24, May 2024
Football: Ranieri bids tearful farewell to Cagliari with last-gasp Fiorentina defeat 0
Claudio Ranieri waved goodbye to Cagliari and brought the curtain down on a near four-decade club coaching career with Thursday’s 3-2 defeat to Fiorentina cruelly inflicted in the 13th minute of added time.
Arthur stroked home Fiorentina’s winning goal from the penalty spot after Luca Beltran earned the away side, who trailed 2-1 in the 85th minute, a soft spot-kick given after a long VAR check.
Fiorentina won and ensured European football with the last kick of Ranieri’s last match in charge of Cagliari, ahead of next week’s Europa Conference League final with Olympiakos.
Former Premier League winner Ranieri has now effectively retired even if he admitted in an interview with Sky in Italy that he would be interested in a national team job.
However Thursday’s defeat made little difference to Ranieri or Cagliari as last weekend he saved from relegation the same club he brought up from Serie B last season and with whom he rose to prominence in the late 1980s.
Ranieri began his managerial career in amateur football in 1986 but turned heads by guiding Cagliari to Serie A with two successive promotions in 1989 and 1990.
“What we managed to do, we did together,” said Ranieri in a short post-match speech on the pitch.
“I asked for your help a year and a half ago because only with you could we do what we did.”
Ranieri welled up on the sidelines ahead of kick-off as fans chanted his name and a standing ovation rolled around the stands, while a banner was unfurled which read “Eternal gratitude to a great man”.
And afterwards he hugged his players and family in front of a crowd which roared in appreciation of one of Italian football’s most beloved figures.
The 72-year-old said that his decision to quit had been made with a “heavy heart”, worrying that he would tarnish two brilliant spells nearly 40 years apart with Cagliari by staying on.
Ranieri had offered to quit following just three points from the first nine matches of the season.
Life lessons
But the club and players convinced him to stay and survival was dedicated to Ranieri, who has been frequently hailed by his team as an inspiration.
“He’s taught us things that are valuable not just on the pitch, but in life in general,” said Gianluca Lapadula to DAZN pre-match.
“If you don’t fight for your teammate, the man next to you, you’ll never go anywhere.”
Ranieri is most famous for winning the Premier League with Leicester City in 2016 but is a popular figure at a host of clubs even if he has only won a handful of major honours in his career.
An Italian Cup with Fiorentina and three trophies with Valencia go alongside his heart-warming English championship win eight years ago.
Ranieri brought Gianfranco Zola through to replace Diego Maradona at Napoli in the early 1990s and then coached the Sardinia native, by that time an Italy international, a decade later at Chelsea.
He managed Chelsea with the London outfit on the verge of bankruptcy and took them to the Champions League in 2003, after which the Blues were taken over by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
Ranieri then reached the semi-finals of Europe’s top club competition the following year before being replaced by Jose Mourinho.
He did battle with Mourinho while in charge of his boyhood team Roma in 2009/2010, at the helm as the capital club came close to snatching the Serie A title from eventual treble-winners Inter Milan on the final day of the season.
And Cagliari will stay in Serie A for at least one more season thanks to Ranieri who ended an eventful career back where it really started 36 years ago.
Source: AFP
24, May 2024
Andre Onana says it took him six months to feel good at Manchester United 0
Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana says it took him six months “to feel good” at Old Trafford.
United paid £47.2m to sign Onana from Inter Milan in July as replacement for four-time club player of the year David de Gea.
However, despite lofty expectations on his arrival, the Cameroon international was chipped from 50 yards on his Old Trafford debut against Lens and then made a series of errors that contributed to the club’s poor Premier League form and Champions League group-stage elimination.
Onana’s performances didn’t improve significantly until after he returned from the Africa Cup of Nations in February and while he has made the odd mistake, he is now regarded as one of the more reliable members of manager Erik ten Hag’s squad as they head into Saturday’s FA Cup final against rivals Manchester City (15:00 BST).
“I arrived as the best goalkeeper in the world and ‘boom’ it went down. It was like ‘what happened?’,” said the 28-year-old.
“But that is how difficult football is sometimes. It depends if you want to stay down there or stand up and fight. I know what I did to arrive here. I know who I am. I decided to stand up and fight.”
Manchester United keeper, Andre Onana reflects on season and career
Onana cites the example of team-mate Marcus Rashford for why players need to avoid the extremes of judgement.
Rashford scored a career-high 30 goals last season. This term, he has managed eight and didn’t even make England boss Gareth Southgate’s provisional 33-man European Championship squad, let alone the final cut.
“We are talking about the same player,” said Onana. “So now he’s a bad player? No. You can have a bad season or a bad start but the most important thing is how you end.
“Rashy, for me, is one of the best players in the world. But he is facing difficulty. It’s not only him and me but the whole club.
“But he will come back. I know my killer will score some important goals for us. Hopefully against City he will score two and we win the FA Cup.”
‘I don’t mind facing 20 or 30 shots’
The wariness among some United fans about a second consecutive FA Cup final showdown with Manchester City comes from the sheer number of chances their side allows.
There was a seven-game streak between March and April where the opposition had a minimum of 20 shots per match on Onana’s goal.
When they last played City in March, they had three shots to their opponents’ 27 in a 3-1 defeat.
Onana feels this is purely as a consequence of the changes Ten Hag has had to make to his defence.
The partnership between Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez that started at Brighton on 19 May was the 15th different central defensive combination United have deployed this term. No partnership has started more than four consecutive games.
“I don’t mind facing 20 or 30 shots,” said Onana. “I am very happy with what my team-mates are doing because a lot of them make sacrifices for the team.
“It would be nice to have everyone back but what can we do? Hide? We are a big club. We have to go on the front foot and deal with difficulties. I am positive. I know things will get better. If not today, tomorrow.”
‘Ten Hag big enough to back himself’
Onana does not take too much notice of the overwhelming odds in favour of City repeating their triumph of 12 months ago, when United conceded after 12 seconds, the fastest goal in FA Cup final history.
He was part of the Inter Milan side who made life exceptionally difficult for City in last season’s Champions League final and were the better team in periods before eventually losing to Rodri’s decisive strike.
Saturday is clearly a game of huge significance for Ten Hag, whose United future remains open to question.
Onana knows the Dutchman well, having worked with him at Ajax for five years before both left in the same summer, with Ten Hag joining United as he left for Italy.
“I’m not here to back him because he’s big enough to back himself,” said Onana. “But he’s a really good guy, a positive coach and tactically he is good.
“If he had all his squad together, it would probably be different for him, for us, the club and the fans.
“We know how good City are. They are the best team at the moment and we lost twice to them already.
“But we are motivated. Beating them wouldn’t make it a successful season. Playing for this club, I don’t think winning the FA Cup is enough.
“But it would make things look better. We go there to win.”
Source: BBC