Nemanja Matic couldn’t offer any explanations for Manchester United’s disappointing Champions League exit on Tuesday, saying that Sevilla was deservedly heading into the tournament’s quarter-final stage.
Few players emerged with any credit from the 2-1 home defeat – Alexis Sanchez and Marouane Fellaini courted the most criticism for their performances – and the game contrasted sharply with the tactically astute display against Liverpool three days earlier.
“There is no excuse,” Matic said, according to PA Sport. “There is no excuse. We had a big game, as you know, against Liverpool. We won.
“With high confidence, we come to play this game, but today they played better than us and they deserved (to win).”
Despite abject showings throughout United’s lineup, Jose Mourinho faces the brunt of disapproval from critics and fans. The Red Devils were negative in the first leg, displaying minimum attacking intent in a tedious 0-0 draw. They didn’t fare much better in the second meeting, with the host’s press appearing a little reluctant while defensive work seemed to be the prime concern.
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
“Of course (it is difficult to take),” Matic continued. “… But this is football, we have to accept it and to focus on the next game, which is very important also for us, in the FA Cup.
“We focus also for the league, but we have to say congratulations to the team, Sevilla. They played really well, and they deserved to go through.”
Related – Mourinho: Champions League failure ‘nothing new’ for Manchester United
United is 16 points behind Manchester City in the Premier League table with eight matches to go, leaving the FA Cup as the club’s only realistic chance of major silverware this season. Mourinho’s side takes on Brighton & Hove Albion in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was among those viewing as Sam Darnold was slinging in the rain Wednesday at USC.
Haslam was one member of a large contingent present to evaluate the quarterback the Browns are pondering taking with the first overall pick in the NFL draft. In an unusual twist, Darnold chose to keep throwing after a heavy rain started a few minutes into his workout. He received generally favorable reviews from analysts for his footwork, arm strength and accuracy.
Those Browns in attendance for the workout included Haslam, general manager John Dorsey, coach Hue Jackson, offensive coordinator Todd Haley and quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese. Haslam sat with Darnold’s parents during part of the workout. On Tuesday night, the Browns took Darnold out to dinner. Haslam was not present to scout Darnold, but more to get to know him with the rest of the Browns staff.
“He’s a great guy,” Darnold said of Haslam on the NFL Network. “That whole staff is awesome. I was able to meet with the Giants as well [on Monday]. Just meeting with both of those organizations, like I said before, those people are at the top of the world right now and I’m trying to impress them but at the same time be myself. So there is a fine line between that, and I just tried to find that and do my best.”
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Part of the reason the Browns sent such a large contingent to Los Angeles is because Darnold did not throw at the scouting combine. Darnold, who will turn 21 in June, chose not to go inside when it started raining, in part because he wanted to show he could handle the elements, and because he did not think it was fair to his USC teammates to move the time of the workout. Another factor is that USC’s indoor facility is not large enough for deep passes, ESPN’s Keyshawn Johnson said during the workout.
Though there were several dropped passes, Darnold was praised for his accuracy and mobility. He also focused on showing that he had worked at holding onto the ball with two hands (he had 21 fumbles in two seasons at USC). He did not seem to do anything to hurt his draft standing, and might even have improved his cause.
“Just being aware of all those little things and then just coming out here and ripping it,” Darnold said. “I thought I did a pretty good job.”
“It’d be awesome to go No. 1, just because I think what the Browns are doing is really good right now and I think they have potential to be a really good team in the future,” Darnold said. “Just based on that, yeah, a part of me really wants to go 1. But at the same time, if they don’t want me and they don’t pick me, that’s the best situation. Because I don’t want to go to a team that doesn’t want me.”
This is a busy time for quarterback pre-draft workouts. Josh Rosen had his workout at UCLA on Tuesday. The Browns will visit and work out Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield on Thursday. On Friday, it’s on to Wyoming, where Josh Allen will have his pro day. Allen is also viewed as a possibility for the Browns at No. 1.
Give Barcelona an inch, and the five-time European champion will take a mile.
Few sides will understand that better than Chelsea, who on Wednesday slumped out of the Champions League last-16 stage courtesy of a 3-0 second-leg defeat at the Camp Nou.
Lionel Messi gave the host a third-minute lead, and instead of withdrawing into its habitual defensive shell, Chelsea was on the front foot. Eden Hazard, Willian, and Olivier Giroud were the principal parts of an attack probing Barcelona’s backline in search of an equaliser, and the Blues appeared the more likely of the two sides to score next.
And then, for the umpteenth time in a celebrated career, Messi happened.
The magical Argentine found a surging Ousmane Dembele, whose first goal for the Catalan giant doubled its lead in the 20th minute, giving Barcelona a 3-1 advantage on aggregate.
Same story, different half, as Chelsea showed attacking intent after the break only for Barcelona to take full advantage of the littlest opportunities. Cesar Azpilicueta played an uncharacteristically poor pass under pressure from Andre Gomes that Jordi Alba intercepted and found Messi, who like Dembele’s goal, found the back of the net with an effort that Thibaut Courtois will regret. It meant 3-0 to Barcelona, 4-1 on aggregate, tie done.
#TardeDeCampeones
¡Se apareció el genio ???!
Messi-Messi-Messi otra vez entre las piernas
? EN VIVO en TDcom https://t.co/zA0RWG5GE0 pic.twitter.com/wpLaBL9R35
— Televisa Deportes (@TD_Deportes) March 14, 2018
It was Messi’s 100th Champions League goal in just 123 appearances, joining Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to bag a century of tallies on the continent.
That’s now a record 24 victories against English opponents in Europe’s top-tier tournament, and the 11th season on the trot where Barcelona has made the last eight.
Chelsea will feel like it deserved better, especially after Willian gave the west London lot a surprise lead in the first leg at Stamford Bridge only for Messi to level matters. For a team that has been known to fancy a false nine and a compact midfield, Chelsea was expansive at the Camp Nou, and could have drawn a penalty in the second half when wing-back Marcos Alonso was brought down in the penalty area by Gerard Pique.
11 – Barcelona have reached the quarter-finals for the 11th consecutive season, the longest run in the history of the Champions League. Infallible. pic.twitter.com/8sNKNJa1B8
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 14, 2018
It wasn’t to be, nor was progression to the last eight for the first time since 2013-14. Such is the plight of a side faced with the unenviable task of beating Barcelona on club football’s biggest stage.
Barcelona will now await Friday’s draw, with Ernesto Valverde’s lot set to face one of Real Madrid, Sevilla, Liverpool, Manchester City, Juventus, Roma, or Bayern Munich.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Richard Sherman, dressed in a bright red tailor-made suit for his first meeting with the Bay Area media Tuesday, made it clear how he feels about the negative assessments of his deal with the San Francisco 49ers and why he valued the chance to negotiate it.
“It was really important to me,” said Sherman, who served as his own agent. “I think that a lot of times in our league there are players that have the ability to do that and have the ability to structure their own deals and really take advantage of just being in control of their own destiny.
“There are great agents in our game that take care of our players, make sure our players are ready for life after football, their finances, whatever the case may be. And then there are some agents who negotiate a deal in 2006 and don’t talk to their client again until 2010, and that’s the thing we’re trying to avoid and I’m trying to avoid.
“I didn’t feel like I needed an agent. I felt like I knew contracts well enough and I felt like coming off the Achilles [injury], there’s going to be negotiation points, there’s going to be give and takes on both sides, and I felt comfortable with that.”
In the days since he signed with the 49ers after a tedious, five-hour-plus negotiation with general manager John Lynch and chief strategy officer Paraag Marathe, Sherman has seen and heard plenty about the disapproval of the contract. The three-year deal could be worth up to $39.15 million, though it effectively would only pay him that much money if he returns to his previous All-Pro form after a ruptured right Achilles suffered last season.
Richard Sherman dressed in a bright red tailor-made suit for his first meeting with the Bay Area media on Tuesday. AP Photo/Tony Avelar
For example, Sherman wrote that he has a $2 million roster bonus that he will receive if he can pass a physical before Nov. 11, which is the final day teams can activate a player from the physically unable to perform list. Along with that, Sherman believes he will be back on the field in May or June and be ready to go in time for training camp. That timetable would have him able to earn the roster bonus with time to spare.
Which is why Sherman — who received a $3 million signing bonus — is counting on a total of $5 million guaranteed, more than the zero guaranteed dollars he had on the remaining year of his deal with Seattle.
“The biggest misconception is that it’s a bad deal,” Sherman said. “… If I’m basing it just going off my last year [of the deal] in Seattle, and you compare it, I got no money guaranteed and I’m coming off a ruptured Achilles. What security do I have there? … That’s really all that I wanted. And [if] I play at the level that I’m capable of, I feel security in the upcoming years and I feel comfortable with that and I’m great with it.”
Sherman also said that at no point did Seattle ask him to take a pay cut, and though he offered the team a chance to match what the Niners offered, Seahawks general manager John Schneider declined.
Sherman said his biggest issue was with an apparent double standard between coverage of the deal he signed and the ones negotiated by agents who do team-friendly contracts but never receive similar critiques.
Guard Jonathan Cooper, who started a career-high 13 games for the Cowboys in 2017, signed a one-year deal with the 49ers on Tuesday.
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“I think the thing I’m most frustrated about is all the people that were so high on bashing this deal refuse to bash the agents that do awful deals every year,” Sherman said. “There are agents out there that do $3 million fully guaranteed deals that look like $50 million deals. When a guy gets cut after two weeks or after a year and the guy only makes $5 million off a $50 million contract, nobody sits there and bashes the agent.
“… So I think that this was just one of those things where the agents feel uncomfortable with the player taking the initiative to do his own deal. That obviously puts a fire under them, it makes them more accountable for their actions because more players will do this.”
Sherman said he has heard from “a lot” of players around the league who intend to negotiate their own contracts. Before he was released, Sherman spent time reading through copies of past contracts in the NFLPA database. He also enlisted the union to help him study the language and structure of contracts.
Now Sherman is expecting to see more players around the league follow in the footsteps of players like him and Chargers offensive tackle Russell Okung.
“I think it goes back to just educating our players in general on their own finances and being in control of your own life,” Sherman said. “I think more of our players are.”
While on the subject of player contracts, Sherman also offered some support for Eric Reid. The free-agent safety, who spent the past five seasons with the 49ers, has yet to sign with a new team almost a week into free agency.
Sherman said there is concern about Reid being unsigned.
“He played at a high level just about every year that he’s played in this league,” Sherman said. “He’s made enough plays to be signed with a team and to make his money. … I would think he’s [among the] top-five, top-10 safeties in this league, so he deserves to be paid accordingly.
“So there is concern there because you would think a player of his caliber and his quality would be picked up by now. Great teams are still looking and people are still looking for players and I’m praying that he gets picked up. But if he doesn’t, then I think there would be a conversation between the league office and the union on potential legal action.”
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