Pressure is on Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso ahead of Champions League match against Man City
Manchester (AP): The pressure is mounting on Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso ahead of Wednesday's Champions League match with Manchester City.
Madrid has won just two of its last seven in all competitions including a 2-0 loss to Celta Vigo over the weekend.
Ahead of the City match, Alonso had to contend with reports in the Spanish media that he had lost control of the locker room.
“This is a team, and we all stand together,” he said. "In soccer, you can change perspective quickly, and we're at that point.”
Doubts over Kylian Mbappé's availability added to Alonso's concerns. The France striker trained separately to the rest of the team on Tuesday, having reportedly had issues with is left leg.
City manager Pep Guardiola sympathized with Alonso, who he coached as a player at Bayern Munich.
“Barcelona and Real Madrid are the toughest clubs to be manager of because of the environment,” he said. “It's a difficult place but he knows it — it's the reality of being here."
Other games on Wednesday include defending champion Paris Saint-Germain at Athletic Bilbao, Arsenal at Club Brugge and Italian champion Napoli at Benfica.
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3 officials of private banks arrested in Gujarat in Rs 2,500 crore cyber fraud; 20 held so far
Rajkot (PTI): Three officials of leading private banks were arrested for their alleged involvement in a Rs 2,500-crore cyber fraud racket in Gujarat's Rajkot district, bringing the number of those held so far in the case to 20, police said on Monday.
Those arrested were identified as Maulik Kamani, a personal manager at Yes Bank in Padadhari; Kalpesh Dangariya, a manager at Axis Bank in Jamnagar; and Anurag Baldha, a personal banker with HDFC Bank, Rajkot (Rural) Superintendent of Police Vijay Gurjar said.
Dangariya and Baldha were previously employed with Yes Bank, he added.
Kamani allegedly assisted the earlier arrested accused in opening and managing suspicious accounts. He also helped bypass banking alerts triggered by high-value transactions by submitting additional documentation to keep accounts active, the SP said.
Kamani was allegedly involved in cash withdrawals that were later routed through hawala channels (illegal money transfer system), supported by digital evidence recovered from his mobile device, he added.
Dangariya is accused of facilitating the opening of fraudulent accounts using fake or misrepresented identities, police said.
He also assisted in structuring documentation, including Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)-related papers, to prevent transactions from being flagged as suspicious, they said.
On the other hand, Baldha opened new accounts after verification and certification processes as part of the racket, Gurjar informed.
All the three accused are in police custody, while others are in jail under judicial remand, SP said.
So far, police have identified 85 bank accounts linked to the racket with 535 complaints filed on the cyber crime portal.
The total transaction linked to the cyber fraud exceeds Rs 2,500 crore, police said.
The earlier fraud amount was pegged by police at Rs 1,500 crore.
