SPORTThursday 19 October 2017

We were spot onfrom first second,says Klopp

De Villiers boundary blitz steers SA to

series victory

PAGE | 30 PAGE | 31 PAGE | 34 Guardiola ‘proud’ to defeat Napoli

De V

Al Gharafa wary of wounded Al Kharaitiyat

Imam hits ton on debut as Pakistan clinch seriesAbu Dhabi

AP

Imam-ul-Haq became the third youngest player to score a century on his one-

day international debut and Hasan Ali grabbed 5-34 as Pakistan hammered Sri Lanka by seven wickets to secure a series victory yesterday.

Pakistan took an unassail-able 3-0 lead in the five-match series, with Sri Lanka’s losing streak in ODIs now stretching to 10 matches.

The 21-year-old Imam is the nephew of Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former captain and Pakistan’s current chief selec-tor. He hit 100 off 125 balls with two sixes and five fours to help Pakistan cruise to 209-3 in 42.3 overs.

Sri Lanka captain Upul Tharanga top-scored with 61 after winning the toss and opt-ing to bat first, but his team’s batting woes in the series con-tinued before it was finally dismissed for 208 in 48.2 overs.

Ali became the quickest Pakistani bowler to complete 50 wickets in ODIs, claiming the feat in 24 matches, three fewer than the previous record set by Waqar Younis.

Imam, replacing out-of-form Ahmed Shehzad at the top order, dominated two pro-ductive stands -- adding 78 runs with Fakhar Zaman (29) and further 66 with Babar Azam (30).

Imam looked confident from the onset when he smashed seamer Lahiru Gamage for a six over point.

Wicketkeeper Dickwella twice dropped Imam, on 29 and 89, before finally catch-ing him down the leg side.

Pakistan’s Salim Elahi is the youngest century scorer on debut, also against Sri Lanka, as an 18-year-old in 1995. Imam will be 22 in December.

Fawad HussainThe Peninsula

Al Gharafa will walk into Al Khor Stadium as firm favourites against Al Kharaitiyat as the two

sides meet in their QNB Stars League (QSL) clash today, but coach Jean Fern-andez has warned his Cheetahs against complacency, telling them to fire on all cylinders in the ‘important game’.

Al Gharafa will go into the game full of confidence after their impres-sive win against Al Khor in the previous round while The Thunders, who lost to Al Sailiya in fourth round, will be hop-ing for reverse in fortunes.

Fernandez’s side are currently sixth in the standings with five points while Al Kharaitiyat are struggling at 10th with only one point.

But Al Gharafa coach feels a better performance than Al Kharaitiyat in the new season will count for nothing in today’s match.

“We’ve had good preparations for this game as there’s no room for com-placency,” said Fernandez at a pre-match press conference yesterday.

“All matches are important in the QSL. We respect Al Kharaitiyat. They’ve a good coach and players, who can make a turnaround. They’ve the abil-ity to score goals. The results aren’t a

fair reflection on their game,” the Al Gharafa coach said before expecting a tough game.

“It took us for a while to get our first win. Now that it has happened, we’ll be more stronger as the league progresses. We adopt strategies for each game and I hope to field the best possible eleven. Al Kharaitiyat are sure to desperately look for a win, so we expect a tough game. They’re good at ball possession.”

Al Kharaitiyat coach Ahmad Al Ajlani said he was working mainly on his players’ lack of concentration on the pitch.

“That was more evident during our last match against Al Sailiya, which we lost even after taking the lead. It’s time my players put an end to it, especially since we’ve managed to earn only one point so far,” said Al Ajlani.

“We’ve lost some games because of this factor. Also, I want my wards to regain their fighting spirit. In football, tactics succeed only when players implement them on the field of play.

“We know Al Gharafa are on a high after their first victory. We’re working harder to get some pos-itive results and go up the standings. We’re not showing the

fighting qualities during training ses-sions when it comes to real action.

“There’s no point in repeating the mistakes. We’ve have repeating them in our last two league matches. We could’ve won the game over Al Khor, but conceded a goal towards the end.

“Our club president Sheikh Khali-fa’s presence at training sessions really motivates our players. We hope to have good luck in the coming games,” the Tunisian coach said.

The game will kick off at 7:35pm.iyat coach Ahmad Alwas working mainly on ck of concentration on

more evident during our nst Al Sailiya, which we taking the lead. It’s time t an end to it, especially anaged to earn only one aid Al Ajlani.t some games because

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The game will kick offf a aatt 7:35pm.

Al Gharafa’s Slovakian

midfielder Vladimír Weiss

celebrates after scoring a goal in this file

photo.

Al Gharafa coach Jean Fernandez

Sri LankaN Dickwella b Hasan .................................... 18

U Tharanga c Zaman b Shadab ................. 61

D Chandimal lbw b Shadab ....................... 19

C Kapugedera c & b Hasan ........................ 18

L Thirimanne c Ahmed b Hafeez ............. 28

M Siriwardana c Zaman b Junaid ...............2

J Vandersay c Ahmed b Hasan ....................0

T Perera run out ............................................38

A Dananjaya c Ahmed b Hasan ....................1

L Gamage c Ahmed b Hasan .....................10

D Chameera (not out) ...................................0

Extras: (LB1, B3, W9) ................................ 13

Total: (all out) .............................. 208Fall of wickets: 1-59, 2-102, 3-112, 4-137,

5-140, 6-141, 8-163, 9-205

Bowling: Junaid 8-0-32-1, Raees 7.2-0-52-0

(6w), Hafeez 8-0-39-1 (1w), Hasan 10-0-34-5

(1w), Ashraf 5-0-10-0, Shadab 10-0-37-2 (1w)

PakistanImam-ul-Haq c Dickwella b Perera ....... 100

Fakhar Zaman st Dickwella b Vandersay 29

Babar Azam b Gamage ............................. 30

Mohammad Hafeez (not out) ....................34

Shoaib Malik (not out) ....................................0

Extras: (B4, LB3, W9) ............................... 16

Total: (for three wkts) ................. 209 Fall of wickets: 1-78, 2-144, 3-203

Did not bat: Sarfraz Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf,

Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Rumman Raees, Jun-

aid Khan

Bowling: Gamage 7-1-35-1 (1w), Chameera

10-0-33-0 (3w), Dananjaya 10-0-57-0 (2w),

Vandersay 9.3-1-43-1 (1w), Siriwardana 2-0-

12-0, Perera 4-0-22-1 (2w)

Result: Pakistan win by seven wickets

SCOREBOARD

Neymar on target for PSG; Messi nets 100th in EuropeBrussels

Reuters

Paris St Ger-main’s feared attacking trio all got on the scoresheet as

the French side completed a comfortable 4-0 away victory over Anderlecht in their Champions League Group B clash yesterday.

Kylian Mbappe, Edin-son Cavani and Neymar all netted, while Angel di Maria added a fourth with a late strike, in a win that maintains the Ligue 1 side’s 100 percent record in the group stage with three wins from three.

They head the standings with nine points from sec-ond-placed Bayern Munich, who have six. Celtic are in third with a single victory to their name, while Anderlecht are still searching for their first points.

PSG should have won by a greater margin as they spurned a number of chances and will be confi-dent of victory when the teams meet again in their next fixture in the group in Paris on Oct. 31.

In Group D, Lionel Messi scored his 100th goal in European competition to lead 10-man Barcelona to a 3-1 victory at home to Olym-piakos yesterday.

Messi hit the century

mark in 122 European matches when he curled a free kick over the wall in the 61st minute. Goalkeeper Sil-vio Proto got a hand on the ball but couldn’t keep it out as Messi took his career tally in the Champions League to 97 goals.

After Barcelona had gone ahead thanks to an own goal by Dimitris Nikolaou in the 18th minute, the hosts were left a man down three min-utes before halftime. Gerard Pique got a second booking for using his arm to steer the ball into the net. The strike was disallowed.

However, Barcelona continued to outclass Olym-piakos despite playing with 10 men.

Messi drew a foul from Nikolaou near the edge of the area to set up his free kick. Messi’s strike gave him 18 goals in 17 matches for Barcelona and Argentina side this season.

B a r c e l o n a ’ s s t a r

provided the pass for left back Lucas Digne to score in the 64th when he dribbled around a defender before cut-ting the ball back through the area for the defender to drive it home.

Nikolaou scored Olympiakos’ conso-lation goal with a header from a corner in the 90th minute.

Barcelona made it three wins from as many matches in Group D and extended its unbeaten run at home in the competition to 23 straight games.

Olympiakos remained with zero points.

B a r c e l o n a coach Ernesto Valverde coached Olympiakos from 2008-09 and 2010-12, guiding it to three Greek league titles.

Juven-tus beat Sporting L i s b o n 2-1 in the other match in Group D.

Bayern Munich eased past Celtic 3-0 in the Champions League to hand coach Jupp Heynckes a vic-torious return to the competition he won with them in 2013.

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UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUEYESTERDAY’S RESULTS

GROUP ABenfica 0-1 Manchester United

CSKA Moscow 0-2 FC BaselGROUP B

Bayern Munich 3-0 CelticRSC Anderlecht 0-4 Paris Saint Germain

GROUP CFK Qarabag 0-0 Atlético Madrid

Chelsea 3-3 RomaGROUP D

Barcelona 3-1 OlympiakosJuventus 2-1 Sporting Lisbon

Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian forward

Neymar (left) celebrates after scoring a goal

with team-mate Dani Alves during their UEFA

Champions League Group B football match against RSC Anderlecht at the Constant Vanden

Stock Stadium in Brussels yesterday.

PSG won 4-0.

30 THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

Guardiola ‘proud’ to defeat Napoli Manchester

AFP

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola (pic-tured) described his side’s 2-1 vic-

tory over Napoli in the Champions League group phase as one of the proudest moments of his storied career.

City took a quick-fire 2-0 lead in Tuesday’s game through Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, but Amadou Diawara’s penalty – after Dries Mertens had squandered an earlier spot-kick – made for a nervy finale.

Prior to the game Guardiola

had lavished praise on Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli, who are top of Serie A with eight wins from eight games, and afterwards he made the surprising claim they were the best opponent he had ever faced.

“I think it was an extraordi-nary game from both sides. We faced one of the best sides I faced in my career, probably the best,” said Guardiola, who previously led Barcelona to two Champions League titles.

“It is one of the wins I am most proud of in my career.

“We won against an incred-ible team. To do that you have to do an incredible performance.”

Sterling and Jesus struck in

the first 13 minutes at the Etihad Stadium, at which point Premier League leaders City looked set for a victory comparable to Sat-urday’s 7-2 demolition of Stoke City.

But the home side’s commit-ment to building play up from the back gifted Napoli opportu-nities that the visitors eventually exploited.

Although Mertens squan-dered their first penalty in the first half, drilling his spot-kick at Ederson’s legs, Diawara made no such mistake in the 73rd

minute after Fernandinho was penalised for felling Faouzi Ghoulam.

However, when asked if

City’s tactics had invited pres-sure from Napoli, Guardiola said the solution was not less passing out from the back, but more.

“We have to do it more,” said Guardiola, whose team are now three points clear of Sha-khtar Donetsk at the top of Group F.

“You play long balls against that team, in two seconds they are attacking. In football, how fast the ball goes, how fast it comes back.

“You have to play better build-up, to contact with Kevin (De Bruyne) and (David) Silva. If you play long balls, (Kalidou) Koulibaly and (Raul) Albiol are stronger than our strikers. You spend 90 minutes

running.“Instead, they run after the

ball. That is the point. There’s a risk, but you score goals because after that you can create chances. You have to play as much as possible.”

Sarri said his side’s perform-ance compared favourably with their last trip to a European heavyweight, when they lost 3-1 away to Real Madrid in the last 16 of last season’s competition.

“Even after missing a pen-alty, we managed to come back

fighting,” said Sarri, whose side trail Shakhtar by three points.

“After this match, we must feel reassured and even more confident. I’ve seen a huge step forward compared to the match in Madrid last year.

“We were lucky enough to score first there. Here we had to come back into the game after a very difficult first 25 minutes. I think we’ve definitely taken a step forward.”

With half an eye on Satur-day’s Serie A summit clash with Inter Milan, Sarri started with Allan and Jorginho on the bench.

Lorenzo Insigne hobbled off late on, but Sarri said he was hopeful about the winger’s fit-ness. “For Lorenzo I hope there’s nothing wrong with him,” Sarri said.

“He had some muscular problems. It’s probably just a bit of fatigue.”

Madrid went on to win the Champions League after dispos-ing of Napoli last season and Sarri was sufficiently impressed by City’s display to suggest Guar-diola’s men could do the same.

“They’re a great team. They have everything,” he said. “They’re very quick, tactically very savvy.

It is one of the wins I am most proud of in my career. We won against an incredible team. To do that you have to do an incredible performance, says Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola

g claim theynent he had

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But the home side’s commit-ment to building play up fromthe back gifted Napoli opportu-nities that the visitors eventuallyexploited.

Although Mertens squan-dered their first penalty in the first half, drilling his spot-kick at Ederson’s legs, Diawara madeno such mistake in the 73rd

We have tosaid Guardiola, wnow three pointkhtar DonetskGroup F.

“You play lothat team, in tware attacking. Ifast the ball gcomes back.

“You havebuild-up, to Kevin (De BruySilva. If you p(Kalidou) KouliAlbiol are strostrikers. You spe

running.“Instead, the

ball. That is the prisk, but you scorafter that you canYou have to plapossible.”

Sarri said his ance compared ftheir last trip theavyweight, whaway to Real Ma16 of last season’

“Even after malty, we manage

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Paris

AFP

Under-fire Everton will hope to kick-s t a r t t h e i r campaign when they play host to

Lyon today looking for a first win in the Europa League group stage.

The Premier League side have just one point from their opening two matches in Group E, following up a comprehen-sive 3-0 loss to Atalanta in Italy by drawing 2-2 at home to the Cypriots Apollon Limassol last month.

Ronald Koeman’s (pic-tured) men required a late Wayne Rooney penalty to draw at Brighton and Hove Albion on domestic duty at the weekend, and in the last two months their only wins have come against Sunderland in the League Cup and Bournemouth.

We just need to get results and once we do that, the con-fidence will come back into the team and things will come a little bit easier for us,” £45m ($58 m) summer signing Gylfi Sigurdsson told the club’s web-site. “And I think if we get a couple of results back-to-back then we’ll hopefully get going. I don’t think we’re too far away.”

Lyon travel to England having also failed to win in the

competition thus far, but Bruno Genesio’s side are fresh from beating Monaco 3-2 last week-end thanks to captain Nabil Fekir’s late free-kick.

Desperate to go all the way to a final that will be played in their own Groupama Stadium, Lyon are without injured former Real Madrid striker Mariano Diaz.

Everton’s Premier League rivals Arsenal have fared rather better in the competi-tion so far, beating both Cologne and BATE Borisov in Group H. Arsene Wenger now takes his team to Serbia to face former European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade, who would leapfrog the Gunners to the top of the section with a win.

Like in previous games, Wenger will field a second-string side with the likes of Olivier Giroud and Jack Wilshere likely to feature along with several youngsters as

Arsenal seek to bounce back from their 2-1 loss at Watford at the weekend.

In other games, AC Milan will look to ease some of the pressure building on coach Vincenzo Montella with a win at home to AEK Athens.

Montella received the backing of club chief Marco Fassone in the wake of Sun-day’s 3-2 derby defeat to Inter, Milan’s third straight defeat in Serie A. Reports in Italy have suggested that the coach must claim wins against AEK and against Genoa and Chievo in Serie A if he is to keep his job.

Milan are one of nine sides to maintain a perfect record heading into the third round of group games.

Among the others are Nice and Lazio, who meet each in the south of France with the French outfit looking to over-come Italian opposition -- something they failed to do when they lost to Napoli in the Champions League play-offs.

The surprise package so far in the tournament has been the Swedish club Ostersund, who have already won away to Zorya Luhansk in Ukraine and at home to Hertha Berlin.

Coached by the English-man Graham Potter, once of Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion amongst other clubs, Ostersund qualified for Europe by winning the Swedish Cup and overcame Galatasaray and PAOK in the qualifying rounds.

Everton, AC Milan look for morale boost

Group A

Astana (KAZ) vss Maccabi Tel Avsivs (ISR) (1500 GMT)

Vsillarreal (ESP) vss Slavsia Prague (CZE) (1905 GMT)

Group B

Dynamo Kievs (UKR) vs Young Boys (SUI) (1905 GMT)

Skenderbeu (ALB) vs Partizan Belgrade (SRB) (1905 GMT)

Group C

Hoffenheim (GER) vs Istanbul Basaksehir (TUR) (1905 GMT)

Braga (POR) vs Ludogorets (BUL) (1905 GMT)

Group D

Austria Vsienna (AUT) vs Rijeka (CRO) (1905 GMT)

AC Milan (ITA) vs AEK Athens (GRE) (1905 GMT)

Group E

Atalanta (ITA) vs Apollon Limassol (CYP) (1905 GMT)

Evserton (ENG) vs Lyon (FRA) (1905 GMT)

Group F

Zlin (CZE) vs FC Copenhagen (DEN) (1905 GMT)

Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA) vs Lokomotiv Moscow (RUS) (1905 GMT)

Group G

Hapoel Beer-Shevsa (ISR) vs FCSB (ROU) (1700 GMT)

Lugano (SUI) vs Vsiktoria Plzen (CZE) (1700 GMT)

Group H

Red Star Belgrade (SRB) vs Arsenal (ENG) (1700 GMT)

BATE (BLR) vs Cologne (GER) (1700 GMT)

Group I

Marseille (FRA) vs Vsitoria Guimaraes (POR) (1700 GMT)

Konyaspor (TUR) vs Salzburg (AUT) (1700 GMT)

Group J

Zorya Luhansk (UKR) vs Hertha Berlin (GER) (1700 GMT)

Ostersund (SWE) vs Athletic Bilbao (ESP) (1700 GMT)

Group K

Zulte Waregem (BEL) vs Vsitesse Arnhem (NED) (1700 GMT)

Nice (FRA) vs Lazio (ITA) (1700 GMT)

Group L

Vsardar Skopje (MKD) vs Real Sociedad (ESP) (1700 GMT)

Zenit (RUS) vs Rosenborg (NOR) (1700 GMT)

EUROPA LEAGUE (TODAY’S FIXTURES)

Everton’s players train at Finch Farm, Liverpool yesterday.

Perez cannot imagine La Liga without Barcelona Madrid

AFP

Real Madrid President Florentino Perez insists he cannot imagine

“Spain without Catalonia nor La Liga without Barcelona” but has admitted concern at the political crisis sweeping Spain amid Catalonia’s drive for independence.

“There are hypotheticals that I do not consider. I am not considering a Spain with-out Catalonia nor La Liga without Barcelona,” the Real president for nearly 15 years over two spells told online newspaper El Espanol yesterday.

“Obviously it worries me like everyone else, but I can offer little assistance.

“I trust the government and the parties that back the constitution that have united to solve the problem in the best possible way.”

Spain has been shrouded in uncertainty since an inde-pendence referendum called by pro-separatist parties -- and deemed illegal by the Spanish government -- on October 1 was marred by a violent crackdown on people trying to vote.

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, and the Barcelona Football Club have backed the region’s right to self-determi-nation, but stopped short of supporting independence.

La Liga President Javier Tebas announced on Tuesday that he has delayed putting future international TV rights out to tender due to the uncer-tainty. According to Tebas, the TV rights are likely to lose 20 to 25 percent of their value should Barca leave La Liga.

However, Barca have stressed their desire to remain in the Spanish league. Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane has also expressed his wish for La Liga not to lose the world-famous Real-Barca rivalry.

El Clasico clashes between the two are routinely the most watched matches around the world, attracting a reported audience of 650 million.

31THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

Reds stun SIPG to reach final

Saitama

AFP

Brazilian Rafael Silva snatched an early winner as Japan’s Urawa Reds beat star-studded Shang-

hai SIPG 1-0 at home yesterday to reach the Asian Champions League final.

The Reds advance to face Saudi giants Al Hilal in next month’s two-leg final after holding on for a 2-1 aggregate win that ended Japan’s miser-able recent run in Asia’s premier club competition.

Silva pounced after just 11

minutes in Saitama when he met a Yosuke Kashiwagi cor-ner to power a header past Shanghai goalkeeper Yan Jun-ling for what proved to be the only goal of a fractious encounter.

Japanese clubs have strug-gled to make an impact in the competition since Urawa’s vic-tory in 2007 and Gamba Osaka’s triumph a year later.

Although Shanghai largely dominated possession, with Brazil internationals Oscar and Hulk threatening in spells, the visitors lacked end product, allowing Urawa to complete a relatively untroubled victory.

Hulk, who tops the Cham-pions League scoring charts with nine goals, brought a smart save from Reds keeper Shusaku Nishikawa with a dip-ping free kick after 24 minutes.

But the Reds could have added further goals in the

second half as a Tomoaki Makino header clipped the bar and Shinzo Koroki saw a close-range effort brilliantly tipped over by Yan.

Another Hulk rocket 12 minutes from time forced a decent block from Nishikawa, who then reacted quickly to

smother Elkeson’s follow-up. But Shanghai’s performance had Portuguese coach Andre Villas-Boas ranting on the touchline a day after the former Chelsea boss turned 40.

“It was a great effort from the whole team to keep a clean sheet,” said Urawa captain Yuki Abe after the Reds ended 10 years of hurt in the ACL.

“We knew the first goal would be crucial but we came into the match with no fear and got the result. Hopefully we can do it again in the final.”

Al Hilal completed a 6-2 aggregate win over Iran’s Persepolis on Tuesday.

YesterdayUrawa Reds (Japan) - Shanghai SIPG (China) 1-0 (halftime: 1-0)

First leg: Shanghai SIPG - Urawa Reds 1-1. Urawa Reds win 2-1 on aggregate.

TuesdayPerspolis (Iran) - Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia) 2-2 (halftime: 1-1)

First leg: Al Hilal - Perspolis 4-0. Al Hilal win 6-2 on aggregate.

ASIAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL RESULTS

Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds’ Rafael Da Silva (left) runs to celebrate with team-mate Yuki Abe after scoring during the Asian Champions League semi-final against China’s Shanghai SIPG in Saitama, Japan yesterday.

Hummels says Bayern not among Europe’s best Munich

AFP

World Cup winner Mats Hummels says five-time defend-

ing Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich cannot cur-rently be regarded as one of the top teams in Europe.

“It is definitely the case that internally we have to improve a few things and pull together,” Hummels told Ger-man magazine Sport Bild.

“Not everything is bad, but things are not at the level they need to be in order for us to be among the absolute top teams in Europe.

“The cohesion in the squad has to grow again.”

Bayern are second in the Bundesliga behind Borussia Dortmund after flooring Freiburg 5-0 last Saturday in Heynckes’s first match back at the helm.

However, Hummels did not deny there are currently cliques within the Bayern squad.

“The small groups must have a good relationship between themselves, which is important,” said Hummels.

“It is simply not the case that you can get on with all of your 22 team-mates in exactly the same way.”

Hummels added Hey-nckes has taken Bayern back to basics with tougher train-ing sessions than the star-studded squad was used to under Ancelotti.

“The first impressions are that Jupp Heynckes is very demanding, he expects a lot from the team,” said Hummels.

“The training is a little harder, demanding more intensity, which stays at a high level.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s

Argentinian coach Mauricio

Pochettino attends a training session in Madrid

on Monday.

We were spot on from first second, says KloppLondon

Reuters

Juergen Klopp’s (pictured) Liverpool have been breath-taking and infuriating in

equal measure this season, but it all came together on Tuesday as they displayed their devas-tating attacking prowess in a 7-0 victory against Maribor.

As has been the case too often this season, Liverpool’s opening two Champions League draws against Sevilla and Spar-tak Moscow were characterised by both defensive fragility and attacking frustration.

Yet from the moment Rob-erto Firmino opened the scoring in the fourth minute against the Slovenian side, Liverpool cut through the hosts’ defence with irrepressible vim and vigour and ended up recording the big-gest away win by an English team in European Cup history.

The first half was only 19 minutes old by the time Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah added their names to the scoresheet -- the latter then netting his second, and the team’s fourth, in the 39th minute.

By the time Hungarian ref-eree Viktor Kassai blew the final whistle, Firmino, substi-tute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and defender Trent Alexander-Arnold had scored second-half goals.

“Our attitude was outstand-ing, we were spot on from the first second,” Klopp told BT Sport.

“We scored wonderful goals, played wonderful foot-ball and it looked like they were not very good, but it is difficult to play against us.

“I love the fact we stayed really concentrated in the sec-ond half, we controlled the game and it was a very mature performance.

“You can struggle in a game like this if you do not have a 100 percent attitude... Seven goals was wonderful, but the coun-ter pressing I was close to celebrating it, it was so good. They are a really good football team and they could not cope with this.”

Madrid

AFP

Tottenham Hotspur manager

Mauricio Pochettino hailed

his side’s maturity after

taking a huge step towards the

Champions League last 16 by

holding defending champions

Real Madrid 1-1 at the Santiago

Bernabeu on Tuesday.

The English side had to rely

on two stunning second-half

saves from goalkeeper Hugo

Lloris to deny Karim Benzema

and Cristiano Ronaldo, but were

good value for a point that

keeps them level with Madrid

on seven points at the top of

Group H.

“It was a magnificent

opportunity to show we can

compete and play against a

team used to playing at this

level,” said Pochettino.

Borussia Dortmund’s 1-1

draw at APOEL Nicosia means

the Germans and Cypriots

remain six points adrift of the

group leaders.

Spurs crashed out at the

group stages last year against

less exalted opposition, and

Pochettino hailed the progres-

sion of his young side over the

past 12 months.

“We are a team in construc-

tion. Last year against Monaco,

Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA

Moscow we managed just seven

points, this year against teams

like Real Madrid, Borussia Dort-

mund and APOEL we already

have seven points.

“It has been an important

step forward. The team is com-

peting and that is something

that has to give us confidence

to continue on the way we have

chosen to do things.

“The potential the club has

for the future is huge.”

Lloris’ heroics also drew

praise from his French compa-

triot and Real boss Zinedine

Zidane.

“Benzema’s header is one

of those where Lloris saves it

one in every 10,” said Zidane,

who couldn’t hide his disap-

pointment at dropping two

points at home.

But Lloris hailed Spurs’

resistence against a side that

has won the Champions League

in three of the past four

seasons.

“It was a great challenge for

a young team, to show the face

of Tottenham against the best

team in the world,” Lloris told

BT Sport.

Spurs boss hails ‘huge’ potential after Real draw

32 THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017SPORT 33THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

Golf ‘really healthy’ even without Woods: Rose Hong Kong

AFP

Golf no longer needs Tiger Woods to captivate global audiences because a new generation of

young superstars has emerged in his absence, Olympic champion Justin Rose has said.

Woods’ agent set the golfing world abuzz this week after revealing the 14-time major-winner had been cleared by his doctor to begin full practice as he prepares for yet another comeback from injury.

But Rose, who won the US Open in 2013 and came runner-up at this year’s Masters, said the group of twenty-some-things now claiming golf’s top prizes had already eclipsed Woods’ absence.

“I think golf has found itself in a really healthy spot without Tiger at the moment,” Rose, 37, said via teleconfer-ence, as it was announced he will contest next month’s Hong Kong Open.

“So many young players have come through and filled the void. I think to have him back is just a bonus. I don’t think golf is desperate for him back.”

Woods, 41, has not won a tourna-ment in four years, and his Major drought stretches back to 2008. After undergoing spinal fusion surgery in April

he said he may never play at the top level again.

But Woods, who has also been plagued by personal problems and pleaded guilty to driving under the influ-ence in August, recently posted a video of himself using a driver, captioned “Making Progress”.

“Everyone just wants to see a healthy Tiger Woods,” said Rose. “It’s almost gone past the point of thinking ‘Oh we all really want to see Tiger win 18 majors’.”

The Englishman added: “I think that we want him back, just because of what’s he’s meant to the sport for the last 20 years.”

Besides Rose’s loss to 37-year-old Sergio Garcia in a thrilling playoff at the Masters, this year’s other men’s majors were won by Americans Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, all in their early- or mid-twenties.

In a sport that traditionally favours comparatively older athletes, other heavyweights in the current world top 10 such as Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and Jason Day are also yet to turn 30.

“It was definitely a year dominated by the young guys on tour,” said Rose, who will join Garcia next month at Fan-ling for the Hong Kong Open.

Rose, a Hong Kong winner in 2015, said he was still disappointed to have missed out on Masters glory so nar-rowly to the Spaniard this year, but added that he was looking forward to the rematch.

“It was great to see him break-through and win his first Major -- but unfortunately it was against me,” he said.

“It’ll be fun to have us both in the same field (in Hong Kong)... Sergio and I, we’ve joked all year long, had some fun with it all year long, so it will be a continuation of that.”

So many young players have come through and filled the void. I think to have him back is just a bonus. I don’t think golf is desperate for him back: Justin Rose

We lost the three Ryder Cups previously to Hazeltine if I remember correctly. We haven’t won on foreign soil in 25 years. So right now, that would be like trying to play the 14th hole when we are on the first tee, right. Let’s take one at a time: US Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk

Day ‘didn’t want to play’ afterhis mother’s cancer scare Jeju, South KoreaAFP

Major-winner Jason Day (pictured) said yester-day that he was

targeting getting back to world number one after his mother’s cancer scare had left him not wanting “to be on the golf course”.

“My mum getting lung can-cer was very difficult,” the Australian told reporters ahead of the US PGA Tour’s CJ Cup, which begins in South Korea today.

“I don’t have any grandpar-ents. I don’t have my dad. I don’t have anyone. If I lost my mum all I would have would be my two sisters,” said the world number nine on Jeju Island.

“So realising how much she sacrificed for me growing up it meant a lot to me to be there for her. And I didn’t want to be on the golf course.

“I knew that if she was going to die then I wanted to spend as much

time as I could with her,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. “Because I only get to see her once a year.

“Fortunately the surgery (in March this year) went well and now I’m able to focus back on golf.”

After making his major championship break-t h r o u g h b y winning the 2015 US PGA Championship, the 29-year-old went on a hot streak to

rise to the top of the world.Day was still number one

at the start of 2017 but with his last win coming a year and a half ago at the Players Cham-pionship his ranking has tumbled.

He missed the cut at the US Open and finished outside the

top 20 in the Masters and the British Open.

Day has shown glimpses of form since, finishing ninth place in the US PGA Championship in August and record-ing two top 10s since.

“It was a little bit of a combination of

things why I had

this poor season. I was a little bit burnt out from 2016 and 2015,” said Day.

“I didn’t know how to han-dle being number one. Next time I get there again I will han-dle it a little bit differently,” said Day, who has not been outside the world’s top 10 since the end of the 2013 season.

“I still worked very hard to get through that burnt-out stage. And then my mum got lung cancer.

“Hopefully the distrac-tions that I’ve had on the golf course and off the golf course have gone away and I can focus on climbing back to number one.”

Ten of the world’s top 30 will tee off on Jeju Island, south of the mainland, in the second event of a three-week swing as the US PGA Tour spreads its wings further into Asia.

World number four and US PGA Champion Justin Thomas is the top-ranked player at the

par-72 Nine Bridges course for an event which carries a first prize of $1.665m as part of a massive $9.25m purse.

e on the golf

tting lung can-difficult,” the eporters ahead Tour’s CJ Cup, n South Korea

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championship break-t h r o u g h b ywinning the2015 US PGAChampionship,the 29-year-old went on ahot streak to

top 20 in the Masters and the British Open.

Day has shown glimpses of formsince, finishing ninthplace in the US PGAChampionship in August and record-ing two top 10ssince.

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Paris

AFP

American Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk has called on his team to go into next year’s clash against Thomas

Bjorn’s Europe in Paris with “a chip on their shoulder”.

The United States ended a run of three straight defeats with vic-tory at Hazeltine last year, before an impressive young outfit crushed the Internationals 19-11 at the Presidents Cup earlier this month.

Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas all won major titles this year, while Dustin John-son is the world number one, but

Furyk wants his side to feel they still have plenty to prove, having not won on European soil since triumphing at The Belfry in 1993.

“I don’t want (them) going in there being overconfident that they are the greatest team,” the 47-year-old told reporters in Paris.

“I want them going in with a chip on their shoulder that they have something to prove.”

Furyk also downplayed talk of the US dominating the Ryder Cup for years to come, saying: “I think that would be putting the cart before the horse right after the bat.

“We lost the three Ryder Cups previously to Hazeltine if I remember correctly. We haven’t

won on foreign soil in 25 years.“So right now, that would be

like trying to play the 14th hole when we are on the first tee, right. Let’s take one at a time.”

Golfing legend Tiger Woods, who was cleared on Sunday to play full shots again after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a back injury, appears set to play some part at Le Golf National.

Furyk, who won his only major title at the 2003 US Open, hinted that he would ask Woods to be a vice-captain should he not make the team as a player.

The 14-time major champion was a vice-captain to both Davis Love III at the 2016 Ryder Cup and Steve Stricker at the 2017 Presidents Cup.

“He’s been a great, great resource for Davis Love, for Steve Stricker. He’s very close with both of those players,” Furyk said.

“Tiger and I are good friends, as well... I would think and hope that he would want to be a part of it and that his schedule, that everything, would allow it.

“But I would love to have him as an asset, as well.

“He’s a great thinker. I love seeing how he worked his way around a golf course. He brings that same thought process to a captaincy.”

Europe struggled with six rookies in their loss at Hazeltine and the likes of world number five Jon Rahm and England’s Tyrrell Hatton, who has won

back-to-back tournaments in the last fortnight, look set to make their debuts in France.

Home skipper Bjorn, 46, insisted that he was not worried about his team struggling from a lack of experience.

“I don’t believe in the inexpe-rience thing, I really don’t,” the Dane said.

“Some of the greatest Ryder Cup players that came out when they were rookies were fantastic from the get-go.

“Some people learn it over time and some people go straight into it.

“But if you have six rookies that can go straight into it and just go ‘I want to go out there’, well, get them out there.

“Jim (Furyk) always refers to some of his older players hav-ing a lot of scars. Well, they (rookies) have no scars.

“Look at the American side, a guy like Patrick Reed wants to get out there and wants to win points, and that’s a great rookie.”

The United States will undoubtedly field a formidable outfit in 11 months’ time, but any talk of Europe suffering a defeat similar to the one the Americans handed out to the Internation-als seems premature.

Rahm, his fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, among others, could be out to extend the USA’s 25 years of hurt.

Furyk urges US to go into Ryder Cup with ‘a chip on their shoulder’

PGA Tour makes Korean debut Jeju, South Korea

AFP

Top golfers brushed off the “crazy” security tensions on the Korean peninsula

ahead of the US PGA Tour’s inau-gural CJ Cup, which begins today.

Ten of the world’s top 30 will tee off on Jeju Island, south of the mainland, in the second event of a three-week swing as the PGA Tour spreads its wings further into Asia.

World number four and US PGA Champion Justin Thomas is the top-ranked player at Jeju’s par-72 Nine Bridges course for an event which carries a mas-sive first prize of $1,665,000.

There have been no big-name withdrawals from the 78-man field despite nuclear-armed North Korea recently firing several missiles over Japan and claiming to have tested a hydrogen bomb last month.

“It’s a crazy situation, we can all agree on that,” said Xander Schauffele, who at 23 is one of the bright young talents to have emerged on tour this year.

“If any inch of my body felt unsafe I wouldn’t be here,” added Schauffele, who triumphed at the season-ending Tour Champion-ship last month.

“I don’t really know anyone who didn’t want to come to Korea.”

Major-winner Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland agreed. “There’s things happen-ing all over the world. We wouldn’t be playing an event here if it wasn’t safe,” said McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion.

McDowell has a taste for debut events on Jeju, having won the European Tour’s inaugural Ballantines Championship in 2008 at the nearby Pinx Golf Club.

America’s Thomas will be making his second start in defence of his FedEx Cup title but faces stiff competition from the likes of ninth-ranked major-winner Jason Day, former Masters champion Adam Scott and their fellow Australian Marc Leishman, who won last month’s BMW Championship.

Leishman played on the Korean Tour in 2006 and is unfazed by Donald Trump and

Kim Jong-Un exchanging insults in recent weeks.

The US president dubbed North Korea’s leader a “mad-man” after the reclusive regime hinted it may explode a hydro-gen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.

Kim branded Trump “men-tally deranged” after tougher sanctions were imposed by the UN.

“All the stuff that’s happen-ing politically, the same sort of thing was happening 11 years ago,” said Leishman.

“Once you’re here it feels fine. I feel very safe. I wouldn’t have come if I was at all worried. I feel good about being back in Korea.”

Other notable players in a strong international line-up include another former Masters champion in South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel, and English duo Ian Poulter and world number 14 Paul Casey, who has had seven top-10 finishes in the last five months.

A 16-strong home challenge spans the ages led by this year’s youngest ever Players Champi-onship winner, the 21-year-old Kim Si-Woo, and rounded out by KJ Choi, 47, who has eight PGA Tour titles to his name.

The inaugural $9.25m event is the second stop of a new three-week PGA Tour swing in Asia, which started with last week’s CIMB Classic in Malay-sia and concludes at next week’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, dubbed “Asia’s major”.

The CJ Cup was conceived after the hugely successful Pres-idents Cup at Incheon two years ago, when the Internationals were pipped 14.5-13.5 by the Americans on the 18th green of the final singles match in front of huge galleries.

CJ Cup : South Korea

$9,250,000

$1,665,000Total prize money

Winner’s share

Paris

AFP

European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn said on Tuesday that Paul Casey would be a “fantastic asset” if he were to make himself available for next

year’s matches in Paris.Englishman Casey, ranked 14th in the world, missed

the 2016 Ryder Cup as he is not a member of the Euro-pean Tour.

The 40-year-old has an impressive record in the biennial event, but has decided to base himself solely on the PGA Tour after rebuilding his career in the United States.

“I’ve said all along I have an open conversation with Paul,” Bjorn told reporters in Paris.

“With the way he’s been playing for the last while... I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t have those con-versations with him.

“Paul has said for a long time that he’s made his life in America with his family and that he’s extremely happy.

“He has to make that decision, he’s promised me that he will make that decision and that I’ll be the first one to know when he makes that decision.

“He wants to be a part of it, but he really has for a while tried to prioritise his family and any man has to respect that some people make those priorities, but hav-ing him in the Ryder Cup team would be a fantastic asset if he plays the way he is at the moment.”

Former world number three Casey won five points in three Ryder Cups from 2004-2008 before sliding down the rankings as he struggled with form and fitness.

But he has been a model of consistency over the last three seasons, with 27 top-10 finishes since 2015.

European Tour rules mean that players have to play five regular Tour events to qualify for the Ryder Cup points lists.

“I can only say that, as a Tour, and having him avail-able to the Ryder Cup team, would be great for us, but then also he has to make that team,” said Denmark’s Bjorn.

“But we really have had some open and honest con-versations that have been great and I actually wish him luck in making a decision, because I know that it’s not a decision he’s taking lightly one way or the other.”

When asked if he would give a potential captain’s pick to a home French player, Bjorn insisted he would choose the strongest 12 players available, and as it stands, Casey is among them without doubt.

But even if he cannot give Casey a call, Bjorn is con-fident he will have a side capable of beating a formidable American outfit at Le Golf National next September.

Although the top two players in the world rankings are Americans -- Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth -- Europe boast 10 of the top 20.

“You tell me a time where there’s been 11 Europe-ans in the top 21 in the world,” added Bjorn.

“It might have happened but it’s not something that you see very often. So that’s a very strong European team.”

Casey would be ‘fantastic asset’ at Ryder Cup, says Bjorn

s refers ers hav-ll, they

an side, wants to

to win rookie.”s will

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Tiger Woods

Justin Rose

Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn (left) and USA’s Ryder Cup captain, Jim Furyk look at

the trophy during a press conference held in Paris on Tuesday in this combination of pictures.

34 THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

De Villiers’ boundary blitz steers SA to series victory

Paarl, South Africa

AFP

AB de Villiers blasted a career-best 176 to set up a series-clinching 104-run win for South Africa in the second one-day

international against Bangladesh at Boland Park yesterday.

South Africa posted an impos-ing 353 for six after being sent in to bat, while Bangladesh made a spir-ited start to their response before being bowled out for 249.

De Villiers raced to his 25th one-day international century off 68 balls with ten fours and a six. He added another five fours and six sixes off the next 36 deliveries in a display of dazzling footwork, pre-cise placement and some audacious strokes, particularly after he reached his century.

Even so, De Villiers said he felt “quite nervous” at the start of his first international innings in four months. But he said batting partner Hashim Amla was a calming influ-ence as he embarked on a sensational 104-ball innings which included 15 fours and seven sixes.

Already the holder of the records for the fastest 50, 100 and 150, De Villiers was on target to beat Chris Gayle’s record of 138 balls for the fastest one-day international double century before he hit a low full toss from Rubel Hossain to deep midwicket with 14 balls remaining in the innings.

“It did cross my mind,” he said of the possible double century, “but that’s not something I play for. It was all about how many balls I could face at the end of the innings to get as many runs as I could for the team. If it all worked out I would have got there but I’m happy with the 176.”

South Africa’s AB de Villiers plays a shot during the second one-day international (ODI) match against Bangladesh at Boland Park in Paarl, yesterday.

Mercedes and Hamilton on brink of Formula 1 titlesAustin Texas

Reuters

Lewis Hamilton could be crowned Britain’s first four-times Formula One

world champion in Texas this weekend while Mercedes are on the brink of a fourth consec-utive constructor’s title.

The chances of Mercedes, 145 points clear of Ferrari with four races remaining, wrapping things up in Austin appear to be overwhelming.

Everything is also stacking up for Hamilton to become only the fifth driver to win more than three champion-ships since the first in 1950, with British bookmakers offer-ing odds of 1/50 on him taking the title.

That compares to 14/1 for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton’s closest rival, and 300/1 on Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.

While the team may be cel-ebrating on Sunday night, Hamilton may find he has to wait, however.

To do it in Austin, the Briton must finish in the top two and then see where Vettel ends up.

Hamilton currently enjoys a hefty 59-point advantage, with 100 still to be won. He must score 16 more than his German rival on Sunday to pre-vent the title battle continuing to Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on the following weekend. Third place is worth 15 points and will not be enough. Even if Hamilton wins in Austin, he will be cham-pion only if Vettel finishes no higher than sixth. If the Briton comes second, then Vettel has

to finish eighth or higher to stay in the game. Reliability, or lack of it, will be a key concern on both sides. Vettel has failed to finish two of the last three races in Asia, one due to a first lap collision and the other a spark plug problem, and cannot afford any further unreliability on Ferrari’s part.

However, before his night-mare run the German had not finished lower than seventh since Malaysia in Oct. 2016, when he retired with damaged suspension after a collision.

He was fourth in Austin last year, when Mercedes had a one-two finish.

This year Vettel has fin-ished all but six races on the podium and three of those out-side the top three were fourth places. Hamilton has won eight times and finished second three times in 16 races.

Austin has also been par-ticularly good to him with four wins in five years including the last three. Vettel won with Red Bull in 2013.

Even if Mercedes dominate one-two, and Red Bull’s Dan-iel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen prove to be the closest rivals, the chances are that Vettel will still finish in the top five in a race without incident.

In the constructors’ cham-pionship, Ferrari need to outscore Mercedes by 17 points to prevent them retaining the title in Austin.

The only occasion Ferrari have done that this season was in Monaco in May when Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished one-two while Hamilton was seventh and team mate Valt-teri Bottas ended up fourth.

World Cup-bound Iceland to play in QatarThe Peninsula

Qatar will feature in two international friendlies involving World Cup-bound

Iceland and European power-house the Czech Republic, Qatar Football Association (QFA) announced yesterday.

Iceland will take on the Czechs on November 8. The open-ing international will be followed by a game between hosts Qatar and the Czech Republic on November 11. In the third inter-national friendly, Qatar will play Iceland on November 14.

A QFA official said coach Felix Sanchez will also be looking to try new players in a bid to form a powerful side in the build-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Earlier this month, Qatar beat Singapore 3-1 in Doha before con-ceding a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Curacao.

After making a splash in their first foray into international foot-ball tournaments in Euro 2016; Iceland (ranked 21st in FIFA Rank-ings) are going to feature at next year’s World Cup 2018.

In 2016, the Scandinavian side presented a fierce appetite for tough football by beating former world Champions England before losing in the quarterfinals to hosts France. This great form contin-ued throughout their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign as they dominated group I above the likes of Croatia, Ukraine and Turkey.

The Czech Republic, a tradi-tional powerhouse in international football, did not qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Currently ranked at 48, the Nároďák com-peted in Group C in the European zone where they finished third behind Germany and Northern Ireland.

Iceland’s players Johann Berg Gudmundsson (left) and Alfred Finnbogason celebrate after the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualification match against Kosovo in Reykjavik, Iceland in this October 9 file picture.

Al Duhail’s El Arabi has twin targets on his mind

U-23 League: Al Duhail, Al Sailiya and Al Ahli post winsThe Peninsula

Al Duhail produced a landslide 6-0 victory over Al Kharaitiyat in

the third round of the Qatar-gas U-23 League at Al Arabi Stadium. Despite a strong set of defenders in the Al Kharaitiyat side, Al Duhail took the lead through Sul-tan Al Barik in the 25th minute.

Muntari scored the sec-ond and third goals for Al Duhail in the 46th and 52th minutes.

Abdul Rahman Moham-med (74), Mohammed Hussein (80, penalty) and Nasser Khaled (92) added the tally of goals for Al Duhail.

Meanwhile Al Sadd suf-fered their first defeat in a 2-2 loss to Al-Sailiya at Grand Hamad Stadium

Al Sadd opened the scor-ing in the 17th minute through Hassan Ahmed and two min-utes later, Saud Al Nasr added the second goal.

Saeed Al Marri (27, pen-alty and 37) scored the goals for Al Sailiyah.

In another match, Al-Ahli posted their first win of the season when they beat Al Gharafa 2-1.

Al Ahli’s Ali scored the first goal in the 17th minute.

Al Gharafa managed to equalize through Moham-med Ismael. Al Ahli then scored the winner in the 57th minute.

Armstrong Vas The Peninsula

QNB Stars League (QSL) top scorer Youssef El Arabi (pictured) of Al Duhail has

twin targets on his mind as he goes about scoring goals on a consistent basis for his side.

The Moroccan, who has emerged as the top scorer with eight goals after four rounds of action in the QSL, seems to have began from where he left off from the last season.

The striker has an average of two goals per match this

season so far and was the top scorer in the previous season with 24 goals. This season he has been in the best form and the striker netted four goals in their last match against Al Ahli, which they won 6-1.

El Arabi team is leading the points standings with an all-win record after four rounds and with 12 points in their kitty and the striker said they will be happy to lift the Flacon shield at the end of the QSL campaign.

“Winning the QNB Stars League title and making good progress in the AFC Champions

League are my main ambitions. In the previous season, we were knocked out of the AFC Cham-pions League due to some minor

mistakes, but our team is better and stronger this time,” said El Arabi in an interview with QSL online.

“I’m very happy with such a good start by our side. Four games… four wins. Yes, this team has the potential to defend the title and that’s our main target,” he said.

Asked to name the rivals teams which will pose a threat to their title ambitions El Arabi said: “Al Sadd and Al Rayyan are also strong contenders for the league title. These teams are the best in the league and the

competition between them will be very tough.” El Arabi also wants to finish at the league’s top scorer this season too.

“I’m very comfortable with scoring goals as I contribute to the team’s victories, I’ll do my best (to finish as top scorer). I would like to score more goals this season, given that I had missed nine matches last year due to an injury,” he said.

“We’ve some very good players and when I get excel-lent support from them, I do expect to score goals,” he added.

South AfricaH Amla c Mushfiqur Rahim b Rubel Hossain ... 85

Q de Kock lbw b Shakib Al Hasan .......................46

F du Plessis b Shakib Al Hasan ..............................0

A de Villiers c Sabbir Rahman b Rubel Hossain 176

J Duminy lbw b Rubel Hossain ............................ 30

F Behardien (not out) ................................................ 7

D Pretorius c Imrul Kayes b Rubel Hossain .........0

A Phehlukwayo (not out) ........................................0

Extras (lb2, w7) .......................................................9

Total (6 wkts) ........................................353Fall of wickets: 1-90, 2-90, 3-226, 4-343, 5-353,

6-353

Bowling: Mashrafe Mortaza 10-0-82-0 (1w),

Taskin Ahmed 9-0-71-0 (3w), Shakib Al Hasan 10-

0-60-2 (1w), Nasir Hossain 8-0-49-0, Rubel Hos-

sain 10-0-62-4 (1w), Sabbir Rahman 1-0-11-0,

Mahmudullah 2-0-16-0 (1w)

Did not bat: K Rabada, D Paterson, Imran Tahir

BangladeshTamim Iqbal lbw b Pretorius .................................23

Imrul Kayes c De Villiers b Imran Tahir .............. 68

Liton Das lbw b Phehlukwayo ..............................14

Mushfiqur Rahim c Duminy b Pretorius ............60

Shakib Al Hasan c De Kock b Imran Tahir .............5

Mahmudullah b Phehlukwayo .............................35

Sabbir Rahman c Du Plessis b Imran Tahir ........ 17

Nasir Hossain b Phehlukwayo ................................ 3

Mashrafe Mortaza lbw b Phehlukwayo ...............0

Taskin Ahmed (not out) ........................................... 3

Rubel Hossain b Paterson ....................................... 8

Extras (LB4, W9) ................................................... 13

Total (all out) ........................................ 249Fall of wickets: 1-44, 2-69, 3-162, 4-171, 5-184,

6-219, 7-234, 8-234, 9-239, 10-249

Bowling: Rabada 9-1-40-0 (2w), Paterson 8.5-0-

67-1 (1w), Pretorius 10-0-48-2 (2w), Phehlukwayo

10-1-40-4 (3w), Imran Tahir 10-0-50-3 (1w)

SCOREBOARD

Philadelphia

AP

Sean Couturier, Shayne Gos-tisbehere, Claude Giroux and Dale Weise all scored

in the second period to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.

The Flyers followed an 8-2 win against Washington with another dominant offensive effort, capped by the four-goal second.

Wayne Simmonds stole the show after the fourth goal when he dropped agitated Panthers center Michael Haley with a left-handed punch. Simmonds waved his arms toward the crowd and exhorted them to get louder as he skated toward the locker room to serve his major penalty. He high-fived fans and the orange-and-black faithful went wild for a period on the short list of the best in three years under coach Dave Hakstol.

Michal Neuvirth made the lead stand with 40 saves in his first win of the season. Valtteri Filppula scored an empty-net-ter for the Flyers.

In New York, Sidney Crosby scored the tying goal with less than a minute remaining in reg-ulation, Evgeni Malkin put in the

winner 58 seconds into over-time and the Penguins beat the struggling Rangers.

Patric Hornqvist, Phil Kes-sel and ex-Ranger Carl Hagelin also scored for the two-time defending Stanley Cup cham-pions, who handed New York (1-5-1) its fourth straight loss.

Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh turned the puck over in overtime and Kessel set up Malkin for the game-winning goal. Just before that, the Rang-ers iced the puck, leading to a faceoff in their zone.

Michael Grabner put New York ahead 4-3 when he and David Desharnais completed a nifty give-and-go at the 8-minute mark of the third period. Desharnais, Pavel Buch-nevich and JT Miller scored in a span of 2:30 as the Rangers got three straight goals early in the second to take a 3-2 lead.

Penguins goalie Matt Mur-ray and counterpart Henrik Lundqvist each made 28 saves in the first of four meetings this season between the division rivals.

In Washington, Connor Brown scored the game-win-ning goal in the third period and Frederik Andersen stopped all 30 shots he faced for the shut-out as the Maple Leafs continued their tremendous start by beating the Capitals.

Toronto has won five of its first six games. Washington has now lost two in a row since top defenseman Matt Niskanen went out with a long-term upper-body injury.

After getting a promotion to the third line, Brown picked up his second goal of the season and broke a 0-0 tie with 14:07 left in the third.

35THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

Rockets spoil Warriors’ opening nightSan Francisco

AFP

The new-look Houston Rockets roared back to beat NBA champi-ons Golden State 122-121 on Tuesday,

spoiling a celebratory night at the Warriors’ Oracle Arena in Oakland.

The Warriors marked the opening of the new season by handing out their championship rings and raising their 2016-17 championship banner.

Despite a furious rally by the Rockets, the Warriors thought they had won the game with a last-gasp basket from Kevin Durant, but the clock had expired a fraction of a second before the ball left Durant’s hand and it was the Rockets celebrat-ing at the end of the night.

PJ Tucker had given Houston the lead with a two free throws with 44.1 seconds remaining.

The Rockets trailed by as many as 17 and by 11 points entering the fourth quarter. They were down 114-107 after a three-pointer from Warriors star Stephen Curry with 5:12 remaining.

But the Rockets wouldn’t go away, producing a late flurry that included a three-point play by Eric Gordon and a three-pointer by Tucker.

Two offensive rebounds gave the Rockets another pos-session in the final minute. They trailed 121-120 when Tucker was fouled and made both his free throws.

Golden State, who lost only 15 times last season, turned the ball over on their next posses-sion. They had a chance to win

when Curry missed a three-pointer with five seconds left. A deflection brought the ball to Durant, whose attempt from the baseline fell to thrill the crowd, only for a review to show it left his hand too late.

“I knew I was cutting it close,” Durant said.

James Harden had 27 points, Gordon 24 and Tucker 20 for the Rockets. Former Los Angeles Clippers point guard Chris Paul, brought in to help the Rockets challenge the Warriors in the West, had just four points with 11 assists and eight rebounds in his debut for Houston.

Nick Young, a new arrival at Golden State this season, led the Warriors with 23 points off the bench.

Curry scored 22 and Durant 20 for the Warriors, who saw Draymond Green depart in the third quarter with a knee strain.

Before exiting, reigning defensive player of the year Green pulled down 11 rebounds and handed out 13 assists to go with nine points.

“He was our best player tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He was the guy bring-ing the energy and the life. We didn’t have much energy from most of the group tonight.

“As soon as he went out of the game things went south for us,” Kerr added. “We just couldn’t get any traction.”

The Warriors became just the fourth defending champions since 2000 to lose their opener the following season.

Carolina 5 Edmonton 3

Dallas 3 Arizona 1

Nashville 4 Colorado 1

Columbus 5 Winnipeg 2

Vancouver 3 Ottawa 0

New Jersey 5 Tampa Bay 4

Pittsburgh 5 Ny Rangers 4

Philadelphia 5 Florida 1

Toronto 2 Washington 0

NHL RESULTS

Houston 122 Golden State 121

Cleveland 102 Boston 99

NBA RESULTS

Eric Gordon (10) of the Houston Rockets dunks the ball against the Golden State Warriors during their NBA game at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California on Tuesday.

The NBA trophy displayed during the 2017 NBA Championship ring ceremony on Tuesday.

Dodgers on brink of World Series berth

Chicago Cubs second baseman Javier Baez (9) points at Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig (66) after Puig was tagged out at second base in the ninth inning during game three of the 2017 NLCS play-off series at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.

Chicago

AFP

Chris Taylor homered and drove in two runs, and Yu Darvish pitched six-plus

strong innings on Tuesday as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 6-1 to move within one win of a World Series return.

The Dodgers, whose 1988 championship marked their last appearance in Major League Baseball’s title showcase, took a commanding 3-0 lead over the reigning World Series champion Cubs in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series.

They’ll try to complete the sweep in Chicago.

Darvish struck out seven and scattered six hits and walked just one over 6 1/3 innings. He also

drove in a run when he drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth frame.

“The story of the night, obvi-ously, is Yu Darvish,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “After that first homer that he gave up ... he was dominant. He just had that rhythm, the poise and didn’t allow whole lot of hard contact.”

The Cubs, who hadn’t man-aged a hit off the Dodgers bullpen in the series, put runners on second and third in the ninth inning when Alex Avila singled and Albert Almora followed with a double off of right-handed relief pitcher Ross Stripling.

But Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen got Addison Russell to pop out to first, and then struck out Tommy La Stella and Ian Happ to close out the victory.

The Cubs seized an early lead for the third straight game when Kyle Schwarber homered off of Darvish with one out in the first inning.

The Cubs got hits from three of their first five batters, but couldn’t add to their lead and stranded two runners on base after Schwarber’s home run.

“I really didn’t change much appoach-wise from first inning until the end of the game,” Darvish said. “I just kept pitch-ing the same way.”

The Dodgers responded in the second inning. Andre Ethier pulled them level with a solo homer on the first pitch he saw from Kyle Hendricks. Taylor broke the 1-1 tie in the third inning with a 444-foot solo home run to center field. Hen-dricks, who struggled with his

command, allowed at least two home runs for the second con-secutive post-season start. Taylor put the Dodgers up 3-1 with a fifth-inning run-scoring triple that scored Joc Pederson, who led off the inning with a double.The Dodgers loaded the bases in the sixth and after get-ting Pederson to fly out for the second out of the inning, Cubs reliever Carl Edwards walked Darvish on four pitches to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 4-1.

Los Angeles tacked on two runs in the eighth. After a walk to Logan Forsythe and a Barnes single, Forsythe scored when reliever Mike Montgomery’s pitch bounced off the arm of catcher Willson Contreras. Barnes reached third base and then scored on Kyle Farmer’s sacrifice fly.

Flyers explode to beat Panthers 5-1

36 THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

University League kicks off today at Education CityThe Peninsula

The fifth University League, a collaboration between Qatar Football Association

(QFA) and Qatar Foundation (QF), is set to kick off today at Education City.

Taking place on Pitch 1 of QF’s Recreation Center, the first match will start at 7pm and will see Texas A&M University at Qatar take on Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, while the second game will see Georget-own University in Qatar play Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar at 8pm. The third match will begin at 9pm in which the Academic Bridge Program will play against Virginia Commonwealth Uni-versity School of the Arts in Qatar.

Eleven colleges and univer-sities will battle it out to take home this year’s title. Games will be played on Thursdays and Sat-urdays, with the final match played on November 30.

An official awards ceremony to crown the first-, second-, and third-placed teams will imme-diately follow.

Hilal Al Mohannadi, Chair-man of the Sub-Leagues Committee, QFA, commented: “We’re happy to join forces once again with Qatar Foundation to host the fifth University League. This collaboration highlights our objective of nurturing a football culture among the youth. We thank our sponsors for their continuous generous support, which contributes directly to the success and development of the

University League.” Mohammed Al Saoud, Head of Recreation Services, QF, commented: “We’re delighted to once again be collaborating with Qatar Football Association. Through this agreement, we aim to help create a sports-loving society, and, in turn, healthy, active communities, which is in line with our overarching ethos at Qatar Foundation.”

The University League, ini-tiated in 2013-14, is sponsored by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy as the official strategic partner, Ooredoo as the official telecommunications partner, Qatar National Bank as the exclusive financial partner, Nike as the official supplier, and Al Kass Sports Channels as the official broadcaster.

Qatar a global force in sport: Pakistan officialThe Peninsula

Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera, Director-General of the Pakistan Sports Council,

says Qatar has become an inter-national force on the sports front, especially after it won the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“Yes, we support the Qatari government in this area and provide all kinds of assistance needed to complete the 2022 World Cup,” he said.

“The relationship with Qatar is flawless and old and based on mutual respect,” he said.

“There is no doubt that the brotherly relationship between the two countries is based on firm foundations.

“Qatar is a safe place for Pakistani workers and we know the contribution of Pakistani workers to the construction of the 2022 World Cup facilities and we consider Qatar’s success to be our success,” said Ganjera.

The Director-General of the Pakistan Sports Council lamented, that the Western media are spreading rumours about Doha. Terming it false “propaganda”, he added that such things occur everywhere.

S p e a k i n g a b o u t

the AIPS-ASIA Congress in Islamabad, Dr Ganjera said, “The event was excellent on more than one level, especially since it included many Asian delegations that came to Paki-stan and saw the safety and safety of the Asian Union here.”

Dr Ganjera confirmed that hosting such events would change the adverse image of

Pakistan in the international community, especially when the media is converging here for this successful event in Islamabad.

“We in Pakistan believe in sport and provide all the sup-port for this vital sector, especially since we have been fighting terrorism since the last 30 years, which has been com-ing to us from many sides,” said

Ganjera. Dr Ganjera said that Pakistan believes in sport as a noble message for future gen-erations and is working to provide support to this sector with all strength and determination.

The Organizing Committee of the 20th AIPS-ASIA Congress organised a media tour of land-marks in the capital, including

the National Museum and some ancient villages that mimic the city’s long history. The delega-tions expressed admiration for the great organisation and hos-pitality that characterised the hosting of the Asian capital.

On conclusion of the AIPS-ASIA Congress held in Islamabad, which witnessed the election of a new board headed

by Kuwaiti Sattam Ali Alsahli, a delegation from the AIPS-ASIA headed by a member of the Sports Press Committee of Qatar, Mubarak Al Boainin, and the newly elected Secretary General of AIPS-ASIA, Amjad Aziz Malik, visited the city of Peshawar, located 186 km from Islamabad.

The media delegation included the AIPS-ASIA treas-ure and Nepalese Sports Journalist Federation president Niranjan Rajbanshi and his compatriot Prakash Timilsina and Helen Chi, the newly elected executive member from Chinese Taipei and a journalist from Qatar’s national sports broadcaster Al Kass, Bassam Al Rawas.

“We came here to Pesha-war’s call on behalf of all members of the AIPS-ASIA and to emphasize the great trust and faith we have for this country after the great success of host-ing Congress,” said Mubarak Al Boainin.

“We will carry with us very beautiful memories from Islam-abad and Peshawar. This is a welcome reversal from what has been projected about Paki-stan. Clearly, that is a false image people have about this beautiful and warm country.”

Major General Salahedine Mehsud of Pakistan hands over a memento to Mubarak Al Boainin, member of Qatar Sports Press Committee during his visit to Pakistan.

Qatar University players and team officials celebrate with tournament officials after they emerged University League football champions at Qatar Foundation’s Recreation Centre Pitch 1 in this file picture of February 2017.

Brazil set up quarters clash with Germany in Under-17 World CupNew Delhi

AFP

Striker Brenner scored twice as Bra-zil beat Honduras 3-0 in Kochi yesterday to set up a mouth-water-ing quarterfinals clash with Germany in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup.

Brenner scored a goal in each half -- in the 11th and 56th minute -- to help the three-time champions maintain an unbeaten run in the 24-nation event being hosted by India for the first time.

After Brenner’s brilliant opener, Marcos Antonio doubled the lead in the 44th minute to take the steam out of Honduras’ resistance in the first half.

The title contenders have conceded just one goal in the tournament so far, against Spain back in the group stage.

Germany has had a contrasting campaign, having to stage a turnaround after being thrashed 4-0 by Iran in a group match.

Germany will meet the South American football giants on Sunday in Kolkata.

In the first last-16 encounter yesterday, two-time champions Ghana eased past deb-utants Niger 2-0 in Mumbai to book their quarters clash with Mali. Meanwhile, under-dogs Iran will challenge the might of Spain, who edged past France 2-1 in another com-pelling match on Sunday.

Iran have turned out to be the tourna-ment’s giant killers, and overcame a stiff challenge from Mexico to continue their

dream run to the quarter-finals. With four wins from four matches, scoring 12 goals while conceding just two, Iran continued their unstoppable march through the U-17 World Cup by defeating Mexico 2-1 in their Round of 16 encounter in Goa. Reaching the last eight marks Team Melli’s best result in the history of the competition and continues a remarkable few months of success.

Coach Abbas Chamanian’s charges were one of five Iranian national teams to qualify for five different FIFA tournaments in 2016/2017 – an outstanding achievement unparalleled even by nations such as Brazil, Germany and France.

“Our first objective is to keep a clean sheet,” defensive maestro Taha Shariati said.

“Our second objective is to score a goal, and our third objective is to defend our advan-tage and win the match.”

England, who will face USA, have also looked a dominant side despite losing their star midfielder Jadon Sancho, who was called back by his German club Borussia Dortmund.

The 17-year-old Sancho scored three times as the Steve Cooper-coached side advanced to the knockout stage with a 100 per cent record.

The 23-day event culminates on October 28 with the final in Kolkata, the eastern city known as the hotbed of football in cricket-obsessed India.

Nadal withdraws from Basel with knee problemMadrid

AFP

Rafael Nadal (pictured)on Tuesday announced he will miss this month’s Swiss Indoors tournament, boosting

arch rival Roger Federer’s dream of ending the season as world number one.

The 16-time Grand Slam win-ner told his Facebook followers he was skipping the October 21-29 tournament due to a knee injury.

“I sadly announce that I have to pull out of the Swiss Indoors Basel, after seeing my doctor in Spain,” he wrote.

Federer beat the Spaniard at the Shanghai Masters on Sunday to close the gap at the top of the ATP rankings.

Federer has closed to within 1,960 points of Nadal with 500 on offer in Basel followed by the indoor tournament at Bercy in Paris and the end-of-season ATP Finals in London.

In his social media statement, Nadal said he had seen his doctor on his return from China.

“I am suffering from an

over-stressing of the knee and the problems were already present at the tournament in Shanghai which now forces me to take a time off on advice of my doctor.

“After two great weeks in China, with the title in Beijing and the final in Shanghai it is time for some rest.

“I want to send a special mes-sage to the many tennis fans in Switzerland which have always showed great support and respect

also on my matches with Roger. Hope to see you next year.”

Federer put on a masterclass to beat Nadal 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday, the 36-year-old lifting his sixth tro-phy this season and underlining a turnaround in fortunes against his long-time nemesis.

The world number two ended a sequence of five straight defeats to Nadal at Basel last year, before winning their gripping Australian Open final in January.