Bayern star returns to team training ahead of Dortmund clash
Bayern Munich have been boosted by the return to full training of Konrad Laimer ahead of their top-of-the-table clash with Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
As reported by Sky Germany, the Austrian international trained with his teammates on Monday and is expected to be available for selection against Dortmund.
Laimer missed Bayern’s 3-2 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday after he struggled with a minor issue last week.
Meanwhile, Manuel Neuer is also making progress in his injury recovery and returned to individual training on Monday.
He, too, could potentially return to the squad to face the Black and Yellows.
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Tudor: big gap between Spurs and Arsenal after NLD defeat
Tottenham’s 4-1 defeat to Arsenal yesterday illustrated a couple of things. First, there’s an unquestionable and sizable gap between these two teams, one of which is pushing for a Premier League title and the other which is trying to avoid relegation. But it also showed the level of work that’s needed from Spurs to get the 12 points likely needed to avoid the drop. Picking up points against Arsenal was already going to be unlikely, especially under a new interim head coach in Igor Tudor who only had five days to work with his new team before arguably the most difficult fixture on the calendar.
Tudor was asked about this in the post-match press conference, and the Croatian admitted that while Arsenal proved to be too much to handle, there’s a lot of work that can still be done to improve the level of the squad going forward.
“Both things. [There’s a] big gap in this specific moment between the two teams. It was too much Arsenal for us in this moment with the problems we have. Also it’s nice to understand where we are because you prepare in the best possible way then there is the game to show you reality. So it’s nice from one point of view so each of us understand and come, as I said the players, stay quiet they come on Tuesday and restart after these three or four training sessions to start to work harder than we did until now. To change our habits, to change the state of mind which is now as a team. It is the only way to work.”
Tottenham weren’t abject against Arsenal. While on the pitch they didn’t look substantially different in attack than they did under Thomas Frank, they had a sense of intent about them that seemed to be missing under the recently-departed Dane. Even so, the defensive performance was at times suspect, with Tudor suggesting it wasn’t that the team wasn’t trying, it’s that the team simply couldn’t get the job done this time. Tudor implied that the squad, critically injured and under a great deal of pressure, will be able to counter the pressures against it through hard work, introspection, and belief.
“[There were too many] problems in this moment to let this level of team not punish you. Because you wanted to go to press high but to press high from back you need to jump so if you are late and don’t take the ball around there, also with the ball. So we prepare to press high but we didn’t take the ball. So we need more time to be in a physical moment and physical situation that we can go strong and take the ball. Now we are not in that moment.
“Even with the ball, a lack of confidence is very evident in the team. So we wanted and prepared to do the things but there is an opponent, there is a reality today. So I’m very sad and very angry and everything but in one way it is also good to understand where is our goal. What is the goal of this club? What is the goal of this team? What is this goal of this coach, these players, this staff? To become serious. Serious, not just a group of 20 players. The medicine is you look in the mirror. Each of us look in the mirror and really try, really start to change the habits. Working hard is the only way.”
Nobody likes to lose a North London Derby. It sucks to lose to your biggest rivals no matter the circumstances, but considering the relative statuses of both teams, and the fact that Spurs are in the position where they are with a new interim head coach and a relegation battle, Sunday’s match was a free hit. Tudor suggested that he’s learned a few things about his new team in the process, but there’s a clear indication that the challenge was simply too great.
“I saw the passion. I saw the will. So I was not angry because they wanted to do but then they were not able to do in this moment the things. They wanted to do all what we prepared so I said ‘that is good’ but we need to understand which moment we are now because we are not able to do. Why we are not able to do is the question we resolve and I speak from day one at the club I come here to resolve the problems. You believe that in three/four trainings you will do your best but when the game starts you don’t know what will happen because it is like this.
“But as I said before, Tuesday I [came] in [and] everyone [was] there. Stay humble — that is the key. Stay humble that is the key of each of us and trying to become, what I said before, a team. A Squad. A hard-working team. That is the only goal we have now in this moment.”
The real work begins now, and Spurs will need to rise to the challenge when they travel to Craven Cottage to face Fulham on Sunday, March 1. It’s now about taking small positive things from the Arsenal loss, working hard, and building upon those successes to get better, and Tudor thinks there’s enough time to save the season.
“Of course, there is enough time. As I said, this was not a perfect team to play the first game after three or four sessions, but in one way we need to see something good. If I can tell this, you know. Something good to see where we need to be. You know, where is the goal? What is the level? What is, you know. So today, totally different worlds. I need to be honest. Two totally different worlds. Psychological and physical worlds, levels.”
Igor Tudor knows the job. He knows what it will take, and the amount of work required. He also knows that he will have a couple of players back available to him this week, with more on the way. The challenge isn’t lessened by the reality — Spurs still need to do the job and perform on the pitch. But I take a certain amount of comfort from his response to yesterday’s loss. Now we need to see how the players respond.
Celtic were cheated, no-one else despite Ibrox narrative
Both Celtic and theRangers slipped up in the title race yesterday, and both games weren’t without their controversy, with two flashpoints being clearly highlighted in the aftermath of yet another dramatic day of football in the Scottish Premiership…
22.02.2026 Celtic v Hibernian, Scottish Premiership. Liam Scales rages at Matthew MacDermid after being fouled at a corner but no penalty given. Kenny Ramsay IMAGO
Both incidents were worthy of being magnified, but only one seems to be getting serious attention, and ironically it’s the one that has been proven to be the correct call.
The Ibrox side and their supporters seem to be agitated that they were refused an injury time spot kick, which would have given them a chance of winning a game they were so nearly in danger of losing.
But after a closer inspection it evident it wasn’t an offence worthy of a spot kick, although admittedly they should have had a free kick, with their opponents handed a red card. But VAR as we know can’t intervene in such a situation.
22.02.2026 Celtic v Hibernian, Scottish Premiership. Matthew MacDermid Photo Kenny Ramsay IMAGO
Despite their constant protestations, they have only themselves to blame for dropping points, and besides they had already been fortunate enough to have played the last half an hour against ten men, not to mention benefiting from an over generous amount of added on time.
In despite of all these points, the Bears and their chums in the Scottish mainstream media have been complaining of ‘foul play’ once again, when in fact it’s the green half of Glasgow who have been on the wrong side of things.
theRangers game was live on SKY, so naturally it will have been given more attention, but cameras were also in use at Celtic Park, and it was clearly evident that we were unjustly denied the opportunity of going ahead at such a vital stage of the game. So there is no excuse to highlight our plight in the same manner.
Listen, we weren’t good enough on the day, and Auston Trusty’s moment of madness contributed to our own downfall, but that doesn’t mean we can’t highlight a clear injustice.
Liam Scales was clearly impeded as he challenged for the ball at a corner kick, and it was by the letter of the law a penalty kick. I like thousands of others seen it clearly in real time, so why didn’t the on field officials, or their colleagues on VAR pick up on the incident, it was the proverbial ‘stonewaller’.
If you watch the incident closely you will see the referee look way over to where the ball is coming from so misses the pull on Scales’ shirt. The Celtic defender goes down and the ball is headed out by the Hibs player for a corner – decision: goal kick.
But what about VAR to all our amazement it was cleared in under a minute, with the explanation bizarrely being given that the incident was committed outside the box!! We can only hope it was a glitch in the graphics, or Willie Collum has a helluva lot of explaining to do on that one as there were clearly no Hibs players outside their box to commit a foul!
Screenshot
Either way, it will be interesting to hear the excuse Collum offers for his men’s ’honest mistake’ especially if they can deem Auston Trusty’s challenge against Hearts as a red, then the obstruction on Scales has got to be viewed in the same manner.
Not on the context that it was an ordering off offence, but the fact it was a viewed as a foul. One can’t be deemed an offence and the other not after all. We wait with great interest to hear their explanation…
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr. Click on image to order
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