CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Chelsea and Liverpool set out today on their Champions League adventures with early French tests in their opening pool games.
While Liverpool, who travel to a Marseille side against whom they enjoyed mixed fortunes last season, and United have both savored European success, Chelsea fans are hoping this will be the season they break their duck.
John Terry’s missed penalty in Moscow handed United the title last May, while under Jose Mourinho the Londoners twice found Liverpool a bridge too far.
Under Luiz Felipe Scolari the Blues are already top of the Premiership following Saturday’s win at Manchester City, and will be odds on favorites to put three points on the board against a Bordeaux side held at home by Marseille in the French league on Saturday.
Bordeaux have started the season slowly with just seven points from five games — six behind table-topping Lyon.
The other encounter in the group pits AS Roma against Romanian newcomers Cluj.
While Cluj have nothing to lose Roma, in contrast, must shrug off a 3-1 weekend loss at Palermo which left them on a solitary point from two league games.
Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez swiftly bolstered his reputation in winning the Champions League in his debut season at Anfield in 2005 with a heart-stopping win over AC Milan, though the same opponents secured revenge two years later.
But Benitez, with the club’s cashflow-minded US owners at his back, has not only to show his European savvy anew, but also doff his cap in the direction of critics who suggest it is about time the Premiership trophy arrived at Anfield.
Liverpool’s last league title came 18 years ago.
A first league win over United under Benitez’s tenure on Saturday has boosted the Spaniard even if he may not risk the fit again Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.
Last season, Liverpool stumbled to a home group loss against Marseille but when the chips were down rattled through the rest of their program, including a 4-0 win in France.
Marseille will hope former Liverpool man Boudewijn Zenden will be on his game and coach Eric Gerets will keep his fingers crossed that Mathieu Valbuena, who scored a cracker to shock Anfield last autumn but who hasn’t played since summer groin surgery, can play some part.
PSV Eindhoven meet Torres’ former club Atletico Madrid in the same Group D.
In Group B, Jose Mourinho will bid to do with Inter Milan what he managed to with Porto on a shoestring budget in 2004 but then failed to manage with cash kings Chelsea in the three following seasons and that’s win the Champions League.
Inter, fourth after a win and a draw to date in Serie A, travel to Greece to face Panathinaikos while Cypriots Anorthosis head for Germany to tackle Werder Bremen and make their competition bow as the first side from the island to play in the group stage.
Barcelona host Sporting Lisbon in their first Group C match while Switzerland’s FC Basel take on Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but