Winning the Europa League is looking increasingly like Manchester United’s best chance of getting back in the Champions League next season.
It is 20 Premier League games without defeat for United after Zlatan Ibrahimovic, back from suspension, converted a stoppage-time penalty to salvage a 1-1 draw against Everton at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
However, 10 of those games have been draws and United are still struggling to bridge the gap to the top four, where Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Manchester City reside.
Photo: AP
“One point or zero points, it’s not a huge difference,” United manager Jose Mourinho said.
United are four points behind fourth-place City with nine games remaining. Making the job even harder is United’s involvement in the Europa League, where they are through to the quarter-finals and face Belgian side RSC Anderlecht in the first leg next week.
It means that this month, United have eight games — one every three or four days — and Mourinho has already suggested he might start prioritizing his key players for the Europa League if his side’s league performances do not start improving.
With five draws from their past six home games in the league, United are clearly stuttering domestically.
Many of United’s recent setbacks have stemmed from their failure to turn possession and clear-cut chances into goals, but this was not one of those occasions.
Ander Herrera and substitute Paul Pogba might have struck the crossbar either side of halftime, but Everton caused problems and defended well after Phil Jagielka gave the visitors the lead in the 22nd minute from a corner.
At times, United’s play was chaotic and untidy, and they resorted to long balls by the end as Marouane Fellaini went up front alongside Ibrahimovic.
The pressure paid off deep in stoppage-time when substitute Luke Shaw’s shot was blocked in Everton’s area by the hand of Ashley Williams, who was given a straight red card. The clock had ticked into the 94th minute when Ibrahimovic slotted home the penalty.
It was hardly a celebratory mood inside Old Trafford after the final whistle.
“The performance was not very good,” Mourinho said. “The spirit in the second half was phenomenal, but with some players really in trouble — some by the physical point of view, some others clearly with the confidence levels low.”
Elsewhere, Leicester City earned a sixth straight win since Craig Shakespeare took over from Claudio Ranieri in charge of the champions, thanks to second-half goals by strikers Islam Slimani and Jamie Vardy, leading them to a 2-0 win over Sunderland.
Burnley might be able to start planning for another season in the Premier League after they moved up to 11th place, eight points above the relegation zone, thanks to George Boyd’s 58th-minute goal in a 1-0 win over Stoke City at Turf Moor.
Watford also appear to be safe after a 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but