Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2017 De Roon strike gives Boro hope MIDDLESBROUGH: Marten de Roon’s early strike earned Middlesbrough a 1-0 win over Premier League basement club Sunderland on Wednesday that kept their faint hopes of sur- vival flickering. The Dutch midfielder scored for the second time in four appearances to earn Boro their first win in 17 games, since a 3-0 victory over Swansea City on December 17. It took Steve Agnew’s side to within six points of safety with four games of the season remaining. But Boro remain second from bottom and host Manchester City on Sunday before vis- iting league leaders Chelsea the following weekend. Defeat completed a wretched day for Sunderland manager David Moyes, who has been charged by England’s Football Association for telling a female reporter she might “get a slap”. His side remains 12 points adrift of safety at the foot of the standings and in need of a sporting miracle to avoid slip- ping into the Championship. Sunderland were unchanged from their 2-2 draw at home to West Ham United and made a positive start, but Boro went in front from their first attack in the eighth minute. Adam Clayton’s long ball found De Roon, who stabbed a shot between the legs of visiting goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. Pickford was called into action again in the 20th minute, sav- ing with his feet after Stewart Downing had been invited to shoot. Short of a parry from Didier N’Dong’s powerful shot, Boro goalkeeper Brad Guzan was a virtual spectator at the other end. There was a touching moment in the 44th minute as fans of both teams united for a standing ovation in memory of former Boro defender Ugo Ehiogu, who died of a heart attack last week aged 44. Sunderland upped their game in the second half, Wahbi Khazri working Guzan from a free-kick, but it was to prove yet another night when a major opportunity passed them by. —AFP MOSCOW: A picture taken on October 29, 2016 shows Spartak Moscow supporters burning flares during the Wenger soothed Russian Premier League football match between Spartak Moscow and CSKA. —AFP by the simplicity Red Day: People vs the army in of top 4 spot Spartak-CSKA Moscow derby LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said his side know exactly what they must do in the Champions League qualifica- tion race after watching them gain a 1-0 win over Leicester MOSCOW: One club represented the mighty Soviet Red bility of recruiting players by taking them into the army.” City. With time slipping away at the Emirates Stadium on Army, the other was named after an ancient gladiator- Robert Edelman, an expert on Soviet football at the Wednesday, Wenger threw on Danny Welbeck and Olivier slave-now Moscow’s CSKA and Spartak fight out one of the University of California at San Diego, said that for many in Giroud to finish with four strikers on the pitch. His side even- fiercest rivalries in Russian football. The two teams face off the Soviet era, supporting Spartak was seen as a subtle tually prevailed courtesy of a late own goal by Robert Huth. Sunday in a furious city derby that comes with added spice form of standing up to the system, even if they did not Arsenal remain outside the Champions League places, but this year: Spartak are top of the Russian Premier League actively oppose it. Wenger said: “We have one advantage-the advantage of clari- and chasing their first title in 16 years, while CSKA are the “I think the fans who are 40 and over probably still par- ty. “We have to win our games, so that’s why we cannot be reigning champions and are second. take of the Spartak Kool-aid or the ideology that it was a happy with a 0-0. “We absolutely have to take a gamble to try In the stands the chants and flares of the rival fans will civilian team, it was a more humane way of being Soviet,” and win the game at any cost. We took the initiative tonight.” be the latest chapter in a profound enmity that dates back he said. “I don’t think they were dissidents in any way, With only 72 hours to recover from Sunday’s gruelling FA Cup to the Soviet era when the teams stood for different seg- shape or form.” And the state’s influence could still certain- semi-final extra-time victory over Manchester City, Wenger ments of society: the ordinary people and the army. ly be felt at Spartak, with the all-powerful security agencies praised the resilience of his players. “We lacked penetration and a change of pace,” he told reporters. Founded in 1922 by Nikolai Starostin, the eldest of four keeping a close eye on players to stop them defecting “You could see that we had some heavy legs and we lacked football-loving brothers, Spartak are Russia’s most success- when they played matches abroad. “We always travelled a bit of speed in our game to get Leicester out of position. ful and popular team with 34 league and cup titles. Named with chekists,” Khidiyatullin said, using a Soviet-era term “They defend well, but in the end I think the win rewards the after Spartacus, the gladiator who led a slave uprising for members of the KGB security service. “They weren’t team which took the initiative during the game. “Let’s not for- against Rome, the club got backing from factory workers noticeable but they were always close by.” get as well that we played on Sunday afternoon. Leicester did- and prided itself on its independence from the authorities. n’t play at all over the weekend, so we knew we had a little Meanwhile CSKA traditionally had the formidable mus- Winds of change handicap on that front.” cle of the armed forces behind it and became a showcase After the collapse of the USSR in 1991 Russian football Wenger promised Arsenal will approach Sunday’s north for the sporting power of the Soviet Union. “It came to be underwent the same seismic shifts as society and the old London derby at Tottenham Hotspur purely as another step that Spartak was the people’s team,” defender Vagiz ties weakened. The Spartak-CSKA rivalry remained strong towards Champions League qualification, not a chance to halt Khidiyatullin, who played for both sides in the 1970s and but it no longer revolved around the power struggles in their rivals’ title charge. “We play for us,” said the Frenchman, 80s, told AFP. But at CSKA “when a military officer would Soviet society. Spartak dominated the Russian league in whose future at Arsenal remains up in the air. “In life you work come in, all of us players had to stand to attention”. the 1990s, winning all but one league title between 1992 for your own achievements, not for those of others.” Wenger and 2001, but have not finished first since then. played down a touchline incident between Alexis Sanchez Purges and poaching Meanwhile, as their cross-town rivals dropped off, CSKA and Christian Fuchs that occurred shortly after Nacho For Spartak-nicknamed “meat” because of ties to a pack- went on to stamp their own authority, scooping six league Monreal’s wayward 85th-minute shot had deflected in off ing union-not having the backing of one of the USSR’s pow- titles. Radical changes in the Russian game also saw prob- Huth for the decisive goal. erful security bodies was often a major problem. In the lems such as racism and hooliganism, which had been kept 1940s the Starostin brothers were arrested and sent to under wraps during the Soviet period, come into the rival- Histrionics labour camps in Siberia on the orders of secret police boss ry. “Both teams now have fairly strong levels of racism Sanchez twice prevented Fuchs from taking a long throw-in by standing too close to the touchline. Infuriated, Lavrenty Beria, whose feared organisation stood behind among their following, which you would not have seen Leicester’s Austria international threw the ball into Dinamo Moscow. In contrast, CSKA had a useful advantage exhibited, at least overtly, in any way during the Soviet Sanchez’s shoulder, only for the Chilean to fall to the over their rivals: they could poach players by making them period,” Edelman said. “Both teams have hooligan ele- ground clutching his face. Wenger said: “I think Alexis didn’t do compulsory service in the army. ments, probably Spartak more so.” During their last match know that he had to be further away. As well, the referee “In terms of squad selection, CSKA was one of the best,” the referee was forced to stop play after flares tossed in the didn’t tell him that he had to move away so he thought he Khidiyatullin, who played for CSKA from 1981 to 1983 after stands filled Spartak’s Otkrytie Arena, which will be a World was in the right position. —AFP four seasons with Spartak, told AFP. “They had the possi- Cup venue in 2018, with smoke. —AFP.