Saturday, May 4, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL
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Sport
Mayweather calm in face of ‘woman beater’ provocation 37
Ivan the ‘Maestro’ bows out 39
Derby win will net Everton a rare bonus Toffees without Anfield win for 14 years By Sonia Oxley
T
The Blues, who won the Champions League in May but then crashed out in this season’s group stage, are into the Europa League final where they will face Benfica
Chelsea rollercoaster ride heading for more glory By Mike Collett CHELSEA’S rollercoaster of a season could yet end with another night of European glory after they knocked FC Basel out of the semi-finals to set up a Europa League final against Benfica. Goals from Fernando Torres, Victor Moses and David Luiz in a nine-minute spell early in the second half gave Chelsea a 3-1 second-leg win over the Swiss champions at Stamford Bridge for a 5-2 aggregate success. The reigning European champions, the first holders of the European Cup who failed to advance from the group stage of UEFA’s elite club competition, could finish the campaign with the ‘glorious’ consolation of lifting the Europa League trophy instead. Interim coach Rafa Benitez, who has been unpopular with swathes of the Chelsea faithful after he replaced the sacked Champions League-winning coach Roberto Di Matteo in November, could leave the incoming manager with a trophy to admire. That man looks increasingly likely to be former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho who dropped more hints about where he would like to be coaching next season after his Real Madrid team were knocked out of the Champions league semi-finals on Tuesday. That place is Chelsea and there is no doubt the fans want him back. As well as applauding their team’s efforts on Thursday night, they chanted Mourinho’s name throughout the match which turned Chelsea’s way after Basel went in at the break 1-0 ahead thanks to a goal scored by Mohamed Salah with the last kick of the half. If Benitez had been worried about his
team’s chances at the time, he did not show it afterwards. “To be fair we had two clear chances in the first half and we did not take them,” he told ITV. “We conceded a late goal at the end of the first half so all credit to the players because they had to come back. We got three goals, we were on top of them, we were attacking and we controlled the rest of the game.” Basel coach Murat Yakin told reporters: “We played well in the first half and I think we caused Chelsea many problems. We had lots of hope still. “In the second half it went too fast and we were caught out ice cold but I have to compliment my players for their performance. “We knew we had to score a goal and to not concede against Chelsea is a difficult task,” Yakin said. “The team has really grown from playing in the competition but when they came up against Chelsea, they showed how clever they are and how experienced they are. It’s little details that mattered: its these details that decide matches.” In the end Chelsea ran out convincing winners and will head into their fifth European final on May 15 in Amsterdam following their victories in the old European Cup Winners Cup in 1971 and 1998, and their two appearances in the Champions League final which ended in defeat in 2008 and victory last season. The last team to reach the UEFA Cup/ Europa League and Champions League finals in successive seasons was Porto in 2003 and 2004. The coach was Mourinho, although he achieved victory in the secondary competition before winning the Champions League the following year against Monaco.
HE Merseyside derby takes on added significance this weekend as Everton head to Anfield seeking to finish above bitter rivals Liverpool for successive seasons in the top flight for the first time since 1937. A win tomorrow (3.30pm) would ensure David Moyes’ side could not be overtaken by Liverpool, although victory in itself would be an achievement as they have not come back from the red side of town with three points for 14 years. After last season’s seventh to Liverpool’s eighth, Everton would be guaranteed at least a sixth-placed finish with a win. Unfortunately for them, that would still see them miss out on a place in Europe, though they remain with an outside chance of snatching fifth, and entry to the Europa League, and possibly even a top four Champions League berth. “We’ll go there full of the confidence that we’ve got this year,” Everton midfielder Leon Osman told the Liverpool Echo. “We’re five points above them at the minute and a win would certainly be great for us. But we’re still on the coat-tails of the teams above us and we’re trying to win for that reason as well.” While the European battle is a major focus, for many Everton fans the chance for the right to crow about backto-back higher finishes is an even tastier prospect. The fact it has taken so long, despite Everton winning the league five times in the period, points to their inconsistency, illustrated perfectly when they followed their 1970 championship-winning season by finishing 14th. The few years when the clubs did not play in the same division are not counted in the run but there is still a long period where Liverpool can claim to have had the upper hand. After being the dominant force in the English game in the late 1970s and 1980s, Liverpool briefly ceded power to their neighbours. Yet even though Everton won the league in 1985 and ‘87 - with Liverpool second both times - Liverpool took the honours in between,
Let battle commence: Everton head to Anfield seeking to finish above Liverpool for successive seasons in the top flight for the first time since 1937 rubbing it in by completing the 1986 double by beating league runners-up Everton in the FA Cup final. But where Liverpool have managed back-to-back titles several times over the decades, Everton have never strung two together in the nine times they have been English champions. It is perhaps therefore telling that they are on the cusp of ending this 76-year wait under a manager whose name is uttered in the same sentence as consistency as much as gritty and sometimes boring. Moyes has been in the Goodison Park hot seat since 2002, making him the thirdlongest serving in the Premier League behind Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger. The Scot, whose contract expires this summer, has won admirers for building a competitive team on a limited budget and by the end of this
season will have led Everton to seven successive top-half finishes and nine in total. Liverpool, without their top scorer Luis Suarez who is serving a 10-game ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic, showed they can find goals from elsewhere in his absence and will be motivated to try to close the gap on Everton. “We still have a chance of catching Everton and that’s our target,” Lucas, whose side are seventh with 54 points to Everton’s 59 with three games to play, said in the Echo. “We know we have to win if we want to finish a position higher than we are now.