THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Former World No.1 Maria Sharapova surrendered an early advantage to suffering a stunning 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 loss to Romanian qual-ifier Monica Niculescu in the first round of the Qatar Total Open here yesterday.

Also making it to the second round of the WTA tournament were Dominika Cibulkova, Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu, American qualifier CiCi Bellis, along with Rus-sian duo of Ekaterina Makarova and Anna Blinkova.

Wild Card Sharapova, playing in Doha for the first time since 2013 began on an emphatic note by win-ning the first set but struggled to carry forward the momentum in the next two against a determined opponent and crashed out after two hours 38 minutes.

Five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova was not helped by 11 double faults and 52 unforced errors while her opponent, who fired 12 winners, grew in confidence as the contest went on.

In her first meeting against Sharapova, the Romanian veteran twice trailed by a set and a break before turning the tide on the Rus-sian breaking at love to level the match and winning 12 of the final 13 points to secure victory.

Niculescu and Sharapova treated the Doha crowd to some thrilling games and rallies, but it was the 2012 Qatar Total Open quarterfinalist’s consistency that won the day, hitting 12 winners to just 17 unforced errors and con-verting six of seven break point opportunities. Visibly frustrated by Niculescu’s spins and slices, the 2008 champion was ultimately undone by the 52 unforced errors that canceled out her 31 winners.

The 30-year-old has been ranked as high as No.28 in the world but nearly fell out of the Top 100 for the first time in eight years at start of the season, and was forced to play qualifying just to make the Qatar Total Open main draw.

Qualifier Niculescu, who used her slices to good effect and con-verted six out of seven break points in the match to oust Russian Shara-pova, will take on Wimbledon semi-f inal i s t Magdalena

Rybarikova or local wild card Fatma Al Nabhani next.

Earlier, Cibulkova rallied past Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6(8), 6-4 as she progressed to a second round meeting with France’s seventh seed Caroline Garcia.

“I was expecting a tough match against Anastasia. It’s always tough. We know each other really well and played so much great matches,” Cibulkova told reporters after the match.

“For an opening match it wasn’t an easy draw, I would say...I played the good match for the first round. It’s really nice to win such a tough match in the first round.” A 2017

semifinalist in Doha where she lost to eventual champion Karolina Pliskova, the former World No.4 hit 23 winners to 20 unforced errors in the victory, while Pavlyuchenkova struck 28 winners to 26 miscues.

The Slovak is contesting her fourth event of 2018 in Doha, but has seen an uneven start to her cam-paign since reaching the quarterfinals in Sydney to begin her year.

Upset by Kaia Kanepi in the first round of the Australian Open, Cibulkova is coming off a second-round defeat in St. Petersburg at the hands of Kristina Mladenovic.

“I feel like I’m playing well. I

need to get more matches in a row to win, to get the confidence,” she said. “I came here a little bit earlier, a few days before just to get used to the balls, the courts, to play outside again, and I think it helped.

“It was pretty sad with my per-formance at the Australian Open because in Sydney I played really well, and I just felt good. At the first match against Kanepi, I was really flat, so it was one of those bad days.

“I’m just trying to do my best. I’m very experienced player, and I was working on just my serve and all that stuff because playing wise I feel really good. So I’m just trying to put into the matches and get some more matches to win in a row.” Last year’s appearance in Doha, where she knocked off Pavlyuchenkova and Samantha Stosur before losing to Pliskova, marked the first time that the Slovak won consecutive matches at the event since 2008.

She’ll look to repeat that feat this year in the second round as she takes on No.7 seed Caroline Garcia, against whom she is 1-1 in career meetings.

“It’s going to be a tough match,” Cibulkova said. “I played her...in Wuhan, and she won the tourna-ment when she was playing really well. I want to keep playing good tennis like this one here.”

SPORTTuesday 13 February 2018

Stage set for Ronaldo-Neymar

showdown

IOC boss to visit North Korea after winter Games

PAGE | 28-29 PAGE | 28-29 PAGE | 31

PSG tie set to define Real’s

season: Ronaldosr

Cici Bellis of the USA hits a return against Daria Kasatkina of Russia during their Qatar Total Open 2018 match played at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha yesterday. Pictures: Salim Mtramkot/The Peninsula

Slovakia’s Dominica Cibulkova hits a return to Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova during their first round match yesterday. Cibulkova won 7-6, 6-4.

TODAY’S ORDER OF PLAYPlay starts at noon on Center Court, 5pm on Court 6 and 3.30pm elsewhereCENTER COURTQiang Wang (CHN) vs Madison Keys (USA) [12]

Shuai Peng (CHN) vs Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) [11]

Cagla Buyukakcay (TUR) vs Petra Kvitova (CZE) [16]

Ying-Ying Duan (CHN) vs Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP) [4]

Not before 7pm

Julia Goerges (GER) [9] vs Lucie Safarova (CZE)

Caroline Garcia (FRA) [7] vs Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)

COURT 1Johanna Konta (GBR) [10] vs Bernarda Pera (USA)

Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA) vs Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) [14]

Barbora Strycova (CZE) vs Aleksandra Krunic (SRB)

COURT 2Anett Kontaveit (EST) vs Alizé Cornet (FRA)

Samantha Stosur (AUS) vs Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU)

Elise Mertens (BEL) [15] vs Timea Babos (HUN)

COURT 3Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) [13] vs Donna Vekic (CRO)

Tatjana Maria (GER) vs Carina Witthoeft (GER)

Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) vs Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR)

COURT 5Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) vs Marketa Vondrousova (CZE)

Maria Sakkari (GRE) vs Sorana Cirstea (ROU)

Russia›s Maria Sharapova reacts after losing her Qatar Total Open 2018 first round match against Monica Niculescu of Romania yesterday.

Qualifier Niculescu stuns Sharapova

Young spectators cheer Maria Sharapova during her first round match at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha yesterday.

QATAR TOTAL OPEN 2018: YESTERDAY’S RESULTS

Monica Niculescu (ROU) bt Maria Sharapova (RUS) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3

Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) bt Shuai Zhang (CHN) 7-5, 6-0

Anna Blinkova (RUS) bt Elena Vesnina (RUS) 6-1,6-3

Mihaela Buzarnescu (ROU) bt Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) 7-5,6-4

Ying-Ying Duan (CHN) bt Ons Jabeur (TUN) 6-2,6-3

Catherine Bellis (USA) bt Daria Kasatkina (RUS) 7-5, 4-1 Ret’d

Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 7-6(8),6-4

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Officials at the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federa-tion (QMMF) have announced initial plans for this year’s Qatar Cross-Country Rally (QCCR), round four of the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup and round two of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.

The event takes place over five stages on April 17-22.

The QCCR will run over a short super special stage and four gruelling selective sections through the Qatar deserts for a second successive season, although the loss of one day in the desert is more than replaced by the demands of the event’s renowned navigation and pun-ishing road book.

“The QCCR is one of very few events where the motorcy-cles, quads and cars tackle the same route,” said Abdulrahman

Al-Mannai, QMMF President and Chairman of the organising committee.

“This year we will have five days of racing over a challeng-ing new route of around 1,395km. The event has a reputation as being one of the most difficult in the calendar and a real test of navigation for the riders and co-drivers.”

Rally headquarters and the media centre will be based at the Losail international circuit for a third year and there will be a new ceremonial start in Doha from 20.00hrs on April 17. After the pre-event press conference and the drivers’ briefing, com-petitors will tackle a super special stage of 4.5km at Losail from 16.15hrs on April 18.

The first of four selective sections through the desert gets underway on April 19 and is fol-lowed by three further sections on April 20, April 21 and April 22 - each of around 350km. In a

total route of 1,970.65km, 1,395.24km will be against the clock.

Khalid Al Remaihi and Sul-tan Zaher Al Muraikhi are senior members of the organising com-mittee, while Portugal’s Pedro Almeida and Erick Nevels work as Clerks of the Course for the respective FIA and FIM events, with Rashed Al Sulaiti acting as Almeida’s deputy and French-man Franck Vayssié taking the role of Event Manager for a sec-ond year.

Qatar’s premier cross-coun-try event developed from the Qatar International Baja that ran as a candidate rally in 2011 and was won by Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah at the wheel of a SAM Mercedes 35CC. Australia’s Jus-tin Taylor and local rider Adel Hussein won the motorcycle and quad categories.

This will be the seventh event of its kind in both the FIA and FIM series’. Al-Attiyah

claimed further wins in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 in Toyotas and Minis, while two-time Dakar winner and Africa Eco Race organiser Jean-Louis Schlesser was victorious in 2013.

Five-time Dakar winner Marc Coma now works as the Dakar’s Sporting Director and the Spaniard dominated the motorcycle category with his KTM in 2012, 2013 and 2015, with Honda’s Joan-Barreda Bort win-ning in 2014 and 2017 Dakar winner Sam Sunderland claim-ing wins in Qatar for the last two years.

Poland’s Rafal Sonik won the quad event on a Honda TRX 700 in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017. Qatar’s Mohammed Abu Issa was victorious in 2014 and Chile’s Ignacio Casale claimed the win in 2016.

Entries open on Thursday and the closing date at reduced rates will be March 15, with the final cut-off planned for April 5.

The QMMF will provide complimentary accommodation for GCC participants in Doha on April 16-18 and to all competi-tors on April 17-18. Visas for

competitors will be included in entry fees.

Regulations and entry forms will be available for download on Thursday from www.qmmf.com. or further information about the 2018 Qatar Cross-Country Rally,

contact Qatar Motor and Motor Cycle Federation (QMMF), Losail Circuit, PO Box 8708, Doha, Qatar, Tel: + 974 443 79885, Fax: + 974 443 79732, E-mail: info@qmmf.com.qa and website: www.qmmf.com.

26 TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2018SPORT

Qatar to host Cross-Country Rally in April

Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah at home in the sand at the Qatar Cross-Country Rally.

Sam Sunderland on his way to a second QCCR bike win in 2017.

Rafal Sonik champion on the quads in Qatar.

QFA and Hungarian Football Federation sign agreementTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: In a move to continue to develop bilateral relations with various football feder-ations within all confederations, the Qatar Football Association (QFA) and the Hungar-ian Football Federation (MLSZ) signed a cooperation agreement yesterday at Al Bidda Tower.

Prior to the signing ceremony, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, Pres-ident of the QFA received Sándor Csányi, President of MLSZ, Sándor Berzi, Vice Pres-ident of MLSZ, and Márton Vági, General Secretary of MLSZ and the MLSZ delegation in his office to discuss matters of mutual interest while stressing on the importance of building on the relationship between the two associations and developing it further in the future for the mutual benefit of both parties.

The agreement was signed by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, Pres-ident of the QFA and MLSZ President, Sándor Csányi and attended by Saoud Al Mohan-nadi, Vice President of the QFA, Mansoor Al Ansari, General Secretary of the QFA, Ali Dawood, Executive Director of the QFA Pres-ident office, Mushtaq Al Waeli, Executive

Director of Strategy and Institutional Devel-opment of the QFA, Sándor Berzi, Vice President of MLSZ, and Márton Vági, Gen-eral Secretary of MLSZ and MLSZ delegation.

The agreement focuses on cooperation in several key areas, mainly: technical and professional exchanges, national teams, exchange of expertise (including coach edu-cation and youth development), game development, player development and ref-eree development. It will also focus on the successful and numerous experiences of Qatari football, including Aspire Academy and Aspetar Sports Medicine Hospital.

The QFA has signed the agreement yes-terday with the MLSZ as part of its ongoing strategy to develop football in Qatar and enhance its relationship with its various Asian and European counterparts.

President of MLSZ, Sándor Berzi com-mented: “I am happy to be here in Qatar, and amazed at the facilities and overall football management and administration available in Qatar. The successful collaboration between the Hungarian Football Federation and Qatar Football Association has existed long before the signing of the agreement as there is a ref-eree exchange program in place between the

two sides in which Hungar-ian referees officiate matches in Qatar and vice versa. The signing of the cer-emony is just a formality for as our deep rooted relation-ship with the QFA has been in place for years now.”

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of Qatar Football Association and Sándor Csányi, President of Hungarian Football Federation excahnge documents during the signing ceremony.

High profile women’s referee seminar begins in DohaTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Referee Candidate Seminar for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 hosted in Doha until February 16 kicked off yesterday.

The Referee Candidate Seminar for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 brings together 33 ref-erees representing all six confederations and 56 countries – for the biggest tournament in women’s football.

The opening ceremony of the seminar held at the InterConti-nental Hotel Doha and was attended by Hani Ballan, Vice Chairman of FIFA and AFC Refe-rees’ Committees and Chairman of QFA Referees Committee, Massimo Busaccas, Director of the FIFA Ref-ereeing Department, Kari Seitz, FIFA’s Senior Manager of Referee-ing, and Neji Jouni, Executive Director of the Referees Commit-tee at QFA.

While addressing the referees Ballan said: “We are happy to host you for your medical and fitness tests here in Doha, as well as the-oretical and practical analysis in preparation for the Women’s World Cup in France. During this week, you (the referees) will be able to benefit from the sessions organ-ised to prepare you for the competition and you will have the opportunity to discuss the latest trends and programs in the refe-reeing world.”

“The list of candidate referees takes into account several quali-ties, including game performances, football understanding and fitness and this workshop will give you all that you need to prepare for the competition.”

“During this seminar, you will have the chance to convince the FIFA referees committee of your abilities before the final nomina-tions for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, which will be

announced during the period of June 7 to July 7 in which only a lim-ited number of referees will be selected to participate in the Wom-en’s World Cup.”

“You are wise enough to under-stand why you are in Doha. This indicates dedication, commitment and responsibility and requires sac-rifice. And these qualities lead to success. You are all capable to imag-ine yourselves at the Women’s World Cup matches and have the ability and qualities to be here, and we are proud to oversee the development of your skills.”

“You need to develop your knowledge of every new and inno-vative approach in the field of football and think in an innovative way. Einstein says insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You are here because your approach is different and your way of thinking is different, so be proud of yourselves.”

Kari Seitz, FIFA’s Senior Manager of Refereeing and

Hani Balan, Vice Chairman of FIFA Referees’ Committee and

Chairman of QFA Referees Committee during the seminar.

27TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2018 SPORT

Rusty Serena puts on brave face after comeback defeatAFP

ASHEVILLE, UNITED STATES: Former world number one Serena Williams said she felt on the “right track” despite a crush-ing loss in her long-awaited comeback to tennis yesterday playing alongside big sister Venus in a Fed Cup dead rubber.

The duo, who have com-bined to win 22 doubles titles, were outgunned by the unher-alded Dutch pairing of Lesley Kerkhove and Demi Schuurs who were playing in their first ever outing together.

The Williams lost 6-2, 6-3 with 36-year-old Serena appear-ing particularly slow on her feet and poor in her shot selection after more than a year away from the sport.

But she was determined to put on a brave face after the loss took some of the shine off the Americans’ otherwise decisive 3-1 win that booked their place in the next round against France in April.

“It felt really good to be back the court. I’ve been training and it was just exciting to be out there,” she said.

“I honestly feel better than I thought I was gonna feel, I feel like I didn’t expect to play you know like that for me. So I feel like that I’m on the right track.” It was Serena’s first competitive match since winning her 23rd major at the 2017 Australian Open.

The American star took time away from the sport to give birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia and get married, to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

Both were in attendance over the weekend, seated just behind the players’ box.

Serena had previously said that her path back had been full of “ups and downs”, crediting Venus with helping her regain her rhythm.

Yesterday she was happy with the power behind her shots even if her accuracy wasn’t quite where it should be.

“I didn’t expect to have that much power on my serves,” she

said. “Even though they didn’t go in, it’s just the start, I feel like that’s a very good step in the right direction.” And she hinted she needed to juggle the demands of motherhood against her career better.

“I didn’t manage my time well,” she said. “This is literally my first time travelling with the baby and everything so I’m gonna try to do better.”

- Home crowd support - There had been speculation Serena may drop out of Sunday’s doubles match, after she did not turn up for practice in the morn-ing with the three other US players.

But team captain Kathy Rinaldi confirmed her participa-tion after Venus won her singles match against Richel

Hogenkamp to seal overall vic-tory for the US.

“Serena’s gonna be joining her sister Venus!” she announced, to roars of approval before Williams appeared dressed in a white top, dark blue shorts topped off with a red headband.

The Americans had enjoyed enormous support all weekend from the sold-out 5,200-capac-ity crowd in the mountainous city of Asheville, North Carolina, famous for its historic architec-ture, breweries and vibrant art scene.

The dead-rubber was sup-posed to be the feel-good, icing on the cake, but the Dutch play-ers had other ideas.

“To play the two Williams sisters, it’s amazing because we

won the match,” said Kerkhove, 26.

“We knew it just 30 minutes before the match. We just both gave it our all and we just had nothing to lose.” The Dutch play-ers’ ability to soak up the pressure was all the more remarkable given that Schuurs, the younger of the pair, was just six-years-old when Serena won her first major tournament.

Venus’ participation meant there was no room for Lauren Davis, the US’ fourth player.

The seven-time Grand Slam winner, who enjoyed a renais-sance year in 2017, earlier shook off a scratchy start to prevail 7-5, 6-1 in her singles match, ensur-ing the US could continue their defence of the title.

- More Fed Cup? - Ahead of

the tie, Serena had refused to be drawn on her Grand Slam hopes for the year.

She had initially targeted last month’s Australian Open and a defence of her 2017 title but struggled during an exhibition match against Jelena Ostapenko in Abu Dhabi in December, forc-ing her to revise her plans.

But she hinted Sunday she could make herself available for selection for the US’ next round clash in France in April.

“I think ultimately it’s up to Kathy, she has a plenty of play-ers to chose from,” she said, referring to team captain Kathy Rinaldi.

“So many Americans are doing great, hopefully I’ll be able to be an option, I’ll be doing bet-ter by then,” she said.

Smith wins Australia’s Border MedalAFP

SYDNEY: Australia cricket captain Steve Smith capped off a golden 12 months by winning his second Allan Border Medal in Melbourne yesterday.

Smith, hailed as the coun-try’s finest batsman since Donald Bradman, polled 246 votes, well ahead of two-time medal winner David Warner (162 votes) and Nathan Lyon (156 votes).

Smith, who had earlier been named Australia’s Test Player of the Year for his dominant 12 months with the bat, won his first Border Medal in 2015.

The skipper was the hot favourite to take the award following a year in which he played 24 international games across limited overs and Test cricket and scored 1754 runs at 67.46 with seven centuries.

He captained a hard-fought series loss in India, a drawn series in Bangladesh and a triumphant 4-0 Ashes victory over England at home in which he was also named man of the series.

Smith, 28, is also the reigning ICC Test Cricketer of the Year after earning that accolade last month.

He joins Ricky Ponting (2004, 2006-07, 2009), Michael Clarke (2005, 2009, 2012-13), Shane Watson (2010-11) and David Warner (2016-17) as multiple winners of the annual award.

Allrounder Ellyse Perry won the Belinda Clark Award for a second time, confirming her as Australia’s best female cricketer over the past 12 months.

Perry, who previously won the award in 2016, capped off a 12-month period that also saw her named the ICC’s Cricketer of the Year.

The crowning moment of Perry’s year was her memo-rable double-century in the historic day-night Ashes Test against England in Sydney.

Slow and steady recovery road for Wawrinka

Federer quietly hoping for dream return to No. 1 rankAFP

ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS : Roger Federer (pictured) said yesterday he could allow himself to dream about recapturing the world number one spot at this week’s Rotterdam tournament and becoming the oldest man ever to hold the position.

To climb back to the top at the age of 36, the Swiss must at least reach the semi-finals.

If seedings hold up, that means he would have to defeat compatriot and friend Stan Wawrinka in what would be a high-profile quarter-final.

“I would love to be in that position with any-one, but with Stan it would be like a Grand Slam final, a big-time match,” said Federer, fresh from winning a 20th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

“I’m hoping to get to number one and hoping to do it this week. You always want to do it the tough way, it’s not easy to get there.

“The achievement would be quite incredible. It’s exciting to see Stan in my section and it’s great to have him back (after knee surgery in July).” Fed-erer made a relatively late decision to play at the event, which he won in 2005 and 2012.

He said that after winning in Melbourne a fort-night ago, he felt good enough to compete this week and is also considering playing in Dubai in two weeks’ time.

“I didn’t expect to win Australia, I played it not thinking about number one,” he said.

“I didn’t think of the rankings at all in Mel-bourne. Afterwards, I thought I could always play Rotterdam, I’d love to play, give it a go and see what happens.

“I’m happy I’m here, healthy and eager to play,” he said.

He starts his bid on Wednesday against

Belgian Ruben Bemelmans. Federer also gave some insight into his plans for the spring clay-court season, which he skipped completely last year on the way to winning his eighth Wimble-don title.

“The clay season is up in the air. If I’m play-ing a lot during this part of the season, it would be hard to play a robust clay season.

“It would be light (schedule) if I do play,” he said.

“We’ll see how it goes, I’m healthy and glad to be playing. I should be playing when I feel that way and not play when I don’t feel at 100 percent or don’t feel ready to do it.

“That’s the secret for me moving forward.”

Serena Williams of Team USA returns a shot against Lesley Kerkhove and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands competing in a doubles match during the first round of the 2018 Fed Cup at US Cellular Center in Asheville, North Carolina on Sunday.

AFP

ROTTERDAM, NETHER-LANDS: Stan Wawrinka is not considering his possible clash with Roger Federer at the Rotterdam World Tennis event as a dramatic check-point as the Swiss continues his knee surgery recovery.

“Of course, playing Roger is something special,” three-time Grand Slam winner Wawrinka said on Monday in the Dutch port city as the fifth seed prepared to face an unknown first-round oppo-nent in Dutch wildcard Tallon Griekspoor.

Should Wawrinka and Federer reach the quarter-finals this week, a Federer win into the semis would send the 20-time Grand Slam champion to the top of the ATP rankings next Monday.“Becoming number one again would be special for Roger, like everything he’s done in the past,” Wawrinka said. “He’s com-

pletely amazing.“It would be really spe-

cial to see him back at number one.” But that goal is not of concern to Wawrinka: “The quarter-finals might be an important match, but it’s more impor-tant for me to focus on my first round.” Wawrinka, who underwent July knee surgery and missed the last six months of 2017, is pleased with his recovery progress and plans to continue his European February tour as he plays three events in a row.

After winning a round at the Australian Open, he then returned to battle last week in Sofia, reaching the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion, quali-fier Mirza Basic. Wawrinka is taking his recovery slow and steady.

“A comeback takes time for sure, it was a big surgery, it takes months and months.

“So far I’m happy, I’m

doing everything well, prac-tising, playing matches, practising again. “I’m not at my top level, I need time for that. But I’m happy to be here, I’m playing three weeks in a row for the first time in six months.

“I want to be ready for this event.“You always want to be better and better, but there is no need to rush. The most important thing for me is the next few years, not the next few weeks.

“I don’t compare my self with amazing players like Roger - it’s most important for me to do the right thing for my career.”

REUTERS

LONDON: Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne will be a serious Ballon d’Or contender if he wins major titles with the Premier League club, according to his manager Pep Guardiola.

De Bruyne has been vital to City’s dominance this campaign with the 26-year-old notching a league-high 14 assists including three in Satur-day’s 5-1 rout of Leicester City.

“No doubt,” Guardiola told reporters when asked if the Belgian could win the prestigious individual award. “He is not (just doing it in) one game. It’s the w h o l e season,

every three days playing that way.

“But he knows and everyone

knows, to be there you have to win titles - and titles and titles, especially one. But the way he’s played it’s difficult to find one (better) in Europe.”

De Bruyne has scored 11 goals and provided 18 assists across all competi-tions for City this season, helping them establish a 16-point lead atop the

league table, but the mid-fielder is not focused on individual honours.

“To be fair, when I am busy playing foot-ball I don’t care (about that),” De Bru-yne said.

City remain in contention to win the quadruple as they

prepare for Tuesday’s match against Basel in

the Champions League knockout stages followed by an FA Cup fifth-round clash against Wigan Athletic and the League Cup final a g a i n s t Arsenal.

AFP

MILAN: French teen-ager Yann Karamoh

scored the winner as Inter Milan ended a two-month victory drought to move

back third with a 2-1 win against nine-man

Bologna on Sunday.Eder opened the scoring

after three minutes at the San Siro only for former Inter Milan star Rodrigo Palacio to pull Bolo-gna level after 25 minutes.

But Karamoh, 19, marked his first Serie A start by grabbing a stunning winner after 63 min-utes to give Luciano Spalletti’s side their first three points since December 3.

“It’s not easy to get through times like this,” said Spalletti whose side had taken just six points from their previous eight games.

“We started very strong this season with an incredible run of results, so expectations were unduly raised.”

Bologna were down a man after Ibrahima Mbaye was sent off on 68 minutes for a second yellow card, with defender Adam Masina also seeing red in injury time for a foul on Lisandro Lopez.

“Today we did really well.

We took the lead, there was an error for the equaliser and the ghosts of games past came back to haunt us again,” continued the Inter coach.

“But we had a good second half, although we didn’t make the most of the extra man and were a little too timid on the ball. Considering the situation, we were exceptional.”

The win lifted Inter up to third place, one point ahead of Roma who moved into the Champions League spots after coming from a goal down to beat bottom club Benevento 5-2 at the Stadio Olimpico.

Lazio drop from third to fifth after suffering their third con-secutive defeat -- a 4-1 thumping by leaders Napoli on Saturday.

Napoli maintained their one-point advantage on cham-pions Juventus who beat Fiorentina 2-0 on Friday with Inter now 15 points off top spot.

Inter’s top scorer Mauro Icardi remained on the sidelines through injury with Karamoh getting his first start in place of Antonio Candreva.

And the teenager made an immediate impact, opening the way for Croatian Marcelo Bro-zovic who set up Eder for the close-range opener.

But Palacio, who left Inter

for Bologna last year, equalised on 25 minutes after a blunder saw defender Miranda mistak-enly pass to the Argentine.

Karamoh grabbed the win-ner after exchanging passes with Rafinha, dribbling past two opponents with his left-footed effort from distance leaving Antonio Mirante with no chance.

Mbaye and Masina were sent off for tackles on Rafinha and Lopez respectively, but Bologna, who drop to 13th, still threatened in the final minutes.

Turkish youngster Cengiz Under scored a brace as Roma came back after conceding a shock early goal when new Ben-evento signing Guilherme Costa scored after seven minutes.

Federico Fazio headed in on 26 minutes to equalise, with Edin Dzeko also getting on the scoresheet in the second half before 20-year-old Under anet-ted on 62 and 75 minutes.

Benevento fought back with former Manchester City and Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna making his debut, Enrico Brignola scoring with 14 min-utes left.

But Gregoire Defrel scored the fifth from the spot two min-utes into injury time to give Roma their second consecutive win.

PSG’s record siging The 26-year-old Neymar is chasing the supreme status already attained by Ronaldo.

Real is protecting a formidable home record in Europe, having gone 17 matches unbeaten. But as Karim Benzema has been discovering, playing at home has its pitfalls.

28 TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2018SPORT 29TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2018 SPORT

Stage set for Ronaldo-Neymar showdownAP

LONDON: The Champions League resumes with a mouth-watering meeting of the aristocrats and the disruptors of European soccer.

The Santiago Bernabeu is the stage tomorrow for Ney-mar’s return to Spain six months after the heir to Ron-aldo’s throne was prized away from Barcelona for €222m.

“(Neymar and Ronaldo) are both quick, very strong one-on-one, they play quickly and put a lot of intensity into their games,” said PSG winger Angel Di Maria, a Champions League winner along-side Ronaldo at Madrid in 2014.

“Ney is smaller, and that’s perhaps his advantage. But

they are both capable of turning

games.”Only one of the superstars

can advance from the round of 16 games in Madrid and Paris over the next month.

The 26-year-old Neymar is chasing the supreme status already attained by Ronaldo.

“He lives and breathes goals,” Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said of Ronaldo, under-scoring the 33-year-old Portuguese’s enduring influence on the team. Ronaldo has helped Madrid win three of the last four Champions League titles, with two goals in last season’s final victory over Juventus.

Juventus helps to open the knockout phase this week against Tottenham today when Manches-ter City travels to Basel. Liverpool is away against Porto tomorrow but it will take something special to seize the spotlight from the

Spanish capital.It’s not just a place in the

quarterfinals at stake for PSG and Madrid. The los-ing coach is likely to find himself out of work by the end of the season.

Only two months ago, Zidane lifted the

Club World Cup for a sec-ond successive year but his job

prospects could be dependent on winning a third successive Champions League title.

So much has gone wrong domestically. Madrid languishes in fourth place and 17 points behind Barcelona in La Liga and

is out of the Copa del Rey.In Paris, Unai Emery is still

haunted by last season’s failures. He clung to power despite being deposed as French champions and an astonishing collapse at this stage to Barcelona.

“We’re stronger than last season,” Di Maria said.

Certainly in France where PSG has pulled 12 points clear of defending champion Monaco.

But while PSG can bully most teams, it is vulnerable against those playing with aggression and closing down high up the pitch. That was evident in a loss to Lyon last month when PSG panicked in defense and con-ceded a stoppage-time goal.

PSG will be hoping the deci-sion to invest so much of its resources in securing Neymar and Kylian Mbappe does not backfire against Madrid.

Di Maria has been in stronger form than Mbappe recently, scoring four times in the last month compared to the 19-year-old forward’s solitary effort.

Might it have been wiser to spend on protecting the shaky defense? For the trip to Spain, 32-year-old Lassana Diarra could be deployed as the hold-ing midfielder even though Emery accepts he can’t last a full game.

But Madrid has concerns in defense after conceding eight goals in its last five games, and Dani Carvajal is suspended after a yellow-card ploy backfired. While Carvajal had experience taking on Neymar in games against Barcelona, Zidane could be left relying on 19-year-old Achraf Hakimi.

Madrid is protecting a for-midable home record in Europe, having gone 17 matches unbeaten. But as Karim Benzema has been discovering, playing at home has its pitfalls.

JUVENTUS-TOTTENHAMEven though striker Paulo

Dybala is sidelined with a mus-cle injury, Juventus can turn to Gonzalo Higuain who has scored six times in four matches. And he is likely to be leading the strike force with Mario Mandzu-kic, who netted in two of his three group stage appearances.

After an inconsistent start to the campaign, the back line has settled down and the Biancon-eri have only conceded once in 16 matches in all competitions to set a club record. But the defense will be coming up against one of Europe’s most lethal strikers in Harry Kane, who has netted 34 goals for Tot-tenham in all competitions this season.

While Juventus is slugging it out for the Serie A title with Napoli - they are separated by one point - Tottenham has a fragile grip on the fourth Cham-pions League qualification place in the Premier League.

BASEL-MAN CITYSince breezing through the

group stage, City’s quadruple chase has gathered pace.

Pep Guardiola’s side has pulled 16 points clear in the Pre-mier League despite Gabriel Jesus sustaining a long-term knee injury on Dec. 31. Sergio Aguero shouldered the burden as City’s only other senior striker, scoring 13 times in 10 games across the league and two domestic cups - including four at the weekend. Basel also has a tighter domestic title chase, sitting in second place five points behind Young Boys, and is adapting following the sale of center back Manuel Akanji to Borussia Dortmund in January.

PORTO-LIVERPOOLExpect entertainment.Five-time European cham-

pion Liverpool scored 23 goals in the group stage, but has since lost playmaker Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona.

Shoring up the defense was a priority, though, in the January transfer window and center back Virgil van Dijk was finally signed from Southampton. While Liver-pool is 18 points behind City in the Premier League, Porto has a two-point lead at the top of the Portuguese standings and is unbeaten in 23 matches in all competitions.

Porto was the fifth equal highest scorer among the 32 group stage teams with 15 goals. But its leading attacking weapon, Vincent Aboubakar, is doubtful for today’s match with a muscle injury.

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THE HOSTS: Real Madrid, the indisputable kings of the continent with 12 titles led by five-time world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo. The visitors: Paris Saint-Germain, the upstarts who bulldozed soccer’s transfer record to hitch Neymar to the Qatari-funded mission to join soccer’s elite.

REAL MADRID VS PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN

Teenager leads Inter to first win in two months

Barcelona frustrated in goalless draw with GetafeAFP

MADRID: A disallowed Luis Suarez goal summed up a frus-trating afternoon for Barcelona as the leaders of La Liga dropped points for the second week running after a 0-0 stalemate with Getafe on Sunday.

After needing a late equal-iser to grab a point in the Catalan derby at Espanyol last weekend, Barca could not break down a well-organised Getafe side, who showed why they have the third-best defensive record in the league.

In irresistible form in front of goal in 2018, Suarez had the ball in the net just before half-time with a great finish from a Lionel Messi free-kick, but the home celebrations were cut short by the offside flag.

The Uruguayan striker then saw his header kept out by a bril-liant Vicente Guaita save as the match moved into stoppage time, with Barca failing to score at home in La Liga for the first time since November 2016.

Ernesto Valverde’s side remain unbeaten in La Liga after 23 games, extending their long-est run without losing from the start of a campaign.

However, they are now only seven points clear at the summit from Atletico Madrid, who won 1-0 at Malaga on Saturday with an early Antoine Griezmann goal. The Rojiblancos visit the Camp Nou in three weeks.

“We don’t like to draw at home, but that’s football. Our opponents defended really well and we were unable to score,” Valverde told beIN Sports.

“Maybe we lacked a bit of spark, that’s possible. It is strange for us not to score here at our stadium.”

With Samuel Umtiti banned, Thomas Vermaelen not fit and Gerard Pique only on the bench, Valverde handed a first start to January signing Yerry Mina and partnered him in central defence with Lucas Digne.

That pair were rarely overly troubled, but at the other end Valverde’s decision to bring both Paco Alcacer and Philippe Coutinho into the line-up did not have the desired impact.

They both lasted just over an hour, with Coutinho forcing a fine save from Guaita from a

curling strike in the 58th minute.

Meanwhile, Ousmane Dem-bele came on in the second half for his first appearance since his latest spell on the sidelines, but the young France forward was also incapable of breaking down the Getafe back line.

Former Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini came on towards the end to make his debut for Getafe, who are 10th.

Valencia reclaimed third place from Real Madrid thanks to a 3-1 win over city rivals Levante at Mestalla on Sunday night.

Santi Mina’s early opener was cancelled out by Sergio Postigo for the struggling visi-tors, but Luciano Vietto put Valencia back in front in the second half and Dani Parejo sealed the win with a late penalty.

The result ended a run of six straight defeats in all competi-tions for Valencia.

Madrid won 5-2 at home to Real Sociedad on Saturday as Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick for the first time this season.

The reigning champions are still 17 points adrift of Barcelona, albeit with a game in hand.

Sergio Rico was the hero for Sevilla with a penalty save and several key interventions as his side boosted their European hopes with a 1-0 win over Girona.

Inter Milan’s French forward Yann Karamoh celebrates after scoring a goal during the Italian

Serie A football match against Bologna at the San Siro Stadium in Milan on Sunday.

We’re going to come up against a great team with excellent players, whom we respect a lot. But we’ve already shown that we have a very strong, united and experienced group in this competition: Christiano Ronaldo

Neymar and Ronaldo are quick, very strong one-on-one, they play quickly and put a lot of intensity into their games. Ney is smaller, and that’s perhaps his advantage. But they are both capable of turning games: PSG winger Angel Di Maria

We don’t like to draw at home, but that’s football. Our opponents defended really well and we were unable to score: Valverde

Puel welcomes Mahrez back after ‘mistake’

REUTERS

LONDON: Leicester City manager Claude Puel believes winger Riyad Mahrez’s 10-day standoff with the Premier League club was a mistake and is eager for everyone to move on from the incident.

Mahrez returned to training on Friday for the first time since handing in a transfer request last month with local media reports say-ing the 26-year-old was absent as he was ‘depressed’ following a failed move to Manchester City.

The Algeria international missed two games and six training sessions after Leicester rejected the bid but returned to action in

Saturday’s 5-1 defeat by league leaders City.

“I think since the begin-ning of the situation it was tough to manage, but all the time we kept united about this situation and about Riyad,” Puel was quoted as saying by the Leicester Mer-cury. “That was the most important thing.

“Sometimes some play-ers can make a mistake. It was the first time for him and it was a mistake but the most important thing is to look forward and put it right.

“He is fantastic player for us, his team-mates and the fans. It is a pleasure to watch him... It is important we con-tinue together.”

Mahrez hit out at “untrue assumptions” in a statement

ahead of his return, shred-ding further doubt on the exact reasons for the play-maker’s absence but Puel was tight-lipped on the matter.

“Everything will stay within the club, remain between me, Riyad, the club and the players,” Puel added. “I think it was important he came back quickly with a good attitude.

“Riyad coming back is a good thing for us and now it is important he has a good focus and concentration about his football.

Leicester have won just one of their last five league games and are eighth in the standings. They play Shef-field United in Friday’s FA Cup fifth-round clash.

Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez gestures during their English Premier League match against Manchester City on Sunday.

AFP

MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that Real Madrid’s season is now effectively all about their looming Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain as the Spanish giants trail off the pace in La Liga.

“The tie...is one that could define the whole season,” the Portuguese forward told Real’s website after picking up a prize for best player in the world last season from the website Goal.com.

“We’re going to come up against a great team with excel-lent players, whom we respect a lot.

“But we’ve already shown

that we have a very strong, united and experienced group in this competition.”

Real host PSG at the Santiago Bernabeu tomorrow in the first leg of their last-16 tie, with the return set for March 6 in the French capital.

Zinedine Zidane’s side have won the Champions League in each of the last two seasons, and it is eight years since Real were eliminated at this stage.

Madrid are currently fourth in La Liga, 17 points behind lead-ers Barcelona, albeit with a game in hand.

That is despite a big 5-2 win over Real Sociedad at the week-end, a game in which Ronaldo scored a hat-trick.

Man City titles can help De Bruyne win Ballon d’Or, says Guardiola

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Messi cried after Champions League exit to Chelsea: SanchezREUTERS

BARCELONA: Lionel Messi was so distraught at Barcelona missing out on reaching the 2012 Champions League final that he was reduced to tears after his side’s semi-final elim-ination to Chelsea, his former Barca team-mate Alexis Sanchez (pictured) has revealed.

Barca ran into an early 2-0 lead in the second leg at the Nou Camp, having lost the first leg 1-0 in Lon-don, and their passage to a second consecutive final looked certain when John Terry was sent off for the visitors.

However, a chipped goal by Ramires put Chelsea ahead on away goals before Fernando Torres sealed Barca’s elimination in stoppage time.

“You might cry during a game if you lose a final. That’s all part of football. In the Barcelona dressing room after the Chelsea game, I saw Leo (Messi) cry. That’s because

players demand so much from themselves. People don’t see that,” Manchester United forward Sanchez told Sky Sports.

Barca and Chelsea renew their rivalry in the Champions League on Feb. 20, with the La Liga leaders vis-iting Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi

30 TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2018SPORT

Townsend warns Scots of ‘huge’ England challengeAFP

EDINBURGH: Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend warned his players that they face “the huge challenge” of taking on “probably the best team in the world” in their next Six Nations clash.

In the wake of a hard-fought 32-26 victory over France at Mur-rayfield, Scotland will entertain England in two weeks time.

Thanks largely to six second-half penalties by returning scrum-half Greig Laidlaw, Scot-land overcame a 20-14 half-time deficit to bounce back from their opening day 34-7 thrashing against Wales in Cardiff and kick-start their Six Nations campaign. Laidlaw, who plays in France for Clermont, also converted first-half tries by wing Sean Maitland and centre Huw Jones for a per-sonal tally of 22 points against a France side who looked in con-trol after two tries in the opening 26 minutes by wing Teddy Tho-mas. However, second-half

indiscipline and the deadly accu-racy of Scotland’s number nine left them on a run of eight matches without a victory head-ing into the Marseille clash with Italy on February 23.

Scotland face England at Mur-rayfield the following day and Townsend said: “That’s going to be a huge challenge. We’re play-ing against arguably the best team in the world over the last two years, given the amount of games they’ve won -- a team that that’s very consistent, very tough to beat.

“They have shown that they find a way to win more often than not and we’ve got to give our best game. We’ve got to really put them under pressure for 80 min-utes and we’ll see what happens after that.” After the bitter disap-pointment of Cardiff, however, Townsend was hugely satisfied by what was only Scotland’s third victory in 21 matches against France since the turn of the Millennium.

“It was (satisfying) for our

players,” said the former Scotland stand-off. “They put a huge effort into today’s (Sunday) game. We ground out that win.

“For us to be able to bounce back, not just after last week, but after a couple of setbacks against a team that looked full of confi-dence, and to put in that effort in the last 20 minutes... that was outstanding.” Laidlaw was par-ticularly impressive, making his first international start for 12 months and maintaining Scot-land’s attacking momentum even when switched to fly-half in place of the ineffectual Finn Russell.

“He’s a very good ten,” said Townsend.

“He jogged through a few plays in the car park this morn-ing as preparation.” -

France head coach Jacques Brunel said the defeat was not as painful as the 15-13 one inflicted by Jonny Sexton’s 83rd minute drop goal for Ireland in Paris last weekend.

“It seemed more cruel last week,” he said. “This time it was

our mistakes that led to defeat. Scotland made the most of them, especially in the last 15 minutes. “It was a lack of discipline. We made a lot of mistakes. That allowed Scotland to come back and win. I don’t think it was phys-ical, it was more a lack of control.”

Brunel, who took over from the sacked Guy Noves in Decem-ber, admitted that he was unhappy with the impact of his replacements.

“That’s obviously when the whole match changed, so I’ll have to review the match,” said the 64-year-old, who guided Italy to a Six Nations victory at Murray-field in 2015.

“But, yes, I am disappointed.” Asked if he would be reviewing his own approach after a second defeat, Brunel said: “No, I just want to focus on what is positive, and in both matches we could have won.

“There are still a few things lacking but I think we could still make a difference, really.”

Crosby scores 400th goal in Penguins’ winREUTERS

NEW YORK: Sidney Crosby scored twice, including his 400th career goal, and the Pittsburgh Penguins dominated the host St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Sunday.

Crosby, who ended a 10-game scoreless drought, has 19 goals on the season. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins are surging toward the playoffs and have won 12 of their past 17 games.

Penguins goalie Matt Mur-ray came up huge with 33 saves on 34 shots. He is 5-0-1 in his last six decisions.

Kyle Brodziak had the only goal for the Blues, who saw their three-game winning streak end.

Sharks 3, Ducks 2 (SO) Joe Pavelski and Logan

Couture scored in a shootout to cap the Sharks’ rally from a two-goal, third-period deficit, helping San Jose win at Anaheim.

San Jose goalie Martin Jones stopped Adam Hen-rique’s slapper to start the shootout and got help from the goalpost, which stoned Rick-ard Rakell’s attempt in the second round. Couture buried his attempt to end the tiebreaker.

Jones finished with 25 saves for San Jose, while John Gibson made 37 saves for Ana-heim. The Sharks forced overtime when Timo Meier

bagged his 14th marker of the season at 19:06 of the third period.

Flyers 4, Golden Knights 1 Sean Couturier had a goal

and two assists, and Michal Neuvirth made 38 saves to lead Philadelphia to a road victory over Vegas.

Andrew McDonald, Claude Giroux and Radko Gudas also scored for the Flyers, who won for the fourth straight time. Neuvirth improved to 7-7-2 this season with his second vic-tory in 24 hours after prevailing in relief during a 4-3 shootout win at Arizona on Saturday night.

Brayden McNabb scored the lone goal for Western Con-ference-leading Vegas, which fell to 19-4-2 at home and lost back-to-back games at T-Mobile Arena for the first time in the team’s young history.

Bruins 5, Devils 3 Adam McQuaid scored the

go-ahead goal to lead visiting Boston to a win over New Jersey.

Torey Krug scored two goals to lead Boston, which has won four of five and 10 of 12. The Devils dropped their fourth consecutive game, and with the slide, they find them-selves in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division.

Patrice Bergeron added an insurance goal with 39 seconds left in the game. Boston won despite losing the shots-on-goal battle 38-27.

NBA: James, retooled Cavaliers roll in BostonREUTERS

MIAMI: On the day the Celtics retired Paul Pierce’s number, LeBron James stole the spotlight, leading the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers to a 121-99 victory against former teammate Kyrie Irving and host Boston on Sunday.

James had 24 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Cleveland was playing its first game with a full squad after making a series of deadline-day trades to retool its roster, with George Hill, Rodney Hood, Jor-dan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr all making their Cavs debuts.

Clarkson finished with 17 points while Hood and J.R. Smith each added 15. Hill had 12 and Nance chipped in five to help the Cavs to a second straight win.

Irving led the Celtics with 18 points and five assists. Marcus Morris was the only other player in double figures with 17 for Bos-ton, which dropped its second straight.

Rockets 104, Mavericks 97 Chris Paul guided host Houston to a victory over undermanned Dallas.

Paul finished with 25 points, eight rebounds, nine assists and three steals, providing the spark down the stretch of the third quarter that enabled the Rock-ets to extend their winning

streak to eight games. James Harden added 27 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Clint Capela posted a double-double (16 points, 11 boards) for Houston. The Mavericks left Dirk Nowitzki, Wesley Matthews and J.J. Barea back in Dallas follow-ing their home triumph over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night. They received 20 points from Yogi Ferrell and a 18 points and 12 rebounds from Dwight Powell.

Thunder 110, Grizzlies 92 Paul George amassed 33

points, eight assists and three steals as short-handed Okla-homa City routed visiting Memphis.

George helped the Thunder win without Russell Westbrook (sprained left ankle) and forward Carmelo Anthony (sprained right ankle), who missed each missed a second consecutive game.

Marc Gasol led the Grizzlies with 18 points, but Memphis dropped its sixth straight.

Raptors 123, Hornets 103 DeMar DeRozan scored 25

points and visiting Toronto wore out travel-weary Charlotte.

CJ Miles posted 24 points off the bench and Jonas Valanciu-nas supplied 21 points for Toronto, which shot 56.3 per-cent from the field. The Raptors won their fifth game in a row, though the other four came at

home. The Hornets had returned home Saturday morning after finishing a four-game West Coast trip with Friday night’s loss at Utah. A night earlier, they lost in overtime at Portland. Char-lotte lost its fourth game in a row Sunday despite 23 points from Kemba Walker and 17 points and 13 rebounds from Dwight Howard.

Timberwolves 111, Kings 106

Karl-Anthony Towns’ 22-footer broke a late tie, and Minnesota went onto beat Sac-ramento in Minneapolis for its 13th consecutive home win.

Towns led all scorers with 29 points for the Timberwolves, who snapped a two-game los-ing streak. Jimmy Butler added 18 points, and Andrew Wiggins added 16 points to go with eight rebounds for Minnesota.

Rookie De’Aaron Fox had 23 points for the Kings, who lost for the fourth time in five games.

Hawks 118, Pistons 115 Dewayne Dedmon con-

verted a three-point play that gave Atlanta a late lead and then knocked down a clutch 3-pointer to help the Hawks beat visiting Detroit.

Atlanta was down 107-104 with 2:24 play but mounted an 8-0 run, fueled by Dedmon, to take the lead. Dedmon grabbed an offensive rebound, hit a layup

and made the ensuing free throw that put the Hawks in front. He followed with a 3-pointer from the right wing as the shot clock was winding down on Atlanta’s next possession that put the Hawks up 112-107.

Dennis Schroder scored 23 points and went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the final seconds to seal the win for Atlanta. Ded-mon finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Andre Drummond scored 25 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, and Reggie Bullock added 20 points for the Pistons, who have dropped two straight.

Pacers 121, Knicks 113 Victor Oladipo scored 30

points to lead Indiana past New York in Indianapolis.

Oladipo added nine assists and eight rebounds to go along with six steals. Bojan Bogdanovic had 20 points, and Thaddeus Young delivered a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Pacers.

Enes Kanter and Tim Hard-away Jr. shared top-scoring honors for the Knicks with 17 points. Kanter, who had 11 rebounds, was able to return after missing the previous game following oral surgery.

Jazz 115, Trail Blazers 96 Donovan Mitchell scored 27

points and Joe Ingles 24 to lead visiting Utah past Portland.

Lebron James (23) of the Cleveland Cavaliers is guarded by Terry Rozier (12) of the Boston Celtics in the second half during a game against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on Sunday.

Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) shoots as St. Louis Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (27) defends during the third period of their NHL game at Scottrade Center.

Scotland’s captain John Barclay holds the winner’s trophy after the Six Nations international rugby union match between Scotland and France at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on Sunday.

Anderson retains gold despite challenging winds

IOC boss to visit North Korea after Winter GamesREUTERS

PYEONGCHANG: International Olympic Committee (IOC) Pres-ident Thomas Bach plans to visit North Korea after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, cementing ties with the reclu-sive state which used the event to restart political dialogue with South Korea.

Bach told Reuters in an inter-view on Monday he would make the visit on the North’s invitation as part of an agreement between the IOC and both North and South Korea. The parties were still discussing a convenient date, he added.

The Games in South Korea are due to finish on Feb 25.

“All the parties concerned have welcomed this invitation to North Korea...,” he said. “We are talking about this convenient date in order to continue the dia-logue on the sports side. We will see when this is going to happen.”

North and South Korean leaders swapped warm hand-shakes and smiles at Friday’s opening ceremony, enabling the IOC to present the Games as ena-blers of peace and take the media spotlight away from a Russian doping scandal that has plagued it for years.

Russian athletes marched under the Olympic flag, and in neutral colours, at the ceremony, having been banned from

competing formally for their country by the IOC. Many critics had called on the IOC to ban Rus-sia outright.

North Korea agreed to par-ticipate in Pyeongchang after the South and IOC encouraged the heavily sanctioned state to par-ticipate as a gesture of peace.

Athletes from both sides, technically still at war, marched together at the opening cere-mony and have fielded a unified women’s ice hockey team, the first time an inter-Korean team has competed at any Olympic Games.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been using the Games in his efforts to break the ice with the North and pave the way for

talks over the North’s weapons programme.

“We can set the symbols, we can show that it is worthwhile sit-ting down together discussing, negotiating, and that then you can come to a good result,” Bach said.

“For our side, for the sports side, this dialogue will continue..,” he said, adding that the IOC was in constant dialogue with North Korea’s national Olympic committee.

The IOC and the two Koreas signed a tripartite agreement on Jan. 20 in Lausanne that set out the details of North Korea’s Olym-pic participation, including the number of athletes, the sports they would take part in as well as their joint march. The

agreement was seen as a break-through given the Koreas had not marched together at an Olympics for more than 12 years.

South Korean Presi-dent Moon Jae-in hosted two of North Korea’s most senior officials at the opening cere-mony, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister. Moon warmly shook hands

with her and later held talks with her in Seoul.

Kim Jong Un has invited Moon for talks in Pyongyang, South

Korean officials said, setting the stage for the first meet-

ing of Korean leaders in more than a decade.

The thaw in rela-tions has centred on the Olympics, with a

senior American mem-ber of the IOC calling for

the joint ice hockey team, which included 12 North

Korean players, to be nomi-

nated for the Nobel P e a c e Prize.

‘Determined’ Canada turn Olympic silver into goldAFP

GANGNEUNG: Ice dance stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir inspired Canada to the figure skating team title to secure the Winter Games heavyweights’ first gold at Pyeongchang 2018 yesterday.

The Russians, with their teenage ice star-lets Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova, took their first silver of the Games. The USA team was third.

The Canadian, featuring dual 2014 silver medallist Patrick Chan, fulfilled their promise as favourites to beat Olympic Athletes from Russia, after coming second to the 2014 Games host nation in Sochi.

They took command on Friday, despite Chan tumbling in his men’s short programme.

Competing in their third Olympics, Virtue and Moir earned a maximum 10 points for their short programme, and matched that in the concluding free with an exhilarating four-and-a-half minute performance to the music of Moulin Rouge.

Canada finished on 73 points, with OAR on 66 and the USA a further four points behind.

Three-time ex world champion Chan said “determination” was the added ingredient that had made the difference between Sochi silver and Korean gold.

“We had determination this time around.“We saw the potential we had in Sochi and

didn’t capitalise on it. This time we really want to nail it into the coffin and win this thing.”

Italy came in fourth with Japan last of the five that went through to the final five seg-ments of the competition which was held over three days.

While Japan had to make do without defending men’s Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, Canada went into battle with all their stars present.

And they didn’t let them down at the Gang-neung Ice Arena.

For Russia, competing in South Korea as OAR after Russia’s state-sponsored doping ban, it was always going to be a struggle to recover from Mikhail Kolyada’s flop in the men’s short programme.

But they gave it a great shot, with their teenaged starlets Medvedeva and Zagitova dominant in both ladies’ sections.

Medvedeva conjured up a world record score in Sunday’s short programme, with Zag-itova producing a personal best in her free dance to Don Quixote.

“Today I got my best score, a season’s best and I am pleased with that,” said 15-year-old Zagitova after this latest chapter in a remark-able first senior season..

Training companions Medvedeva and Zag-itova will turn from teammates to foes next week for a mouthwatering women’s title showdown.

As for the men, US quad boy wonder Nathan Chen, rated one of Japanese skating golden boy Hanyu’s main dangers, will be working overtime in training after making mis-takes in his short routine.

Hanyu sat out the team competition as he gave his body every chance of being at its best for the defence of his crown after ankle liga-ment damage threatened to scuttle his Olympic dream last November.

He is due to train for the first time since arriving in Pyeongchang later Monday.

The figure skating resumes on Wednes-day and Thursday for the pairs competition with the men taking centre stage on Friday and Saturday.

Angry snowboarders hit out at ‘dangerous’ finalAFP

PYEONGCHANG: Angry snowboarders said the “dangerous” women’s slope-style final at the Pyeongchang Olympics should have been cancelled after vicious winds caused a string of crashes yesterday.

Nearly all the athletes, including American winner Jamie Anderson, tumbled at some point at the frigid Phoe-nix Park, where strong winds forced Sunday’s qualifiers to be scrapped and also delayed

the final for more than an hour yesterday.

It was the latest event at the Games to be disrupted by the swirling wind, with the prestigious men’s downhill skiing moved to Thursday.

None of the snowboard-ers suffered major injury, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Inter-national Ski Federation (FIS) faced questions as to why the final was not shelved.

The FIS admitted that conditions were “challeng-ing” but defended the

decision to go ahead with the event, saying the safety of the athletes was their top priority.

Enni Rukajarvi mastered the conditions better than most and took bronze behind defending champion Ander-son and Laurie Blouin of Canada, but the Finn said her achievement had been overshadowed.

“Most happy that no one got hurt really bad,” she said.

Asked whether it had been the right decision to hold the event, she replied:

“It wasn’t. It was better in the practice, but then it got really bad, so they should have can-celled it or moved it.”

On Sunday, 17-year-old Tess Coady, the youngest member of the Australian team in South Korea, was forced out of the Games after wrecking her left knee in training.

Anderson, 27, became the first woman to win two Olympic snowboarding golds, despite briefly falling too in her final run.

But all the talk was about

the wind, which coupled with the sub-zero temperatures made life tough for athletes and spectators.

In the build-up to com-petition, Britain’s Katie Ormerod and teenager Coady both suffered Games-ending injuries on the slopestyle course, which features high rails and huge jumps.

Coady ruptured her ante-rior cruciate ligament (ACL), abruptly ending her first Olympics and leaving her facing several months on the sidelines.

US’ Jamie Anderson competes in a run of the women’s snowboard slopestyle final event at the Phoenix Park during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang yesterday. INSET: Anderson celebrates her victory.

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PYEONGCHANG: Sochi champion Jamie Anderson of the United States battled challenging cross winds that had delayed the start of the final to win her second successive Olym-pic gold in the women’s snowboard slopestyle at the Pyeongchang Games yesterday.

The start of the final, which included all of the athletes after qualifying was cancelled on Sun-day because of poor weather, had been delayed due to the strong winds.

Only five riders made it down the first run without falling in the difficult conditions, which also included hard snow, with Ander-son scoring 83.00 points to give her an almost 10-point advantage head-ing into the second run.

It was enough to hold off Can-ada’s Laurie Blouin, who took silver with 76.33 on her second run, and Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi, who added bronze to her silver from Sochi four years ago, with 75.38 points.

None of the riders were able to complete two error-free runs.

There was a particularly scary moment when Slovakia’s Klaudia Medlova landed flat on her back after missing a grab during her first run but she did complete her sec-ond and finished 24th.

Japan’s Reira Iwabuchi, number one in the FIS World Cup rankings, fell twice on her first run before also crashing out on the second run. Iwabuchi, one of the lightest riders on the tour, was just one example of the top riders struggling in the conditions.

Austrian Anna Gasser, who told reporters after the event that the wind conditions made the event “a lottery”, was another favourite who struggled and failed to land either of her runs.

Anderson said her experience allowed her to handle the condi-tions better than some of her younger competitors, who were struggling to reign in some of the jumps that went too big for them to handle in the windy conditions.

“It is about who can deal with their nerves best and deal with the conditions in the moment,” said 27-year-old Anderson after the final.

She agreed with her rivals that the events were hard but also said it was about adjusting to the con-ditions and putting together a run suited for the specific situation.

Anderson has spoken in the build-up to the Olympics about the youngest athletes pushing her to go harder and she reiterated that on Monday.

“There is a lot more competi-tion compared to in Sochi. In Sochi I knew I was one of the best,” she said.

“For a lot of years I wasn’t pro-gressing but now we are doing tricks I wasn’t doing before. I didn’t think a lot of those tricks were possible.”

Blouin, who was stretchered off the course in practice on Friday, completed an incredible comeback to clinch the silver medal.

“I caught an edge on the third jump and slammed my face. I then went to hospital to check my neck and I was cleared for practice,” said the Canadian, a big bruise clear underneath her left eye.

“Now I have second place and I don’t believe it. It is a dream come true.”

31TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2018 SPORT

32TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2018

SPORTYou might cry during a game if you lose a final. That’s

all part of football. In the Barcelona dressing room

after the Chelsea game, I saw Leo (Messi) cry.

Alexis Sanchez Manchester United forward

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatari football giants Al Rayyan and Al Sadd will kick off their 2018 AFC Champions League Group D campaign today.

Al Rayyan will lock horns with Iran’s Esteghlal at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium while Al Sadd and Al Wasl of the United Arab Emirates will square off for the first time in Group C the League at Zabeel Stadium.

The Group D encounter will start Al Rayyan’s eighth campaign in the competition.

Al Rayyan scored eight goals in three home games last year, while one of their best perform-ances came in a 3-1 home victory over Esteghlal’s city rivals Perse-polis when star man Rodrigo Tabata netted twice.

Esteghlal did manage to make it out of the group stage last year, before a 6-1 defeat to Al Ain in the second leg of the Round of 16 brought their continental dream to an abrupt halt.

The Tehran side has played Al Rayyan six times in the past and have come out on top on four occasions, with the last time being a 2-1 victory in the 2014 group stage.

Meanwhile, Al Sadd’s oppo-nents have only ever appeared in the competition once before now, back in 2008, when they were eliminated at the group stage.

A runners-up finish in the 2017 UAE Pro League secured a return to the competition a decade after their continental debut and Al Wasl will now have their sights on advancing beyond the group stage at the second attempt.

Having missed out on AFC Champions League qualification after falling at the play-off round in the previous two years, 2011 winners Al Sadd return for the first time since reaching the last 16 in 2015.

Barca legend Xavi Hern-andez-led side remains the last team from West Asia to win the competition, but have won just three of their past 12 games on the continent. Expectation will be high this year, though, as Spanish FIFA World Cup winner prepares to make his debut on the continent.

In other matches today, two-time AFC Champions League winners Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors return to continental action for

the first time since winning the title in 2016 when they host Kashiwa Reysol in Group E.

The reigning K-League Classic champions defeated Al Ain in the 2016 final to add to the title they won in 2006, but the Asian powerhouse have a dismal record against Kashiwa, having drawn one and lost five of their six encounters.

Jeonbuk acquired firepower in Brazilian striker Adriano when they brought the former FC Seoul man in ahead of the 2018 group stage. The forward’s last appear-ance in the competition yielded a record-equaling 13 goals as the side from the Korea Republic capital progressed to the semi-finals.

The visitors are making their first appearance in the compe-tition since advancing to the 2015 quarter-finals, while they also reached the semi-finals in 2013. On both occasions the J.League side fell to eventual c h a m p i o n s G u a n g z h o u Evergrande.

While boasting an excellent record against Jeonbuk, Kashiwa have won just once in their pre-vious seven AFC Champions League away games, although

that was on their last trip to Korea when they defeated Suwon Samsung Bluewings at the 2015 last 16 stage.

In Group F, two of the most impressive teams in last year’s Champions League face off in as Kawasaki Frontale host Shanghai SIPG.

Hosts Kawasaki remained unbeaten on their march to the 2017 quarter-finals before exiting after a second leg defeat to eventual winners Urawa Red Diamonds.

The Japanese side went on to win their maiden J.League title at the end of last year and will return as one of the tournament favourites ahead of one of the most eagerly awaited clashes of the first round of matches.

Shanghai SIPG did one better than Kawasaki last year, but also fell to Urawa following a narrow defeat in the semi-finals, which had marked a best-ever per-formance on the continent for the side.

Hulk was undoubtedly the star man last year, netting in nine successive games and creating seven goals for his teammates – a record matched only by Kawa-saki’s Kengo Nakamura.

Al Sadd, Al Rayyan begin ACL campaign

ACL: Boudiaf brace givesAl Duhail perfect start THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Karim Boudiaf struck twice while Youssef Msakni added another as Qatari football giants Al Duhail came from behind to record a 3-1 victory over Iran’s Zobahan in their Group B match of the 2018 AFC Champions League (ACL) yesterday.

Brazilian striker Kiros put the visitors in front 10 minutes into the game. Giorgi Gvelesiani’s header was nodded on by Morteza Tabrizi to beat goal-keeper Amine Lecomte, but the forward who had scored twice in the play-off saw his headed effort ricochet off the cross bar and into the path of Kiros who headed home from point-blank range.

The visitors defended resil-iently and were successful in keeping Al Duhail attackers at bay, until the 74th minute when Youssef Msakni’s shot was spilled by goalkeeper Mazaheri onto the path of Karim Boudiaf, who drove home the rebound to equalise for the Qataris.

One minute later the defen-sive midfielder got his second of the night from a powerful header after Nam Tae-hee’s cross from the corner.

The South Korean playmaker was his side’s creative force once more, finding Msakni with a cross that was swept home to round the scoring with five minutes to go and seal an important victory at the start of the campaign for Al Duhail who travel to the UAE to face Al Wanda in their next game on February 19.

In the other Group B encounter which took place yes-terday, Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv Tashkent were off to a flying start in the league campaign fol-lowing after an impressive 5-0 win at home over Al Wahda of the United Arab Emirates.

The hosts took the lead in the 25th minute when Sanjar Shaa-khmedov’s through ball found Nivaldo in the box and the Bra-zilian slotted home past goal-keeper Rashed Ali to earn the hosts a lead which they took into the break.

Lokomotiv started the second half on the front foot and were 2-0 up eight minutes after the restart, courtesy of a stun-ning effort from Ikromjon Ali-baev with the midfielder’s strike from the halfway line catching Ali off-guard.

Al Wahda’s night went from bad to worse just two minutes later when defender Salem Sultan converted Shukrat

Mukhammadiev’s cross into his own net to make it 3-0 to Lokomotiv.

Substitute and new signing Sardor Rashidov then got his name on the scoresheet in the 59th minute, cutting onto his left foot and drilling in a fierce shot that went in at the near post, before Mukhammadiev deliv-ered a perfect cross from the right wing to set up Alibaev, who headed in his second and Loko-motiv’s fifth goal.

Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, Wesley Sneijder-led Al Gharafa went down fighting to UAE’s Al Jazira yesterday. The home team recorded their first AFC Champions League home vic-

tory since 2014 with a 3-2 win.Brazilian striker Romarinho

broke free on the wing and attempted to find teammate Ali Mabkhout, but his cross found its way to the back of the net, tricking goalkeeper Qassim Burhan in the tenth minute.

The visitors’ response was instant, as former Persepolis striker Mehdi Taremi found space inside Al Jazira’s box to control and fire low past Ali Kha-seif within a minute of the hosts’ opener.

The Emirati champions restored their lead in the 26th minute after Moroccan play-maker Mbark Boussoufa sent Mabkhout through on goal with

a defence-splitting pass. The UAE international applied a calm finish past Burhan for Al Jazira’s second.

The pick of the goals came in the 69th minute when Romar-inho nodded for Ahmed Al Hashmi to strike on the half-volley from 40 yards out, to make it 3-1.

Two minutes later, Qatari international Ahmed Alaeldin twisted and turned inside Al Jazira’s box and unleashed a low drive that hit the upright and fell for Wesley Sneijder to tap in Al Gharafa’s second. His goal proved merely a consolation as Al Jazira walked away with the three points.

Al Duhail’s Karim Boudiaf (right) celebrates with a team-mate after scoring against Iranian Zobahan

during their AFC Champions League match played at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha yesterday.

Group C: Al Sadd vs Al Wasl at Zabeel Stadium, Dubai (6.00pm)AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: TODAY’S FXTURES

Group D: Al Rayyan vs Esteghlal at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha (6.10pm)

Al Sadd’s Xavi Hernandez in action.

Man City squad most expensive in historyAFP

PARIS: Premier League leaders Manchester City have the most expensive squad in history, according to a report published on Monday by the Swiss-based CIES Football Observatory.

The research values Pep Guardiola’s squad at €878m ($1.08bn), with Paris Saint-Germain second on 805 mil-lion euros, after a January transfer window in which City acquired centre-back Aymeric Laporte from Ath-letic Bilbao for €65m.

Neymar’s world-record signing from Barcelona accounts for more than a quarter of the PSG total but Kylian Mbappe is only on loan, despite an anticipated transfer fee of up to 180m euros to be paid to Monaco at the end of the season.

That leaves Guardiola managing the costliest-ever collection of talent.

“When you want to com-pete at the highest level, you need to spend,” Guardiola said last month.

“Some clubs spend £300, £400m on two players. We spend it on six players.”

Two other teams have spent more than €700m building their squads - Man-chester United (€747m) and Barcelona (€725m).

The rest of the top ten is made up of Real Madrid in sixth, Juventus in eighth and four Premier League teams -- Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Everton.

The researchers calcu-lated that the average Pre-mier League squad cost “a record high” of €291m, more than double La Liga’s average of €131m.