Sports FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2014

Barca need Porto, Celtic well set in Messi, Neymar, Champs League playoffs

GENEVA: Former European Cup winners Porto and Celtic took to UEFA’s lawyers after losing home and away to previous oppo- Suarez to mask big steps toward the Champions League group stage on nent Legia Warsaw. Celtic advanced when the Polish champion Wednesday, as home teams struggled in their playoff round, first- was punished for fielding a suspended player. deficiencies leg matches. The Scottish side led in the sixth minute from a third goal in Two-time champion Porto won 1-0 in Lille, and Celtic took the competition by Callum McGregor, who seized on a loose ball advantage of a reprieve from UEFA to play in the competition by after Jo Inge Berget’s shot was saved. MADRID: After a year of political turmoil in the board and drawing 1-1 at Maribor. Russian league leader Zenit St Maribor, seeking a first group-stage appearance for 15 years, court rooms and disappointment on the pitch, Barcelona Petersburg’s 1-0 victory at Standard Liege helped ensure all five leveled eight minutes with Damjan Bohar’s goal. Celtic would have not taken a first trophyless season in six years lying home teams failed to win. APOEL is favored to advance next week have retaken the lead but Stefan Johansen, standing on the down. Facing two transfer window signing bans, a summer in Cyprus after drawing 1-1 against Aalborg in Denmark. goalline, inadvertently blocked teammate Virgil van Dijk’s head- of revolution in the Catalan capital saw former captain Luis BATE Borisov took a 1-1 draw back to Belarus after Slovan er.After four straight wins in its national league, coach Andre Enrique installed as coach and over 150 million euros ($200 Bratislava got an 80th-minute equalizer from veteran Slovakia for- Villas-Boas’ Zenit team also won in Belgium. million) invested in the squad. ward Robert Vittek. Second-leg matches are played next Tuesday, Brazil forward Hulk’s pass across the penalty box set up Oleg However, doubts remain over how wisely that money has two days before the 32-team group stage is drawn in Monaco. Shatov’s winning goal in the 16th minute. APOEL, a surprise quar- been spent and whether Barca have truly addressed their Each club is then guaranteed at last 8.6 million euros ($11.5 mil- terfinalist three seasons ago, made its first shot on target count in weaknesses from last season. The headline purchase has lion) in prize money from UEFA. Porto and Lille both finished third the 54th minute at Aalborg. Brazilian midfielder Vinicius finished been the 81 million euro capture of Luis Suarez from in their national leagues last season, and it was Portugal which a surging run into the penalty area with a rising shot into the net. Liverpool. looked the classier act on this evidence. The Danish champion Aalborg had dominated the first half The Uruguayan won’t even be able to play a minute of The only goal, in the 61st minute, had a World Cup flavor to it. and took the lead with Nicolaj Thomsen’s shot in the 16th from 15 competitive action until late October, though, as he serves a Porto’s Mexico midfielder Hector Herrera pounced from close- meters (yards). BATE are well set to reach the group stage for the four-month play ban for biting Italian defender Giorgio range after Lille’s Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama parried a fourth time since 2008. It led with a 44th-minute own goal by Chiellini at the World Cup. header by Jackson Martinez, the Colombia forward. Lille rarely Slovan defender Tomas Jablonsky. Vittek, whose four goals at the Moreover, whilst a trio of Suarez, four-time World Player threatened, though defender Sebastien Corchia shot over from 2010 World Cup included two to eliminate defending champion of the Year Lionel Messi and Brazilian superstar Neymar is eight meters (yards) in the 45th after his first shot was blocked. Italy, came off the bench late to level the match with a left-foot beyond the budgets of even the majority of fantasy football Celtic, the 1967 champion, owed its appearance in the playoffs shot from a tight angle. — AP managers, it remains to be seen how the three dovetail. All are coming off bitter disappointment at the World Cup in their own way. Suarez’s tournament ended in dis- grace, Neymar’s in a very nearly crippling back injury and, despite being named player of the tournament, Messi failed to secure his place as one of the best of all time as his Argentina side lost out to Germany in the final. Yet, it is a triumvirate Barca need to work if they are to have any chance of challenging European champions Real Madrid and La Liga title holders Atletico Madrid over the course of the season with more major concerns in other areas of the pitch. Veterans Victor Valdes and Carles Puyol ended their playing days with the club at the end of last sea- son, signifying the breakup of the side coached by Pep Guardiola that dominated Europe in his first few years in charge. Chile captain Claudio Bravo and 22-year-old Marc-Andre Ter Stegen will battle it out to be Enrique’s number one ‘keeper after being signed for 12 million euros each with Bravo set to start the campaign after the German picked up a back injury. Of even more concern has been the recruit- ment of two new centre-backs in 30-year-old Jeremy Mathieu from Valencia and Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen for nearly 40 million euros. Mathieu has spent most of his career at left-back before moving to a central position last season, whilst Vermaelen had lost his place in the Arsenal side over the last two years. Both signings, though, give Barca some much needed depth at the heart of the defence and should allow Javier Mascherano to return to his favoured position in midfield, where he shone at the World Cup.

Midfield lethargy Mascherano’s own future has been secured by a new contract that will run until 2018 and his aggression is what VILLENEUVE D’ASCQ: Porto’s Mexican midfielder Hector Herrera (R) challenges Lille’s Senegalese defender Pape Souare during Enrique hopes to return to a midfield that has become the UEFA Champions League play-off first leg football match between Lille and Porto at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in lethargic in recent seasons. Villeneuve d’Ascq, northern France,on Wednesday. — AFP “I am very happy with the desire and ambition with which the players are training. That makes me optimistic,” Enrique said of his preparation for the new season. “We need to press in an organised and concrete manner. Chopra picked by Tendulkar’s Kerala Blasters Obviously it is important to have the ball, but so is to recover it as quickly as possible.” MUMBAI: Former Newcastle striker Michael Chopra’s Indian origin Mateu ($58,185) went to Atletico de Kolkata. Enrique has already had coaching success at Barca as he made him a top pick as he was bought quickly by Kerala Blasters yes- The players were classified in pay brackets of $39,000 to $80,000 as succeeded Guardiola as Barca B coach and led them into the terday in the international player draft of the . the league, to be played from Oct. 12-Dec. 20, brought in a mix of second tier of Spanish football in 2010. However, his coach- Chopra, the only English player among 49 players in the draft, was some big names by Indian standards as well as upcoming players in a ing style is a little more pragmatic than his former team- picked by the south Indian franchise which is part-owned by retired bid to boost the game’s following. The order of draft picks was decid- mate.Gerardo Martino was criticised throughout his sole cricket great Sachin Tendulkar. “When the drafts came up, the first ed by draw of lots, with the teams choosing from players in pre-decid- season in charge for not being loyal to the Barca style of name that caught our attention was that of Chopra,” said former ed sets according to their positions of play. Unlike the biddings at play. England goalkeeper David James, a player and manager with the cricket’s Indian , from which the ISL is inspired, there But with the figurehead of “tiki-taka” Xavi Hernandez also Kerala Blasters. “We immediately decided to pick him and are happy was no glamour quotient as the cricketers and film stars associated likely to play a much reduced role this season, Enrique will to have him in this team.” with the tournament did not turn up for the draft. continue a trend towards moving the ball quicker into the Chopra will get $58,185 per season, according to organizers. Other Giant screens showed the team selection process inside the hall final third. A style and season that will succeed or fail by how prominent picks included French defender Bernard Mendy ($80,000) for the draft at a prominent five-star hotel facing the Arabian sea. All their star attacking trio click. — AFP and former Manchester United midfielder Bojan Djordjic of Sweden the teams have the option of selecting three players from outside the ($58,185) by the Chennai franchise, while Spanish midfielder Jofre draft process, including a marquee player.—AP