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his 400th NHL goal in Kings’ win over Wild ninth Test series in a row aſter SL draw

Thursday, December 7, 2017 Rabia I 19, 1439 AH

TENNIS

Serena ‘very likely’ to make comeback at Australian Open

Page 6

GULF TIMES

SPORT

QNB STARS LEAGUE

Sailiya hope to halt losing run against leaders Duhail

‘I’m not upset about the loss of the two points because I can only see the good performance of the team’

By Sports Reporter

Doha

l Sailiya should be going all out against leaders Al Duhail as they badly need to make a

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turnaround in their fortunes, having lost the last two games in the QNB Stars League. The two teams face each other in an early kick-off at 4pm at Al Ahli Stadium today. It’s going to be a tactical battle between Tunisian coach Sami Trabelsi, who has been at the helm of The Peregrines for long, and Algerian Djamel Belmadi. Trabelsi has at his disposal the likes of Temurkhuja Abdukholiqov, Wagner Ribeiro, Valentin Lazar and Nadir Belhadj. Belmadi, whose team tops the standings with 28 points, has said they were taking the Sailiya challenge seriously and keen on extending their winning run as the first phase of the competition ends this week.

Al Duhail manager Djamel Belmadi (right) addresses a pre-match press conference ahead of their QNB Stars League match
Al Duhail’s aces are captain Youssef against Al Sailiya. (Below) Sailiya’s Tunisian coach Sami Trabelsi (centre).

Msakni, top scorer Youssef El Arabi and playmaker Nam Tae-Hee. Al Sailiya have 18 points so far. The match will be followed by the clash between Al Ahli, who have 11 points, and Al Rayyan at the venue at 6:10pm. Al Rayyan, who have 25 points to their name, had to play out a 1-1 draw with Umm Salal. Their woes were compounded when star striker Abdurazzaq Hamdallah limped out early in the match with a pulled thigh muscle. He has been ruled out against Al Ahli. The Moroccan joined the injury list, which already had Ahmed al-Saadi, Sultan al-Kuwari and Ziad Ali. Never-

Al Sadd beat Al Khor in their last QNB Stars League match and take on Al Kharaitiyat today at Al Khor Stadium.

• theless, they have players such as Ro- Al Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup.
• In the other late kick-off, Al Kharaiti- points.

Al Ahli would look to keep winning yat play Al Sadd at Al Khor Stadium. Moroccan striker Rachid Tiberkaafter their upset victory over Al Sailiya Al Kharaitiyat would like to bounce nine leads the charge of Egyptian coach while pursuing the title. back from their shock loss to Qatar SC, Ahmad al-Ajlani’s side. “My goal now is to take the team back I’m not able to play (Boualem) Khoukhi
Finally, The Brigadiers have all their who were lying at the bottom, but have Al Sadd coach Jesualdo Ferreira to the level where we were during last in his position because of these absencdrigo Tabata and Sebastian Soria to do the trick.
“I’m not upset about the loss of the in the last round. two points because I can only see the
(Miguel), we lost (Baghdad) Bounedjah. good performance of the team. The sea- professionals playing together after a a herculean task at hand as they run sounded pleased with their victory season. The absence of some players af- es. I am confident that the team will be son is still long. The loss of two points long spell of injuries and international into 13-time league champions Al Sadd, over Al Khor and the Portuguese would fected our performance a lot in the last able to return to its true level when we

• in the top race doesn’t bother me,” said commitments.
• who occupy the third position with 24 be hoping they no longer drop points few games. When we got back Pedro play with a full team,” he said.

SPOTLIGHT

Qatari clubs face tough competition in Champions League

• Chinese FA Cup winners Shanghai
• The group stage runs from February

Agencies

Kuala Lumpur

Shenhua face a tough test after being to April with the West and East Asian drawn against top Japanese club Kashi- teams kept apart until the final in Noma Antlers and Australian A-League vember. atar champions Al Duhail leaders Sydney FC.

• will have UAE’s Al Wahda
• The Chinese side unexpectedly beat GROUPS

and Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv expensively assembled rivals Shang- Group A: Al Jazira (UAE), Al Ahli (KSA),

Q

Tashkent besides a play-off hai SIPG in last month’s FA Cup final, Tractorsazi Tabriz (IRI), Winner of winner for company in the group stages without Argentine forward Carlos Playoff 3 of the AFC Champions League after the Tevez whose future in China is in doubt Group B: Al Duhail SC (QAT), Al Wahda draw was held in the Malaysian capital after a poor run of form.

(UAE), PFC Lokomotiv (UZB), Winner of

• But they have a fight on their hands Playoff 2
• of Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Djamel Belmadi’s team, along with Al in the group stage of Asia’s premier club Group C: Persepolis FC (IRI), Al Sadd SC Sadd and Al Rayyan have direct spots competition against Antlers, finalists (QAT), Al Wasl (UAE), Winner of Playoff into the group stages while Al Gharafa in the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup and will have to face Uzbekistan’s Pakhta- Sydney.

4Group D: Al Hilal SFC (KSA), Esteghlal

kor for a spot in Group A.

Two-time winners and Chinese Su- FC (IRI), Al Rayyan SC (QAT), Winner of

If Gharafa does go through, they have per League champions Guangzhou Ev- Playoff 1 UAE’s Al Jazira, Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli ergrande will face South Korea’s Jeju Group E: Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC and Iran’s Tractorsazi Tabriz for com- United, Thailand’s Buriram United and (KOR), Kitchee SC (HKG), Winner of Playpany in Group A. Al Rayyan is expected to have a tough following the draw in the Malaysian Group F: Kawasaki Frontale (JPN), task at their hands, having been drawn capital Kuala Lumpur. Ulsan Hyundai FC (KOR), Melbourne with Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, Iran Es- 2017 AFC Champions League win- Victory (AUS), Winner of Playoff 3 teghlal and the playoff winner between ners Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan are Group G: Guangzhou Evergrande FC Al Ain of the UAE and Bahrain’s Mal- not competing after failing to qualify. (CHN), Japan 2nd Club, Jeju United FC
Meanwhile 2016 champions Jeonbuk (KOR), Buriram United (THA) the winner of Japan’s Emperor’s Cup, off 4, Winner of Play-off 2 kiya. Al Sadd are in Group C where they Hyundai Motors of South Korea are set Group H: Sydney FC (AUS), Shanghai take on Iran’s Persepolis, UAE’s Al Wasl to return to the tournament after being Shenhua FC (CHN), Kashima Antlers and a team from playoffs.

Al Rayyan will have a tough task at their hands, having been drawn with Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal and Iran Esteghlal in Group D for the AFC Champions League.

barred last year due to a bribery scandal.

(JPN), Winner of Playoff 1

Gulf Times

2

Thursday, December 7, 2017

FOOTBALL

• PREMIER LEAGUE
• FOCUS

Europa League knockout places up for grabs

Guardiola vs Mourinho – this time it’s for real

AFP

Ahead of Sunday’s game, Man City are eight points clear of Man United at the head of the table

Paris

AFP

here will be some jangling nerves as the Europa League group stage

Manchester, United Kingdom

fter the phony war of their first season in Manchester, the rivalry between Jose Mour-

T

concludes today — but not many, with the likes of Arsenal, AC Milan and Lyon already through. Of the 48 teams in the 12 groups, 16 have already ensured qualification and 15 are eliminated.

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inho and Pep Guardiola will resume for real in Sunday’s seismic derby showdown at Old Trafford. The two managers renewed acquaintances at the beginning of last season after Mourinho took the reins at Manchester United and Guardiola set up shop across town at Manchester City.
That leaves 17 clubs scrapping for the remaining eight spots in the round of 32 draw on December 11. For some of those qualified, first place, and a seeding that ensures they avoid one of the eight teams dropping down from the Champions League, are still in play but that might not be enough incentive to put out their strongest teams for a December midweek game. The stars are even less likely to come out for the big clubs who have already won their groups. For Lazio’s trip to Belgium, manager Simone Inzaghi could make 10, or even 11, changes, from the line-up that won at Sampdoria on Sunday. Suso and Nikola Kalinic, who started in attack for Milan in Serie A on Sunday, are not even in the squad for the visit to Rijeka. Even if Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil appear at the Emirates, they will be sitting and watching and safely and warmly wrapped up. But Arsene Wenger insisted his approach won’t change too much for the visit of BATE Borisov despite having wrapped up top spot in Group H. “I have many players available who need competition. Next week we go into a week with three games and so some players need competition, some experienced players. We’ll play quite an experienced team tomorrow,” Wenger said. Three groups end with a second versus third showdown. In Group A, Slavia Prague need only draw at home against Astana. The Kazakh team need to win to take second.
Guardiola claimed first blood, leading City to a 2-1 win at Old Trafford in September 2016, but both teams fell by the wayside thereafter, finishing the campaign well adrift of Premier League champions Chelsea. Fifteen games into the new season, City are eight points clear of United at the head of the table and Sunday’s game is being billed as Mourinho’s big chance to stick a spoke in Guardiola’s wheels.
“We have a big week, with Swansea and Tottenham following the United game,” says City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. “If we lost two out of three and they win everything, they are there.” The arrival in Manchester of the two pre-eminent managers of the age stoked the embers of a bitter personal

rivalry that had crackled with blister- Manchester United’s manager Jose Mourinho (left) and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola. (AFP)

ing intensity during the two years they
United will be confident going into the game because of what has happened this weekend for City, even though it has been a good week for City too, as they’ve scored three late winners and have taken maximum points.” There was a glint of the old malice in Mourinho’s eye after United’s win over CSKA on Tuesday, when he suggested Guardiola was being untruthful by expressing doubts about the fitness of Spanish playmaker David Silva. It is a look Guardiola knows all too well and its reappearance indicates the biggest managerial rivalry of recent times is about to erupt again. spent in opposing camps in Spain. Mourinho’s first season at Real Ma-

• Bayern Munich for another year.
• Mourinho could reflect on the season goals to see off Feyenoord, Huddersfield

The men’s September 2016 reunion with greater satisfaction after leading Town, Southampton and West Ham drid in 2010-11 culminated in an infa- promised much, Guardiola’s slick City his team to a League Cup and Europa United, Mourinho’s counter-attacking mously spiky series of matches against wiping the floor with United in the first League double.

• Guardiola’s Barcelona, who would have half before
• Claudio Bravo blunder
• Seven months on City look almost

the last laugh by claiming a La Liga and enabled Zlatan Ibrahimovic to make transcendent, their sublime and dev- Watford and Arsenal with a 2-1 defeat of Champions League double.
United team have hit form.

• They followed up impressive wins at
• a

a game of it in the second. But by the astatingly effective possession football CSKA Moscow that sent them into the
Mourinho nourished the hostility, time of their most recent meeting, at reminiscent of Guardiola’s great Bar- Champions League last 16 and have not villainously jabbing his finger in the eye the Etihad Stadium in April, thoughts celona team. Having won their last 13 lost at home since last year’s loss to City of Guardiola’s assistant, the late Tito of an all-Manchester title shootout had league games, they can set a new mark — a run of 40 matches. “They (United) Vilanova, during a Spanish Super Cup vanished.

• match in 2011.
• A grim 0-0 draw left both teams top-flight campaign if they prevail on have just seen a little ray of hope,” said

Madrid finished the 2011-12 season as locked in a battle for fourth place as An- Sunday.

• champions and Guardiola, worn out by tonio Conte’s Chelsea streaked towards
• Recent results, however, give United

for successive wins within an English might, for the first time this season, former United captain Gary Neville.
“There will be better teams (who play the constant sniping, stepped down at glory. City eventually finished third as reason for optimism. While City have City) than Huddersfield, SouthampCamp Nou and would not resurface at United trailed home in sixth place, but had to grind out wins, needing late ton and West Ham, yet all came close.

SPOTLIGHT

In Group D, Austria Vienna must win at home against AEK Athens, otherwise the Greeks go through. In Group J, Athletic Bilbao will advance with a draw away to Zorya Luhansk in Lviv where the Ukrainians must win to nab second place.

Real deal Ronaldo set for fiſth Ballon d’Or

only other Barca player other than Messi, is the

AFP

Paris

Uruguayan centre-forward Luis Suarez. On the prospect of equalling Messi’s five wins Ronaldo quipped: “I want seven. Five is good but seven is my lucky number so seven would be great. I want seven children and seven Ballons d’Or.” Despite his position as outsider Messi can take heart from the award’s history of upsets with Messi himself clinching the title against the odds in 2010. That season purists pointed to the achievements of Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder, winner of the Champions League, Serie A and Italian Cup and indeed a World Cup finalist with the Netherlands. Also, in the run up to the vote Ronaldo has only scored twice in La Liga so far this season — although he has netted eight goals in five games in the Champions League — and Real are already eight points behind Messi’s Barcelona. Messi in contrast tops the Liga scoring charts with 13 goals and also secured a brilliant hat-trick for Argentina against Ecuador to clinch a last-gasp World Cup place in October, earning wide praise. “Leo is like Maradona for those of our generation,” said Messi’s compatriot, Juventus striker Paulo Dybala, himself tipped as a future winner. “He dragged us to the World Cup with the hat-trick in Ecuador. He is a born leader.”
Ludogorets, in Group C, are, seemingly, best placed. The Bulgarians would be sure with ristiano Ronaldo looks set to match his great rival Lionel Messi today by claim-

• ing
• a
• fifth Ballon d’Or as recognition

• a
• draw away to disappointing

C

for leading Real Madrid to a La Liga and
Germans Hoffenheim but could lose and go through if Basaksehir cannot beat group leaders Braga in Istanbul. Marseille are in a similar position. While they
Champions League double last season. Barcelona’s 30-year-old Argentinian superstar won the coveted award from 2009 to 2012 and in 2015. Portugal’s Ronaldo, who is 32, took the honours in 2008, 2013, 2014 and last year.

• need
• a
• draw at home against
• The man who came to maturity under the

watchful eye of ex-Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson clinched his fourth Ballon d’Or after an unforgettable season, first spearheading Real to the Champions League title before also leading his homeland to Euro 2016 glory in Paris.
Group I winners Salzburg, the French side can lose and advance if third-place Konyaspor of Turkey draw with fourth-place Vitoria in Guimaraes. If there is a winner in Belgrade between Red Star and Cologne, that team will go through in second place behind Arsenal. A draw and BATE Borisov could sneak through with a win against the Gunners at the Emirates.

Meanwhile, Bottom side Cologne yesterday appointed former

The France Football magazine award is decided upon by a journalists ballot (with 173 voting in 2016) with each naming a top five from a list of 30. British bookmakers have stopped taking bets on Ronaldo, who is a cramped 10-1 on favourite to win, with Messi, trophy-less last season, at 6-1. Behind this pair the bookies round out their own top five with Paris Saint-Germain’s gifted Brazil-

ian forward Neymar, the veteran Juventus goal- Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who is 32, took the honours in 2008, 2013, 2014 and last year. (AFP)

keeper Gianluigi Buffon and the prolific England
Aside from Messi and Ronaldo the Ballon d’Or, originally conceived to honour only European players before going fully global in 2007, has three triple winners — Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten. This year’s winner is being announced live on the L’Equipe television channel, the French sports daily being owned by the same company as France Football.

• Bundesliga-winning
• coach

• centre-forward Harry Kane all at 33-1.
• After seeing off Napoli, Bayern Munich and again the top scorer,” Ronaldo told French daily

Armin Veh as managing director in their battle to stay in Germany's top flight. The 56-yearold Veh who led VfB Stuttgart to the German league title in 2007 signed a deal until June 2020.

The 2016-2017 season was in a way just as glo- Atletico Madrid in the knock-out rounds Ronaldo L’Equipe.

• rious for Ronaldo, who started the season slowly scored twice in a 4-1 win over Juventus in the fi-
• Real have a staggering seven players on the

before Real shaded Barcelona to the domestic title nal, taking his tally to 12 goals in the competition shortlist of 30 with Karim Benzema, Marcelo, Isco, and then became the first side in the modern era to that season.“Last season was exceptional. We won Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos and Toni Kroos all

• defend their European crown.
• the league and the Champions League, where I was nominated alongside their talisman Ronaldo. The

ROUND-UP

Chelsea boss Conte fined over referee rant

ntonio Conte has been fined £8,000

NEUER WARNED NOT TO RUSH BACK FROM FOOT FRACTURE

after rushing back to face Real Madrid in the quarter-final defeat in the Champions League. With an eye on the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Neuer wants to return as soon as possible, but former Bayern and Germany goalkeeper Kahn also urged caution based on his own experiences. With Neuer absent, Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen played for to undergo surgery to repair a patellar tendon tear in his left knee, the Premier League club said. Ireland international Brady, who has scored once and provided two assists in 15 league appearances for Burnley this campaign, was carried off the pitch on a stretcher during last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Leicester City.
($10,700, 9,060 euros) by the Football Association following his dismissal Ex-Germany captains Oliver Kahn and

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for a furious touchline tirade in Chel- Lothar Matthaeus have warned current skipper sea’s win over Swansea.

Manuel Neuer not to risk his career by rushing back from injury ahead of next year’s World Cup. “He should give himself the necessary time,” Matthaeus, 56, who captained Germany

Blues boss Conte was sent to the stands late in the first half of Chelsea’s 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge on November 29. The Italian, already frustrated by Swansea going unpunished for time-wasting, earned his marching orders for blasting fourth official Lee Mason following referee Neil Swarbrick’s failure to award Chelsea a clear corner.

to the 1990 World Cup title, said. “If something the world champions when they won the Con-

NICOLA QUITS SERIE A STRUGGLERS CROTONE

else happens, not only the World Cup will be over for him, but his career will be in danger. The only thing which counts is: zero risk!”

Bayern Munich shot-stopper Neuer, 31, is not expected back until January at the earliest after injuring himself in September when he fractured his left foot for the second time this year. Neuer had previously fractured the same foot in April, aggravating a previous injury federations Cup in Russia last July. However, Neuer remains first choice with Germany head coach Joachim Loew and was voted the world’s best for four years in a row.
Coach Davide Nicola confirmed he has has parted company with Serie A strugglers Crotone. The 44-year-old took over in June 2016 leading the promoted side from Calabria in their new Serie A campaign. They dramatically survived last season by finishing 17th but this season are just one place higher with 12 points from 15 games.
Conte apologised after the match to Swarbrick and Mason, but that was not enough to prevent the FA charging him last week. He accepted the charge and has now been hit with the fine.

BURNLEY’S BRADY OUT FOR ‘SUBSTAN- TIAL’ PERIOD DUE TO KNEE INJURY