Football in Brief

Lallana: Liverpool must stick together
Liverpool, beaten 3-1 by Crystal Palace at the weekend, must stick together to pull through their current loss of form, midfielder Adam Lallana said on Monday, Sunday's 3-1 loss at Palace was the Reds' fourth in a row in all competitions and left them sitting 12th in the Premier League table, only four points above the relegation zone.
Rickie Lambert gave the visitors an early lead with his first Liverpool goal but the lack of confidence in Brendan Rodgers' team was all too evident as Palace battled back to win.
Liverpool must beat Ludogorets on Wednesday to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League. Lallana told liverpoolfc.com: "It was disappointing, especially after going in front so early. It was a great platform for us to push on and control the game. But we didn't do that - we take full responsibility for that.
"We need to stick together. It's as simple as that. When you're having a tough time as a team, you all need to stay together - you can't start becoming individuals. We win and lose as a team; we need to stay together, keep fighting and keep working for each other. We have got a tough game on Wednesday so we all need to be together for that one.
"We need to win to stay in the competition, so the lads will be fighting for their lives to do that. It's important, not just for ourselves, but for the fans, the manager and everyone involved with Liverpool Football Club."

Aguero, Jovetic fit to face Bayern
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini said on Monday that strikers Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic will both be fit to face Bayern Munich on Tuesday despite sitting out training.
The two players were in attendance as Pellegrini addressed his squad on the training pitch, but they did not take part in the session that followed after sustaining knocks in Saturday's win over Swansea City. However, Pellegrini subsequently revealed that both players were in contention to play against Bayern, when City will attempt to keep their flatlining Champions League campaign alive.
"Both of them, Aguero and Jovetic, are in the squad list, so they don't have any problem for tomorrow (Tuesday)," the Chilean told a pre-match press conference at the Etihad Stadium.
"They didn't work normally today because they had just a small thing (injury) after the last game, but nothing important." Aguero is City's top scorer this season with 14 goals in all competitions, while Jovetic took his tally for the campaign to three by netting the equaliser in the 2-1 success against Swansea.
Having taken only two points from their opening four Group E games, City will be eliminated if they fail to beat Bayern and there is a winner in the match between CSKA Moscow and Roma.
City will be without midfielders Yaya Toure and Fernandinho, who are suspended, while playmaker David Silva (knee), striker Edin Dzeko (calf) and leftback Aleksandar Kolarov (calf) are all injured.

Arsenal sub Podolski again vents frustration
Arsenal's Germany forward Lukas Podolski has repeated his frustrations at being kept on the Gunners' bench, heightening speculation he may leave in January's transfer window.
"I like London, I like the club, but I don't like the situation," he told German magazine Kicker having again sat on the bench for Arsenal's 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United.
"I'm not some clown who can sit out his contract in the stands."
Podolski, who has an Arsenal contract until 2016, has said he will seek talks with coach Arsene Wenger before the January transfer window opens. The German has made just eight appearances for Arsenal this season, only one of which was over 90 minutes, but Wenger has said Podolski is not for sale.
Earlier this month, Germany coach Joachim Loew told World Cup winner Podolski to consider his Arsenal future if he wants to keep his place in the national squad after 121 appearances. Loew gave Podolski a rare start in Germany's 4-0 win over minnows Gibraltar in a Euro 2016 qualifier ten days ago, but he failed to shine in a poor team performance.
"The fun of the game is being taken out of me at Arsenal," he said at the time.
"I'm a true-blood footballer and want to play. Now, I have even noticed that I'm missing something if I'm not playing regularly."
The former Bayern Munich and Cologne striker has not ruled out a return to the Bundesliga and has been linked to Wolfsburg in Germany's top-flight.

Slutsky: CSKA set for tough Roma visit
Russian champions CSKA Moscow head coach Leonid Slutsky is anticipating a tough Champions League clash on Tuesday against Serie A side AS Roma.
"Our first meeting with Roma showed us they are a really strong team," Slutsky told a news conference. CSKA lost their Champions League campaign-opener with the Italians 5-1 in September.
"Tuesday's match will show whether we've done our home work good enough ahead of the return encounter," he added.
"The match with Roma is without doubt very important for us. We still have a chance to make it through and we must do our best to capitalise on these chances." Slutsky added that the absence of some of Roma's key players is unlikely to dramatically change the situation for his team.
"The absence of Maicon and (Vasilis) Torosidis will unlikely affect seriously our tactics for this match," Slutsky said. "We experience certain problems with our defensive midfield line and are currently racking our brains over it. I think we'll take the final decision on Tuesday."
CSKA defender Alexei Berezutsky, who also attended the news conference, said he believed that Tuesday's match would be completely different than the two teams' previous meeting in September.
"Any team can suffer a thrashing. Just remember, Roma also conceded seven goals in the match with Bayern this season," he said.
"Meanwhile, we displayed a much more stout defensive performance in the other Champions League matches. I'm confident that on Tuesday everything will be completely different. We are set to battle for a place in the knockout stage up to the very end."