Real Madrid’s Courtois to return after nine-month injury layoff

NYON, Switzerland: Real Madrid will play Manchester City in the Champions League knockout playoffs round in a standout clash of the past two title winners after the draw was made Friday.
Man City, the 2023 champion, will host the first leg on Feb. 11 or 12 and the return game in Madrid is on Feb. 18 or 19. Madrid won a record-extending 15th European title last season.
The winner over two legs advances to the round of 16 to face either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen, who placed in the top eight of the new 36-team league standings that ended Wednesday.
Teams that finished from Nos. 9 to 24 in the standings dropped into the two-leg knockout playoffs. Madrid placed 11th and Man City barely qualified in 22nd, after rallying to beat Club Brugge 3-1 in a must-win game.

LONDON: Manchester United and Tottenham put their inconsistent domestic campaigns aside and advanced to the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday.

Diogo Dalot tapped in a precise cross by Kobbie Mainoo on the hour mark and Mainoo netted eight minutes later for a 2-0 victory over Romanian champion FCSB in Bucharest.

Tottenham got goals from academy graduates to beat Swedish club Elfsborg 3-0 in London. Spurs waited until the 70th minute for substitute Dane Scarlett to break the deadlock before adding two more through substitute Damola Ajayi and 17-year-old Mikey Moore.

Of the 36 teams in the revamped competition, the top eight go directly to the round of 16 in March. Teams ranked ninth to 24th go into the two-legged knockout playoffs on Feb. 13 and Feb. 20 with the winners making the last 16.

The draw is scheduled for Friday.

United, who are 12th in the Premier League, competed the league phase of the second-tier European competition in third place and undefeated with five wins and three draws, trailing the top by one point.

“Kobbie (Mainoo) played very well in that position, with more freedom and not so much responsibility running back all the time,” United manager Ruben Amorim told TNT Sports. “The lads did a good job, another clean sheet.”

Amorim’s squad has shown signs of improvement since he said the team was “the worst, maybe, in the history of Manchester United.”

Thursday’s victory was the third straight in one week after beating Rangers in the Europa League a week ago and Fulham in the Premier League three days later.

Tottenham are languishing in 15th place in the Premier League. Their seven-match winless run in the league is their worst since 2008. But they won five, drew two and lost one for the fourth place in the Europa League.

Lazio, the only team that qualified to the round of 16 with a game to spare, was handed their first defeat, 1-0, away at Braga. Still, the Portuguese team was eliminated.

Lazio still topped the standings with 19th points, the same as the second Athletic Bilbao.

Bilbao secured the second place after a 3-1 home win over 10-man Viktoria Plzen, who have a playoff spot.

Frankfurt completed the league phase in fifth despite a 2-0 loss at Roma. Angeliño and Eldor Shomurodov lifted Roma with the goals at Stadio Olimpico.

Lyon were sixth despite being held 1-1 at home by Ludogorets.

Olympiacos in seventh after routing Qarabag 3-0.

Rangers squeezed in to complete the top eight by beating Union Saint-Gilloise 2-1.

Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce avoided an embarrassing early exit with a 2-2 away draw at Denmark’s Midtjylland. The result sent both into the playoffs. The hosts were 20th while Midtjylland took 24th, giving Mourinho a chance to add to his European trophies.

Ajax ended a three-game losing streak by handing Galatasaray thir first defeat, 2-1 with both teams making the playoffs.

Hoffenheim’s 4-3 away win at Anderlecht was not enough for the Bundesliga team to advance. The Belgian club finished 10th.

Real Sociedad, FCSB, Porto, AZ Alkmaar, Twente and PAOK are among other teams that advanced.