AS Monaco coach Claudio Ranieri knows that the best way to respond to ongoing speculation about his future is to finish the season by winning silverware.
The principality club travel to Ligue 1 strugglers En Avant de Guingamp today in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France and are huge favorites to lift the trophy at the Stade de France next month with Paris Saint-Germain already out.
They are also second in Ligue 1, although a 10-point deficit to PSG with five games remaining means it is only a matter of time before the capital club win the title.
Photo: Reuters
Ranieri has done very little wrong since taking charge at the Stade Louis II, leading them to promotion back to the top flight last season and he has a year left to run on his contract. However, that has not dampened speculation that the club’s billionaire majority shareholder Dmitry Rybolovlev will seek to replace the Italian in the summer, with reports last week linking him with an approach for France great, and current Real Madrid assistant, Zinedine Zidane.
“I don’t know if I’ll be the coach of Monaco next season, but I want to win the Coupe de France and finish as close to PSG as possible. When the team wins, it’s better for everyone,” Ranieri said. “I love football, I love my job and I am very serious about my work, but I acknowledge that it’s very difficult to have a career like [Arsene] Wenger or [Alex] Ferguson with a club today.”
Monaco, who have won the Coupe de France five times, but not since 1990-1991 when Wenger was the coach, will be without promising leftback Layvin Kurzawa due to injury.
His absence is a blow as Monaco attempt to handle the pressure that comes with being favorites against a Guingamp side who have lost their last four matches in Ligue 1.
“We are the big favorites to win the Cup, which is to be expected. The pressure will be on us,” said Ranieri, although Guingamp will be looking to return to the final of a competition they won as a second-tier side in 2008-2009.
On that occasion they stunned their Brittany neighbors Stade Rennais at the Stade de France and there is a possibility that the clubs could meet again in the final.
Rennes, who have not won a major trophy since the 1970-1971 Coupe de France, were due to play second-tier Angers SCO in the first semi-final yesterday at the Stade de la Route de Lorient.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
RSS