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Spurs stop Hoefl-Riesch Bulls charge crashes, loses World Cup lead THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014 16 17 Spurs under pressure ahead of Benfica clash Page 19 SPAIN: Barcelona’s Brazilian forward Neymar da Silva Santos Junior (right) falls as he vies with Manchester City’s English defender Joleon Lescott (left) during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg football match. — AFP Barcelona eliminate Man City BARCELONA: Second-half goals from Lionel Messi and City captain Vincent Kompany looked to have salvaged one had to be alert seconds later to prevent Xavi prodding goal at the back post. Dani Alves booked Barcelona’s place in the Champions at least a draw on the night when he tapped home a home on the stretch from Messi’s cross. The opener finally arrived when Cesc Fabregas’s intend- League quarter-finals for a seventh consecutive year as they minute from time, but Alves restored Barca’s lead from Nasri then had a fantastic chance to give City hope as a ed through ball bounced off Lescott into the path of Messi beat Manchester City 2-1 at the Camp Nou yesterday to Andres Iniesta’s cut-back in stoppage time. With a huge fantastic move involving Yaya Toure and David Silva fell to and he gave Hart no chance with a nonchalant finish off the progress 4-1 on aggregate. mountain to climb, City started on the front foot but they the Frenchman, but his low effort was straight at Valdes. outside of his left foot. There was still more controversy to City were looking to become the first side to come back were lucky not to concede a penalty on eight minutes With City still needing two goals to even force extra come, though, as Dzeko appeared to have been felled by from losing the first leg 2-0 at home in the Champions when Messi went down under a challenge from Joleon time, the injured Sergio Aguero was replaced by Dzeko at Gerard Pique inside the area. League era and they had chances to reduce the deficit as Lescott. The visitors’ first opening arrived on 16 minutes the break. Lannoy was again unmoved and Zabaleta was dismissed Victor Valdes denied Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko either side when James Milner could only direct Aleksandar Kolarov’s However, the Bosnian nearly made an instant impact as for taking his protests too far as a host of City players sur- of half-time. However, Messi killed the tie as a contest with driven cross wide of the target. his low drive was smothered by Valdes. Messi came within rounded the referee. 23 minutes remaining as he pounced on a loose ball inside City were then handed another break by the officials as inches of sealing the tie with another wonderful solo run The English side did manage a consolation a minute the area to flick home his eighth Champions League goal of Neymar had a goal controversially ruled out for offside as on 50 minutes as he teased Lescott before passing the ball from time when Kompany tapped home Dzeko’s knock- the season. Jordi Alba was deemed to have been offside when he off the inside of the post. down from a corner. The visitors were then reduced to 10 men as Pablo crossed for the Brazilian to finish. City then had a couple of great chances to get back into However, Barca weren’t to be denied victory on the Zabaleta was shown a second yellow card for dissent after Joe Hart was called into his most strenuous save of the the tie as Valdes produced a magnificent save to turn night as with their next attack Iniesta rounded Hart and Dzeko looked to have a legitimate penalty claim waved first-half six minutes before the break as he turned Dzeko’s towering header over the bar before Zabaleta kept his head to set up Alves to hammer home from close away by French referee Stephane Lannoy. Neymar’s near post effort behind and the England number skewed wildly wide when presented with a clear sight of range. — AFP PSG stroll Raonic topples Murray INDIAN WELLS: Two-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray was into q-finals searching for answers yesterday after an inexplicable third-set fade against Milos Raonic in the fourth round at Indian Wells. Scotland’s Murray, the world number six who is seeded fifth in the first PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain advanced safely off the most improbable of comebacks, then into the quarter-finals of the Champions those hopes were short-lived, as the equaliser ATP Masters of the year, appeared to be in control after breaking the League yesterday, beating Bayer Leverkusen 2- on the night came just seven minutes later. mighty Raonic serve for a 2-1 lead in the third set. 1 at the Parc des Princes in their last 16, second After Bernd Leno saved from Zlatan But the Scot was broken to love in the next game, and broken again to leg to take the tie 6-1 on aggregate. Trailing 4- Ibrahimovic, Yohan Cabaye’s resulting corner fall 4-2 down amid a plethora of unforced errors, finally succumbing 4-6, 7- 0 from the first leg in Germany three weeks from the right was met by a thumping 5, 6-3. ago, the Germans took an early lead on the Marquinhos header that the German ‘keeper “It was poor,” Murray said. “To get broken two consecutive times in that night through Sidney Sam, but Marquinhos could only help on its way into the net. situation isn’t good enough. I played poor tennis at that stage. equalised soon after. “I didn’t make enough balls, missed easy shots-really easy shots. There Leverkusen captain Simon Rolfes had a DENIED BY BAR were some where he was standing in the net and I just had to hit it to the penalty saved before Ezequiel Lavezzi put PSG It was the young Brazilian defender’s third other side. Missing shots like that.” in front eight minutes into the second period, goal in this season’s Champions League, and Murray, 26, has yet to reach a final since having back surgery in and the sending-off of Emre Can saw the the hosts almost went on to take the lead September. But he said he played good matches in losing to Roger Bundesliga club bow out with 10 men. No shortly after, but Ibrahimovic clipped his shot Federer in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January and to in- team had ever been eliminated from a against the crossbar after a Cavani pass left form Croatian Marin Cilic in the quarters at Rotterdam. European knock-out tie after winning 4-0 him with just the ‘keeper to beat. away in the first leg and PSG coach Laurent Leverkusen had lost five and drawn one of He arrived in the California desert off a semi-final run in Acapulco, Blanc made the most of his side’s comfortable their previous six games in all competitions to encouraged that at last he felt truly match fit. But he had to dig deep in cushion by rotating his squad, as Thiago Motta increase the pressure on coach Sami Hyypia, each of his first two matches here, losing the first set against both Lukas and Alex dropped to the bench. but they played some nice football in the first Rosol and Jiri Vesely. Blaise Matuidi was rested altogether to period and were handed the opportunity to “It was clearly patchy,” Murray said of his performance in a tournament avoid the risk of incurring a suspension for the retake the lead in the 28th minute. in which he hasn’t made it past the quarter-finals since his runner-up fin- next round. It was still a strong PSG line-up, When Christophe Jallet pulled back Eren ish in 2009. with Edinson Cavani starting for the first time Derdiyok inside the area, Croatian referee Ivan Against a player like 10th-seeded Raonic, any lapses are more costly, in over a month after injury but, perhaps Bebek did not hesitate in pointing to the spot, Murray said, because the Canadian can win so many easy points with his understandably, there was an air of compla- and yet Rolfes saw his effort from 12 yards serve. cency about the hosts early on, and kept out as Sirigu made a great save diving “I’ll need to have a think about it and have a look at what happened,” Leverkusen took full advantage. low to his left. said Murray, who will try to turn things around at the Miami Masters start- A low long-range strike by Can that was Leno saved from Cavani at the other end ing next week. pushed around the post by Salvatore Sirigu shortly before the interval, and PSG then took “But, you know, there wasn’t a huge explanation for it, because the served as a warning to the Ligue 1 leaders, the lead eight minutes into the second period although it was not heeded, and the visitors as Lucas Digne’s low ball from the left was fired shots I was missing, it wasn’t like one shot in particular when I’d miss every opened the scoring in the sixth minute. A love- low into the net by Lavezzi, for whom it was a shot. ly move started by Rolfes on the left saw fifth goal in his last six games. “First-serve percentage dropped, missed a lot of backhands, missed a Gonzalo Castro spread the play to Giulio The visitors were reduced to 10 men when few easy forehand passes as well.” With his back feeling fine, Murray mused that such a sudden drop in form at the crucial point of the match was due Donati on the right flank, and the Italian’s cross Can was shown a second yellow card for div- PARIS: PSG’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic (right) jumps in the air for a high ball to something more intangible.

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