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@ 5pm on SS1; Aviva Premiership – Bath Rugby v Leicester Tigers @ 4.10pm on SS8TennisWTA – Toray Pan Pacific Open: SF 1 @ 5am on SS6, SF 2 @ 6.30am on SS6 SUNDAY CricketChampions League T20 – Cape Cobras v Hobart Hurricanes @ 12.15pm on SS2/CSN, Kolkata Knight Riders V TBD @ 4.15pm on SS2 FootballMultichoice Diski Challenge – Mamelodi Sundowns v Free State Stars @ 10am on SS4, SuperSport Utd v Polokwane City @ 12.25pm on SS4, Chippa Utd v MP Black Aces @ 2.25pm on SS4, Ajax Cape Town v Moroka Swallows @ 4.25pm on SS4; Barclays Premier League – Leicester City v Man Utd @ 1.30pm on SS3, Tottenham Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion @ 2.20pm on SS5, Man City v Chelsea @ 4.30pm on SS3/Maximo, Everton v Crystal Palace @ 4.50pm on SS5; Serie A – Udinese v Napoli @ 5.55pm on SS7, Palermo v Inter Milan @ 8.40pm on SS7; Spanish La Liga – Levante v Barcelona @ 8.50pm on SS5/Maximo GolfEuropean Tour – ISPS Wales Open: Day 4 @ 2pm on SS1/CSN. Broadcast details subject to change

Bulgaria’s Ludogorets show cash and branding ain’t the real game

It is always a breath of fresh air to see newcomers fight tooth and nail for recognition.

And although the Champions League is Europe’s elite football compe-tition, largely reserved for clubs bearing bigger bankrolls than small countries, undernourished clubs still somehow manage to get through to make life difficult for the Goliaths of the sport.

Ludogorets Razgrad on Tuesday proved that although the formula for success in modern football is incredu-lous cash-flow and rigorous brand building, simple bravado can some-times also do the trick.

Prior to the Bulgarian side’s first-ever Champions League match, which

they narrowly lost 2-1 to five-time European champions Liverpool at Anfield this week, I was lucky enough to witness first hand the club’s final qualification round against Steaua Bucharest at Sofia’s Vasil Levski National Stadium.

Seldom are football fans treated to such voice-breaking excitation as what went on in Bulgaria’s capital last month.

After 1-1 on aggregate in regulation time and still deadlocked in the dying minutes of extra time, Ludogorets’ goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov was sent off, which meant that coach Georgi Dermendzhiev had no alternative but to hand the gloves to defender Cosmin Moti as the Bulgarian side had already

used their three substitutes.What happened next will be written

in history books and referred back to for years to come: 29-year-old Moti saved a goal-bound effort and when it was time for the penalty shootout, he scored the first, saved two and Ludogorets were on their way to the Champions League group stages, the second Bulgarian team ever to do so since Levski Sofia in 2006.

It must also be noted that Moti

is Romanian and an ex-Dinamo Bucharest player, having played 177 matches for Steaua’s biggest foes. Only he knows when he will have mustered enough courage to travel back to his motherland.

Ludogorets got through the Cham-pions League’s metal detectors, prob-ably unnoticed by Europe’s football blue bloods.

And on Tuesday night they certainly had enough firepower to disturb the status quo of European football when they breathed down Liverpool’s necks for the better part of the end-to-end encounter.

They silenced the Kop when Slove-nian striker Roman Bezjak hit the foot of

the post in the 72nd minute and almost took home a point when Spaniard Dani Abalo split Liverpool’s defence to equal-ise after Mario Balotelli’s 82nd-minute late opener.

Eventually it was Ludogorets’ own undoing that gave Liverpool full points when newly acquired Canada goal-keeper Milan Borjan fumbled a back-pass and in the process gave away a penalty, handing Steven Gerard a famil-iar opportunity at the spot.

The veteran made no mistake and Liverpool were beaming.

Nonetheless, Ludogorets have now issued out a stern warning to their European counterparts. Unlike most Champions League newcomers, they

weren’t afraid to flaunt their dynamic style of play and rarely drew back to await smothering attacks.

Perhaps Liverpool themselves have some room to improve, given their lacklustre performance. Even former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler, speaking to ITV Sport, said: “If Real Madrid were to have come here tonight, they would have ruined Liverpool.”

Well, it’s Real next up for Ludogorets in Sofia’s cauldron Vasil Levski, a sta-dium remnant of the old communist days and it will be fascinating to see if Ronaldo and Co’s nerves will be able to withstand the boisterous, booing pres-sure of the Balkans.

PITCHING THE CURVEBALLKALIN PASHALIEV

A winning formula, learn by losing, says All Blacks icon

WELLINGTON

WORLD Cup-winning former coach Graham Henry has expressed con-cerns about the All Blacks’ long unbeaten streak and yesterday sug-gested it might do them good to lose before the 2015 World Cup.

“To be fair I think they need to lose,” he told Radio Sport, saying he saw similarities to 2007 when the All Blacks crashed out of the World Cup at the quarterfinals.

Henry coached the All Blacks to the 2011 World Cup after they lost their last two games going into the tournament. He was also at the helm in 2007, when they went into the championship with a rich vein of form similar to the current side.

As the top-ranked team on the planet, the All Blacks are expected to win every game and the World Cup – and “the reality is that’s hugely dif-ficult”, Henry said, speaking a year to the day before hosts England play Fiji at Twickenham in the opening match of the next World Cup.

“The odd hiccup here and there gives you the opportunity to re-analyse where you are at, look at everything, turn over every stone, make sure you’re on the right track. If you don’t do that you might miss something,” he said.

The 2007 World Cup side lost only three times in the 32 Tests they played leading into the tournament where, after an easy round of pool matches, they were beaten by France

in their first knockout game.The current All Blacks

have not been beaten in their last 21 outings and have lost only once in 35 Tests since they beat France 8-7 in the 2011 final.

Henry said a loss before going to England might do them good.“I think a loss galvanises peo-ple, it makes them re-analyse where they’re at and make sure they’re on the button, there’s similarities to 2007 here.”

The All Blacks play Argentina, Tonga, Georgia and Namibia in pool matches next year and if they top their group, as expected, they will likely face Ireland, France or Italy in the quarterfinals.

Along with the All Blacks, Henry rates England, South Africa, Ireland and Australia as 2015 title contend-ers. – Sapa-AFP

WISE WORDS: Former All Blacks coach Graham Henry. PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES

Graham Henry worried NZ too successful ahead of World Cup

I think a loss galvanises people, it makes them re-analyse where theyare really at

Early exit for Swiss dream team Hingis, Bencic

TOKYO

FORMER world No 1 Martina Hin-gis and rising star Belinda Bencic ended their first time together as a dream doubles team for Swit-zerland in the Pan Pacific Open second round yesterday.

They bowed to the top-seeded pair of Zimbabwe’s Cara Black and Sania Mirza of India 6-4 6-2 after winning their doubles debut match against Japan’s Rika Fujiwara and Taiwan’s Hsieh Shu-Ying 6-4 6-2 in the first round.

But the Swiss duo, who have known each other for years despite the nearly 17-year age gap, said they might team up again in WTA events in China in the coming weeks, depending on how Hingis’ usual partner Italian Flavia Pennetta recovers from a recent right-foot injury.

Hingis and Bencic broke Black’s serve in the third and seventh games of the first set. But they could not hold their service right after each of the games. They lost their serve in four games in the second set of the hour-long match.

“In the second set, we were falling apart. But in the first set, we definitely had chances,” said Hingis, who turns 34 at the end of this month and has won five Grand Slam singles titles and nine doubles titles.

“It was a lot of fun to bring one of the best teams to have to play their best tennis,” smiled Hingis, who made her second comeback from retirement in July last year but only as a doubles player.

Partnered by Pennetta, she lost to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the US Open final in New York two weeks ago.

SWISS MISSES: Belinda Bencic and compatriot Martina Hingis lost their first doubles tournament together in the Pan Pacific Open 2nd round. PICTURE: REUTER

It was fun to play with Martina. If we have used the chances, maybe we’d look a little bit different

Bencic, 17, currently ranked 34th in the world and who reached the US Open singles quarter-finals in only her fourth Grand Slam appearance, said: “It was fun to play with Martina. If we have used the chances, maybe we’d look a little bit different. A bit unlucky as I made some stupid mistakes.”

Playing as a wild card, the Swiss teen also lost to seventh-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova 3-6 6-4 6-2 in the singles second round of the $1m (R11m) WTA event.

Hingis said earlier Bencic was just four years old when she first met her. Her mother Melanie Molitor has trained Bencic for 10 years along with the youngster’s father Ivan.

Recalling the “momentum and challenges here and there” in the match, Hingis said: “To be on the same side with Belinda, I really enjoyed it. Hopefully we’ll do better.”

Hingis is ranked 20th in the world doubles ranking and Bencic 255th.

Both of them will compete at the top-flight $4.5m China Open starting in Beijing on September 29 and the low-tier $250 000 WTA event in Tianjin in the week of October 6. Hingis is also booked for another WTA event in China, the Wuhan Open next week. – Sapa-AFP

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