Manchester United face CSKA Moscow in the Champions League at Old Trafford today, with Sir Alex Ferguson warning the hosts they have not qualified for the latter stages just yet.
Ferguson’s side have won all three of their Champions League matches so far, including the corresponding fixture in Russia, and stand on the cusp of reaching the knock-out stages.
They are huge favorites to make that four wins out of four against a CSKA side that are currently lurching from one crisis to another.
After sacking Brazil legend Zico in September, his replacement — former Tottenham Hotspur manager Juande Ramos — lasted just 46 days in charge before he was also shown the door last week.
As a result, new coach Leonid Slutsky’s first game in charge of the club will be against United — a formidable challenge for anybody, never mind a coach trying to reunite a dressing room that is said to be hugely divided.
Ferguson is by no means complacent about the challenge CSKA are likely to pose to his team, however, citing the fact that the visitors must win if they wish to keep their own Champions League ambitions alive.
“In a way, I think it might be tougher than it was over there,” Ferguson said. “I think that over there they needed to win so we kept our patience, and kept the ball and run them into a difficult position, and they didn’t quite know how to beat us. Now the situation is that they need to win all their games and it’s going to be difficult to qualify, so I don’t know whether they’d come to Old Trafford and have a go, but it’s more clear-cut for us in that we’ve got to attack them and do it with a purpose as we have to do in home games.”
United are likely to have one eye on next weekend because they are playing Chelsea in a Premier League clash that could help dictate the destiny of the title.
Despite Ferguson’s claims the Moscow game is going to be tough, he may well decide to rest stars such as Edwin Van der Sar and Ryan Giggs to ensure they are fresh for the encounter with Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
A victory for United would also mean they could afford to give fringe players some valuable Champions League experience in the two final group matches after the CSKA game.
“If we win on Tuesday we’ve won the group, that’s the incentive, so we’ll put the accelerator on because of that,” Ferguson said.
Sunday’s 3-1 defeat by FK Moscow brought an end Ramos’ reign at CSKA and a, perhaps unfair, level of expectation is now resting on Slutsky’s shoulders.
A win at Old Trafford would herald the dream start for the 38-year-old, but if he is being realistic, he must have accepted a place in the Europa League is now the best he can produce, despite the hopes of others at the club.
“We need to build a new team, which only a Russian manager can do,” owner Evgeny Giner said. “The contract with him has been signed for three years. Our trust in Slutsky is as big as our enthusiasm about the club’s prospects.”
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