SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014 SPORTS Ronaldo propels Real to 5-goal rout

MADRID: Real Madrid ensured they will head into a big week full of confidence with a 5-0 thrashing of Levante ahead of their meetings with Liverpool and Barcelona. stretched his fine scoring streak at club level to nine games as he opened the scoring from the penalty spot before Javier Hernandez headed home to double Madrid’s lead before half-time. Ronaldo powered home his 15th league goal in just seven appearances this season to make it 3-0 before sweet finishes from James Rodriguez and Isco rounded of a seventh consecutive win for the European champions. Madrid now lie just a point adrift of leaders Barcelona, but the Catalans can restore their four-point advantage with a win over Eibar later MUNICH: Bremen’s Alejandro Galvez from Spain (left) and Bayern’s Mario Goetze chal- yesterday. Real boss Carlo Ancelotti is hoping lenge for the ball during the German First Division Bundesliga soccer match. —AP Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos will be able to overcome their respective injury problems for the trip to Anfield Leaders Bayern today. “I think we are arriving well into this week. We had a difficult game to prepare here, but we played very well and seriously. We were very thrash Bremen concentrated and it all went well,” said Ancelotti. SPAIN: Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal celebrates scoring against Levante dur- “Now we have time to, firstly recover some ing a Spanish soccer match at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium. —AP BERLIN: Bundesliga leaders Bayern Champions League clash at Galatasaray. players, and then think about the game on And from the corner Modric had to make a with the goal at his mercy after Marino had done Munich earned their fifth straight victory “We played a type of football which Wednesday.” fine clearance off the line to prevent Victor well to parry his initial effort. And the only nega- yesterday as Spainiard Xabi Alonso net- makes absolutely no sense,” fumed Despite missing a host of first team players, Camarasa punishing Madrid’s slack marking. tive note from a fine afternoon for Ancelotti was ted his first Bundesliga goal in their 6-0 Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp. the visitors could still have put the game to bed Madrid made sure of the three points seven an injury suffered by the Croatian midfielder as rout of Werder Bremen. Dortmund’s Germany midfielders Ilkay inside the first 15 minutes as Ronaldo was minutes before half-time as Rodriguez’s in- he limped off to be replaced by debutant Alvaro Bayern warmed up for Tuesday’s Gundogan-who had been out for more uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal. swinging cross was turned home from close Medran 10 minutes from time. There was still Champions League clash at Roma by than a year-and Marco Reus returned The Portuguese captain sliced wide with just range by Hernandez to register his third goal for one moment of brilliance to come from the visi- maintaining their four-point lead at the from injury, but were powerless to stop Diego Marino to beat after a wonderful through the club. Ancelotti’s men stepped up a gear after tors as Isco again broke through midfield and top of the table, boosting their goal dif- Cologne taking a 1-0 lead as midfielder ball from Luka Modric and then pulled another the break and put the seal on another comfort- this time went alone to drill the ball into the top ference to plus 19 as former Germany Kevin Vogt fired home on 40 minutes. shot wide from the edge of the box moments able victory with three goals of pure quality. corner for his first goal of the season. captain Philipp Lahm and Mario Geotze Dortmund’s Italy striker Ciro Immobile later. Ronaldo doubled his tally for the afternoon as Meanwhile, in the week that he marked the Ronaldo, though, wasn’t to be denied on 12 both scored twice. equalised, but Cologne’s Simon Zoller he latched onto Isco’s through ball and cut 10th anniversary of his competitive debut for minutes as Hernandez was tripped inside the inside two Levante defenders before firing past Barcelona, could become the all- “People say it’s hard to get back into it netted the hosts’ winner on 74 minutes area by Juanfran and the World Player of the Year Marino. time top scorer in the history of La Liga. after the international break, but we to seal their first win at home against slammed home the resulting penalty. Rodriguez then produced a stunning piece of The Argentine made his bow as a 17-year-old played well, had good positioning and Borussia since 2003. Levante reacted well to going behind and control as he took Toni Kroos’s lofted pass on his in a 1-0 win at city rivals Espanyol on October 16, good build-up,” said Bayern coach Pep The result sees Dortmund drop to came close to an equaliser twice in a matter of chest before volleying home on his favoured left 2004. Now he is preparing to face Eibar at the Guardiola. 14th in the table-just two points above seconds midway through the first-half as foot to make it four. Camp Nou needing just two goals to equal “It was a bit easier for us after Philipp the bottom three-while Cologne are Marcelo diverted Pape Diop’s effort inches past Madrid should have had a fifth 15 minutes Telmo Zarra’s all-time Spanish top-flight record scored the first goal. “Ok, we have three 10th. Bayer Leverkusen, who host Zenit his own goal. from time as Modric somehow side-footed wide of 251, set in the 1950s. —AFP points more, but our focus is now on the St Petersburg in the Champions League Champions League.” on Wednesday, threw away a three-goal Lahm started the rout when he lead in their 3-3 draw at plucky VfB crashed his shot home from 14 metres Stuttgart. Celtic run riot at Ross County out with 20 minutes gone at Munich’s A win would have seen Leverkusen go Allianz Arena. Alonso, who joined Bayern third, but the draw saw them drop to GLASGOW: A first-half goal glut helped Celtic that was the opposite of what we did. It is a The Ross County ‘keeper was picking the ball from Real Madrid in August, netted his sixth in the table. “You can see that these on their way to a 5-0 demolition of bottom-of- harsh lesson for the boys.” out of his net again just three minutes later. first goal for the club when he drove a footballers are still young and don’t have the-table Ross County yesterday to ease the After their loss at home to Hamilton before Stefan Johansen played a beautifully lofted pass free-kick under the Bremen wall on 27 much experience of hos brutal pressure on beleaguered Hoops boss Ronny the international break which saw the defending to Guidetti down the inside right channel and minutes. Bundesliga football can be,” lamented Deila. champions slump to sixth in the Scottish the Swedish striker squared the ball for Thomas Mueller put the hosts 3-0 up Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt, who is John Guidetti started the scoring at Victoria Premiership table, many pundits viewed the McGregor to rifle home on his return from injury. when he converted a penalty after being in his first season in charge. Park in the 11th minute before crossing for match in Dingwall as a must-win for Deila, who Johansen was also at the heart of the third dragged down in the area by Bremen’s Leverkusen raced into a 2-0 lead after Callum McGregor to slam home a second three has enjoyed a torrid start to his Celtic career. goal as he set up Stokes to score on the half- Sebastian Proedl on two minutes before only nine minutes as South Korea’s Son minutes later. hour mark. The Ross County defence parted as half-time. Heung-Min scored twice and could have Anthony Stokes curled home a third on the FIRED UP the Norwegian midfielder drove at them and he And Goetze made it 4-0 at the break had a hat-trick on 11 minutes when his half-hour mark with on-loan Manchester City Celtic captain Scott Brown accused his team- sent a weighted pass in to the path of Stokes when he held off Congo defender Assani lob hit the crossbar. defender grabbing a fourth in the mates of “hiding” in his post-match analysis of who curled his first-time effort into the bottom Lukimya to bury his shot in the far cor- Germany’s Karim Bellarabi made it 3-0 36th minute. corner of the net. Irish striker Stokes added a fifth 10 minutes Ross County barely had time to recover ner. Lahm and Goetze both added their just before the break when he converted after the break as the Hoops ran riot. The win, before the Hoops forced a fourth past Brown in second goals as the hosts profited from a Son’s pass to leave Leverkusen in full only marred by a nasty injury to defender Emilio the 36th minute. The ‘keeper made a good save tiring defence in the final 20 minutes and control. Izaguirre, moves Celtic up to third in the table, to stop ’s header from sneaking in the result left Bremen languishing bot- But Stuttgart battled back as midfield- six points behind leaders Hamilton Academical, but the County defence failed to clear the dan- tom of the table. er Timo Werner and left-back Florian albeit with a game in hand. ger and the ball fell to Denayer, who rifled the With Hoffenheim at Hamburg on Klein scored second-half goals before Deila was pleased with his side’s perform- rebound into the roof of the net. Stokes added a Sunday, Borussia Moenchengladbach Martin Harnik headed Stuttgart level on ance, saying: “I think the boys worked very hard. fifth in the 56th minute, the Irish striker picking went second in the table with a 3-0 win 76 minutes when he was left unmarked They were ready for the game and wanted to up a pass 25 yards out and, with no one in the at Hanover 96 as Germany squad mem- at the far post-by Son. VfL Wolfsburg bounce back from the last game.” Ross County side showing any urgency to close ber Max Kruse scored twice and Swiss went third with a 2-1 win at Freiburg as The Norwegian added: “The first half was him down, he fired in a fierce dipping shot that midfielder Granit Xhaka netted a free- midfielder Daniel Caligiuri scored twice good quality passing and we looked dangerous. John Guidetti went in off the post. kick. against his old club, while Mainz went It could have been more but I am very satisfied The hosts looked shell-shocked but came fourth after their 2-1 win at home to with 5-0.” the Hamilton defeat and his words seemed to close to a consolation goal after 70 minutes DORTMUND BEATEN AGAIN Augsburg. In contrast, County manager Jim McIntyre have fired the Hoops players up, with the when Michael Gardyne, in his third spell with the However, Borussia Dortmund’s horror Ex-Chelsea manager Roberto di couldn’t hide his disappointment. “We gave Glasgow giants coming out of the blocks flying. club, sent a shot from 20 yards out crashing off league run continued as they lost 2-1 at Matteo makes his debut as Schalke 04 Celtic far too much time on the ball and when The first half rout started in the 11th minute. the post. Cologne to make it five Bundesliga coach later when the 12th-placed Royal you do that against good teams they can really A Stokes free-kick into a crowded penalty box Brown then had to be alert at the other end hurt you,” McIntyre said. “We spoke before the was headed on by before land- to block an effort from McGregor when the games without a win, and their third Blues host Hertha Berlin in a mid-table game about trying to make sure we got in their ing perfectly for Guidetti to slide in and slam Celtic winger found himself one-on-one with defeat in a row, ahead of Wednesday’s clash. —AFP faces and make it as difficult as we could but home from close range past Mark Brown. the ‘keeper. —AFP The Albanian Embassy on the violence in Beograd stadium

KUWAIT: The Embassy of the Republic of The situation deteriorated with the vio- to keep our people hostage of a painful past. remain calm and to show civility, culture and international football. A few Albanian sup- Albania in the State of Kuwait would like to lent intrusion of Serbian hooligans inside the We invite the Serbian authorities to avoid nobility as reflected by our national team porters were able to get in, but the crowd inform the public opinion in the country on football field and exercising of violent offensive and en-block epithets against the during Tuesday’s unpleasant events. was more than 99 percent Serb. several unpleasant developments before, attacks against our players. Albanian people as well as the media disin- Seven things you need to know about the 2. The Serb crowd chanted, “Ubij, Ubij during and after the football match between In addition, members of the security staff formation which serves no one. Serbia-Albania match violence in Belgrade Siptar” - “Kill, Kill the Albanians,” throughout the national teams of Albania and Serbia of the stadium that were in charge of ensur- We call upon the Serbian authorities, Much of the international media coverage of the 40 minutes the game was played. They that took place last Tuesday in Belgrade with ing the safety of the players were involved in which had full responsibility for the smooth the violence in the Partizan Belgrade stadi- used the Milosevic-era derogatory term for regard to some articles published in the the acts of physical violence against the Albanian, which is akin to the n-word in media. players of our national team. North America. Initially approximately 45 Albanian citi- Following UEFA’s decision to suspend the 3. The stadium was filled with Serb zens, mostly journalists, businessmen, public match, the national team players, the techni- nationalistic political banners, like “Kosovo is figures and guests of the Albanian Football cal staff, the journalists and the AFF’s guests Serbia” and other slogans relating to Bosnia Federation were blocked at Nikola Tesla found themselves in a situation of unprece- and Croatia. The Serb fans loudly booed the Airport in Belgrade. The Ministry of Foreign dented psychological pressure. Despite Albanian national anthem. Affairs of Albania entered in contacts with provocations and the tensed situation, the 4. Hard objects and fireworks were the Serbian authorities to unblock this situa- national team and the Albanian citizens thrown on Albanian players well before the tion which lasted several hours appealing showed self-restraint and maturity worth drone started flying. The few Albanian jour- them to show maturity and restraint and not being commended. nalists who had dared to go to Belgrade also use a football match for political purposes, After approximately 3 hours of blockage reported that they were pelted with hard convinced as we are that football is played within the stadium premises, our national objects throughout the first half. on the pitch and not in airports or in the cor- team and all the Albanian citizens were able 5. Ivan Bogdanovic, the Serb hooligan ridors of diplomatic chancelleries. to leave towards the airport of Belgrade. who led the 2010 Italy match riot, was seen At 20:45, at the beginning of the match Once at the airport of Belgrade, our invading the pitch. He served jail time in between Serbia and Albania and in the pres- national team and the Albanian citizens was Serbia after the Italy incident, in which he ence of the highest authorities of the blocked again for approximately one hour burned an Albanian flag. That game had to Serbian government, the fans in the stadium under the pretext of further controls. be abandoned as well. Yesterday he led a desecrated the Albanian national anthem The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania group of masked supporters into the pitch and symbols. The crowd of thousand Serbian strongly condemns the violence, the vulgar before being kicked out by police. fans exploded in hate shouts and threaten- provocations and media disinformation 6. More than half of Albania’s national ing screams, such as: ‘Kill the Albanians’. That which interfere with the principles of sport- team has roots in Kosovo, which split from was not all; the Serbian fans located below ing and good neighbouring policies. and safe proceeding of this activity, to con- um has focused on the stunt of a drone fly- Serbia in the late 90s in a violent conflict that the VIP gallery, where high Serbian and Hospitality, this sacred value to all the demn unequivocally the use of violence and ing an Albanian banner, the ensuing brawl ended through a NATO intervention 15 years Albanian personalities were seated, repeated Balkans people, was infringed like never bring before justice all those that are respon- and pitch invasion by angry Serb fans. There go. The alliance’s flag was also burned in the same vulgar shouts and offensive ges- before in an anti-sportive and xenophobic sible for the incidents that occurred before, were additional elements to the violence Belgrade. (Albania has been a NATO member tures towards the Albanian guests. atmosphere. during and after the match. that are either not being reported or are since 2009. Serbia is officially EU-minded, Unfortunately, tension among Serbian fans We feel sorry that the highest Serbian We invite UEFA’s authorities to undertake being under-reported. Here are some of but also Russia-friendly.) exceeded the dimensions of a football authorities have yet not found the courage all the necessary steps for an impartial inves- them: 7. Despite the harsh political atmosphere match. After systematic throwing of strong neither to distance themselves nor to con- tigation and reporting in order to demon- 1. Albanian fans were not allowed to in the stadium, the Albanian national team objects inside the football field, the Serbian demn the acts of violence and hate which strate that football remains a sport of friend- attend the match. Serb authorities said they went to play football, and it managed to players forcefully drew a banner with were openly manifested against our national ship and civility. would arrest anyone who showed any sym- overcome a shaky first few minutes, moving Albanian national images which caused the symbols and the symbols of the Atlantic Finally, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of bol of the visiting team in the stadium - to gain the upper hand in the field when the reaction of the Albanian players. Alliance. Such extremist behaviors are trying Albania appeals to all Albanian citizens to restrictions that are almost unheard of in interruption happened.