Djokovic aims for Federer’s Slams, ranking record

Future stars on show as India meet Pakistan in U-19 World Cup

Tuesday, February 4, 2020Jumada II 10, 1441 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

‘Hungry’ Morgan sets sights on T20 WCup success

Can Guardiola salvage Man City’s season?

CRICKET CRICKET | Page 3 FOOTBALL FOOTBALL | Page 7

TENNIS

CRICKET

‘Grand Slams are one of the main reasons why I am still competing... trying to get the historic number one (record)’

SUPER BOWL

Comeback king Mahomes sparks Chiefs to victoryPage 5

AFPPotchefstroom, South Africa

India head into today’s Un-der 19 World Cup semi-fi nal against Pakistan in Pochef-stroom as slight favourites

but cricket matches between these two sides are seldom straightforward.

“When you talk about India-Pakistan (matches) that brings out an extra edge to the whole competition,” said former India Test player Zaheer Khan in the Indian media.

“I am sure the boys will be geared up for the big occasion and they will do well.”

With political relations on a knife-edge, there has been no Test series between the two countries since 2007/2008 and no white ball series since 2012/2013.

The only time they have come together of late is at international tournaments.

In 2019, they met at Old Traff ord during the ODI World Cup in Eng-land — Rohit Sharma’s 140 ensur-ing a comfortable India win.

And now it is the turn of the youngsters, the future stars of international cricket, to go up against each other in South Af-rica’s North West province, close to the Mooi river.

The Indians won their group beating New Zealand and Japan in the process before going on to hammer Australia by 74 runs in the quarter-fi nal.

Pakistan’s group match against Bangladesh — who meet New Zealand in the second semi-fi nal on Thursday — was abandoned with Bangladesh in desperate trouble at 106 for nine. The Paki-stanis beat Scotland and Zimba-bwe to set up a quarter-fi nal with Afghanistan.

That was another comfortable win in spite of the Twitter storm over Afghan spinner Noor Ahmed running out Mohamed Huraira when he marginally backed up too far at the bowler’s end.

The Indian quartet Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravi Bishnoi, Akash Singh and Kartik Tyagi have al-ready found their way into the IPL, each of them making im-portant contributions in South Africa.

“In this World Cup, I bowled very well in the fi rst game but got no wickets,” fast bowler Tyagi, whose four for 24 did for Austral-ia in the last round, told Cricinfo.

“Then the next two games, I bowled poorly but I took wickets. And fi nally, against Australia, I bowled well and got rewarded for them.

“Ups and downs are the reali-ties of life, so I’ve stopped think-ing about the wickets column. I have just been focusing on the process.”

For all the players at this World Cup, there remains the dream not just of winning but doing enough to start forging a professional ca-reer in the game.

Some big names have trodden this path before: current interna-tional captains Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan and Kane Williamson all fi gured at the tournament in the past along with some of the greats of the recent past, players such as Brian Lara, Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle and Steven Smith.

The stage in Potchefstoom is set to see who if any young Indians or Pakistanis are likely to join this elite band in the decade ahead. The Pakistani and Indian players get ready for a training session during the ongoing Under 19 World Cup in South Africa. (ICC)

AFPMelbourne, Australia

Novak Djokovic put Roger Federer on no-tice as he won his 17th Grand Slam title at the

Australian Open and warned he was going all-out for the Swiss’s record of 20 — and his mark for weeks as world number one.

Djokovic, who came through a mid-match slump to win his eighth title in Melbourne, is relentlessly totting up the vic-tories that could soon end the debate over who’s the greatest in history.

The fi ve-set victory over Do-minic Thiem was his eighth in eight fi nals in Melbourne, putting him alongside Federer and Nadal as the only men to win the same Slam eight times.

It makes Djokovic, 32, the fi rst man in the Open era, and only the second in history, to win Grand Slam titles in three diff erent dec-ades — and as a not-insignifi cant bonus, returns him to world number one.

In an ominous sign for his ri-vals, the Serb has started the year unbeaten with Wimbledon, the French Open, the Tokyo Olym-pics and the US Open all lying in front of him as tantalising oppor-tunities.

He is clear-sighted about his goals: overtaking Nadal’s 19 Ma-jor titles and Federer’s 20 to be-come the all-time Grand Slam king, and outdoing the Swiss master’s record 310 weeks in the top ranking.

Djokovic has so far clocked up 276 weeks as number one and could pass second-placed Pete Sampras’s 286 in April, and Fed-erer’s 310 on October 5.

“Obviously at this stage of my career, Grand Slams are the ones I value the most. They are the ones I prioritise,” said Djokovic, add-ing “there’s a lot of history on the line”.

“Grand Slams are one of the main reasons why I am still competing and still playing full season, trying to obviously

get the historic number one (record). That’s the other big goal,” he said.

‘HUGE WIN’With fi ve Major titles in just over two years, and unbeaten by Nadal and Federer at the Grand Slams since 2014, there’s no question who’s now the leading member

of the Big Three.The latest rankings tell the

story at the top of men’s tennis: Djokovic is number one, Nadal, one year older at 33, is second and 38-year-old Federer is a relative-ly distant third.

Seven-time Major winner Mats Wilander said Djokovic’s win in Melbourne sets a mark-

er for a year in which he could sweep all before him.

“At the end of the year, we could have two players on 20 or two on 19 or even more because Novak can win all four,” he said.

“This is a huge win for him go-ing forwards. A loss here would have been very diffi cult to get confi dence and come back.

“But the door is open for him to start climbing through it and talk about being the greatest ever.”

As he jets out of Melbourne, his name etched yet again on the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, Djokovic warned that his con-fi dence and expectations were soaring.

“I’m super-happy with the

way I started the season. It kind of sets the tone for the rest of the year,” he said.

“To start off the season with a Grand Slam win signifi cantly boosts your confi dence and your expectations are quite high for the rest of the season.

“But whatever happens, this season is already successful.”

Australian Open champion Serbia’s Novak Djokovic poses with the trophy during a photo shoot at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria yesterday. (Reuters)

SPORT

Gulf Times Tuesday, February 4, 20202

Hugs, veg diet, a tree: Djokovic’s unusual route to the top

Kenin breaks into top 10; Djokovic back on top

Bangladesh Seniors champions in T20 Div A

From doubts over his longevity to $140mn in prize money, he has come a long way

TENNIS FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

AFPParis, France

Sofi a Kenin’s rise to a ca-reer-high seventh in the world after her surprise Australian Open triumph

was confi rmed yesterday, even as Novak Djokovic’s latest Mel-bourne Park heroics lifted him past Rafael Nadal to the world number one spot in the latest WTA and ATP rankings respec-tively.

The unheralded American jumped eight places into a top 10 headed by Ashleigh Barty fol-lowing Saturday’s stunning 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Garbine Mu-guruza in Melbourne.

Australian Barty, who fell to 21-year-old Kenin in the semi-fi nals, retained her position as world number one ahead of Si-mona Halep, who replaced Karo-lina Pliskova, ousted in the third round.

A day after Kenin lifted the winner’s trophy, Djokovic landed his eighth Australian Open title with a rollercoaster 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Dominic Thiem in a near four-hour mara-thon in Melbourne.

His 17th Grand Slam title moved him within two of Nad-al and three of Roger Federer

on the all-time list.And Djokovic now tops the

rankings on 9,720 points, with Nadal demoted to second on 9395 and Federer remaining in third on 7,130.

Nadal was beaten by Thiem, who moves up a place to fourth, in the quarter-fi nals with Djoko-vic sweeping past Federer in the semis.

Djokovic last occupied the rankings summit at the end of October.

WTA TOP 101. Ashleigh Barty (AUS) 8367 pts2. Simona Halep (ROU) 61013. Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 52904. Elina Svitolina (UKR) 47755. Belinda Bencic (SUI) 46756. Bianca Andreescu (CAN) 46657. Sofia Kenin (USA) 44958. Kiki Bertens (NED) 39659. Serena Williams (USA) 391510. Naomi Osaka (JPN) 3626

ATP TOP 101. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 9720 pts2. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 93953. Roger Federer (SUI) 71304. Dominic Thiem (AUT) 70455. Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 59606. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 47457. Alexander Zverev (GER) 38858. Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 29059. Gael Monfils (FRA) 270010. David Goff in (BEL) 2555

By Sports ReporterDoha

Bangladesh Seniors beat Selex by 11 runs to emerge the winners in the Division A fi nal in

the QCA T20 Cricket Tourna-ment, with Rashid producing an excellent all-round display (39 runs and three wickets).

Batting fi rst, Bangladesh Sen-iors managed to get a fi ghting 153 for six on the board as Liton slammed a fi ne unbeaten half-century. He cracked three sixes and two boundaries in his 55-ball knock of 54 not out.

Liton inspired two useful stands for the team. First, he and Roman (17 in 23 balls) collected 45 runs for the second wicket after their skipper Titu was dis-missed off the very fi rst ball by Sherin.

Then he and Rashid added 50 runs for the fourth wicket to take the score to 108 before the latter was sent back by Sherin

for 39. Rashid clobbered fi ves sixes to get 39 in 20 balls. Liton continued to dig in and guided

the team past the 150-mark. Selex could not get the go-

ing smooth, losing players at

regular intervals to Shihab and Rashid, who shared six wickets to restrict them at 142. Shahid

off ered the strongest resistance and hit 26 with a six and three fours in 19 balls.

Shihab (19 with a six and two fours), Amir (19 with a six and two fours), Afnas (18 with two fours) and Ashif (18 with a six) got good starts but neither could build his innings and provide the much-needed support.

Shihab, who was declared the Player of the Final, grabbed three wickets for 14. Rashid’s haul cost him 28 runs, while Rif-fat picked two for 26 and Jiku got one for 37.

QCA Domestic Cricket Head Gul Khan Jadoon presided over the prize distribution and pre-sented the awards to both the teams.

BRIEF SCORES: Bangladesh Seniors 153 for six (Liton 54 in 55 balls, Rashid 39 in 20 balls; Sherin 3 for 46) beat Selex 142 for nine (Shahid 26 in 19 balls; Shihab 3 for 14, Rashid 3 for 28) by 11 runs. Player of the Final: Rashid (Bangladesh Seniors)

AFPMelbourne, Australia

A strict vegetarian diet, spiritual guru and family hugging-ses-sions aren’t methods

employed by most athletes, but they have helped Novak Djok-ovic turn himself into one of the best players ever — and now Australian Open champion for an eighth time.

The Serb has distinguished himself with his willingness to turn to the unusual, from hyper-baric chambers to meditation and Spanish guru Pepe Imaz, a former journeyman player whose “love and peace” philos-ophy drives his teachings.

Life has been a journey for the Serbian star, who grew up in war-torn Belgrade and practised in a disused swimming pool but is now based in the millionaire’s playground of Monte Carlo with more than $140mn in prize money — a record — to his name.

Djokovic faced questions over his durability earlier in his career after a series of retirements for reasons ranging from a toe blis-ter to heat problems at the 2009 Australian Open, when he was defending champion.

But he is now more steel than snowfl ake — as seen when he won last year’s record, nearly fi ve-hour, Wimbledon fi nal, and the 2012 Australian Open fi nal, the longest Grand Slam decider in history, which stretched to 5hrs 53mins.

With 17 Grand Slam titles under his belt, and showing no signs of slowing down, Djoko-vic looks poised to overtake the great Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the only men ahead of him on the all-time list, by the end of his career.

FRIENDS WITH A TREEWhile Switzerland’s Federer and Nadal of Spain come across as straightforward characters, Djokovic is the most complicat-ed member of tennis’s Big Three.

His daily routine, as related to The New York Times last year, involves getting up before dawn with his family, watching the sun rise and then doing hugging and singing sessions, and yoga.

The father-of-two has dab-bled in various diets including gluten- and dairy-free, and is now a proud “plant-based ath-lete” — the subject of a Net-fl ix documentary, The Game Changers, for which he is execu-tive producer.

“Hopefully I can inspire other athletes that it is possible to be plant-based and to recover well, to have strength, to have mus-cles,” said Djokovic, who has

been vegetarian for four-and-a-half years.

Rather than celebrating his Australian Open wins by par-tying, Djokovic, who won his eighth title in Melbourne on Sunday by beating Dominic Thiem, climbs a fi g tree in the city’s Botanical Gardens.

“I have a friend there, a Bra-zilian fi g tree, that I like to climb and I like to connect with so that’s probably my favourite thing to do,” he said, according to reports.

Djokovic broke through for his fi rst Grand Slam title at the 2008 Australian Open, but it would be another three years before he

took control of the sport, em-barking on a 43-match winning streak at the start of 2011.

Between 2011 and 2016, Djok-ovic won 11 of the 24 available Grand Slam titles and reached another seven fi nals, freezing out the likes of Federer, who won only one Major in the same pe-riod.

The wheels came off rather suddenly for Djokovic in late 2016, when he went into a slump and then, suff ering from an el-bow injury, ended his 2017 cam-paign after Wimbledon.

In the same period Djokovic became a close follower of Imaz and appeared on stage with the

spiritualist in a two-hour video featuring meditation and long discourses about the human soul.

This, according to some ob-servers, fi ts a pattern where Djokovic has restlessly turned this way and that in search of perfection — a goal he alluded to on the way to his latest Mel-bourne triumph.

“When I was younger I would get frustrated and impatient with small things in life, but that’s how you learn,” he said.

“You can’t be a perfect tennis player and human being from a young age. That’s why we love this beautiful thing called life.”

QCA Domestic Cricket Head Gul Khan Jadoon (centre) presented the trophies to the winners.

Sofia Kenin of the US poses with the 2020 Australian Open winner’s trophy in the locker room. (AFP)

Five things we learned at Australian Open

BIG THREE STAND FIRMEvery season Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer face a stronger challenge from younger players, and every sea-son they’re able to withstand it.Dominic Thiem pushed Djoko-vic all the way in Sunday’s five-set final, but the Serb ultimately prevailed to join Nadal and Federer as players who have won one of the Major titles eight times.Djokovic’s victory made it 13 Grand Slams in a row won by the unshakeable trio.

FEDERER’S RESILIENCEYou don’t become one of the best players of all time by talent alone, but Federer’s fighting spirit has perhaps gone unap-preciated until now.The Swiss great looked out for the count at 4-8 down in a nail-biting fifth-set super tiebreaker against John Millman in the third round, but found a way back.The 20-time Grand Slam cham-pion then miraculously saved seven match points in fighting past Tennys Sandgren.He was hampered by injury in losing in the semi-finals to Novak Djokovic, but quitting was never on the cards.The 38-year-old has never retired in more than 1,500 matches, and he was not about to give up that proud record.

SERENA’S 24THSerena Williams said she would be back on the practice court the day after her shock third-round defeat to China’s 27th seed Wang Qiang.The 38-year-old American also said she will not give up her pursuit of a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title.But her early exit raises fresh doubts that she will ever get there. Her last Grand Slam title came in Melbourne three years ago and a growing number of younger rivals are agitating behind her.The eventual Australian Open champion, Sofia Kenin, is just 21 and after winning her first

Grand Slam title she leap-frogged Williams as America’s number one.

LITTL’UNS WALK TALLThere was a striking diff erence between Kenin and Garbine Muguruza when they hugged at the end of the women’s final.Two-time Grand Slam cham-pion Muguruza stands 6ft (1.8 metres) tall, but Kenin is a comparatively short 5ft 7ins.That meant nothing on Satur-day when Kenin roared back from a set down to win her maiden Grand Slam title.

KYRGIOS CAPTURES HEARTSThe 24-year-old Australian has long been derided as the enfant terrible of tennis, a hugely gifted player who seemed des-tined — and determined — to waste his talent.But at his home Grand Slam he transformed perceptions and was feted as something of a hero in Australia.It was partly because of his gutsy performances in reaching the fourth round — losing in four close sets to Rafael Nadal — but also because he spearheaded fundraising eff orts for victims of Australia’s deadly bushfires.“I feel like I’ve made progress as a human. A tennis player — I don’t really care about as much,” he said.

Serena Williams (right) of the US walks off the court after losing to China’s Wang Qiang at the Australian Open.

China’s anti-doping agency halts testing due to coronavirusAFPLausanne, Switzerland

China’s state anti-doping agency “temporar-ily” suspended testing

yesterday less than six months before the Tokyo Olympics in response to the coronavirus epidemic, the International Testing Agency told AFP.

“The situation is one of caution so as not to endanger athletes or test off icials and while recognising the importance of anti-doping activities, the priorities are to maintain public health for all,” said the ITA.The Olympics start on July 24.The Chinese agency (CHI-NADA) “will gradually resume testing as soon as the situation improves,” the ITA said, adding

that it was examining whether “private providers” could con-duct tests. “We are still six months away from the Tokyo games,” an agency spokeswoman said. “It is indeed likely that this will have an impact on the testing missions in China and solutions will have to be found.”The Chinese authorities re-ported 57 new deaths from the

virus yesterday, taking the tally past 360 since the virus was detected late last year in the central city of Wuhan, where it is believed to have jumped from animals. The virus has spread to more than 24 countries.A string of sports events in China have been cancelled.All domestic football has been suspended and among the

events either cancelled or post-poned are the World Indoor athletics championships, Tokyo Olympics boxing and women’s basketball qualifiers and cy-cling’s Tour of Hainan.Also cancelled are snooker’s China Open, badminton’s China Masters and golf’s LPGA Blue Bay tournament. The Chinese Formula E Grand Prix on March 21 was called off on Sunday.

Simpson surges to beat Finau in Phoenix Open

SPORT3Gulf Times

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

GOLF

Domingo rues Pakistan fi xture list

SPOTLIGHT

AFPDhaka

Bangladesh begin a to-and-fro commute to Pakistan tomorrow for a Test and one-day inter-

national series sandwiched be-tween home fi xtures — a quirky fi xture list prompted by security fears.

They play the fi rst Test in Rawalpindi starting Friday, but head home immediately after-wards for a series against Zim-babwe.

They then return to Pakistan for the second Test beginning April 5, after an ODI on April 3.

“It is not ideal. You always want to go there at least seven or eight days before a Test match,” coach Russell Domingo told re-porters in Dhaka yesterday.

Bangladesh wanted to play the series in phases because they want to spend as little time in the country as possible due to safety concerns.

Until late last year, Pakistan had not hosted an international cricket match for nearly a dec-ade after a visiting Sri Lanka side was ambushed by Islamist gun-men in Lahore on their way to play a game.

Domingo said he was happy with the form shown by some of the Bangladesh batsmen in do-mestic competition this season, but acknowledged conditions

would be diff erent away from home.

Tamim Iqbal scored an un-beaten 334 runs on Sunday — the highest fi rst-class innings ever on Bangladesh soil — in a local league game.

Skipper Mominul Haque and senior batsmen Mahmudullah Riyad and Liton Das have also scored recent centuries.

“The wickets that they are playing here don’t have much pace and bounce,” Domingo said.

“I am sure Rawalpindi might have some pace and bounce... it is going to be a big challenge for the boys.

The South African said he had demanded more commitment from his batsmen — especially away from home.

“Some of the boys know that they have to put in some big performances on the back of a poor Test series against India,” he said.

“We have to show a bit more commitment with the bat, and fi nd ways to manufacture scores even when the conditions are not good.”

Bangladesh lost all fi ve of their Test matches in 2019, with their last two defeats coming by an innings margin against India in November.

Bangladesh visited Pakistan earlier in January amid tight se-curity for a three-match Twen-ty20 international series in La-hore, which they lost 2-0.

ReutersPhoenix

Webb Simpson stormed from two shots back with two holes to play to

win a sudden death playoff with Tony Finau at the Phoenix Open golf tournament on Sunday.

Simpson sank clutch birdies on his fi nal three holes, includ-ing the fi rst playoff hole, to claim the victory by a stroke over the hard luck Finau.

“I didn’t have my best stuff but I hung in there,” Simpson told PGA Tour Radio after sink-ing a 10-foot playoff putt for the win.

Finau had missed an 18-foot birdie attempt at the par-four 18th hole.

Both players ended their fi nal rounds at 17-under 267 at TPC Scottsdale with Simpson, who birdied the last two holes in reg-ulation, shooting a two-under 69 and Finau a 70.

The victory was the sixth on the PGA Tour for the 30-year-old Simpson, whose last win came at the 2018 Players Cham-pionship. Third round leader Fi-nau had surged to a two-stroke lead after Simpson found water at the 15th hole and wound up with a bogey.

But Finau, who paid tribute to the late basketball star Kobe Bryant by wearing a copy of the Los Angeles Lakers player’s number eight jersey at the 16th

hole, could not muster a birdie in the fi nal three holes of regu-lation while best friend Simpson made two.

“If you are going to get beat, that’s how it should happen,” said the disappointed Finau, who was seeking his second Tour victory and fi rst in four years.

“I defi nitely didn’t give him the tournament. He took the lead from me early and I got it

late. But unfortunately that’s how the cookie crumbles. It was a bitter week.” FedEx Cup leader Justin Thomas (65), two times Masters champion Bubba Watson (66) and fellow Ameri-can Nate Lashley (68) shared third at 14-under. Thomas also honoured Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash a week ago near Los Angeles along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others.

He wore a jersey from Bry-ant’s high school days in Penn-sylvania at the 16th hole — that traditionally draws the largest crowds — which the PGA Tour had altered to pay tribute to Bry-ant by using the numbers from the basketball star’s Lakers jer-seys to determine the location of the pin at the hole.

The pin for the fi nal round was cut 24 paces (yards) from the front edge and eight from

the left edge of the green to hon-our Bryant’s two most recog-nised jersey numbers. The fl ag also featured his jersey numbers with a purple 24 on one side and eight on the other. A stroke in front of Simpson after the third round, Finau bogeyed the par-four eighth hole to fall be-hind Simpson but he made back to back birdies at the 12th and 13th holes to push ahead before Simpson’s late comeback.

The tourists have rested Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler for the series

ReutersCape Town

England captain Eoin Morgan says the hunger to lift trophies has not diminished in the wake of his side’s 2019 World Cup triumph and has

his eyes set on more silverware in the short-est form of the game in the coming years.

Morgan will lead England against South Africa at Newlands today in their fi rst one-day international since they claimed the World Cup in dramatic fashion at Lord’s in July, and he said the aim now is to make sure that was not a one-off success.

The tourists have rested Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler for the three match series against South Africa, two of their most po-tent weapons, but it is all part of the overall plan.

“Before the next (50-over) World Cup we have two T20 World Cups that we are eye-ing, so this series against South Africa will allow us to build a broader squad so that in three or four years’ time we have a substan-tial group to select from, just like we did before this past World Cup,” Morgan told reporters on Monday.

The T20 World Cup will be played in Australia in October-November, with the next edition set for a year later in India.

“The next three World Cups will be the same, stick to the process by which we are trying to get better the whole time, and that includes younger guys coming through to test older guys who hold the positions at the moment,” he added.

Morgan, 33, said he hopes to play in both T20 global fi nals, but concedes helping England defend their 50-over title in 2023 is less certain.

“I haven’t looked that far ahead. I’m looking at the next two T20 World Cups and I feel I have enough to say I hope to be here for both,” he said.

“Often when you make a decision to stay on longer it’s taken out of your hands, so I just want to focus on the next two T20 tournaments.

“Coming back from the fi ve T20 matches we played in New Zealand (in November), I felt physically and mentally very good, so I want to continue with that.”

Morgan added that the England team don’t dwell on the world champions tag, but that it is good to hear.

“We don’t call ourselves that. Every-body refers to us as that, which is awesome. But our goal was to win the World Cup, we managed to achieve that and it was an un-believable feeling. It has given us the plat-form to build for next cycle,” he said.

‘Hungry’ Morgan sets sights on T20 World Cup success

File photo of England captain Eoin Morgan with the ICC World Cup trophy.

ReutersLondon

England must ignore the kind of pre-match comments that made them look “stupid” af-

ter a 24-17 defeat by France in their Six Nations opener on Sunday, former coach Clive Woodward said.

A lacklustre England lacked impact on the gain line and made several handling errors in their first test since being beat-en 32-12 by South Africa in the World Cup final in November.

“The time for talking is now over, England must respond to this through their actions,” Woodward, who led England to World Cup glory in 2003, wrote in a column for the Daily Mail.

“And stop this media hype which is nonsense and mak-ing them all look rather stu-pid... England arrived with the wrong team and clearly haven’t yet shaken off that depressing World Cup final result.

“Given all that, I was sur-prised at the confidence pundits were showing in an England victory. It also demon-strated again the futility of all the pre-match talk of brutality and physicality and teaching France a few lessons.”

Eddie Jones’ side visit Scot-

land for their second match on Saturday.

“As for becoming the best team ever and all that hyperbo-le, England should concentrate on becoming the best team for the next 80 minutes... then the next. That’s what true cham-pion teams do — they never get ahead of themselves,” he add-ed. “Saturday’s trip to Mur-rayfield will be just as tough as this game and again, I make Scotland firm favourites.”

Former England flyhalf Stu-art Barnes criticised skip-per Owen Farrell for cutting a “frustrated and forlorn” figure in the first half.

“Yesterday offered, yet again, enough compelling evi-dence to suggest that Jones has appointed the wrong man to spearhead England’s attempts to recover from World Cup dis-appointment.” Barnes wrote in his column for The Times newspaper.

“Rugby isn’t about the soli-tary general; it’s supposedly chock full of leaders. All the more essential when the genie that is the Jones game plan is put back in the bottle by a team that rammed his inspirational words... down his throat.

“When England have been in a crisis situation, there hasn’t been much in the way of guid-ance from their skipper.”

England must avoid media hype aft er France humbling, says Woodward

RUGBY

CRICKET

South Africa unfazed by world champsCape Town: New South Af-rica captain Quinton de Kock says facing world champions England will be just like play-ing any other team as they prepare for the three-match one-day international series starting at Newlands today.South Africa are seeking to re-build after a disastrous World Cup in England last year in which the hosts claimed the trophy in thrilling fashion with victory over New Zealand in the final.This will be England’s first match since the decider at Lord’s in July.“It is just like playing any other team,” De Kock told reporters yesterday.“Just because you have a World Cup doesn’t change anything. It is still the normal England team we will play against.“I remember last time they came here (in 2016) we did pretty well and won the se-ries. So it doesn’t really matter if they are World Cup winners or not. It is the same as if we are playing Australia, India, Bangladesh, or whoever.”South Africa have struggled in both the ODI and Test formats in the last 12 months, and while there could be a certain amount of experimen-tation as they begin a new cycle to the 2023 World Cup, De Kock says most important is to get a series win.“We have new guys that have come in and they bring a lot of energy. We have guys who will potentially make their debut, so the team is very excited,” he said.“We are in a rebuilding phase and we are looking forward to the next World Cup squad. We want to give the opportu-nities to youngsters and help them grow as cricketers.“But for this series, we just want to win.”

Qatar boys bag gold and silver

TABLE TENNIS

Qatar’s junior table tennis team claimed two medals in the West Asian Championship held in Riyadh.

The championship was organised by the West Asian Table Tennis Federation in co-operation with the International

Table Tennis Federation, with the participation of 60 players. Qatar’s Sultan al-Kuwari clinched the gold medal among boys in the

under-12 event while Ali al-Taher of Saudi Arabia fi nished second. Moreover, Khalid al-Yafei claimed the silver medal in the boys un-

der-15 event. Ebaid Zaza of Syria took the gold medal.

Webb Simpson poses with his trophy after winning the Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale on Sunday.

SPORT

Gulf Times Tuesday, February 4, 20204

By Helene ElliottLos Angeles Times

Dustin Brown has seen this movie before, the one in which the Kings are a bad team going

through a long, painful climb toward Stanley Cup contention.

Brown, drafted 13th overall by the Kings in 2003, played a key role in lifting them to the top of the hockey mountain in 2012 and again in 2014 alongside defense-man Drew Doughty, centre Anze Kopitar, and goaltender Jonath-an Quick. But there’s a price for success in the salary cap-gov-erned NHL and the Kings are paying it as they slowly transi-tion from a veteran-driven team to a faster group whose young players can take the scoring and leadership batons from the aging Cup-winning core.

That transition has been tricky: forwards Tanner Pear-son and Tyler Toff oli once were

regarded as future franchise pil-lars but Pearson was traded in 2018 and Toff oli’s name has been featured in rumours leading up to the Feb. 24 trade deadline. Who’s the next Kopitar, the next Brown, the next Doughty?

“Eventually that’s the ques-tion that need to be answered internally,” Brown said on Sat-urday before the Kings faced the Ducks at Staples Center. “I want to keep playing as long as I can but eventually there’s going to have to be guys that are going to be the next crop of guys that are going to be able to take this team to the next level.”

The fi rst time Brown went through this he was a kid and a disruptive physical force. He’s 35 now and not nearly as productive or physical as he was. Looking at the big picture, though, he sees parallels between the buildup to the Cup successes and the stage the Kings have lately reached.

“We’re further along in this process than I think we were the

fi rst time we went through it,” he said. “We’ve lost a lot of one-goal games. We’re one mistake worse than a lot of teams. You go back, you always compare it to when you won, and we just didn’t make as many mistakes as a collective group. The last few games we lost by one goal – we made a bad pinch here and a bad read. We were making those 10 years ago and then all of a sud-den we stopped making those and we were a really good team. So I think that’s the best attitude to have.”

He’s encouraged by the Kings’ new structure and stability, ad-vances that aren’t always re-fl ected in their results. They were 19-28-5 for 43 points be-fore they faced the Ducks on Saturday without the injured Doughty; at the same stage last season the Kings were 21-27-4 for 46 points and were 22-27-4 after 53 games. Doughty is ex-pected to return today.

Brown was surprised to learn

their record is worse than at the same point last season because the team’s mood and foundation are stronger under coach Todd McLellan. “The reason it feels diff erent is we’re in every game,” Brown said. “We’re not winning them. We’ve got to learn how to win them. But last year if we gave up two in the fi rst, the game was

over. There wasn’t any coming back. There wasn’t any fi ght in our game.”

Brown took a fi ve-game point streak into Saturday’s game, his longest streak this season. He struggled through early De-cember, feeling ill but play-ing through it, until he woke up Christmas Day and felt sick

enough to go to the hospital. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and missed four games. It took him nearly two weeks to get back to some semblance of normal.

McLellan noticed an uptick in Brown’s performances at Florida before the team’s bye week and the All-Star break. He consid-ers Brown a vital contributor in ways that can’t always be quan-tifi ed. “We expect a good, hon-est, individual eff ort, which we get from him most nights, but more importantly, the opportu-nity to give back,” McLellan said.

Brown has accepted a decrease in his penalty-killing duties and praised Alex Iafallo for excel-ling in that role. “It’s just what-ever is best for the team,” Brown said. “Eventually I’d like to get back on the PK more consist-ently because it keeps you in the game as a player more. Our PK hasn’t been good and we’ve got to try diff erent things and move forward. Just try and help in any way you can.”

It has been rare over the shared history of the Ducks and the Kings that they played a game that has no real playoff im-plications, but they’re both well behind the pack in the Western Conference. In pondering that, Brown mentioned his admira-tion for former Detroit defense-man Nicklas Lidstrom, who nev-er missed the playoff s in his NHL career. “That’s a sick, crazy stat, but I wouldn’t trade how things have gone here and anybody who says otherwise is lying to you,” Brown said. “We won, and now it’s trying to start over again.”

He hopes to make a meaning-ful contribution this time, too, even if his role is diff erent. “I want to keep playing as long as I can but I want to be on a good team as well, so it’s fi nding ways to help the younger guys get bet-ter,” he said. “The big thing is that next group coming. None of us guys is getting any younger. … We need some guys to start tak-ing the team over, eventually.”

‘Kings need to fi nd out who’s in and who’s out’OPINION

Harden scores 40 to lead Rockets over Pelicans

AFPWashington

NBA scoring leaders James Harden and Giannis Antetok-ounmpo powered their teams to decisive NBA triumphs

Sunday while Detroit snapped a fi ve-game losing streak by rallying past Den-ver.

Houston star Harden scored 40 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and hand-ed out nine assists as the Rockets de-feated visiting New Orleans and rookie star Zion Williamson 117-109.

Harden, on pace for his third NBA scoring title in a row with 35.6 points a game, hit 12-of-24 shots from the fl oor, 7-of-15 from 3-point range, and all nine of his free throws.

“We want to fi nish these games up before the break and come back with some momentum,” Harden said.

“When we hit our stride it’s going to be pretty scary. We’re still trying to fi nd it and we will.”

Greek big man Antetokounmpo scored 30 points, exactly his season

scoring average, while pulling down 19 rebounds and passing off nine assists to spark the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks over the visiting Phoenix Suns 129-108.

Khris Middleton added 25 points for the Bucks, who improved the NBA’s best record to 42-7, while Devin Booker led the Suns with 32 points.

“We all depend on each other and we just want to continue to get better each night,” said Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez, who had 17 points and nine blocked shots.

The Rockets, outrebounded 63-43, used a smaller lineup with Swiss center Clint Capela injured, taking full advan-tage of the speed, passing and playmak-ing skills of Harden and Russell West-brook, who contributed 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds.

“Be healthy and continue to keep our

good spirit up, we’ll be all right,” Hard-en said.

The Rockets, fi fth in the Western Conference at 31-18, committed only seven turnovers compared to 21 by the Pelicans, who had 21 points and 10 re-bounds from Williamson.

The highly touted NBA newcomer played a season-high 32 minutes after making his debut only two weeks ago due to a knee injury that sidelined him for three months.

“Beast,” Harden said of Williamson. “He has a feel for the game. He’s strong. He’s going to be really great.”

The Pelicans, led by 28 points and 12 rebounds from Brandon Ingram, went 10-of-33 from 3-point range, missing their last 33-point shots after the mid-dle of the third quarter.

“They play at a very high pace, very fast and they put up a lot of 3s,” Harden said. “We just had to keep up with them, make sure we contain their dribble pen-etration and off ensively just do what we do.”

Andre Drummond scored 21 points and grabbed 17 rebounds as the Detroit Pistons rallied from 21 points down

early to defeat visiting Denver 128-123 in over-time.

Reggie Jackson came off the bench to score 20 points while Detroit reserve Bruce Brown added 19 as seven Pistons scored in double fi gures.

Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic of Serbia had a triple double with a game-high 39 points plus 10 rebounds and 11 assists in a losing cause as Denver fell to 34-16, third in the West.

At 18-33, Detroit stands 11th in the Eastern Conference, four games behind Orlando for the fi nal playoff spot.

CHAMPS WIN STREAK AT 11

The defending champion Toronto Rap-tors, led by 31 points from reserve Ter-ence Davis, stretched their win streak to 11 games by defeating visiting Chicago 129-102.

At 36-14, the Raptors have the third-best record in the NBA, trailing only the Bucks and the West-leading Los Ange-les Lakers.

Cameroon star Pascal Siakam scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Raptors. Thaddeus Young led Chi-cago with 21 points.

NBA

‘WHEN WE HIT OUR STRIDE IT’S GOING TO BE PRETTY SCARY. WE’RE STILL TRYING TO FIND IT AND WE WILL’

ReutersLos Angeles

Sam Laff erty, Patric Hornqvist, Dominik Simon and Brandon Tanev each scored a

goal as the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Wash-ington Capitals 4-3 Sunday.

This was the fi rst time the two rivals have met this sea-son, and the 75th game where Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin did battle — includ-ing the playoff s. Crosby and his friends took this one, as their off ense kept the pres-sure on Washington for long stretches.

Laff erty was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Saturday but hadn’t scored a point in his previous 15 NHL games. He ended that slump with his fi rst-period goal, his fi fth of the season.

Pittsburgh goalie Matt Murray was in just his eighth game since the start of De-cember but now has won six in a row. He fi nished with 29 saves, including 11 in the third period.

Meanwhile, Washington rookie goalie Ilya Samsonov had won his previous 11 de-cisions before dropping this

one. He also fi nished with 29 saves.

Lars Eller gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead in the fi rst period on a high shot that beat Murray with 9:22 remaining, but the Penguins answered quickly. They tied the game just 68 seconds later and took a 2-1 lead 54 seconds after that. The game-tying goal came from Laff erty on a shot from the left side. The go-ahead goal came lead when Hornqvist gently redirected a shot off Sam-sonov’s stick from in front for his 12th goal of the season.

With eight minutes left in the second period, Simon found the rebound of a Cros-by shot and backhanded it through Samsonov’s fi ve-hole for a 3-1 lead.

Washington cut it to 3-2 when Evgeny Kuznetsov scored six minutes into the third period. He made a quick move from the left circle and backhanded one past Murray.

The Capitals repeatedly found scoring chances in the third period, but Pittsburgh actually broke through next when Tanev beat Samsonov with a shot that defl ected off defenseman Dmitry Orlov’s stick. That came with 2:33 left. Eller made it 4-3 just 15 seconds later, but the Caps couldn’t net the equaliser.

Pens outlast Caps in 1st meeting of season

NHL

RESULTS

Toronto 129-102 Chicago

Houston 117-109 New Orleans

Milwaukee 129-108 Phoenix

Detroit 128-123 Denver

File photo of James Harden of the Houston Rockets. (AFP)

File photo of Kings left wing Alex Iafallo (right) in action. (TNS)

Sidney Crosby (left) of the Pittsburgh Penguins reacts after getting called for an interference penalty against the Washington Capitals during the second period at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, on Sunday. (AFP)

Comeback king Mahomes sparks Chiefs to Super Bowl victory AFPMiami

Patrick Mahomes led a thrilling late come-back as the Kansas City Chiefs ended their 50-

year wait for a Super Bowl crown with a 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Chiefs quarterback Mahomes shrugged off an error-strewn start to overturn a 20-10 49ers fourth quarter lead in a gripping battle for the Vince Lombardi Trophy at the Hard Rock Sta-dium.

The Super Bowl win was Kan-sas City’s fi rst NFL Champion-ship since their triumph over the Minnesota Vikings in 1970, and only their second ever.

And it owed everything to the nerve of Mahomes, who for the third straight postseason game led the Chiefs back from a double-digit defi cit to seal a dra-matic win.

“We kept believing,” said Ma-homes, who was later named Super Bowl MVP. “That’s what we’ve done all postseason. They guys really stepped up. They be-lieved in me...We found a way to win it in the end.”

The Chiefs quarterback had looked out of sorts until early in the fourth quarter, throwing two interceptions in the face of fi erce pressure from the magnifi cent San Francisco defence led by the marauding Nick Bosa.

But with the game on the line in the fourth quarter, Mahomes led his team on two long drives to set up touchdowns for tight end Travis Kelce and running back Damien Williams.

Those scores put the Chiefs into a 24-20 lead and Kansas City made the game safe when Williams danced up the sideline for a 38-yard rushing score with 1min 12sec remaining.

Mahomes fi nished with 286 passing yards and 26 comple-tions from 42 attempts with two touchdowns. The Chiefs quar-terback also rushed for a touch-down early in the fi rst quarter.

But the defeat was desperately hard on the 49ers, who were chasing a record-equalling sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The 49ers had barely put a foot wrong through three quar-ters, with their defence shack-ling Mahomes superbly and their off ence moving the ball confi -dently to put them in the driving seat late in the game.

GAROPPOLO CRACKSBut as the pressure in the fourth

quarter mounted, 49ers quar-terback Jimmy Garoppolo’s sure touch deserted him and the Nin-ers off ense dried up.

With Mahomes leading the Chiefs on two long drives to en-gineer a 24-20 lead, Garoppolo had one last chance to lead the 49ers on a game-winning drive with 2min 44sec remaining.

But the Chiefs defence sud-denly began to fi nd gaps to pres-sure Garoppolo, and when he was sacked on 4th&10 to hand possession back to Kansas City, the writing was on the wall.

Two plays later Williams then drove the fi nal nail into the 49ers coffi n, fi nding space down the left hand touchline and gallop-ing into the endzone for a score to make it 31-20.

Garoppolo was then inter-cepted on the next 49ers pos-session and it was left to Kansas City to run down the clock for victory.

The win was a long-awaited fi rst Super Bowl triumph for Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, the 61-year-old veteran long re-garded as the best NFL coach not to win a championship.

Reid later praised his team’s composure under pressure. “We knew it’d be a close game, and we knew there would be some challenges that we’d have to bat-tle through — nobody lost their poise,” Reid said.

But the fourth quarter col-lapse was cruel on 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.

Shanahan had been the off en-sive co-ordinator for the Atlanta Falcons at the 2017 Super Bowl when they let a 28-3 lead slip in a stunning loss to the New Eng-land Patriots.

“It’s tough,” 49ers quarter-back Jimmy Garoppolo said. “I mean, I’ve never had this feeling before. Kind of an unreal feel-ing.” The fourth quarter drama came after a nip-and-tuck

opening three quarters with lit-tle to choose between the two sides.

Mahomes’ rushing touch-down in the fi rst quarter and a Harrison Butker fi eld goal had helped Kansas City into an early 10-3 lead.

But Garoppolo found Kyle Juszczyk for a 15-yard touch-down in the second quarter to make it 10-10 at halftime.

A Robbie Gould fi eld goal and a touchdown from running back Raheem Mostert helped put the 49ers 20-10 ahead and momen-

tum seemed to have decisively in San Francisco’s favour.

At that point Mahomes had looked off -colour for much of the game, throwing two unchar-acteristically sloppy intercep-tions as the Chiefs struggled to build momentum.

But once again the Chiefs abil-ity to score quickly came to their rescue. Mahomes hit receiver Tyreek Hill for 44 yards on the drive that led to Kelce’s touch-down to make it 20-17.

Another 38-yard completion to Sammy Watkins on the next

Chiefs drive led to the go-ahead touchdown for Williams and a crucial 24-20 lead.

“Doesn’t matter what the score is, we’ve got Pat Maho-mes,” Kelce said afterwards. “And you know what? I love him.”

FOCUS

‘THAT’S WHAT WE’VE DONE ALL POSTSEASON. THEY GUYS REALLY STEPPED UP. THEY BELIEVED IN ME...WE FOUND A WAY TO WIN IT IN THE END’

49ers have few answers aft er late Super Bowl collapseReutersMiami

The San Francisco 49ers will spend the next few months wondering what might have been.

Up by 10 with just over six minutes left in Sunday’s Su-per Bowl, the 49ers suff ered a collapse that saw them allow three late-game touchdowns en route to a 31-20 loss.

A win would have given San Francisco its sixth Super Bowl title and a share of the lead among NFL franchises. Only the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers have amassed six Lombardi trophies.

It might also have gone some way toward silencing doubt-ers, particularly of quarter-back Jimmy Garoppolo, who had thrown for just 77 yards in his team’s NFC championship victory against the Green Bay Packers.

But it was not to be.“You have to give some credit

to (the Chiefs),” said Garop-polo, who played well for three quarters before an abysmal fourth. “We just didn’t make some of the plays we normally make.”

Through three quarters, Ga-roppolo had completed 17 of 20

passes for 183 yards, earning him a 100.6 quarterback rating. But he went just 3-for-11 for 36 yards and a key interception in

the fi nal frame, fi nishing with a rating of 69.2. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan acknowledged that they had

let the win slip through their grasp. “It hurt everybody in that room,” he said. “We had opportunities to win that.”

Shanahan’s team were in no mood to give explanations of what went wrong.

“Nothing,” said cornerback Richard Sherman. “We just made mistakes.”

Tackle Joe Staley also strug-gled to discuss the loss.

“This is, just, this is very hard being in this moment right now,” he said. “I’m trying to answer questions, and I’m sorry that I’m not. Put yourself in my shoes for a second. It’s tough.” A key point in the game came early in the fourth quar-ter with the Chiefs down 10 but deep in San Francisco territory.

49ers defensive back Tarvar-ius Moore picked off a Patrick Mahomes pass, killing the rally and getting his off ence back on the fi eld with a chance to put the game out of reach.

But San Francisco could only cobble together 17 yards before being forced to punt, giving Mahomes a chance at redemp-tion.

The momentum — and scor-ing — was all Kansas City’s af-ter that.

“We got a turnover and then we didn’t execute on off ence,” 49ers tight end George Kit-tle said. “We have to end the game right, and we didn’t... it’s pretty brutal. It just honestly sucks.”

SPOTLIGHT

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (centre) celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

SPORT5Gulf Times

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Kobe honoured with moment of silence

ReutersMiami

There was a moment of silence in honour of Kobe Bryant at the Super Bowl in Mi-

ami on Sunday following the death of the basketball great, his daughter Gianna, and seven other passengers in a helicopter crash in California a week ago.

Prior to kickoff , players from both the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers stood at the 24-yard-line to honour Bryant, who wore the number 24 dur-ing much of his two-decade career with the Los Angeles

Lakers. A photo of Bryant and his daughter was projected above the crowd at Hard Rock Stadium. One of the greatest basketball players of all time, Bryant won fi ve NBA champi-onships and was twice named the NBA Finals MVP during his 20 seasons in the league, all of which he spent with the Los Angeles Lakers.

His sudden death at age 41 was felt throughout the world of professional sports, with tens of thousands of fans fl ooding the grounds of the Staples Center when the Lak-ers played for the fi rst time since his death. Tributes have been paid to Bryant in the week leading up to Super Bowl LIV.

TRIBUTE

San Francisco 49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo (right) talks with the referee during the Super Bowl game. (Reuters)

A tribute to Kobe Bryant and the victims of the helicopter crash is seen on a screen ahead of Super Bowl LIV, (AFP)

SPORT

Gulf Times Tuesday, February 4, 20206

ReutersMiami

If Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes still had any doubters going into the Super Bowl, he silenced

them on Sunday.Mahomes was named the

Most Valuable Player of the Su-per Bowl after leading Kansas City to a 31-20 win over the San Francisco 49ers, running in one touchdown and passing for two more to rally the Chiefs from a 10-point fourth-quarter defi cit.

His performance saw him become the youngest player to have won both the NFL and Su-per Bowl MVP awards.

“You have to leave it all on the line when you’re in the Super Bowl,” Mahomes said at a post-game media conference. “Just to be here it’s surreal, fi nding a way to win in the end.”

Mahomes scored the fi rst touchdown of the game with a one-yard rush and threw for 104

yards by the end of the fi rst half.The game was not always

smooth sailing, however.Mahomes threw interceptions

in back-to-back possessions in the third quarter, the fi rst of which led to a rushing touch-down by the Niners to extend their lead going into the fourth.

“They have an amazing de-fense. One of the best defenses I’ve went up against in my ca-reer so far,” said Mahomes. “We weren’t executing at a high lev-el.”

Mahomes said even when things were going wrong his team mates were backing him.

“Obviously the third quarter didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” Mahomes told reporters. “But the guys believed in me (and) gave me confi dence and kept fi ghting.”

Wide receiver Tyreek Hill said the 24-year-old quarterback de-served credit for boosting mo-rale even as they trailed by 10.

“We were down 20-10 and he was telling us to believe in the

fourth quarter,” said Hill. “He brought the guys together and you saw what happened, man. We pulled it off .” The win caps a stellar year by Mahomes, who rolled into Miami with a more-than 65% completion percent-age for the regular season, along the way dazzling fans and even his own teammates.

“It’s magic Mahomes, it’s Showtime Mahomes,” tight end Travis Kelce told report-ers. “He’s going to be himself no matter what the scenario is, and you know what? I love him.

“He willed this team back into the game.”

But despite all the praise and accolades, Mahomes remained modest.

“There are several guys that could be the face of the NFL,” he added. “With the NFL and how good play is, the quarterback play, guys can come in year-in and year-out and go out there and play great football.

“I just try to be the best Patrick Mahomes I can be.”

Mahomes named Super Bowl MVP aft er comebackSPOTLIGHT

Shakira, Trump and Kobe: fi ve moments from half-time showAFPNew York

Despite standing only fi ve-seven, Shakira occupied the Hard Rock Stadium like the NFL giants during the half-time spectacle

on Sunday. Here are some of the most memorable moments — with Donald Trump, Kobe Bryant and Jennifer Lopez — of the 2020 Super Bowl show.

KOBE REMEMBERED

The death of the legendary basketballer transcended the NBA, and a week to the day of the accident, the NFL made a trib-ute to him. Before the presentation of the teams, the Chiefs and the 49ers posi-tioned themselves on the 24 yard line, a nod to Kobe Bryant’s jersey number be-fore the entire stadium observed a minute of silence. Amid the sea of Kansas City and San Francisco jerseys in the stands were some fans in Lakers tunics with the number eight — the number Bryant de-buted with at the start of his career — or 24. Several Super Bowl players wrote “Black Mamba” — Bryant’s nickname — on their shoes in memory of the player.

HALF-TIME LATINA FEVER

Expected to give a Latino fl are to this year’s Super Bowl — held in Miami, the city with the largest Latino population in the US — Shakira and Jennifer Lopez did not disappoint. The Colombian began with a medley of her notable hits, such as Whenever, Wherever, and Hips Don’t Lie, before she was joined by the Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny. New Yorker Jennifer Lopez took up the baton, keeping the pace fast and fun. J-Lo re-sponded to Shakira’s famous dance moves with a spectacular pole-dance sequence, straight out of her recent fi lm Hustlers. Everything combined to conjure the at-mosphere of a Miami club. But judging by the reaction in the stadium and online, Shakira won hands down.

TRUMP AND BLOOMBERG ADS

Celebrities, bonkers stunts, and innova-tions called up by companies to make their mark were eclipsed by Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg — the fi rst presiden-tial candidates to off er Americans nation-wide Super Bowl ads. They avoided at-tacking each other and instead addressed black voters. The president claimed he had reformed the country’s justice sys-tem, embodied by a black woman, who was granted early release. The message was met — unsurprisingly — with scepti-cism on Twitter. Bloomberg’s spot, con-centrating on gun violence, showed an-other black woman, the mother of a young man shot dead. The head of National Rifl e Association immediately counter-at-tacked, warning that gun owners would not be deprived of their arms.

TOM BRADY’S HOAX

A photo of the New England Patriots quarterback, at the entrance to a football stadium, caused a stir with some seeing it as a retirement announcement. “They say

all good things come to an end,” said Tom Brady at the start of the Super Bowl spot. But it was a hoax and the end in question was that of traditional television, pro-moted by online service Hulu. The man — considered by many the best player of all time — ended the commercial by tell-ing fans: “I’m not going anywhere.” Brady is expected to return next year and has not excluded joining a club other than his life-long team, the Patriots, with whom he has won six Super Bowls.

CHIEFS DELIGHT GAMBLERS

By coming from behind at the very end of the match to win 31-20, Kansas City made more than one gambler happy, not to mention the bookies, who had made the Chiefs the favourite. According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), some 26mn Americans planned to bet on the Super Bowl — totalling an estimated $6.8bn. On the losing side, according to Darren Rovell, of the specialised site Ac-tion Network, two people bet, and lost, a mn dollars each on the match, opting for the 49ers.

SUPER BOWL

Judging by the reaction in the stadium and online, Shakira won hands down

AFPMiami

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan insisted his team would bounce

back after a fourth quarter collapse left their Super Bowl dream in ruins here Sunday.

Shanahan could only watch in horror as the 49ers saw a 20-10 fourth quarter lead evaporate as the Kansas City Chiefs ran out 31-20 winners.

It was a grim case of deja vu for Shanahan, who had been off ensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons at the 2017 Super Bowl when they sur-rendered a 28-3 lead to New England.

As grim-faced 49ers play-ers faced the media on Sunday, Shanahan said he believed his team would recover.

“We’ll lick our wounds, and we’ll get over this,” he said. “We’ll be fi red up for next year. We’re going to rest a little bit and get over this, but we will be very fi red up.” While Shanahan sought to put a brave face on the defeat, his shellshocked players struggled to compre-hend what had just happened.

“It’s tough,” said quarter-back Jimmy Garoppolo. “I mean, I’ve never had this feel-ing before. Kind of an unreal feeling. But it is what it is.”

Tight end George Kittle was similarly at a loss.

“It’s pretty brutal,” Kittle said. “It just honestly sucks. It’s not really anything you can wrap your head around.

“That is exactly how it feels — disbelief.”

For the veteran members of the 49ers roster, the loss was even harder to stomach.

The 32-year-old wide re-ceiver Emmanuel Sanders said the loss was self-infl icted.

“We lost it,” Sanders said. “We had them. We were up 10 points going into the fourth quarter and we weren’t able to fi nish. It was a great team ef-fort but we just didn’t get the job done.”

Cornerback Richard Sher-man was similarly unfl inching in his criticism.

“It was just mistakes, self-infl icted,” the 31-year-old de-fender said. “It is what it is you know? We didn’t execute our game and get the win.”

Defensive lineman Deforest Buckner meanwhile backed the 49ers to recover.

“To be so close and coming up short is one of the worst feelings in the world. But I believe in every single one of the guys in that room and I re-ally do believe that we’ve got something special. We’re not fi nished.”

Fellow lineman Kwon Alex-ander was similarly defi ant.

“It’s going to sting for a while, but I’m going to have to put it behind me and get ready for next year.”

We’ll be back, says Niners’ coach

COMMENT

Colombian singer Shakira performs during the halftime show of Super Bowl LIV between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Fran-cisco 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Sunday. (Reuters)

Redskins’ Davis announces retirementWashington Redskins tight end Vernon Davis retired from the NFL on Sunday after 14 seasons.Davis, who turned 36 on Friday, made the announcement during a video featuring Rob Gronkowski that aired on the Fox Super Bowl LIV pregame show and later confirmed it with a text message to ESPN.Davis was set to become a free agent. He missed Washington’s last 12 games in 2019 after suff ering a

concussion. He caught 10 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown in four games.The two-time Pro Bowl selection (2009, 2013) caught 583 passes for 7,562 yards and 63 touchdowns in 198 games with the San Francisco 49ers (2006-15), Denver Broncos (2015) and Redskins (2016-19).Davis was San Francisco’s first-round pick (sixth overall) in the 2006 NFL Draft and won a Super Bowl ring with the 2015 Broncos. Reuters

Jennifer Lopez performs during the halftime show. (Reuters)

Commissioner of the National Football League Roger Goodell (right) presents Super Bowl MVP trophy to Patrick Mahomes at Hilton Miami. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan during the Super Bowl game. (Reuters)

FOOTBALL7Gulf Times

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Can Guardiola salvage Man City’s season?

PREMIER LEAGUE

AFPLondon

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola conceded the Premier League title to Liverpool long ago, but his

side’s profl igate attack and porous de-fence are becoming worrying trends. A sixth defeat of the campaign, at Tot-tenham on Sunday, means City have now lost as many times this season as in their previous 84 league games under Guardiola and are relying on cup com-petitions to salvage their season.

Guardiola’s men are into a third con-secutive League Cup fi nal, where they will be heavy favourites to beat Aston Villa on March 1. They face Sheffi eld Wednesday in the fi fth round of the FA Cup.

However, City’s season will now be judged on how they fare in the Champi-ons League, with the might of 13-time winners Real Madrid awaiting them in the last 16. An inability to progress be-yond the quarter-fi nals in Guardiola’s three seasons at City so far has been the major disappointment of an otherwise hugely successful reign.

“I will be judged, if we don’t win it in my fi nal period here, that I will be a failure here. I know that,” said the City boss ahead of this weekend. If they are to be crowned European champions, City need major improvements at both ends of the pitch, but tightening up at the back is the most pressing priority.

In their back-to-back title winning campaigns, Guardiola’s men conceded 27 goals in 2017/18 and 23 last season. With 13 games still to play this season, they have already conceded 29. The loss of Aymeric Laporte for most of the season with a serious knee injury and failure to replace the departed Vincent Kompany has left Guardiola short on reliable centre-backs due to the erratic form of John Stones and Nicolas Ota-mendi.

Laporte is back fi t, although he has been bedded in slowly after making his return in a 1-0 win at Sheffi eld United nearly two weeks ago. The Frenchman still has another three weeks to get up to speed before City visit Madrid on Feb-ruary 26, but needs to get back close to his best if the visitors are to escape from the Bernabeu unscathed.

Guardiola also has to decide who he trusts to start at left-back against Ma-drid. Oleksandr Zinchenko cost his side the game at Tottenham by getting sent off for a second yellow card with half an hour to play. Benjamin Mendy has not won back Guardiola’s trust in another

season dogged by fi tness problems and poor form, while Angelino, who started some of City’s biggest games of the sea-son, against Liverpool and Manches-ter United, was shipped out on loan to Leipzig last week.

The 2-0 defeat in north London on Sunday was only the second time City have failed to score in the league this season. They have still scored fi ve more goals in the league than Liverpool, who are 22 points clear at the top and streak-ing towards the title.

However, a failure to take their chances has also been a recurring theme of City’s season. Against Spurs they had 18 shots to Tottenham’s three, missed a penalty and a series of other sitters. “Always I believe and, today more than ever, you are closer to win the games when you create more chances and con-cede few,” insisted Guardiola. “Maybe one day we make a click and we change it. I think the team is good, I like the way my team play but it is not enough.”

Guardiola has garnered a reputa-tion as one of football’s all-time great coaches after winning 28 trophies in three diff erent countries with Barcelo-na, Bayern Munich and City. A true test of that greatness will be whether he can turn the tide in the next few weeks to avoid City’s season ending limply.

Meanwhile, Guardiola appeared to mock Richard Scudamore after City’s defeat on Sunday, sarcastically ques-tioning whether the Premier League is concerned that Liverpool are 22 points clear at the top of the league.

Guardiola all but conceded the title to Liverpool after the champions suf-fered another setback at the Totten-ham Hotspur Stadium and he let out his frustration by appearing to refer back to Scudamore, who was the league’s chief executive at the time, saying he would like “someone to get a little bit closer to City” during an interview in August 2018. City had won the title by 18 points the season before.

“Two seasons ago there was the own-er of the Premier League who said that could not happen again, it’s not good for the Premier League for City to win the title in that way, with 100 points,” City’s manager said. “Now it’s Liverpool, you have to be concerned if you are the owner of the Premier League.”

Guardiola nodded when he was asked if there is no chance of City catching Liverpool now. “They are unstoppa-ble,” Guardiola said. “They have a lot of points, we dropped points in the games that we played quite similar to today. Even when we played Anfi eld. Now it’s to try to qualify for the Champions League next season.”

City have now lost as many times this season as in their previous 84 league games under Guardiola

Spurs’ Alli says no ill feeling with Sterling over late tackle

Arsenal’s Arteta keen to drive home ideas in camp

Manchester United coach Solskjaer backs Martial to regain scoring touch

FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

By Jacob SteinbergGuardian

Dele Alli has said that he does not bear a grudge towards Raheem Ster-ling, who left the Tot-

tenham midfi elder with an in-jured ankle during Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat at the Totten-ham Hotspur Stadium on Sun-day. Sterling was fortunate not to have a yellow card upgraded to a red after VAR checked his foul on Alli during a controversial fi rst half but the England teammates were seen speaking amicably and shaking hands before the start of the second half.

Alli struggled before being taken off and Spurs are expected to fi nd out more about the sever-ity of the injury today.

“We were speaking about it at half-time and we are good friends,” Alli said. “I know what sort of player Raheem is and he would never intentionally try to hurt someone. There are no hard feelings, he is a fantastic player and we move on.”

Alli, who said his ankle was sore, was asked if Sterling should have been sent off . “I am not sure to be honest,” he said. “I have not had a proper look back at it, it is obviously for the referee and VAR to make the decision. They didn’t give the red card.”

Spurs moved four points be-hind fourth-placed Chelsea thanks to goals from Steven Bergwijn, who scored a stunning volley on his debut, and Son He-ung-min. José Mourinho’s side

visit Chelsea on 22 February.“If you look at the table we

know it is getting closer,” Alli said. “We obviously know it is going to be diffi cult but we know where we should be as a team. We know we have let ourselves down at times and not got the right results but we just have to take each game and keep improving and hopefully we will be up there at the end.”

Alli paid tribute to Christian Eriksen, who left Spurs for In-ter Milan last week. “Chris is an amazing player, but it came to that point where he wanted to move on,” he said. “It was sad for me and the other boys because he got on with everyone, he was a great squad player, he got on

well, he was great in training and always working hard on the pitch. He gave me a lot of assists as well and I am going to miss them, but at the same time I wish him all the best and I am sure we will speak soon, maybe go for dinner.

“He’s been amazing. You don’t want to speak to him too much about what is going on but he has been giving 100%, always been training hard, always been com-mitted to the club.

“You read a lot and see a lot but you would never be able to tell that he wasn’t focused. He was always positive and never really spoke about anything other than Tottenham. It is a huge honour to have played with him and I wish him all the best.”

ReutersLondon

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said he is still far from bedding in his attacking philosophy

at the club but is hopeful that a training camp in Dubai can help the players recharge their bat-teries and soak in his ideas.

Arsenal were held 0-0 at Burnley on Sunday for their fourth straight Premier League draw, leaving Arteta with only one win from his fi rst seven league matches in charge since replacing Unai Emery in Decem-ber. They have scored only eight goals in those games.

“We have to improve quality-wise. We’re very far in terms of what I want in sustaining attacks and being unpredictable in our play, but that’s a process,” Arteta said. “In the next two weeks, we have longer periods for training and I’ll use them. We need some players back from injury and try our best to improve the team.”

Arsenal, who are 10th with 31 points from 25 matches, re-turn to league action against Newcastle United on Febru-ary 16. “It’s good to go away... the players have been through a lot,” Arteta said. “The last two-three months have been tough for them so I want to give them a few days off . Then we’re going to go to Dubai, start working and focus on Newcastle.”

Arsenal have drawn fi ve con-secutive away league matches for the fi rst time since August 1948 and actually sit closer to the relegation zone — seven points away — than the top four.

“I was very disappointed with the way we started the second half. For the fi rst 20 minutes we couldn’t control any aspect of the game, and we were lucky not to concede a goal,” Arteta said. “We need more consistency. We were fantastic in some moments but we were so sloppy and we put ourselves in big trouble with a lot of unnecessary situations.”

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has backed Anthony Martial to rediscover his scoring touch and says the

French forward is giving the club “every-thing” both on the pitch and the training ground. The 24-year-old has scored 12 goals in all competitions in an injury-hit season but has just one in the last six matches as United struggle for goals in the absence of striker Marcus Rashford, who is nursing a stress fracture in his back.

“He’s giving us everything. He’s been asked to play — he has started the last eight games — and running probably 20% more than he did when I came here,” Solskjaer told reporters yesterday.

“We’ll give him more support, give him rest when he deserves it... he’s been asked to play too much as well, especially now when Marcus is injured. I know he’s tired, but he’s never ever dodged a training ses-sion. He’s training, he’s available for every game, so I’m delighted with the boy.”

Rashford scored 19 goals in all competi-tions before injury struck while academy graduate Mason Greenwood has chipped in with 10. The club also signed 30-year-old Nigerian Odion Ighalo on loan from China’s Shanghai Shenhua on transfer deadline day. United, seventh in the Premier League with 35 points from 25 matches, visit Chelsea on Feb. 17.

INTER KEEPER HANDANOVIC FRACTURES FINGER

Inter Milan goalkeeper Samir Handanovic has suff ered a fractured fi nger in training, the Serie A team confi rmed yesterday. The 35-year-old team captain missed Sunday’s 2-0 win at Udinese after hurting his left hand and is in doubt for Sunday’s Milan derby.

“(Scans) showed a hairline fracture to his little fi nger,” Inter said in a statement. “His condition will be reassessed on a daily

basis.” Inter are second in the Serie A table three points behind reigning champions Juventus.

PLAYERS CLASH WITH PITCH-INVADING FAN, SPARKING RIOT

A Brazilian derby match was interrupted by a riot on Sunday which started when a sup-porter ran onto the pitch and was wrestled to the ground by a player from the away team who was in turn accidentally kicked by a teammate.

Avai were winning 2-0 away to local rivals Figueirense in Florianopolis when video images showed the shirtless fan run-ning towards their team bench.

The fan was hauled over by reserve goal-

keeper Gledson before another Avai player, Bruno Silva, aimed a kick at the fan — who was now on the ground — but accidentally struck his teammate instead.

Riot police came onto the fi eld and led the fan away along with several others who had managed to get past the perspex barri-ers surrounding the pitch.

Pictures showed other Figueirense fans fi ghting among themselves on the ter-races while several barriers were smashed. Brazilian media said that the trouble started when Bruno Silva was substituted, insulted by Figueirense fans and responded with a gestures as he left the pitch.

Both teams play in the second division of the Brazilian league although Sunday’s match was in a regional championship in the state of Santa Catarina. The match resumed after a 20-minute delay and there were no further goals

VILLA FAN HANKS CELEBRATES ‘WIN’, FOUR WEEKS BEFORE MATCH

Legendary actor Tom Hanks attracted attention on social media Sunday after the Aston Villa supporter posted a tweet appearing to celebrate the English side’s League Cup triumph — a month before the fi nal. The two-time Oscar-winning actor has long said he is a fan of the Birmingham club. “Aston Villa took the Carabao Cup! Up the Villa! Hanx,” the 63-year-old wrote, referencing the sponsors name for the tournament. Aston Villa beat Leicester last Tuesday to reach the fi nal, where they will face holders and red-hot favourites Man-chester City at Wembley on March 1.

“Premature speculation?,” tweeted former England striker Gary Lineker in response. Hanks will turn his focus back to fi lms next weekend, when he will be hoping to win a third Academy Award after being nominated for best supporting actor for his role as Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

ROUND-UP

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola watches from the touchline during the loss at Tottenham. (Reuters)

Raheem Sterling (centre) is booked for his challenge on Tottenham’s Dele Alli during Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat on Sunday. (Reuters)

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

GULF TIMES FOOTBALL

PSG coach Tuchel plays down spat with Mbappe

LIGUE 1

ReutersMilan

Few coaches would have dared challenge the club leadership as Antonio Conte did this season when he complained that Inter

Milan had made “important mistakes” in planning, leaving him with a wafer-thin squad.

But not only did the famously com-bative Conte — who had only been in charge for fi ve months at the time — get away with his public criticism, he was also given what he wanted with several reinforcements arriving in the January transfer window.

After watching his side win 2-0 at Udinese on Sunday night to maintain their Serie A title challenge, Conte said his haranguing of the Inter board had paid off . Romelu Lukaku scored a quickfi re second-half double as Inter ended their run of three successive 1-1 league draws.

“A club like Inter must also have a strong substitutes’ bench,” said

Conte, whose side stayed three points behind leaders Juventus as they bid to end the Turin side’s run of eight con-secutive titles. “When you have more quality within the squad, it allows you

to find more solutions.”Playing away to teams such as Udi-

nese was exactly the sort of match in which he needed more options, Conte added. “You always fi nd diffi culties here

in Udine, where they are good at closing down and then breaking. Putting more quality in the squad helps unravel these situations. The victory was deserved, even if it was complicated.”

Inter have spent around 180mn euros ($199mn) in the transfer market since Conte arrived, including a reported club record 80mn euros on striker Romelu Lukaku who has repaid the in-vestment with 16 Serie A goals.

However, a series of injuries and sus-pensions, plus a crowded fi xture list, left Conte short of options between September and December. The coach also complained he lacked proven win-ners. But the arrival in January of Victor Moses, Christian Eriksen and Ashley Young, all from Premier League clubs, has taken a weight off his mind.

Moses and Eriksen made their Serie A debuts against Udinese and, although the Dane struggled to make an impact, Conte was not concerned. “Eriksen ar-rived fi ve days ago and we were forced to rush him into the team,” said Conte.

“I think he’s entered in a positive way, it’s a new way of playing for him but he’s still got to get into our idea of playing. He’s a great player, he has to fi nd the right pace, but I’m satisfi ed with his performance. Conte said he now had the right blend of youth and

experience. “In our staring line-up, we had a lad of 20 years old (central de-fender Alessadnro Bastoni) and one of 17 (forward Sebastiano Esposito),” said Conte. “We are working for the present and the future.”

Inter, with 51 points from 22 games, stayed three points behind leaders Ju-ventus, who beat Fiorentina 3-0 earlier on Sunday, and two ahead of Lazio, who thumped SPAL 5-1. However, Lazio have a game in hand, at home to Verona on Wednesday.

“Lukaku has important qualities al-though he didn’t have his best game to-day, other than scoring a double,” said Inter coach Antonio Conte. “He’s still crucial for us and I’m happy to have in-sisted that he came.”

Udinese created enough chances to have had a fi rst-half lead. Seko Fofana fi red into the side netting while Young did well to block Jens Stryger-Larsen’s shot and Rodrigo De Paul had a chance in fi rst-half stoppage time but shot straight at defender Alessandro Basto-ni. It was third successive league defeat for Udinese who dropped to 15th.

AFPSaint-Germain-en-Laye, France

Paris Saint-Germain coach Tho-mas Tuchel yesterday attempted to play down a touchline spat with Kylian Mbappe which over-

shadowed the French champions’ big weekend win over Montpellier.

“There is nothing personal between him and me. These things happen,” said Tuchel after Mbappe reacted angrily to being substituted midway through the second half of PSG’s 5-0 victory at the Parc des Princes, with Mauro Icardi tak-ing his place. “It was between a player who does not want to come off , and a coach who had his reasons for doing something, and who wanted to give a game to players who deserved it.”

After Saturday’s match, Tuchel admit-ted that the reaction of Mbappe “doesn’t look good” and pointed out that: “This is football, not tennis, and you have to re-spect everyone.”

The 21-year-old World Cup winner, who had scored his 14th league goal of the season in the victory, exchanged words with Tuchel as he came off , and then stormed to his seat on the bench, throw-ing away a training top in disgust.

Tuchel said he discussed the mat-ter again at training on Sunday, with the player and with Leonardo, the club’s sporting director. “I spoke about it yes-terday with Leo, of course, and with the squad, as we generally do. But what I said will remain in the dressing room,” added Tuchel, speaking before PSG return to league action today away to Nantes.

Returning to the incident, he added: “We had the game wrapped up, and it was a chance to take off Pablo (Sarabia) and Kylian, and put on Mauro and ‘Edi’ (Cav-ani), who deserved to get some minutes. I know it is hard to accept for some players, but these are sporting matters that they should be able to understand.”

With PSG returning to action in mid-week, and also having a Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund looming ever closer on the horizon, Tuchel could also be excused for being less than impressed with Neymar’s latest off -fi eld antics.

The Brazilian — who sported a pink hair-do in the win against Montpellier — organised a lavish celebration ahead of his 28th birthday at a Parisian nightclub in the shadow of the Eiff el Tower on Sunday, including an all-white dress code.

Tuchel insisted that the event, to which Neymar invited all his team-mates, would

not have an infl uence on his team selec-tion for today’s trip to face a Nantes side who sit ninth in the table. “I always pro-tect my players, and I really love my team. With this party, I accept that it is a bit dif-fi cult to protect the players, but the con-text is not simply black or white,” he said.

“Is it the best way to prepare for a match? No, clearly not. Is it the worst thing in the world? No. It is a shame, be-

cause we are giving people the chance to speak badly of us. We need to adapt to the situation, but I am not going to leave a player on the bench or at home because they went out and celebrated.” PSG, who are 12 points clear of Marseille at the Ligue 1 summit, do have defensive injury problems just now, though, with Mar-quinhos, Thiago Silva, Juan Bernat and Colin Dagba all out of today’s game.

LIGUE 1 FIXTURES

(kick-off s 1800 GMT unless stated)

Today: Lille v Rennes, Monaco v Angers, Nantes v Paris Saint-Germain (2005 GMT)

Tomorrow: Brest v Bordeaux, Lyon v Amiens, Montpellier v Metz, Nimes v Dijon, Reims v Nice, Toulouse v Strasbourg, Saint-Etienne v Marseille (2000 GMT)

‘There is nothing personal between him and me. These things happen’

Conte says complaints justifi ed aft er tough win for Inter MilanSERIE A

Madrid: Atletico Madrid confirmed yes-terday that Alvaro Morata has suff ered a muscle injury, with the striker in doubt to face Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions League last 16.

Atletico play Livepool at the Wanda Metropolitano on February 18 and will be desperate to have Morata fit, given their lack of options up front. Diego Costa and

Joao Felix are both currently out injured.“Alvaro Morata has suff ered a muscu-

lar injury in his right leg,” a club state-ment read.

“His return will depend on his re-covery.” Morata had to come off in the second half of Atletico’s 1-0 defeat by Real Madrid in the city derby in La Liga on Saturday.

DEMBELE PULLS OUT OF BARCA TRAINING

Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele pulled out of training yesterday amid fears the Frenchman has suff ered a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury. “During this morning’s training session, Ousmane Dembele felt some discomfort in his right leg as a conse-

quence of muscle fatigue,” Barcelona said. “He will continue with his reha-bilitation.” Dembele has not played for Barca since November 27 but had been expected to return this month.

The 22-year-old has endured a spate of injuries since moving to Camp Nou from Borussia Dortmund in 2017 and has only made nine appearances this term.

MORATA OUT INJURED, FACES RACE TO BE FIT FOR LIVERPOOL TEST

Star forward Kylian Mbappe (right) reacted angrily to being substituted by coach Thomas Tuchel midway through the second half of Paris Saint-Germain’s 5-0 victory against Montpellier. (Reuters)

Fati and Messi connection sees Barca hold on against Levante

LA LIGA

AFPMadrid

Ansu Fati became the youngest player ever to score a brace in La Liga on Sunday night

by capitalising on two brilliant Lionel Messi assists to give Bar-celona a 2-1 victory over Levante. Fati, at 17 years and 94 days old, broke the previous record held by Juanmi Jimenez, who scored twice for Malaga against Real Zaragoza at 17 years and 115 days old in 2010.

Messi teed up Fati’s quick-fi re double with a defence-splitting pass and then a trademark weav-ing run before Ruben Rochina scored Levante’s goal in the 92nd minute, which really should have come sooner.

Barca reduce the gap at the top to three points behind Real Madrid and begin to regain some rhythm under new coach Quique Setien after Thursday’s 5-0 thumping of Leganes in the Copa del Rey. “We could have won 8-2 or 8-3,” said Setien. “We lost a little control in the second half and conceded too much but it was a good job from the team.”

Yet Levante should have con-verted more of a handful of ex-cellent chances in the second half, that suggested Barcelona’s defensive problems and fra-gility when in the lead are far from solved. Leganes and Le-vante, who sit 18th and 13th re-spectively, off ered a relatively straight-forward route back to winning ways too for Barcelona, who were wobbling last weekend when they followed a last-gasp win over Segunda side Ibiza with a convincing defeat by Valencia.

Setien, who replaced Ernesto Valverde as coach last month, found his methods questioned and there was evidence against Levante to suggest he may have decided to introduce his style of play more gradually. Barca played with more urgency and ambition, their dominance of possession sacrifi ced occasionally for riskier passes forward.

Yet Levante also pressed high and left gaps to be exploited, despite the likes of Valencia and Granada enjoying more success against Setien’s team by sitting deep and bursting out on the break. Fati has been one of the main benefi ciaries of Setien’s ar-rival.

He exploded onto the scene at the start of the season but was used increasingly rarely by Val-

verde, who may have been wary of burdening the teenager with too much too soon. Instead, Se-tien has started Fati in all fi ve of his games in charge so far and this was the fi rst time his faith has really been rewarded.

“He is a boy who is emerging and has great potential,” Setien said. “Today he had a historic day for his goals and for helping the team.”

Messi’s own excellent form also continues. He now has nine goals and four assists in his last 10 league games. His fi rst set-up for Fati came from the centre circle where he played a reverse pass through three Levante play-ers that sent clear his teammate, who cut inside Jorge Miramon and fi nished.

Less than two minutes later, Fati was in again. Levante lost the ball upfi eld and Gerard Pique fi red straight into Messi inside the right fl ank, midway inside the opposition’s half. He drove into the penalty area and when he fi nally stopped by a cluster of Levante chasers, he slid left to Fati, who fi red through the legs of Aitor Fernandez for a second.

Nelson Semedo crashed a shot against the crossbar and then hopped over Tono only for An-toine Griezmann to tap wide at the front post. But Levante were more dangerous in the second half and could have taken a draw if they had been more clinical with a handful of opportunities.

The best of them fell to Gonza-lo Melero, who blazed over, and by the time Rochina’s shot fl ew through one pair of legs and in off the hands of Marc-Andre ter Stegen, there were only two min-utes remaining. There was time for one Levante attack and Ser-gio Busquets’ weak header gave Rochina another chance but he could not keep his shot down.

Sevilla and Real Sociedad both lost ground in the race for Champions League qualifi cation as Getafe beat Athletic Bilbao to climb to third. Real Sociedad lost 2-1 away at struggling Leganes while Sevilla were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Alaves.

In between, Getafe had carved out a 2-0 victory away at Bil-bao to put them in pole position behind Real Madrid and Bar-celona. Jose Bordalas’ team are now ahead of Sevilla on goal dif-ference, while Real Sociedad are fi ve points further back. Getafe missed out on fourth on the fi -nal day of last season but they continue to prove their challenge was far from a one-off .

Barcelona’s forward Ansu Fati (left) scores during the La Liga match against Levante at the Camp Nou stadium on Sunday. (AFP)

Inter Milan, with 51 points from 22 games, are three points behind leaders Juventus in the Serie A. (AFP)