Thursday, August 20, 2020Muharram 1, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Japan’s Shibuno set for ‘very diffi cult’ title defence

Coach Misbah has no qualms over Pakistan’s fi tness

CRICKET CRICKET | Page 4 GOLF | Page 6

CYCLING

Change of guard as Froome and Thomas left outPage 7

Koeman pledges to put Barcelona ‘back on top’

Neymar and attacking stars align for PSG in pursuit of glory

Khalid al-Mohannadi’s Aljumayliyah wins in France

FOOTBALL FOCUS

HORSE RACING

Former Barcelona player is the fifth Dutchman to coach the Catalans

AFPMadrid, Spain

Ronald Koeman said he will “fi ght to put Barce-lona back on top” after he was offi cially ap-

pointed yesterday as the Spanish club’s new coach on a two-year deal.

“It’s a happy day. Everyone knows that Barca was for me. It’s my home. It’s a challenge and it won’t be easy, it will demand the best of me and I like that,” Koe-man said at his unveiling at the Camp Nou.

“It was a dream and this dream became a reality. We’re going to fi ght to put Barca back on top.”

The 57-year-old Koeman, who had been in charge of the Netherlands since 2018, re-places Quique Setien, who was sacked after the Catalans were humiliated 8-2 by Bayern Mu-nich in the Champions League quarter-fi nals on Friday.

He becomes the fi fth Dutch-man to coach Barcelona after Ri-nus Michels, Johan Cruyff , Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard.

In his six seasons as a Barca player Koeman made 264 offi cial appearances, scoring 88 goals as he shone in Cruyff ’s ‘Dream Team’, winning four consecutive La Liga titles between 1991-94.

He also struck the winner in the 1992 European Cup fi nal, the Catalan club’s fi rst ever success in Europe’s top club competi-tion.

“It was written, one day, Ronald Koeman was to coach Barca. The time has come,” said club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who made the ini-tial announcement on Tuesday evening.

Koeman added: “I’ve signed, I’m the coach of Barcelona and we’re going to work starting from now. Changes need to be made. The image from the other day is not the one we want to re-turn to, not me, nor the players, directors, supporters, anyone.”

The Bayern capitulation was the fi rst time Barca had con-ceded eight goals in a game since losing to Sevilla 8-0 in the 1946 Spanish Cup.

Koeman said he would stick to his preferred Dutch style of pos-session-based football, staying true to the club’s tradition, but rowed back on suggestions the likes of Luis Suarez, Sergio Bus-quets and Jordi Alba could all be leaving the club.

“If decisions need to be made, we’ll take them,” said Koeman. “A player who is 31, 32 years old, he’s not fi nished. It’s all about the hunger he has to want to be at this club and give the maximum.”

The former Everton and Va-lencia boss also said he was con-fi dent of keeping Lionel Messi, with the 33-year-old Argentina star entering the fi nal season of his contract.

“He still has a year on his con-tract, he’s part of Barca. I don’t know if I need to convince him. He’s the best player in the world. And you want to have the best in your team, not against you,” said Koeman.

“As a manager, I love the idea of coaching Messi. He wins matches on his own. I will speak to him, but I hope he will stay here for several more years.”

AgenciesVichy, France

Six runners lined up in the Prix Jurietti (Class 2) at Vichy, France, which was won by Aljumayliyah in

the colours of Khalid bin Rash-id al-Mohannadi on Tuesday evening. A winner on her debut at two, she has been since placed at Listed level for trainer Henri-Alex Pantall.

The fi lly sat towards the rear on the rail. The race was run at a steady pace with the favourite Ultramarine in the lead. Alju-mayliyah came off the rail half way down the straight to come with her run in the centre of the

track. Joining The Shard at the 200m post, Aljumayliyah pulled clear in the fi nal 100m to win by a length and a quarter.

Jockey Julien Guillochon commented after the race: “Last time out, we realised that she needed to be ridden patiently and switched off . She relaxed well today and accelerated well when asked. The slow pace helped her.”

Bred by Al Shaqab Racing, Aljumayliyah was sold by Haras de Castillon at the v.2 Arqana yearling sale. Pinhooked into the Breeze Up, she was then bought by Paul Nataf. Aljumayliyah is by Al Shaqab Racing’s Olympic Glory and is the fi rst foal out of Aldayha.

Julien Guillochon (second from left) rides Aljumayliyah to victory in the Prix Jurietti (Class 2) at Vichy in France on Tuesday. (C. Morla)

AFPLisbon, Portugal

An inspired Neymar helped Paris Saint-Germain reach the Champions League fi -

nal on Tuesday, but the fact that the Brazilian was not their best player against RB Leipzig says everything about the frighten-ing strength of Thomas Tuchel’s team and shows why they can be confi dent of lifting the trophy for the fi rst time.

Neymar has become a dif-ferent player in his third year in the French capital. His fi rst two seasons at PSG following his 222 million-euro ($264mn) transfer from Barcelona were blighted by injuries and constant specula-tion about a move back to the Camp Nou.

When it became clear last summer that a return to Catalo-nia would not happen, he knuck-led down and decided fi nally to make a proper go of it in Paris. This is the end result.

After scoring in both legs against Borussia Dortmund in the last 16, just before the coronavirus brought football to a halt, he was outstanding in the 2-1 quarter-fi nal win over Atalanta last week in Lisbon and even better in the 3-0 demolition of Leipzig.

Neymar hit the post twice in the fi rst half, including from an audacious free-kick wide out on the right as everyone waited for a cross.

The 28-year-old won the free-kick which led to Marquinhos’ opener, and it was his fl ick which set up Angel Di Maria for the sec-ond goal, ensuring it was game over by half-time, before Juan Bernat sealed the win.

The only thing missing was a goal of his own.

“What can I say to Neymar to help him score a goal when I scored maybe two in my career,” joked Tuchel.

“He scores in training, but he is playing exceptionally well, he is so, so strong. He has a winning mentality, a hunger to win and to show he is capable of being the best player in the world.

“If he scores in the fi nal then I’ll be happy.”

Neymar later posted a picture

on Instagram of himself lying on the ground in agony, a reminder of his bad luck with injuries in his fi rst two seasons after arriving in Paris for that world record fee in 2017, which has clearly made him even more determined to suc-ceed now.

“Today I am in one piece, with no injuries, able to help my teammates in the best possible way,” he wrote.

DI MARIA RIGHT AT HOMEThere will be no Ballon d’Or this year, with organisers France Foot-ball cancelling the award because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But Neymar will still have a strong claim to be the best player on the planet if he can lead PSG past either Bayern Munich or Lyon in Sunday’s fi nal.

“I am sure that if we win the Champions League he will be in a position to win these trophies,” said teammate Kylian Mbappe. “He is destined to do so.”

Yet while Neymar and Mbappe, the two superstars and the two most expensive players of all time, dominate the headlines, there were standout performances all through PSG’s team on Tuesday. In particular, Di Maria.

The Argentine was once the major superstar at PSG before being eclipsed by his attacking colleagues.

Against Leipzig, on his return from suspension, it was he who set up two goals either side of scoring himself.

Di Maria looked right at home in the Estadio da Luz, where he turned out for Benfi ca for three years and where he was the man of the match for Real Madrid when they won the 2014 Cham-pions League fi nal against Atleti-co Madrid.

“It is going to be diffi cult to sleep tonight with the fi nal in mind,” he said.

Nothing demonstrates the determination of PSG’s Qatari owners to conquer Europe better than their front three, who cost a combined 465mn euros in trans-fer fees alone.

This version of PSG, after years of underwhelming results in the Champions League, are now tantalisingly close to getting the ultimate return on Qatar’s huge investment.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Marquinhos (left) and teammate Neymar celebrate their goal against RB Leipzig during their UEFA Champions League semi-final in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Barcelona’s new Dutch coach Ronald Koeman (also above) poses during his presentation at Camp Nou in Barcelona yesterday. (AFP)

FOOTBALL2 Gulf Times

Thursday, August 20, 2020

I feel World Cup vibes, says Mbappe aft er PSG’s win

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

ReutersLisbon

Kylian Mbappe said he is feeling similar vibes as during France’s World Cup winning campaign in 2018 after Paris St Germain

reached the Champions League fi nal with an emphatic 3-0 win against RB Leipzig on Tuesday.

“I feel the same vibes because we man-aged to create a group where everyone knows their importance and everyone do their job,” the France striker told a news conference. “We do a lot of activities out-side the pitch, maybe it’s too much for some but that’s how you win titles. It’s easier to make eff orts and sacrifi ces for your team mates if they are your friends.”

Mbappe produced a below-par per-formance against Leipzig, but he is just back from an ankle injury and still lacks match practice. He played half an hour in the 2-1 quarter-fi nal win against Atalan-ta, helping PSG turn the tide as they were 1-0 down.

“The truth is that the night I got my in-jury against Saint-Etienne I thought that was it, that I wouldn’t come back” for the Champions League ‘Final Eight’,” the 21-year-old said.

“I cried all night, but the next morning I woke up and said to myself that I would do everything I could, get treatment all day and come home and get more treat-ment. I knew the team would need me at some point, maybe not for my physi-cal presence on the fi eld but also being around the team and showing them I was ok. I never wanted them to see that I was suff ering. It was a diffi cult time but it was a real pleasure to come back against Ata-lanta and help the team qualify today.”

Mbappe, 21, admitted he is still not back to peak fi tness. “I feel good, better and better all the time, but I still have to wear a heavy strapping around it. There is no more pain. I still need to take certain precautions but I am ready to help the team, give everything on the pitch. All I want is to win, that’s why I came here.”

Mbappe admits he hopes Lyon will beat Bayern Munich in their Champi-ons League semi-fi nal and set up an all-French fi nal in Europe’s elite club com-petition this weekend. “I’d prefer Lyon for sure, because they are a French team,”

Mbappe said when asked if he had a pre-ferred opponent in the fi nal. “It will be a very tough game. If it’s Bayern, fi ne, but if it were Lyon it would certainly make it a very special occasion.”

PSG are the fi rst French side through to the fi nal of the Champions League since Monaco in 2004 after goals by Marquin-

hos, Angel Di Maria and Juan Bernat saw off Leipzig in a one-sided encounter at the Estadio da Luz.

They would perhaps not be favourites in a fi nal against Bayern, but they cer-tainly would be against Lyon. PSG won the Ligue 1 title while Lyon came seventh in a season that was curtailed because of

the coronavirus pandemic.The teams met as recently as the end of

July in the French League Cup fi nal, with PSG winning on penalties after a 0-0 draw. Mbappe missed that game because of an ankle injury, suff ered in the French Cup fi nal against Saint-Etienne a week earlier.

‘I FEEL THE SAME VIBES BECAUSE WE MANAGED TO CREATE A GROUP WHERE EVERYONE KNOWS THEIR IMPORTANCE AND EVERYONE DO THEIR JOB’

‘PSG simply better’ — Nagelsmann rues Leipzig defeat

Marseille boss urges support for virus-infected players

Tuchel hails ‘incredible’ PSG aft er reaching fi nal

AFPLisbon

RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann was left ruing his side’s mistakes and missed chances af-

ter bowing out of the Champions League with a 3-0 semi-fi nal defeat to Paris Saint Germain on Tuesday. “In the end the oppo-nent was simply better than us, we have to accept that,” Nagels-mann said in Lisbon. Leipzig, founded in 2009, reached the last four for the fi rst time in the Red Bull-backed club’s brief his-tory in his fi rst season in charge. “We were in the semi-fi nals, we can be proud of that,” Nagels-mann added.

Neymar set up Marquinhos’ early header to give PSG an early led, then the Brazil attacker split the defence to create Parisian’s second goal for Angel Di Maria before half-time. “We won’t be the fi rst team not to stop Ney-mar and we won’t be the last,” Nagelsmann said.

Left-back Juan Bernat scored the French champions third against the run of play to put PSG into Sunday’s fi nal against Bayern Munich or Lyon. “Paris played a very, very good game. We made one or two mistakes too many. In the fi rst ten to 12 min-utes we did well and had good situations,” Nagelsmann said.

“It was an unfortunate mis-take for the opening goal from a set piece and it was hard to come

back after the second goal, be-cause Paris have a lot of qual-ity. We had a good start at the start of the second half, but then conceded the third goal from nothing, during a period of good pressure from us.”

Having won their group, then knocked out last season’s fi nal-ists Tottenham and an experi-enced Atletico Madrid side in the knock-out stages, Nagelsmann failed to hide his disappointment at the missed chance to reach the fi nal. “The feelings of frustration will take a few days to get over,” he admitted. “The attitude of my players was great. We showed character on the pitch, but you have to accept when the oppo-nent is stronger.”

AFPLisbon

Thomas Tuchel heaped praised on his Paris Saint-Germain side after they cruised into their

fi rst ever Champions League fi -nal, putting the French side on the brink of coveted European glory. “Incredible, that’s why we’re here to play in the fi nal and to win,” Tuchel told RMC.

“We showed our quality, our hunger, determination. A good mix which showed we deserved the win. The team showed once again the hunger two win, to play together, to suff er. They made the most of it.”

PSG’s easy 3-0 win over RB Leipzig at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon showed all the composure on a big European occasion that they have lacked in recent sea-sons. Tuchel’s outfi t have set up a meeting with either on-fi re Bay-ern Munich or fellow French side Lyon in Sunday’s fi nal, which could see the Qatari-owned club fi nally realise their owners’ am-bitions.

“I felt the pressure before the game, it wasn’t easy, I have play-ers who love the pressure of key matches I’m never relaxed,” said Tuchel. “We know well that Bay-ern are the favourites, it will be diffi cult against Lyon, but we’ll see. It’s obviously the biggest challenge of my career.”

Successive failures in the Champions League last 16 made big spending PSG a laugh-

ing stock but after two years in charge coach Tuchel has found the right balance and turned the tide. While Neymar and Angel Di Maria dazzled up front with the recovering Kylian Mbappe al-ways a potential danger, a steely midfi eld and a solid defence made sure there would be no surprises.

“The forwards’ defensive work? I’ve already said that we knew we had to do it. Now we have to be consistent in doing the eff orts the team need, not just for three or four matches,” Mbappe, who shook off an ankle injury to take part in the Final Eight in Lis-bon, said in January.

They did just that against Leipzig, allowing the full backs to throw themselves forward and the midfi eders to play higher up the pitch. This resulted in full back Juan Bernat scoring the last goal and midfi elder Leandro Paredes being in Leipzig’s half to collect a poor clearance and fi nd Neymar in the box for the Brazil-ian to set up Di Maria on the sec-ond goal.

“Defensively, they were sol-id, everybody made eff orts,” former PSG coach Luis Fernan-dez said. “I saw the Liverpool of Jurgen Klopp with Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino pressing up front.”

“We deserve to be here,” said captain Thiago Silva, who will play his last game for PSG af-ter joining in 2012. “I am proud of my team, especially of their mindset. We had this obsession not to concede a goal.”

FOCUS ROUND-UP

SPOTLIGHT

Lausanne: FIFA’s ethics committee yes-terday decided to close its case against president Gianni Infantino, who is facing a criminal probe in Switzerland over sus-pected collusion with the country’s top prosecutor. “After examining the relevant documentation and evidence, the chair-person of the investigatory chamber has decided to file the complaint and close the case due to the evident lack of a prima facie case regarding any alleged breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics,” FIFA said in a statement.

Infantino, in charge of world football’s governing body since 2016, is the subject of an investigation by the Swiss prosecu-tor over suspected collusion between him and Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber, who resigned last month over his handling of a corruption investiga-

tion targeting FIFA. FIFA’s investigatory chamber had opened a preliminary investigation into Infantino following re-ports of alleged ethics breaches, “includ-ing the booking by FIFA of a private flight from Suriname to Geneva and meetings between the FIFA President with Michael Lauber.”

But the independent judicial body de-termined there was insuff icient evidence to warrant further pursuing the case. “Based on the information available to date, no aspect of the conduct analysed constitutes a violation of the FIFA regula-tions — some aspects do not even fall within the provisions of the FIFA Code of Ethics, or justify the adoption of any kind of measure, including that of a provision-al suspension,” the statement added.

Infantino had already insisted he had

“nothing to hide” despite Swiss prosecu-tors launching a criminal probe against him. In a letter sent to FIFA’s 211 members Infantino said there were no “factual grounds for the opening of a criminal investigation”.

Infantino and Lauber are said to have held a series of secret meetings in 2016 and 2017, but the FIFA head said the meetings were about restoring “public trust in our institution” after a series of scandals. Infantino claims that those meetings “were in no way secret and most certainly not illegal”. An anti-corruption lawyer representing Infantino said earlier Wednesday he believed the case would be dismissed.

Jean-Pierre Mean, an anti-corruption specialist hired by FIFA on behalf of Infantino in May, said: “There is nothing

wrong with meeting with a lawyer, even informally. It is quite usual and absolute-ly not criminal.”

The procedure against Infantino, Mean continued, “only mentions an anony-mous complaint”. “We still haven’t seen it. We will have access to the file when Mr. Infantino is heard.”

FIFA also revealed yesterday the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its revenue was expected to remain “comparatively low”, with much of the organisation’s commercial rights having already been sold. It predicted a positive result of $100mn (83mn euros) in its revised 2019-22 budget, with the cancel-lation of next year’s Confederations Cup and postponement of the revamped Club World Cup partially off set by other revenue streams.

FIFA ETHICS COMMITTEE DROPS INFANTINO CASE

Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe (right) vies for the ball with Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano during the UEFA Champions League semi-final match at the Luz stadium in Lisbon on Tuesday. (AFP)

Paris Saint-Germain’s German coach Thomas Tuchel gestures during the Champions League match against Leipzig. (AFP)

Marseille coach Andre Villas-Boas yesterday urged support for the club’s players infected by coronavirus after three

new cases took the number of infected at the Ligue 1 club to four. Tuesday’s posi-tive tests saw the French league forced into postponing the opening match of the 2020/21 Ligue 1 season, which had been scheduled to be between Marseille and Saint-Etienne tomorrow.

“Unfortunately we live this week between a certain anxiety and bad news,” Villas-Boas said. “The pandemic that stubbornly continues to scare and aff ect so many families has ended up knocking on our door.” Villas-Boas vowed that “we will soon be together again”. “It’s the mo-ment to be careful and to support others and at the same time keep hope for the time ahead.” Some 40 players from 11 clubs have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks.

The vast majority contracted the virus after resuming training in June, leading to quarantine and a fl urry of cancelled pre-season matches. The lat-est to be named as positive for the virus on Wednesday was Montpellier striker Andy Delort — the seventh player at the club to have contracted the disease since the start of the pandemic. “I will come back very soon, I am fi ne,” said Delort, who was Montpellier’s top scorer in the league last season with nine goals. Montpellier coach Michel Der Zakarian was forced into cancelling morning’s training session after the positive test, while the club’s friendly against Metz was called off . The entire Montpellier squad to undergo further testing today.

UEFA CONSIDERS SUPER CUP TRIAL FOR FANS TO RETURN

TO STADIUMSUEFA has proposed using September’s

Super Cup match in Budapest as a trial for allowing fans back into stadiums in reduced numbers, European football’s governing body said. Champions League and Europa League games are currently being held in neutral locations behind closed doors in a bid to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

UEFA hosted on Wednesday a telecon-ference with all 55 general secretaries of its member associations to discuss the potential return of supporters to stadiums. UEFA said it would be too early to allow fans to attend next month’s Na-tions League internationals but cleared the way for trial games to study the impact of spectators on current medical protocols.

“Participants underlined the need for strict hygiene and sanitary measures to be in place to guarantee the health of all those present at a game before allowing fans to return,” UEFA said in a statement.

The Super Cup match, to be played on Sept. 24, is the Champions League winners against the Europa League champions.

DORTMUND SIGN REAL’S TEEN REINIER ON TWO-YEAR LOAN

Real Madrid’s Brazilian teenage sensation Reinier has been loaned to Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund until June 20, 2022, the Spanish outfi t announced. The under-23 international touched down at Real in February, having signed a six-and-a-half year contract through until June 2026.

Reinier, 18, arrived in Spain from Flamengo, with whom he won the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League, and the Brazilian league last season. At Madrid, Reinier played three matches for Real’s reserve team, Castilla, scoring two goals and providing one assist.

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Barca braced for high-profi le exits under coach Koeman

LA LIGA

ReutersBarcelona

New Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman is expected to over-see a massive overhaul of the squad as he leads them into

a new era after their weaknesses were exposed in the 8-2 thrashing by Bayern Munich, president Josep Maria Bar-tomeu has said.

Koeman, one of Barca’s greatest ever players who was confi rmed as the club’s new coach yesterday, will oversee the transition alongside Ramon Planes, the new chief technical secretary after Eric Abidal left the club. “The technical secretary and new coach will take dras-tic measures and they will aff ect certain players, who we should give a proper farewell to,” Bartomeu said in an inter-view with the club’s offi cial television channel on Tuesday.

Bartomeu did not say which play-ers would depart but referred to seven players who were not for sale: captain Lionel Messi, goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, defenders Clement Len-glet and Nelson Semedo, plus recent signings Antoine Griezmann, Frenkie de Jong and French winger Ousmane Dembele. Gerard Pique and Sergio Bus-quets, who have been at the club since 2008 and are the longest-serving play-ers after Messi, were omitted from Bar-tomeu’s list, meaning they could face an exit after 12 trophy-laden years in the fi rst team.

Jordi Alba, Ivan Rakitic and Luis Sua-rez, crucial members of the team that won the treble in 2015 as well as the La Liga titles in 2016, 2018 and 2019, were also absent. “These are players who have given their best days to the club

and been part of the club’s best years. They have won a lot of trophies and had a lot of success,” added Bartomeu.

“Some of those decisions have al-ready been taken by others and some will be taken soon by diff erent people. The players will not be consulted on these decisions. It’s very important to listen to opinions but the coach and technical secretary will take the deci-sion together.”

Barca will face a challenge in selling some players due to having the biggest wage bill in world football, at a time when all clubs are facing serious fi -nancial diffi culties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has stripped them of matchday revenue and ticket sales. Bar-tomeu added that the club are still try-ing to sign Argentina forward Lautaro Martinez from Inter Milan but said it was now “impossible” to bring Neymar back to the club as Paris St Germain no longer wish to sell the Brazilian.

KOEMAN TAKES WELL-WORN PATH BETWEEN HOLLAND

AND BARCELONAKoeman’s appointment as Barcelona’s new coach keeps up a lengthy love af-fair between the Catalan club and the custodian and heirs of ‘Total Football’ and will have supporters hoping he can be as successful as his compatriots. He is the fi fth Dutchman to take on the job, following in the footsteps of Rinus Michels, Johan Cruyff , Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard.

Michels was fi rst to take a now well-worn path, appointed in 1971 and when Cruyff came to join him as a player, they ended the club’s long title drought by winning La Liga in 1974. Cruyff was an instant cult hero after masterminding a 5-0 victory at Real Madrid just a few

months after his arrival and leading the side through to a fi rst championship since 1960.

He then cemented his status with four La Liga titles after he took over as coach in 1988, building the playing style and creative culture that is the es-sence of the modern Barcelona ethos. “Johan Cruyff painted the chapel, and Barcelona coaches since merely restore or improve it,” said Pep Guardiola, one of his successors.

Barca won 11 trophies under Cruyff , including their fi rst European Cup in 1992 when Koeman blasted home an extra time free kick in the fi nal against Sampdoria at Wembley. Ironically, they were clad in orange kit that night, look-ing very much like the Dutch national team. Van Gaal had two spells at Camp Nou, winning the Spanish league twice but not having any success in Europe.

It was Rijkaard who was at the helm in 2006 when they won Europe’s top club prize, by then renamed the Cham-pions League, for a second time, beat-ing Arsenal 2-1 in Paris. Koeman is the fi rst Dutch coach at the club since Ri-jkaard, who was replaced by Guardiola.

He will have to move quickly to re-store confi dence after they fi nished second to Real Madrid in the title race and then suff ered a crushing 8-2 defeat by Bayern Munich in last week’s Cham-pions League quarter-fi nal.

But it will be familiar terrain for Koe-man, after playing at the club and then also working there under Van Gaal as an assistant coach. Koeman, 57, also coached at Valencia and returns now with experience from spells at clubs in Portugal and England, on top of restor-ing the Dutch national team’s profi le after they missed out on the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

‘The technical secretary and new coach will take drastic measures and they will aff ect certain players’

Lyon women’s Champions League reign at risk in Spain

Winning La Liga ‘best day of my professional life’: Zidane

FOCUS

AFPMadrid

As the dominant force in Eu-ropean women’s football for the past few seasons, Lyon are gunning for a fi fth successive

Champions League title, but a two-city, straight knockout format in Spain could off er other clubs hope of a new name on the trophy. The traditional home-and-away ties have been replaced by an eight-team mini tournament that will be played in San Sebastian and Bilbao because of complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mirroring the men’s competition in Lisbon, all games will be staged behind closed doors in a country which counts around 350,000 Covid-19 infections, the highest amount in Western Europe.

Lyon were crowned French champi-ons for the 14th time in a row when the season was declared over in May as a re-sult of the virus outbreak. They claimed a record-extending ninth French Cup earlier this month after beating Paris Saint-Germain on penalties.

Despite just two competitive outings since February, Lyon coach Jean-Luc Vasseur is confi dent his side can defend their European crown. “We saw that all

the players were ready to go to Spain,” Vasseur said after a recent 3-0 friendly win over Juventus.

“I think with the group I have, we’re not afraid of the unknown. We hope this situation with virus passes quickly. We all want to return to a normal life.”

Lyon face Bayern Munich in the quarter-fi nals on Saturday, 72 hours after the two clubs meet in the men’s semi-fi nals in Portugal. Norway star and former Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg was named in Lyon’s squad yesterday despite being sidelined since January by a knee injury. Hegerberg, the competition’s all-time leading scorer with 53 goals, scored a hat-trick in last year’s fi nal as Lyon won a fourth consecutive title but is only six months removed from surgery on ruptured knee ligaments. Record six-time winners Lyon will be without France defender Griedge Mbock and Portugal forward Jessica Silva due to injury. Dutch inter-national Shanice van de Sanden knows Lyon, who coasted through the previ-ous two rounds winning 16-0 and 11-0 respectively, cannot aff ord a false step in this unique format.

“Usually, if you don’t play well in the fi rst game, you have a chance to put it right, but now if we lose we’re out of the Champions League,” Van de Sanden

said. “It’s the same with the Euros or the World Cup — anything can hap-pen. It’s about the team that gets into the fl ow.” Twice former winners Wolfs-burg take on Glasgow City tomorrow, at the same time as the all-Spanish clash

between last year’s runners-up Barce-lona and fi rst-time quarter-fi nalists Atletico Madrid. Wolfsburg, champi-ons in 2013 and 2014, appear Lyon’s most likely challengers for the trophy, and have the benefi t of playing regular

competitive matches in recent months, as the German league resumed and fi n-ished its season.

In contrast, women’s leagues in Spain and England were cut short, while football in France was cancelled

after the government intervened. Scot-land’s season was called off after just one round of matches. “Obviously we’re expected to overcome the hurdle of Glasgow,” said head coach Stephan Lerch, who can call upon the Frauen Bundesliga’s 27-goal top scorer and Denmark captain Pernille Harder.

Arsenal, who won the 2007 edition, play two-time runners-up PSG in Sat-urday’s other quarter-fi nal.

Clubs will be allowed to register six new players for the ‘Final Eight’, as several were unable to extend existing contracts due to fi nancial constraints amid the pandemic. Only three of those are allowed to have played for one of the other quarter-fi nalists. Players and staff must also undergo virus testing before departing for Spain and again on the eve of each match.

Atletico’s preparations suff ered a considerable setback when the club was forced to suspend training last week following fi ve positive Covid-19 tests among the squad and coaching staff . The northern Basque region, which in-corporates the two tournament venues, on Monday declared a health emergen-cy because of the risk of a “tsunami” of new infections as Spain reimposed measures to curb one of the fastest vi-rus growth rates on the continent.

SPOTLIGHT

Cape Town: The start of the African group stage qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup have been shifted to June next year and will be completed in a five-month dash for a place in Qatar, according to a Con-federation of African Football memo seen by Reuters.

The qualifiers were due to begin in October, but the impact of the Covid-19 pan-demic has seen a reshuff le in the African international football calendar. The conti-nent continues to be hard hit by the pandemic, with only a handful of domestic competi-tions such as South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco currently under way.

The preliminary World Cup competition will now be played in four windows next year, with two games each. The pool stages start from May 31-June 15.

CAF postpone Africa World

Cup qualifi ers to June 2021

Ronald Koeman speaks during his unveiling as Barcelona coach yesterday. (Reuters)

AFPAix-en-Provence, France

Zinedine Zidane said yesterday that leading Real Madrid to the La Liga title in a stop-start sea-son at the mercy of coronavirus

was “the best day of my professional life”. The 48-year-old French football icon insisted it will remain a memora-ble day even in a career which includes winning the 1998 World Cup as a player. The only setback in the season was a Champions League last 16 exit at the hands of Manchester City. “We set the goal (of winning La Liga) very high,” Zi-dane said.

“After the (coronavirus) confi ne-ment, knowing that perhaps we were not going to start playing again, because that’s what was going on, fi nally to have taken La Liga, for me it was my happiest day. Even if we always want to say that the Champions League, yes, it’s great, it’s magnifi cent, I don’t want to com-pare. When we won this complicated, this very diffi cult La Liga, it was really the best day of my professional life.”

Zidane added that he would never

rule out at some stage taking charge of the French national team. However, it’s not something that is on his immediate horizon which is not surprising given that present incumbent Didier Des-champs has already won the 2018 World Cup from the coaching hot seat.

“I said it a dozen years ago: if I am a coach, why not one day train the France team?” Zidane said. “It is not new. Even Didier Deschamps knows it be-cause it was he who announced it. We all have a story and my story with the France team, it was beautiful until my last game. With ups and downs, but my story was beautiful. If one day it has to continue, it will happen naturally. What will happen will happen.”

Zidane won 108 caps as a player with the French team, playing in the 1998 World Cup winning side. However, his international career ended in disgrace when he was red carded in the 2006 fi -nal against Italy.

Zidane admitted that he had no grand plan for the future. “I don’t have a ca-reer plan. I enjoy training today just as I did when I was a player. When it doesn’t work out, or something has to be done, I’ll do it diff erently.”

Real Madrid’s head coach Zinedine Zidane (centre) poses with children at a futsal facility during the presentation of a sports and educational programme called “Zidane Five Club” (ZFC), in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, yesterday. (AFP)

Lyon players celebrate after defeating Barcelona in last year’s Champions League final.

CRICKET

Gulf Times Thursday, August 20, 20204

AFPLondon

England believe Adil Rashid still has “aspirations” to be a Test-match bowler, national selector Ed Smith said yesterday.

The 32-year-old leg-spinner last played the most recent of his 19 Tests in January of last year and he has not featured for York-shire in the fi rst-class County Champion-ship during the past two seasons.

Earlier this year he signed a white-ball only contract with Yorkshire and so is not featuring in the Bob Willis Trophy, the re-placement competition for the Champi-onship in a season disrupted by Covid-19. Rashid, however, was a key member of Eng-land’s World Cup-winning side last year and is their top-ranked Twenty20 bowler.

Although his 60 Test wickets have come at an expensive average of nearly 40 apiece, Smith would like to see him prove his fi t-ness following a shoulder injury and make a challenge for a place in England’s red-ball set-up, with none of his current spin rivals

having nailed down a position in Joe Root’s team. “Adil’s still coming back from a rea-sonably serious injury,” Smith told report-ers on Tuesday after Rashid was included in England’s Twenty20 squad for an upcom-ing three-match series against Pakistan at Old Traff ord.

“He’s still working on that physical side, but in the long term I think Adil still has as-pirations to play for England in all forms.”

Former England batsman Smith add-ed: “His form is really good in white-ball cricket. We’ve all seen the skill and the mastery that he’s displaying at the moment in that form and we’ll work closely with Adil and with Yorkshire in the future to see if he’s ready to play four-day and fi ve-day

cricket. “There is a jump required. There’s a diff erence between bowling 10 overs and bowling 100 overs or whatever a very heavy workload would be in a two or three-game spell in four-day cricket.

“But the main thing with Adil is he’s made really good strides and he’s developed really well in recovery from that injury.”

Meanwhile James Vince’s England career looks to be in the balance after he was omit-ted from the Twenty20 squad.

The Hampshire batsman has appeared more than 10 times each in the three inter-national formats – Tests, one-day interna-tionals and Twenty20s – but has a modest average of under 30 in all of them.

Vince failed to impress during England’s recent one-day series win over Ireland and Smith said: “I think James is a very talented player and at his best we all know has the skill to look absolutely at home in interna-tional cricket. But I’m not saying anything diff erent here than I said to James on the phone: it’s just a question of him grabbing his opportunities. He’s not been selected for this series against Pakistan. That was as far as the conversation went.”

Rashid still a Test chance, says selector SmithOPINION

England coach Silverwood backs earlier Test match startsEngland coach Chris Silverwood says he is all for early starts to matches after bad light blighted the drawn second Test between England and Pakistan at South-ampton.Only 134.3 overs were sent down across five days in a match marred by rain delays as well as the spectacle of players being taken off the field for bad light even when the Ageas Bowl flood-lights were in use. Not since the same two teams met at Lord’s in 1987, when 112.5 overs were bowled, has a Test in England been so badly aff ected by weather interruptions.Silverwood, speaking ahead of Friday’s third and final Test, also at the Ageas Bowl in a series England lead 1-0, said it would be possible to start at half past ten and not the usual 11 o’clock.

“It makes sense to me,” he said yesterday. “We have a period at the start of the day we could use, but we try to lump it at the end when light is an issue.”“In my opinion it would be a good idea. I know there’s chats around it and there will be no complaints from us if it happens. But I’ve had no off icial word it’ll happen.”Silverwood had other ideas that could be considered such as a ball which is a lighter shade of red, floodlights, and glasses to help cricketers in fading light.Silverwood, seeking to win his second series of the summer after beating the West Indies 2-1, said given the special circumstances due to the coronavirus pandemic it made starting matches earlier easier to do.“We’re all here anyway,” he said.

“We’re all on the ground, so it wouldn’t be very diff icult to make it happen.”Silverwood, who took over the job from Trevor Bayliss when the latter left at the end of the 2019 season, said it had been tough going sitting around throughout most of the second Test. “To have both sides – to have eve-ryone, really – in the bubble sat around was hard work at times,” said the 45-year-old former Eng-land pace bowler.“You feel for everyone involved including the viewers at home hoping to watch some cricket. I felt for everyone that we were just here sat around twiddling our thumbs.”The International Cricket Council is set to discuss the issue of bad light at the next meeting of its cricket committee.

Coach Misbah has no qualms over Pakistan’s fi tnessAFPSouthampton, United Kingdom

Pakistan coach Misbah-ul-Haq is confi dent his side’s fi tness levels will hold up when they face

England in the third and fi nal Test at Southampton starting on Friday.

A season reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic has left Pakistan with a programme of three Tests in as many weeks.

What could have been a truly gruelling schedule became less arduous as a result of so much time being lost to rain and bad light during he drawn second Test, also at Southampton, con-cluded Monday.

But Misbah, who as a 42-year-old captain of Pakistan celebrat-ed scoring a hundred against England at Lord’s in 2016 with a round of press-ups, has long been convinced of the need for his players to be in shape.

“Fitness has been an impor-tant part of our strategy as a team since I took on the role of head coach last September and we have seen the benefi ts in the two Tests so far,” Misbah wrote in a column for the Pakistan Cricket Board’s website.

‘PERFORM UNDER PRESSURE’“The players have taken own-ership of their fitness lev-els and they should be given credit for that, especially af-ter three months at home dur-ing the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.

“They know having supreme fi tness will help them to perform under pressure.”

Pakistan go into the series fi nale 1-0 down after a three-wicket defeat in the fi rst Test at Old Traff ord.

But that loss saw Shan Masood show plenty of endurance dur-ing a Test-best 156 while wick-etkeeper Mohamed Rizwan,

impressive behind the stumps in Manchester, was named man-of-the-match in the second Test for a determined 72.

“Mohamead Rizwan is a great example of that (fi tness) in the way he ran between the wickets and batted with the tail,” ex-plained Misbah.

“Shan Masood also showed it in the fi rst Test, batting for al-most eight hours, and running

really well with Shadab Khan. The way they stole quick sin-gles is something that you don’t see much in Test cricket and certainly not from a Pakistan team.”

The second day of the second Test was also Pakistan’s Inde-pendence Day, which has previ-ously coincided with some no-table moments in the country’s cricket history.

“It is always a special moment to celebrate Independence Day during a Test match and Paki-stan has some great memories from previous such occasions in England: our fi rst-ever Test win in England in 1954 came just after Independence Day, as did the famous win at Lord’s in 1982 and, from a personal point of view, our victory at the Oval in 2016 when we levelled the se-

ries on 14 August itself,” recalled Misbah.

Unfortunately for Pakistan, the weather in Southampton meant the current side could not add to those successes, although Misbah said: “Hopefully we can deliver a late gift to the nation in the fi nal Test and announce another In-dependence Day! Or, as coach, I can just announce that this is the month of Independence.”

COMMENT

‘They know having supreme fitness will help them to perform under pressure’

ReutersMelbourne

Australia limited overs captain Aaron Finch has set himself a goal of playing the 2023

one-day World Cup in India before bowing out of interna-tional cricket.

The 33-year-old open-ing batsman told Australian radio that cricket’s pause in 2020 due to Covid-19 had only made him more determined to push through to the global tournament in the subcon-tinent. “My end date at this stage is the World Cup fi nal of the 2023 World Cup in India,” he told SEN.

“That’s my goal and I’m sticking to it. That’ll see me through to 36 (years old), ob-viously with form and every-thing permitting, and injuries.

“If I thought I was going to be pushing it to get to that date, this break has confi rmed that I’ll be ready to go right through to that period.”

Finch’s opening partner David Warner has also tar-geted the 2023 World Cup,

though he said last month that family was his priority and he might review his international commitments depending on the long-term situation with Covid-19.

Finch led Australia to the semi-fi nals in England last year and was part of the Michael Clarke-captained side that won the 2015 World Cup on home soil.

He is leading a squad of 21 to England next week for limited overs series in Southampton and Manchester starting Sept. 4, which will be Australia’s fi rst international cricket since the pandemic cut the season short in March.

Finch, who has been locked down in Melbourne as author-ities battle a second wave out-break, said he had not missed cricket for the fi rst month of home isolation and wondered if he had lost motivation.

“Originally, that was alarm bells for me. (I thought) does this mean I’m coming to the end?

“And it was like that 32nd day (of no training) ticked over and I was like, ‘right, I’m itch-ing to get back into it’.”

Australia skipper Finch targeting 2023 World Cup as career swansong

SPOTLIGHT

Pakistan’s Mohamed Rizwan bats on the second day of the second Test match against England at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, southwest England, on August 14, 2020. (AFP)

Gillespie to leave Sussex for South Australia role at end of season

Former Australia bowler Jason Gillespie will leave his role as Sussex coach at the end of the ongoing 2020 season, the English county announced yesterday.A statement from the south coast club said Gillespie would be returning to Australia to take up a role with the South Australian Cricket Association.It appears Gillespie, already in charge of the Adelaide Strikers as well as Sussex, is set to become the new coach of the struggling Redbacks - a move that would put South Australia’s Big Bash League and first-class teams under the control of one man. He will, however, remain at Hove as Sus-

sex coach until the end of the current campaign. Former fast bowler Gillespie represented South Australia while also winning 71 Test caps as a member of the powerful Australia side of the mid-1990s to early 2000s.Having played county cricket in England, the now 45-year-old Gillespie made a successful switch into coaching, guiding Yorkshire to successive County Champi-onship titles in 2014 and 2015 before join-ing Sussex at the start of the 2018 season.It was only last year that Gillespie, tipped as a possible England coach before the role went to Trevor Bayliss, a fellow Aus-tralian, signed a contract extension with

Sussex until the end of the 2022 season.“We are very sorry to see Jason leave af-ter three years at the club, but fully under-stand and support his decision to return home to a new role in South Australian cricket,” said Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew.“He will stay in Hove to see out our sea-son and continue the great work with the development of our young and exciting team.”Andrew, a former England rugby union fly-half, added Sussex would not be mak-ing a decision on Gillespie’s replacement until 2021.Gillespie coached the Strikers to the BBL

title in 2018 and has taken them to the finals on two other occasions, including last season. But at the same time South Australia’s form has declined alarmingly, with the Redbacks winning just four out of 29 matches in the Sheff ield Shield, Aus-tralian cricket’s domestic first-class com-petition, during the past three seasons.That run of results saw Jamie Siddons, Gillespie’s former state captain, leave his post as South Australia coach earlier this year. SACA commissioned a high perform-ance review led by Michael Hussey, with the former Australia batsman recom-mending the Redbacks and Strikers be brought under the control of one coach.

Labuschagne primed to become man-for-all-formats

ReutersMelbourne

Seven months after dominating Australia’s summer of test cricket, Marnus Labuschagne

is hoping to cement his place in the nation’s limited overs sides on the white-ball tour of Eng-land. The South Africa-born batsman will join a squad of 21 for a Twenty20 series in South-ampton starting September 4 followed by a one-day series in Manchester after a long lay-off from international cricket due to Covid-19.

Labuschagne, who made his ODI debut in India in Janu-ary, averages over 50 from seven matches in the format but is yet to win selection in Aaron Finch’s T20 side. “It doesn’t matter what the for-mat is, I want to get better,” Labuschagne told reporters in Brisbane yesterday. “Defi -nitely some areas in one-day cricket I’m continuing to de-velop are my bowling, making sure I get a bit more consistent and become a better option

for the skipper with the ball in those middle overs. “I also want to keep working on my batting at the death.”

Covid-19 scuppered his plans to play for English coun-ty side Glamorgan but La-buschagne kept himself busy at Cricket Australia’s training centre in Brisbane. “It’s been good to have fi ve months to work on (short format) skills – whereas if I was playing coun-ty cricket then you might not have the opportunity to work on those specifi c skills,” added the 26-year-old righthander.

Boasting an average of 63.43 from his 14 tests, Labuschagne has already been touted as a future leader of the Austral-ian team by former captain Ricky Ponting. However, La-buschagne said he was not thinking about leadership roles and was happy for his bat to do the talking. “I love be-ing a leader but I don’t think that means you need a title,” he said. “It’s just about... en-joying my cricket and making sure that I keep staying con-sistent scoring runs for Aus-tralia – because that’s my job.”

FOCUS

Lakers and Bucks stumble out of gate in playoff openers

NBA

SPORT5Gulf Times

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Tuch sees Vegas through, Hart shutout puts Flyers on topAFPLos Angeles

Alex Tuch scored the winner as the Vegas Golden Knights be-came the fi rst team

to advance through the fi rst round of the NHL playoff s with a 4-3 win over the Chi-cago Blackhawks.

Vegas fell behind 2-0 for the second consecutive game but rallied to beat Chicago Tues-day night in Toronto and win the series four games to one.

“We stuck to our game plan,” said Tuch. “I thought we were playing well. We just needed a couple of lucky bounces.

“We knew our goal-tender was playing well and would come up with some big saves.”

Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone and Alec Martinez also scored and former Blackhawk goaltender Robin Lehner made 23 saves for top-seeded Vegas.

Jonathan Toews, Alex De-Brincat and Patrick Kane scored for the eighth-seeded Chicago. Goaltender Corey Crawford made 35 saves.

Tuch drove to the net with Chicago defenceman Adam Boqvist trying to cut him off , but Tuch managed to force the puck past Crawford to give Vegas its fi rst lead 4-3 early in the third. “I just tried to get a shot on net, maybe go for a rebound. I don’t know what it hit,” said Tuch.

Philadelphia’s Carter Hart delivered his second-consec-utive shutout, making 29 saves as the Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 in game four of their series. Last Friday, Hart allowed four goals on 26 shots before being pulled halfway through a 5-0 loss in game two.

But the former WHL Everett Silvertip has been solid since, earning his fi rst career playoff shutout in a 1-0 win in game three on Sunday.

“He has been an absolute wall for us back there, he’s so calm,” Flyers defenceman Philippe Myers said.

“The way he’s playing

right now he’s the best in the league.”

Hart’s best save came early in the second period off a hard shot by Montreal’s Shea Weber that Hart got a piece of before it rang off the post.

“I think we’ve been good, but I don’t think we really tested (Hart) much the last two games,” Canadiens forward Phillip Danault said. “We have to get better around the net.”

Michael Raffl and Philippe Myers scored for the Flyers, who seized a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven se-ries. Philadelphia can advance with a win Wednesday in game fi ve. Carey Price made 20 saves

for the Canadiens, who have outscored the Flyers 6-5 in the series but have just one win to show for it.

Raffl opened the scoring at 6:32 of the fi rst period, fi ring the puck into the top left cor-ner of the net behind Price.

Myers got a lucky bounce to score the second Flyers’ goal at 17:04 of the second. His soft shot towards the goal defl ected off a defenceman’s stick and then hit Price before going into the net.

In Edmonton, John Kling-berg scored a third period goal as the Dallas Stars defeated the Calgary Flames 2-1 in game fi ve of their series.

Klingberg carried the puck to the top of the faceoff cir-cle and blasted a shot inside the right post after taking a pass from teammate Mattias Janmark. The Stars now have their fi rst lead in the series at 3-2. They can eliminate Cal-gary with another victory on Thursday.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice as the Washington Capitals rallied from a two-goal defi -cit to stay alive in the playoff s with a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders. The Is-landers lead the series three games to one.

NHL

AFPLos Angeles

A pair of eighth-seeded teams de-livered stunning upsets in their playoff openers on Tuesday as the Portland Trail Blazers and

Orlando Magic surprised the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks.

Damian Lillard scored 34 points as the Trail Blazers toppled the West’s number one seeded Lakers 100-93 and Nikola Vucevic tallied 35 points as the Magic de-feated the East’s top seeded Bucks 122-110 at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

“Every time we have played since we have been here, it is like a playoff game,” said Lillard. “So that prepared us for a game like this.”

The last time both NBA top seeds lost their playoff openers was 2003 when the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons stumbled out of the gate.

Game two is today in Orlando, Florida Lillard drained several long three-point-ers including one from 36 feet with just over three minutes left to break a 89-89 tie. Three-pointers are something he has been working on in practice.

“In the summer when I step away, I try to fi nd ways I can improve my game,” Lil-lard said. “Playing further out was major part what I wanted to add to my game. It is starting to show. I am just reaping the benefi ts of the work I put in.”

CJ McCollum had 21 points and Bosnian Jusuf Nurkic scored 16 points and 15 re-bounds for the Blazers, who made 13 of 34 three-pointers. Carmelo Anthony added 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Anthony Davis fi nished with 28 points and 11 boards, while LeBron James had 23 points, 17 rebounds and 16 assists for the Lakers, who struggled from beyond the arc making just fi ve of 32 attempts. Kyle Kuzma chipped in 14 points.

James is the fi rst player in history to record a 20 point, 15 rebound and 15 assist triple double in the postseason.

“We had a lot of wide open looks. The

fi rst playoff game so there were a lot of jit-ters. We have to calm down, take our time. The shots will be there all series,” said Lakers Kuzma.

Gary Trent nailed a clutch three-point-er with 75 seconds left in the fourth to give the Blazers a 98-93 lead. Nurkic then sealed the win with a late dunk.

The Magic got off to a quick start to seize a double-digit lead then blunted a second-half rally by the Bucks, who boast the league’s top player Giannis Antetok-ounmpo. Orlando came into the series as big underdogs against the NBA’s best all-around team.

“We don’t care what other people have to say,” Vucevic said. “We focus on our-selves and we came out and played a great game on both ends of the fl oor.”

Vucevic, of Montenegro, also had 14 rebounds and four assists. Terrence Ross fi nished with 18 points and six rebounds, while DJ Augustin added 11 points and 11 assists for Orlando, who shot 49 percent from the fi eld and made 16 baskets from beyond the arc. “You have to really be ready for what they do,” Vucevic said.

“We have to make sure we know their stuff and we are prepared for everything. Tonight, we defi nitely were on top of that.

We did a good job executing the game plan.”

Reigning league MVP Antetokounmpo fi nished with 31 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists.

Milwaukee closed the gap to 62-52 at the half, then began the third quarter on a 16-7 run to cut Orlando’s advantage to one.

The Bucks got within six points, 99-93, on a Brook Lopez basket with 8:13 to play, but Orlando answered with Ross’ driv-ing dunk and Augustin’s three-pointer to push its advantage back to double digits.

Orlando’s Evan Fournier was held scoreless until hitting three clutch three-pointers late in the fourth quarter to help clinch the victory.

In another playoff encounter, James Harden scored 37 points to lift the Hou-ston Rockets to a 123-108 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Despite not having Russell Westbrook for the fi fth time in six games, the Rock-ets off ence was sizzling, combining for 76 points in the second and third quarters.

The Miami Heat ran away for a 113-101 win over the Indiana Pacers after Tyler Herro’s jump shot with 8:52 remaining broke a tie.

LeBron James (right) of the Los Angeles Lakers in action against Portland Trail Blazers during the Game One of the Western Conference playoff s at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (Getty Images/AFP)

Twins beat Brewers in 12 aft er Maeda’s no-hit bid is foiledReutersMinneapolis

Jorge Polanco drove in two runs, in-cluding the winner with one out in the 12th inning, and Kenta Maeda took a no-hitter into the ninth inning as

the Minnesota Twins edged the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3, on Tuesday night in Minne-apolis.

Polanco drove in Byron Buxton from third with a broken-bat dribbler past losing pitch-er David Phelps (2-2) to win it. Buxton, who began the inning at second and went to third on a groundout by Alex Avila, beat the throw home by Brewers second baseman Luis Urias.

Maeda also set a team record with eight consecutive strikeouts but failed to garner the win as the Brewers rallied for three ninth-inning runs and force extra innings.

Eric Sogard broke up the no-hitter to start the ninth with a soft liner over the glove of Polanco for a leadoff single. It was only the second ball hit into the outfi eld off Maeda, who then departed after throwing a career-high 115 pitches, 78 of which were strikes. He

struck out 12 and walked two.Taylor Rogers took over for Maeda and

promptly gave up a double off the left-fi eld wall to Avisail Garcia. After Christian Yelich walked to load the bases, Keston Hiura sin-

gled to drive in Sogard. The Brewers then tied it at 3 when pinch-hitter Jedd Gyorko bounced into a fi elder’s choice and Ilde-maro Vargas’ throw to fi rst on the potential double-play grounder was wide for an er-ror as two runs scored. Maeda broke the club record of seven consecutive strikeouts set by Jim Merritt in 1966 and equalled by Francisco Liriano in 2010. He came within one strikeout of tying the American League record set by Detroit’s Doug Fister in 2012 against Kansas City and equalled this season by Tigers reliever Tyler Alexander against Cincinnati. The major league record is 10 in a row by Tom Seaver of the Mets against the San Diego Padres on April 22, 1970.

Maeda walked the second batter of the game, Yelich, on four straight pitches but then rebounded to retire the next 21 in a row before walking Omar Narvaez during a 10-pitch at-bat with one out in the eighth. He rebounded to strike out Ben Gamel and got Urias to hit into a force out.

Jorge Alcala (1-0) picked up the win and Miguel Sano had two doubles and an RBI for the Twins who improved to 11-2 at Target Field this season.

MLB

‘Every time we have played since we have been here, it is like a playoff game’

The Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a goal by right wing Alex Tuch (second right) during the second period against the Chicago Blackhawks in game five of the first round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoff s at Rogers Place. (USA TODAY Sports)

RESULTS

Orlando 122-110 Milwaukee

Miami 113-101 Indiana

Houston 123-108 Oklahoma

Portland 100-93 Lakers

RESULTS

Twins 4-3 Brewers

Phillies 13-6 Red Sox

D’Backs 10-1 Athletics

Astros 2-1 Rockies

Nationals 8-5 Braves

Padres 6-4 Rangers

Rays 6-3 Yankees

Cubs 6-3 Cardinals

Dodgers 2-1 Mariners

White Sox 10-4 Tigers

Mets 8-3 Marlins

Indians 6-3 Pirates

Blue Jays 8-7 Orioles

Giants 8-2 Angels

Minnesota Twins pitcher Kenta Maeda delivers a pitch during the fifth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at the Target Field in Minneapolis, USA. (USA TODAY Sports)

RESULTS

Philadelphia 2-0 Montreal

Dallas 2-1 Calgary

Washington 3-2 Islanders

Las Vegas 4-3 Chicago

‘Signifi cant improvements’ for Zanardi: hospital

Star Momota sparks stampede with coaching off er

UPDATE

BADMINTON

SPORT

Gulf Times Thursday, August 20, 20206

‘Smiling Cinderella’ Shibuno set for ‘very diffi cult’ title defence

GOLF

‘My win last year was life changing. I became a celebrity in Japan’AFPTroon, United Kingdom

A year ago, Hinako Shibuno was a lit-tle known golfer who wowed the crowds at

Woburn on her way to a shock victory in the Women’s British Open.

The player dubbed the ‘Smil-ing Cinderella’, who is now one of Japan’s sporting super-stars, lines up at Royal Troon in Scotland today as the defend-ing champion — but with not a spectator in sight.

After a golfi ng lockdown due to coronavirus, the Women’s British Open is the fi rst major of the 2020 LPGA season and 21-year-old Shibuno is looking forward to a new challenge.

“My win last year was life changing,” she admitted through an interpreter.

“I became a celebrity in Japan and couldn’t believe the number of people when I arrived home at the airport. It was weird.”

Woburn is an inland parkland course so the Troon links presents a completely diff erent test.

“I have watched the Open Championship on TV and I know I need to focus on the tee shots and miss the fairway bun-kers,” said Shibuno.

“It’s going to be very diffi cult because I know there will be wind and rain and I will have to play smart. But I want to enjoy be-ing the defending champion and show other parts of my game.

“I have high expectations of myself but I want to play with a smile on my face.”

‘TOUGH FOR EVERYONE’Ariya Jutanugarn was also a Brit-ish Open winner at Woburn in 2016 and the long-hitting Thai golfer starts as one of the favour-

ites to lift the crown this year.After a six month break due

to the virus, the 24-year-old returned to action with a top 40 fi nish at last week’s Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club at North Berwick.

Winner of the 2018 Scottish Open at Gullane, she has learned to love links courses.

“I am raring to go,” she said. “There are no crowds here this week but it still feels like a major.

“At fi rst I didn’t like links

courses but the Scottish win two years ago helped change my mind.

“Sometimes by this stage of the season you are wanting a break, but this time I am just so happy to be back to golf.

“It’s been really tough for eve-ryone and I am so grateful to be playing tournaments again.”

Heading the British challenge are the 2018 champion from Royal Lytham and St Annes, Georgia Hall, and her Solheim Cup teammate Charley Hull.

Hull has won on the Rose La-dies’ Series this year — tourna-ments sponsored by English male golfi ng star Justin Rose.

American Danielle Kang is the in-form player.

She won back-to-back tour-naments in Ohio on the LPGA Tour’s return earlier this month and just missed out on a play-off for the Scottish Open last week.

As a result, she has now ris-en to No.2 in the world behind South Korea’s Ko Jin-young.

“It’s been great,” she said.“I am so glad to be here and

the course is beautiful.“Despite the restrictions, the

bubble protocol has been fan-tastic here in Scotland.

“It is so diff erent for every-one, but there is easy access to everything we need.”

English golfi ng legend Laura Davies is playing in her 40th Brit-ish Open and she has the honour of teeing off fi rst when the action gets underway today morning.

In this August 4, 2019, picture, Japan’s Hinako Shibuno celebrates with the trophy after her victory in the 2019 Women’s British Open golf championship at Woburn Golf Club in Milton Keynes, north of London. (AFP)

Rahm unsure about defending European Tour titles amid Covid-19ReutersToronto, Canada

Spaniard Jon Rahm enjoyed plenty of success on the European Tour last

year but the world number one said on Tuesday he may not defend any of his titles because of the Covid-19 outbreak.Rahm, competing this week in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup playoff opener in Norton, Mas-sachusetts, said he will wait until after the Sept. 17-20 US Open to make a final decision on whether to travel overseas amid the pandemic.“Right now, I just don’t see myself going to Europe,” Rahm said at TPC Boston. “It’s rough

flying public, having to have a flight, a mask on for 10-plus hours, just doesn’t sound very good to me. Doesn’t sound healthy at all, so I don’t know what I’m going to be doing.”Rahm, who replaced Rory McIlroy as world number one after his July victory at the Memorial Tournament, won three European Tour events last year, including the Spanish Open which has already been cancelled for this year.He is also the reigning cham-pion of the Irish Open, which has been rescheduled for Sept. 24-27, and the DP World Tour Championship, which is slated for Dec. 10-13 in Dubai.Rahm said he will monitor the Covid-19 guidelines around

the world and also learn more about how events are being run before settling on a decision.“Right now my main thought is I don’t know if I’m going to be able to go to Spain and see my family at Christmas. That’s my bigger thing right now,” said Rahm.“If it comes between going to Spain and seeing my family and playing a golf tournament, I’m not playing golf, that’s all I can say.”The top 70 golfers on the FedExCup points list after the 125-player Northern Trust move onto next week’s BMW Championship outside Chicago before the top 30 head to East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta for the Sept. 4-7 Tour Championship.

AFPRome, Italy

Former Formula One driver Alex Zanardi’s health has signifi cantly improved since the Para-

lympic champion, who was seri-ously hurt in a road accident in June, returned to intensive care, doctors said yesterday.

In a statement, the San Raf-faele hospital in Milan taking care of Zanardi said that the 53-year-old had shown “sig-nifi cant clinical improvements” since being re-hospitalised last month and is now being treated in semi-intensive care.

Zanardi had left a Siena hos-pital in July to continue his re-covery at a rehabilitation centre after undergoing three surgeries, but had to be transferred to the intensive care unit just a few days later due to the “instability” of his health.

The Italian star suff ered seri-ous head injuries when he lost control of his handbike during a road race in Tuscany and crashed into an oncoming truck on June 19.

Zanardi had both his legs am-putated after a motor racing ac-cident in 2001 at the Lausitzring track in Germany, and has since become one of the best-known fi gures in Paralympic sports.

Zanardi raced for Jordan, Minardi and Lotus in F1 in the early 1990s before switching to the CART championship in the United States where he was se-ries champion in 1997 and 1998.

He returned to F1 with Wil-liams in 1999 before heading back to CART.

Zanardi won two gold medals at the 2012 London Paralympic Games and four years later won two more in Rio de Janeiro.

He also won the Rome mara-thon in 2010 and the New York race the following year.

AFPTokyo, Japan

It’s an irresistible prospect for budding badminton players — a chance to be coached by Japanese world number one

Kento Momota, who has trig-gered thousands of responses by off ering his services.

“Would anyone like to play badminton with me?” Momota wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

“I also want to teach people badminton. I want people to know how fun this is,” added the badminton star, who was injured in a car crash in February in Ma-laysia.

Momota, a top gold medal hope for Japan at the now-post-poned Tokyo Olympics, spent months recuperating after the crash, which killed the driver of his vehicle and left him with eye injuries.

His coaching off er — for just two lucky students — attracted a fl ood of applicants, ranging from parents applying for their chil-

dren to fellow sports stars.Olympic swimmer Daiya Seto,

who won a bronze in the Rio Games for individual medley, tweeted: “Wanna do this!”

But Momota replied: “I don’t want you because you might be too good at it!”

Former Japan international footballer Hiroshi Kiyotake also put up his hand, prompting Mo-mota to off er a trade: “Let’s do this in private. Teach me how to juggle a football.”

And even Momota’s national badminton teammate Kanta Tsuneyama weighed in asking for a shot.

Details are not yet decided, but Momota said he would wait until September before deciding which students to take.

The badminton star said in June he had fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in the crash, and was back on track for the Olympics.

Tokyo 2020 had been sched-uled to open in July, but was postponed for a year over the coronavirus and is not set to be-gin on July 23, 2021.

F1’s 10 teams sign up for next fi ve yearsMOTORSPORT

ReutersLondon, United Kingdom

Formula One’s 10 teams committed to the sport’s new era yesterday by signing up for the next

fi ve years with the promise of a more level playing fi eld and fair-er share of the revenues.

The confi dential ‘Concorde Agreement’ with rights hold-ers Liberty Media and govern-ing FIA sets out the terms under which the teams race, and the old one had been due to expire at the end of the year.

Prize money is a major part of teams’ revenues and has been a regular source of argument over the years with the leading con-tenders getting far more than smaller privately-owned outfi ts. “The (new) agreement will se-cure the long-term sustainable future for Formula One,” the FIA

said in a statement confi rming all had signed.

The announcement ended lingering uncertainty about

whether all would continue, with US-owned Haas in par-ticular considering their future after a tough 2019 season.

Haas’ French driver Romain Grosjean last month described the situation as the “elephant in the room” and asked: “Is Haas going to be here next year or not? That’s obviously the question.”

The three oldest and histori-cally most successful teams — Ferrari, McLaren and Williams — had already announced their commitment on Tuesday.

The sport had been due to in-troduce major rule changes next year to enable closer racing and cut the fi nancial disparities but that was postponed to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has hit the sport hard.

A $145mn budget cap will be introduced in 2021, however, dropping to $140mn in 2022 and then $135mn for 2023-25.

Ferrari have historically re-ceived special payments refl ect-ing their status as the sport’s oldest and most glamorous team, while other top teams

have also been rewarded for past success.

The Italian team indicated last month that their status had been respected.

“F1 has understood the im-portance of the role of Ferrari in Formula One. That for us was key and so we are satisfi ed from that,” team boss Mattia Binotto said then.

Formula One Chairman Chase Carey said 2020 had presented an unprecedented challenge and expressed pride in the way the sport had returned to racing in a safe manner.

“We said earlier in the year that due to the fl uid nature of the pandemic, the Concorde Agree-ment would take additional time to agree and we are pleased that by August we have been able achieve agreement from all 10 teams,” he said.

The deadline for signing was the end of August.

Change of guard as Froome and Thomas left out

US Open presses on despite rash of withdrawals

SPORT7Gulf Times

Thursday, August 20, 2020

CYCLING TENNIS

Team Ineos will be without the former champs at Tour de France

England back row forward Cliff ord forced to retire at 27 by injuryEngland international Jack Cliff ord, who captained the Under-20 side to the 2013 world title, is to retire due to a shoulder injury aged just 27, he announced yesterday. The Australia-born back row forward won the last of his 10 senior caps against Italy in 2017 — he made his debut during England’s Six Nations Grand Slam campaign in 2016. However, a dislocated shoulder he suff ered in what was his 100th appear-ance for Harlequins last September has failed to heal entirely even after two operations. “I am absolutely gutted to have to call time on my career at a rela-tively early stage,” he said on the club website. “I have been at Quins since I was 13 years old and made so many good friends here. I will miss this environ-ment greatly.”

World Cup-winningSpringbok hooker signs for Japanese clubSouth Africa hooker Malcolm Marx has signed for Japanese Top League side the Kubota Spears, return-ing to the country where he helped the Springboks lift the World Cup trophy last year. Marx opted out of his contract with the South African Super Rugby side the Lions in May, taking advantage of a 21-day window to cancel the deal and become a free agent after pay-cuts in the domestic game were introduced because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Marx had a brief stint in Japan last season with NTT Communications Shining Arcs, the bulldozing hooker scoring five tries in six matches before the campaign was brought to a premature end. The 26-year-old has 33 caps for the Boks, but lost his place in the starting line-up to Bongi Mbonambi at the World Cup. The Funabashi-based Spears are coached by South African Frans Ludeke.

Initiatives announced to protect England and Premiership playersThe Professional Game Board (PGB) on Tuesday an-nounced a series of initiatives to ensure the welfare of England and English Premiership players follow-ing the restructuring of the rugby calendar due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the new measures, England players will be aff orded a one-week break after their Six Nations clash with Italy on Oct. 31 and two weeks off ahead of their return to club rugby in December. “We recognise the duty that clubs and Rugby Football Union (RFU) have for players and we will continue to work with the medical and condition-ing experts to monitor player load throughout the challenging schedule,” Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) chief Damian Hopley said. In order to complete the 2019-20 season, which was halted for five months by the pandemic, the Premiership intro-duced three rounds of midweek fixtures.

‘Rough as guts’ — NZ return no joke for win-shy GatlandAFPWellington, New Zealand

Warren Gatland was hailed as rugby un-ion’s greatest ever coach just two

months ago, but the New Zea-lander’s reputation has taken a battering after the Waikato Chiefs’ horror show in Super Rugby Aotearoa.

Gatland’s Chiefs slumped to defeat in all eight of their match-es, with the losing streak extend-ing to nine if results from the sus-pended Super Rugby season are included.

It was a humbling experience for Gatland, who joined the Chiefs this season hoping to return his hometown team to the glory days of 2012-13, when they won back-to-back Super Rugby titles.

“I won’t deny that we’re disap-pointed,” Gatland said after the dismal season ended with a limp 31-18 loss to Wellington Hurri-canes.

“It’s all about results, and we haven’t achieved those results.”

Gatland arrived in Hamilton with a stellar record after guiding Wales to four Six nations titles — three of them grand slams — and two Rugby World Cup semi-fi nals in his 12-year tenure.

He also oversaw the British and Irish Lions’ victorious campaign in Australia in 2013 and a series draw in New Zealand four years later, as well as winning a hat-trick of Premiership titles in 2003,

2004 and 2005 with Wasps.However, Gatland was well

aware how quick the transition from rooster to feather duster can be when the British maga-zine Rugby World named him the world’s best ever coach in June af-ter an exhaustive online poll.

Repeat the same exercise in a month, he told the publication at the time, and “I might not even make the quarter-fi nal”.

CLOWNING AROUNDGatland’s four-year deal with

the Chiefs has a clause allowing him to lead the British and Irish Lions to South Africa next year, although the tour is in doubt be-cause of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Super Rugby side have al-ready lined up Clayton McMillan as a temporary replacement but Gatland has hinted he would work for free at the Chiefs in 2021, rath-er than taking an enforced break.

Despite being a proud Kiwi, it’s fair to say Gatland has always had doubters in New Zealand, where achievements in the Northern

Hemisphere are viewed with sus-picion.

One newspaper even depicted him as a clown in a full-page cari-cature during the 2017 Lions tour and Gatland later labelled ele-ments of his treatment during the series as “disgusting”.

There was no such vitriol after this year’s Super Rugby season ended, but commentators quite reasonably pointed to the failures of Gatland’s fi rst season in charge of the Chiefs.

“The Chiefs’ winless run in SRA was a disaster... Gatland’s comeback turned out to be as rough as guts,” stuff .co.nz’s Ri-chard Knowler said, questioning why the team “inexplicably melt-ed” in the domestic competition.

The New Zealand Herald’s Liam Napier pointed to a clash of styles, saying Gatland’s game plan was largely conservative, set-piece focused, territory-based and de-fensive.

He contrasted that with “the inherent and exuberant New Zea-land fl air that breeds young talent to chase width, offl oad in contact and attack from anywhere”.

Gatland has proved adaptable in the past, giving his backline licence to attack during the 2017 Lions tour as the tourists’ rush-defence lim-ited the All Blacks’ options.

He had the last laugh at his critics on that tour — donning a clown’s red nose at his fi nal press conference after the drawn se-ries — and few would bet against him doing the same again with the Chiefs.

Farah, Cabal back to defend US Open doubles crown

SPOTLIGHT

AFPNew York, United States

Defending champions Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal, the ATP’s top-ranked dou-

bles players, head the list of US Open men’s doubles entries an-nounced yesterday by the US Ten-nis Association.

World doubles number one Fa-rah won the 2019 US Open and Wimbledon titles plus 15 ATP crowns with second-ranked Co-lombian compatriot Cabal.

Next is the duo of Brazil’s Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot of Poland, who share fi fth in the dou-bles ratings, followed by Ameri-can Rajeev Ram and Britain’s Joe Salisbury, the reigning Australian Open champions.

Absent from the women’s side is the reigning Wimbledon cham-pion duo and 2020 Australian Open runner-up pairing of Tai-wan’s world doubles number one Hsieh Su-wei and second-ranked Barbora Strykova of the Czech Re-public.

France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Hungary’s Timea Babos are the highest-ranked women’s pair-ing entered at seventh.

Defending champions Elise Mertens of Belgium and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus are ranked 11th, second-best among entries.

AFPLondon, United Kingdom

Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome and 2018 winner Geraint Thomas’s absence from

the formidable Team Ineos line-up for this year’s race ushers in a new era with the accent on youth.

Defending champion Egan Ber-nal of Colombia and highly-rated Russian Pavel Sivakov are both 23 whilst last year’s Giro d’Italia champion Richard Carapaz of Ec-uador is 27.

Both 35-year-old Froome and Thomas, 34, have been set targets of achieving a team Grand Tour cleansweep with the former in the Vuelta a Espana (October 20 to November 8) and the latter the Giro (October 3-25).

Their absence means there will be no serious British contender for the yellow jersey for the fi rst time since Bradley Wiggins won La Grande Boucle in 2012.

Six of the team’s seven victo-ries in the past eight Tours were thanks to a British rider.

Froome will not get the chance to bring down the curtain on his hugely-successful spell with In-eos (formerly Team Sky) with a tilt for a fi fth Tour yellow jersey as he “needs more time”, according to team principal Dave Brailsford.

Froome has been trying to get back to peak condition after he was involved in a high-speed crash at last year’s Criterium du Dauphine which came close to ending his career.

However, Froome, who broke his neck, femur, elbow, hip and ribs in the crash, conceded he is not in the shape required for the gruelling race which gets under-way in Nice on August 29.

“I’ve had an incredible recovery from the big crash I had last year and I’m in a very fortunate position to be back racing now already,” said Froome, who will be bidding to add a third Vuelta to his laurels having won in 2011 and 2017.

“But I’m not confi dent that I can really fulfi l the necessary job that would be needed from me at this year’s Tour de France.

“I think it’s a lot more realistic targeting the Vuelta a Espana.

“It gives me a chance to really get stuck into something that’s deliverable.”

Brailsford had been fulsome in his praise of Froome when announcing the line-up even though relations are said to have been strained when the team decided not to renew his contract earlier this year.

Froome — who had been with the team since it came into being in 2010 — will ride for Israel Start Up Nation next season.

“Chris is a legend of our sport, a true champion who has demon-strated incredible grit and deter-mination to come back from his crash last year.

“We want to support him to compete for another Grand Tour title and the Vuelta gives him that little bit more time to continue his progress to the top level.”

‘SOME SORT OF POSITIVE’Thomas will target the Giro bid-ding to become the fi rst Welsh-man to win it.

Thomas looked on the bright side of the new challenge that lay ahead for him.

“It’s nice to fi nally just have a fi rm plan in place and know ex-actly what I’m doing, and try to get some sort of positive out of this year,” he said.

“In 2017, I was in great shape, in similar form to what I was in ‘18 when I won the Tour.

“The Giro ended badly that year with a crash and it’s something I’ve always wanted to go back to.”

Froome will have to wait an-other year and see if he can equal the record of fi ve Tour wins jointly held by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

Bernal intimated if he was fresh enough post the Tour he might off er to help Froome in the Vuelta.

“It’s a bit strange to not have G and Froomey in the Tour, but I’m really excited to see what G will do in the Giro d’Italia,” said Bernal. “Also in the Vuelta, who knows? Maybe I can go there and just try to help Froomey.”

Ineos team for Tour de France: Andrey Amador (CRC), Egan Bernal (COL), Richard Carapaz (ECU), Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP), Michal Kwiatkowski (POL), Luke Rowe (GBR), Pavel Sivakov (RUS), Dylan van Baarle (NED)

In this July 29, 2018, picture, Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas (left) and Team Sky teammate Christopher Froome celebrate as they cross the finish line of the last stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France in Paris. (AFP)

Yates signs new Mitchelton-Scott deal until 2022

CHANGE

ReutersBengaluru, India

Briton Simon Yates has signed a new two-year contract with Mitchel-ton-Scott to extend his

stay until the end of the 2022 sea-son, the Australian team said yes-terday.

Yates, the 2018 Vuelta a Espana champion, had been linked with a move away from the team fol-lowing the collapse of a takeover deal involving the Spanish-based Manuela Fundacion earlier this year.

“The journey with the team has been great so far, I have grown and matured as a person and as a rid-er,” Yates, 28, said in a statement.

“We’ve had a lot of success and a lot of failures along the way, but I’m looking forward to continuing the journey together and looking for more success as always.

“We won our fi rst Grand Tour two years ago and I truly believe we can do it again so we will keep working hard so we can take an-other one.”

Twin brother Adam, who turned profession alongside Si-mon at Mitchelton-Scott in 2014, has been linked with a move to Team Ineos.

Simon, who has won stages in all three Grand Tours with the team, plans to target October’s Giro d’Italia, while Adam remains focused on the Tour de France, which begins on August 29.

AFPNew York, United States

US Open organisers said Tuesday that the number of players willing to compete in the Grand Slam had exceeded their expectations despite several high-profi le withdrawals over

coronavirus fears.Defending champion Rafael Nadal, top-ranked woman

Ashleigh Barty and world number two Simona Halep are among a list of stars opting to skip the event because of concerns about Covid-19.

But Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Andy Mur-ray are all still due to play when the tournament begins at Flushing Meadows in New York on August 31.

“As far as our fi eld, in context of the times and how diff erent the world is, I couldn’t be happier. It’s exceed-ed our expectations,” United States Tennis Association chief executive Mike Dowse said.

“At the end of the day it’s our fans we are here to serve. They’re going to see some unbelievable world class ten-nis.”

Halep, the current Wimbledon champion, dropped out on Monday, joining high-profi le absentees that in-clude reigning US Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada and Ukraine’s fi fth-ranked Elina Svitolina.

Number seven in the rankings Kiki Bertens and eighth-ranked Swiss Belinda Bencic will also be absent.

The depleted fi eld provides Williams with a golden op-portunity as she seeks a 24th career Grand Slam title to match Margaret Court’s all-time record.

New York was one of the hardest-hit US cities when Covid-19 fi rst spiked in March and April, and a tempo-rary hospital was even raised on the indoor courts at the US Tennis Center.

The virus has largely been brought under control in New York, even as cases have risen elsewhere in the country.

Approximately 90 percent of US Open participants have arrived in New York and are residing in two hotels as part of the competition’s “bubble,” with a few choos-ing to stay in private residences, Stacey Allaster, US Open Tournament Director, said on the conference call.

Allaster confi rmed that if a player tests positive once the tournament starts then they will be automatically withdrawn under New York state guidelines.

Roger Federer was already ruled out of the tourna-ment, which ends on September 13, as he recovers from knee surgery.

RUGBY

In this July 8, 2017, picture, British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland wears a red nose during a press conference after the third rugby union Test against New Zealand All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland. (AFP)

Asian boxing c’ship postponed

to 2021The Asian Boxing Champion-ship, which was to be held in In-dia in November-December, has been postponed to next year owing to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.The decision was taken at the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) Executive Committee’s meeting held online.“A postponement was pro-posed owing to the conditions prevailing because of the pandemic and it was accepted. India remains the host and the tournament will now happen in 2021,” the Indian federa-tion’s Secretary General Jay Kowli said. “The 2021 window for it will be discussed in the next EC meeting in Novem-ber.” (QNA)

Thursday, August 20, 2020

GULF TIMES SPORT

Four teams battle to avoid relegation

SPOTLIGHT

QNALausanne

The International Swim-ming Federation (FINA) has announced that Qatar will organise the 5th round

of the Swimming World Cup 2021 during the period from Oct. 21 to 23 in 2021. Swimming World Cup 2021 will comprise of six legs. The fi rst Cluster of the 2021 season will be held in Singapore and China’s Jinan in September with fi nal dates to be confi rmed soon. The series will then move to the second clus-ter as Berlin and Budapest step in to stage the event from Oct. 1-3 and Oct. 7-9 respectively.

The third and fi nal cluster will be staged in Doha from Oct. 21-23 and fi nally in Russia’s Kazan from Oct. 28-30. All the stops of the 2021

World Cup will be competed in 25m pool and are qualifying events for the postponed FINA World Swim-ming Championships 25m to be held in December, 2021.

FINA had recently decided to cancel the 2020 competitions in order to ensure the safety of ath-letes in light of the emerging coro-navirus, as Doha was scheduled to host the fourth round in October.

Doha has hosted one of the rounds of the World Cup annually since 2012. It also hosted the 12th World Swimming Championships in the short course, which was held in 2014 and witnessed 23 world records being broken, and this is the largest number ever recorded in the International Swimming Fed-eration Short Distance Champion-ships (25m), provided that it also hosts the World’s Aquatics Cham-pionships scheduled for 2023.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Al Rayyan coach Diego Aguirre urged his players to focus on their game against Al Wakrah tomorrow. The Lions

trail leaders Al Duhail by just one point, who face Al Ahli in the fi nal match of the campaign. To keep their title hopes alive, Rayyan need to beat Al Wakrah and hope Duhail either draw or lose their match against Ahli.

“We are ready to face Al Wakrah and provide our best in order to win. The ti-tle is not in our hands. For me, I do not prefer waiting for the result of the other match. We have to focus on our game because it is diffi cult. If we cannot win,

we will not have a chance to win the ti-tle and we must do our job until the last moment,” Aguirre said.

“The preparations for Al Wakrah game were very good. We do not have any excuses, we have to continue win-ning and achieve victory in this game. We are required to focus, maybe some-thing good will happen. We may or may not win the title,” he added.

Aguirre said there are many positives to choose for Rayyan from season’s performance. “The season, in general, was good because we competed for the title until the last round. It is a good thing for Al Rayyan, especially with some new players who joined at the be-ginning of the season. We needed some time to harmonise and adapt and I am happy with what we have provided and

it is possible that there will be a surprise at the end of the journey. My advice to the players is to just focus and do the best on the fi eld in order to win,” said Aguirre.

Al Rayyan player Ahmed Abdel-maksoud said: “Our preparations for Al Wakrah match were normal. They are one of the best teams in the league which has a striker, Algerian Moham-ed Benyettou, whom I consider as the most dangerous this season. We will try to neutralise Al Wakrah’s strengths and exploit their weaknesses in order to win three points. If Al Duhail win the league, we would be the fi rst to con-gratulate them. Our focus now is on achieving victory in Al Wakrah match and we have to wait for the result of Al Duhail vs Al Ahli match.”

By Sports ReporterDoha

Al Duhail and Al Rayyan will bat-tle for the QNB Stars League top prize tomorrow, but before that at the end of other spec-

trum there is an intense battle to avoid relegation. Al Khor, Al Shahaniya, Umm Salal and Qatar SC will all be in action as the four teams hope to stay in the top tier. Out of the four teams, Qatar SC (19 points) have the best possible chance to avoid the drop, as a draw against Al Arabi will ensure their safety.

Umm Salal (17) too can stay up with a win over Al Sailiya. But it will be all to play for in the match between Al Khor (16) and Al Shahaniya (15), with the losing team going down to second division. Even a victory for one of the teams would be ir-relevant if Umm Salal emerge victorious.

Al Khor, who lost 0-1 to table toppers Al Duhail last week, will be up against a rejuvenated Shahania, with the basement side doing well ever since Nabil Anwar took charge.

Shahania were unbeaten in the three games since resumption, but lost 0-1 to Al Rayyan last week. They have only two victories to show for their eff orts, while they drew nine matches and suff ered 10 defeats. Al Shahania and Al Khor had played out a 2-2 draw in the fi rst leg.

On the eve of the match, Shahania coach Anwar said his side have no other choice but to go all out for victory. “We are all focused on the Al Khor match, which will decide our fate. We have great confi dence in our players and I hope Al Shahania will be game for it. Al Khor are a strong side that is in good shape since the resumption of the league,” he said.

“It is certain that the match will be dif-fi cult, especially since we will go through it with a chance to win, whereas Al Khor can also aff ord a draw against us because in that event, we will get directly relegat-ed. We have only one goal and that is to win. We will fi ght it out from the begin-ning. Every match has its own diffi cul-ties. We have assessed Al Khor, and we know their strengths and weaknesses. We won’t change our style of play against them, especially since we have presented good levels in recent matches,” he added.

Andre Lima, who took over as Al Khor manager after departure of Omar Najhi, said it won’t be an easy task to beat in form Shahania. “The game will be very diffi cult for both teams. We know how important this match is. Beating Al Sha-hania is not an easy task, they are in a dif-

fi cult position like us. No one can aff ord to commit any mistake, especially in de-fence,” the Brazilian said.

“We must take advantage of the oppor-tunities that come to us because matches, like this, generally have few chances. We have to stay fully focused on the game

from beginning till end. We will play for victory and collect three points. We will not play for a draw. We will give off our best in this game. We have to play with the desire to win and be on top of our fo-cus,” added Lima.

At the Al Sadd Stadium, Umm Salal face Al Sailiya hoping for a victory. The Orange Fortress, under Moroccan Aziz Ben Askar, lost 0-2 to Al Sailiya in the fi rst leg and will need to play their hearts out if they have to stay in the league.

Askar said: “What is important for us is facing Al Sailiya. It is a fi ght that will determine our fate. Having worked hard so far, I am confi dent that our players de-served success after the great work they have been doing daily. I have been wit-nessing that ever since I took up coaching of the team. We will adopt the same ap-proach. We will face Al Sailiya as we focus on ourselves and the players are at the top of their focus and mental readiness. They had proved it by earning a point against table toppers Al Duhail as well as Qatar SC, who are also considered as a good team.

Umm Salal coach added: It is impor-

tant for us not to give up and try and work to achieve our goal. I think we have done a great job because when I took over the team’s training, it was in last place with fi ve points. Now, we have 17 points even though we are facing relegation threat.”

Sailiya, coached by Sami Trabelsi, are fi fth with 28 points. The Peregrines and Al Arabi were level on points, but the former were placed ahead on better goal diff erence as they went into their match-up in Week 21.

However, Al Sailiya had the last laugh as they beat The Dream Team 1-0 to move up in the table by one position.

Meanwhile, Qatar SC will be seeking a point against Al Arabi at the Al Janoub Stadium. Qatar SC are placed ninth with 19 points. Coached by former Qatar in-ternational midfi elder Wesam Rizik, The Kings are safe from direct relegation, but still face the threat of going into play-off with the Second Division runners-up, so they will also be keen to win.

Al Arabi, who lost 0-1 to Al Sailiya in their previous match, have slipped from fi fth to seventh position with that defeat as they remain on 25 points.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Al Sadd head coach Xavi Hernandez conceded he is not happy with a third-place fi nish

and stressed his side’s desire to end the season on a good note. Reigning champions Sadd face Al Gharafa today at the Al Janoub Stadium, and can’t fi nish higher than third, with Al Duhail and Al Rayyan in battle for the title to-morrow.

Sadd has won all their matches ever since the tournament re-sumed with Week 18 action af-ter a long break due to spread of coronavirus. But even that win-ning form has not helped them to stay in contention as Duhail and Rayyan have stayed in top two.

“We are ready to compete in the last game of the competi-tion. It’s a pity that we couldn’t win this title. I think we lost due to our own mistakes, but we are in a good moment; we have won the last four games in a row, and we want to continue like that, knowing the diffi culty (of the game) because it’s Al Gharafa, who are fourth in the table and (their coach) Jokanovic is doing very well. The team improved a lot this season and they have good players,” Xavi said.

“It will be a really good game, tough for both sides, we know that we are in a good moment and we want to fi nish the compe-tition well, with a win,” he added.

Asked about his side’s position in the league table, the coach said: “No, we cannot be happy; Al Sadd is not to fi nish in third place. We are disappointed, we didn’t compete well. So we have to prepare well for the next one and we have to play much bet-ter. It was a pity, during that part of the season after the Champi-ons League exit, when we lost three games in a row. It was a re-ally tough period for us and that’s why we were not able to compete until the end in this competition and so we want to prepare well for the next one, for sure.”

As for the team’s objectives in the upcoming season, Xavi remarked: “In the next season, we want to win the league. This is one of the main goals for the

next season. We are Al Sadd and we are winners. I think we are a better team than before. We have more options to play with, in all the positions on the pitch.”

“So we are ready, ready to compete. Last season was good – not very good, not excellent, because we could not win the league, but we won the Sheikh Jassim Cup, the Qatar Cup and we are in the semi-fi nals of the Ooredoo Cup and the Amir Cup. We have to compete for all the competitions and we are ready for that.”

Meanwhile, Sadd star forward Akram Afi f returned to training with the squad after recovering from an ankle injury which had kept him out of action after the game against Al Khor in Round 18 of the league.

Afi f had undergone treatment and rehabilitation training un-der the supervision of the fi rst team’s medical staff , before re-ceiving approval to participate in the group training following his full recovery.

Meanwhile, Al Gharafa have sealed fourth position with coach Slavisa Jokanovic insisting his team can fi nish higher. “So far, if we compare with last season, we fi nd that we have improved. We have scored more points and won more matches, and we will fi nish in the fourth position. We have had specifi c programmes with young players and their level has improved. The process will not stop. We know we can be better and we have to work in that di-rection,” the Serbian coach said.

Jokanovic expected a tough contest against Sadd, who he called as the best side in the league. “We are facing Al Sadd, one the best teams in the league. We look forward towards contin-uing our good run and make fur-ther progress. Al Sadd have many outstanding Qatari and overseas players, and also a good coach. It is an important challenge and really an important test for my team because we have the chance to know where we are when we face the strongest teams in the league. We had lost our fi rst-leg match against Al Sadd this sea-son, so this time we want to per-form better and show more com-petitiveness. We will be ready to fi ght for points,” Jokanovic said.

Al Khor, Al Shahaniya, Umm Salal and Qatar SC have plenty at stake

Qatar to host 5th leg of FINA World Cup in October 2021

Rayyan coach Aguirre urges his players to stay focused

Sadd not happy with third-place fi nish, says Xavi

SWIMMING

QNB STARS LEAGUE

FOCUS

Al Sadd head coach Xavi Hernandez speaks during a press conference yesterday, on the eve of the QNB Stars League match against Al Gharafa at the Al Janoub Stadium.

Al Khor players take part in a training session yesterday.

Hamad Aquatic Complex will host the Doha leg of the FINA World Cup Series in October next year.

Al Shahaniya’s Nabil Anwar at a press conference yesterday.