Trent Alexander-Arnold said there was an expectation Real Madrid would “get battered” by Manchester City on Wednesday, praising the team’s “mentality” and “perfectly executed gameplan” in their 3-0 win in the Champions League round of 16.

Federico Valverde‘s stunning first-half hat trick put Madrid on top at the Bernabéu, with Vinícius Júnior‘s failure to convert a second-half penalty the only negative for coach Álvaro Arbeloa’s side ahead of next week’s second leg in Manchester.

Madrid have been in inconsistent form since Arbeloa took charge in January, with four defeats — to Albacete in the Copa del Rey and Benfica in the league phase, and consecutive LaLiga losses to Osasuna and Getafe — raising the prospect of the 15-time European champions ending the season trophyless.

“[There was] a lot of the noise when the draw happened and leading up to this game,” Alexander-Arnold told TNT Sports. “Especially with how we’ve been playing the last few games, and the results we’ve had. A lot of people just expected us to get battered tonight.

“But we showed the mentality. It doesn’t matter what injuries you’ve got, what players are out. This competition means a lot to the club and us as players understand that… We executed the gameplan perfectly in the first half.”

Madrid went into the City first leg without stars Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham, as well as Éder Militão, Rodrygo, Álvaro Carreras, David Alaba and Dani Ceballos.

“People will say that they’re favourites, and going off results and the way both teams have been playing, it could have been true,” Alexander-Arnold said. “But when you get to knockout football in the Champions League, anyone can beat anyone… We scored our goals very very ruthlessly.”

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Madrid are four points behind rivals Barcelona in the LaLiga title race, while their form in Europe — losing to Liverpool, City and Benfica in the league phase — seeing them rated by many as being outside the favourites to win the Champions League.

“I think the size of the game is the main thing,” Alexander-Arnold said. “I don’t want to say that other games are less important, but when there’s so much hype around a game and so many eyes on it, as a player you know you need to perform. Especially when you play for a club like this, there are no excuses, you have to win.”

Tennessee Tech is finalizing a five-year deal to make Tobin Anderson its next men’s basketball coach, sources told ESPN on Thursday.

A former head coach at Iona, Fairleigh Dickinson and Division II St. Thomas Aquinas, Anderson is best known for leading 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson to an upset over 1-seed Purdue in the 2023 NCAA tournament.

He spent this past season at South Florida as special assistant to head coach Bryan Hodgson, helping guide the Bulls to 23 wins and an American Athletic Conference regular-season title.

Anderson won 209 games in nine seasons at St. Thomas Aquinas, advancing to seven straight Division II NCAA tournaments. He was hired by Fairleigh Dickinson in 2022 and led the Knights to a 17-win improvement and a second-place finish in the Northeast Conference. They lost to Merrimack in the conference tournament championship game, but with the Warriors ineligible for the NCAA tournament, the league’s automatic bid went to Fairleigh Dickinson.

The Knights beat Texas Southern in the First Four, then pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history, knocking off 1-seed Purdue to become just the second 16-seed to beat a 1-seed.

Anderson parlayed that Year 1 success into the Iona job, replacing Rick Pitino in 2023. Despite going 33-34 (22-18 in the MAAC) in two seasons, he was let go after last season.

At Tennessee Tech, he replaces John Pelphrey, who spent seven seasons in charge of the Golden Eagles.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NC State coach Will Wade said Thursday that he is determined to “win big” with the Wolfpack while shrugging off speculation that he might return to LSU if that job becomes open.

“Look, we’re going to win and we’re going to win big at NC State,” Wade said after an 81-74 quarterfinal loss to No. 10 Virginia during the ACC tournament. “That’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we’re going to do moving forward. We have the resources we need. We have what we need, and it’s on me and my staff to get the job done.”

The Tigers (15-17) have one winning record in four seasons under Matt McMahon. LSU lost to Kentucky in Wednesday’s first round of the SEC tournament.

Wade had coached LSU for five seasons from 2017 to 2022, a run that included three NCAA tournament bids and a regular-season SEC title. But he was fired because of allegations of recruiting violations, rooted in a federal corruption probe of the sport that became public in 2017.

Wade made a successful climb back to prominence with two NCAA bids in as many seasons during a 58-win run with McNeese. He took over the Wolfpack program last spring with a confident news conference promising quick results.

Asked Thursday about online speculation linking him to a potential LSU opening, Wade responded with a question: “Is the job open there? … Listen, let me be very clear: I’m excited at NC State.”

“I was hired at NC State to do a job. This wasn’t going to take one year,” said Wade, who then motioned toward Wolfpack athletic director Boo Corrigan at the back of the news conference room. “I’ve already met with our administration about next year and some of the changes that we need to make and some of the things that we need to do to put this program where it deserves long term.

“I’m not on social media. I’m not into gossip. I’m not into any of that sort of stuff.”

NC State (20-13) appears headed to the NCAAs in Wade’s first season, though the Wolfpack stumbled down the stretch by losing six of seven to close the regular season. The team beat Pittsburgh to open the ACC tournament Wednesday, then hung within reach the entire way against a Virginia team that had led each of the two regular-season meetings by 27 or more points.

“Look, this year hasn’t gone exactly how we wanted it to,” Wade said. “But we’re going to rally and we’re going to work hard, and we’re going to have a team next year that’s ready to roll.”