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THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011
sp orts
Villarreal won’t leave Portuguese party without Europa League fight
MUNICH: Germany’s Philipp Petzschner reacts after winning his second round match against top seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia at the ATP tennis tournament BMW Open. —AP
Baghdatis falls to teenager MUNICH: Bulgarian teenager Grigor Dimitrov rallied to beat fourth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 3-6, 7-6 (6), 62 yesterday at the BMW Open and reached his first ATP tour quarterfinal. Dimitrov, who is ranked No, 69 and will turn 20 next month, is the youngest play-
er and the only teenager in the top 100. Baghdatis snapped a six-match losing streak with his first-round win in Munich, where he was a semifinalist in 2007 and last year. Potito Starace of Italy defeated sixth-seeded Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-4, 6-2 on a day of rain delays. — AP
BERNE: Villarreal will gatecrash a Portuguese party in the Europa League semi-finals but the Spanish side have no intention of leaving early as they try to reach a first major European final at the third attempt. The Spaniards, beaten UEFA Cup semifinalists in 2004 and at the same stage of the Champions League two years later, visit rampant Porto in their semi-final first leg today while Benfica host Braga in an all-Portuguese affair. Under the leadership of Manuel Pellegrini, who later went on to manage Real Madrid, Villarreal were beaten 1-0 on aggregate by Valencia in 2004 and by the same score against Arsenal two years later. However, the Europa League semi-final looks like it could produce goals given Porto’s 10-3 demolition of Spartak Moscow in the quarter-finals and Villarreal’s 8-2 rout of Twente Enschede. The match also pits two of European football’s most prolific scorers against each other. Porto’s Colombian striker Radamel Falcao is the Europa League’s leading scorer with 11 goals while Villarreal’s Italian forward Giuseppe Rossi is one behind him. Porto have already been crowned Portuguese champions having won 25 and drawn two of their 27 matches so far, leaving them 19 points clear of Benfica. Andre VillasBoas’s team have been equally formidable in Europe with 12 wins in 14 outings, including all seven away from home. “I think they’re the favorites because they are winning titles,” said Villarreal midfielder Bruno Soriano. “We have to improve our defence to not concede as many goals. If we can do that, we will have taken a big step forward. A 3-2 defeat against Porto would not be a bad result.” However, Porto’s form against Spanish teams is uninspiring with only 11 wins in 34 attempts. The other tie features two sides who dropped into the Europa League after third-
PORTUGAL: Porto Brazilian players goalkeeper Helton Arruda, Givanildo ‘Hulk’ Souza and Walter Silva (from left to right) jog during a training session. —AP place finishes in the group stage of the Champions League. Braga’s European adventure began last July with a qualifying round tie against Celtic. Since then, they have enjoyed two-leg wins over Sevilla, Liverpool and Dynamo Kiev, as well as Arsenal in their Champions League group. In complete contrast to free-scoring Porto and Benfica, Braga - who like Villarreal have never won a domestic league title-beat Liverpool 1-0 on aggregate in the round-of-16 and Dynamo on away goals after a 1-1 aggregate draw in the last round. Benfica, who like
United’s two-goal cushion gives Ferguson time to tinker
Soderling snares 1st clay win of season at Estoril OEIRAS: Robin Soderling won his first match of the season on clay yesterday, beating Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in the second round at the Estoril Open. The top-seeded Swede, who lost his opening clay match in Barcelona last week, is preparing for next month’s French Open. He has twice reached the final at Roland Garros. Soderling overpowered his opponent in the first set, winning four straight games after twice breaking Chardy and twice not conceding a point on his own serve. Both players were plagued by unforced errors in the second set and broke each other three times. A dispute with the umpire over a call in the second
game of the decider appeared to unsettle Chardy, allowing Soderling to rack up 13 straight points. Soderling, the only top 10-ranked player at No. 5 appearing in Portugal, had earned a bye into the second round. The Swede has made a strong start to the year, clinching titles in Marseille, Rotterdam and Brisbane before going out in the third round of Masters events in Indian Wells and Miami last month. Sixth-seeded Thomaz Bellucci eliminated Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 5-7, 75. The top three women’s seeded players — Alisa Kleybanova, Jarmila Gajdosova and Klara Zakopalova —all advanced to the quarterfinals. —AP
Lotus F1 buy Caterham LONDON: Formula One’s Team Lotus announced the purchase of Caterham Cars yesterday in a deal linking the niche sportscar maker to the glamour world of grand prix racing. The takeover by team principal Tony Fernandes and fellow Malaysian associates Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin turns the wheel full circle for the company’s famed lightweight Seven model. The affordable British-built sportscar, launched in 1957 and still raced around the world, was designed by Colin Chapman- founder of the original Team Lotus-before he ended production and sold the rights to Caterham in 1973. “It’s a commercial deal more than anything,” Fernandes told Reuters before a presentation at Duxford airfield in eastern England. “We think now we have a jewel in the crown in Caterham. There’s a
little bit of Lotus DNA there but we are able to take the Caterham brand to a much larger audience and also transfer technology from the Formula One team into Caterham Cars. “We always wanted to be a manufacturer. Now we are a tiny manufacturer but everyone starts small and you’ve got to start somewhere,” he added. “But at least now we’ve got the genesis and a strategy of what we are trying to put together.” Caterham’s existing management team will remain in place under the leadership of former Lotus Cars executive Ansar Ali. The announcement comes at a time when Team Lotus are locked in a legal battle with Malaysian-owned Group Lotus and carmaker parent Proton over the use of the evocative Lotus brand name. — Reuters
Manchester’s coach Sir Alex Ferguson
Bulls get rid of Pacers
LOS ANGELES: Lakers center Andrew Bynum (left) and New Orleans Hornets center Emeka Okafor go after a rebound during the second half in Game 5 of a firstround NBA basketball playoff series. —AP
CHICAGO: The Chicago Bulls finally played like a top seed, knocking off the Indiana Pacers 116-89 in Game 5 on Tuesday to wrap up their NBA Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. The Bulls can breathe a little easier after getting a dominant performance by MVP candidate Derrick Rose and an emphatic win that came on the heels of four close games. They can also turn their attention to the Eastern Conference semifinals, where they’ll meet Atlanta or Orlando. Rose scored 25 points and seemed fine after spraining an ankle in Game 4, hitting 8 of 17 shots. He dominated in the early going and was strong in the third after the Pacers pulled within four. He scored 10 points over the final six minutes, and Chicago ended the quarter on a 23-8 run to blow the game open. Luol Deng had 24 points and Joakim Noah added 14 points and eight rebounds as Bulls won a playoff series for the first time since 2007. Danny Granger scored 20 for the Pacers. Tyler Hansbrough added 14 points and 11 rebounds, but Indiana trailed the entire way and committed 21 turnovers. Magic 101, Hawks 76 In Orlando, the hosts stayed alive by beating Atlanta, cutting the deficit to 3-2. Jason
Porto have a large South American contingent, badly want to win the Europa League to compensate for a frustrating season in which they have played second fiddle to their bitter rivals from the north. Having seen Porto clinch the Portuguese league title with a 3-1 win against them in Lisbon, Benfica then blew a two-goal firstleg lead in their Cup semi-final against the same opponents a week ago and went out on away goals. Nothing would suit them better meeting Porto in the final in Dublin next month. —Reuters
Richardson scored 17 points and J.J. Redick added 14 for the Magic, who are aiming to be the ninth team in NBA history to win a playoff series after trailing 3-1. If they can win Game 6 Thursday in Atlanta, they would host the decisive Game 7 on Saturday. Magic center Dwight Howard battled foul trouble throughout the night and had just one field goal, finishing with 8 points and 8 rebounds. Orlando didn’t need his offense, though, as it broke out of a series-long shooting slump with 11 3-pointers. Josh Smith scored 22 points to lead Atlanta, which shot below 40 percent for just the second time this series. Lakers 106, Hornets 90 In Los Angeles, the home team pushed New Orleans to the brink of playoff elimination, moving ahead 3-2. Kobe Bryant scored 19 points and threw down two stirring dunks despite a sprained ankle. Andrew Bynum had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Pau Gasol added 16 points as the two-time defending NBA champions roared back from a slow start in a pivotal game for their hopes of a third straight title. Trevor Ariza scored 22 points and Chris Paul had 20 points and 12 assists for the seventh-seeded Hornets. Game 6 is Thursday in New Orleans. —AP
LONDON: It is not often a manager feels able to rest key players for the second leg of a Champions League semi-final but so dominant were Manchester United against Schalke 04 that Alex Ferguson is planning just that. With United imperious at Old Trafford this season, Tuesday’s 2-0 win in the Gelsenkirchen first leg virtually secured their passage to the Wembley final on May 28 and gives Ferguson the unlikely option of rotating his team for two huge Premier League matches against Arsenal and Chelsea. Ryan Giggs got the first goal, becoming the oldest scorer in the Champions League at 37 years and 148 days, with Wayne Rooney adding the second as United finally found a way past outstanding goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. “You’d think at 37 he’d show signs of waning but I see no evidence of that,” Ferguson said in the wake of Giggs’ superb display as an attacking central midfielder. “We look after him in terms of rest before games-he won’t play on Sunday (against Arsenal), but he’ll play next Wednesday (in the second leg). “I’ve got good options because Nani could have played, but (Antonio) Valencia’s form showed why he is playing. We’ve got (Paul) Scholes and Anderson. We’ve got selection problems now, but that’s what we want. We’ve got important games coming up. “The way I’m going to look at it is that we want to get Sunday’s game over and get a positive result because that is a very important game for us now. “Depending on the result on Sunday I could make two or three changes (for the second leg) because we have Chelsea the following Sunday. “It is a seven-day period which is crucial to the club but it is the kind of games the players are relishing. I think we are
coming to a peak.” United are six points clear of Chelsea and nine ahead of Arsenal with four games remaining and could wrap up a record 19th league title with two games to spare. That would put Ferguson in the luxurious position of being able rest his main men ahead of a Champions League final meeting with either Barcelona or Real Madrid, who meet in their first leg late yesterday. While neither of the Spanish sides will arrive at Wembley fearing United, they certainly would have taken notice at the verve and confidence they showed on Tuesday. From the start they tore forward and nobody could have complained if they were three-up at halftime against a team who had previously won all their home games in the competition. Ferguson, who enjoyed a similarly one -sided semi against Borussia Dortmund in 1997 only to somehow lose to the eventual champions, must have been getting a little nervous before Giggs broke the deadlock after 67 minutes. Rooney’s second two minutes later allowed United to ease off the gas but even then Schalke failed to trouble them. United’s centre backs Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic barely broke sweat while full backs Patrice Evra and Fabio played as virtual wingers. The victory completed a remarkable campaign where the English side did not concede a single away goal in the competition-the first team to do so-yet it was probably the easiest night Edwin van der Sar has experienced all season. “Our concentration, the intensity of our play and the speed of our passing were all excellent,” Ferguson said. “There is a different tempo at times. Over the last two or three years we have a way of playing in Europe away from home, we seem to be better than anywhere else.” —Reuters
Catolica upset Gremio 2-1 BUENOS AIRES: Brazil’s Gremio are on the brink of elimination from the last 16 of the Libertadores Cup after going down 2-1 at home to Universidad Catolica of Chile on Tuesday. One of five Brazilian teams in the last 16, Gremio were reduced to 10 men in the 34th minute after referee Nestor Pitana sent striker Borges off for elbowing defender David Henriquez in the face at the Olimpico in Porto Alegre. Six minutes before the red-card incident, Lucas Pratto raced onto a pass from Marcelo Canete and hit a right-footed shot low past goalkeeper Marcelo to give the Chilean champions a 1-0 lead. The Brazilian side, champions in 1983 and 1995, hit back just before the hour when midfielder Douglas struck a left-footed shot from 30 metres into the top right-hand corner of Paulo Garces’s net. Catolica restored their lead quarter of an hour from time when winger Fernando Meneses crossed from the right and Pratto headed past Marcelo from point blank range for his sixth
goal of the competition. “We won because we managed to decipher the match before playing it ... We took a big step, that gives us hopes,” Catolica’s coach Juan Antonio Pizzi told reporters. At Velez Sarsfield’s Fortin (fortress), strikers turned providers as Santiago Silva then Juan Manuel Martinez laid on the goals for midfielder Augusto Fernandez in the opening 10 minutes to give the Argentine’s a 3-0 win over LDU Quito in Buenos Aires. Silva crossed from the left in the seventh minute and Fernandez ghosted in at the far post to hit the ball first time into Alexander Dominguez’s net. Three minutes later, Martinez beat three defenders in a mazy run from the left and played the ball into space in the box where Fernandez steered it past Dominguez. LDU forward Luis Bolanos was sent off for a second booking eight minutes into the second half. A minute later, the goalkeeper came out late to a cross from left back Emiliano Papa and central defender Sebastian Dominguez headed Velez further ahead. — Reuters