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Ten Hag Era at United Begins with Defeat to Brighton
New manager Erik ten Hag saw the depth of the crisis at Manchester United when his side fell to a 2-1 Premier League defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford on Sunday, with German Pascal Gross scoring twice.
United fans’ hopes that the off-season would mark a turning point have faded, with the club failing to make major moves yet in the transfer market and there was a grim familiarity to the club’s opening match.
The former Ajax coach witnessed a performance that was every bit as disjointed as those produced under his predecessors Ralf Rangnick and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last season.
The sense that this was a continuation of last year’s decline began before kick-off where there were yet more loud and angry protests against United’s owners, the American Glazer family, under the South Stand.
If that felt familiar, then the sight of Scott McTominay and Fred in midfield as United laboured against Graham Potter’s superbly drilled side was verging on deja vu.
United had been shambolic in their 4-0 loss at Brighton in May and, even with debuts for defender Lisandro Martinez and midfielder Christian Eriksen, little felt new or changed about the performance.
Brighton took the lead on the half-hour with Leandro Trossard finding former United forward Danny Welbeck who squared the ball to the back post for Gross to slot home.
Nine minutes later, Gross doubled the lead with his sixth career goal against United, after David De Gea had poorly pushed out a Solly March drive right into the path of the German who again made no mistake.
Ten Hag introduced Cristiano Ronaldo in the 53rd minute and the Portugal forward, who is reported to want to leave the club, provided the spark for United’s attempted comeback.
The home side gave themselves a foothold in the 68th minute when a goalmouth scramble ended with Alexis Mac Allister turning the ball into his own net but Brighton held on for a second straight win against United and their first ever at Old Trafford.(NAN)
Following are the results of Match Day 1 fixtures in the 2024/2025 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), played on Sunday and dates of the remaining fixtures:
Akwa United FC 1-1 Abia Warriors FC
Bayelsa United FC 1-1 Kano Pillars FC
Katsina United FC 1-1 Bendel Insurance FC
Niger Tornadoes FC 0-0 Nasarawa United FC
Shooting Stars FC 1-1 Plateau United FC
El Kanemi Warriors Vs Kwara United FC (postponed )
The following Match Day two fixtures
Would be played on Sept.
25:Ikorodu City FC Vs Enugu Rangers international FC
Enyimba international FC Vs Lobi stars FC .
(NAN)
Following are the results of remaining Match Day one fixtures played on Sunday in the 2024/2025 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL)Heartland FC 1-3 Enyimba international FCKwara United FC 1-2 Niger Tornadoes FCBendel Insurance FC 0-0 Rivers United FCPlateau United FC 1-0 Katsina United FCKano Pillars FC 3-0 Ikorodu City FCSunshine Stars FC 3-0 Bayelsa United FCAbia Warriors FC 0-2 Remo Stars FCNasarawa United FC 1-1 Shooting Stars FC.
(NAN)
The interim coach of the Super Eagles, Augustine Eguavoen, said his team can beat any team with the quality of players in the team.
Eguavoen stated this after his team spanked the Cheetahs of Benin Republic 4-0 in the 2025 African Cup Of Nations (AFCON) at the Godswill Akpabio stadium, Uyo, Akwa Ibom on Saturday.
“We have quality players to beat any team but we respect team anyway.
Any coach can come in and do the same job with the Super Eagles.“It is a mindset, we have the potential and how you perceived your opponent, given the information about them and then go out and do the job,“he said.
Equavoen attributed the victory to the formation adopted by the technical crew, adding that any formation could be used to ensure that the team was successful.
“We can decide to use any system. It is something we discussed and I slept over it. I know with the caliber of players that we have, we can decide to play any formation.
“Football is about you win, lose and draw, I don’t believe we have a poor result,” he said.
He, however, said that the former Super Eagles coach didn’t do a good job but it has to do with believe, what is at stake and what you want to achieve.
“Psychologically as a group, we are agreed, where we are and where we are going to be. We will definitely achieve it,” Equavoen said.
He commended the performance of the defence , describing it as superb, adding that the team had been training together for one week.
The coach said that asking six players to warm up for the second half was to buy time, adding that there was no need to rush to change.
He said the Cheetahs of Benin Republic were a good team, adding that they came with a good game plan.
Report says that Eguavoen was appointed interim coach after the deal between the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) and coach Bruno Labbadia failed.
NFF explained in a statement that it failed due to the stringent regulations of German tax authorities.(NAN)
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