Ukraine striker Andriy Voronin is chomping at the bit to get his Liverpool career underway and is confident he will fit in well at Anfield.
The 27-year-old has signed a four-year deal to play for Rafael Benitez after a spell in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen.
Voronin said he is looking forward to linking up with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso.
PHOTO: AP
"Obviously they are two of the best players in Europe, and it's very important for a striker to play with such great players,'' Voronin said. "It makes it easy for strikers if there are top players behind them in midfield."
"I am pleased to be here finally and very excited to be at a new club. I've noticed how the atmosphere here is really good," he said.
Benitez believes Voronin will give him a variety of options up front.
"He is a player with pace and good movement," the Spaniard said. "He plays between the lines, between defenders. He is a good worker also and he scores goals."
Voronin insists he is not concerned by the record purchase of Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid or the threat posed by Dirk Kuyt or Peter Crouch.
"The task in front of Liverpool at the start of every season is to win trophies and I want to be part of that," he said. "I want to help them achieve things. After being in Germany for 12 years I felt it was time for a change, and then even more so when the offer came in from Liverpool."
"I am confident. If I wasn't confident, I would not have made the decision to come here. I feel I can adapt and be a success in the English game," Voronin 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