Fernando Torres believes he can do what fellow countryman Fernando Morientes failed to do and establish himself as an Anfield goalscoring hero after being unveiled as Liverpool's most expensive signing.
Morientes, who joined the Merseyside club from Real Madrid in January 2005, lasted just 16 months before returning to Spain with Valencia after a disappointing return of eight goals in 41 league outings in England.
He struggled to adapt to the physical demands of the Premiership yet Torres, who has been handed the famous No. 9 shirt after signing a six-year £90,000-a-week (US$181,000) contract, insisted he could cope with the bruising side of the English game after costing Liverpool £22 million from Atletico Madrid.
"I don't think adapting to the physical side will be a problem," Torres, scorer of 91 goals in 243 Atletico appearances, said.
"I've seen Premiership games on television and I know it's harder to get a free kick in England than it is in Spain," he said.
Torres said he could cope with the pressure of scoring the goals to help his new club sustain a serious title challenge. Despite winning the Champions League in 2005 and reaching the final in May, Liverpool have not been crowned league champions since the 1989-1990 season.
"I don't have any fear of the responsibilities that lie in front of me at Liverpool," added the 23-year-old Spanish international. "It's not something that worries me. I'm totally aware that the expectations here are extremely high and that people will want me to score lots of goals. I'm confident I can do that," he said.
"I'm 23 years old and it's a great age to be making a move like this," Torres said.
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek on Thursday avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed, setting up a semi-final against 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the California desert. In the men’s singles, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz put on a show with his acrobatic shotmaking under the lights to close out the day’s action, overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the women’s doubles. Swiatek, one of the gold medal favorites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the
RSS