Two-time winners Tottenham Hotspur carry a narrow advantage into their Europa League playoff second leg against AEL Limassol of Cyprus, while their domestic rivals Hull City need to overturn a 1-0 deficit to keep alive their first ever European campaign.
Thirty-one places are up for grabs in the final qualifiers to reach the group phase draw tomorrow in Monaco, and governing body UEFA have thrown a valuable carrot in front of the potential winners. The triumphant side in next year’s May 25, final at Warsaw will, for the first time, automatically qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Spurs, who are off to an unbeaten start to their campaign with a 2-1 win over Limassol, as well as having back-to-back wins in the Premier League, are enjoying life under new manager Mauricio Pochettino, who has got the North Londoners smoothly out of the gate. The team are looking for their first silverware since Spaniard Juande Ramos guided them to the 2008 League Cup, although their last European success dates back to 1984, when they won their second UEFA Cup, now the Europa League, in a penalty shootout against RSC Anderlecht.
Photo: AFP
“The Europa League is now a different competition,” Pochettino said.
“If you won it last year you basically got nothing, just a trophy, but now the Europa League gives you the opportunity to play in the Champions League. That is a big challenge for us” the 42-year-old Argentine added.
Hull qualified for their first-ever European competition as FA Cup runners-up last season, at the hands of Arsenal, but manager Steve Bruce must mastermind a comeback from 1-0 down against Belgian Cup winners KSC Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen.
Elsewhere, Belarus-based outsiders FC Dinamo Minsk stand on the brink of their first qualification for the group stages of a European competition after a run of five consecutive clean sheets, including a 2-0 first leg win over Portugal’s CD Nacional last week. Their watertight defense, built around stalwart Sergei Politevech, has only leaked eight goals in 21 league matches.
“It is very important to avoid goals and we always prioritize getting a result and play accordingly,” the 24-year-old Belarus international defender said. “Our defensive performances are of utmost importance as we want to achieve our aims.”
France risk losing two clubs before the draw with bitter local rivals Olympique Lyonnais and AS Saint-Etienne both needing second-leg victories. Hubert Fournier’s seven-time champions Lyon gave up two late goals at home to Romania’s FC Astra Giurgiu as they were beaten 2-1, while Saint-Etienne slumped to a 1-0 defeat against Kardemir Karabukspor in Turkey.
PSV Eindhoven, the 1978 UEFA Cup champions, take a 1-0 lead to Belarus where they are to play Shakhtyor Soligorsk, while Dutch rivals Feyenoord have an away goal to protect after coming back to force a 1-1 draw against FC Zorya Luhansk of Ukraine.
Spanish sides are well positioned to reach the next round after Villarreal thrashed FC Astana of Kazakhstan 3-0, and Real Sociedad edged Russian outfit FC Krasnodar 1-0 thanks to a 71st minute winner from Xabi Prieto.
Italian interests rest with Torino, as they drew 0-0 on the road at RNK Split of Croatia, while Inter are in the driving seat after overpowering Stjarnan 3-0 in Iceland.
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
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