Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita will miss the rest of the season and the Africa Cup of Nations after being ruled out for two months with a groin injury, Jurgen Klopp said on Friday.

The Guinea international had to be substituted during the first half of Liverpool's 3-0 defeat to Barcelona on Wednesday after going down following a challenge from Ivan Rakitic.

Keita, whose debut season at Anfield has been disrupted by injuries, was beginning to find form and had scored three goals in his previous five appearances for Liverpool.

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"It's bad news," Klopp said at a news conference. "It's a high grade abductor injury. The tendon is ruptured which keeps him out for at least I would say two months. So bad news for us, but bad news for Guinea as well because the African Cup of Nations are coming up.

"He was in a really good moment, a really good moment but it happened. Football and life are sometimes not too nice, but yeah very serious."

Keita, 24, has made 35 international appearances for Guinea and was a key part of the team that qualified for the biennial tournament for the first time since 2015. The tournament, held this year in Egypt, gets underway June 21, with Guinea drawn alongside Nigeria, Madagascar and Burundi in Group B.

Liverpool travel to Newcastle United on Saturday and will return to the top of the Premier League with a win at St. James' Park. The title remains in Manchester City's hands, however, and Pep Guardiola's side will win the league if they win their final two games -- at home to Leicester on Monday and away to Brighton on the final day.

Defeat in Barcelona also left Liverpool's Champions League aspirations hanging by a thread, with the Reds needing a big comeback at Anfield next week to turn the tie around.

Asked about how his side were dealing with the blow of losing heavily to Barcelona, Klopp said: "We didn't need to pick players up in Barcelona and give them a hug. It's in us. If you want to win in football you have to accept that you can lose. I had more positive thoughts about the game than negative because of what we did on the pitch.

"The boys are completely on fire. When you're in the race, you don't get tired. We are ambitious like hell. All we can do is beat Newcastle and that's unbelievably difficult, what other teams do on Monday night isn't our problem."

Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe has been given a three-match suspension by the French Football Federation (FFF) after his red card in the Coupe de France final defeat to Rennes, while an investigation has been opened into Neymar's postmatch altercation with a spectator.

Mbappe, 20, was dismissed towards the end of extra time for a high challenge that caught Damien Da Silva on the knee as PSG were beaten 6-5 on penalties after a 2-2 draw last weekend.

He has already served one match of his ban, having sat out the defeat at Montpellier earlier this week, and will miss games against Nice and Angers but be available again for those against Dijon and Reims.

Neymar, who appeared to hit a member of the crowd while on his way to collect his runner-up medal, could face a ban of up to eight matches, with a verdict likely next week.

PSG have already started to prepare a defence for the Brazil international, and communications chief Jean-Martial Ribes told Globo that Stade de France security personnel should not have allowed the incident to happen.

"It was a space reserved for the prizes, to celebrate the players from both teams, not for verbally abusing our players," he said.

"There was a clear lack of security on the part of the organisers -- this person went too far. We will discuss with the FFF that he is banned from French stadiums."

The spectator has made a complaint of defamation against journalist Pierre Menes of Canal+ after he described him as "a crook."

Menes confirmed that complaint on social media and expressed surprise that the PSG players had not yet complained about the spectator's behaviour.

PSG teammates Dani Alves and Marquinhos, however, have criticised Neymar for his actions.

A domestic ban would impair his ability to prepare for the summer's Copa America in Brazil as well as disrupting the start of next term.

It's a battle between the coasts as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the LA Galaxy make the cross-country trek to face the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, (2 p.m. ET, ESPN), and later that night Minnesota United welcomes the Seattle Sounders to Allianz Field, plus Carlos Vela and LAFC host Chicago.

Zlatan goes coast to coast

Major League Soccer has changed in many ways throughout the years, with new teams and new rivalries, but a New York Red Bulls-LA Galaxy meeting still conjures some great memories of the league's adolescence, specifically the thrilling 5-4 Red Bulls win in August 2007.

It was David Beckham's first start in MLS with the Galaxy, and the game lived up to the hype, as more than 66,000 in attendance watched as the home side eked out a late win against Beckham's bunch. Now, almost 12 years later, another global superstar with the Galaxy, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, will make his first appearance in New York.

On the field, Ibrahimovic continues to dazzle, scoring the winner in last week's 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake, but like everything else with the Swede, there is more to the story. The former Manchester United man got in the face of RSL's Nedum Onuoha after scoring, and then promptly had his apology rejected postmatch. Oddly enough in last season's home win over RSL, Ibrahimovic had an almost identical on-field brush with Stephen Sunday, issuing a few curt words after a goal.

It's a reminder that Ibrahimovic isn't one to shirk from jawing with anyone around him, and while it won't be the 66,000 that greeted Beckham in 2007, he is certain to get his fair share of attention from the fans in New York, which should make for quite the spectacle.

Vela earning Tata's attention

Everywhere he goes, Mexico head coach Gerardo "Tata" Martino is asked about Carlos Vela. After not calling up the LAFC striker for Mexico's two March friendlies, the first matches for El Tri with the Argentine at the helm, Vela has responded with 11 goals and five assists in 10 games to start the season.

It was slightly ironic that two weeks ago the Gold Cup draw was held at LAFC's Banc of California Stadium, as Martino dutifully responded to a countless number of questions that all basically asked the same thing: "Hey, are you gonna call Carlos Vela or what?" One would have to think that Martino will breathe a sigh of relief when he likely calls in the scorching-hot striker for Mexico's Gold Cup campaign, thus ending that firing line of questions.

In the meantime, Vela keeps finding the back of the net about as much as his NBA heroes, notching another goal in last Sunday's 1-1 draw up in Seattle. He'll probably get another chance to flash his goal-scoring grin Saturday night (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+) against a Chicago Fire side that has limped to two straight shutout losses. The Fire have a weird knack of playing everyone close but not winning that much. Chicago head coach Veljko Paunovic could really use a win against the league's top team to quiet any hot-seat talk.

Statement time in Minnesota

It seems that whenever a team in MLS opens a new stadium, a string of good results follows, and Minnesota United has been no different. Since the debut of Allianz Field on April 13, Minnesota has gone unbeaten in three homes games, with two draws and its first win in its new digs last weekend against D.C. United.

The singing of Oasis hit "Wonderwall" by the home fans is a great spectacle, but the team is also doing its part, amassing four wins and sitting in sixth in the Western Conference. You could say that for the first time, Minnesota has the upper hand on its expansion sibling Atlanta United.

Star striker Darwin Quintero is still yet to find the back of the net in Minnesota's new home, but that could well come on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+) against a Seattle defense that has been uncharacteristically leaky so far in 2019 with 12 goals allowed.

With the 2019 MLS season at the quarter pole, a home clash with perennial contender Seattle on a week of rest is the perfect kind of statement game for the Loons.

LONDON -- With strikers this good, sometimes everything else just takes care of itself. Arsenal have one foot in the Europa League final, and that is in spite of the fact nobody would seriously suggest their old failings disappeared against Valencia. What made the difference was that, not for the first time, their outstanding forward line got them out of trouble -- and edged them closer to a first continental title in 25 years.

There is still a second leg to face at the Mestalla, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's added-time volley, his fifth goal in this season's competition, felt decisive. Valencia faded badly after an excellent opening 15 minutes, and Unai Emery's side should have few fears about what awaits them next Thursday. They could have come away with an even bigger lead but, with Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette in this vein of form, further chances should fall their way in Spain.

"Arsenal made the most of their opportunities, their first two attacks resulted in goals," said the Valencia manager Marcelino. He was basically right.

Sloppy defending at a corner -- hardly a new theme -- saw Mouctar Diakhaby head the visitors into an early lead. Off the back of three straight league defeats, Arsenal looked stiflingly low on confidence. But then a rapier-like break saw Lacazette play Aubameyang through before motoring into the box to roll his strike partner's square pass into an empty net. Then Granit Xhaka crossed deep, Lacazette's free header squeezed over the line and Arsenal, without really needing to impose themselves on the game, were in the box seat.

"They have two very good strikers; I don't know how many millions of euros they cost," Marcelino said. "You make the slightest mistake at this level and players of that quality can take advantage."

That is what it came down to in a generally low-standard game that, when set against the Champions League semifinals that preceded it this week, was a stark reminder of the difference between the competitions. Arsenal's back line would, with the exception of the excellent Laurent Koscielny, be ravaged at the sport's highest level; their midfield would look ordinary, as it did for long periods here. But their front men would grace that stage and, if Arsenal are to return there, they surely need to be dovetailed without interruption for what remains of this season.

In the round-of-16 win over Rennes, it was a brace from Aubameyang that turned a 3-1 first-leg deficit comprehensively around. Against Napoli a fortnight ago, Lacazette, in the hotbed of Stadio San Paolo, whipped in the free kick that put Napoli's challenge to bed. At this very stage of last season's competition, Lacazette put Arsenal briefly ahead against Atletico Madrid.

They are the only players in this squad who can consistently impact upon high-stakes games like these; they have now scored 43 goals between them this season and, while Emery rotated them heavily earlier in the campaign, they have started five of the past six games for which they have both been available. The Arsenal manager appears to have clocked that their best hope of Champions League football via the domestic or European route is to give his sharp shooters as much cumulative pitch time as possible now.

That looks particularly wise when Arsenal are so vulnerable under pressure at the other end. Dani Parejo forced a save from Petr Cech shortly after Diakhaby's goal and the keeper was sharp, too, to block from the substitute Kevin Gameiro in the second half. There is still a sense that, should Valencia turn up the tempo in the return fixture, Arsenal might find themselves in trouble; in their favour, though, is the fact that the La Liga side looked so ordinary on this night.

"It will continue to be very difficult; I consider it 50-50 for the two teams," said Emery, who admitted surprise that Valencia fielded a three-man back line with Diakhaby, usually a defender, holding in front. Arsenal got around that by using the pitch's width and it was Sead Kolasinac, enjoying plenty of second-half space, who set up Aubameyang's strike with a well-weighted cross. Emery and his players responded superbly to adversity, as they so often have in this competition; they now have only two hurdles to clear.

"It's not normal for Valencia to concede three goals," Emery said. He was right: only Atletico Madrid, just over a fortnight ago, have breached them that many times this season. But they have rarely faced strikers as clinical as Aubameyang and Lacazette, who covered up a multitude of Arsenal flaws while laying Valencia's painfully bare.

Once upon a time, when a club found its superstar player linked with a move to a bigger club, they used to repeat the same refrain: "We are not a selling club."

It was always a particularly meaningless phrase; every club is a selling club at the right price, not least in this era of player power. It's not even worth pretending anymore. When Barcelona are effectively forced to sell Neymar, and Real Madrid are effectively forced to sell Cristiano Ronaldo, even European football's two big beasts are now selling clubs.

Those two remain at the top of the foodchain and have regularly signed English football's best throughout the past decade: from Ronaldo to Luis Suarez, from Cesc Fabregas to Gareth Bale, from Luka Modric to Philippe Coutinho. If Barca and Real come calling, you don't stand much chance of keeping a player.

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The next in line, it seems, is Eden Hazard. Losing the Belgian would be a serious blow to Chelsea, not merely because of his huge contribution to the club's attack -- more on that later -- but because Chelsea are genuinely not a selling club. It's difficult to remember, in the Roman Abramovich era or even during the decade or so beforehand, Chelsea losing a key player against his will.

Sure, Chelsea have let go of big names, like Arjen Robben and Juan Mata, but that was because they didn't fit into Jose Mourinho's plans. They sold Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah too early, believing they had better options in their squad. And they've sold established title winners like Oscar and Thibaut Courtois, but few supporters were disappointed to see them leave.

However, at Stamford Bridge there's been nothing close to Arsenal losing Fabregas, United losing Ronaldo, Liverpool losing Suarez or Spurs losing Bale. Those were their side's outstanding individual, the player the attack was based around. Losing them forced the clubs to regroup, reformat their side and build again. All have managed it. If they lose another star, they can point to past experiences and move on.

To Chelsea, this is entirely unnatural. They, like Manchester City, have been all about incomings. Under Abramovich, Chelsea have generally signed players at roughly their peak age -- or sometimes just as they're starting to decline -- which means their stars have departed in their mid-30s, when it was long overdue.

All this means it's difficult to envisage how Chelsea would cope if Hazard, as expected, moves to Real Madrid this summer. There's no culture at Chelsea of reinvesting in youth and building again. With uncertainty over the future of Maurizio Sarri, little emphasis upon promoting youth, a question mark about their recruitment policy after Michael Emenalo's departure and an upcoming transfer ban, the departure of Hazard could prove more disastrous than the loss of the aforementioned players.

There's a sense that Hazard remains underrated in the Premier League, especially considering his recent omission from the PFA Team of the Year. No Premier League player has recorded more assists than Hazard this season, and no one has dribbled past opponents more regularly. Only seven players have scored more goals.

That all-round quality is what makes Hazard so brilliant, and it also means he would be almost impossible to replace. Chelsea aren't simply looking to replace goal-scoring potential, or creative quality, or trickery -- they'd be looking for someone who could provide three different qualities in one. Statistically, it's difficult to find anyone comparable from Europe's major leagues, aside from Lionel Messi. Hazard's departure would need to be compensated with the arrival of at least two standout attackers.

Chelsea seemingly can't compete for Europe's most coveted players anymore, so instead they're being forced to look for the next big thing. Christian Pulisic will arrive in the summer and is clearly an outstanding talent. But Chelsea are not a club that possesses great patience, or a great track record of turning promise into consistent end product -- even Hazard himself was miles ahead of Pulisic in terms of his development when he joined in 2012.

Hazard has been relatively consistent throughout the course of his Chelsea career -- only 2015-16 has been a genuinely disappointing campaign -- but Chelsea have never relied on him as much as this season.

Increasingly, Sarri's tactics in the attacking third have gone out the window, and Chelsea's attack has been based around getting the ball to Hazard, and getting him to do something remarkable.

Sarri hasn't been able to choose between Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud -- and now Gonzalo Higuain -- and also has chopped and changed between Willian, Pedro and, more recently, Callum Hudson-Odoi. Is the most attacking midfield role played by Mateo Kovacic, Ross Barkley or Ruben Loftus-Cheek? There's little consistency, little clear plan. Hazard is the only permanent attacker and has increasingly been forced to do it all by himself.

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Of the dozens of different categories displayed by the statistics website WhoScored, perhaps the most intriguing is the column counting how many times each player has been man of the match. This is decided according to an algorithm, which is subjective, and there's always an argument that football performance cannot be entirely represented by a lone number. But it's nevertheless notable that Hazard has been deemed the best performer in 13 Premier League matches this season. No other player has held this honour more than eight times -- accomplished by Salah and Raheem Sterling.

That doesn't necessarily prove that Hazard has been better than Sterling or Salah; they're competing for that honour with the likes of Sergio Aguero and Sadio Mane, so logically it's harder for them to be the game's outstanding player. But it reinforces the point that no other Premier League side rely on one player as much as Hazard.

When combined with the aforementioned sense that Chelsea simply aren't accustomed to losing a star player and rebuilding, the sale of Hazard could be among the most significant in Premier League history, and might, for the time being, end Chelsea's period as a consistent contender for major honours.

If arrogance was a recent hallmark of Australia's cricketers and the governing body that groomed them, then humility will be critical to Steven Smith and David Warner's return to international ranks a year after the Newlands scandal brought them tumbling down from the rarified positions of captain and deputy at the vanguard of the national team.

Justin Langer, Australia's coach, has bluntly acknowledged that the development of humility will be vital to Smith and Warner's successful return to a team that had only recently grown into a winning combination without them. Neither are permitted to be formal leaders - Smith for another year, Warner for life - and the transition will take some careful work on both sides.

Already, there has been considerable work done through the leadership consulting of Tim Ford, formerly of Heidrick and Struggles, the recruiting and leadership firm deeply involved in the 2011 Argus review of Australian team performance. And from now there will be adjustment, particularly for Smith, from captain to foot soldier; even if the Cricket Australia contracts granted to him and Warner returned them to the top five richest members of the national squad.

"We'll draw on their experience on and off the field and it will be crazy not to. There's certainly going to be challenges for both of them though," Langer said in Brisbane. "You've come from a titled position of captain and then you're not, then there's going to be a certain degree of humility that comes from that. One of our really strong values is humility, so it'll be a great opportunity for them to develop that, but their leadership's going to be crucial for us to win on the field and win off the field, so we're looking forward to them developing that.

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"It's going to be a huge opportunity for him [Smith] to share with the group what he's learned, on and off the cricket field. He's an all-time great player so we would be absolutely crazy not to draw on that, and we will draw on it, as we do with the way Davey plays his cricket, the way he runs between the wickets, his body language on the field. Those things epitomise great players and great Australian cricket teams. We'll use that leadership and use it on and off the field.

"We've had a very humbling experience and we brought it on ourselves. I still have that vision of Steve almost being frog-marched out of South Africa, we saw some sad vision 12 months ago to some really positive, happy vision of where were at now. Every opportunity we get to celebrate Australian cricket and to make Australians proud of us again, every opportunity it important for us."

The process of reintegration has not necessarily progressed in a smooth or linear manner. Some players, it is said, were intimidated by the presence of the still suspended Smith and Warner in their midst during the UAE tour. There was nervousness, too, about who would have to make way for them - Peter Handscomb and Ashton Turner paid a hefty price despite recent performances, leaving the onus on Smith and Warner to ensure they contribute to an Australian team faring rather better in ODI matches now than when both were previously available.

Langer, who is known to have mulled over how Warner and Smith might be returned to the team virtually from the first month of his coaching tenure, described the initial Brisbane meeting as a "check-in" to remind all and sundry of values such as the aforementioned humility. "With all values they're just words on a bit of paper unless you live them," he said. "It's just another little check in yesterday, so it was really good, worthwhile.

"There's no tension, honestly. We're so excited to have the boys back, we're just excited about playing cricket. There's been a big build up to it, it's a bit like facing fast bowling, you worry about it until you get out there and it's not as bad as you thought it was. They came to Dubai, it was great, they're back in the team now, they've been selected, which is brilliant, I just can't wait to see us playing cricket."

The composition of the Australian team, particularly in terms of batting, now leans heavily on a top order capable of making hundreds as a platform for the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis to tee off in the later overs. Langer suggested that Smith may find himself batting lower in the order to accommodate the others, given how unlikely it is to see Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja, captain Aaron Finch or Warner batting any lower than No. 4.

"It's awesome to have options," Langer said. "The way Usman and Finchy have batted together in the Test matches they played together in the UAE plus what they did in the last two one-day series is brilliant. Dave Warner's a world-class opening batsman, Shaun Marsh's been brilliant at No. 3, good at No. 4, Steve Smith can probably bat where he likes or wherever he is in the side, so it's really exciting to have those five hundred makers at our disposal really.

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"We've had so much success, we've had such a proud history Australian cricket and we know what works and we just had to keep trusting that. There was a lot of talk about strike rates and scoring, how many runs you've got to score, but we saw in India when the games allow you score big scores. You play in different grounds around England, we'll score big scores because we've got hundred makers, really talented finishers, we're playing spin much better and we've worked really hard on playing spin, so the game hasn't changed too much."

As for the team's collective behaviour, in the same week the former assistant coach David Saker insisted the former coaching regime led by Darren Lehmann had "never, ever" encouraged cheating in terms of trying to generate reverse swing, Langer noted a clean slate in terms of the ICC code of conduct since Newlands. This in itself can now be seen as equally important to Australia as the ICC's other metric - the international rankings, which have Australia down at No. 5 in both Tests and ODIs.

"Hopefully we've shown over the last 12 months," Langer said when asked about regaining Australia's respect. "Our behaviours on and off the field, we've played good cricket, we've won and lost with respect, which is important. We had a tough summer, no doubting that, but the boys still competed really hard. I think it's the first time in a very long time we've had zero code of conduct [breaches] in the last 12 months, which is an awesome achievement by the players.

"I said 12 months ago I can say all the words in the world, we can say all the words, we can talk as much as we want, [it's] our actions. It'll be a million different behaviours, a million different actions which will earn back the respect. We actually can't control that, but what we can control is doing the right things and hopefully we've done that for the last 12 months."