Both Chelsea and Liverpool can pretty much assure themselves of a place in the Champions League knockout stages today with victories over AS Roma and Atletico Madrid respectively.
Victory for Chelsea would put them on 10 points and even were Bordeaux to beat Romanian side Cluj it would need the latter side to win their final two matches and Chelsea lose both theirs for the Londoners to miss out.
Liverpool need a win at Anfield, combined with a PSV Eindhoven loss to Marseille, which would guarantee the top-two finish needed to reach the last 16.
Chelsea look to have the easier of the tasks given Roma’s appalling form at the moment, which has seen them lose six of their first nine Serie A matches and their last four.
The Italians have been hiding away in a hotel for nearly a week which one could interpret as resembling a siege like mentality.
Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka has got the nod for the Roma clash ahead of fit-again Ivory Coast star Didier Drogba.
“Drogba is back but my decision against Roma is easy,” said manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
“Anelka is in better condition so he plays,” added the Brazilian, who will have to do without the injured Ashley Cole.
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez looks set to throw Spanish marksman Fernado Torres into the fray against his former side after he missed their first clash because of injury.
The hosts will be especially wary of Portuguese international Simao, who has made a habit of scoring against them once for Benfica and then in their first match a fortnight ago.
In contrast to their cross channel neighbors the two French sides in action are in desperate need of victories to keep their hopes of qualifying alive.
Marseille, who are pointless, host PSV on the back of a morale boosting 3-1 win over St Etienne at the weekend and certainly if they play as they did in the opening match against Liverpool then they can think of claiming all three points.
Bordeaux, though, lost to Nancy in the league and coach Laurent Blanc has made it clear to his side what he expects of them when they travel to Cluj — another win over the Romanians.
“The defeat to Nancy was a very negative thing for us,” confessed the former France central defender. “Now we have to rebound in the Champions League ... that is imperative.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite