right after the game, he’s right, that’s not immediately a moment to send any optimistic messages, but maybe an hour, a day later.

“I saw him now in the canteen and he was smiling. I don’t know for which reason, didn’t ask him, but he was not in a bad mood.”

Most Viewed

 
 
Sports

Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
TT
TT

Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”