PSG will be exposed without Neymar and Edinson Cavani in Champions League showdown at Old Trafford

• Manchester United have as much chance of winning as PSG do on Tuesday
• French champions would have the edge if Neymar and Edinson Cavani were fit
• Paul Pogba has been brilliant lately and will be the player PSG fear the most

By

Chris Sutton for the Daily Mail

Published:
17:30 EST, 11 February 2019

|
Updated:
18:32 EST, 11 February 2019

Manchester United host Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday night.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side will be boosted by the absence of two of PSG’s attacking trident, with Neymar and Edinson Cavani ruled out through injury.

Sportsmail columnist CHRIS SUTTON looks at the key talking-points ahead of this week’s first leg…

PSG would have the edge if Neymar (pictured) or Edinson Cavani were fit on Tuesday night 

PSG remain a talented team despite the absence of two of their three star forwards 

When the draw for the Champions League last 16 was made in December and Manchester United were paired with Paris Saint-Germain, you thought: ‘No chance’. Not with Jose Mourinho as manager and the way they were playing.

Now, the fact that they have Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and with PSG set to be without two key players in Neymar and Edinson Cavani, United have as good a chance of winning this game as the French giants do. It’s 50-50.

Had Neymar and Cavani been available, you’d give them the edge. PSG remain a talented team without those two, but this is a boost for United.

With the way they are playing under Solskjaer, with such confidence, they can pull off a first-leg win which we never would have imagined was possible under Mourinho.

Paul Pogba has been utterly brilliant lately and is the player that PSG will fear the most

Paul Pogba is the player that PSG will fear the most. Some of the passes he has pulled off and goals he has scored of late have been utterly brilliant. 

He seems up for every match at the moment, no matter who he faces.

The midfielder will not need any extra motivation for this clash, of course. 

This is a meeting between one of France’s stand-out stars from their World Cup triumph and the French champions. 

We all know the scrutiny that Pogba has been under. There were questions about his attitude after the fall-out with his old boss Mourinho. 

Under Solskjaer, though, he has gone from strength to strength.

Ole will go all out for win 

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will not park the bus at Old Trafford just because PSG are in town 

Solskjaer has shown he has got more about him than just being a nice guy who knows how to put smiles on the faces of his players. There is more about United defensively these days — they know how to see things through.

He has also made tactical tweaks, such as telling Jesse Lingard to act as a false nine on occasion. 

United travel to the French capital on March 6 but on Tuesday night at Old Trafford they have the chance to put one foot in the quarter-finals. 

Will Solskjaer go for the win? I think so. It’s the only way he knows. 

He would not have them park the bus just because PSG are coming to town. He is a winner.

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Emiliano Sala plane crash probe will take up to a year but Cardiff cannot use it as a reason to delay paying Nantes for the player

• Striker Emiliano Sala was found dead at the bottom of the Channel last week
• The 28-year-old died after the plane he was on from Nantes to Cardiff crashed
• An investigation into the tragic crash is likely to take around a year to complete
• But legal experts have said this does not give Cardiff a reason to delay payment
• Cardiff had agreed a transfer fee of £15m with Nantes for the in-form forward 

By

Ian Herbert For The Daily Mail

Published:
17:30 EST, 11 February 2019

|
Updated:
18:15 EST, 11 February 2019

The investigation into the crash that claimed the life of Emiliano Sala is likely to take a year to conclude and cannot be used by Cardiff City as a reason to delay paying Nantes for the player, Sportsmail can reveal.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) indicated that the average time taken to complete such an inquiry is 12 months.

The inquiry will include interviews with the Piper Malibu’s owner, whose identity must be made known to the AAIB.

Fans laid yellow flowers in front of a portrait of Emiliano Sala at Nantes’ Beaujoire stadium

A body found in plane wreckage at the bottom of the Channel was identified as Sala last week

Although Cardiff have indicated that they do not intend to make any moves until the conclusion of official investigations into the crash, in which pilot David Ibbotson also died, legal experts say the club have no grounds on which to delay the first tranche of the agreed £15million fee.

James Earl, a partner at legal firm Fladgate LLP, said that the contract agreeing the 28-year-old’s transfer would have involved Cardiff making a cast-iron commitment to paying Nantes the money and that the crash will not have changed that.

Any culpability on the part of Nantes could theoretically see Cardiff attempt to negotiate down Sala’s price, the lawyer said — yet there appears to be no such fault.

Cardiff are not likely to able to make a claim against the owners of the plane or the McKay family —who were hired by Nantes to find a buyer for Sala — because the club had no involvement at all in the transaction which saw Ibbotson and the Piper Malibu used for Sala’s trip back to Nantes.

The body, found on Wednesday, was taken to Dorset and carried away on a stretcher to police

‘I’m struggling to see how the club could make the case,’ said Mr Earl. ‘If they had entered into an agreement with the company who own or lease the plane, then yes they could. But they did not do so and would struggle to prove that a duty of care was owed to them.’

A 65-year-old pilot, Eduardo Hernandez Vidaurreta, from Burgos in northern Spain, has told Spain’s El Pais newspaper that he owned the aircraft between 2012 and 2015 when he sold it to a buyer represented by British-based Southern Aircraft Consultancy, who register planes for owners wanting to remain anonymous.

When selling it, Vidaurreta met David Henderson, the British pilot who took over captaining the aircraft but did not fly it on the night it crashed.

‘It didn’t give me any problems,’ said Vidauretta. ‘If someone is looking for a mechanical reason to explain the airplane’s crash, I think they are wrong.’ 

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After his entertaining career as an outspoken pundit, Paul Scholes is under no illusions about what he is letting himself in for as he takes his first steps into management.

‘I’ve left myself wide open,’ the new Oldham Athletic manager acknowledged with a smile. ‘I’ve been quite critical.’ One Portuguese recipient of a Scholes verbal volley (or seven), may well take a keen interest in goings-on at Boundary Park.

‘I think he’ll be watching results,’ the 44-year-old said of former Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho. ‘Whether he’ll be at Oldham watching games I’m not too sure.’

Paul Scholes has made his long awaited move into management with Oldham Athletic

Scholes held his first press conference as Latics manager on Monday afternoon

The new boss was presented with a Latics shirt with his name on it at his unveiling

Scholes will use his Manchester United contacts as he takes his first steps into management

He said he had received messages of support from his fellow Class of 92 members

But this is not Old Trafford, where he won 20 major trophies. Money is tight at the League Two club and on Friday following a row over payment, the main stand was without hot water after the gas meter was ripped out.

There are other issues. Sources tell of interference in team selection from owner, Moroccan agent Abdallah Lemsagam, with three players understood to have previously been barred from the starting XI. Again, Scholes appeared to be ahead of the game. ‘As the owner, he is going to be interested in his team,’ he said. ‘But he won’t be picking the team, I think we are quite clear on that and I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t confident on that. Not confident — sure of it.’

The reality of the task is not lost on him. ‘It might be the biggest mistake of my life, I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Or it might be the best thing I ever did. There’s an uncertainty there, I don’t doubt that.’

Scholes sat alongide owner Abdallah Lemsagam (right) and new assistant Mick Priest (left)

Should Scholes encounter trouble, he will not be short of people to call, including Sir Alex Ferguson. ‘I’m sure the gaffer is on the other end of the phone,’ he said. ‘He’ll want me to do well and if I need any help, I’ll be ringing him.’

However, if things do not go according to plan, he may wish to switch the phone off. ‘I have left myself open, living in the area, to a bit of stick from Oldham fans which I am sure will happen at some point,’ he said. ‘I’ve got family, mates who come here. My dad was a massive Oldham fan, there are a lot of people to please and I will have to block a few numbers on my phone if we get beat.’

You would imagine it will not take much to please them. Since becoming founder Premier League members in 1992, Oldham have had a long and miserable slide to the bottom tier. It is a far cry from the glory years under Joe Royle, when Scholes would stand in a packed Chaddy End with his father and when United edged two FA Cup semi-final replays in four years.

It is the first senior managerial post held by the former Manchester United midfielder

‘It was a bit difficult at times because I was an apprentice at United,’ said Scholes. ‘For the semi-final at Maine Road, I was in the Oldham end.’ He can reel off the names of Royle’s side: ‘Ritchie, Bunn, Henry, Milligan, Irwin, Barrett, Warhurst, I could name them all.’

As an Oldham resident, he knows what makes the town tick and said: ‘It was a football town for a good while in the 90s and it’d be nice to get that back.’

A bounce like that enjoyed by former team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at United would not go amiss, starting with tonight’s clash with Yeovil. ‘Ole’s just a nice man,’ Scholes said. ‘He’s got a great way about him, players will want to play for him and that’s what I want here.’

Scholes was confirmed as the new manager of Oldham, 15th in League Two, on Monday

Niceties aside, does Scholes have a Fergie-style hairdryer in his locker? ‘We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?’ he said.

He added: ‘If we are losing I am sure people will be popping up. They can say what they want. I have never understood why players and managers listen to pundits. They are giving an opinion and get paid for doing so. If anyone wants to have a dig at me, I won’t be taking any notice.’

Scholes met fans and posed for pictures outside Boundary Park ahead of his press conference

The former England international midfielder has agreed an 18-month contract at the club

Old Trafford being where music died in 1992, they still like a bit of Stone Roses before kick-off. This Is The One greets the team when they walk out. At home to Crystal Palace in the middle of November, it probably isn’t. But on Tuesday night it is. For Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Thomas Tuchel, this really is the one.

For Solskjaer, it is the next stage of the audition, a recall as actors have it. We have seen he can motivate, he can play the Manchester United way, he can do it against the best in the Premier League; but what about the elite of Europe?

Under even greater scrutiny, however, is Tuchel at Paris Saint-Germain. He is walking away with Ligue 1 — 10 points clear and two games in hand — but that is to be expected.

The next stage of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s audition will come on Tuesday against PSG

Like Manchester City’s owners, what PSG crave is supremacy in the Champions League.

The club has not progressed past the quarter-finals in the modern, 32-team format, or beyond the semi-finals since 1994-95. Winning the league is not enough at PSG any more. If Tuchel loses in the last 16, he may not make it beyond the end of the season.

To some extent, Solskjaer has won already, just by allowing Old Trafford to feel good about this tie. When the draw was made, Manchester United were a punchline — the Premier League team all of Europe would have wanted to play. No more. Solskjaer has transformed the club, realised the potential of his squad, so that signings such as Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial now play their purchase price and Marcus Rashford plays like he’s wearing an England shirt.

He is not so much the people’s choice to be the next United manager, as the obvious one. He still needs this, though, to be wholly secure. If United lost, certainly if they were defeated emphatically over two legs, it would raise the first questions about the gravitas of Solskjaer’s regime — about whether he has more than a feelgood factor.

PSG are good, we know this, but they couldn’t beat Napoli home or away in the group stage and lost to Liverpool at Anfield. And that was with their full team. They are without Neymar and Edinson Cavani and maybe Marco Verratti, too.

PSG manager Thomas Tuchel brings his team to Old Trafford with multiple injury problems

There will rarely be a better time to play them even if Solskjaer is correct in saying this creates an element of the unknown.

Will that be mitigation for Tuchel, then? Probably not. Like Pep Guardiola at City, there is no list of injuries so great it will elicit sympathy.

PSG are presumed to have every advantage going already. Tuchel is expected to rise above misfortune. ‘Immerse me in your splendour,’ as the Roses sang.

So this is the one. If Solskjaer wins on Tuesday, if he progresses across the two legs, if he takes Manchester United into the Champions League’s final eight, his position will be increasingly irresistible, if it is not already.

Strangely, Manchester United’s caretaker has less at stake than Tuchel, in victory or defeat. 

If United beat PSG, Solskjaer’s position will be increasingly irresistible, if it is not already

Never mind Sarri, Hazard exit is the real concern 

Eden Hazard has made his mind up. We all know what that means. If his decision was to remain at Chelsea, he could announce that now. The only reason he keeps secrets is because the club, and its fans, won’t like what he has to tell them.

That doesn’t mean he is definitely off to Real Madrid. He is under contract and there is a fee to negotiate; but Madrid is his choice. The fate of Maurizio Sarri, therefore, pales in significance compared to this. Chelsea’s last two titles were won by Hazard’s excellence; the crashing failures that followed occurred in seasons when he went missing. And now he wants to be absent, permanently.

Chelsea were once again not playing Sarri’s football on Sunday. If only we knew the identity of this mysterious figure who keeps sneaking in and coaching Chelsea to all of their defeats and poor performances. Whenever Chelsea lose, Sarri distances himself and his methods from the debacle; whenever Chelsea win he claims ‘his’ football has saved the day.

Yet even if Sarri makes it to next season, the loss of Hazard is a game-changing blow.

Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard has made his mind up. We all know what that means

The idea of Jorginho as Chelsea’s regista, as it is known in Italy, is one dimensional and has been exposed. Yet the only reason it worked to even a limited extent this season is because Jorginho has one of Europe’s greatest players to hit with his passes. Take Hazard away and Chelsea’s attack is rather pedestrian.

Christian Pulisic is coming, and there will be others on the market as always — maybe even Gareth Bale if he could be made part of any deal with Real Madrid — but no-one in Hazard’s class.

Carry on like this and Chelsea may not be in a position to offer Champions League football either.

This is shaping up as a perfect storm of problems, one that Sarri would need a whole playbook of ideas to solve. As opposed to just the one.

Give it to Jorginho does not always work, even if he can then feed Hazard. And if he cannot; where do Chelsea go? 

Maurizio Sarri may also leave Chelsea soon, after overseeing a dreadful 6-0 loss at Chelsea 

Why are we funding no-shows? 

British Athletics are unlikely to field a full men’s sprint team at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow next month. There are two requirements for participants: turn up to the British Indoor Championships in Birmingham, and achieve the qualifying time at least once since the start of the 2018 season.

Only three athletes have done this and one, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, says he has no intention of competing in Glasgow.

So Britain are one short of a team. As it stands the only sprinters qualified are Ojie Edoburun, who finished eighth in Birmingham, and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, who did not make the final.

This is the sport, remember, that costs the nation millions each time the London Stadium has to be reconfigured for a summer meeting. Yet if the runners don’t care, and attendances suggest we pretty much don’t care, then who actually cares? What are we funding here?

Twenty-four-year-old Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake has no intention of competing in Glasgow

Puel spot on with Vardy penalty call

Whoever missed the penalty for Leicester at Tottenham on Sunday, Claude Puel was going to get the blame.

Had Jamie Vardy come on but James Maddison kicked and failed to score, the same critics castigating Puel for letting Vardy take one cold would have instead been pronouncing it madness that Maddison was not stood down.

The fact is, Vardy had scored his last six penalties, Maddison missed his previous two. It made perfect sense for Puel to let Vardy resume his role, even if it was his first touch of the match.

Maddison was hardly fighting him for it, either, a sure sign he did not feel confident.

Leaving Vardy out of the starting line-up is bizarre, but handing him the ball at such a vital moment? Most managers would have done the same. 

Jamie Vardy’s first touch against Tottenham came from the penalty spot but his shot was saved

Justice will be done with VAR, but it could get messy

Played out at Brighton on Saturday, one of the more interesting scenarios for VAR to deal with next season.

There was a blatant penalty area handball by Burnley midfielder Jeff Hendrick that went unnoticed by referee Stuart Attwell. Burnley broke, and, with no gap in play, Brighton goalkeeper Matt Ryan brought down Ashley Barnes for a penalty.

It was a travesty. With Burnley already leading 2-0, Brighton could have pulled it back to 2-1, instead they went 3-0 down, with 16 minutes remaining. Game over.

It won’t happen next season, of course. Then, with VAR in effect, the game will be pulled back to the other end, and Brighton’s original penalty call upheld. And that’s fine, in these circumstances. Brighton were the home team and there didn’t look enough Burnley fans to start a conga, let alone a punch-up.

Yet imagine the same scenario going against Manchester United, at Old Trafford, playing Liverpool. Or at Anfield, when Manchester United visit. The home side think they’ve scored but it turns out it’s a penalty down the opposite end to their most hated rivals. Justice should still be done; but hold on to your hats when it is.

Burnley No 13 Jeff Hendrick got away with a blatant handball in Saturday’s win at Brighton

Windsor Park works, leave it alone for 2030

There should be one maxim for the British and Irish bid to host the 2030 World Cup: no white elephants. That means no new stadiums and no needless expansions. So no venue in Northern Ireland, if 40,000 is set as the minimum capacity, as expected.

It’s a shame, because the tournament should reach every corner of the United Kingdom — and with Dublin getting matches there is bound to be anger — but when Windsor Park was being redeveloped as an 18,000 capacity venue it must surely have been considered this day could come.

The time to build a larger venue was then. It didn’t happen, because it wasn’t needed. And it still isn’t — unless common sense is sacrificed to the false lure of a handful of games, spread over three weeks, one summer.

The record crowd for a match at the old, terraced Windsor Park is 58,420 for the visit of England in 1956. At its peak, the stadium held 60,000. That changed in 2014 when redevelopment cut the capacity to 18,434. This is ample for the main tenants, Linfield, with average gates of 1,982. A 40,000 arena could create a ruinous atmosphere for the club.

As for Northern Ireland, they get near to capacity for most matches. Odd occasions might test greater demand, but they will be rare. Windsor Park has been customised perfectly now — except to host World Cup matches.

If Britain and Ireland win the right to host, it will seem inescapably as if Belfast is missing out. Yet do we think this when Lansdowne Road hosts the All Blacks, the Wallabies, or the Six Nations? For when the World Cup caravan leaves what will remain? A stadium that works, as opposed to one that does not. Few hosts boast that.

There should be one maxim for the British and Irish bid to host the 2030 World Cup 

A report from UK Sport stating cuts in Olympic funding could lead to a drop in medals for Team GB was swiftly followed by another from the same body, revealing the public would be opposed to such action. Indeed they would.

The public are also opposed to cuts in health, education, transport, welfare, libraries and local facilities, while never seeming too keen on raising taxes but voting for Brexit, despite the warning it could have a negative impact on the economy.

So something has to give. Maybe it’s modern pentathlon; and we’ll just have to live with that.

Steve Parish, the Crystal Palace chairman, is among those in football welcoming Brexit, on the grounds it will afford greater opportunities for young British players.

Yet in January, when the club lost both Vicente Guaita and Wayne Hennessey to injury, Lucas Perri, a young Brazilian, was recruited on loan from Sao Paulo. He didn’t play, of course — he was nowhere near ready. Julian Speroni, who will be 40 in May, filled in for two games instead.

Guaita and Hennessey are available again now, so that makes Perri fourth choice. And there were no young British goalkeepers capable of holding down that place at Crystal Palace?

Like much around Brexit, this is faux-patriotism. It didn’t need Britain to leave the EU for young, homegrown players to be given a chance — it required will on the part of the clubs. And it wasn’t there, and still isn’t, if indeed it ever will be.

Crystal Palace chief Steve Parish is a high-profile figure in football who will welcome Brexit

England’s fortunes in the Caribbean have turned on the presence of a genuine fast bowler, Mark Wood.

Who would have thought banging them down in the region of 93mph could be so effective? Apart from anyone who has held a bat, at any level, ever.

Aston Villa have lost fewer games than Sheffield United this season. Unfortunately, they have won as many as Sheffield Wednesday, which is why they remain six points adrift of the play-off places.

Friday night brought another thriller: 3-0 down at home to Sheffield United in the 82nd minute, final score 3-3. Villa have scored more goals than any team in the Championship bar Norwich and West Brom — and conceded more goals than any bar bottom club Ipswich.

If they are going to go up, it would appear they will do it the same way as Fulham last season, scoring four if the other lot get three. Only Derby, of the top eight clubs, had a worse defence than Fulham, but only Wolves scored more.

Sadly, as Claudio Ranieri is discovering, that cavalier instinct does not play as well in the Premier League where, if the opposition bang in three, four of your own are somewhat harder to come by.