Paris Saint-Germain, champion of the European Champions League for the last two years, announced on Wednesday that its Georgian international striker, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, “suffers from a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee,” which he suffered on Tuesday during the match against Barcelona (4-2), in the third round of the prestigious continental competition, and that he will be absent from the stadiums for several months.
After this serious injury to Kvaratskhelia, the Georgian winger's season may already be over.
In contact with Agence France-Presse, those close to Kafara considered that “it is difficult at this stage” to determine the date of his return to the stadiums, but this type of injury usually requires an absence period exceeding 6 months.
The 25-year-old striker left the field around the 60th minute, on Tuesday, after coming into contact with Barcelona player Xavi Espart, heading to the dressing room without being able to support his right leg, with the help of two members of the Parisian club’s medical staff.
The footage showed that the Saint-Germain player's knee was twisted inward. Kafara played a prominent role in leading the French team to two consecutive Champions League titles, and he is considered one of the candidates to win the Golden Ball for Best Player, which will be awarded next Monday.
Saint-Germain explained, in a medical statement, that the Georgian international “will undergo surgery in the coming days,” noting that the team also suffered two other injuries, as its other international winger, Ousmane Dembélé, the current holder of the Ballon d’Or award and also a candidate to retain it, was injured again in the left thigh after only 20 minutes of play. The club reported that the French player, who is suffering from a “muscle injury, will continue treatment in the coming weeks.” The same applies to Brazilian captain Marquinhos, who suffered an injury to his right thigh, and he will also undergo treatment for several weeks.
Paris Saint-Germain, which will be without two of its stars for several weeks, will have to rely on new arrivals Magnes Achilles, Spaniard Ferran Torres and Belgian Mika Godets, in the absence of its attackers Kafara and Dembélé.
The Arsenal women's team entered one of its most difficult periods in the English Premier League, after falling to eighth place, and failing to achieve any victory in 5 consecutive matches, for the first time in its history in the competition, amid an offensive and defensive crisis revealed by the numbers, and raising questions about the team's ability to regain its balance during the current season.
According to a report published by “The Athletic” website, Arsenal, which started the season as favorites to compete for the title, no longer suffers from the problem of wasting opportunities alone; Rather, he became unable to penetrate clustered defences, with a clear decline in defensive organization, and weakness in dealing with counterattacks, in addition to the lack of harmony between the players on the field.
The team scored only 5 goals compared to 7 conceded during the first 6 matches, despite having one of the highest possession and shooting ratios in the competition. The rate of converting his shots into goals was 4.1 percent, which is the worst among the league teams, compared to Everton, which has the second lowest rate at 6.9 percent.
Statistics reveal a large gap between the opportunities created by the team and its actual goals. The value of expected goals for Arsenal was 11.2 goals, compared to 5 goals actually scored, a difference of more than 6 goals, despite occupying third place in the number of shots.
These numbers seem even more alarming when compared to previous seasons. Especially the 2021-2022 season, when the team scored 65 goals from opportunities with an expected value of 40.7 goals, thanks to the great attacking effectiveness provided by Vivienne Miedema and Beth Mead, who together scored 25 goals.
The crisis did not stop at poor registration; The percentage of shots that reach the goal decreased to 30.6 percent, compared to an average of 38 percent during the previous five seasons, while the percentage of shots on goal that turned into goals did not exceed 14 percent, which is the lowest in the league.
The recent match against Birmingham exemplified the extent of the problem, after Arsenal players touched the ball 43 times inside the opponent’s penalty area, and shot 27 balls, of which only 4 shots reached the goal, in a match that ended in a draw on the ground of the London team.
The scene was repeated against Crystal Palace, when Arsenal had 76 percent possession of the ball and scored 70 touches in the attacking third without being able to score, which is the highest number of offensive touches for a team that fails to score during a league match since 2018.
In the match against Manchester United, which ended in a 1-1 draw, Arsenal possessed 59 percent of the ball and created 4 chances, compared to only 3 touches by its opponent in Arsenal’s defensive third, without being able to translate its superiority into a victory.
The passing numbers reflect the nature of the offensive crisis. Arsenal leads the league with 2,173 passes in the opponent’s half, and 1,403 passes in the final third, but this superiority does not turn into a real threat, due to the slow construction of attacks and frequent reliance on crosses.
The team ranks second in the number of crosses from open play with 104 crosses, but it falls to ninth place in accuracy with a rate of 20.2 percent, which reflects limited effectiveness despite the intensity of attempts.
Dutch coach Renee Sligers faces additional challenges related to attacking options, after the scoring contributions of a number of key players were limited to a few goals, while newcomer Lisa Baum scored two goals, which is the highest score among the team’s female players.
The options were also affected by the injuries of Chloe Kelly and Frieda Mannum, who did not start in the league this season, in addition to the physical problems faced by German Selena Cerchi, who underwent a knee medical procedure, and newcomer Geraldine Reuteler.
On the defensive side, the numbers revealed a clear weakness on the left side, after 41.6 percent of the offensive touches that Arsenal allowed to its opponents came from that side, which is the highest percentage in the league.
This decline coincided with the departure of left-back Katie McCabe to Chelsea during the summer, and her replacement by Una Patel, who used to play in the right-back position, making the back line rely heavily on players who prefer to use the right foot.
Competing teams exploited this loophole. Especially Birmingham, which focused 40 percent of its attacks on Arsenal's left side, and succeeded in scoring from a counterattack, while Manchester City revealed the same problem when it penetrated the team's defense with two quick passes, before Khadija Shaw scored a goal during the 4-2 victory.
The expected goals received by Arsenal from quick counter-attacks increased to 0.17 goals per match, compared to 0.03 last season, while it ranks eleventh in the percentage of successful tackles, amounting to 46.6 percent.
The problems are not limited to the defensive organization; Signs of confusion appeared in the distribution of roles among the players, as happened during the loss to Chelsea with a goal without a response in September, when Sligers made three substitutions at once, forcing captain Kim Little to ask the technical staff whether she was required to play in the defensive fulcrum position.
Sligers leads the league's female coaches in the number of substitutions used in the match, after she used five substitutions in almost all matches, with the exception of the Birmingham match, during which she made 4 substitutions, without these moves succeeding in producing the desired effect.
Although Arsenal has a list of 25 players, the large number of changes did not reflect positively on the performance, in light of the decline in confidence and the lack of tactical clarity, which are problems that increased the difficulty for the team to regain its results.
After only 6 rounds, Sligers excluded its team from competing for the English Premier League title, in an early acknowledgment of the extent of the crisis the club is experiencing, while the Champions League and FA Cup remain two opportunities to save the season.
These data put the technical staff before a challenge that goes beyond addressing wasted opportunities, to include rebuilding the offensive system, improving the defensive balance, and clarifying the roles on the field, after the team transformed from one of the most prominent candidates for the title to a team searching for its first victory in 5 league matches.
The President of the Japanese Football Association, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, said today (Wednesday) that the English Premier League represents the best environment for developing Japanese talent and bringing them to the level of world-class players, stressing his country’s desire to increase the number of its professional players in England.
Miyamoto explained, during an Asian Football Confederation symposium and a regional meeting in Tokyo, that the Japanese Federation seeks to send more players to play professionally in Europe, with a particular focus on the English Premier League. He said: “We have nine players active in clubs in the English Premier League, and also eight players active in the second division. But, we still want to send more players to the Premier League, because the league offers players the best environment to become world-class, and that is our goal.”
Miyamoto played defense and led the Japanese national team in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.
In another context, Gianni Infantino, President of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), continues his international movements in an effort to win a fourth presidential term, by communicating with the 211 member associations of the International Federation and gathering support for his candidacy.
The Asian Football Confederation has 47 member associations, whose votes can play an influential role in the elections, in light of widespread opposition to Infantino within Europe, in exchange for great support he enjoys in Africa. Infantino is visiting a number of Asian countries, and was expected to attend the two-day meeting of the Asian Confederation in Tokyo. FIFA recently highlighted its visits to Bhutan and Bangladesh, which are two small federations that each have one electoral vote, like Spain and France, despite the large differences in football weight between these countries.
The FIFA presidential elections are scheduled to be held next March, while competing candidates must announce their candidacy no later than November 18, and no competing candidate has officially applied yet.
Last week, Infantino apologized in Zurich, Switzerland, to the 37-member FIFA Council that he chairs, for “mistakes” he committed while preparing a plan to sell rights related to the World Cup worth $4.2 billion, before abandoning it later.
A statistic conducted by the Associated Press showed that 87 federations out of 211 expressed their support for Infantino, whether through individual statements or by supporting statements of support issued by their continental federations.
The Asian position appeared divided regarding the elections, as Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup, announced its support for Infantino, while Jordan announced its opposition to him.
