Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic says focusing just on Kylian Mbappe would be a mistake. Reuters
Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic says focusing just on Kylian Mbappe would be a mistake. Reuters
Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic says focusing just on Kylian Mbappe would be a mistake. Reuters
Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic says focusing just on Kylian Mbappe would be a mistake. Reuters

Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic wary of PSG's 'unbelievable quality'


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Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic says their semi-final opponents Paris Saint-Germain have been "built to win the Champions League", ahead of Wednesday night's first leg in Germany.

Terzic, whose side topped a group including PSG but only took a point from their two games, believes that lifting the European Cup has been the "main objective" of the club since they were taken over by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011.

"The project in Paris began with the goal of winning the Champions League," Terzic said. "That's been their main objective for a decade."

PSG were crowned Ligue 1 champions on Sunday, their 10th league title in the past 12 seasons. That domestic dominance, however, has never translated into European success. PSG's best result came in 2020 when they lost the final to Bayern Munich.

Dortmund, who won the competition in 1997, are playing in the semi-finals for the fifth time in the club's history and for the first time since 2013, when they also lost to Bayern in the final.

Terzic singled out Kylian Mbappe for particular praise, but said that focusing solely on him would be a terrible mistake.

He said: "It's the question you hear the most, 'How do you stop Kylian Mbappe?'. But if you focus only on Kylian Mbappe, then comes Ousmane Dembele or [Goncalo] Ramos, or Vitinha, or [Achraf] Hakimi, or [Randal] Kolo Muani and all the others. They have unbelievable quality.

"If we want to focus on one thing, then we need to focus on the ball. If we worry about the ball – there's just one – then it's much harder for them to score."

Dortmund were held 1-1 on home turf by the Parisians in the group stage, having earlier been beaten 2-0 in France. It was Terzic's side who went through as top seeds, though, thanks to their superior results against Newcastle and AC Milan. They've since beaten PSV Eindhoven and Atletico Madrid to reach the last four.

"Were we the favourites in the group? Against Atletico Madrid? I don't know," Terzic said when asked if his side will be underdogs. "Maybe we're the team with less experience, but we may have the greatest hunger.

"When everyone digs in, not just those on the field and on the bench but everyone in the stadium, we've got a huge opportunity – and we need to take it."

Terzic said several important players, including quarter-final goalscorers Marcel Sabitzer and Sebastien Haller, would be fit to play.

PSG, meanwhile, head to Germany following a 3-3 draw with Le Havre in which manager Luis Enrique chose to rest several regular starters, including Mbappe.

Monaco's 3-2 defeat to Lyon the following day ensured the title headed to the capital for the third year in a row and gave PSG a timely boost ahead of their return to European action.

Enrique hasn't shied away from trophy talk ahead of the first leg, instead promoting the idea they could finish the season with a historic quadruple.

"I think we are heading into the final phase of the season in great form," said Enrique. "I wouldn't have imagined this scenario going as positively as this, but what happens in the future is what happens. I would say we are in fantastic form in every way. We have almost every player available. Our supporters are very happy.

"The club has so much ambition to achieve something else. It is a really attractive end to the season, which we are motivated for, and we will continue to fight to achieve all our targets.

"The quadruple? Of course we talk about it. It's a motivation," added Enrique, whose side won the domestic Super Cup to go along with their league crown and will face Lyon in the French Cup final on May 25.

"It is a way of writing the club's history and the city's history. But most important is not what we win but how we win, how we play."

Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
​​​​​​​Penguin Press

Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

FFP EXPLAINED

What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.

What the rules dictate? 
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.

What are the penalties? 
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.

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Tamkeen's offering
  • Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
  • Option 2: 50% across three years
  • Option 3: 30% across five years 

Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics

 

UK’s AI plan
  • AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
  • £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
  • £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
  • £250m to train new AI models
MATCH INFO

Champions League quarter-final, first leg

Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)

Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports

Updated: April 30, 2024, 7:49 PM