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BARCELONA — Real Valladolid earned an important 3-1 victory over champions Barcelona to boost their La Liga survival hopes on Tuesday.

The hosts were good value for their victory and climbed to 17th, moving provisionally three points clear of the relegation zone.

Barcelona defender Andreas Christensen sent Valladolid on their way by heading into his own net in the second minute.

Canadian striker Cyle Larin added the second from the penalty spot after Eric Garcia tripped Gonzalo Plata in the area, with the Ecuadorian winger scoring the third on the break.

La Liga’s top goalscorer Robert Lewandowski pulled one back for the Catalans in the final stages.

Barcelona winger Raphinha revealed a message of support for Real Madrid winger and Brazil compatriot Vinicius Junior in the second half when he was substituted.

Vinicius was racially abused by Valencia fans on Sunday at their Mestalla stadium.

“I didn’t know he was going to do it but I think it’s a good message, because racism has to end,” Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong told DAZN, after Raphinha took his shirt off to show the message after being substituted.

Players from both sides held up a banner reading “racists out of football” before the game, as part of a La Liga and Spanish football federation initiative following the abuse on Sunday.

Young playmaker Pablo Torre started for the first time in La Liga for Barcelona and put in a bright performance but his team were sluggish as a whole and fell to a second consecutive defeat.

“Pablo had a good game, he was good in his position, he played through a lot of good passes and linked up well with Robert,” Xavi told reporters.

Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen is still chasing the La Liga clean sheet record of 26 — he has 25 with two matches remaining.

“In the first half we were not good, we let in two goals because of our own mistakes. We had an objective, we completed it, and that has caused a dip in concentration,” said Xavi.

“We have had a great season, but for our fans, and to say goodbye to [Sergio] Busquets, we have to do better.”

Closing in

Real Sociedad put one foot into next season’s Champions League with a 1-0 win over 10-man Almeria.

Takefusa Kubo’s first-half strike gave Imanol Alguacil’s side, fourth, an eight-point lead on fifth-place Villarreal, who face Cadiz on Wednesday.

Almeria striker Luis Suarez was dismissed after 36 minutes for a rough tackle on defender Robin Le Normand. 

Japanese winger Kubo took his goal brilliantly, cutting in from the right and curling into the top left corner in first-half stoppage time.

Alexander Sorloth could have doubled La Real’s lead late on but fired narrowly wide. Ander Barrenetxea hit the post.

Real Sociedad have not played in Europe’s premier competition since the 2013-14 season and can qualify if Villarreal fail to win any of their last three matches or by earning two more points themselves. 

Defeat leaves Almeria provisionally 15th, four points above the relegation zone.

Celta Vigo, 14th, were held to a 1-1 home draw by Girona and are five points above the relegation zone.

NEWCASTLE, United Kingdom — Eddie Howe hailed Newcastle’s “incredible” players as they qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years after a 0-0 draw against relegation-haunted Leicester on Monday.

Fifth placed Liverpool’s draw with Aston Villa on Saturday meant Newcastle needed just one point from their last two games to be assured of a Champions League place.

Howe’s third placed side achieved their target at the first attempt at a jubilant St James’ Park.

Howe and his players embarked on a lengthy lap of honour after the final whistle as they soaked up the acclaim from the Toon Army.

“It’s a big relief actually, an amazing night. You always hope and you have to dream. But we didn’t feel we were ready for the top four,” Howe said.

“After last season’s relegation battle, it was whether we could consolidate and become a better team.

“I have to compliment the whole squad because physically it’s been a big demand. They’ve seen the fruits of their own labour.”

Newcastle’s remarkable rise from relegation candidates to a top four finish in the Premier League in just 18 months is a tribute to Howe’s management and financial might of the club’s Saudi-backed ownership group.

The Magpies also reached the first domestic final since 1999 this season, losing to Manchester United in the League Cup.

After two decades in Premier League purgatory since Bobby Robson last led Newcastle into the Champions League, the Magpies will believe they can maintain their transformation into trophy contenders now they are back among Europe’s heavyweights.

“The lads have been unbelievable for me. I can’t praise them enough. Their attitude, their mentality,” Howe said.

“I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to manage here. We’ve had great success and that’s satisfying.”

Just seven years after their fairytale Premier League title triumph, Leicester are on the verge of being relegated from the top-flight for the 12th time in their history.

That would equal the English record held by Birmingham, sending them back to the Championship for the first time since 2014.

Dean Smith’s third from bottom team have won just one of their last 15 league games.

They sit two points behind fourth bottom Everton and will go down if the Toffees win their last game against Bournemouth, regardless of Leicester’s result in their final match against West Ham.

“What we have done is taken it to the last game and made Everton need to win. That’s what we had to do. I make no apologies for the way we played,” Smith said.

Newcastle siege

Smith sprang a major surprise as he left James Maddison and Harvey Barnes on the bench in a bid to be “harder to beat”, while Newcastle lost Joelinton to an injury suffered in the pre-match warm-up.

They nearly had to do without Joelinton’s fellow Brazilian Bruno Guimaraes as well as the midfielder escaped with an early yellow card after a studs-up challenge that smashed into Boubakary Soumare’s thigh.

Newcastle held 80 per cent of the possession throughout the game, but Leicester sat deep to frustrate them.

Leicester keeper Daniel Iversen almost gifted Newcastle the opening goal, spilling a catch under pressure from Dan Burn.

Callum Wilson seized on the loose ball and shot against the post before his header from the rebound was cleared off the line by Wilfred Ndidi.

Newcastle hit the woodwork again moments later through Miguel Almiron’s half-volley from Fabian Schaer’s knock down.

Iversen misjudged another cross just before half-time, leaving Wilson with a chance that the striker headed over from close-range.

Smith sent on Maddison at the interval and Iversen partially redeemed himself with a superb save to tip over Alexander Isak’s powerful drive from the edge of the area.

Guimaraes missed a sitter when he headed against the post from virtually on the goal-line after Leicester’s Wout Faes accidently flicked a corner in his direction.

Leicester nearly won it with their first shot of proceedings when Nick Pope denied Timothy Castagne in stoppage-time, but Newcastle held on to clinch their return to Europe’s top table.

MIAMI — The Miami Heat knocked the stuffing out of the Boston Celtics on Sunday, powering to a 128-102 victory to take a 3-0 stranglehold on the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

The Heat, who host game four on Tuesday, are one win away from reaching the NBA Finals against either the Denver Nuggets or Los Angeles Lakers.

The Celtics meanwhile are battling the weight of history — no NBA team has rallied from 0-3 down to win a best-of-seven play-off series. 

Heat talisman Jimmy Butler could afford a relatively quiet 16-point night as point guard Gabe Vincent led the way, connecting on 11 of 14 shots from the field, including six of nine from three-point range, on the way to a game-high 29 points.

Duncan Robinson added 22 points off the bench for Miami, who are vying to become just the second eighth-seeded team — after the 1999 New York Knicks — to reach the NBA Finals.

Unlike in their first two wins of the series in Boston, there would be no need for the Heat to claw back a double-digit deficit.

In front of a pumped-up crowd at Kaseya Centre in Miami, the Heat dominated, Boston unable to build on an early three-point lead in the face of a total team effort from the hosts on both ends of the floor.

“I don’t know if ‘surprised’ is the word,” Vincent said of the lopsided result. “We played well tonight. We defended. We made shots. We forced them into turnovers.”

“The next game, the mentality is to come out and compete at a high level, defend, try to make the right read every time offensively and just play good basketball.

“It’s the first to four games. We are not satisfied with three.”

Boston star Jayson Tatum scored 14 points and Jaylen Brown added 12, but Tatum made just one of his seven three-point attempts and Brown missed all seven of his as the Celtics connected on just 11 of their 42 three-point attempts.

Miami made 19 three-pointers on 39 attempts, connecting on 46 of their 81 shots overall.

“As you can tell, the rim was as big as the ocean for everybody,” said Miami centre Bam Adebayo, who thrilled the crowd with a pair of alley oop dunks and a spin around Brown for a one-handed slam on the way to 13 points.

“[We were] making the extra pass, making the right pass and everybody played together.”

Caleb Martin scored 18 points off the bench for Miami. Max Strus chipped in 10 and the Heat didn’t miss a beat when veteran Kevin Love departed after less than five minutes with an ankle injury.

The Heat closed a fast-paced, physical first quarter on a 9-2 scoring run to lead 30-22 and pushed their lead to as many as 22 points in the second quarter.

Boston managed to cut the gap, but with the Celtics again struggling from three-point range and with turnovers, Miami’s 61-46 halftime lead represented the biggest halftime deficit faced by Boston this post-season.

There would be no re-set for the Celtics in the third quarter. They had managed to trim the deficit to 12 early in the second half, but Miami out-scored them 32-17 to take a 93-63 lead into the fourth.

‘Just embarrassing’

Tatum and Brown combined for just three baskets in the third, Miami’s dominance evident on back-to-back Boston possessions midway through the period when Adebayo blocked Tatum’s shot on one and Martin came up with a steal to set up a Strus three-pointer.

The shell-shocked Celtics went more than three minutes in the period without scoring.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Brown said. “I feel like we let our fan base, organisation down, we let ourselves down, and it was collective. We could point fingers, but in reality, it was just embarrassing.”

Boston’s first-year coach Joe Mazzulla, who took the helm after Ime Udoka was abruptly suspended before the season for an improper workplace relationship, took the blame for the Celtics’ disjointed performance.

“I just didn’t have them ready to play,” Mazzulla said. “Whether it was the starting lineup or it was an adjustment, I have to get them in a better place ready to play, and that’s on me.”

LONDON — Manchester City celebrated their Premier League title triumph with a 1-0 win against Chelsea, while the champions kept the party in full swing at the Etihad Stadium, Leeds slipped closer to relegation on Sunday.

City clinched a fifth title in six seasons on Saturday when second placed Arsenal crashed 1-0 at Nottingham Forest.

Pep Guardiola’s side marked their third successive title by winning a 12th consecutive league game as Julian Alvarez’s first-half goal extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 24 matches.

That blistering streak has left Arsenal trailing as the Gunners failed to end City’s reign despite leading the table for much of the season.

“Every Premier League is special. And of course when you are three in a row it means the consistency that we had,” Guardiola said just before kick-off.

“Especially against the opponents, in the past it was Liverpool, and this year against an incredible Arsenal. That’s why you give credit to the quality of your opponents. Both teams bring us to our limits.”

City could afford to start with Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Ruben Dias on the bench against Chelsea after starting their title party on Saturday evening.

The fans’ celebrations were going strong as well by the time the City team bus arrived at the Etihad, which was surrounded by flag-waving supporters who set off blue smoke flares as they hailed their dynastic team.

City, seven points clear of Arsenal with two games left, would cement their status as one of English football’s greatest ever teams if they can add the FA Cup and Champions League to their latest Premier League conquest.

Guardiola’s treble chasers face Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley on June 3, then take on Inter Milan in Istanbul seven days later as they look to win the Champions League for the first time.

United were the last English club to win the treble in 1999 and City would relish the chance to emulate their rivals’ feat.

Chelsea players lined up for a pre-match guard of honour for their City counterparts, who walked out onto the pitch with their children while club anthem ‘Blue Moon’ rang around the Etihad.

With City’s players and fans in festive mood, Alvarez ensured Chelsea wouldn’t spoil the party. The Argentine forward produced a clinical finish from Cole Palmer’s 12th minute pass.

At the other end of the table, struggling Leeds lost 3-1 at West Ham as Rodrigo’s opener was erased by goals from Declan Rice, Jarrod Bowen and Manuel Lanzini.

Sam Allardyce’s side remain third bottom and are two points adrift of fourth bottom Everton, with both teams having just one game left.

Even if Leeds beat Tottenham at home on the final day of the season, the Yorkshire club would still be relegated if Everton win their last game against Bournemouth at Goodison Park.

Allardyce’s team, whose goal difference is three worse than Everton’s, are likely to need the Toffees to lose to have a chance of staying up.

Leeds, who last played in the Championship in 2020, have lost twice and drawn once in three games since Allardyce replaced the sacked Javi Gracia earlier this month.

“We haven’t shown the quality when needed. So next week has to be much better to beat Tottenham. That’s all we can do,” Allardyce said. 

Brighton secured European football for the first time in their history with a 3-1 win against Southampton.

Evan Ferguson netted twice in the first half and although Mohamed Elyounoussi got one back for already-relegated Southampton, Pascal Gross wrapped up Brighton’s victory.

Roberto De Zerbi’s sixth-placed side will ensure they play in the Europa League if they take a point from their last two games.

Brighton’s vastly superior goal difference to seventh placed Aston Villa should guarantee they don’t drop into the Europa Conference League.

AMMAN — Abdullah Al Rawahi became the first Omani ever to win the Jordan Rally after a dramatic fightback by Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah was thwarted by punctures on the closing stages of the rally on Saturday, according to the Jordan Rally Media Service.

Rawahi and his Jordanian codriver Ata Al Hmoud had taken a lead of 2min 33.5sec into the final six special stages in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas in their Škoda Fabia Evo. But Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel launched a full-scale fightback during the morning and reduced the deficit to 1min 20sec at the midday service point. 

The pendulum appeared to have swung in the Qatari’s favour when the Oman Rally Team crew clocked out of service three minutes late and incurred a 30-second time penalty, reducing the deficit to 50 seconds. But Al-Attiyah was forced to change a punctured tyre on the first test after the restart and then punctured again with Rawahi reaching the finish 7min 04.2sec clear of the struggling defending champion.

With the pressure off on the final stage, it enabled Rawahi to secure his third career MERC win and Hmoud became the first Jordanian to win his home rally since Amjad Farrah and Khalid Zakaria prevailed on a dramatic final stage way back in 2004. Rawahi’s third success drew him level with the late Björn Waldegård, Jean-Pierre Nasrallah and Abdullah Bakhashab in the regional Hall of Fame. 

Rawahi said: “It’s been a very tough weekend for us. The stages were really nice and we enjoyed them. We managed to win this rally. The second day was difficult, actually starting first on the road. Nasser was trying to keep the pressure but we held on. Well done to my team. They have worked really hard this weekend. It’s an amazing feeling. 

“When I started rallying my first rally was here in Jordan, so it’s a big thing for me. I have been gaining so much experience against the champion. Every rally we learn a lot, especially from the pressure we were in this weekend. We won the first rally and now this one. We will keep pushing and see what happens.”

Attiyah said: “This is my favourite race but, this year, it was not easy. Day one and day two, we were struggling a little bit with the problems. Today we had two flat tyres in the same stage and we tried to manage three stages with punctures and we had only one spare. We made it happen. It was important to finish and we finished second. Well done to Abdullah, he did an amazing race. Still, we are leading the championship and we look ahead to Lebanon. I am disappointed at one point but, on the other, I am happy to finish.”

Meshari Al Thefiri teamed up with Qatar’s Nasser Al Kuwari and were the class of the MERC2 field for the third successive event this season. The Kuwaiti rounded off the podium places and finished 6min 49.2sec clear of fourth-placed Jordanian Shaker Jweihan and his Omani co-driver Taha Al Zadjali.

 “Very happy to win in MERC2. It was a tough day because I keep pole position and it was difficult to drive. Finally, we finished without any issues and we look forward to the next round,” said Thefiri.

After Sheikh Bader Al Fayez and Emad Juma left the road on the second stage of the morning, that opened the door for Shadi Shaban and Samer Issa to finish fifth. The Lebanese pairing of Ahmad Khaled and Joseph Kmeid rounded off the top six and finished fourth in MERC2. Up-and-coming Jordanian talent Mustafa Al Atari was seventh overall. 

Support for this year’s event comes from Zain Jordan, Hala and Bliss FM. 

Action in the 2023 FIA Middle East Rally Championship resumes in Lebanon on September 15-17. 

AMMAN — Special stage action in the Jordan Rally, round three of the 2023 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), gets underway in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas of the Kingdom on Friday morning, according to the Jordan Rally Media Service.

Competitors were flagged away from a spectacular ceremonial start adjacent to the Dead Sea in the grounds of the Dead Sea Marriott Resort and Spa on Thursday evening.

Twenty-three crews and competitors from six nations had completed their reconnaissance of the special stages on Wednesday afternoon and are relishing the two-day challenge ahead. Seventeen are eligible for the FIA event and a further six will only be able to score points for the National Championship.

Pre-event favourite and 15-time event winner Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah said: “Jordan is a special rally for me. It was where I came at the very start of my career and I have a good record on this rally. I enjoy the stages. They are very challenging and a pleasure to drive. We made a good test, a short one, but no issues with the car. We know these stages well and know that you have to be careful in some places.”

Abdullah Al Rawahi won the opening round of the MERC in Oman in his Škoda Fabia R5 before retiring from round two in Qatar with an engine failure. The Omani is hoping to push Attiyah all the way this weekend. 

He said: “We have worked on the details of the set-up to adapt it to my driving style and it is going really well. We had the pace in Oman. That was something positive to take. We were in Jordan about three weeks’ back and won the national event. We were preparing for this rally. 

“Me and Ata [Al Hmoud] worked really hard on the notes and the times on the stages were really good on the local rally. I think we are coming in really strong on this rally and will try to be close to Nasser. If we can challenge him, it will be really nice for us and the spectators.”

Before the ceremonial start, Attiyah was joined at the pre-event press conference by title rival Rawahi, MERC2 front-runners Meshari Al Thefiri, Roger Feghali, Shaker Jweihan, last year’s FIA MERC2 champion Issa Abu Jamous and veteran Ziad Miqdad, who will retire from the sport after this event. Miqdad has taken part in 31 Jordan rallies.

On Friday, three special stages will be used twice on day one before a short stage at the Dead Sea. The timed competition gets underway with a run through the 9.49km Yakrut stage (first car — 9:29am) that carves its way across winding off-road trails to the left of the main desert link road between Amman and the Dead Sea hotel area. 

The mammoth Jordan River stage of 40.79km (first car — 10:42am) is next on the agenda close to the frontier with the West Bank and the surface has benefitted from a lack of rain in the last few weeks. The loop is completed by a run through the Baptism Site stage of 11.34km (first car – 11:45am). 

The three specials are then repeated from 1:31pm, 2:44pm and 3:47pm, respectively, after a return to the Dead Sea for a lunchtime regroup and service. The day’s action concludes with a short 3.48km special stage close to the Dead Sea from 4:30pm.

The rally will then continue until Saturday’s finish.

Support for this year’s event comes from Zain Jordan, Hala and Bliss FM. 

AMMAN — The Jordan Rally, one of the most iconic international motor sporting events in the FIA calendar, gets underway with a pre-event press conference at 6:15pm and ceremonial start 6:45pm at the Dead Sea on Thursday evening, according to the Jordan Rally Media Service.

The third round of the 2023 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) has attracted 25 crews and competitors from seven nations, with 19 teams also registered for the second round of the Jordan Rally Championship. Entrants completed their stage reconnaissance on Wednesday.

Jordan Motorsport has laid on a similar route to 2022, with Clerk of the Course George Khoury confirming minor changes to the middle section of the demanding 40.79km Jordan River stage and the late addition of a short 3.48km special stage at the Dead Sea on Friday afternoon. The revised itinerary features 208.04 competitive kilometres in a route of 589.85km.

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah has taken the event by storm in recent seasons with his Andorra-based co-driver Mathieu Baumel. The duo have won the last seven successive Jordan rallies (2020 was cancelled) since 2015 – three in Ford Fiestas, one in a Škoda Fabia R5 and the last three in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5. 

Attiyah has now won a record-breaking 15 events in the Kingdom and a staggering 83 MERC rallies since 2003, while Baumel has 31 regional wins to his name. Understandably, they start as clear favourites to win the event this weekend. 

Challenging the Qatari over 13 timed special stages in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas is Abdullah Al Rawahi in his Škoda Fabia R5. The Omani made the perfect start to his MERC campaign with a second victory at his home event in January but retirement from round two in Qatar has pushed him down to joint second in the points’ standings. He teams up with Jordanian co-driver Ata Al Hmoud. 

Meshari Al Thefiri is equal second in the championship with Rawahi after a podium finish in Oman and valuable points in Qatar. The Kuwaiti also holds a 15-point advantage in the FIA MERC2 series after back-to-back victories on the opening two rounds. His co-driver Nasser Al Kuwari is tied second in the Co-Drivers’ Championship with Giovanni Bernacchini. 

There is strength in depth in the MERC2 category in Jordan with 16 entrants and fierce competition for Thefiri. The strongest challenge is likely to come from 15-time Rally of Lebanon winner Roger Feghali and his co-driver Joseph Matar in their Motortune Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. 

Roger’s son Alex attended the event in 2022 and finished second overall but his father has taken up the reins on this occasion. His battles with Attiyah on asphalt in Lebanon have been some of the highlights of the MERC in recent seasons with the duo taking two wins apiece in the last four events. 

Kuwait’s Yousef Dhafeeri and Jordan’s Shadi Shaban are currently Thefiri’s closest pursuers in the MERC2 Championship. Additional Jordanian competition comes from local drivers Shaker Jweihan, Issa Abu Jamous, Ameer Nassif, Shadi Shaban, Sheikh Bader Al Fayez, Fadi Darshan, Sami Fleifel, Ihab Al Shorafa and the talented young Mustafa Al Atari.

Jweihan and Dhafeeri finished second and third in Oman and the Kuwaiti followed that result with second in Qatar. Shorafa rounded off the podium places in Losail and holds fifth in the current MERC standings.

Also registered in the MERC2 section are Palestine’s Hamada Odeh, Lebanon’s Ahmad Khaled, Kuwait’s Salem Al Dhafeeri and Oman’s Zakariya Al Aamri. 

The remainder of the field are only eligible for the Jordan Rally Championship. Feisal Al Ghammaz (Mitsubishi), Nancy Al Majali (Mitsubishi), Ibrahim Al Ali (Subaru), Asem Aref (Subaru), Hashem Kalbouneh (Black Iris), Ghaith Qubti (Range Rover) and Ziad Miqdad (Renault) will run behind the FIA field.

Support for this year’s event comes from Zain Jordan, Hala and Bliss FM. 

BARCELONA — Real Madrid hearts were in mouths when Eduardo Camavinga limped off against Getafe in La Liga on Saturday, ahead of their Champions League showdown with Manchester City.

The 20-year-old French midfielder has become a key figure for Carlo Ancelotti’s reigning European champion and an injury would have been a big setback for the semifinal second leg at the Etihad on Wednesday.

Ancelotti soothed Madrid fears in his post game news conference, saying Camavinga twisted his knee but it would heal quickly and was not a worry.

Spanish media reports since have reflected that Camavinga will be fit, with the tie on a knife edge after the first leg finished 1-1 last Tuesday.

Camavinga played a key role in Vinicius Junior’s brilliant strike in that game, charging up the pitch from left-back to help Madrid take the lead in the first half.

The Frenchman exchanged passes with Luka Modric to break free of City’s press and carried the ball down to the other end, before feeding his Brazilian teammate.

However Camavinga was also partly to blame for City’s equaliser, with his pass intercepted before Kevin De Bruyne hammered home.

Playing on the left of the defence, instead of his natural centre-midfield position, means Camavinga does occasionally make mistakes, but is becoming more reliable game by game — even if he would prefer to be deployed elsewhere.

“The most important thing is to help the team, and today I did that again, but no, it still isn’t my position,” he said, after helping Madrid see off Chelsea in the Champions League quarterfinals.

Ancelotti lately in big games has simply tried to get his best 11 players onto the pitch in his line-ups, which has resulted in Toni Kroos playing in holding midfield, and Camavinga used at left-back.

That versatility has helped him become a regular for Madrid, instead of battling with Kroos and Aurelien Tchouameni for a start in the No٫ 6 role.

Even that is not Camavinga’s best position, having operated further forward in midfield at Rennes, but Modric and Fede Valverde are holding those spots down in the key games.

Learning on the job at left-back, Camavinga’s positioning has occasionally cost him, particularly in his first matches there, but he is improving quickly and does not receive a lot of defensive help from teammate Vinicius.

Last season Camavinga was important for Madrid as they clinched their record-extending 14th Champions League title, but mainly as a substitute in the final phases of games.

The midfielder brought energy to the team and helped them make it through extra-time periods against Chelsea and Manchester City in the semifinals.

However as Madrid hit the home straight this season, Camavinga has become far more central to the team’s success — despite playing out wide, making 54 appearances across all competitions.

Slow start

Camavinga’s Madrid career moved slowly at first after arriving in the summer of 2021 in a deal worth up to 40 million euros ($44 million), despite his exciting breakthrough in professional football at Rennes.

In 2019 he became the French side’s youngest ever player at 16 years, four months and 27 days old, and in 2020 he became France’s youngest debutant since 1914.

In the Spanish capital he has slowly gained importance but also been moved further back down the pitch. It is clear he will play a big part in Los Blancos’ future, but not in which role.

As well as Tchouameni and Valverde, Madrid have also been linked with a big summer move for another midfielder in Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham.

“I’m surprised how quickly he’s adapted to Madrid because it’s a very big club and it’s not easy,” said former Madrid midfielder Claude Makelele earlier in May.

“I see him as a footballer with a great future.”

Man City may view Camavinga as Madrid’s weak link after his first-leg mistake, but he also emerged with the most tackles made and duels won, keeping Bernardo Silva quiet.

If Pep Guardiola’s side target him, Camavinga has shown he can rise to the challenge.