The People’s Chronicle | www.thepeopleschronicle.in
Imphal, Friday, February 24, 2017
09
Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho has finally received his
Samba Gold award after being crowned as the best Brazilian
player in Europe last year
Valencia stun Real, Sevilla beat Leicester, Juventus win
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
AGENCIES
VALENCIA : Riding on two early
strikes in the first 10 minutes,
Spanish football giants Valencia eked out a 2-1 victory
over mighty Real Madrid, who
missed a chance to consolidate
their hold on first place in La
Liga.
The early lead for the hosts
conditioned the course of
Wednesday's match, with
Valencia practically ceding
possession to the Blancos and
relying on compact defending
to preserve the advantage, reports Efe.
Zaza scored for Valencia in
the fifth minute and Orellana
connected just four minutes
later in front of 45,000 fans
at the Mestalla.
Real Madrid's stars struggled to find time and space
to create against a disciplined
home side.
Karim Benzema had the first
opportunity for the visitors,
but Valencia goalkeeper Alves
turned aside the Frenchman's
shot moments before Real Madrid's Keylor Navas made an
excellent stop on a free kick
by Parejo in the 30th minute.
Milos Raonic
advances at ATP
Delray Beach Open
MIAMI :
Canadian top seed
Milos Raonic advanced to
the quarter-finals of the
ATP Delray Beach Open on
Wednesday by defeating
Croatia's Borna Coric 6-3,
7-6 (7/2).
On a night when rain delayed the start of play for
more than eight hours, world
number four Raonic fired 12
aces on his way to victory
after 94 minutes in the early
minutes of Thursday morning. Raonic, who reached
the tie-breaker with his 11th
ace and reached match point
with his last ace, booked a
Friday quarter-final matchup
against British eighth seed
Kyle Edmund, who outlasted
Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun 6-3,
3-6, 6-2.
The Blancos' dominance
bore fruit in the final minute
of the first half, when Cristiano
Ronaldo scored his 15th goal of
the La Liga season, heading in
a cross from Marcelo.
Real Madrid took even firmer control of the match in the
second 45 minutes, but possession did not translate into
clear chances and even some
last-minute heroics from Sergio Ramos were not enough to
get the equaliser.
The outcome left the Blancos with 52 points from 22
matches, just a point ahead
of second-placed Barcelona,
though Real Madrid has a game
in hand.
Valencia, with 26 points in
23 matches, is in 14th place,
10 points above the relegation
zone.
Italian football giants Juventus took a step toward the
Champions League quarter-finals with a 2-0 away triumph
against Porto, who played with
10 men for more than twothirds of the match.
Despite the disadvantage,
the hosts kept the Italian side
off the scoreboard until the last
20 minutes, largely thanks to
the solid goalkeeping of Iker
Casillas on Wednesday, reports Efe.
Gareth Bale was brought on with just over half an hour remaining but he was unable to help his side
Porto were the better team
for the opening 10 minutes in
front of nearly 50,000 at Estadio do Dragão, but the visiting
squad gradually asserted their
dominance.
The decisive sequence of the
night took place in a span of
45 seconds, the time it took
Porto's Alex Telles to pick up
successive yellow cards for a
pair of flagrant and unnecessary fouls and get himself sent
Kerber moves closer to top ranking
AGENCIES
DUBAI : Angelique Kerber dominated Monica Puig 6-2, 6-3
in barely an hour at the Dubai
Tennis Championships on
Wednesday to move a step
closer to returning to the
number one ranking.
The top-seeded German
who held the top WTA spot in
2016 before Serena Williams
took it back in September,
could regain the number one
ranking were she to win the
Gulf event on Saturday.
Kerber's victory also provided revenge against Puerto Rican Puig, who beat the
29-year-old for the Rio
Olympic gold medal in August.
Kerber improved to 3-1 in
the series with her comfortable win over the number 42
seed at the Aviation club.
AGENCIES
tions whether it will happen
or not," American Arum was
quoted as saying on the ESPN
website.
Arum had been seeking
a deal with Duco Events, a
New Zealand promotional
company he has close ties to,
for Pacquiao to defend the
147-pound belt against Australia's Jeff Horn in Brisbane,
Australia.
"The Australian deal is not
going to happen now, because Manny is trying to get a
fight done in the United Arab
Emirates, and the people there
favour him fighting Amir
Khan," Arum reportedly said.
Since January, Arum had
"I was trying to play my
game. I'm really happy about
how I played today," Kerber
said. "I was really trying to
stay focused on every single
point and trying to move well,
bringing a lot of balls back.
"I was just thinking about
my game, about my rhythm,
and not thinking too much
about my opponent tonight."
been widely quoted as saying
the Filipino would next face
Horn in April, although Pacquiao's aides insisted nothing
had been confirmed.
A business adviser of the
Filipino ring icon nicknamed "Pac-man" said this
week that his next opponent
would "most likely" be Khan
in Dubai, but other aides declined to comment.
Pacquiao, the WBO welterweight champion, tweeted
on February 11: "See you in
UAE for my next fight. #TeamPacquiao".
Pacquiao announced a brief
retirement last year but made
a successful comeback against
Jessie Vargas in Las Vegas in
November, saying he still felt
like a youngster.
Pacquiao had said he was
retiring to focus on his new
role as Philippine senator,
after winning elections last
year on the back of his sporting fame.
The German will next line
up against Ana Konjuh, who
eliminated eighth seed Elena
Vesnina 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
"This shows I can go
through some tough matches
even not playing well and
then try to find my game, At
the end of third set, I found
it. It's positive that I fought to
the end and didn't give up."
Kazakhstan grab
two biathlon gold
medals at Asiad
SAPPORO : Kazakhstan dominated the biathlon field
with two gold medals at the
Asian Winter Games here on
Thursday.
In the women's 7.5km,
Vishevskaya Galina of Kazakhstan took the gold in 20
minutes and 32.6 seconds.
China's Zhang Yan, who
made a perfect shooting, got
the silver in 20:56.8, reports
Xinhua news agency.
"I shoot all the 10 targets,
but still a little behind of the
girl from Kazakhstan. She
was too fast to beat," said
Zhang.
Paikova Alina of Kazakhstan got the bronze in 21:23.2.
In the men's 10km sprint,
Kazakhstan's Savitskiy Yan
timed 26 minutes 59 seconds to take the gold and
his teammate Podkorytov
Vassiliy snatched the silver
in 27:14.2.
Dohmen, Naomi Van named best hockey players of 2016
AGENCIES
CHANDIGARH : Olympic silver
medallist John-John Dohmen
of Belgium and retiring Netherlands star Naomi Van As
were named the male and
female Players of the Year for
2016, respectively, by the In-
ternational Hockey Federation
(FIH) here on Thursday.
Britain's Olympic gold medallist Maddie Hinch was adjudged the female Goalkeeper
of the Year while David Harte
of Ireland was crowned the
best goalkeeper in the world
for the second year in a row
among the men.
Belgium men's Rio 2016
Olympic Games medal success was a big factor in the
nation's athletes picking up
two awards, with Dohmen's
compatriot Arthur van Doren
being named the male Rising
Star of the Year. Maria Granat-
to from Argentina picked up
the title of the female Rising
Star of the Year after a hugely
successful period which saw
her team win the 2016 Hockey
Champions Trophy, where
she won Best Junior Player, as
well as being crowned Hockey
Junior World Cup champions.
Japan's Ippei Watanabe seeks Tokyo Olympics gold - and more
AGENCIES
TOKYO : Fresh from setting a
new world record, Japan's
latest swim sensation Ippei
Watanabe is plotting Tokyo
Olympic glory in 2020 -- and
he wants his gold medal sealed
with a kiss.
The 19-year-old, who shot
to fame with a jaw-dropping
time of 2 minutes 06.67 seconds in the men's 200 metres
breaststroke last month, plans
to set another world best in the
Olympic final and celebrate by
sweeping some lucky dam-
sel off her feet with a dashing
wedding proposal. "I'm blessed that I'll be at my peak as
a swimmer when the Tokyo
Olympics arrive," Watanabe
told AFP in an interview.
"My aim is to win the final
was disallowed on a questionable offside call.
Juve, with all the possession, remained unable to crack
the Porto defence as the game
clock passed 70 minutes and
coach Massimiliano Allegri
decided to turn to his bench,
tapping Dani Alves and Marko
Pjaca, which worked in their
favour.
Pjaca scored within seconds
of coming on the pitch, putting
on the point of dropping into
his net.
The Leicester keeper once
again did well eight minutes
before time to parry another
effort from Correa, but the
fact was the home side had
enjoyed over 70 percent of the
ball and had eight shots at the
visitors' net.
The second half kicked off
with Vitolo hitting the inside of
the Leicester post from an almost impossible angle, before
Sarabia dragged a shot wide of
Schmeichel's near post.
The Spanish side lost defender Clement Lenglet
through injury 10 minutes
after the break and started to
make errors, before Jovetic set
up Correa to score their second
goal in the 62nd minute.
The game looked set up for
Sevilla to kill off the tie, but
Vardy scored a trademark
goal from a Danny Drinkwater cross to get Leicester right
back into things.
In the closing minutes,
Schmeichel stood up well to
save Vitolo' s header and was
then at full stretch as Adil
Rami' s header grazed the top
of the crossbar, but Leicester held on for a result which
flatters them, but gives them
hope of making the last eight.
in a world record and then
propose to someone with my
gold medal," he added, coyly declining to elaborate on
who might be the object of
his desire.
"There's only three years
to go and I'm determined not
to waste the opportunity to
make the Tokyo Olympics the
crowning glory of my career."
Behind Watanabe's hopes
for a slushy Hollywood ending,
burns a competitive fire to
emulate boyhood idol Kosuke
Kitajima, who won 100m and
200m breaststroke gold at the
2004 and 2008 Olympics.
"When I was 10 I buried a
time capsule," said the Waseda University student, who
broke the world mark in Tokyo
watched by the Japan swimming great.
"I put in a message with my
dreams written on it: saying
I wanted to be like Kosuke
Kitajima and swim at the
Olympics."
Having eclipsed a world best
once owned by Kitajima and
competing in Rio last summer,
Watanabe has gone some way
to reaching those goals.
BARCELONA :
Argentine football star Lionel
Messi is just
one win away
from reaching
400 victories
with Barcelona, when the team visits the
Vicente Calderon on Sunday
to play against hosts Atletico
Madrid in La Liga round 24.
If Barcelona wins the upcoming tie, Messi will reach
the 400 win mark out of 565
games played since he started
wearing Barcelona's jersey
in 2004. During that period,
Messi has taken part in 399
victories, 276 in La Liga, 66
in the Champions League, 42
in Copa del Rey, eight in Supercopa de Espana, three in
the UEFA Super Cup and five
in the FIFA Club World Cup.
The Argentine forward
has played in 102 draws and
suffered 64 defeats.
Messi shares a record of 29
titles as a Barca player with
teammate Andes Iniesta, as
he has managed to win four
UEFA Champion League trophies, eight La Liga titles,
four Copa del Rey competitions, seven Supercopa de
España, three UEFA Super
Cups and three FIFA Club
World Cup trophies.
Europa League: Mkhitaryan secures
Man United progress despite injury
AGENCIES
Pacquiao 'in negotiations' to fight Amir Khan
MANILA : Philippine boxing hero
Manny Pacquiao on Thursday
said he was "in negotiations"
to face British fighter Amir
Khan, after weeks of conflicting reports over his next bout.
"My team and I are in negotiations with Amir Khan
for our next fight. Further
announcements coming
soon," Pacquiao, 38, said on
his official Twitter feed.
Spokesmen for Pacquiao
could not be contacted for
comment.
Pacquiao's Tweet follows
various accounts from different sources over who he will
be facing next and where the
fight might be held.
Pacquiao's promoter, Top
Rank's Bob Arum, told ESPN
sports network that he was
sceptical about a Khan fight.
"Manny seems to believe
they will come up with the
money. I have some reserva-
off in the 27th minute.
Juventus generated two
chances in the closing minutes
of the first half when Casillas
made the stop against former
Real Madrid teammate Higuain, before a hard shot from
Dybala bounced off the post.
The visitors thought they
had broken the ice when a
strike by Dybala found the
back of the Porto net early in
the second half, but the goal
away a loose ball after Dybala's
cross deflected off a defender. Barely a minute later, it
was the turn of Alves, who
chested down a cross from
Alex Sandro and delivered a
left-footed blast.
Sevilla dominated nearly
all of their Champions League
first-leg football tie against
Leicester City before Jamie
Vardy gave the visitors a vital
equaliser in the away game,
which the Spanish club won
2-1. Watched by coach Jorge
Sampaoli, who was in the
stands due to his one-match
suspension on Wednesday,
Sevilla overcame the possible
effects of an early penalty miss
when Joaquin Correa's spotkick was saved by Leicester's
Kasper Schmeichel, reports
Xinhua news agency.
Sergio Escudero's shot
also was well-saved by the
Leicester goalkeeper, before
the home side took the lead
through a fine header from
Pablo Sarabia.
Escudero found space on
the left and Sarabia was able
to attack the ball, which went
off the post.
Schmeichel had to be alert
a minute later after Stefan Jovetic's long range effort took
a wicked deflection and was
Messi is one win
away from his 400th
for Barcelona
SAINT-ETIENNE : Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored but was then
forced off with a hamstring
injury as Manchester United
cruised into the Europa League
last 16 with a 1-0 win at St
Etienne on Wednesday.
That completed a 4-0 aggregate victory in the last 32
tie, although United finished
the match with 10 men after Eric Bailly was dismissed
for two yellow cards in quick
succession.
Manager Jose Mourinho will
face an anxious wait ahead of
Sunday's English League Cup
final against Southampton at
Wembley to see if his Armenian playmaker is fit.
Mkhitaryan has been involved in five goals -- scoring
three and creating two -- in
his last six games and would
have been a likely starter at
Wembley.
Despite leading 3-0 from
the first leg at Old Trafford
last week, Mourinho showed
how highly he values success
in this competition -- which
offers a route into next season's Champions League to
the winners -- by picking a
strong starting line-up.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul
Pogba were restored to the
starting line-up after making a decisive contribution off
the bench against Blackburn
in the FA Cup on Sunday -the Frenchman teeing up the
Swede to score the winning
goal.
There was none of the early
match defensive jitters from
United, and centre-back Bailly
in particular, that had brought
a rebuke from Mourinho following the first leg in which
he accused his players of not
having been focussed enough.
And it took just 16 minutes
for United to extinguish any
fanciful hopes the hosts might
have harboured of mounting
a memorable comeback -when the opening goal came,
it was almost too easy.
Juan Mata used Daley Blind
as a decoy to make space for
himself down the left and
his pinpoint cross was met
by Mkhitaryan, dissecting the
home centre-halves, to flick
past the helpless Stephane
Ruffier in the home goal.
By then the visitors had already established control of
the ball in midfield and looked
comfortable spraying it around
patiently.
Mourinho was forced into
an early change as Mkhitaryan
seemed to tweak his hamstring
and was replaced by Marcus
Rashford on 25 minutes.
United looked by far the
more dangerous of the two
sides but St Etienne did sound
a warning from a set-piece
seven minutes from the break
as Jordan Veretout picked out
Loic Perrin, only for the cap-
tain to head straight at Sergio
Romero, celebrating his 30th
birthday.
It was, at least, the Ligue
1 side's first effort on target
over the two legs.
Roared on by a passionate home crowd at the Stade
Geoffroy Guichard, St Etienne played with energy at
the start of the second half
but it was United who should
have doubled their lead as
Marouane Fellaini fired into
the side-netting when well
placed. Things got interesting
just after the hour mark as
Bailly was sent-off for picking
up two bookings in three minutes -- the second when he
clearly won the ball in a challenge with Romain Hamouma
-- much to Mourinho's obvious annoyance.
Mourinho had to quickly
rejig, with centre-back Marcus Rojo replacing Mata and
United shutting up shop.
St Etienne were reduced
to Florentin Pogba, Paul's
brother, trying his luck with
a volley from 30 yards that
sailed wide, summing up their
impotency in front of goal over
the two legs.
Rashford's pace was causing
St Etienne problems and he
clipped a ball over the top from
Blind across the face of goal.
Tougher nights in Europe
than this await United, but at
least it gave them a chance to
quickly turn their attention to
Southampton.
'Outdated F1 not winning,' warns Lewis Hamilton
AGENCIES
LONDON : Lewis Hamilton said
Wednesday that Formula One
was "outdated" as he urged
grand prix racing's new owners to lead a revival of the
sport's fortunes.
Three-time world champion
Hamilton's comments came on
the eve of his Mercedes team's
launch of their new car for the
2017 season.
They were also broadcast on
the same day that his former
team, McLaren, announced
they had signed another
promising British teenager
with a view to developing his
career just as they had done
with Hamilton.
Bernie Ecclestone's time
as the colourful ringmaster
of the Grand Prix circuit was
effectively finished last month
when US-based Liberty Media completed its takeover of
motorsport's most prestigious
brand in a deal valued at about
$8 billion.
"I don't feel Formula One is
winning, and it hasn't been for
a long time," Hamilton told
BBC Radio Five Live. "That is
to do with rule changes and
not engaging the fans enough.
"There still is a great following in Formula One and I am
excited for the new owners
coming in and I hope they do
something new.
"Formula One is a bit outdated in the sense of, if you
look at other sports, they are
further ahead in the entertainment factor. Formula One
is really catching up and they
have a lot of catching up to
do."