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Kane: UCL ‘suits me’ better than Bundesliga

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Kane: UCL ‘suits me’ better than Bundesliga


Harry Kane has said the Champions League offers more opportunities to score than the Bundesliga after bagging two goals in Bayern Munich’s 3-1 win over Chelsea on Wednesday.

The England star tucked away a penalty after he was brought down by Moisés Caicedo, then capitalised on teammates’ pressure on Malo Gusto when the ball fell kindly for him to fire inside the far post.

“I always feel like in the Champions League you create maybe more chances than the Bundesliga, the games are maybe a bit more open, and that suits me,” Kane told broadcaster DAZN.

“Hopefully I can get more than 11 this year,” he added, referring to his tally in the Champions League last season.

The 32-year-old has already scored nine goals in five games across all competitions for Bayern so far this season — 10 goals in six games including the German Supercup.

“It’s always the aim to improve and get better,” Kane said.

Bayern got the scoring underway when Michael Olise forced an own goal from Trevoh Chalobah and might have scored more against a Chelsea team that seemed to fizzle out of energy the longer the game went on.

Cole Palmer responded to Kane’s first goal with a brilliant finish of his own and he also produced a smart finish to beat Manuel Neuer late on, but that score was chalked off for offside after a VAR review.

Otherwise, the visitors had little to cheer after a summer of intense transfer activity, with Bayern getting its third straight win over Chelsea since the clubs met in the 2012 Champions League final when the visitors upset the hosts in Munich.

“Top performance against a really good side,” Kane said.

“We spoke before the game that we were playing the club world champions and we had to be on it from the start, and we were.”

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Kane said Bayern’s work off-the-ball was key to forcing mistakes from Enzo Maresca’s team.

“I think with the ball possession, making angles, helping each other. You saw me and Serge [Gnabry] drop in quite a lot to make it difficult for them to press. They were always kind of minus one and as the game went on, I felt like they got more tired, the spaces opened up and we were able to exploit that.”

Kane’s second goal came directly from Bayern’s pressure.

“We talk a lot about when the other teams try and play, you know we’re always two or three seconds away from having a chance ourselves,” he said.

“You saw that with the pressure and you saw that throughout the whole game. There were opportunities that we had when we won the ball back quickly, so yeah, it kind of fell to me in a nice place and it was a good finish.”

Kane made way in stoppage time for Nicolas Jackson — who is loan from Chelsea — to face his parent club.

The Senegal forward tried an ambitious effort from distance that drifted wide in the little time he had to make an impact.



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Monaco drop Paul Pogba from Champions League squad – sources

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Monaco drop Paul Pogba from Champions League squad – sources


Monaco have dropped Paul Pogba from their Champions League squad for the knockout stages in order to make room for their January new signings, sources have told ESPN.

Pogba, who will turn 33 next month, has not played since the start of December and has only featured three times this season for the club — a pair of five minute cameos against Rennes and PSG in November and again off the bench against Brest.

The France international joined Monaco in June after an 18-month doping ban and initially struggled for fitness, before minor thigh problems and an ankle injury further ruled him out.

He now is recovering from a calf injury he picked up in early December — which he is due back from in the next few days.

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Monaco signed Simon Adingra and Wout Faes in the January transfer window and they want them both involved for the Champions League playoff games against PSG later this month.

The pair are likely to be starters, which won’t be the case for Pogba.



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The best receiver in football ‘seems to break the laws of physics’

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Seahawks wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba has emerged in his third season thanks to a collection of athletic traits more commonly attributed to a dancer.



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Kansas’ Peterson finishes game, hits 2 late 3s to beat Texas Tech

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Kansas’ Peterson finishes game, hits 2 late 3s to beat Texas Tech


LUBBOCK, Texas — Darryn Peterson was happy to finally finish a game for No. 11 Kansas, and the Jayhawks certainly needed the standout freshman at the end against No. 13 Texas Tech.

“This is the first game I got through to the end,” Peterson said. “I’ve been trying to all year, so to finally be able to do it, it’s a blessing.”

Peterson scored 19 points while playing a season-high 35 minutes, but his only two field goals in the second half were late 3-pointers. He made the tying basket on a contested shot from the right corner with 1:20 left, and hit again from the left wing with 44 seconds left in a 64-61 victory Monday night.

Two days earlier, Peterson scored 18 points in the first half but didn’t play the final 16:46 of a win over then-No. 13 BYU because of cramping. He is averaging 21.1 points.

An expected top pick in the NBA draft in June, Peterson had sat out a win over Kansas State the previous game because of an ankle injury. The 6-foot-5 guard has also dealt with hamstring and calf issues this season while sitting out 10 games overall for Kansas (17-5, 7-2 Big 12).

Before hitting the late 3s, Peterson was only 3-of-12 shooting against the Red Raiders (16-6, 6-3).

“He’s got something that I guess you’re born with and can’t teach. He’s got just an unbelievable ability to raise his level when it counts the most,” Jayhawks coach Bill Self said. “That’s what he did tonight. I mean, those two plays he made were obviously the two biggest plays of the game for us.”

The tying shot, after a Tech turnover, was made over preseason AP All-America forward JT Toppin, who then had his shot blocked at the other end by Flory Bidunga before missing on a second chance. Peterson then made what proved to be the winner.

“Two crucial 3s … that was crazy,” Bidunga said.

“Coach Self told me to go make a play,” said Peterson, who was then asked where his confidence came from to finish that way. “The work I put in and then my teammates and coaches. I had a bad game … shots weren’t really going. They guarded me kind of well, but I just trusted the work, so those shots I feel like I should make.”

And he did when they counted most for the Jayhawks in their sixth consecutive victory.



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