Manchester City forward Stevan Jovetic has criticised manager Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to omit him from the club’s Champions League squad in favour of newly-signed striker Wilfried Bony.
City face Barcelona in the last 16 but are forced to operate with a reduced squad of 21 after breaching UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.
Jovetic told the Sunday Mirror: “I deserve to play in the Champions League, I know that.
“The manager has killed me with this decision. I feel I deserve my place and other people have told me the same.”
‘Valdes must prove worth in reserves’
January signing Victor Valdes must earn his spurs in Manchester United’s reserve side before he can be considered for a full first-team debut, according to manager Louis van Gaal.
The former Barcelona goalkeeper arrived at Old Trafford on a free transfer and signed an 18-month deal.
“When you are out for more than a year, first of all you have to show yourself at a lower level,” Van Gaal told reporters.
“He has to do it in the second team. Like Ashley Young is doing that, like Michael Carrick has to do that. It is always the same. I think it is normal.”
Cannavaro misses out on trophy
Former Italian World Cup-winning defender Fabio Cannavaro was denied victory in his first match as a manager when his Guangzhou Evergrande side were upset 5-3 on penalties by FA Cup winners Shandong Luneng in the Chinese Super Cup on Saturday.
Cannavaro, who succeeded Marcello Lippi in charge of China’s dominant force, saw his side have the better of the action but Chinese international goalkeeper Wang Dalei produced a number of good stops to frustrate the Super League champions as no goals were scored during the regular 90 minutes.
King not thinking about new deal
Blackburn forward Josh King does not expect his new status as FA Cup hero to alter his contract situation and he is not wasting time worrying about it.
The 23-year-old scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 victory which dumped Premier League Stoke out of the competition but his current deal with the club expires in the summer.
King has made as many starts – four – for Norway this season as he has for Rovers in the Championship, with just 14 appearances in total for the club.
“I just focus on my football. I don’t want to comment too much about if I get offered a new contract or if anything happens,” he told Press Association Sport after firing Rovers into the quarter-finals for the second time in three years.
Napoli coach Benitez laments mistakes
Napoli coach Rafa Benitez was left feeling frustrated after his side’s Serie A title ambitions nosedived with a 3-1 defeat at Palermo on Saturday night.
Palermo took advantage of mistakes from the visitors to chalk up their fifth home win in six games and climb to eighth.
A bad blunder by Napoli goalkeeper Rafael allowed the hosts to go in front in the 14th minute when he let in a 40-metre shot from Moroccan defender Achraf Lazaar that bounced in front of him.
“We allowed a goal that no-one was expecting,” Benitez told Sky Sports Italia.
“He had been doing really well. Any time a goalie makes a mistake it doesn’t go unnoticed.”
Wolfsburg’s Schurrle hails ‘crazy game’
Andre Schurrle says he has “never experienced such a crazy game” after finishing on the winning side for Wolfsburg in a nine-goal thriller at the BayArena on Saturday.
Wolfsburg led Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 at half-time, but the hosts fought their way back to level the scores at 4-4.
A Bas Dost goal – his fourth of the game – earned the Wolves victory deep in stoppage time to keep them eight points behind leaders Bayern Munich.
“I have led 3-0 with Mainz before and ended up drawing 4-4 – and that was against Wolfsburg – but to win 5-4 is even crazier than that,” he told the German FA’s website.
“I’ve never experienced such a crazy game. It’s pretty extraordinary in football to have so many goals going in at one end and the other.”
Zinnbauer apology for Bayern rout
Hamburg coach Josef Zinnbauer will “never forget” the day his side were hammered 8-0 by Bayern Munich.
The northern Germany club travelled to Munich on Saturday in confident mood after winning their last two games, but they came away with the second hiding in as many years having been beaten 9-2 at the Allianz Arena in 2013.
“It’s one of those days that I am never going to forget for the rest of my life,” Zinnbauer said at the post-match press conference.
“Not because it was Valentine’s Day, but because it was such a bad result.
“I think when you lose 8-0, there’s not much to say really.”