Tag: League

COMMENT - The second leg of the four remaining Champions League round of 16 ties was played last week, and barring the one surprise, all the home sides coasted through. The surprise was Bayern Munich, and not a pleasant one at that. Across two legs, Bayern's away goal lead from their first meeting with Inter Milan at the San Siro lasted a mere five minutes, as Eto'o ran through shortly after kick-off in Munich to slot the ball between Thomas Kraft's legs and into goal.
Just like

PARIS - Big-spending English giants Manchester City, Liverpool and Rangers crashed out of the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday to end Britain's interest in the competition. Roberto Mancini's City side, bank-rolled from Abu Dhabi by Sheikh Mansour's £500 million investment, beat Dynamo Kiev 1-0 at Eastlands but bowed out 2-1 on aggregate. At Anfield a lacklustre Liverpool eked out a goalless draw with Sporting Braga to put the plucky Portuguese side through 1-0 on aggregate.

CAIRO - The Arab League on Saturday said it had called on the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone in Libya, in a decision that will provide the regional support NATO has said is needed for any military action.
Libyan rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi have said a no-fly zone to ground Libyan warplanes and to prevent the moving of troops by helicopter is vital if its forces are to succeed.
"The Arab League has officially requested the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly

COMMENT - All four home sides won this past week's Champions League ties, and one wonders if this is a bad sign for the visiting sides in the upcoming fixtures. Barcelona scored all four goals, including an own goal, to beat Arsenal again at the Camp Nou on an evening that will throw up a fresh batch of 'what-if's' for Arsenal fans.
The match turned on two key moments; the unnecessarily audacious back heel from Fabregas that led to the first of Messi's goals; and the bizarre

PARIS - Liverpool were brought down to earth in the Europa League on Thursday after losing 1-0 at Sporting Braga in the last 16, while big-spending Manchester City crashed 2-0 at Dynamo Kiev. Liverpool, rejuvenated under interim coach Kenny Dalglish and 3-1 victors over arch-rivals Manchester United on Sunday, will have to turn their tie around in the March 17 return leg if they are to reach the quarter-finals. Braga took the lead in the 18th minute in Portugal, with Alan guiding an

PARIS - Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk reached the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday after seeing off Arsenal and AS Roma respectively with both the losing sides finishing with 10 men. Barcelona dominated Arsenal to win 3-1 on the night - 4-3 on aggregate - though the losers were left seething at the second-half dismissal of Dutch star Robin van Persie for a second bookable offence when he shot at goal after the referee had already blown his whistle.
Barca's goals came

JEDDAH - Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said a decision to support imposing a no-fly zone over Libya was up to the Arab League, not only Gulf countries. "It is an issue that is the responsibility of the Arab League," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a press conference in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Arab League foreign ministers will meet Saturday to discuss ways to stop Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi from bombing and strafing his own citizens who are battling the loyalist

Played on Sunday: Liverpool 3 (Kuyt 34, 39, 65) Man Utd 1 (Hernandez 90)
Wolves 3 (Doyle 20, 40-pen, Fletcher 87) Tottenham 3 (Defoe 30, 35, Pavlyuchenko 48)
Played Saturday: Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0 Birmingham 1 (Beausejour 48) West Brom 3 (Mulumbu 47, Morrison 58, Scharner 72) Bolton 3 (Cahill 45, 75, Klasnic 86) Aston Villa 2 (Bent 15, Albrighton 64) Fulham 3 (Duff 37, 59, Zamora 89-pen) Blackburn 2 (Hanley 45, Hoilett 65) Man City 1 (Silva 38) Wigan 0 Newcastle 1 (Best 23)

Played on Sunday: Sporting Gijon 2 (De las Cuevas 32, Andre Castro 40) Getafe 0
Hercules 1 (Paz 50) Almeria 2 (Feghouli 69, M'Bami 72)Malaga 0 Osasuna 1 (Sergio 90)
Levante 1 (Caicedo 26) Espanyol 0
Played Saturday: Real Mallorca 1 (Ramis 31-pen) Valencia 2 (Hernandez 32, 56) Barcelona 1 (Keita 43) Real Zaragoza 0 Atletico Madrid 3 (Reyes 5, Aguero 68, Forlan 72) Villarreal 1 (Rossi 34)

COMMENT - The UEFA Champions League football returns this week, for the second leg matches in the round of 16. Arsenal will be travelling to Spain to play Barcelona, while Shakhtar welcome Roma, for whom a period of transition is imminent, both on and off the pitch. The day after these ties, AC Milan will be looking to light up White Hart Lane against Tottenham, as Schalke welcome Valencia to Germany.
As tends to be the case, both in league and cup competitions, the home side

BAGHDAD - Iraq has agreed to postpone an Arab League summit scheduled for March 29 in Baghdad at the request of Arab foreign ministers because of turmoil in some countries in the region, a government official said on Thursday. Countries in the Middle East and north Africa have been rocked by protests against political repression and economic hardship which resulted in the ousting of long-serving rulers in Tunisia and Egypt. "It has been agreed to postpone holding the Arab summit for a

COMMENT - This past week domestic football in Europe took a back seat as all thoughts and attention turned to the return of the Champions League and Europa League. The bigger matches to look for were, of course, in the Champions League, the most notable being first leg of the tie between Arsenal and Barcelona at a packed Emirates Stadium in North London.
Anyone expecting a repeat of the opening half an hour from last year's tie, where Barcelona put together a breathtaking flurry

CAIRO - The Arab League said on Saturday it was important that a March summit goes ahead in Baghdad due to what it described as "the grave, fateful developments" in the Arab world. Libya, which holds the rotating presidency of the Arab leaders' summit, said this week that the Baghdad meeting would be postponed because of the situation in the region, where protests are challenging leaders from Bahrain to Algeria.
The presidents of Egypt and Tunisia have been toppled by mass

LAHORE: The final of the 1st Raaziq Cricket Premier League will be played today (February 12) at Railway Stadium Lahore Ufone will take on Nestle and Chairman and CEO Raaziq Group Muhammad Nadeem Khan will be the chief guests along with international cricketer Nasir Jamshed.
The Raaziq CPL League is the tournament played among 12 teams divided in two groups. Four teams qualify for the semi-finals. In the first semi-final, Ufone beat Telenor and in the second match, Nestle beat

LAHORE - Syed Khadim Ali Shah, SVP of SAFF, feels that the Pakistan Football Federation is focusing towards establishing a sound football culture and a productive system for the proper nourishment of the available talent in the country. "The way the U14 kids of the Lyari played in the tournament has showed the authorities that the required talent is available for the upcoming 15th Asian U16 Championship," said Khadim.
Khadim added that all the 32 matches turned out to be

LAHORE - Nestle and Ufone qualified for the final of the 1st Raaziq CPL T20 League Cricket Tournament here on Wednesday. In the first semi-final, Ufone beat Telenor by three wickets. Telenor scored 134 for 9 wickets in allotted 20 overs here at Railway Stadium ground.
Sulemman Bhatti 39, Rehmat Ullah 19 and Saqlain Shah 16 runs were the main batsmen. Raza Ijaz took three while Muhammad Bilal took two wickets. In reply Ufone achieved the target for the loss of seven wickets with

KARACHI - Former Lyari-based international players and referees hailed Pakistan Football Federation's President Faisal Saleh Hayat for taking steps in boosting football in rural and urban areas of Pakistan.
They called Lyari Football League 2011 another milestone in Faisal's tenure.
People's Peace Committee Chairman Sardar Uzair Jan Baloch called the event a milestone and said that such events would play a positive role in keeping peace not only in Lyari but throughout