Antonio Rudiger has denied biting Paul Pogba, but admits he was in the wrong following his bizarre altercation with the Les Bleus midfielder during Germany’s Euro 2020 defeat against France in Munich.
Chelsea defender Rudiger appeared to nibble the back of Pogba’s neck and tweak his nipple in the latter stages of the first half of Germany’s opening group F defeat by France.
Manchester United star Pogba initially reacted in shock, but later insisted Rudiger should face no punishment.
Rudiger, 28, denied biting the France star but conceded that the incident looks ‘unfortunate’.
He said: “I should not come close with my mouth to his back, no doubt about it.
“It looks unfortunate. Paul and I have talked about it as friends after the final whistle.
“And he stated in our little talk and talking to the press that it was no bite, as some viewers first thought it was.
“Even during the match, the ref told me that he would have punished me if he thought that it was violent conduct.”
Referee Carlos Del Cerro Grande and his team of officials took no action during the Munich encounter, and Pogba quickly insisted after the match that he agreed with that stance.
“I’m not crying for cards, yellow, red cards, because of such actions,’ said Pogba. ‘He nibbled, I think, a little bit on me. But we have known each other for a long time.
“I told the referee and he takes decisions and he took a decision. It’s over. It was a great match for us, and I didn’t want him to be suspended because of such a situation.
“It was towards the end of the match. We hugged each other and that’s it.”
Reports claim Erling Haaland has agreed personal terms over a summer transfer to European champions Chelsea.
Ian McGarry of The Transfer Window Podcast claims Borussia Dortmund’s strike sensation has struck a deal to join Thomas Tuchel’s men after a stunning season in Germany.
Haaland, 20, scored 41 goals in 41 games for the Bundesliga giants, having netted 16 times in 18 outings the previous term.
Tuchel, according to The Sun, believes the Norway international is the man to fire his Champions League winners to next year’s Premier League title.
And it appears all that’s left is for Chelsea to agree a potential club record transfer fee with Dortmund after getting Haaland to sign off on personal terms.
McGarry said: “Personal terms for Haaland are signed off.
“It’s just a case of Chelsea agreeing a fee with Dortmund.”
Further reports today claim the Blues have already launched an initial bid of £60million PLUS misfit forward Tammy Abraham.
There are reports AC Milan will meet Chelsea directors today with the Rossoneri confident of reaching an agreement with the Blues for the transfer of Olivier Giroud.
Chelsea have activated an option to extend the contract of the French striker until June 2022, but Giroud could still leave South London on a free transfer.
His agents have revealed Chelsea promised to free the 34-year-old had he received an offer from outside the Premier League.
Milan have been in talks with the 2018 France World Cup winner and have reportedly reached an agreement over a two-year €4m-a-year deal.
The Rossoneri are considering signing Giroud on a free transfer only.
Giroud is willing to move to Milan and according to Calciomercato.com, representatives of the two clubs will meet today to discuss a possible transfer for the former Arsenal man.
Frank Lampard has has hailed Chelsea’s Champions League win as a ‘great achievement’ and says Tuchel has done a ‘fantastic job’.
Lampard was sacked by Chelsea at the end of January with the team ninth in the Premier League and was replaced by Tuchel.
The German made an immediate impact following his arrival at Stamford Bridge as he guided Chelsea to a fourth-placed finish in the Premier League and a victory over Manchester City in the Champions League final.
Lampard told the BBC as cited by the Metro: ‘Obviously, you never want to lose your job, I’m in pretty good company at Chelsea, it happens, it’s the brutal reality of football at the top level.
“With reflection, it’s been nice to spend some time out of the game.
“I’m pretty proud of the job I did, it was an honour to manage the club. I came in at a tough time with the [transfer] ban and loss of Eden Hazard.
“Worked really hard in year one to get into the Champions League and Mason [Mount] and people like that, developing young players was a huge deal for me.
“I’m happy, you don’t want to lose your job but it was a huge experience for me.
Asked if he would have done anything differently: “I can probably sit down and talk to you about a lot of things, that’s a manager’s job, there will be a lot of things you can do differently.
“I’m very proud of year one, in year two there were different expectations, different complications. Every team had problems this year, as did we and I left my job. I can’t go back and look back in a negative way. I only want to use it to look positively going forward.
“When you work towards something you want to be there, you want to be the manager but I will never lay claim to that.
“I was part of the early foundations potentially but Thomas has done a fantastic job getting us there. I will say when I watched it, first I am a Chelsea person.
“The Chelsea fans are happy and the club deserves that, but secondly to see Mason and Reece perform at that level and people like [Edouard] Mendy, [Ben] Chilwell and Thiago [Silva] who came in in my time there makes me pretty proud.
‘But it was a great achievement by them and they were very well managed.
“I’m proud of the job I did, it was an honour to manage the club.”
Former Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho says he was alarmed at the Christian Eriksen’s collapse during Denmark’s match against Finland at Euro 2020.
The 29-old required CPR from his captain Simon Kjaer on the pitch in Copenhagen to survive the cardiac arrest.
Fans, players and Eriksen’s family desperately awaited further news before it was confirmed that he was awake and in a stable condition.
And Mourinho, who coached the midfielder for two months at Tottenham, has revealed his shocked reaction to the incident.
The 58-year-old told talkSPORT: “Today I cannot stop thinking about what happened yesterday. I think it’s a day to celebrate, not to be sad.
“Hopefully football went in a direction where the organisation, the protocols the level of the doctors and the specialists, and I also believe God was looking at football in that moment.
“Everything together made Christian to be with us, to be with his family, to be alive.
“It was much more important than football but at the same time I believe that it also showed the good values of football.
“The love, the solidarity, family spirit. It was not just about his family it was about the football family. Football bringing people together.
“I prayed yesterday, I cried yesterday, but how many millions did it around the world? I believe many because football can bring people together.”
Kasper Hjulmand was in tears when speaking about Christian Eriksen who collapsed during Denmark’s Euro 2020 clash with Finland on Saturday and needed immediate CPR before being rushed to hospital.
Shortly before half-time at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Eriksen suddenly fell to the ground as he ran back from the Finland penalty area, leaving players from both teams in clear distress.
Hjulmand was deeply upset when quizzed on the distressing situation and struggled to fight back the tears.
“It was a really tough evening, on which we’ve all been reminded what the most important things in life are,” he said.
“It’s meaningful relationships. It’s those people who are close to us. It’s family and friends.
“Everything, everything, everything – all thoughts are with Christian and his family.
“A group of players that I cannot praise enough.
“First of all, if it gets emotional, it’s been a tough night. We are all reminded of what the most important thing in life is – to have valuable relationships, people we’re close to, our family and our friends.
“We have a group of players that I cannot praise enough. I couldn’t be prouder of those people who took such good care of each other.
“He is one of my very dear friends, the way the players talked in the dressing room to decide to not do anything before we knew Christian was conscious and OK.
“We had two options to play the game [today] or tomorrow at 12pm and everyone agreed to play today. You can’t play a game with such feelings. We tried to win.
“It was incredible they managed to go out and try to play the second half.
“Honestly, there were players out there that were completely done. Emotionally done and emotionally exhausted.”
Finland boss Markku Kanerva said: “We are going to remember this for a long time for different reasons.
“It was a very emotional night for us.”
Meanwhile, former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has hit out at UEFA’s ‘ridiculous’ decision to restart Denmark’s game against Finland following Christian Eriksen’s collapse as the Danish great said UEFA showed ‘no compassion’ for his son Kasper and his team-mates.
The game continued at 7.30pm UK time after the Danish players agreed to continue having spoken to Eriksen over the phone, and the Finns ran out 1-0 winners.
And Schmeichel, 57, understandably choked up on BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday morning as he slammed UEFA for leaving the Dane’s in a ‘very hard’ position after suggesting they return to the stadium to resume the game at 12 noon today.
“I want to put on record that it is absolutely ridiculous that UEFA come up with a solution like that,” he said.
“Something terrible happens and UEFA gives the players an option to go out and play the game the last 55 minutes or whatever it was or come back at 12 o clock today, I mean what kind of option is that?
“So you go back to your hotel in the case for the Danes is 45 minutes away, you cannot sleep, you might not even sleep because watching trauma like that has a massive effect on you of course and then get back on the team bus at 8 to play the rest of the game.
“It was not an option, it was a ridiculous decision by UEFA and they should have tried to work out a different scenario and show a bit of compassion and they didn’t.”
Schmeichel’s son, Kasper, was on the pitch as the distressing scenes unfolded on Saturday, and Schmeichel Sr said that it was not fair for UEFA to prioritise ‘TV scheduling’ over the welfare of his son and his team-mates.
“I don’t know [about other solutions], but why 12 o clock? Why take TV scheduling and all of that into consideration. Why 12 o clock?
“That was ridiculous and to be fair, the result of the game is completely irrelevant and I have to be very honest… we obviously made a decision if the players come out and play they will only play if Christian is alright and by alright it means he is alive and speaking to the players, they knew he was okay.
“That was very very hard and I could not understand the decision, I couldn’t and the game was irrelevant, totally. How can you play?”
