SPORT Wednesday 25 October 2017 PAGE | 31 PAGE | 32-33 PAGE | 34 Al Duhail Ronaldo eyes FFit-again Woods eye sixth ‘lucky seventh’ good for golf, successive win FIFA trophy says Johnson Confident Qatar brace for noisy crowds, tough teams at AFC U-23 Rizwan Rehmat have minimal preparation and The Peninsula the players will remain with their clubs and we will look to atar coach Felix focus on our Australian-based Xanchez yesterday players. The preparation won’t said he will be pre- be lengthy but we have the paring his players for added bonus that our players Qnoisy crowds and should be playing (in the league) testing competition when the and be in good condition.” national squad lands in China Naif A Alqadi, team manager for the AFC Asian U-23 Cup of Saudi Arabia, said: “Any team early next year. who arrives to the Finals of Qatar yesterday were drawn Asia’s Under-23 competition in Group A with hosts China, will be a hard team and it will feisty opponents Uzbekistan and be difficult to play against any neighbouring Oman at the team at this stage. Like any 16-team tournament that will international team, we will use be held from Jan 8-27. our FIFA (match) days and we At the draw ceremony held have a camp in November to yesterday, the organisers con- find our best team.” firmed that Changzhou, AFC Competitions Executive Kunshan, Jiangyin and Director Shin Man Gil, who con- Changshu - all located in Jiangsu ducted the draw, said: “From Province - will host the tourna- our hosting experience with the ment’s 32 matches. Chinese Football Association, we “We know that playing have no doubt that the 2018 AFC against China is going to be a U23U23 Champion-Champion- good experience because we sshiphip will raise expect a good stadium, full of thethe bar.”bar.” people and we know China have a good team,” Sanchez said yesterday. Following the draw cere- mony held at Changzhou, comecome to this level, theythey must be very,very, very consistent - and of course,course, there’s a lot of opportu-opportu- Changzhou will act as nitiesnities if theythey can do well at this the tournament’s tournament,tournament, and I believe it will bebe a steppingstepping stone for Malay-Malay- headquarters, and siansian players to play Changzhou Olympic abroad.”abroad.” Sports Centre will host In a mouth-watering nine matches, including GROUP A GROUP B GROUP C GROUP D the tournament opener China South Korea between China PR and Japan Iraq Oman on January 8, and Qatar North Korea Jordan Australia the final on January 27. Uzbekistan Thailand Saudi Arabia Syria Oman Palestine Malaysia Vietnam The AFC U23 clash,clash, Korea Championship is second RRepublicepublic hhaveave bbeeneen only to the AFC Asian Qatar’s Spanish coach Sanchez China, who are the hosts, throughout the qualification, drawndrawn to playplay AustraliaAustralia in Cup among Asia’s men’s said the opponents in Group A will play Oman in Changzhou and I believe we need to keep a Group D clashclash to bebe national team won’t be easy to tackle. on January 8, followed by going in the same direction.” plplayedayed in Kushan.Kushan. SSyriayria competitions, with the “They have a good squad, matches against Qatar and Malaysia, another team that andand VietnamVietnam areare the otheotherr 2018 edition the first the same as Uzbekistan, who are Uzbekistan. has qualified for the finals for teams in Group D.D. time it will be held in one of the top teams, and Oman. The ceremony, held at the the first time, will be competing Luke Casserly,Casserly, head the world’s most We expect a very high level of Traders Fudu Hotel’s Zuan Shi against Iraq, Jordan and Saudi ccoachoach of AustraliaAustralia,, said: populous country. contest and we are going to try Tin Ballroom, separated the 16 Arabia in Group C. ““We’veWe’ve oobviouslybviously ggotot a to perform well,” Sanchez said. qualified teams into four groups Ong Kim Swee, Malaysia longlong historyhistory againstagainst Korea “We’re going to start (our for next January’s flagship Asian head coach, said: “For us, its our Republic,Republic, andand recentlyrecently Qatar reached the finals preparations) in the middle of youth competition. first time to qualify and I think wwe’vee’ve hhadad two very of the AFC Asian U-23 December – in Qatar there is no Husam Jibril Mahmoud Al to be in that group with the three intenseintense matchesmatches withwith ourour Cup by clinching a league then, so its easier for us. Rjoob, representing first-time Middle East countries is an senior team against SSyria,yria, qualifying event played We will play some friendlies and qualifiers Palestine, said: “There advantage for them – Iraq, Jor- soso it’s interestinginteresting and yyouou in Doha in July. In the a few days before we will come was no easy team to be drawn dan and Saudi Arabia. I think it’s alwaysalways knowknow whenwhen you here to adapt. I’m looking for- against, therefore we were a good experience for us.” comecome to a tournamenttournament three matches, Qatar ward to starting the expecting a tough group. I’m Kim Swee added: “I believe llikeike tthishis tthathat ttherehere aarere drew 1-1 against Syria competition,” he added. looking forward to competing that if we prepare well, we have jjustust no easy games iinn following wins over In the draw, reigning cham- with the best and I believe we an equal chance among the four AAsia,sia, so we’re reallreallyy India (1-0) and pions Japan were drawn along are running on the right track.” teams. The tournament will lookinglooking forwardforward to it.”it.” Turkmenistan (2-0). with first-time qualifiers Pales- Al Rjoob added: “We need have a different kind of inten- CasserlyCasserly added:added: Qatar’s coach Felix tine in Group B which also has to work hard. Our players have sity, and (our players) must “(The“(The Australian leagueleague Sanchez Thailand and DPR Korea. shown good performances understand that when they season)season) meansmeans we willwill Qatar’s Al Jassim to officiate Russia increases Cup budget Moscow preparations for the sponsors named as “legal AFP tournament will rise by entities” in the decree. at 2017 FIFA Club World Cup 5.4 percent -- from 643.5 Russia already QNA ussia has increased billion rubles to 678 bil- increased the World Cup the budget for the lion rubles. budget in May by 4.7 bil- he international football governing body (FIFA) has chosen Qatari R2018 World Cup Russia’s federal lion rubles after slashing international referee Abdulrahman Al Jassim (pictured) to offici- by 34.5 billion rubles budget will allocate 390 it by 30 billion rubles in Tate at the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup, which will be held from ($600m), according to a billion rubles, while 91.9 June 2015 in the wake of December 6 to 16. decree published on the billion rubles will come the economic crisis. Al Jassim will be the only Arab referee to participate in the World government’s official site from the regional The competition will Cup, where he will be part of the refereeing team responsible for video Tuesday. budget. be played in 12 stadiums technology with six other international referees. The decree says that The rest will come in 11 cities from June 14 the overall cost for the from companies and to July 15 next year. 30 SPORT WEDNESDAY 25 OCTOBER 2017 GERMAN CUP German Cup second-round fixtures Leipzig-Bayern Munich clash Playing Today (all times 1845 unless stat- ed) Osnabrueck v Nuremberg, Hertha Berlin v Co- logne, VfL Wolfsburg v Hanover 96, Kaiserslau- tern v VfB Stuttgart (1830), Regensburg v Hei- promises lots of ‘fireworks’ denheim, Werder Bremen v Hoffenheim, Freiburg v Dynamo Dresden, RB Leipzig v Bay- ern Munich (1845) Berlin world-class players” even without their AFP injured stars. “We’ll need a perfect day, but we believe in ourselves and want to arcel Sabitzer expects fire- show again that we are good for a sur- works when RB Leipzig prise,” he added. host Bayern Munich in the Mueller tore a hamstring in Saturday’s German Cup yesterday, the win at Hamburg and Spain’s Thiago Ala- first of two games in four cantara is set to step into the attacking Mdays between the Bundesliga midfield role. heavyweights. Hummels, who will be replaced by Hosts Leipzig hope to capitalise on Niklas Suele if he fails to be fit, is relish- Bayern’s injury list with stars Manuel ing the back-to-back showdowns against Neuer, Thomas Mueller and Franck Rib- Leipzig. ery sidelined. “They have an incredible amount of Germany defender Mats Hummels, quality and play a very intensive game who injured his ankle at the weekend, with very intensive counter-pressing,” said faces a race against time to be fit for both Hummels. the second-round cup clash at Leipzig’s “You have to be very awake and think Red Bull Arena and the league match four very, very fast. days later in Munich. “That is the most important thing - that The Bundesliga clash on Saturday is you are switched on from the first second also a mouth-watering prospect with just to the fact that the opponent can make a point separating third-placed Leipzig your life hard.” and Bayern, who are second. Bayern beat Leipzig twice in the Bun- Leipzig’s home cup match against desliga last season, romping to a 3-0 Bayern is the plum tie of the second round, victory in Munich last December, with which includes holders Borussia Dort- three goals in the opening 45 minutes, mund at third-division Magdeburg on before winning 5-4 away last May.