BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti will give Thibaut Courtois another chance to impress before deciding which of his goalkeepers will start the Champions League final.
While, Courtois is considered one of the world's top goalkeepers, he has just recently returned from a long-term injury. In his absence, backup Andriy Lunin helped take the team to the June 1 final against Borussia Dortmund.
Ancelotti said Friday he plans to give Courtois more playing time in the league to assess his form, but that he had one month “to think about it."
Lunin was a rarely used backup to Courtois until the Belgian ruptured a left-knee ligament in August just two days before the start of the season. The Ukrainian took over the staring job and has impressed in his place.
Courtois had been sidelined until he started last weekend’s 3-0 win over Cadiz, a victory that secured Madrid's 36th Spanish league title.
But Lunin was back in the net for Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League semifinals.
Ancelotti said Friday that Courtois will play on Saturday when Madrid visits Granada in the league. He said he would rest several starters, including Jude Bellingham, for a game that has no implications for Madrid. Granada is in 19th place and struggling to avoid relegation.
After Granada, Madrid will have three more Spanish league games before the big final in London.
“Courtois will play tomorrow,” Ancelotti said. “I have these (remaining) games to evaluate the goalkeepers.”
Lunin consolidated himself as Ancelotti's first-choice keeper even after Madrid brought in Kepa Arrizabalaga following the injury to Courtois. The 25-year-old Ukrainian saved two penalties in the decisive shootout win over Manchester City in the quarterfinals.
Courtois, however, has proven experience in finals. The 31-year-old Belgian won the 2022 Champions League with Madrid, the FA Cup with Chelsea, the Europa League with Atletico Madrid, and two Copa del Rey titles (one for Madrid, one for Atletico), among several other titles.
Former Madrid and Spain goalie Iker Casillas weighed in, saying that for him Lunin should stay in goal against Dortmund.
“Lunin has shown he has sure hands in goal and can rise to the moment,” Casillas said, while questioning whether Courtois would have enough time to regain his top form for the final.
“I completely respect what a Madrid legend says, but I don’t want to get into this debate because I have this month to think about it,” Ancelotti said when asked about Casillas' opinion.
TCHOUAMENI DOUBTFUL
Ancelotti may have to find a replacement for holding midfielder Aurélien Tchouameni for the final after he was diagnosed with a left-foot injury.
“We have doubts about Tchouameni being able to play the final,” Ancelotti said.
If the France midfielder does not recover, then his spot would likely go to countryman Eduardo Camavinga.
WEEKEND GAMES
While Granada must try to beat Madrid to boost its chances of staying up, 19th-placed Cadiz is even closer to relegation before it plays Getafe on Sunday.
Girona will look to hold on to second place when it visits Alaves on Friday, while third-placed Barcelona hosts Real Sociedad on Monday.
Atletico Madrid is in fourth place and clinging to the final Champions League berth. It hosts Celta Vigo on Sunday. Athletic Bilbao, in fifth, welcomes Osasuna on Saturday trailing Atletico by six points.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Real Madrid's goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, 3rd left trains watched by reserve goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, left, during a Media Opining day training session in Madrid, Spain, on May 24, 2022. Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has started his casting for which goalkeeper – Thibaut Courtois or Andriy Lunin – will start the Champions League final. Ancelotti said Friday May 10, 2024 that he had one month “to think about it." (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the police department's response to a pro-Palestinian street demonstration in Brooklyn over the weekend, calling video of officers repeatedly punching men lying prone on the ground an “isolated incident.”
“Look at that entire incident,” Adams said on the “Mornings on 1” program on the local cable news channel NY1. He complained that protesters who marched through Brooklyn's Bay Ridge section on Saturday had blocked traffic, spit at officers and, in once instance, climbed on top of a moving city bus. “I take my hat off to the Police Department, how they handled an unruly group of people.”
“People want to take that one isolated incident that we’re investigating. They need to look at the totality of what happened in that bedroom community,” Adams added.
Footage shot by bystanders and independent journalists shows police officers intercepting a march in the street, shoving participants toward the sidewalk, and then grabbing some people in the crowd and dragging them down to the asphalt. Officers can be seen repeatedly punching at least three protesters, in separate incidents, as they lay pinned on the ground.
A video shot by videographer Peter Hambrecht and posted on X shows an officer in a white shirt punching a protester while holding his throat. Hambrecht said the arrests took place after police told the crowd to disperse.
“They were aware they might get arrested, but many times people use that to justify the beating which is obviously ridiculous,” Hambrecht told The Associated Press in a text message.
Independent journalist Katie Smith separately recorded video of an officer unleashing a volley of punches on a man pinned to the ground, hitting him at least five times with a closed fist.
At least 41 people were arrested, police said.
The NYPD later released its own video showing misbehavior by protesters, including people throwing empty water bottles at officers, splashing them with liquids and lighting flares and smoke bombs. It also showed one protester sitting on the roof of a moving transit bus waving a Palestinian flag.
“We will not accept the narrative that persons arrested were victims, nor are we going to allow illegal behavior,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said in a statement on X.
The NYPD agreed to change the way it handles public protests last summer after it had to pay out at least $35 million to settle claims of police misconduct during the large protests against racial injustice after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
The legal settlement required the department to reduce the number of officers it sent to most protests. It also required police to allow most demonstrations to take place on public streets, even if they temporarily block traffic, as long as they are nonviolent and don't involve a threat of major property damage. Police can still step in under the settlement to redirect protest marches to prevent them from blocking access to bridges and tunnels, or places like hospitals and police precincts. But the written agreement says “the fact that some individuals in a crowd have engaged in unlawful conduct does not by itself provide grounds” to end demonstrations and order a crowd to disperse.
The City Council member who represents Bay Ridge, Justin Brannan, said the demonstration broken up by police was one held annually in the neighborhood to protest the displacement of Palestinian people following the establishment of Israel in 1948.
“Bay Ridge is home to the largest Palestinian community in NYC,” Brannan wrote on X. “There has been a Nakba Day demonstration here every year for the past decade without incident. I saw no evidence of actions by protestors today that warranted such an aggressive response from NYPD.”
New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman criticized the arrests and called them an escalation of police tactics against demonstrators.
“The aggressive escalation by the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group yesterday in Bay Ridge was a violation of New Yorkers’ right to speak out and risks chilling political expression," Lieberman said, naming the NYPD unit that is often called to protests.
FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams gestures as he attends a news conference at City Hall in New York, March 19, 2024. Adams defended the police department’s response Monday, May 20, 2024, to a pro-Palestinian street demonstration in Brooklyn over the weekend, calling video of officers repeatedly punching men lying prone on the ground an “isolated incident.” (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
