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Mahrez scores winner as Man City edges 10-man PSG

Thursday, April 29, 2021Ramadan 17, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Full venues at Tokyo Games ‘very diffi cult’: organisers

Canadian GP cancelled, race moved to Turkey

FORMULA 1 FORMULA 1 | Page 2 OLYMPICS OLYMPICS | Page 3

FOOTBALL

Benzema embodies survival spirit aft er leading Real recoveryPage 6

FOOTBALL / UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Pochettino’s men take the lead through a powerful Marquinhos header early in the first half before De Bruyne equalises

FIFA announces match schedule for Arab Cup

FIFA has revealed the fixtures and dates of the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021, to be held between November 30 and December 18. Hosts Qatar will open the tournament on November 30, facing the winner of the qualifier between Bahrain and Kuwait. From each group, the teams placed first and second will qualify for the next round. The tournament will be held at six of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadiums, the details of which will be announced at a later date. The Arab Cup will be held around the same period as the 2022 tournament, which will provide an opportunity for the organisers to test their preparations for the World Cup.

Sheikh Abdullah’s Abbes lands Group 3 Prix Dormane

HORSE RACING

AgenciesLa Teste-de-Buch, France

Abbes, carrying the col-ours of His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani, made

a winning return at La Teste-de-Buch, capturing the Sheikh Mansour Festival — Prix Dor-mane (Group 3 PA) yesterday.

With Olivier Peslier in the sad-dle, the Thomas Fourcy-trained colt prevailed by the minimum margin at the main expense of Abdullah bin Fahad al-Attiyah’s Munir Du Soleil who was ridden by Julien Auge and was campaigned at Doha during the winter.

His Highness Sheikh Moham-ed bin Khalifa al-Thani’s Hog-gar De L’ardus was a further 1¼ lengths behind in third under Jerome Cabre. It was a special day for the French trainer re-cording a 1-2-3 in this contest.

With this victory under his belt, Abbes cemented his posi-tion as the favourite for the Qa-tar Derby des Pur-Sang Arabe de 4ans (Group 1 PA), the equiva-lent of the Prix du Jockey-Club (French Derby) for the Purebred Arabians, and which forms part

of the Chantilly card on June 20. The trainer said: “I’ve always

held Abbes in high regard. He’s a horse for the big occasion. He was very switched off throughout the race. It’s a very good prepara-tion for the Derby in June. Mu-nir Du Soleil is progressing be-cause Abbes is one of the best PA four-year-olds, if not the best. He has no reason to be ashamed of his second place, and he has also travelled [abroad], with all that entails. He can do very well at Chantilly. Hoggar De L’ardus may also head to Chantilly. He didn’t get the rub of the green in

the straight. He’s a horse with a sharp turn of foot and a tenden-cy to do things his own way. He is still somewhat tender at this level. However, it bodes well for the Group 1 PA race. I don’t know if he’ll beat his two stablemates, but we may complete the tricast. All three have the earned the right to tackle the Derby.”

Abbes is out of the high class Raqiyah, herself a multiple Group 1 PA, having won at the highest level in France, Qatar and Britain, where she provided Olivier Peslier with Group 1 PA success on the King George card.

Olivier Peslier (foreground) rides Abbes to victory in the Prix Dormane (Group 3 PA) at La Teste-de-Buch in France yesterday. (Robert Polin)

AFPParis, France

Riyad Mahrez curled in a free-kick as a much-improved second half performance saw Manchester City beat Paris

Saint-Germain 2-1 in the fi rst leg of their blockbuster Champions League semi-fi nal yesterday.

Marquinhos had powered in a header to give PSG an early lead and the de-served advantage at half-time at the Parc des Princes.

However, City skipper Kevin De Bruyne’s cross dropped in to pull City level just after the hour mark and Mahrez then beat Keylor Na-vas from a 71st-minute free-kick to complete the turnaround and give Pep Guardiola’s side the advantage going into next Tuesday’s return in Manchester.

After starting so well, PSG lost their way after half-time and had Idrissa Gana Gueye sent off in the 77th minute as a shocking tackle on Ilkay Gundogan earned the midfi elder a straight red card.

Having already failed to win at home to Manchester United, Barcelo-na and Bayern in this season’s Cham-pions League, the Parisians now face an uphill struggle in England if they are to reach the final for the second year running.

City are eyeing a first ever Cham-pions League final, and this was their first appearance in the semi-finals since 2016, when they defeated PSG in the last eight before losing to Real Madrid.

However, PSG can still be optimistic about their prospects after sensational away performances against Barcelona and Bayern in the last two rounds.

PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino is

hoping to once again get the better of Guardiola, just as he did when his Tot-tenham Hotspur side beat City in the quarter-fi nals in 2019.

GAME OF TWO HALVESThe fi rst leg started so well for the French club too, with Neymar in the mood and Angel Di Maria and Gueye

especially impressive early on.They went ahead in the 15th minute

as Marquinhos broke away from the at-tentions of Gundogan to attack Di Mar-

ia’s right-wing delivery at the near post and head in.

The PSG captain was making his fi rst appearance since coming off in the fi rst

leg of their quarter-fi nal defeat of Bay-ern, a game in which he also scored.

Indeed for all the importance of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe to the Pa-risians, the Brazilian defender has now scored in both the quarter-fi nals and semi-fi nals of the Champions League in back-to-back seasons.

It was not until the 42nd minute that the visitors really had a chance, Ber-nardo Silva teeing up Phil Foden for the shot that Navas saved.

PSG could have doubled their lead early in the second half, but the stretch-ing Marco Verratti was just unable to connect with Mbappe’s low ball across the face of goal.

By then the pendulum was swinging towards City, as De Bruyne sent a pow-erful overhead kick just over the bar.

The equaliser arrived in the 64th minute. When a corner from the right was played short, the ball came all the way to De Bruyne, in line with the left edge of the box.

The Belgian looked up and bent in a cross which missed everyone including Navas as it nestled in the far corner.

The visitors had the momentum and won a free-kick 25 metres from goal with 20 minutes left when Gueye fouled Foden.

Mahrez, born and brought up in the Paris suburbs, curled a low strike from 25 metres through the wall and beyond the reach of Navas.

Things got worse for the home side soon after as Gueye was dismissed by German referee Felix Brych for a nasty challenge that caught Gundogan on the Achilles.

City saw out the game against the 10 men to take the advantage into the re-turn.

A fi rst Champions League fi nal is in sight for Guardiola’s side, who could also wrap up the Premier League title this weekend.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Idrissa Gueye (left) and Leandro Paredes (right) vie

for the ball with Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez during their UEFA

Champions League semi-final first leg match at Parc des Princes in Paris,

France, yesterday. (Reuters)

SPORTGulf Times Thursday, April 29, 20212

Canadian Grand Prix cancelled, race moved to Turkey‘We really want our people and our foreign guests to be part of this excitement’

MOTORSPORT/F1

ReutersAnkara

Turkey will replace Cana-da on this year’s Formu-la One calendar after the June 13 race in Montreal

was cancelled yesterday for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Formula One said it had ex-tended Montreal’s contract by two years to take into account the cancellations, securing the race until 2031.

The race had been sched-uled for the Circuit Gilles Vil-leneuve on the weekend after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and Turkey’s Istanbul circuit will be logistically convenient for air freight coming from Baku.

The Turkish race returned last year for the fi rst time since 2011 and also at short notice to bol-ster a calendar ravaged by the pandemic.

Vural Ak, chairman of Istan-bul circuit operator Intercity, said spectators would be wel-come and hoped the race would lead to a long-term deal.

“We have one of the most ex-citing circuits in the world, we really want our people and our foreign guests to be part of this excitement as well,” he said.

“Thanks to the pandemic measures and eff orts our state has carried out, we plan to put tickets on sale as soon as pos-sible.”

There were no races in the Americas or Far East last year, with the reduced, 17-round sea-son conducted entirely in Eu-rope and the Middle East and some circuits holding more than one grand prix.

F1 BUBBLEFormula One has operated in a bubble since the pandemic, with teams and staff regularly tested and many vaccinated while most races have been held behind closed doors, and is aiming for 23 grands prix this year.

More than 78,000 Covid-19 tests conducted last season pro-duced only 78 positive results and there have been 14 from more than 12,000 so far this year.

The sport had hoped to visit Canada without a mandatory 14-day quarantine but a third wave of the virus thwarted those plans.

“I want to thank the promoter and authorities in Canada for all of their eff orts in recent weeks but the travel situation made our plans impossible,” said

chief executive Stefano Domen-icali.

“I equally want to thank the promoter and authorities in Turkey for their ongoing will-ingness to host a Formula One race that shows the huge inter-est in our sport and the hope from many locations to have a Grand Prix.”

Last year’s wet and slippery grand prix at Istanbul Park was held in November and pro-duced one of the highlights of the season, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton clinching his record-equalling seventh world title.

Formula One said it would work with the Canadian pro-

moter to refund or transfer tick-ets.

The race is the second can-cellation of the year, after Chi-na, while Australia has been moved from March to Novem-ber.

The next two races in Portu-gal, this weekend, and Spain are without spectators.

In this file photo Sebastian Vettel of Germany driving the Scuderia Ferrari SF90 leads the field including Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly and and Max Verstappen during the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on June 9, 2019. (Getty Images/AFP)

English cricket and Premiership rugby join social media boycott over abuseAFPLondon

English cricket bosses and Premiership rugby chiefs announced yesterday they would join foot-

ball’s boycott of social media in a show of solidarity against racism and discrimination.

A coalition of football organi-sations including the English Football Association and Pre-mier League revealed they would go silent on their channels from 1400 GMT tomorrow until 2259 GMT on Monday. A number of high-profi le footballers have been racially abused online in recent months, prompting calls for tougher action from social media giants. Broadcasters BT Sport and Talksport have an-nounced they will be taking part in the protest along with Adidas, which manufactures more than a third of Premier League kits.

The England and Wales Crick-et Board will be joined by all 18 fi rst-class counties and the MCC in boycotting the platforms.

“As a sport, we are united in our commitment to fi ght racism and we will not tolerate the kind of discriminatory abuse that has become so prevalent on social media platforms,” said ECB chief executive Tom Harrison.

“Social media can play a very positive role in sport, widen-ing its audience and connecting fans with their heroes in a way that was never possible before. “However, players and support-ers alike must be able to use these platforms safe in the knowledge they do not risk the prospect of facing appalling abuse.”

It was announced later yes-terday that all 12 of England’s top-fl ight rugby union clubs would be joining the boycott as part of its support for BT’s new campaign to tackle online hate, called Draw The Line.

“This is the fi rst stage of a multi-million pound BT cam-paign to step up and stand against hate speech and abuse on social media,” Premiership Rugby said on its website.

“Additionally, Premiership Rugby and all our clubs will unite with other sports including foot-ball for a social media boycott...This boycott is supported by the Rugby Players’ Association.” The weekend’s boycott, also being implemented by the Lawn Tennis Association, follows social media blackouts by Swansea, Birming-ham and Rangers football clubs in recent weeks.

German Bundesliga club Hoff enheim said on Monday they would also be joining the boycott.

FOCUS

Federer to auction off Grand Slam memorabiliaReutersLondon

Millions of Roger Federer fans around the world might be salivating at the prospect of owning some

mementos of the Swiss great’s incred-ible career after he announced he is auctioning off a collection of personal items this summer.

The 20-times Grand Slam cham-pion, regarded by many as the greatest player ever to wield a tennis racket, is putting various items under the ham-mer in two sales in June and July at Christie’s to raise money for his foun-dation. A live auction taking place on June 23 will feature 20 lots, with each one refl ecting one of Federer’s Grand Slam titles. Prices will range from 3,000 pounds to 70,000 pounds ($97,146.00).

Lots include the outfi t and racket from Federer’s 2009 French Open fi -nal victory over Robin Soderling which completed his career Grand Slam, in-cluding the shoes still coated in red Roland Garros clay dust.

Fans and collectors will also be able to bid for the 2007 kit and racket he used during the second of his three Wimbledon fi nals against career-long rival Rafa Nadal, including shoes dec-orated with Swiss fl ags denoting his Wimbledon titles.

Federer’s elegant white RF-em-blazoned cardigan, worn before fac-ing Britain’s Andy Murray in the 2012 Wimbledon fi nal, is also up for grabs,

as are the shoes he wore when win-ning his third successive Wimbledon in 2005 against Andy Roddick.

“Every piece in these auctions rep-resents a moment in my tennis career and enables me to share a part of my

personal archive with my fans around the world,” Federer said.

“More importantly, the proceeds will support The Roger Federer Foun-dation to help us continue to deliver educational resources to children in

Africa and Switzerland.”A second online auction takes place

in July featuring 300 lower-priced items such as the wristbands Fed-erer wore during his 1,500th profes-sional match at a tournament in Basel.

Christie’s low estimate values the en-tire collection at one million pounds, but hopes to reach 1.5 million pounds ($2.08 million). Bertold Mueller, Man-aging Director, Christie’s Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa said: “It is a great privilege for Christie’s to off er this magnifi cent memorabilia of

historic importance on behalf of Roger Federer, an active sporting legend.

“The sports memorabilia market has been booming for years, in particular for match-worn and signed pieces. The auctions will no doubt be a mile-stone in this ever-growing, worldwide phenomenon.”

SPOTLIGHT

Djokovic withdraws from Madrid OpenNovak Djokovic has pulled out of the Madrid Open, the tournament an-nounced yesterday.A message from the tournament’s off icial twitter account read: “Novak Djokovic will not be playing in the Mutua Madrid Open. ‘Sorry that I won’t be able to travel to Madrid this year and meet all my fans”, said Djokovic. ‘It’s been two years already, quite a long time. Hope to see you all next year!’”.Djokovic has only played four tourna-ments this year, having decided to take a break following his 18th grand slam success at the Australian Open in February.The world number one suff ered a surprise defeat to world number 28 Aslan Karatsev in the semi-finals of the Serbia Open on Saturday, after also losing to Dan Evans, ranked 33rd, earlier this month in Monte Carlo.Djokovic is expected to play in Rome and Belgrade as he prepares for next month’s French Open, where he will be hoping to deny Rafael Nadal a 13th title while looking to add to his own

single success in Paris in 2016.The Madrid Open starts this week, with the women’s main draw begin-ning today and the men’s tournament on Sunday.Djokovic is the reigning men’s cham-pion after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final in 2019. Last year’s event was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. (AFP)

Wales open 2022 Six Nations defence against Ireland

Six Nations champions Wales will kick off the defence of their title in 2022 with a trip to Dublin to play Ireland on February 5 while Scotland host England in the Calcutta Cup the same day, according to the fixtures released by the organisers yes-terday. The opening weekend will also see perennial wooden spoonists Italy running out against France in Paris. There will be a return of Friday night rugby in the fourth round of matches when Wales host the French on March 11 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff . The final round of matches on ‘Super Saturday’ on March 19 starts with Wales v Italy, fol-lowed by Ireland v Scotland and concludes with ‘Le Crunch’ as France meet England in Paris.The 2021 championship was played entirely behind closed doors because of the corona-virus pandemic but organisers are hoping that supporters will be able to return to the stadiums next season. “The 2021 Championship was one of the most competitive in history with eight of the 15 matches won by seven points or less,”

said Six Nations CEO Ben Morel. “This Six Nations entertained many of our long-standing fans and I believe we won plenty of new ones as well. “We look forward to next year’s Champi-onship with hopefully a return to normality when we can welcome fans back in stadia and bring that unrivalled Six Nations atmosphere into sitting rooms, pubs and rugby clubs all over the world.”

FIXTURESRound 1February 5: Ireland v Wales, Scotland v EnglandFebruary 6: France v ItalyRound 2February 12: Wales v Scotland, France v IrelandFebruary 13: Italy v EnglandRound 3February 26: Scotland v France, England v WalesFebruary 27: Ireland v ItalyRound 4March 11: Wales v FranceMarch 12: Italy v Scotland, Eng-land v IrelandRound 5March 19: Wales v Italy, Ireland v Scotland, France v England.

Christie’s gallery assistants pose with rackets and sneakers from ‘The Championships, Wimbledon, 2007’ and ‘French Open, 2009’ lots included in ‘The Roger Federer Collection’, due to be sold at auction, at Christie’s auction house in London. (Reuters)

SPORT3Gulf Times

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Full venues at Tokyo Games ‘very diffi cult’: organisers

Thomas backs bonus pool but paying no attention to it

Tavatanakit hopes to impress in Singapore as LPGA returns to Asia

From the Euphrates to Tokyo: Syrian refugee who lost leg targets Paralympics

Organisers also announced daily antigen virus testing for athletes

OLYMPICS GOLF

SPOTLIGHT

FOCUS

AFPTokyo, Japan

Full stadiums will be “very diffi cult” at the Tokyo Olympics, the head of the Games

warned yesterday, as organisers pushed back a decision on how many domestic fans can attend until June.

Overseas spectators have already been barred from the Games for the fi rst time, and a ruling on Japan-based fans was expected by the end of this month.

But with parts of the country including Tokyo under a coro-navirus state of emergency, or-ganisers said they needed more time. The Games open in less than three months on July 23.

“As we look into the evolv-ing situation with the domestic infections status involving new strains, we have agreed that a decision regarding specta-tor capacity at the Olympic and Paralympic venues will be made in June,” Olympic offi cials said after top-level talks.

Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hash-imoto said it was now unlikely that fans would fi ll venues as in past Olympics.

“We have to watch the situa-tion and consider accordingly. As of now, full venues is very diffi -cult, I understand that,” she said.

“There may be a time that we have to decide on the Games behind closed doors, no specta-tors,” she added.

But “to the extent possible, as many people as possible should be able to enjoy the Tokyo Games”.

Organisers also announced new virus rules for athletes in-cluding daily antigen virus test-ing — up from a previous plan

for tests every four days.Unclear or positive results

will be followed up with addi-tional tests to confi rm.

“If you have a confi rmed posi-tive test for Covid-19 during the Games... you will not be allowed to compete,” an updated virus rule book warns.

‘ALL NECESSARY MEASURES’Those deemed “close contacts” of any athlete testing positive may still be able to compete, with their situation assessed on a “case-by-case basis” and depending on “the likelihood of you spreading the virus”, the guide added.

Athletes are encouraged, but not required, to get vaccinated before the Games, and the re-strictions will still apply to those

who are inoculated.Olympic organisers hope that

bolstering virus rules for the Games will help build support in Japan, where polls show most people back either a cancellation or further delay.

Updates to the rules for other Games participants including thousands of foreign media are expected tomorrow.

“We are ready with you to take all the necessary measures to minimise the risks to make the Japanese people feel safe,” In-ternational Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach said at the start of talks with organisers and Japanese offi cials.

“Our top priority is health and safety for everyone — not only for the participants of the Ol-

ympic Games but, fi rst and fore-most, also of our gracious hosts, the Japanese people.”

Those violating the rules will face a disciplinary committee and could be stripped of their right to compete.

Japan has seen a comparative-ly minor virus outbreak, with just over 10,000 deaths, but it is now battling what experts call a fourth wave of cases.

‘PEOPLE ARE ANXIOUS’A new state of emergency was im-posed on Tokyo and three other areas on April 25, and the gov-ernment’s top medical adviser warned yesterday that discus-sions should start soon on how the Games could be held if infec-tions remain high by the summer.

“What’s very important is the situation of the infections and how overwhelmed the medi-cal system is,” Shigeru Omi told parliament in response to a question from an opposition lawmaker.

“I think it is time to discuss the Olympics,” he added, while stop-ping short of calling for either a postponement or cancellation.

Olympic offi cials insist the Games can still be held safely, with Hashimoto last week say-ing organisers are “not thinking about cancellation”.

And Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto also ruled out a further delay to the Games yesterday.

“That’s something we’ve never discussed with the IOC or others,” he said, noting that the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and 2024 Paris Games leave lit-tle room for further postpone-ment.

Hashimoto also defended the decision to keep moving ahead, telling reporters “there are so many people who are looking forward to the Games”, while ac-knowledging “there are a lot of people who are anxious”.

“That’s the reality, and we need to look at both sides,” she added.

Olympic chiefs took the un-precedented decision to ban overseas fans in March, in a bid to reduce virus risks.

Domestic ticket sales have not yet resumed after last year’s postponement. Organisers said around 4.48mn tickets had been sold in Japan, and nearly a mn for the Paralympics.

Tickets purchased by overseas fans are being refunded, and or-ganisers have also said that any-one who bought tickets in Japan is eligible for a refund if crowd numbers are cut.

ReutersAthens, Greece

As a teenager in Syria, Ibrahim al-Hussein dreamt of becoming an Olympic swimmer

before he lost a leg in the war. Now a refugee in Greece, he is training for a place at the Tokyo Paralympics.

The son of a swimming coach, Hussein, 33, began swimming aged fi ve in the Euphrates river, which passes by his hometown of Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria. He used a bridge as a diving board until it was destroyed in his country’s civil war.

In 2012, Hussein ran outside to help a friend hurt in a bomb blast, only to be injured him-self. His right leg was amputated from the middle of the calf. He later made the dangerous jour-

ney to Greece in a wheelchair.“Anything is possible,” said

Hussein, who competed in the Rio Paralympics in 2016 as part

of the fi rst ever Refugee Team.“Ninety % of people in the

world believe strength is in your hands, in your legs. But strength

comes from inside, from the mind,” he said.

More than 50 refugee athletes hope to compete in Tokyo. The International Paralympic Com-mittee plans to send up to six as part of a Refugee Team to be fi nalised in June. Hussein is de-termined to be part of it.

“Every moment in the water, I think of the Olympic Games,” he said after a two-hour training session.

“There is something inside me: I have to reach the Olympic Games, I have to reach the World Championships. Even if I lose a second leg, if I lose an arm, I will not stop.”

Hussein crossed to Greece in 2014 in a rubber boat with 80 people. A private doctor even-tually got him a prosthetic leg for free and unlike hundreds of thousands of refugees who trav-elled north to wealthier Europe-

an countries, he stayed and was granted asylum.

“I wasn’t looking for mon-ey,” he said. “I was looking for a homeland, I was looking for family, I was looking for legs. I found it all here.”

Hussein began swimming competitively again in 2015 and with the help of his coach and the Greek Paralympic Com-mittee, competed in Rio in the 50-metre and 100-metre free-style events.

“I don’t swim for myself,” he said. “There are 80mn refugees in the world. I swim for them.”

Hussein said he has rejected off ers to compete with Syria and will not return unless the war ends.

“I cannot wear the cap, the tracksuit, which has the same fl ag as the airplane, as the guns (dropping) bombs on people,” he said.

Hatton fourth player out of Valspar aft er positive Covid-19 test

World number eight Tyrrell Hatton became the fourth player to withdraw from this week’s Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Florida, after receiving a positive test for Covid-19, the PGA Tour said on Tuesday. The Englishman, who finished in a share of eighth place at last week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event with 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett, was among the top players in this week’s field at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course. Earlier on Tuesday, the PGA Tour said Sepp Straka tested positive for Covid-19 and had withdrawn from this week’s event. On Monday the PGA Tour said Will Gordon and Brice Garnett also tested positive for the virus and would not play this week.

Rickie Fowler, John Catlin get PGA Championship invitesRickie Fowler and John Catlin received special exemptions to next month’s PGA Championship, the PGA of America confirmed to multiple outlets Tuesday. The season’s second major tourna-ment takes place May 20-23 at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. Fowler, 32, has not posted a top-10 finish this season and has tumbled from No. 53 at the end of 2020 to No. 111 in the current Off icial World Golf Rankings. Fowler missed out on the Masters earlier this month, ending a streak of major appearances that dated back to the 2010 Open Championship. Catlin, 30, is ranked No. 82 in the world and plays primarily on the European Tour, where he has won three times since September.

S.Korean athletes to start receiving Covid-19 vaccine this week: YonhapSouth Korean athletes travelling to Tokyo for the Olympics Games later this year will receive Covid-19 vaccines starting this week, Yonhap news agency reported. Around 100 athletes and coaches will get their first shots today, while around 500 others will be inoculated by the first week of May before they travel to Japan for the Games, Yonhap said, citing the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC). The KSOC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Games, which were pushed back by a year due to the pandemic, are set to run from July 23-Aug. 8. Covid-19 vaccinations are not mandatory for participation in the Olympics, but they are recommended.

An elderly man walks near the National Stadium, main venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, yesterday. (AFP)

ReutersToronto, Canada

Justin Thomas voiced his support yesterday for the PGA Tour’s new bonus structure that will reward

the game’s biggest stars but the world number two will not lose any sleep over where he sits in the payout rankings.

Thomas was speaking a week after news surfaced that the PGA Tour this year implemented a plan to compensate the 10 play-ers judged to drive the most fan and sponsor engagement, re-gardless of their results on the course, through a pool of $40mn.

“I’m not going to pay any at-tention to it,” Thomas said at In-nisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, where he is competing in this week’s Valspar Champion-ship.

“Obviously, it would be great to be the most popular, but I’m not out here for a popularity contest.

“I’m out here to win golf tournaments and win as many as I possibly can. If I play good golf, I’ll do just fi ne on that pro-gramme, and that’s the main pri-ority.”

The programme will deter-

mine a player’s score through their popularity in Google Search, Nielsen Brand Exposure rating, appeal, engagement on social and digital channels, and the frequency he generates cov-erage across media platforms.

“I’m not going to do anything diff erently. I’m already pretty ac-tive on social media,” said Tho-mas.

“I’m already pretty active in trying to help out other media outlets or other organisations, charities. I’m just trying to play good golf, and the rest will take care of itself.”

The idea behind the pro-gramme — which will award $8mn to the golfer deemed most valuable — is to reward play-ers who drive engagement with sponsors and fans.

In theory, that means Tiger Woods, currently sidelined with career-threatening leg injuries suff ered in a car crash and Phil Mickelson, who is splitting time between the PGA and Champi-ons tours, could benefi t.

“Guys like Tiger and Phil that have pushed the game, got the game of golf where they are, they deserve to be where they’re going to be on that list,” Thomas said. “Anybody that thinks otherwise, I just highly disagree with it.”

ReutersBengaluru, India

World number one Ko Jin-young, two-times champion Park In-bee and

holder Park Sung-hyun head the fi eld at the HSBC Women’s World Championship starting today as the LPGA Tour returns to Asia for the fi rst time in 18 months amid the Covid-19 crisis.

The 13th edition of the tour-nament, which has been dubbed “Asia’s major”, will take place at Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club with 69 players from 18 nations, including 22 diff erent major win-ners, competing for a share of $1.6mn on off er.

ANA Inspiration winner Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand will make her debut in the no-cut event, which was among a host of tournaments that were not held last year due to the pandemic.

“I’m feeling good about where my game is now, and I feel ready to take on the rest of the season,” Tavatanakit, who won her fi rst major this month in her rookie

year on tour, said after receiving a sponsor invitation to the Sin-gapore event.

“The win at the ANA Inspira-tion hasn’t really sunk in yet, but I’m so grateful to my coaches and trainers who helped make that lifelong dream a reality...

“I’ll be familiar with the con-ditions in Singapore so I hope I can do well.”

Others in contention include American Danielle Kang, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, South Ko-rea’s Kim Hyo-joo and Japan’s Nasa Hataoka.

A limited number of fans will be allowed to watch the event at the venue due to Covid-19 safety restrictions.

The HSBC Women’s World Championship will be followed by the Honda LPGA Thailand from May 6-9.

Following the Thailand tour-nament, the LPGA Tour will re-turn to the United States for the $1.3mn Pure Silk Championship at Williamsburg, Virginia.

Asia is then scheduled to stage four back-to-back events start-ing October — in China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

World champ Barber hoping javelin will sing through chorus of cheersReutersMelbourne, Australia

Javelin world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber is shutting out the Covid-19

“noise” in the lead up to the Olympics, but the Australian hopes desperately to hear the rumble of fans when she gets set to launch in Tokyo.As a big-stage performer, Bar-ber said she missed the rush of crowds through the pandemic-hit 2020, and would draw energy from fans at National Stadium during the Games.“This is going to be a big factor

for the Olympics this year. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way,” the South Africa-born 29-year-old told Reuters in an interview. “I do use the crowd, I love the crowd and I love to perform. It’s just going to be diff erent this year.”Foreign fans will not be allowed at the Games this year. And au-thorities recently banned crowds at sporting events in Tokyo and other cities until May 11.Organisers might decide it’s not worth the risk to have any fans at all at Olympics, which run from July 23 to Aug. 8.“There are ways you can practise for that and to channel

energy in a diff erent way,” she said. “I might have to tap into the (energy of the) actual com-petition, the girls around me

and the numbers, and play that game a bit more than normally, if that’s what will fire me up.”Barber, who stayed in Australia

last year because of the pan-demic, has struggled to get back into the swing of things this year, throwing well below her career-best of 67.70 metres in 2019, when she was world champion.However, in front of a proper crowd at Australia’s recent na-tional athletics championships, she threw above 60m for the first time since 2019.Her best of 61.09m at Sydney’s Olympic Park was second to Commonwealth Games cham-pion Kathryn Mitchell (63.34m).“I’d love to say, like the head-lines, that ‘I am back’. But I feel like I’m not quite there 100% yet,” Barber said.

Chennai cruise past Hyderabad to go back top

Australians in IPL ‘anxious’ about getting home: Union

Sri Lanka punished for ‘below average’ pitch ahead of must-win Test

Pakistan face Zimbabwe without injured Yasir

IPL

SPOTLIGHT

FOCUS

FIRST TEST

AFPHarare

Pakistan take on Zimbabwe without key leg-spinner Yasir Shah in a two-Test series which starts in Harare today, but are

“confi dent” after beating South Africa earlier this year. Yasir has been an in-tegral part of Pakistan’s Test bowling attack since making his debut in 2014, only missing two tours – to Ireland for a single Test and a two-match visit to England – both in 2018.

Yasir, who has taken 235 wickets in 45 Tests, is absent with a knee injury. The visitors will also be without frontline seamer Mohamed Abbas, now starring for Hampshire in English county crick-et, who lost favour with selectors early this year.

The Babar Azam-led Pakistan will instead rely on the pace trio of Shaheen Shah Afridi (15 Tests), Hasan Ali (11) and Faheem Ashraf (eight), while Nauman Ali (two Tests) is the frontline spinner. They also have leg-spinner Zahid Mah-mood and off -spinner Sajid Khan to chose from, who both have not played a Test yet.

Hasan’s 10 wickets anchored a vic-tory over South Africa in Pakistan’s last Test in Rawalpindi two months ago. Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq believes his team can kick on from that 2-0 series win.

“Our confi dence level is good after winning the home series against South Africa so we hope to carry that good performance,” Misbah said. “Yes, we don’t have Yasir but the back-up spin-ners, like Sajid and Mahmood, are good and in the absence of Yasir they have a good opportunity to perform.”

Pakistan’s batting will revolve around veteran Azhar Ali, Babar, Fawad Alam and in-form wicketkeeper Mohamed Rizwan. Azhar is one of the two survi-vors from the last Test between the two sides in Harare seven years ago, when the hosts upset Pakistan by 24 runs to achieve a 1-1 series draw.

Pakistan still lead the teams’ head-to-head record with 10 wins in 17 bilat-eral Tests. Zimbabwe have won three,

with four drawn. Zimbabwe will hope to continue their form from the preced-ing three-match Twenty20 series. De-spite losing 2-1, they gave their higher-ranked opponents a tough contest.

“It was a very good series with a young side,” said skipper Sean Wil-liams, who has hit hundreds in each of his last three Tests. Zimbabwe drew a two-match Test series 1-1 against Af-ghanistan in the United Arab Emirates last month. “We’ve got some talented

young batsmen and bowlers and we are really excited for the Test series.”

Williams will miss the Test after not recovering from injury with Brendan Taylor to captain the side. Taylor is the only other player who featured in the Pakistan-Zimbabwe Test in 2013. In Blessing Muzarabani and Victor Nyauchi, Zimbabwe have a potent pace attack strengthened by Luke Jongwe, expected to make his Test debut after taking nine wickets in the T20 series.

The second Test will also be in Harare from May 7, with the full tour played behind closed doors due to Covid-19.

SQUADS

Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Imran Butt, Abid Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Saud Shakeel, Agha Salman, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris

Rauf, Tabish Khan, Hasan Ali, Shahna-waz Dhani, Nauman Ali, Zahid Mah-mood, Sajid Khan

Zimbabwe: Sean Williams (captain), Regis Chakabva, Tendai Chisoro, Tan-aka Chivanga, Luke Jongwe, Roy Kaia, Kevin Kasuza, Wellington Masakadza, Prince Masvaure, Tarisai Musakanda, Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngar-ava, Victor Nyauchi, Milton Shumba, Brendan Taylor, Donald Tiripano

‘Yes, we don’t have Yasir but the back-up spinners, like Sajid and Mahmood, are good’

AFPNew Delhi

Chennai Super Kings beat bottom side Sunrisers Hyderabad to go top of the Indian Premier League yesterday as the big-money

tournament staged its fi rst game in In-dia’s coronavirus stricken capital.

Scores of police guarded the barricaded gates around the Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Dehli during the match which Chennai won by seven wickets in 18.3 overs. Nor-mally the stadium would be packed with 40,000 people for major cricket games.

But with Delhi accounting for more than a tenth of the 3,200 coronavirus deaths recorded across India each day, the city has been put under a night cur-few and tough, daytime restrictions. Only a handful of people were on the darkened streets around the stadium, kept empty as all IPL games have been this year.

Fans could only watch on television as Chennai raced past Sunrisers’ 171 for four, with Ruturaj Gaikwad hitting 75 off 44 balls and his fellow opener Faf du Plessis 56 off 38. As the crisis grows, TV cover-age is now regularly interrupted with ap-peals by commentators and pundits such as former Australian bowler Brett Lee and

England spinner Graeme Swann for view-ers to stay home and wear masks.

Lee has donated more than $50,000 to a fund to buy oxygen supplies for In-

dian hospitals.”It saddens me deeply to see people suff ering due to the ongoing pandemic,” he said. The IPL players are being moved around Indian cities in full

PPE hazard suits with face masks. They are now tested every two days and cannot even order food from outside their bio-bubble hotels.

The IPL bubbles will remain tightly sealed around the players for the rest of the tournament which ends on May 30. Inside the empty stadium, Australia’s David Warner went past 10,000 Twen-ty20 runs with his 57 for the Sunrisers.

Manish Pandey hit 61 and Kane Wil-liamson and Kedhar Jadhav added 33 in the fi nal 12 balls to boost the Hyderabad total. Chennai were always ahead of the target however. Du Plessis’ quickfi re in-nings made him the IPL’s leading scorer this year with 260 runs from six matches.

Chennai lead the eight-team table with fi ve wins from six games and a better net run-rate than Royal Challengers Banga-lore in second. The same empty stadium will host reigning champions the Mumbai Indians against Rajasthan Royals today.

Brief scores

Sunrisers Hyderabad 171/3 in 20 overs (M Pandey 61, D Warner 57, K Williamson 26 not out, L Ngidi 2/35, S Curran 1/30) lost to Chennai Super Kings 173/3 in 18.3 overs (R Gaikwad 75, F du Plessis 56, Rashid Khan 3/36).

ReutersMeblourne

Australians involved in the In-dian Premier League are “anx-ious” about how they will get home from the tournament as

the Covid-19 crisis continues in India but they are not looking for any “free rides”, the head of the players’ union said on Wednesday. Three Australian players have pulled out of the IPL but two remain stranded in India following Australia’s decision to suspend fl ights from the Asian nation until May 15.

Nearly 40 Australians remain involved in the IPL as players, coaches, offi cials and commentators, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison said they would not be allowed to jump the queue whenever re-

patriation fl ights resume. The regular IPL season ends on May 23, with playoff s to follow before the fi nal on May 30.

“As you’d imagine, they’re all pretty anxious,” Australian Cricketers’ Associa-tion Chief Executive Todd Greenberg told Sydney radio station 2GB.

“They’re in probably one of the biggest hotspots that we’ve seen since Covid so we’re just trying to make sure that they’re all safe and secure and they can fulfi l their commitments and... we can get them home as soon as we can.”

Former Australia fast bowler Andrew Tye, who was with the Rajasthan Royals, fl ew home over the weekend but compa-triots Adam Zampa and Kane Richard-son, teammates for Royal Challengers Bangalore, had been unable to exit India, Greenberg confi rmed.

“They’re in a diffi cult position so we’ve

got to try to fi nd out some more informa-tion this morning,” he said.

Batsman Chris Lynn, who plays for Mumbai Indians, said this week he had asked governing body Cricket Australia (CA) to arrange a charter fl ight to bring players home after IPL ends. Greenberg said the players union was in “conver-sations” with CA and authorities about that option and would also look to work with IPL club owners on players’ travel arrangements.

Zampa said his decision to cut his IPL season short was about prioritising men-tal health over money. “I feel like for any-one leaving halfway through a tourna-ment, it’s defi nitely a fi nancial sacrifi ce,” the 29-year-old said.

“But from my point of view I wanted to put my mental health fi rst. Obviously the Covid situation over here is pretty dire.

(There were) a few other things like bub-ble fatigue and the chance to get home, once all the news broke about the fl ights and everything.”

CA said late yesterday it would contin-ue to “liaise” with the Australian govern-ment and monitor the situation

BANGALORE SIGN MUMBAI NET BOWLER KUGGELEIJN TO

REPLACE RICHARDSONRoyal Challengers Bangalore have signed New Zealand bowling all-rounder Scott Kuggeleijn to replace Kane Richardson who left the ongoing Indian Premier League citing personal reasons, the IPL franchise said yesterday. Kuggeleijn, who has played two one-day and 16 Twenty20 Internationals for New Zealand, has been a reserve bowler for defending champi-ons Mumbai Indians.

AFPPallekele, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka risk falling to their lowest world rank-ings position if they fail to beat Bangladesh in the

second and fi nal Test starting to-day at Pallekele after being pun-ished for a “below average” pitch in the high-scoring fi rst game.

The International Cricket Council decision to order a de-merit point for Pallekele has added to the pressure on the home side. The fi rst match ended in a tame draw with the two sides scoring 1,289 runs for the loss of just 17 wickets over the fi ve days.

ICC match referee Ranjan Ma-dugalle said the Pallekele pitch was “below average”. “The char-acter of the pitch hardly changed over the course of fi ve days,” Ma-dugalle said. “There was no shift in balance between bat and ball as the game progressed.”

Sri Lanka will fall from seventh to eighth in the ICC Test rankings if ninth-placed Bangladesh force a draw or win. Having backed their fast bowlers in the opening Test, Sri Lanka will turn back to spin this time.

They have included off -spinner Ramesh Mendis, un-capped orthodox left arm spin-ner Praveen Jayawickrama, who has played only a handful of fi rst

class games, and left-arm wrist spinner Lakshan Sandakan in the 13-man squad. “If you take the spin resources we have, Praveen brings variety into the attack and he probably has an edge,” said captain Dimuth Karunaratne.

Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo said he will stick with opener Saif Hassan despite two low scores in the high-scoring fi rst game. “Opening the bat-ting is hard in Tests. A lot of openers take a bit of time to fi nd their feet,” said Domingo. Left-arm bowler Shoriful Islam could make his debut.

SQUAD

Bangladesh: Mominul Haque (capt), Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal, Abu Jayed, Taijul Islam, Najmul Shanto, Mehidy Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Saif Hassan, Shadmam Islam, Mohamed Mithun, Shoriful Islam

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Lahiru Thirimanne, Oshada Fernando, Pathum Nissanka, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Niroshan Dickwella, Suranga Lakmal, Ramesh Mendis, Praveen Jayawickrama, Lakshan Sandakan, Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s former Test cricketer and bowling coach Nuwan Zoysa was banned for six years yes-terday by the International Cricket Council for match-fix-ing during a T10 tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

The ban on the 42-year-old is backdated to October 2018 when he was suspended pending an investigation into his conduct at the inaugural Sharjah tournament in 2017. “Contriving to fix a game betrays the basis of sport-ing principles,” the ICC’s anti-corruption chief Alex Marshall said.

“It will not be tolerated in our sport. In his role as a na-tional coach, he should have acted as a role model.

Instead, he became involved with a corrupter and attempted to corrupt others.”

There was no immediate comment from Zoysa, but he had expressed shock when the ICC initially announced in November that he had been found guilty. “It is a fallacious and cheap gimmick by the ICC to perform such an act (of announcing guilt) intention-ally to tarnish my reputation and the reputation of my beloved country,” Zoysa said at the time.

His sanctioning came eight days after another former Sri Lankan bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige was banned for eight years for corruption during the same T10 tourna-ment. Both were found guilty after a two-year investigation.

The duo join a growing list of Sri Lankan players to have been punished by the ICC for breaching its anti-corruption rules.

Zoysa was accused of agreeing to introduce play-ers to an Indian national to arrange match-fixing and remains under investigation accused of further breaches of the anti-corruption code.

Zoysa played in 30 Tests and 95 one-day internation-als before retiring in 2007. Sri Lanka’s former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya was banned for two years in October 2018 for failing to co-operate with a match-fixing inquiry.

Former Sri Lanka Test player gets six-year ban for

match-fi xing

CRICKET4 Gulf Times

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Zimbabwe’s stand-in captain Brendan Taylor (left) and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam pose with the trophy in Harare yesterday, on the eve of the first Test.

The first match ended in a tame draw with the two sides scoring 1,289 runs for the loss of just 17 wickets over the five days. (AFP)

Chennai Super Kings’ Ruturaj Gaikwad plays a shot as the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Jonny Bairstow looks on during their IPL match in New Delhi. (Sportzpics for IPL)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Nets book playoff berth with 116-103 win over Raptors

Top line leads hot Lightning past Blackhawks

NBA

NHL

AFPLos Angeles

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irv-ing combined for 26 points as the Brooklyn Nets became the fi rst Eastern Conference team

to punch their playoff ticket on Tuesday with a 116-103 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

The Nets overturned a six-point defi -cit with just under 10 minutes remaining in the fi nal quarter to pull away for a win which leaves them on top of the confer-ence with 42 wins and 20 defeats.

Durant fi nished with 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocks while Irving ended with nine points on a night when seven Brooklyn players posted double-digit points totals.

Jeff Green led the Brooklyn scoring with 22 points while Blake Griffi n deliv-ered another solid performance with 17 points from 22 minutes on court. Joe Har-ris had 16 points while Landry Shamet had 14 off the bench.

Toronto’s Kyle Lowry led the scor-ing for the 2019 NBA champions with 24 points while OG Anunoby had 21. Nets coach Steve Nash saluted his team’s char-acter for securing a playoff place despite injuries which have prevented their big three of Durant, James Harden and Irving from playing together regularly this sea-son. “We have our eyes on bigger things but it’s a nice fi rst step to clinch a berth,” Nash said. “For this group, facing all we’ve faced to be in this position with 10 games left is very positive.”

Nash meanwhile singled out Griffi n for praise following his important 17-point cameo. “Blake’s been great,” Nash said. “His I.Q., his toughness, his physicality, his will-ingness to give up his body and be physical. It’s a diff erent role for him than being asked to carry or produce - he’s a complementary player now and he’s accepted that with joy and pride. He’s been great.”

In Charlotte, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Milwaukee Bucks solidifi ed their hold on third place in the Eastern Confer-ence with a 114-104 win over the Hornets.

Brook Lopez pocketed 22 points and

Khris Middleton added 17 as the Bucks improved to 38-23 to edge closer to the postseason. Charlotte remain in conten-tion for a place in the play-in tournament

despite falling to 30-31 for the season. Devonte Graham led the Hornets scoring with 25 points while Miles Bridges had 21.

Elsewhere Tuesday, Anfernee Simons

had 27 points as the Portland Trail Blaz-ers blew away the Indiana Pacers in Indi-anapolis, dishing out a 133-112 beatdown at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse arena. Si-mons went on a blistering three-point blitz, making nine out of 10 attempts from outside the arc in his 24 minutes on court. Damian Lillard added 23 while CJ McCollum added 20 as Portland moved to within striking distance of an auto-matic playoff place. The Blazers are now seventh in the West on 33-28, just behind the sixth-placed Dallas Mavericks.

The Mavericks meanwhile improved to 34-27 with a brutal 133-103 pound-ing of the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco. Luka Doncic fi nished with 39 points, six rebounds and eight assists as Dallas showed no mercy to an outclassed Dubs line-up.

ReutersChicago

Brayden Point tallied a goal and two as-sists, Alex Barre-Boulet scored and On-drej Palat added two assists as the vis-iting Tampa Bay Lightning rode strong

production from their top line to defeat the Chi-cago Blackhawks 7-4 on Tuesday night and clinch a playoff berth.

Alex Killorn added two goals and Blake Cole-man had a goal and an assist as Tampa Bay im-proved to 7-3-0 in its past 10 games by winning for the third straight time. The defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning (33-14-2, 68 points) continue to vie with Central Division-leading Carolina and second-place Florida in a tight race down the stretch.

Mikhail Sergachev also had two assists for the Lightning. The Blackhawks (22-22-5, 49 points) saw their fl ickering playoff hopes take a hit as they lost for the third time in four games. The Light-ning raced to a 3-1 fi rst-period lead, but Chicago rallied to climb within a goal as Wyatt Kalynuk scored unassisted at 17:59 of the fi rst period. Chi-cago drew no closer, though, as Point, Coleman and Killorn scored within a 6:59 span midway through the second period to put the game away.

Duncan Keith beat Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy with a wrist shot at 19:28 of the sec-ond period and Dominik Kubalik scored at 13:51 of the third to cap the scoring for Chicago. Patrick Kane assisted on both goals to vault to 45 assists this season, second most in the NHL.

Vasilevskiy stopped 36 of 40 shots for his league-best 29th victory of the season.

The Blackhawks played much of the game with

a depleted defensive corps. A check from Tampa Bay’s Erik Cernak sent Adam Boqvist to the locker room in the second period with an apparent right wrist injury. Later in the period, Connor Murphy received a 10-minute misconduct penalty fol-lowing a sequence in which he instigated a fi ght with Cernak. Rookie goaltender Kevin Lankinen started for Chicago but was pulled after one pe-riod. He allowed three goals on 11 shots. Malcolm Subban stopped 15 of the 19 shots he faced the rest of the way. Tampa Bay went 7-0-1 against the Blackhawks during the regular season, taking 15 of a possible 16 points.

PANTHERS RALLY TO TOP PREDS, CLINCH PLAYOFF BERTH

The Florida Panthers rallied from a third-period defi cit to beat the host Nashville Predators 7-4 and clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup playoff s on Tuesday night. The Panthers (32-14-5, 69 points) came into the third period trailing Nashville (27-22-2, 56 points) by a goal but scored four goals in the fi nal period with Jonathan Huberdeau getting two of them. Florida outshot Nashville 55-30 to

get a measure of revenge against the Predators, who prevented the Panthers from clinching their playoff appearance with a 4-1 win on Monday.

Nashville is trying to hold off Dallas for the fourth and fi nal playoff spot out of the Central Division, currently holding a two-point lead over the Stars. Carolina, Florida and Tampa Bay have all clinched.

The Predators got the scoring going early, get-ting a goal from a long Ryan Ellis shot at 6:07 of the fi rst period. Ellis later gave Nashville a 4-3 lead with 22.9 seconds left in the second.

After Ellis’ fi rst goal, the Panthers took aim at goalie Juuse Saros. Florida ended up outshooting Nashville 20-8 in the opening period and had a 42-21 advantage after two.

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov scored two goals, his fi rst a power-play goal that tied the score at 1-1 at 8:28 of the fi rst. He later tied it at 3-3 with a wrist shot at 17:32 of the second.

Florida took its fi rst lead on a power-play goal by Anthony Duclair at 2:56 of the second. Nash-ville then got the next two goals in the period from Luke Kunin (6:50) and Tanner Jeannot (12:40). The Panthers tied the score again fi ve minutes into the third period when Owen Tippett banged a loose puck past Saros on Florida’s 47th shot on goal of the night. Frank Vatrano gave Florida the lead for good at 7:15 of the third when he one-timed a pass from Alex Wennberg.

Huberdeau then tacked on his two goals as the Panthers tied a franchise record with 55 shots on goal. He ended with fi ve points in the game.

Before the third period started, Florida replaced starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (17 saves on 21 shots) with rookie Spencer Knight, the former Boston College star who led Team USA to Gold at World Juniors.

‘We have our eyes on bigger things but it’s a nice first step to clinch a berth’

RESULTS

Mavericks 133-103 Golden State

Nets 116-103 Raptors

Bucks 114-104 Hornets

Trail Blazers 133-112 Pacers

Thunder 119-115 Celtics

Wolves 114-107 Rockets

Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving drives to the hoop over Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry in the first quarter at Amalie Arena in Tampa. (USA TODAY Sports)

Guerrero Junior’s three-homer night powers Jays past NatsReutersChicago

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a career-best three home runs, including a grand slam, and the To-

ronto Blue Jays defeated the vis-iting Washington Nationals 9-5 Tuesday night at Dunedin, Fla.

Guerrero had a career-best seven RBIs and teammate Cavan Biggio contributed three singles and a sacrifi ce fl y in the opener of a two-game set.

Trea Turner hit two home runs for the Nationals, Ryan Zimmer-man belted a two-run homer and Yadiel Hernandez hit a solo shot.

Washington starter Max Scherzer (1-2) allowed seven runs (fi ve earned), fi ve hits and two walks while striking out fi ve in fi ve innings. He had a 19-in-ning scoreless streak end in the third.

Turner hit an 0-2 cur-veball to left to open the fi rst inning. It was the 13th time in his career that he homered to lead off a game.

Turner hit his sixth homer of the season on a 2-2 cutter with one out in the third. Tommy Milone (1-0) then replaced Toron-to opener Trent Thornton and gave up Hernandez’s fi rst homer of the season on a 1-2 fastball.

The Blue Jays took the lead in their half of the third on Guerrero’s third career grand slam. Ale-jandro Kirk and Biggio singled with one out. Bo Bichette walked to load the bases for Guerrero, who hit a 2-1 slider to left center to end an 0-for-11 drought.

The Nationals loaded the bases with one out in the fourth.

Milone was replaced by Anthony Castro, who induced a double-play grounder from Victor Rob-les.

The Blue Jays scored twice in the bottom of the fourth. Joe Panik led off with a dou-ble. Nationals second baseman Josh Harrison muff ed a popup to shallow right fi eld, with the three-base error scoring Panik. Biggio’s sacrifi ce fl y gave Toron-to a 6-3 lead.

Guerrero led off the bottom of the fi fth with a homer on a 3-2 fastball.

Kyle McGowin replaced Scherzer in the sixth. Toronto’s Joel Payamps allowed a one-out single to Hernandez and Zim-merman’s third homer of the season in the seventh.

Guerrero hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. His seventh long ball of the sea-

son came on Kyle Finnegan’s 1-1 sinker. Blue Jays reliever Tyler Chatwood pitched a perfect 1 2/3 innings with four strikeouts, and Rafael Dolis tossed a 1-2-3 ninth.

MLB

RESULTS

Lightning 7-4 Blackhawks

Panthers 7-4 Predators

Capitals 1-0 Islanders

Bruins 3-1 Penguins

Rangers 3-1 Sabres

Hurricanes 5-1 Stars

Blue Jackets 1-0 Red Wings

Devils 6-4 Flyers

RESULTS

Blue Jays 9-5 Nationals

Reds 6-5 Dodgers

Rockies 7-5 Giants

Braves 5-0 Cubs

Astros 2-0 Mariners

Rangers 6-1 Angels

Red Sox 2-1 Mets

Cardinals 5-2 Phillies

Brewers 5-4 Marlins

Yankees 5-1 Orioles

Pirates 2-1 Royals

Indians 7-4 Twins

Rays 4-3 A’s

Tigers 5-2 White Sox

D’backs 5-1 Padres

Toronto Blue Jays infielder Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gestures as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the seventh inning against the Washington Nationals at TD Ballpark. (USA TODAY Sports)

Tampa Bay Lightning center Brayden Point (left) and Chicago Blackhawks center Pius Suter go for the puck during the first period at United Center. (USA TODAY Sports)

Sneakers from Michael Jordan’s rookie season up for sale at Sotheby’s

A pair of red sneakers worn by NBA champion Michael Jordan in 1984-85, at the start of his Chicago Bulls career, is expected to fetch over $100,000 and possibly much higher at an online auction next month, Sotheby’s said yesterday. The auction house has estimated the red and white “Air Jordan 1” sneakers at 100,000-150,000 Swiss francs ($110,000-$164,000). Another pair, identical but bearing Jordan’s autograph, was sold for $560,000 at an auction last year.“They are obviously a pair of iconic design and something that really collec-tors focus on as one of the (Holy) Grails and one of the ‘must-have’ pieces,” said Josh Pullan, managing director of Sotheby’s global luxury division.“We hope we see them fly,” he told Reuters. Billed “Gamers Only”, the sale will be the first Swiss auction devoted to sneakers. Jordan’s shoes are the star lot among 13 pairs from former NBA stars including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Patrick Ewing, Stephen Curry and Scot-tie Pippen. Jordan’s shoes, of which one is a size 13 and the other 13.5, were de-signed by Nike’s creative director Peter Moore, Sotheby’s said. Jordan played 13 seasons with the Bulls, winning six championships, and is currently the owner of the Charlotte Hornets.“There is a new generation of collec-tors, generally 20 to 30 years old, who are participating in the sneakers mar-ket, but we also see that often times, they are also collectors of contempo-rary art or even Old Masters,” Pullan said. (Reuters)

FOOTBALL6 Gulf Times

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Marcelo called for election duty day before Chelsea clash

Tuchel rues missed chances that let Real off the hook

Wales boss Giggs denies assault charges

Benzema embodies survival spirit aft er leading Real recovery

FOCUS

COMMENT SPOTLIGHT

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

ReutersManchester

Former Manchester United player and Wales national team manager Ryan Giggs was released on bail on Wednesday after pleading not guilty

to charges of assaulting his ex-girlfriend and her sister. The 47-year-old was charged last week with causing actual bodily harm to former partner Kate Greville and beating her younger sister Emma.

He also faces one count of coercive and controlling behaviour.

After he entered his plea, the case was sent to Manchester Crown Court to be heard on May 26. The court heard the prosecutor read out a summary of charges including that he struck Kate Greville with a “deliber-ate headbutt”.

“There was fear of violence on many oc-casions,” the prosecution added, saying Giggs had subjected his partner to “degrad-ing treatment” and isolation from friends and colleagues. The former player gave his name, address and date of birth before answering not guilty to the charges in a 13-minute hearing.

He was released on bail on condition that he has no contact with either sister and does not go to any address where he believes they

might be. Giggs, who has said he looks for-ward to clearing his name, was fi rst arrested in the case and released on bail in November.

He has been replaced as Wales manager for this summer’s Euro 2020 tournament.

The appearance at Manchester and Sal-ford Magistrates’ Court was his fi rst in the case and attracted a large media presence outside, with reporters also following the

hearing on a video link.Giggs made 963 appearances over 23 years

for Manchester United as a player, a club record, winning a haul of honours including 13 Premier League winner’s medals and two UEFA Champions League winner’s medals.

He represented Wales as a player 64 times between 1991 and 2007 and took over as na-tional coach in 2018.

AFPMadrid

Real Madrid might not reach the Champions League fi nal but Karim Benzema has given them a chance, his genius against

Chelsea the embodiment of a team that still never knows when it is beaten.

Benzema’s thunderbolt volley gives Madrid parity at the end of a fi rst leg that could have been won decisively by Chelsea, who were the superior team overall and, for 25 minutes, made their opponents look weary, rigid, even out of date. But the most recent additions to Real Madrid’s 13 European Cups have come from their ability to bend these matches to their will, to weather the storms and then accelerate when the wind is behind them.

Again and again, they have shown themselves to be masters of moments, their belief that in the end they will win creating certainty when it is needed most and for their opponents, doubt, just when they think they have the up-per hand. It comes from a history of success and the hubris of a club con-vinced it has earned the right even to play in a Super League, only ever against the biggest teams, bypassing the need to qualify, and for theoretical fans that see Real Madrid winning as the beginning and end of the sport.

It comes from a coach too in Zined-ine Zidane, whose philosophy is not so much possession or pressing but calm, and players, like Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and on Tuesday night, Benzema. Eight minutes before his goal, it was Benzema stirring the fi rst signs of recovery.

He robbed the ball off Antonio Rudi-ger on the halfway line and played two passes, each time demanding it back, before circling into the centre and fi r-ing off a shot that shaved the outside of the post. In the stadium, it was a trigger, Madrid’s substitutes raised to their feet and Ramos behind them also stand-ing up, fl apping his hands and shouting “Come on guys! That’s it! A bit more now! Believe!”

Chelsea’s were still in charge but from that moment their dominance began to

fade. Benzema turbo-charged another counter-attack down the right, his punching pass out to Toni Kroos on the opposite side the one that led to Kroos winning the corner, that led to Benzema throwing his body at the ball and the ball fl ying into Chelsea’s net.

“Benzema took responsibility in re-viving the belief of a team that appeared to be creaking, and to a large extent they are, but so often they fi nd something more,” wrote El Pais. Marca said: “There

are no doubts remaining that Benzema belongs to the most distinguished class of footballers.” “He woke the team up,” wrote AS. When Benzema signed his fi rst professional contract with Lyon, he was made to give an initiation speech at a squad dinner and the cocky 20-year-old irked some of the senior players by telling them he would soon be taking their place.

Thirteen years later, he is the fourth most prolifi c goalscorer in the history of

the Champions League, level on 71 with Raul, behind only Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski.

If recognition has come late, it is in part because Benzema has saved his best until last, his fl ourishing into a graceful but deadly number nine occur-ring after many had perhaps made their minds up: Ronaldo’s support act could never be among the very best himself.

And yet just as his late equaliser against Atletico Madrid last month gave

Real Madrid life in La Liga, it was his in-tervention against Chelsea that has now them alive in the Champions League too. “Nothing surprises me about Ka-rim,” said Zidane, who had earlier taken him off in the 89th minute, the kind of substitution usually designed to give the home crowd the chance to applaud. Instead, Zidane stepped in, smiling, whispering, an arm around his shoul-der, another moment seized and the fi -nal still in sight.

Benzema’s thunderbolt volley gives Madrid parity at the end of a first leg against Chelsea

ReutersMadrid

Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel said his side should have wrapped up their Champions League

semi-fi nal fi rst leg with Real Ma-drid in the fi rst half on Tuesday and rued missed chances in the 1-1 draw that could have put the game beyond their opponents.

US forward Christian Pulisic fi red Chelsea in front in the 14th minute in the Alfredo di Stefano Stadium, and the visitors cre-ated plenty more opportunities in the fi rst half as 13-times win-ners Real struggled to make any inroads at the other end.

Yet Chelsea’s inability to score a second away goal proved costly as Karim Benzema’s fi ne eff ort levelled things up before the break with his side’s only shot on target in the opening period.

“I have a feeling we should have won the fi rst half and we could have perhaps decided this game in the fi rst half an hour when we were playing so strong,” Tuchel said. “The second half was a tactical game and you could feel we only had two days in be-tween two away games which made it physically and mentally demanding and you could feel it in the decision making. “We suf-fered a bit and an extra day would have been nice.”

Timo Werner failed to score from close range early in the game and Tuchel was left frus-trated by the German striker’s inability to put away clear chanc-es. “He missed a big one at West Ham United (on Saturday) and now he’s missed a big one here,

that doesn’t help,” Tuchel said.“It doesn’t help crying about

it or regretting it. There are mil-lions of people who have harder things to deal with than chances that you miss... I don’t feel we’re pointing fi ngers but of course the strikers want to score.

“This is the highest level and when you have a good half an hour like we did... then yes we wish for more composure and more precision in the decision making and fi nishing.”

Tuchel continued his fi ne record against Zinedine Zidane’s side in Europe’s premier club competition — the German is

the only manager to face Real as many as fi ve times without ever losing in Champions League history. Having scored the away goal, Chelsea are in the driving seat to reach a fi rst Champions League fi nal since 2012 ahead of next week’s return leg.

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane admitted he was relieved to fi nish fi rst leg with his side still in the tie. the break. “I’m so happy with the players because we’re still alive,” Zidane said “We struggled a bit for the fi rst 25-30 minutes but then we improved and were much better in the sec-ond half and had control.”

Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema (right) celebrates after scoring against Chelsea during the UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg in Madrid on Tuesday. (AFP)

Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio (left) vies for the ball with Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante during the Champions League semi-final. (AFP)

ReutersMadrid

Real Madrid defender Marcelo could be pre-vented from playing in next week’s Champions

League semi-fi nal second leg at Chelsea after being chosen to work in a polling station during a regional election, newspaper El Mundo reported yesterday.

Teammate Victor Chust, who is injured, has also been selected to work during the election in the region around the capital Madrid next Tuesday, the day before the match in London. Real did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the El Mundo report.

Unless Marcelo is excused from his election-day duties, he will be unable to travel with the team the day before the game. El Mundo said Real had appealed to the Electoral Commission but the request was denied.

A four-time Champi-ons League winner with Real, Marcelo started Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at home to Chelsea as fel-low left back Ferland Mendy was injured. Marcelo, a Brazil inter-national, obtained Spanish na-tionality in 2011, a common path for South American footballers in La Liga, where there is a limit on the number of players clubs can have from outside the Euro-pean Union.

All Spanish nationals on the electoral register are liable to be called up to work at polling sta-tions, for which they are paid 65 euros ($72), and require mitigat-ing circumstances to be excused.

Footballers being called to work at polling stations is not uncommon: Levante goalkeeper Aitor Fernandez was named on a reserve list to work during a general election in 2019 but was excused as his side were playing Athletic Bilbao on voting day.

Athletic Bilbao’s Inaki Wil-liams was also excused from working at a polling station in 2015 as voting clashed with a match against Levante.

Wales’ Manager and former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs leaves from Manchester Magistrates Court yesterday. (AFP)

Berlin: Salzburg’s American coach Jesse Marsch has agreed terms to succeed Bayern Munich-bound Julian Nagelsmann at Bundesliga club RB Leipzig, German media reported yesterday. Wisconsin-born Marsch, 47, had “turned down Tottenham Hotspur and decided to move to Leipzig”, according to Kicker.

The country’s most widely read news-paper Bild also claimed that Marsch had reached “an agreement in principle” with Leipzig director Oliver Mintzlaff . A former assistant coach of the US men’s national

team, Marsch has long been a rising star within Red Bull’s sprawling global football network. The Leipzig job would be his third in charge of a Red-Bull backed club, following a three-year spell at the helm of New York Red Bulls and two years in the Salzburg dugout. Marsch also previously worked at RB Leipzig as assistant coach to Ralf Rangnick in the 2018-19 season, helping the club to a German Cup final and top-three finish in the Bundesliga.

He then moved to Salzburg, winning the Austrian league and cup double in his first

season as head coach.At Leipzig, Marsch would replace

33-year-old German coaching prodigy Julian Nagelsmann, who was announced as the next Bayern Munich coach on Tuesday. Bayern reportedly paid a fee of up to 30mn euros (36mn dollars) to secure Nagelsmann as a replacement for Hansi Flick, who will leave Munich after this season.

The move completes a meteoric rise for Nagelsmann, who will turn 34 in July and is younger than Bayern club captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Marsch to succeed Nagelsmann as Leipzig coach: Reports

FOOTBALL7Gulf Times

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Spotify CEO ‘very serious’ about Arsenal takeover bid

‘I want the biggest prizes’: Kane opens up on frustration at Tottenham

Man United’s Solskjaer seeks to defuse Roma fans’ anger

Specialist Emery threatens Arsenal’s shot at salvation

SPOTLIGHT

BOTTOMLINE

FOCUS

EUROPA LEAGUE

AFPNew York

Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek says he wants to bring back the “glory” to Arse-nal as he plans to test the

resolve of the club’s American billionaire owner Stan Kroenke with a takeover bid.

Kroenke, through his Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE) business, has been the Gun-ners’ majority shareholder for a decade and took full control of the club by buying out Rus-sian oligarch Alisher Usmanov’s stake in 2018. Arsenal’s perform-ances on the pitch have declined markedly during the Kroenke reign. The London club have not won a Premier League title since 2003/04 and are set to miss out on a top-four fi nish in the Eng-lish top fl ight for a fi fth consecu-tive season.

Kroenke’s part in the failed European Super League (ESL) project further angered success-starved fans. Arsenal were one of 12 clubs to initially sign up to proposals for the breakaway competition but, along with fi ve other English clubs, withdrew from the plans within 48 hours after a fi erce backlash from fans, players, governing bodies and the British government.

Thousands of supporters pro-tested outside the Emirates Sta-dium before Friday’s 1-0 defeat by Everton, calling for Kroenke to sell the club. On Tuesday, KSE said it had no intention of selling, despite reports of Ek’s interest.

“In recent days we have noted media speculation regarding a potential takeover bid for Arse-nal Football Club,” read a KSE statement. “We remain 100% committed to Arsenal and are not selling any stake in the club. We have not received any off er and we will not entertain any off er.”

However, Ek, who says he has supported the club for 30 years, believes he has the funding to make a serious off er.

“I’m very serious,” the Swed-ish billionaire told CNBC yester-day. “You know, I have secured the funds for it, and I want to bring what I think is a very com-pelling off er to the owners and I hope they hear me out.

“I’ve been an Arsenal fan since I was eight years old. Arsenal is my team. I love the history. I love the players. And of course, I love the fans. So as I look at that, I just see a tremendous oppor-tunity to set a real vision for the

club to bring it back to its glory. And I want to establish trust with fans and I want to engage the fans again.”

According to reports, Arsenal greats Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp would be part of an advisory group in a takeover bid. “All I can do is prepare what I think is a very thoughtful off er, and bring it to them and hope they hear me out,” added Ek.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta defended the commitment of KSE to improving results on the pitch. Arteta’s side are 10th in the Premier League and on course for their worst league fi nish since 1995. “The reality is that we have owners who are really, really committed and want a successful team on the pitch and are going to do everything on the pitch to achieve that,” said the Spaniard.

Arteta said he was pleased with the response KSE’s statement. “It closes a lot of the specula-tion regarding what could hap-pen because they moved straight away and made very clear lines of their understanding and what they want to do with the football club,” he said.

“We spoke to them and I think it was very clear, they have shown their commitment and ambition to the football club because we all want a successful team on the pitch. It was very clear and took any doubt out of the situation.”

Arsenal are 10th in the Premier League and on course for their worst league fi nish since 1995. However, they could play them-selves back into the lucrative Champions League for the fi rst time in fi ve years should they win the Europa League.

Amid the turbulence that has rocked the club, Arteta has been readying his players for a last-four tie that will defi ne their sea-son. Realistically they must win the Europa League if they are to play continental football next season and they travel to face a side managed by his predecessor, Unai Emery.

Arteta may be able to select from a full-strength squad. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has recovered from malaria, Al-exandre Lacazette is back after a hamstring problem and David Luiz is available after minor knee surgery. More surprisingly, Ki-eran Tierney could be fi t after working to overcome a knee in-jury that was expected to sideline him until mid-May. Tierney has been “working like a beast every single day”, Arteta said.

By David HytnerThe Guardian

Harry Kane has expressed frustration at a continued in-ability to achieve his ambition of winning major trophies at

Tottenham in comments that will raise alarm about his happiness at the club.

The striker’s future has been the subject of intense discussion after he remained uncharacteristically silent in the media for several months before saying on England duty last month that he would concentrate on the remainder of the season “and then we’ll see where we go from there”.

Kane was part of the Spurs team that lost 1-0 against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup fi nal on Sunday and – af-ter the FA Cup defeat at Everton in Feb-ruary and the Europa League disaster at Dinamo Zagreb last month, when a 2-0

fi rst-leg lead was surrendered – the season comes down to an uphill strug-gle in fi nish in the Premier League’s top four.

Kane described the campaign as “disappointing” and, for all his indi-vidual excellence since establishing himself at Spurs in 2014-15, he has yet to win a trophy. He was on the losing side in the fi nals of the 2019 Champions League and the 2015 League Cup and he saw league title challenges in 2016 and 2017 fall away.

Kane was interviewed by Sky Sports after being named as the Premier League player of the year at the London Football Awards. He is the competi-tion’s top goalscorer with 21 and lead-ing assist-maker with 13.

“Individual awards are great, they are fantastic achievements,” he said. “When I look back at the end of my ca-reer, these are the things I will go over and take in more but the goal right now

as a player is to win team trophies. I want to be winning the biggest prizes there is to off er and we are not quite do-ing that.

“It is bittersweet, I would rather be winning team trophies and this one but

it is what it is. I am proud to win it, it means it’s been a good season on the pitch. So I have got to try and continue what I am doing.”

It will be extremely diffi cult for any club to prise Kane from Spurs this sum-

mer. The 27-year-old is under contract until June 2024, meaning the chairman, Daniel Levy, would feel empowered to demand an astronomical fee – were he to even countenance selling him, which the club maintain he is not. Would any rival be able to fi nd that kind of money in the coronavirus era?

One of the big questions for Kane could concern how badly he may want a transfer or, to put it another way, how badly he would be prepared to behave to force one. Spurs stars who have wanted away in the past – chiefl y Dimitar Ber-batov, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale – had to dig in hard and withdraw co-operation to varying degrees to assist moves. Berbatov went to Manchester United and Modric and Bale to Real Madrid. Bale is back at Spurs on loan.

Kane has been a Spurs player for most of his life, having joined as a boy and, ideally, he would not want to anger the club.

Spurs host Sheffi eld United on Sun-day and, with fi ve league games to play, they are fi ve points behind fourth-placed Chelsea. “It has been a disap-pointing season, if I am totally honest,” Kane said. “We have had so many op-portunities and been in so many games where we have been ahead or been in a good position going into the last 15 minutes and we haven’t quite got over the line for one reason or another.

“When we look back, we were in a great position come November and that [bad] spell over December and Janu-ary really put a halt to what we were trying to achieve. We have got loads to improve on. The thing now is to try and fi nish strong, try and win the last fi ve games, hopefully try and make the Champions League spot. It has been disappointing and as players we have to take responsibility and when we go away in the summer really focus on what we can improve on.”

AFPLondon

Arsenal are relying on Europa League success to save a sorry season, but face former man-ager Unai Emery with a point

to prove in today’s semi-fi nal fi rst leg against Villarreal. Sitting 10th in the Pre-mier League, the Gunners are on course for their worst league fi nish since 1995.

But Mikel Arteta’s men are also just three games away from only the club’s third ever European trophy and a much-needed ticket back into the Champions League for the fi rst time in fi ve seasons. All is not well at the Emirates on or off the fi eld. Ahead of Friday’s 1-0 defeat by Everton, thousands of fans demonstrated against Arsenal’s owner Stan Kroenke, calling on the American billionaire to sell the club following his role in a collapsed European Super League.

Arsenal were one of 12 breakaway clubs seeking the reassurance of top level Euro-pean football every season without facing the perils of having to qualify. It is easy to see why Kroenke sought the guaranteed income the Super League would provide.

For 19 seasons between 1998/99 and 2016/17, the Londoners never failed to qualify for the Champions League. Now they are set to fi nish outside the Premier League’s top four for a fi fth consecutive year. That decline started prior to Em-ery’s 18-month spell in charge between May 2018 and November 2019.

The Spaniard missed out on the top four by a point and got to the Europa League fi nal in his only full season in charge, but was dismissed just four months into his second. “It ended in unwanted circum-stances,” Emery said ahead of the tie.

“I want to win for myself and for Vil-larreal. (Two years ago) I was defending Arsenal’s red colours in that fi nal against Chelsea, now I feel that affi nity for the yellow of Villarreal. I have that competi-tive instinct, that responsibility I owe the club and everyone I represent with my decisions.”

A three-time Europa League winner during his time at Sevilla, the 49-year-old has won 28 out of 31 knockout ties in the competition across spells at four dif-

ferent clubs. Revenge is also on Villarreal minds for those with a far longer connec-tion to the club than Emery.

A fi rst ever major trophy is also the Spanish side’s only route into next sea-son’s Champions League. Arguably the closest they have ever come to silver-ware was a Champions League semi-fi nal against Arsenal, when Jens Lehmann’s last-minute penalty save from Juan Ro-man Riquelme in 2005/06 prevented the tie from going to extra-time. “The two clubs have their own history between

themselves,” added Emery. “It will be a great contest, regardless of my having coached there recently.”

In the other semi-fi nal, Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is aim-ing to reach a fi nal at the fi fth time of ask-ing since taking charge of the Red Devils against Roma. Under the Norwegian, the English giants have twice fallen at the last four in the League Cup and in the semi-fi nals of last season’s Europa League and FA Cup. With United realistically as-sured of a top-four fi nish in the Premier

League, but too far off Manchester City to mount a title challenge, ending a four-year trophy drought is the major prize left on off er for Solskjaer’s men this season. “It feels like a proper European tie be-cause Roma is a club with lots of history,” said Solskjaer when the draw was made.

Like Arsenal and Villarreal, there is even greater motivation for the Italians, who sit seventh in Serie A. Victory in next month’s fi nal in Gdansk is the best shot at European football next season for Paulo Fonseca’s men.

The Spaniard is a three-time Europa League winner during his time at Sevilla

Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, said he had been an Arsenal fan since he was eight years old. (Reuters)

AFPLondon

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer yester-day tried to placate angry fans of Europa League semi-fi nal opponents Roma, who have ac-

cused the Manchester United boss of dis-respecting their club.

Comments made by Solskjaer after the quarter-fi nal triumph against Gra-nada have angered some Giallorossi sup-porters, who have put up posters of the Norwegian near the Serie A club’s train-ing ground alongside the quote: “I don’t know them and I haven’t seen them play”. The fans have added the caption “Make sure he remembers us!”

Solskjaer, who is seeking to win his fi rst trophy as United boss, told his pre-match

press conference that the remark should be put in context. “That was straight af-ter the game and with all the games we’ve had I was just relieved that we’d gone through,” he said.

“Of course I’ve watched them but I

hadn’t analysed and hadn’t seen them in depth to give them enough respect prob-ably with analysis. I could’ve said, which I truly mean, ‘it’s a fantastic club with a great history’.”

Solskjaer said he even owned two treasured shirts worn by Roma greats. “I’ve actually got two prized possessions back home — a (Francesco) Totti shirt and a (Daniele) De Rossi shirt that I’ve swapped with them, actually signed,” he said. “I know about the history, I know about the quality. It was not meant as any disrespect and I think everyone knows that. I’ve got loads of respect for them,” he added.

Solskjaer said forward Marcus Rash-ford should be fully fi t for today’s fi rst leg at Old Traff ord. United suff ered semi-fi nal heartbreak three times last season — in the League Cup, FA Cup and Eu-

ropa League — and again this term in the League Cup.

“It will be a dream come true the day I can lift a trophy for this club as a man-ager, of course,” said Solskjaer, who won multiple trophies as a player at Old Traf-ford. “That’s what we’re building for. We’ve been close, we’re building step by step.... But for this team and myself, our ambition this season is to fi nish with lift-ing a trophy and being able to celebrate.”

Roma were comfortable in the Serie A top four at the turn of the year, but a run of one win in their last seven league matches means they have dropped to sev-enth, with pressure mounting on coach Paulo Fonseca. Elimination would surely hasten Fonseca’s exit, with reports in the Italian media linking the club with former Napoli, Chelsea and Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri.

Thursday, April 29, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT

De Mieulle refl ects on a big season, before focusing on the next

Casey takes aim at rare PGA Tour three-peat

Al Sadd, Al Nassr set for cracker with Round of 16 in sight

Aspetar part of our national team’s success: Algerian football chief

HORSE RACING

GOLF

AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

FOCUS

‘It’s not about the amount you have won, but what you do with the horses’

AFCRiyadh

It will be winners take all when Al Sadd SC of Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr clash in their fi nal 2021 AFC

Champions League Group D tie at the King Saud University Sta-dium today.

Al Sadd grabbed top spot from Al Nassr after the Qatar champi-ons beat Foolad Khouzestan FC on Matchday Five to move up to 10 points, with the Saudi club missing out on vital points when they suff ered a 2-1 defeat to Al Wehdat stay second two points adrift.

The onus will be on Al Nassr to secure full points while Al Sadd only need a draw to confi rm their place in the Round of 16.

The two teams are no stran-gers to one another, having also

been drawn together in the 2020 edition, but with only the group winners guaranteed a spot in the Round of 16, Al Nassr will be hoping to repeat their Matchday Two triumph, where they re-corded a convincing 3-1 win over Al Sadd.

Al Nassr may have beaten Al Sadd the last time out but the Qatar champions have grown from strength to strength with each passing game, recording three consecutive wins to fi nish top of the table after Matchday Five.

Head coach Xavi Hernandez will hope that his charges keep up their fi ne performance, with the legendary Spaniard describing their 1-0 win against Foolad as their best display of football yet.

While a draw is all they need to confi rm a seventh consecu-tive appearance in the knockout stage, there will be no doubt that

Al Sadd will be out to avenge their earlier loss to Al Nassr and fi nish the group stage with a fl ourish.

“Like all the other matches, we have another fi nal, we need to get the three points in the fi nal match to stay fi rst in the tourna-ment,” said Xavi.

“We are leading the group, but we can’t relax, as we are going to play against a strong team who reached the semi-fi nals last year. But we are ready for the match. All the players are ready to play, as there are no injuries or sus-pensions in the squad.

“Both teams will play under pressure, as each team wants to get the result that gets them to the second round, but we will play for the win. We showed our real performance in the last match, and we want to repeat that against Al Nassr.”

Mano Menezes’ side recorded positive results in their back-to-

back matches against Foolad, but their unbeaten streak came to an end when Al Wehdat stunned the Saudi side 2-1 to put their qualifi -cation hopes at risk.

“This is the fi nal match for us, and it will be diffi cult for us, like the previous match against Al Sadd, and the importance of this match is more because it is decisive in determining who will qualify,” expressed Menezes.

“We will try to play at the same level of the last match against Al Sadd, but we don’t know how they will react, but we will play for the win.

“Our performances in the last fi ve matches were aff ected by several factors, as we played against teams with diff erent styles, and we were also aff ected by the fi tness demands. We were also aff ected with the absence of many key players who can make the diff erence in the team.”Al Sadd head coach Xavi Hernandez.

By Mikhil BhatDoha

April 1, earlier this year, trainer Alban de Mieulle was marginally ahead of the competi-

tion in the trainers’ champion-ship, and it was the last of the big racing days – Qatar Gold Sword and Trophy Day – at Al Rayyan Park.

In the card-opener, an Ara-bian maiden race, his hopes were on Umm Qarn’s Al Arabie, “a good fi lly for me, but unfor-tunately she didn’t prove her-self at the start” as De Mieulle reminisces. “A lot of quality in the morning, but does not show much in the afternoons,” he adds.

But that day, the chestnut fi lly pulls a fast one out of the bag and wins over seven furlongs by more than three lengths.

Next up, in the local Thor-oughbreds run, the Frenchman has another Umm Qarn entrant, Equinoxe. The colt has a few wins under the belt but has had to be put in blinkers every race. And before this one, he hasn’t been jumping well out of the gates.

So, for the 1,850m race, De Mieulle decides to do away with the blinkers. A much better start from the inner stall, no traffi c in a small fi eld, settles well mid-fi eld, and a straight run to a fi n-ish with a fl ourish.

The veteran trainer fi nishes the day with the smart and consistent Tayf taking the USD 250,000 Qatar Gold Sword, and with two more wins before the feature, he has all but bagged the leading trainer’s title.

A few more meetings later, De Mieulle has topped the full season for the fi rst time since 2013, having also fi nished as the leading trainer last season, which was truncated due to the Covid-19 pandemic by around two odd months.

“I feel better, of course,” De Mieulle tells Gulf Times. “It was a nice season, even though we missed a few big wins, like dur-ing the Amir Sword meeting. In the Amir Sword itself, (His Highness) Sheikh Mohamed (bin Khalifa al-Thani) won the race because they have better horses on the distance, but the race we missed was the ones for local breds. But the rest of the season was very good, we also enjoyed with the new owners.”

Last season, De Mieulle be-gan training horses for a few other owners, besides His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani’s Umm Qarn. “We requested Sheikh Abdul-lah for it, and when he said yes, we took horses from a few owners, including Al Shaqab. We didn’t want to take too

many owners,” he explains.Having a few more horses,

especially Thoroughbreds from the other owners, De Mieulle reckons has helped him top the championship. “I am a lead-ing trainer also because I am working with diff erent owners too, because at Umm Qarn we don’t have a lot of Thorough-breds, only 4-5 of them,” says De Mieulle, who has now spent almost two decades in Qatar.

Any pressure to follow it up? And the man with 60 wins and over QR750,000 in prize money this season, says, “Between you and me, it is not a pressure for me. I have been in Qatar for 20 years now. I don’t think it would be nice on my part to say that I do not care about the champi-onship, and it is not the case, either. But for me, I have always

been more interested in getting a good result for the owner. So you can have only one horse, and win some of the biggest races with that one horse, and I would be happy with that. It is not about the total amount that you have won, but what are you doing with the horses that really matters.”

The Qatar Gold Sword and Trophy Day defi nitively secured De Mieulle’s place on top this season. “We fi nished very, very nice at the Qatar Gold Trophy meeting. At the end of the sea-son, form of our horses was bet-ter, and you know it can happen in this sport. To be able to enjoy racing horses, you have to be very sporting. But do not forget, a horse is an animal, you have to fi nd a way… and sometimes you make mistakes,” he says.

On April 1, when Tayf entered the winner’s circle for the big feature victory, it was the nine-year-old’s farewell to Al Rayyan Park’s track. “He has always run well, given his heart out,” says De Mieulle about the horse that has tasted victory in some of the biggest Arabian races in the world, including the Qatar In-ternational Stakes (Group 1 PA) in Goodwood, Qatar Arabian World Cup (Group 1 PA) in Paris and Qatar Derby (Group 2 PA). “He will now go to Goodwood and then to Qatar Arabian World Cup, and from there he will re-tire to the stud.”

Last year, his nephew, Jean, too set up stables in France after working with De Mieulle for 5 years as an assistant. “This sea-son he has done well, he has had 6-7 winners already, and he got some horses in training for Har-as de Grand Courgeon (owned and managed by De Mieulle). He has some good three-year-olds owned by Qatari owners, I think Sa’ad (maiden winner at Saint Cloud late last year) is a good horse,” De Mieulle says. “He has a very nice training centre, a diff erent track because it is on wood shavings, it is in a forest… very good track.”

From the time he moved to Qatar, his last big season in 2013, a lot has changed since as far as racing in the country goes. “The racing has only improved. My boss is Sheikh Abdullah, and he has given me the chance to prove what I can do in Qatar. But now I also work with some young Qa-tari owners, and it is nice to try and put their horses at a high level. And now we are also see-ing a lot of competitiveness be-tween the owners too.”

Europe is going to be the next stop before racing returns to Qatar, and De Mieulle is excited. “For Umm Qarn, we have new horses coming in next season, and I think we should have a good season.”

In this April 1, 2021, picture, trainer Alban de Mieulle (right, also inset) congratulates jockey Ronan Thomas after he rode Umm Qarn’s Tayf to victory in the Qatar Gold Sword (Group 1 PA). PICTURES: Juhaim

By Sports ReporterDoha

The President of the Alge-rian Football Federation (FAF), Amara Chraf-Eddine, visited Aspetar,

the world’s leading specialised orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital, where he was given a comprehensive tour of the hos-pital’s facilities and the newly built extension that is dedicated exclusively to athletes. FAF Pres-ident, who was accompanied by his General Secretary Mohamed Saad, was welcomed by Aspetar CEO Dr Abdulaziz Jeham al-Ku-wari.

Chraf-Eddine said: “This is my fi rst visit to Aspetar as a FIFA accredited Centre of Excellence. Aspetar is one of the best sport medical centres in the world, and this visit falls within the frame-work of permanent and continu-ous co-operation for 11 years, which has been an important and fruitful co-operation for both parties. Many stars of the Al-gerian national team have been treated here, and Aspetar ac-companied the Algerian national team and the Algerian athletes during their recent achievements and is considered a partner in these achievements.”

Dr al-Kuwari said that Aspetar is proud to have continued this fruitful cooperation with the FAF for 11 years, during which Asp-

etar was a good supporter of the Algerian national football team and their career competing in many continental and interna-tional competitions. He added: “We are proud of what they have achieved as Champions of Af-rica and we wish them continued success.”

Under the FAF and Aspetar agreement, the players of the Algerian football team benefi t primarily from the medical sup-port provided by Aspetar medi-cal specialists during competi-tions. Algerian football team players also receive preferential treatment for various Aspetar services, including sports medi-cine, surgery and rehabilitation services, taking advantage of the latest research in performance, and other world-class services provided by the hospital.

It is worth noting that Aspetar has provided medical support to the Algerian national foot-ball team since 2010, includ-ing the provision of a number of dedicated specialists who work closely with the team’s staff to provide medical support as part of the partnership agreement. Experts from Aspetar also ac-companied the Algerian team to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. As offi cial medical partner, Aspetar also provided medical support to the Algerian team when they won the African Cup of Nations in Egypt in 2019.

Algerian Football Federation President Amara Chraf-Eddine (left) receives a memento from Aspetar CEO Dr Abdulaziz Jeham al-Kuwari.

ReutersToronto, Canada

Paul Casey is feeling no pressure in his bid this week to join an elite group who have won three consecutive titles at the same

PGA Tour event when he tees it up at the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Florida.

The Englishman is the two-time de-fending champion of the event, which was cancelled in 2020 due to the Cov-id-19 outbreak, and feels the presence of world number one Dustin Johnson and number two Justin Thomas works

to his advantage. “I’ve never had a three-peat as a professional, and I feel like the pressure is not on me,” Casey said yesterday.

“We’ve got Justin Thomas and guys like that playing this week, and the focus is going to be on them, so I feel like I’m kind of in a sweet spot and raring to go.”

There have only been eight instances of a player winning a tournament three or more times in a row over the last 40 years and Tiger Woods accounted for six of those.

Stuart Appleby accomplished the feat at the Sentry Tournament of Champi-ons from 2004-06 while the last player to pull it off was Steve Stricker, who was unbeatable at the John Deere Classic from 2009-11.

“It’s elite company,” said Casey. “I’ve been in the game long enough, but there’s

numerous things that I still want to win, so just to add something to the fabric of everything would be very, very cool.”

Casey has not played since missing the cut at the RBC Heritage two weeks ago but has four top-10 fi nishes in 12 starts this season, share fi fth place in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship.

“I feel very happy with the game. There’s nothing I’m worried about,” said Casey.

The world number 20 will play the opening two rounds this week at In-nisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course alongside 2019 US Open champion Gary Woodland and Jason Kokrak.