Julen Lopetegui pulled back from the brink of sack as near perfect West Ham beat Newcastle​

Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique said on Monday that his team have put themselves in a “difficult” spot with a slow start to their Champions League campaign, adding it won’t get any easier as they travel to the Allianz Arena to play Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

PSG are languishing just under the play-off section of the Champions League standings in 25th, having won one and lost two of their four matches to date. Bayern are 17th with two wins and two losses.

“It’s obvious that after four matches, including three at the Parc des Princes, with fair or unfair results, unfair for me, we have to have good results to qualify,” Luis Enrique told a press conference on Monday. “We made things difficult for ourselves. Football is what it is. You have to score.

“We will give it our all, we will be brave, we will take risks, as we usually do.”

Bayern have won their last three games against PSG in the Champions League, with the French side failing to score in any of the matches.

Luis Enrique admitted that it would be a tough game and that his side needs to perform above and beyond.

“It is very clear that we are two teams that are similar. We want to have the ball, we press very high…we have similar statistics,” the former Barcelona coach said. “We are among the best teams with goal chances, but there will only be one ball. And so one team will have to suffer. Them, or us.

“We’ll probably have to go further against Bayern. Run more, raise the level, especially against Bayern at home.”

Despite PSG’s stuttering start, though, Bayern will take nothing for granted going into a game against a team with a plethora of talent, the Bavarians’ head coach Vincent Kompany said on Monday.

“We are playing against one of the big clubs in Europe. They have a lot of individual quality and a very good coach. Both teams will want to win. We are playing at home and this match is of utmost importance to us,” Kompany told reporters on Monday.

“It’s [PSG] a squad with incredible talent. The spaces between the lines are never big, the pressing is very aggressive and good. When they have the ball, they have a clear attacking approach. As a team, they are really very good.”

While the German giants have lost two of their four Champions League matches this season, they are undefeated in the Bundesliga and have not conceded a goal in five consecutive league games, but Kompany is striving for more.

“There are many teams in the competition [Champions League] that we haven’t seen yet. We often talk about finishing in the top eight [to qualify for the last 16]. Our goal is to finish top one,” Kompany added.

Bayern are without 20-year-old Germany defensive midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic, who broke his collarbone in October.

One man who is feeling fit and raring to go is striker Harry Kane, who has scored 50 Bundesliga goals since joining from Tottenham Hotspur in August last year, needing just 43 games to reach that mark, faster than any player in the league’s history.

“It has been a long time since I felt as good as I do now,” the 31-year-old England captain said. “As an experienced player, you learn a lot about different phases in a game.

“Since I’ve been at Bayern, my numbers have gone up. I hope that this continues and that we can keep raising our standards.

“Without the players around me, all of the goals I score would not be possible. They create space.

“We have a lot of competition for different positions, a lot of quality and a high tempo. Sometimes I also drop deeper to give my teammates more space. We get on very well.”

Information from Reuters was used in this story.

MANCHESTER, England — Kevin De Bruyne has admitted he doesn’t know if this will be his last season at Manchester City and revealed he put contract talks on hold after suffering the injury which has kept him out for the last two months.

De Bruyne’s deal is set to expire at the end of the season. He said he had “a conversation” with the club in the summer, but is now only focused on rediscovering his best form after struggling with an abdominal problem.

The 33-year-old hasn’t started a game for City since Sept. 18, but is in line to return to the XI against Feyenoord on Tuesday.

“I honestly don’t know,” De Bruyne told a news conference on Monday when asked about his future.

“At the start of the season, I knew talks would happen but then the thing [injury] happened against Brentford. It was meant to be a couple of days and then it was eight/nine weeks. I put it all to the side.

“I had a conversation in the summer, but then I had the injury so I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to talk about that. I need to be back on the pitch and be myself again. There’s no rush, I don’t feel uncomfortable, I’m not worried.”

De Bruyne is into his 10th season at City and has been linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League and MLS side San Diego FC.

Pep Guardiola was also set to be out of contract in the summer before signing a two-year extension. And De Bruyne has suggested Guardiola staying could influence his own decision after winning six Premier League titles together.

“It could help,” De Bruyne said. “I know what the future holds, I don’t have to speak to Pep about what is happening in the future, if there would be a new coach, you have to speak.

“Maybe Pep changes his mind and says thank you Kevin it is time to leave, but I know how he works with the team and the players so that is nothing new to me.

“Questions will come but I can only give you the answers I give at this time. Talks will come, if no talks come it will be my last year. I just want to play good football.”

City face Feyenoord at the Etihad Stadium on the back of a five-match losing run in all competitions. League defeats to Bournemouth, Brighton and Tottenham Hotspur have put Liverpool in the title race driving seat.

But Guardiola still believes that, despite mounting questions about his reigning champions, his team can have success this season.

“I think we deserve some patience when we lose games,” Guardiola said. “You are defending a legacy and that is so difficult to handle. I have the feeling that this season we will do very good things. I don’t give up and I have the feeling that we will be there.”

Former Houston Dynamo designated player Héctor Herrera said on Monday he regrets his behavior at the team’s final match of the season earlier this month after he was sent off the field in the playoff game against the Seattle Sounders for spitting at referee Armando Villarreal.

“The only mistake I regret is my last game,” he said in an interview with Fox Sports Mexico.

“My actions that I had is the only thing I regret in my career, because I have always been very correct, a good teammate, I have always controlled my impulses in moments when I have to keep my head cold. head and in this one no.”

The midfielder first received a yellow card in the second game of Game 2 of the best-of-three MLS playoff series against the Sounders for a foul, before visibly showing disagreement on the call. After arguing with the referee, Herrera turned around and spat in his direction to earn an automatic red card and expulsion.

Houston Dynamo general manager Pat Onstad later revealed the incident played a part in declining Herrera’s 2025 contract option. Herrera now enters the 2024 offseason as a free agent, but he said he remains calm as offers from Liga MX, MLS and other leagues come in.

“Look, I think that, thank God, I have many offers from Mexico, MLS, Saudi Arabia, and other places. I think I’m at a point in my career where I can choose where to play and the truth is that I’m very calm,” he said.

“I think that perhaps these are the two years that I have taken the most care of myself off the field, working at home, having physios, having masseuses and well the results speak for themselves, Thanks to that I think I have had two very good years in Houston in which It gives me that peace of mind of being in the moment I am.”

Herrera concluded his career with the Houston Dynamo after 82 matches, in which he recorded eight goals and 22 assists. The midfielder also led the Texas team to the 2023 US Open Cup, when it defeated Inter Miami 2-1 at Chase Stadium.