NUNO GOMES

Blackburn Rovers have been in turmoil since the arrival of the Indian owners, Venky’s. The club are close to being relegated to the League One just 12 months after being relegated from the Premier league. The club has already gone through four managers in the season and Gary Bowyer has been placed as the caretaker manager till the end of the season.

Despite the turmoil surrounding the club, Bowyer has expressed his confidence that the future looks bright for the club due to the promising young talent in the squad. Blackburn have been one of the highest spenders in the Championship this season, and one of the most popular clubs on the football art website.

They have brought in the likes of Jordan Rhodes, who have been influential for the club this season. Along with Rhodes, Bowyer has also identified players like Josh Morris and Josh King as players with the potential for the future. Due to the fact that much of first-team squad are in ages between 19 and 24, he thinks that Blackburn will be able to come out of the present situation stronger. Blackburn will be making the trip to Birmingham during the weekend. Even though they are perilously close to the relegation zone, it would take several results to go against them in order to be relegated this season.

“Jordan’s 23 years of age and you add that to the young ones we’ve got playing in the team. Jake Kean is 22, Adam Henley is not 19 until June, Todd Kane has been on loan, he’s 19 years of age. Grant Hanley is 21, Josh Morris was outstanding on Saturday and is 21, Jason Lowe is 21 and Jordan Rhodes is 23. So the core of the club is a good young core and that is something to be extremely proud of and to build on, that’s for sure,” said Bowyer.

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The new Blackburn Rovers manager Michael Appleton has said that the FA Cup form has been one of the main reasons in the revival of the club’s form as a whole since his arrival. Appleton is the second manager for the club this season. He has arrived at the club when their hopes of even finishing in the play-offs has been looking dim, but a good run of form in recent weeks have seen them climb up to the 10th position. They have managed to progress into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, despite struggling in the Championship.

This good run of form in the English cup competition has been running off the players in the league as well according to the manager, who has been in charge of the team in the last three matches. His highest point since his arrival has been the 1-0 win over Premier league club Arsenal. It has been one of the shock results of the FA Cup fifth round, and Appleton is keen to build on that success. Blackburn will be returning to league action when they visit Hull City looking to end the good run of form of Steve Bruce’s men. They will be having a tough run of matches over the next few days against Leeds and Leicester City.

“If you’re winning games of football you don’t particularly feel as tired as you would do if you were losing games. I think it becomes a mindset. You’ve only got to look at Reading last year and the run they had. Going into the Derby game in the fourth round it was only my third game in charge and we’d just conceded a goal in the 98th minute (to draw 1-1) against Brighton at home. It was almost a catalyst for everything that’s been good about the side over the last four weeks,” said Appleton.

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The Portuguese international Nuno Gomes has said that he is of the opinion that the Portuguese club Benfica will be looking to win the match when they take on Barcelona at the camp Nou in the final group match of the Champions League. Benfica still have the opportunity to get into the last 16 stage of the competition, but they have to achieve a very difficult task of winning against Barcelona at the camp Nou in order to be certain of qualification. This is because Celtic also have the possibility of qualifying, but they have a much easier game in the form of Spartak Moscow at home.

However, the Scottish club will not be able to qualify for the latter stages regardless of their result if Benfica managed a victory against Barcelona. As a result, Nuno Gomes believes that the Portuguese club will be going into the match confident that they can achieve the near impossible task of winning against one of the best teams in the world. Barcelona have already qualified as the group winners and have stated that they will be resting a number of players for the match. The first team players like Cesc Fabregas, Andreas Iniesta, and Xavi are not expected to be part of the match.

“Benfica have to have their caution, of course. But I think if you play football you have played, if the players are focused, have their chances to win the game. I hope that happens, move on to get in the Champions League. It’s hard, is a land where it is very difficult to win, few teams have won there. But nothing is impossible. We must have faith, believe and play the football we know,” said the former Benfica man ahead of this hugely important match for the club.

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