Erling Haaland still needs time to settle into the "unique" Manchester City "process" after suffering an unwanted Premier League first at Tottenham, says team-mate Kyle Walker.
The Norway international has enjoyed a record-breaking start to life in England, scoring 25 goals in the Premier League for Pep Guardiola's champions.
But the former Borussia Dortmund striker was largely a passenger in City's 1-0 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday, failing to register a single attempt on goal in a tepid outing.
Haaland had only 27 touches at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with none of those in the box for the first time in the league this season, but Walker dismissed questions around the 22-year-old's struggles.
Right-back Walker told Sky Sports: "It's a process – he's come to Manchester City and it's a difficult team to fit into as the manager demands so much, and the way we play, it's unique.
"Erling has been fantastic. No one says anything when he's scoring goals and winning. All of sudden now when we don't win and he doesn't score, they say, 'is it the problem, do we play better without him?'
"I hear it all the time. But no one is complaining when he's scored his 25th goal of the season. This is the team we've got now until the end of the season. We'll fight until the end."
City will indeed have to "fight until the end" after a missed opportunity at Spurs left them still trailing leaders Arsenal by five points, despite the Gunners falling to a surprise 1-0 defeat at Everton on Saturday.
It marked a fourth straight away league defeat to Tottenham for Guardiola's side without scoring, as City achieved that unwanted feat against a single opponent for just a third time in the Premier League.
With City having played a game more than title hopefuls Arsenal, Walker believes his side need to start creating more clear-cut chances to translate their possessional dominance into victories.
"I'm not being negative with anyone, but there are certain things we can do better around the box," the England full-back added.
"Making that clear-cut chance, making the goalkeeper make a save, just creating more clear-cut actions, rather than having possession around the box. Sometimes you need to have shots and shots on target."
City will look to bounce back when they host Unai Emery's Aston Villa on February 12 ahead of visiting Arsenal three days later.
France 4-0 Netherlands: Mbappe leads to way to ruin Koeman's comeback
France won their first game since their World Cup final defeat in style, beating the Netherlands 4-0 at the Stade de France to kick off their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a bang.
Antoine Griezmann put France ahead early after he was teed up by the man chosen over him for the captaincy, Kylian Mbappe, before Dayot Upamecano doubled their advantage inside eight minutes after Jasper Cillessen made a mess of a free-kick.
Mbappe made it three before the halfway point of the first-half, before striking a fabulous second late on as Didier Deschamps' men strolled to an opening win in Group B.
The Dutch had lost several players in the build-up to the game with a virus, but will have been made even sicker by the start to their qualifying campaign and Ronald Koeman's second spell as head coach, with Memphis Depay seeing a late penalty saved to add insult to injury.
After all the noise about the France captaincy, it was somewhat appropriate that Mbappe fed the ball inside to Griezmann to side-foot low and hard to Cillessen's right to give the hosts a second-minute lead.
It was 2-0 soon after as Cillessen failed to deal with Griezmann's free-kick from the right, with the ball ricocheting off Upamecano and rolling through the Dutch goalkeeper's legs into the net.
Mbappe had his first goal as captain in the 21st minute when he played the ball to Aurelien Tchouameni on the halfway line, before racing towards to the left-side of the penalty area to get onto the Real Madrid midfielder's return pass – dummied by Randal Kolo Muani – before finishing calmly.
Koeman took action by introducing Manchester United loanee Wout Weghorst for Kenneth Taylor after just 33 minutes, and the Netherlands were at least able to avoid further damage despite never really testing Mike Maignan in the French goal.
That was until Depay's sloppy pass backwards found Mbappe, who teased Jurrien Timber and Daley Blind before firing across Cillessen to make it 4-0 in the 88th minute, while Depay saw his stoppage-time penalty saved by Maignan to wrap up a miserable game for the Dutch.
Sweden 0-3 Belgium: Lukaku hat-trick gets Tedesco tenure off to flying start
Romelu Lukaku scored a hat-trick as Belgium kicked off a new era under Domenico Tedesco with a 3-0 win over Sweden on Friday in their opening Euro 2024 qualifier.
The Red Devils replaced Roberto Martinez with Tedesco after exiting the World Cup at the group stage, while a number of big names also retired from international football.
Tedesco's tenure got off to a flying start at Friends Arena in Stockholm, where Lukaku's header and a close-range finish either side of half-time had the visitors in control.
Sweden brought on 41-year-old striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but Lukaku completed his treble in the 82nd minute to round off a comfortable victory.
Dejan Kulusevski almost gave Sweden the lead when his shot trickled towards goal after Thibaut Courtois got a hand to it, only for Wout Faes to clear off the line.
It was the visitors who opened the scoring 10 minutes before the interval when Dodi Lukebakio's right-sided cross was glanced in by the head of Lukaku.
The on-loan Inter striker doubled his tally with a tap-in from a yard out after Lukebakio burst into the box, got away from his man and once again picked out his team-mate.
Sweden struggled to ask any real questions of Courtois, despite the introduction of Ibrahimovic, and Lukaku made certain of the win when given a simple finish by Johan Bakayoko.
March Madness: 'It was like a Rocky fight' says Kansas State star Nowell after breaking assist record
Markquis Nowell said the back-and-forth clash between the Kansas State Wildcats and the Michigan State Spartans in Thursday's Sweet 16 round at the NCAA Tournament was "like a Rocky fight."
Nowell starred as the Wildcats won 98-93 in overtime, recording 19 assists to break the tournament record for a single game.
The five-foot-eight guard has 64 points, 42 assists and 11 steals in his three outings so far, with the last division one college basketball or NBA player to reach all of those numbers over any three-game span being Allen Iverson in 2005.
"It was like a 'Rocky' fight," Nowell said about the game, which saw 16 lead changes and neither team ever holding a double-figure lead.
Nowell's 19 assists were complimented by 20 of his own points, joining Chris Paul and James Harden as the only players from either division one college basketball or the NBA in the last 10 years to put up a game of at least 20 points, 15 assists and five steals.
And he attributed his success to his team-mates, with the Wildcats setting up an Elite 8 clash with the Florida Atlantic Owls on Saturday.
"We're at our best when we're sharing the ball, passing the ball around the perimeter and different guys is getting into double figures in the scoring category," Nowell said. "I wouldn't have 19 assists if they didn't make any shots."
He produced a stunning alley-oop pass to Keyontae Johnson late in the game, and Johnson heaped praise on Nowell, especially after sustaining an ankle injury during the second half that still did not slow him down.
"He's our starting point guard," he said. "His IQ, his feel for the game, he brings everybody confidence, and when he came back... everybody saw how he was trying to fight through his injury, and we just wanted to fight back for him."
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