CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Five-time European champions Liverpool and 2006 runners-up Arsenal will today look to bolster their coffers by ensuring they reach the lucrative Champions League group stage.
Liverpool’s summer was largely characterised by their so far fruitless quest to land Aston Villa’s England midfielder Gareth Barry with Liverpool unwilling to shell out £18 million (US$32 million) for his services and Arsenal have since also courted the player.
Failure to reach the group stage — the fate of Scotland’s Rangers — would blow a hole in the region of US$15 million in the season budget and leave respective coaches Rafa Benitez and Arsene Wenger facing up to their own version of the credit crunch.
In reaching the final two years ago, Liverpool earned almost US$40 million along the way, more than enough to land Barry and pay his wages while also placating the Anfield faithful by keeping Xabi Alonso, who interests Arsenal though Juventus were favored to land him earlier this summer.
Notwithstanding back-to-back, albeit narrow, Premiership wins over Sunderland and Middlesbrough, Liverpool certainly need some kind of inspiration when they take on Standard Liege at Anfield having negotiated a barely-deserved goalless draw in Belgium, Liege missing a penalty.
New signing Robbie Keane says at this stage of the season results outweigh the actual level of performance.
“When you don’t play as well as you know you can but you are still getting results then that is a sign of a good team,” he told Liverpool’s official Web site — a comment which was as true of the game in Liege as the one against Boro.
Arsenal, their Premiership title tilt already rocked by Saturday’s loss to Fulham, at least have the cushion of a 2-0 win achieved over Steve McClaren’s FC Twente in the Netherlands but Arsene Wenger has demanded a massive improvement on Saturday’s drab fare at Craven Cottage.
“We have a big game on Wednesday night and we have to respond with a top class performance because what we did today [Saturday] was just not good enough,” said Wenger on arsenal.com.
The Dutch are competing among Europe’s elite for the first time but offered little in the first game to suggest that they are capable of raining on an Arsenal parade — which will at least mean McClaren has no need of the infamous umbrella under which he sheltered as England exited the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
The first leg goals from William Gallas and Emmanuel Adebayor meant Arsenal were able to set themselves up for a second leg stroll despite the absence of hamstring victim Cesc Fabregas.
Twente’s chances of an upset have not been aided by the losses of both Marko Arnautovic, who came close to a consolation goal in the opening encounter but suffered a torn hamstring in midweek playing for Austria’s under-21 side, and also Blaise Nkufo, club top scorer for the past five seasons.
Given the competition’s pot of gold status beyond the qualifiers there is a pressing need for four other former champions — Liverpool aside — to make it through this week. Barcelona and Juventus are both as good as home and dry after respective 4-0 wins over Poland’s Wisla Krakow and Slovakia’s Artmedia Petrzalka.
Marseille, the only French side to lift the European Cup, should build on the 1-0 scoreline they brought home from Norway’s Brann, while Steaua Bucharest, who denied Terry Venables’ Barcelona in the 1986 final, should also complete the job after their 2-2 draw away to Turkey’s Galatasaray.
Elsewhere, Germany’s Schalke 04 will seek to cement their 1-0 advantage over Spain’s Atletico Madrid while Ukraine’s Dynamo Kiev, 4-1 up from the away leg, should secure regional bragging rights against Russia’s Spartak Moscow.
As Arsenal try to go one better than their 2006 final loss to Barcelona their former coach, ex-Scotland international Bruce Rioch, will attempt to steer his Danish club Aalborg past Lithuania’s Kaunas, who must overcome a 2-0 deficit.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
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Chess great Magnus Carlsen on Friday quit the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York after governing body FIDE barred the Norwegian from participating in a round at the tournament for wearing jeans. FIDE said in a statement that its dress code regulations were designed to “ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants.” It issued Carlsen a US$200 fine and gave him an opportunity to change into the correct attire, which the world No. 1 rejected, it said. Carlsen said he had a lunch meeting before the round and had to change quickly. “I put on a shirt, jacket and honestly like
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